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[German Version] The terms pseudo-religion (from Gk pseúdos, “lie, falsehood”) and ersatz religion are used colloquially – and unfortunately sometimes in scholarly writing – f…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Philosophy of Religion – V. Dogmatics – VI. Practical Theology – VII. Missiology – VIII. Art – IX. Judaism – X. Islam I. Religious Studies 1. It is fundamentally true that God is not an object of religious studies, since God – as theology teaches – cannot be made an object of empirical scientific study. Religious studies can only address the concepts that human beings have expressed concerning their God (or gods: God, Representations and sym…

[German Version] The pseudo-sciences or parasciences (“alternative sciences”) generally include such phenomena as alchemy, acupuncture, anthroposophy, astrology, esotericism, geomancy, homeopathy, occultism, and parapsychology, and …

[German Version] (Lat. auditio, hearing) denotes an experience in which someone hears something although there is no real speaker. Therefore, from a psychological point of view this experience is, like a vision, regarded as a hallucination. Both events occur in a waking state and are different from dreams. Auditory hallucination becomes an important phenomenon …

[German Version] Today, esotericism (Gk ἐσωτερικόv/ esōterikón, “the internal”) encompasses all those wri…

Death is part of the order of this world. Almost without exception, however, people have protested against its dominion, refused to acknowledge it, and even denied it. Accounts like that in Gen. 25:8, according to which people die contentedly after becoming sated with life, or the idea of a “good death” after a fulfilled life (Confucianism), are the exception. The protest against death underlies the cult of the dead, and at the same time these cults aid in coming to terms with the psychological and social conflicts among the s…

1. Almost all religions include reports of people sacrificing the dearest thing they have, even life. Only in rare cases, however, do we find accounts of the regular killing of people as sacrifices, as among the Mayans and Aztecs. Human sacrifice usually took place in times of extraordinary danger such as prolonged drought, with expiation being attempted in the face of serious pestilence, disaster, or other emergencies. Reports of the practice almost always reflect distaste for the horror.…

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1. With few exceptions, religions have always been a social phenomenon. The forms of their community formation and societal nature, as well as their types of social organization, are worthy of inquiry. Individual paths, such as those of hermits, or pillar-dwellers, or mystics, are to be found at least in all differentiated religions. The significance of these “religious virtuosi” (M. Weber) for the shaping of concepts of the saints, for example, and the significance of the paths to salvation tha…

1. Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, was born May 6, 1856 in Freiberg (Mähren), and died September 23, 1939 in London. He studied medicine from 1873 to 1881. In 1885 he was named Privatdozent (unsalaried university…

A Commandment of Peace 1. Tolerance means the ‘enduring,’ ‘bearing,’ or (colloquially) ‘standing’ or ‘putting up with’ the views, lifestyles, goals, interests, and so forth, of others, which do not conform to o…

[English Version] . Zu den Pseudo- (Ps.) und Parawiss. (Pa.) werden z.B. Alchemie, Akupunktur, Anthroposophie, Astrologie, Esoterik, Geomantie, Homöopathie, Okkultismus, Parapsychologie, bisweilen auch die Psychoanalyse, Radiästhesie u.v.a. gerechnet, insoweit diese selber in Anspruch nehmen, Wiss. zu sein, dieser Anspruch aber von den Wiss. aus methodischen und theoretischen Gründen abgewiesen wird. Beide Ausdrücke kommen aus dem Griech. (ψευ˜δος/pseu´dos, »Täuschung, Lüge, Betrug«; παρα´/para´, »neben«) und haben eine krit. Bedeutung. Bei den Ps. gelte…

[English Version] Pseudoreligion/Ersatzreligion, religionswissenschaftlich. Mit dem Begr…