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[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. Old Testament – III. Judaism – IV. New Testament – V. History of Theology – VI. Creation and Preservation – VII. Religious Education – VIII. Islam – IX. Science – X. Art History I. History of Religion 1. Fundamentals Life, nature, the environment, the passage of time – these are everyday experiences for any society. But reality also includes the danger that this world may be imperiled or perilous. Chaos and death are part …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Tolerance and intolerance must be defined in terms of their relationship to respect, coexistence, indifference, acceptance, and prejudice. In the public context, they ¶ correspond to the presence or absence of freedom of religion. They originate in the claim to exclusive religious truth or else collide with it. Tolerance requires insight into the human ability to err and into the limits of human cognition with regard to faith, whereas intolerance rejects this insight. Following Gerlitz,…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament– IV. Church History – V. Philosophy of Religion – VI. Dogmatics – VII. Art History – VIII. Practical Theology – IX. Judaism – X. Islam I. Religious Studies Religious conceptions include numinous intermediary beings of the most varied types and origins that mediate between the divine sphere and humanity and also serve higher powers. These are sometimes seen as emanations of the divine, sometimes as personified good guardian forces of the human. The original source are experiences of the intervention of forces from the non-human realm or other forms of irrational experience of a mysterious power affecting people. According to E.B. Tylor the “primitive” discovered the “soul” by reflecting on the cause of death, sleep, dreams as distinct from the body and as an outward projection (“external soul,” “souls outside” a personal guardian spirit). Zoroastrianism (Zarathustra/Zoroastrianism), the origin of the angel-concept in the stricter sense, represents an example of this duality with its Ameša Spenta, the canonical divine spirits and executors of the divine will of Ahura Mazdā or Fravurti (Fravashi; avestic “confession,” Avesta), the spiritual double of the person, one's “guardian angel,” which unites with a person's soul after death and makes the person immortal. Further, the sacral value of the messenger becomes the prototype for the heavenly messengers: for example Hermes, Iris, among the northern Germanic peoples the two ravens Hugin (“thought”) and Munin (“memory”) as companions of the god Odin who whisper in his ear what they have observed. In contrast, in the speculations of Apocalypticism, angels communicate the secrets of nature, the heavenly world, an…

[German Version] I. Old Testament The Genesis creation accounts present humankind (םדָאָ/ ʾādām) as irreducibly male-and-female (Gen 1:26f.; 5:1–2). But they also recount the subordinatio…

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[English Version] I. Religionswissenschaftlich T./I. müssen im Gegenüber zu u.a. Respekt, Koexistenz, Indifferenz, Akzeptanz und Vorurteil profiliert werden und korrespondieren im öfftl. Raum mit dem Vorhandensein bzw. Nichtvorhandensein der Religionsfreiheit. Sie entspringen dem Anspruch exklusiver rel. Wahrheit bzw. kollidieren mit ihm. T. bedarf der Einsicht in die Irrtumsfähigkeit und Grenze menschlicher (Glaubens-)Erkenntnis, I. verweigert…

[English Version] I. Religionsgeschichtlich 1.  GrundfragenLeben, Natur, Umwelt und Zeitenlauf (Zeit/Zeitvorstellungen) sind für jede Gesellschaft Alltagserfahrungen. Zur Wirklichkeit gehört aber auch das Risiko, wonach dieser natürliche Lebensraum bedroht und bedrohlich ist. Chaos und Tod gehören zum Kosmos (Welt). Die Realität ist ambivalent. Evolutionstheoretisch gehört zu den entscheidenden Symptomen der Entwicklung vom vormenschlichen zum humanen Existenzbereich, daß diese Risikoerfahrung ritue…