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[German Version] I. Comparative Religion – II. History of Religion – III. Old Testament – IV. New Testament – V. Early Church History I. Comparative Religion Epiphany is a descriptive term borrowed from the phenomenology of Greek religion. In the terminology of the comparative study of religions, “epiphany” stands for the widespread conception that gods are accustomed to “appear” under certain conditions …

[German Version] Among different activities and capabilities, the capacity to heal has also been attributed to gods (Gods, Groups of). Protecting, preserving, delivering and healing are part of a broad spectrum of concepts about the activity of the gods. Healing gods in the more restricted sense, legitimized as the sons or daughters of the great gods, exercise specific activities and sometimes bear reference to their medical activity in their names (Mesopotamia, Syria). In accordance with the soci…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Philosophy – III. Philosophy of Religion I. Religious Studies Images are among the oldest and simplest human expressions which can “survive” their original communicative setting. It is this relative independence of their origin which in religious contexts has led to attribute an efficacy to sketches, colorful murals (Art and Religion, Prehistoric art), as well as to the three-dimensional statue, which significantly exceeds the possibilities and intentions of the pr…

[German Version] I. Greco-Roman Antiquity – II. Bible – III. Dogmatics I. Greco-Roman Antiquity In the Greek realm, enthusiasm refers to a person's special relationship to a god, as was made apparent to others. The term offers something like an implicit theory for those alterations of behavior and claim that would otherwise be described as ékstasis or manía (see also Ecstasy). Linguistically, the relationship is encompassed within the bounds of “to enter into a person” ( éntheon eínai), to inspire a person ( empnoeín), or to take possession of a person ( katochḗ, katokōchḗ, Lat. posses…

[German Version] A religious history of the relationship between nature and culture is itself part of a cultural differentiation with varying connotations. The increasingly rigorous separation of the two areas may be interpreted as the conclusion of a development that seeks to link together the incipient domination of nature and the parallel establishment of cultural forms of organization. If areas of nature are seen as divine or dominated by gods, this first implies that “nature” is subject to the concepts of order of polytheistic (Monotheism and poly…

[German Version] The figure of Asclepius – divine healer and healing god – reveals a specific transitional potential in Mediterranean polytheism (Monotheism). As the son of Apollo and of a mortal woman, Asclepius is himself mortal, and is indeed faced with death; because Asclepius raises a dead man to life through his skill as a phy…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Veneration of gods in the form of man-made images (I) is part of the development of human ideas about God. The nature of such images varies widely, from natural objects with little or no human work involved (rocks, posts, trees) to professionally produced works of “art.” For the structure of the idea of God reflected in images, the crucial question is whether they “merely” facilitate epiphany rituals or whether the gods regularly manifest themselves in the images through ritual guarantee, i.e. are made prese…