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Mit dem 18. Jh. als Höhepunkt erhielt das Wort P. (geprägt von Jean Bodin [8. 1088]; ›Verehrung vieler Götter‹) in der Nz. neue Konnotationen, die sich von dem bloß polemischen Begriff als dem Äquivalent für ›heidnische‹ Vielgötterei, Götzendienst oder Idololatrie (Bilderverehrung) ablösten (Antike Religionen; Heidentum; Aberglaube). So konnte in dem sog. ältesten Systemprogramm des dt. Idealismus ein ›P. der Einbildungskraft und der Kunst‹ einem ›Monotheismus der Vernunft und des Herzens‹ gegenübergestellt werden. Zuvor hatte Schiller in der Vorrede zur Braut von Messina de…

Mit dem Begriff eines R. P. wird i. Allg. eine Situation charakterisiert, bei der innerhalb eines territorial und histor. bestimmten kulturellen Kontextes unterschiedliche Religionen ›nebeneinander‹ existieren. Das bloße Faktum einer Mehrzahl (Pluralität [2]) von Religionen (= Rel.) wird im Blick auf die Nz. gern in das Postulat einer positiven Koexistenz [6] umgedeutet und in eine globalisierende Perspektive eingefügt. Ein konfliktarmes Nebeneinander setzt zunächst vonseiten des Staates eine ›Deregulierung des relig. Marktes‹ voraus und vons…

1. Begriff und Entwicklung bis zum 18. JahrhundertR. dient zur Bezeichnung sowohl der Religionswissenschaft als Disziplin wie auch eines bestimmten methodischen Programms, das im 19. Jh. parallel zu den philologisch-histor. Fächern entwickelt wurde. Die Historisierung von Religion (= Rel.) als vergleichbar mit anderen Kulturbereichen bleibt freilich ein Konfliktfeld in der Geschichte des Fachs: Die Frage › How historical is the history of religions?‹ [11] wird selbst von Vertretern des Fachs, die wie Mircea Eliade für sich in Anspruch nehmen, Rel.-Historike…

1. Gegenstand und KonzeptDas Forschungskonzept und Darstellungsmuster einer E. R. [11] bezieht sich auf spezifische Entwicklungen in Europa, die mit einem ersten Höhepunkt in der Renaissance in der Nz. ihre volle Ausprägung erhalten haben. Die traditionellen Religionsgeschichten Europas [4]; [18]; [7] lassen – mit unterschiedlichen zeitlichen und territorialen Grenzziehungen – den Kontinent nach der Phase der Missionierung zwischen dem 6. und 14. Jh. in säuberlich zu unterscheidende christl. und nichtchristl. Komponenten zerfallen. Gegen eine solche »additive« Rel…

1. Concept and history up to 18th centuryThe “history of religions” denotes both the academic study of religion as a discipline (Religionswissenschaft) and a specific methodic program that was developed alongside the historico-philological approaches in the 19th century. The historicization of religion in line with other cultural fields admittedly remains a bone of contention in the study of the subject, and even many specialists in the discipline who call themselves historians of religion, as Mircea Eliade did, tend to question how historical it is [11]. The fundamental po…

Culminating in the 18th century, the word polytheism (coined by Jean Bodin [8. 1088]; “worship of many gods”) acquired new connotations in the early modern period distinct from its former existence as a mere accusation of the “pagan” veneration of multiple deities, idolism, or idolatry (Ancient religions; Paganism; Superstition). What has been called the first systematic program of German idealism, for example, contrasted a “polytheism of imagination and art” with a “monotheism of reason and the heart.” Even before this, in his preface to Braut von Messina, Schiller breathed …

The term  religious pluralism generally describes a situation in which various religions exist “side by side” within a territorially and historically defined cultural context. With reference to the early modern period, the mere fact of a multiplicity (pluralism [2]) of religions is frequently reinterpreted to mean the postulate of positive co-existence [6] and incorporated into a globalizing perspective. Co-existence with minimal conflict presupposes a prior “deregulation of the religious marketplace” on the part of the state and a readine…

1. Definition and Concept The research concept and presentation model of a history of European religion [11] relate to specific developments in Europe that reached an initial climax in the Renaissance and were fully developed in the early modern period. After the phase of evangelization between the 6th and 14th centuries, traditional histories of Europe’s religion (Religion, history of) [4]; [18]; [7] – with varying chronological and territorial boundaries –  divide the continent neatly into distinct Christian and non-Christian components.Instead of such an “additive” hist…

[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] 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 – 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. 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] 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] 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…