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[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Church History – III. Dogmatics – IV. Practical Theology – V. North America – VI. Missiology I. Religious Studies Generally speaking, the term laity (from Gk λαος/ laós, “people”) denotes adherents of a religious tradition who do not act as religious specialists or function within a defined socio-religious class (Priesthood, Monasticism). The use of the term is therefore inappropriate in religions without religious specialists, for example Islam. In some religions, the laity, who…

[German Version] A hierodeacon (Gk ἱεροδιάκονος) is an Orthodox monk (Monasticism: III) who officiates as deacon (VII) during the liturgy of the hours (IV) and the regular liturgy (VI). The number of deacons consecrated as hierodeacons or as hieromonks is limited, because only as many receive ordination (II) as are absolutely necessary for the conduct of the religious service in the monastery church. Like the priest-monks, the deacon-monks hold no elevated rank in the monastery, except during worship…

[German Version] “Ektenia” is derived from Gk ἐκτενής/ ektenḗs, lit. “outstretched, unceasing, fervent” (cf. ¶ Acts 12:5). In Orthodox worship, it designates the intercessions that are sung in antiphonous alternation, in the form of a litany. The deacon (Diaconate: VII) stands in the nave of the church with his (right) hand outstretched, and recites the petitions, whereupon the worshipers or the chorus respond with Kyrie eleison or “Grant [this], O Lord.” The Orthodox liturgy, the hourly prayers as well as other…

[German Version] Užgorod (Czech Užhorod, Hung. Ungvár), in western Ukraine, belonged politically to the kingdom of Hungary from the Middle Ages to 1918; it went to Czechoslovakia in 1919 but was returned to Hungary in 1940. It was in the Soviet Union after 1945 and has been in independent Ukraine since 1991. In the conflict between Habsburg pressure for Catholic union and the pressure of the Reformed local rulers of Transylvania for conversion, on Apr 23, 1646, 63 priests of the Orthodox diocese o…

[German Version] I. Early Church – II. Middle Ages – III. Reformation – IV. Modern Period – V. Present – VI. Practical Theology I. Early Church The church polity projected and in part realized in early Christianity is one of the most significant institutional inventions of Late Antiquity. Since it has survived into the present, with many modifications and variations, it also represents an element of continuity between the ancient world and the modern world. Church polity as used here means all the institutions affecting the external organization of early Ch…

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[German Version] (c. 1350, probably Constantinople – between 1431 and 1438, Constantinople), monk and a learned Byzantine theologian. Joseph worked on the island of Crete, which belonged to Venice, from c. 1382/1383 to 1402/1403 as a preacher and Orthodox missionary. Afterwards, he lived primarily in Constantinople, c. 1402–1406 in the Studios monastery and 1416–1427 in the Charsianites monastery. As a representative of the ecumenical patriarch (Constantinople: V), he was supposed to strengthen th…

[German Version] A hieromonk (Gk ἱερομόναχος/ hieromónachos) is an Orthodox monk (Monasticism: III) who also serves as a priest (Priesthood: III, 3). Since its beginnings in Late Antiquity, Eastern monasticism has remained fundamentally a separate group within the church, distinct from both clergy (Clergy and laity: I, 2) and laity (III, 2). Therefore the monks allow only as many of their number to…

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[German Version] Iaşi, a city in eastern Romania. Together with Suceava (Polish: Suczawa), Iaşi was intermittently the seat of the dukes and metropolitans of Moldavia from the 15th century onward, and became their permanent seat at the end of the 16th century. In 1642 a synod met in Iaşi which passed the so-called Confessio Orthodoxa (Articles of Faith: II) of P. Mogila. Iaşi stood under Greek (Phanariot) and partly under Russian influence until the 19th century. The transition to the Romanian-national cultural language was effected in Iaşi around 1830. The Orthodox Church became receptive to Western European cultural ideals and opposed laicism. From the Middle Ages on, Iaşi attracted merchants and craftsmen while offering asylum to persecuted people. As a consequence, Armenians, Poles, Germans, Russians (Old Believers, Russian), and other ethnic nationalities settled in Iaşi; some of their churches still exist today. The city flourished …

[German Version] I. Early Church – II. Orthodox Canon Law I. Early Church The metropolitanate is an outgrowth of the emergence of synods, which in the late 2nd century slowly began to develop into the most important regional ecclesiastical authorities (see also Church polity: I, 3.a). As soon as synods began to assemble regularly on a provincial level (Ecclesiastical province), the bishop of the provincial capital acquired new authority, which increasingly became legally codified. At the beginning of the 4…

