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[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Bible – III. Church History – IV. Systematics – V. Practical Theology – VI. Law – VII. Judaism – VIII. Islam I. History of Religions The term confession refers to various phenomena, including the confession of faith and of sin. A confession of faith can be understood as an officially sanctioned, formulaic summary of the central doctrines of a religious or a confessional community (“denomination”). Recited in cultic procedures and/or in everyday piety, i…

[German Version] (Pierre de la Ramée; 1515, Cuts, Picardy – Aug 28, 1572, Paris), came from an impoverished aristocratic family; he attended the Collège de Navarre in Paris from the age of 12, and gained his M.A. in 1536. His polemics against Aristotelianism caused a sensation; in 1544 King Francis I prohibited him from teaching and publishing on philosophical subjects. Until this ban was lifted in 1547 by King Francis II, Ramus devoted himself to mathematics. From 1551 he ¶ held important administrative posts at the University of Paris. From the early 1560s he was a Protes…

[German Version] (probably died in England in 1698). Not until years after his death was Souverain identified as the author of Le Platonisme dévoilé, ou Essai touchant le verbe Platonicien, published by the Unitarian S. Crell in 1700, supposedly in Cologne but in fact in Amsterdam. Souverain, probably from Languedoc, was removed from his office as a Reformed preacher on grounds of heresy shortly before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (Huguenots: I, 1), whereupon he moved to the Netherlands. When he offended the Dutch …

[German Version] I. Early Church – II. Middle Ages – III. Reformation – IV. Modern Period – V. Present – VI. Practical Theology I. Early Church The church polity projected and in part realized in early Christianity is one of the most significant institutional inventions of Late Antiquity. Since it has survived into the present, with many modifications and variations, it also represents an element of continuity between the ancient world and the modern world. Church polity as used here means all the institutions affecting the external organization of early Ch…

[German Version] I. History – II. Modern Catholicism I. History Indulgences ( indulgentia as a fixed technical term since the early 13th cent.; previously also remissio, relaxatio, or absolutio generalis) are rooted in the early medieval system of scheduled penances (Repentance: IV), which allowed fixed forms of satisfaction to be replaced by other acts (“commutation”) or payment of a monetary sum (“redemption”), all meant to be equivalent. The new element in indulgences was the discontinuation of this required equivalenc…

[German Version] (Nov 15, 1751, Nürtingen – Aug 31, 1833, Göttingen). After going through the normal course of theological education in Württemberg, Planck began teaching at the Karlsschule in Stuttgart in 1781. Appointed to a chair at Göttingen in 1784, he remained there as professor of theology and holder of other high academic and ecclesiastical offices until his ¶ death. He set out to design a new theological system reduced to the essential content of Scripture ( Einleitung in die theologischen Wissenschaften, 1794–1795); he understood this program as an attempt to combi…

[German Version] I. Dogmatics – II. Ethics – III. Philisophy – V. History – VI. Mission I. Dogmatics Freedom of religion, as generally understood, combines freedom of belief, of conscience, and creed, as well as freedom to practice one's religion (cf. German Basic Law, art. 4, §§1, 2), in one fundamental right. Dogmatics needs to clarify the relationship between religious certainty and freedom. A statement consonant with Reformation belief would run as follows: If Christian certainty, as certainty about the …

[German Version] (Sep 27, 1696, Marianella, near Naples – Aug 1, 1787, monastery at Nocera de' Pagani, near Salerno). Liguori, the son of a naval officer, earned his doctorate in law at the age of 16; in 1714 he began to practice law, but left the profession in 1723 after losing a case. As a priest, he conducted popular missions. On Nov 9, 1732, he founded the Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris (Redemptorists; approved in 1749 by Benedict XIV, Pope), with a ministry of preaching and pastoral care…

[German Version] (Sep 3, 1852, Langenburg, Württemberg – Feb 10, 1940, Tübingen). After theological training in Württemberg, Müller developed into a historian, making his mark as a medievalist with works on Louis the Bavarian, the Franciscans and the Waldenses. He gained his habilitation In Berlin in 1890, became an assistant professor there in 1882 and in 1884 in Halle, in 1886 full professor in Gießen, in 1891 in Breslau, and in 1903 in Tübingen. From his time in Gießen, Müller's life work was i…

[German Version] (1656, Nay, Béarn – Nov 25, 1727, London). Educated in Huguenot academies (Huguenots), Abbadie was an important leader of the refugee community in Berlin from 1680 to 1689. As a field chaplain, he participated in the Ireland campaign of William III of England, and lived thereafter on benefices of the Anglican Church (beginning in 1699, he was …

[German Version] (Quintomonarchists, Fifth Monarchy Men). In republican England (III, 1.d; 1649–1653), the Fifth Monarchists did not form a constituted ecclesiastical organization of their own. Rather, the term refers to the exponents of a radically chiliastic (Millenarianism/Chiliasm) trend operative within various other groups (Congregationalists [Congregationalism], Independents, Particular Baptists [Baptists: II]; see also Dissenters). The return of Jesus Christ (Parousia) to rule for 1000 yea…

[German Version] (Mar 3, 1792, Petershagen, Minden – Jul 8, 1854, Göttingen). Shaped and nurtured at Halle by A.H. Niemeyer and J.A.L. Wegscheider, Gieseler worked from 1812 to 1819, interrupted by the Wars of Liberation, in higher education; in 1819, he became professor at Bonn, in 1831 in Göttingen. He established his academic reputation with a monograph on the synoptic question (1818), proposing that all the synoptics utilized an essentially uniform oral tradition (tradition hypothesis). Active as an editor of journals ( ThStKr) since his time in Bonn, he was also intensel…

[German Version] (1641, Alençon – 1717, London). After his studies Allix made his name as a scholar and preacher and in 1671 became minister in the Huguenot community (Huguenots) in Charenton (Paris). After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes he fled to London, where James II granted him the privilege of founding a French community inside the Anglican Church…

[German Version] (Dec 25, 1686, Stuttgart – Nov 19, 1760, Giessen). After theological education in Württemberg and some travel, Pfaff was made professor of theology by ducal fiat in Tübingen; in 1720 he became chancellor of the university. In 1756 he was obliged to relinquish these offices, and worked in Giessen as professor, chancellor of the university, and general superintendent. An infant prodigy and a brilliant ¶ character, Pfaff was an eclectic polymath, theologically influenced by the Enlightenment and Pietism. His main areas of work were dogmatics/ethic…