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[German Version] The philosophico-theological use of light as a metaphor derives from religious light symbolism (light as a symbol [Symbols/Symbol theory: I] of the holy, the divine, salvation, bliss, life, deliverance, light and darkness), but the two are not identical. In the former, light suggests the fundamental structure of being and the possibility of knowing it (Epistemology). Parmenides described the way to knowledge of the truth as a journey from night into the light; light becomes a metaphor for knowledge of true being. In Plato's metaphor …

[German Version] For Aristotle the theory of topoi (Lat. loci, “places”) was one of the fundamental elements of dialectics, the knowledge of what is probable, where it reveals and substantiates the situational appropriateness of strategies of argumentation (Rhetoric). Cicero’s rhetorical understanding of loci, only partially coincident with Aristotle’s theory, was more influential: the loci are sedes argumentorum ( De oratore, II 162), the most general categories in which a speaker looks for arguments. Thus “topics” are associated with the rhetorical art of inventio, which is…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Christianity – IV. Taoism I. Religious Studies It is inherent in the conditio humana that we are forced to master everyday situations and withstand critical moments. To do so, members of every society need handy codes of conduct to survive the manifold crises. Life and death, time and eternity, meaning and meaninglessness mark such critical moments in both individual lives and the course of the world. The responses of cultures and religions to these questions document our yearning for immortality. 1. Models We …

[German Version] I. Fundamental Theology During recent decades, the concept of reception, originally at home in aesthetics and literary studies, has developed into a highly successful fundamental concept of communication; it emphasizes the decisive role of the recipient in the process of communication (Iser, Jauß). In this sense it also concerns theology, to which the concept is not new but has had its meaning and role more clearly defined. A fundamental distinction must be made. First, there is reception…

[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Philosophy of Religion I. Philosophy Essence, from Lat. essentia, “being, essence,” is an abstract noun formed in imitation of Gk ousia, “being, essence,” ¶ that which is characteristic of something, that which makes it what it is. In Plato's writings, the essence of a matter is under consideration when we ask what something is (τι ἔστι/ ti ésti). Here, the essence of a matter is that which is immutable, that which remains the same when appearances change: the …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies 1. General. The words for time denote in different languages, according to their etymological derivation and symbolic semantic field, different ways of dividing natural and cultural forms of progression and sequences of events into parts separated and distinguished from one another. The German word for time, Zeit, comes from Old High German zīt; “divide (up)”, from the root *dāi, “divide,” and implies the general dividing function of ideas of time, as factors in ordering experience of the world. Different ideas of time …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies 1. Phenomenology Western, Christian connotations of the concept of the soul, imposed on the religio-historical evidence by outside studies, must be generally excluded if the soul is understood as the principle of manifestations of life that are perceptible (or culturally considered to be perceptible), although they are rarely categorized under a common umbrella term. It is therefore reasonable to speak of a multiplicity of souls – for example four among the Ob-Ugrians (Hasenfratz, Einführung, 38–41), five among the Proto-Germanic peoples ( ib…

[German Version] I. Philosophy of Religion – II. Dogmatics I. Philosophy of Religion Considering that philosophical theories of essence are grounded in the effort to establish a principle of ontological unity in the face of experienced multiplicity and mutability, any talk of divine essence may be surprising, as no such difference is to be presupposed in God. It is indeed essential for one tradition to use the term “essence” precisely to express its absolute simplicity (Unity, Divine), and thus God's self-identity per se. Accordingly, the statement that God is pure essence ( essentia…

[German Version] The notion that the glorification ( glorificatio) of God is the goal of creation is a fundamental assumption, particularly in Calvin's theology (cf. the beginning of the Geneva Catechism of 1542). Accordingly, the final locus of Reformed dogmatics deals with glorification ( De glorificatione). The perfection of human beings is, thus, equated with joining in creation's praise of God. This concept is based on, first, the Augustinian and medieval notion of the fruitio Dei as the appropriate fulfillment of the human desire for God, and second, the biblical…

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[German Version] I. Antiquity 1. Greek. The expression ῥητ…

