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[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. Early Judaism – IV. New Testament – V. Dogmatics I. Religious Studies 1. The judgment discussed here is not in response to a specific transgression or lapse on the part of an individual; it is a judgment upon his or her entire life, taking place only after death and determining the fate of the ¶ deceased in the next world. Because this notion implies the idea of a just recompense, it has the quality and function of a theodicy that seeks…

[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Dogmatics – III. Art History I. History of Religions The Last Judgment is a divine judgment of all humankind that takes place at the end of time (End of the world). Unlike the particular judgment of each individual immediately after death, it is necessarily associated with the idea of universal history, which plays a fundamental role in Zoroastrianism (Zarathustra) as well as in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Here the understanding of reality is shaped by the eon…

[German Version] I. Earthly Mediators – II. Mythological Mediators – III. The Mediator in Christianity To the extent that religion is understood as the locus of mediation between God and humankind, the mediator, ¶ the instrument of this mediation, plays a central role in the study of religion. Here we are dealing not with a precise, clearly delineated concept with a defined place in scientific terminology, but with a generic term encompassing mediating agents of quite varied nature and origin. The term may refer to a wide var…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Dogmatics – V. Practical Theology I. Religious Studies The term calling or “call” refers to a person's experience of being grasped by a divine or other superhuman power and being taken into its service. The concept thus relates closely to that of election; at the same time, a calling can be seen as a kind of initiation that can precede or follow a longer period of instruction and maturation. The early…

[German Version] It is not really appropriate to speak of the cult-historical school as a single historical entity; at best, one can refer to various research milieus or working groups, which have translated leading motifs of the cult-historical method into practice on a broad basis and which have, thus, stamped scholarship in general. The closest to a clearly defined “school” are – apart from the Cambridge Ritualists of the early 20th century – those initiative…

[German Version] (Jun 14, 1873, Allinge, Denmark – Apr 21, 1948, Helsingør, Denmark), a Danish philologist and historian of religion, received the Dr.phil. in 1902 and became a lecturer in Copenhagen in 1903, assistant professor of English language and literature in 1908, assistant professor of the history of religions (succeeding Edvard Lehmann) in 1911, and professor in 1914–1943. In contrast to evolutionistic research in religion, Grønbech (under the influence of J.G. Herder, among others), con…