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[German Version] (Aug 24, 1791, Egeln near Magdeburg – Feb 14, 1855, Göttingen). After periods of undergraduate and graduate study in Halle an der Saale and Göttingen, Lücke became assistant professor in Berlin (1818), professor of New Testament and church history in Bonn (1819), and of New Testament and systematic theology in Göttingen (1827). In 1839, he joined the Consistorial Council and in 1843 became abbot of Bursfelde Abbey. Lücke may be considered the most important student of F.D.E. Schleiermacher; he published his teacher's Hermeneutik posthumously in 1838. In his Grundriß …

[German Version] (May 2, 1773, Stavanger, Denmark [now Norway] – Feb 13, 1845, Berlin). Beginning in 1790, Steffens studied natural history in Copenhagen and Kiel, where he taught as a lecturer in 1796. In 1798 he traveled to Jena. J.G. Fichte’s Wissenschaftslehre (ET: The Science of Knowing, 2005) and especially F.W.J. Schelling’s Ideen zu einer Philosophie der Natur (1797; ET: Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature, 1988) and Von der Weltseele (1798) influenced him deeply. In Freiberg he studied at the Mining Academy and published Beyträge zur innern Naturgeschichte der Erde (1801), dedi…

[German Version] (Mar 29, 1893, Hoirup, North Schleswig – Jan 30, 1981, Schleswig), Protestant theologian. She studied at Kiel, Tübingen, and Münster, and was particularly influenced by A. Schlatter and K. Heim. After passing her faculty examination at Kiel in 1921, she was one of the first women in Germany to receive a licentiate in theology (1924). From 1926 to 1945, she headed the Seminar für kirchlichen Frauendienst (also called the Bibel- und Jugendführerschule) at the Burckhardthaus in Berli…

[German Version] (Jul 30, 1777, Roßbach near Naumburg an der Saale – Jun 15, 1848, Weimar). From 1796 Röhr studied theology in Leipzig, and in 1801 became assistant preacher at the university church, in 1802 assistant teacher in Schulpforta, in 1804 minister in Ostrau near Zeitz, in 1820 senior minister and general superintendent in Weimar, where on Mar 26, 1832 ¶ he delivered the funeral oration at Goethe’s burial. Röhr’s Briefe über den Rationalismus [Letters on Rationalism] (1813) provided a programmatic foundation for Rationalism in its theological and ecclesiast…

[German Version] 1. Friedrich Christoph. (Apr 21, 1772, Rudolstadt, Thuringia – May 18, 1843, Gotha), bookseller and publisher. After an apprenticeship in Leipzig, in 1796 Perthes opened in Hamburg the first retail bookstore in Germany not connected with a publisher (Printing and publishing: I, 3). In 1821 he moved to Gotha, where he specialized in publishing academic works in history and theology. In 1825 he played a leading role in establishing the Börsenverein der Deutschen Buchhändler (German Pub…

[German Version] (Apr 8, 1888, Gnadenfrei, Silesia – Jun 6, 1966, Frankfurt am Main), became a pastor in 1914, and was senior pastor at St. Ägidien in Lübeck from 1921. He was forced into retirement in 1934, worked actively in the Confessing Church, and became pastor of the confessing congregation in Berlin-Friedenau in 1939. He was later professor of practical theology in Mainz (1946–1956) and the founding dean of the faculty, and also served in the administration of the church. His ambitious biography of Erdmuthe Dorothea Gräfin von Zinzendorf appeared in 1915. His Reformationsgeschic…

[German Version] (Sep 27, 1805, Kroppenstedt near Magdeburg – Mar 10, 1898, Bristol) studied in Halle and joined the Awakening movement (Revival/Revival movements). At the suggestion of his teacher F.A.G. Tholuck, he went in 1829 to London, to devote himself to the so-called Jewish Mission. He became a member of the Plymouth Brethren, from whom he had separated by 1849; yet he remained ¶ active as a preacher of the Spirit-led “Open Brethren,” and in May 1830 he was rebaptized. Consciously following A.H. Francke, Müller founded the Scriptural Knowledge Instit…

[German Version] (Kaj Harald Leininger Petersen; Jan 13, 1898, Maribo, Lolland – Jan 4, 1944, near Silkeborg), Danish writer and theologian. After study in Copenha-¶ gen, from 1924 he was a minister in Vedersø, West-Jutland. S.Kierkegaard exercised a lasting influence on him. He was also influenced by H. Ibsen's naturalism and by the social perspective of Martin Andersen Nexø. Prominent in his work, in addition to biblical figures ( Pilatus, 1917), was much material, some borrowed from antiquity, the Nordic medieval milieu, and also from the 19th century, in whic…

[German Version] (Dec 21, 1853, Sinferopol, Crimea – Oct 19, 1910, Hamburg), Lutheran pastor and theologian. After studying in Dorpat, he was appointed pastor to the deaconesses’ house in St. Petersburg in 1879; in 1890 he was appointed to the Friedenskirche in Hamburg-Eilbeck. His outstanding social commitment was focused on the notion of community. In response to the social crisis, Ruckteschell called for a restructuring of economic and social life. In Christian socialism he saw a “dangerous blend of natural and religious sensibility” ( Personalgemeinde, 156). The social ques…

