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[German Version] (Mar 21, 1877, Mölln – Apr 6, 1927, Chicago, IL) studied theology and ancient Near Eastern languages in Greifswald, Göttingen, Marburg, and Kiel with Friedrich Giesebrecht, J. Wellhausen, R. Smend, O. Baumgarten, and J.F.W. Bousset; he received his Dr.phil. in Göttingen in 1899 with a dissertation on Isa 56–66 and his Dr.theol. in Kiel in 1902. During …

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[German Version] (Apr 7, 1683, Hildesheim – May 8, 1715, Hildesheim). After a brief period teaching in Helmstedt, Witter was appointed pastor in Hildesheim in 1707. He had been influenced ¶ by J. Spencer, H. v. der Hardt, and J. Clericus; a study trip to Holland brought him into contact with the biblical criticism of the early Enlightenment (Biblical scholarship: I, 4). His major work, never completed, was his Iura israelitarum in palaestinam terram chananaeam commentatione in Genesin perpetua sic demonstrata . . . (1711). He planned to treat the whole Pentateuch, but publi…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies People and nationhood are functional political terms that serve to define a collective entity and to incorporate it into a specific context (see III below). Only since the 18th century has it been possible to speak of a German nat…

[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 fait…

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[German Version] I. Religious Studies 1. The terms The terms rite and ritual are often used synonymously, both in daily speech and in the specialized language of religious studies, leading to a lack of clarity. “Rite” is etymologically related to Sanskrit ṛta, “right, order, truth, custom,” and may thus be regarded as the “smallest” building block of a ritual, which can be defined as a complex series of actions in a (logical) functional relationship. Within a three-level sequence, cult (Cult/Worship : I, 2) must also be taken into cons…

[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Judaism – V. Christianity I. History of Religions Immediate and comprehensive solidarity appertains only in the most elementary form of human soci…

[German Version] (Feb 26, 1763, Sehna, Thuringia – Sep 17, 1834, Berlin). In 1789 Ilgen became rector of the municipal Gymnasium of Naumburg/Saale; in 1794 he became professor of Near Eastern languages and (after 1799) theology at Jena. From 1802 to 1830 he served as rector of Schulpforta, which under his leadership was transformed from a princely school of Saxony into a Prussian Gymnasium. In his major work, Die Urkunden des Jerusalemischen Tempelarchivs in ihrer Urgestalt (part 1, 1798), he expanded the earlier documentary hypothesis (Pentateuch) by identifying in Genesis, besides the “Jehovist” and “Elohist,” a further source document using the divine name Elohim. It remained for Hermann Hupfeld, however, to gain acceptance for the theory of three source documents in the Pentateuch, in the context of the new documentary hypothesis. …

[German Version] I. In preexilic times the expression “people of YHWH” denoted the state and people of Israel (People and nationhood: II). In the crisis in ancient Israelite YHWH religion that began with the defeat of Samaria in 722 bce the expression took on a new meaning that transcended political and territorial circumstances. Basic to this new meaning is the negation of the relationship, until then unquestioned and so hardly the subject of reflection, that YHWH as the God of the state and the dynasty had with his state and people…

[German Version] a family of Basel academics 1. Johann Buxtorf I (Dec 25, 1564, Kamen – died of the plague Sep 13, 1629, Basel) studied in Marburg (?) with J. Piscator in Herborn, in Heidelberg and with J.J. Grynaeus in …

[German Version] (Mar 19, 1684, Sauve, Languedoc – Mar 5, 1766, Paris) belonged to the Christian branch of a Jewish family that had lived for centuries in southern France. He was the son of a Huguenot pastor who converted to Catholicism when the Edict of Nantes was revoked (1685) but …

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[English Version] . I. V. JHWHs bez. in vorexil. Zeit das Staatsvolk Israel (Volk/Volkstum: II.). In der mit dem Untergang Samarias 722 v.Chr. einsetzenden Krise der altisraelit. JHWH-Rel. gewinnt der Begriff eine neue, die polit. und territorialen Gegebenheiten transzendierende Bedeutung. Voraussetzung hierfür ist die Negation des bis dahin selbstverständlichen und daher kaum reflektierten Verhältnisses des Staats- und Dynastiegottes JHWH zu seinem Staatsvolk Israel (Am 7,8; 8,2; vgl. Hos 1,9). Da…

[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 diese Einsicht. Unterschied…

[English Version] , Henning Bernhard (7.4.1683 Hildesheim – 8.5.1715 ebd.). Nach kurzer Lehrtätigkeit in Helmstedt wirkte W. seit 1707 als Pfarrer in Hildesheim. Eine Studienreise nach Holland brachte den von J. Spencer, H.v.d. Hardt und J. Clericus beeinflußten W. mit der frühaufklärerischen Bibelkritik (Bibelwissenschaft: I.,4.) in Berührung. Das unvollendete Hauptwerk »Iura Israelitarum in Palaestinam terram Chananaeam Commentatione in Genesin perpetua sic demonstrata u.s.w.« (1711) ist auf die U…

[English Version] I. Religionswissenschaftlich 1.?  Zum Begriff Ritus (R.) bzw. Riten und Ritual (Rl.) werden sowohl in der Alltagssprache als auch in religionswiss. Fachsprache häufig synonym verwendet, wodurch Unschärfen entstehen. R. ist etym. mit Sanskrit »ṛta«, »Recht, Ordnung, Wahrheit, Brauch«, verwandt, insofern kann der R. als »kleinster« Baustein eines Rl. angesehen werden, das man als komplexe Handlungssequenz nach einem (logischen) Funktionszu…

[English Version] I. ReligionswissenschaftlichVolk (V.) und Volkstum sind polit. Funktionsbegriffe, die dazu dienen, eine kollektive Einheit abzugrenzen und in einen bestimmten Sinnzusammenhang einzufügen (s.u. III.). Von einem dt. V. als Subjek…