[German Version] Peć, city on the Bistrica in Kosovo. It appears in documents from the early 13th century, when the archbishop of Žiča moved his see to Peć. Tsar Stefan Dushan (1331–1355) of Serbia named Archbishop Janićije I patriarch of the Serbs and Greeks, thus creating the first Serbian patriarchate of Peć, not recognized by Constantinople. The so-called Patriaršija, with the churches of the Holy Apostles (c. 1230), the Theotokos (before 1337), and St. Demetrius (before 1324), still bears witness to the golden age of Serbo-Byzantine art. After 138…

[English Version] . Das im Westen der Ukraine gelegene Užgorod (tschechisch Užhorod, ungar. Ungvár) zählte vom MA bis 1918 polit. zum Königreich Ungarn, ab 1919 zur Tschechoslowakei, ab 1940 zu Ungarn, ab 1945 zur Sowjetunion und seit 1991 zur selbständigen Ukraine. Im Konflikt zw. kath. Unionsdruck der Habsburger und dem Konversionsdruck ref. Landesfürsten von Siebenbürgen besiegelten am 23.4.1646 in der Schloßkapelle von U. 63…

[English Version] I. Allgemein 1.  Staat. Die Staatsbez. R. (România) leitet sich vom (Dako-)Rumänischen her, das aufgrund seines lat. Ursprungs zur romanischen Sprachfamilie, der Romania, gehört. Der moderne Staat R. mit der Hauptstadt Bukarest (Bucureşti) entstand nach 1859 nördlich der Donau durch die sukzessive Vereinigung und Sezession von sechs relativ selbständigen Provinzen, die mehrheitlich von Rumänen und von anderen Ethnien bewohnt waren. Die seit 1862 vereinigten Fürstentümer der Moldau u…

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[English Version] . In den orth. Kirchen ist der V. (z.T. auch Hilfsbf. genannt) dem Bischof (: II.,2.) einer Eparchie zugeordnet und vollkommen von ihm ab…

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[English Version] I. Altertum und Mittelalter Das NT enthält zwar einzelne auf die Person bezogene Angaben über die Voraussetzung zur Übernahme eines kirchl. Amtes (vgl.1Tim 3,2–13 oder Tit 1,6–9), aber keine Hinweise zur Ausbildung. Da das Evangelium Verstehen impliziert und die Person betrifft, mußte sich die Frage nach der theologischen Ausbildung und spirituellen Prägung derer, die zu seiner öfftl. Weitergabe berufen werden, früher oder später stellen. Darin deuten sich die beiden Pole Bildung und Frömmigkeit an, die spannungsvoll aufeinander bezogen sein wollen. Angehende Diener der Gemeinde wuchsen im persönlichen Umgang mit dem Bischof und/oder den Presbytern und Diakonen in ihre künftigen Aufgaben hinein – ein Modell, das noch bis ins Spät-MA hinein bezeugt und im Gemeindepraktikum Theologiestudierender bis heute präsent ist. Wahrscheinlich erfuhr diese Einübung in den Glauben und seine gelebten Gestalten im Medium gemeinsamen Lebens durch die Herausbildung der Vorstufen des Priesteramtes (Priestertum: III.,1.) eine gewisse Strukturierung. Da wohl viele Amtsanwärter illiterati waren (Seeliger), dürfte die Ausbildung vermutlich auf das Auswendiglernen zentraler Texte gezielt haben, deren Kenntnis Voraussetzung für den Empfang der Ordination war. Noch aus der Zeit um 600 haben sich entsprechende Angaben erhalten. – Die Katechetenschulen in Alexandrien, Antiochien u.a. waren nicht für die Ausbildung der Priester, sondern für die Unterweisung der neu gewonnenen Glieder der Kirche, der Katechumenen (Katechumenat), konzipiert. In diesem Modell wurde eigens die Verantwortung des Evangeliums gegenüber der Philos., anderen Rel. und Weltanschauungen als theol. Aufgabe wahrgenommen. Mit dieser Aufgabenstellung und der v.a. von Origenes methodisch entwickelten allegorischen Schriftauslegung (Allegorie/Allegorese: IV.,1.) wirkte di…