[German Version] (Sep 24, 1786, Iserlohn – Jul 19, 1863, Berlin). After studies in Halle and Heidelberg from 1805 to 1808, with C. Daub as his most important teacher, Strauß was appointed pastor in Ronsdorf in 1809 and in Elberfeld in 1814; from 1822 to 1859 he was professor of practical theology in Berlin as well as fourth court chaplain and cathedral preacher (1856 senior court chaplain). He was appointed senior consistorial councilor in 1836 and made a member of the High Consistory in 1850. He was a close ¶ friend of J.W.A. Neander and an outstanding preacher and pastor. With a re…

[German Version] (Apr 11, 1795, Sonneborn, near Gotha – Apr 26, 1860, Heidelberg). After studying philosophy and theology from 1814 to 1817, with J.G. Eichhorn as an outstanding teacher, Umbreit was appointed lecturer in Near Eastern languages at Göttingen in 1818; in 1820 he became associate professor of Old Testament and Near Eastern philology at the faculty of philosophy at Heidelberg and was promoted to full professor in 1823; in 1829 he became professor of OT at the faculty of theology, which…

[German Version] 1. Rudolf (Mar 28, 1853, Eningen unter Achalm, Württemberg – Oct 20, 1929, Leipzig), professor of Old Testament in Breslau (1888–1898) and Leipzig (1898–1923), and the father of 2. In 1905/1906, Kittel published a critical edition of the OT on the basis of the edition by Jacob ben Chayim (1524/1525). The third edition (1929–1937) was based on the Codex Leningradensis (Biblical manuscripts: I, 2.a). Building on his own source studies on Gen to 2 Kgs and 1/2 Chron, Kittel wrote a Geschichte der Hebräer (2 vols., 1888–1892, ET: History of the Hebrews, 1895/1896), which he …

[German Version] (Mar 15, 1796, Epfenbach, Palatinate – Jan 12, 1865, Karlsruhe). A member of the Reformed Church, Ullmann studied at Heidelberg and Tübingen (1812–1816); after some other positions, in 1821 he was appointed associate professor at Heidelberg and full professor in 1826. From 1829 to 1836 he taught at Halle and then returned to Heidelberg, where he became an authoritative proponent of mediation theology. He combined a proclivity for philology with works on church history, history of dogma, and systematic theology; among his writings, Historisch oder mythisch? (1838, 21…

[German Version] In his major work Der christliche Staatsmann (1932, 21932), W. Stapel devised the notion of a Volksnomos (“national or ethnic law”), arguing that the New Testament (and hence Christian) concept of law is not simply the fulfillment of the Old Testament concept but also the fulfillment of all laws of other nations. He described the wealth of national gods metaphorically as the “crypt” of the “Christian cathedral” of redemption. The nomos Germanikos, defined on the basis of racist ideology, gives the German nation its character; it is the embodiment of …

[German Version] (Oct 27, 1882, Calbe – Jun 1, 1954, Hamburg), political commentator and writer. After receiving his Dr.phil. in 1911, Stapel devoted his efforts to anti-modernist, nationalist ideas, becoming a dominant figure in the “conservative revolution.” From 1918 to 1938, he and Albrecht Erich Günther published the journal Deutsches Volkstum; with a Protestant bias and close friendship with E. Hirsch, they championed a program of ethnic nationalism with an anti-Semitic flavor. Especially between 1926 and 1938, Stapel was the dominant voi…

[German Version] (Nov 8, 1775, Copenhagen – Jan 30, 1854, Copenhagen). After theological studies at Copenhagen, which he began in 1790, Mynster worked as a private tutor; in 1802 he became pastor of Spjellerup in South Zealand. In 1811 he was appointed assistant pastor of the Church of Our Lady, the cathedral of Copenhagen. In 1812 he was also appointed lecturer and joint director of the pastoral seminary. In 1817 he became a member of the ministry of higher education. Finally, following a chaplai…

[German Version] (Aug 4, 1792, Braunfels – May 6, 1865, Bremen), Reformed preacher. From 1811 to 1815, he studied in Herborn and Tübingen, and took part in the wars of liberation against Napoleon. In Bremen, he was pastor at St. Michael's from 1817 and at St. Stephen's from 1827. As an anti-rationalist and anti-Hegelian he may be regarded as a figure of the Awakening (Revival/Revival movements). Mallet supported a cooperation between Reformed and Lutherans. His rousing sermons with a focus on soci…

[German Version] (Apr 11, 1789, Glückstadt – Jan 8, 1876, Berlin). Professor of theology and philosophy at Kiel since 1814, in 1835 Twesten succeeded F.D.E. Schleiermacher in Berlin, having been a follower theologically. He published very little. His lectures on dogmatics in the spirit of mediation theology remained incomplete but attained classical status. In them he dissociated himself from rationalism and maintained a position independent of Hegelian speculative theology, nascent confessionalis…

Attempts to record mass phenomena in numbers, that is, statistically, go all the way back to the high cultures of the 3rd millennium BCE. In the modern period statistics developed in various areas (e.g. in university statistics in the 17th century, then political arithmetic). Basic to this were efforts to record legal structures - a concern which, under Enlightenment influence, was to lead in the theological field to proofs of the existence of God [3].The medieval administrations of a communal and ecclesiastical character provide comprehensive material for historic…

1. ConceptsThe term “transcendence” (from the Latin  transcendere, “to surmount”; “to rise above”) is invariably associated with its antithesis, immanence (from the Latin  immanere, “to dwell [with]in,” first attested as Middle Latin immanentia). Transcendence means the escaping beyond a boundary, and immanence the opposite. These are thus two anthropological constants. Individuals are capable of intentionally transcending themselves and their environment, and equally of remaining within themselves and their world. Transcend…