[German Version] (c. 327, Neocaesarea – 379, Annisi) was the eldest daughter of a wealthy Christian family from Cappadocia. She was named after her grandmother, Macrina the Elder, who introduced her family to the teachings of Gregory Thaumaturgus. After the death of her fiancé, an advoca…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Philosophy – III. Dogmatics I. Religious Studies The origins (Ger. Ursprung) of something are an event or a set of events which, as a cause and in causal relationship with one another, constitute the initial shape of further events that ensue from the origins. Accordingly, the concept of origins must be understood on two levels of explication: (1) origins as a temporal conception in which the chronological beginning as well as the chronological proximity of origins and of that which stems from the origins is determined; (2) origins as an ontological (or metaphysical) c…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies The sun is omnipresent; in the phenomenal world, it marks and accentuates the course of our chronological and spatial lifeworld. The range of associated structures, interpretations, and ambivalences (light and dark, life-giving and life-consuming) makes it only natural that the sun should acquire religious symbolisms and orientations in many ways and in many areas: (1) orientation in time (annual calendrical cycle, identificat…

[German Version] I. Philosophy of Religion Since the beginnings of Greek philosophy, the experience of transience, expressed in the dyad “generation and corruption, coming into being and passing away” ( génesis, phthorá) has been addressed as a theme both in the observational mode of natural philosophy and from an existential perspective. There is a religious dimension present when, for example, the “Anaximander Fragment” calls destruction the “atonement” of generation (DK, frgm. 12, B1). The question of what is eternal (Eternity) and imperishable, central since Parmenides, signalizes the relevance of the experience of transience. The statement of Socrates in Plato’s …

[English Version] I. Philosophisch Das W. (substantivierter Infinitiv des ahd. Verbs »wesan«, nhd. »sein«) meint das Charakteristische einer Sache: das, was eine Sache zu der macht, die sie ist. Bei Plato wird das W. einer Sache betrachtet, wenn die Frage danach gestellt wird, was etwas ist (τι ε῎στι…

[English Version] I. Religionswissenschaftlich 1.  AllgemeinDie äquivalenten Wörter für Zeit (Z.) bez. in den unterschiedlichen Sprachen je nach etym. Herkunft und symbolischem Bedeutungsfeld verschiedene Weisen einer Einteilung der natürlichen und kulturellen Verlaufsformen und Geschehensabläufe in voneinander abgegrenzte und qualifizierte Teile. Das dt. Wort Z. leitet sich von ahd. zīt, »abteilen, aufteilen, zumessen« (von der Wurzel *dāi, »teilen«), her und impliziert die generelle …

[English Version] I. Antike 1.  Griechisch Der Begriff ρ῾ητορικη` τε´χn̆η/rhētorikē´ téchnē ist eine Schöpfung der Sophistik, die damit die theoretische Grundlage für eine zumal im griech. Kulturraum als Agon verstandene Kommunikationsform schuf, nämlich das Auftreten eines oder mehrerer sprachlich agierender Kommunikatoren vor einem Publikum. Kulturelle Voraussetzungen solcher Performanzereignisse (Sprechakt/Sprechhandlung) bilden der Agon von Dichtern, aber auch der Rechtsstreit, der schon bei Homer (Il. 18, 497–508) erwähnt wird. Die bes. Leistung der griech. Aufk…

[English Version] I. Religionswissenschaftlich, religionsgeschichtlich 1.  PhänomenologischDie christl.-abendländischen Konnotationen des durch die Forschung von außen an religionsgesch. Befunde herangetragenen Seelenbegriffs sind am weitesten auszuschließen, wenn man S. als Prinzip wahrnehmbarer oder kulturell für wahrnehmbar gehaltener Lebensäußerungen versteht, die allerdings selten unter einem gemeinsamen Oberbegriff zusammengefaßt …

[English Version] I. Religionsphilosophisch Bedenkt man, daß philos. Theorien vom Wesen das Interesse zugrunde liegt, ein ontologisches Einheitsprinzip angesichts der Erfahrung von Vielheit und Veränderlichkeit einzuführen, kann die Rede vom W.G. erstaunen, da in Gott eine solche Differenz nicht vorauszusetzen ist. Tatsächlich kommt es einer Traditionslinie darauf an, vom W.G. so zu reden, daß gerade dessen absolute Einfachheit (Einheit/Einzigkeit/Einfachheit Gottes) und insofern Gottes schlechthinnige Selbstident…