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Biographical Sketch Max Weber, born in Erfurt (Germany) in 1864, enrolled in 1882 in Heidelberg to study jurisprudence; in 1884 he carried on his studies in Berlin, where he received a doctorate for a work on trading societies in Italian cities. In 1892 he did a postdoctoral essay on the importance of Roman agrarian history for government and private rights. In 1893 Weber was appointed as professor of economics at Freiburg (Germany); three years later he got a similar chair in Heidelberg…

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Dualism, in contrast to monism, assumes that two antagonistic principles underlie existence. It found classic expression in Zoroastrianism, in some tendencies in early Judaism, and in Gnosticism and its aftermath. In milder form it also appears implicitly in the worldviews of prescientific cultures. A characteristic of modern scientific culture is to find in such hostile factors as disasters and illnesses a challenge to human knowledge and ability. Prescientific cultures, however, push such anom…

1. Religious Aspects The term “Messiah” derives from the biblical title māšı̂aḥ, “the anointed.” Anointing confers legitimacy upon a person as king or high priest. The Jewish view rested on the divine promise of an eternal kingship to the descendants of David (2 Sam. 7:12–16…

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[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. Jewish and Christian Antiquity – III. Middle Ages to Modern Times I. History of Religion Hypocrisy as a deliberate feigning of non-existent situations is a special case of concealment. F. Bacon made a distinction between a morally necessary silence and a passive secretiveness, and between both of t…

1. Scope 1.1. Definition Apocalypticism, which was forged within the Judeo-Christian tradition, comprises a literary genre, a set of eschatological concepts, and a world-renouncing lifestyle. Apocalypticism differs from eschatology, millenarianism, and messianism. Eschatology reflects on the end of the old aeon, apocalypticism on the way to the…

[German Version] I. Terminology The word society ( societas, société) has changed from a term denoting particular forms and modes of human coexistence to a term (in both sg. and pl.) denoting the totality of human coexistence; it has thus become the basic term of the theoretical sciences that deal with human coexistence. The German equivalent, Gesellschaft (from OHG sal, “room,” and selida, “dwelling place”), suggests ties that arise from sharing the same room (cf. Geselle, “apprentice,” etymologically “someone ¶ sharing accommodations” with a master) or belonging to the same “house” (House/Household) – that is, the elemental form of hum…