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[German Version] I. Neurobiology and Psychology – II. Religious Studies – III. Ancient Near East and Old Testament – IV. Early Judaism – V. Greco-Roman Antiquity – VI. New Testament – VII. Church History – VIII. Fundamental Theology – IX. Practical Theology – X. Missiology – XI. Art History I. Neurobiology and Psychology Dreams are hallucinatory experiences that generally occur during sleep. Unlike real experiences, they involve associations that are temporally, spatially, and emot…

[German Version] (Oct 2, 1832, London – Jan 2, 1917, Wellington), early theorist of ethnology and comparative religion, who began teaching anthropology at Oxford University in 1884. Under the influence of contemporary biological theories and philosophy of history, his Primitive Culture, a major work published in 1871, suggested that the history of religion also displays an evolution from simple to increasingly complex forms. He reconstructed this development on the basis of “survivals,” isolated cultural elements belonging originally …

[German Version] I. Linguistics and Religious Studies – II. Philosophy – III. Philosophy of Religion – IV. Fundamental Theology – V. Ethics – VI. Practical Theology – VII. Missiology – VIII. Liturgics I. Linguistics and Religious Studies 1. Linguistics As studied by linguistics (Philology), language is an inventory of audible signs combined ¶ according to specific rules to facilitate interpersonal communication. There is a general distinction between language as a transindividual system of signs ( langue) and its actualization by an individual speaker ( parole). Within …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies The English word temple derives from Latin templum. In the technical vocabulary of religious studies, it is more specialized than sanctuary, shrine, cult site, or place of worship. The usage of the originally Latin term beyond the sphere of classical antiquity is well established, particularly for structures that appear comparable in regard to their architectural form (monumentality, stone construction) or religious function (dwelling place of a god or goddess). But this usage does not reflect a precise defi-¶ nition it is based primarily …

[German Version] The term “religious war” or “war of religion” first came into use during the intra-Christian armed conflicts of the 16th/17th centuries, in connection with the formation of the early modern European territorial states. As indicated by the alternative designations “faith war” and “confessional war,” its usage is frequently still restricted to this period and area, although it may also be applied in an unspecific sense to all armed conflicts in which religion played, or plays, an im…

[German Version] The name “Celts” (Gk Keltoí and Galátai, Lat. Galli) has its origins in ancient ethnography and historiography, where it denotes numerous different peoples of Central and Western Europe. In modern usage, it refers either to peoples who already bore the name in antiquity, or to the speakers of languages belonging to the Celtic branch of Indo-European, including both ancient Continental Celtic (Gaulish and Celtiberian on the Iberian Peninsula, Lepontic in …

[German Version] is a collective term commonly used for the myths, rituals, and cults of the Celts before they were christianized. The criteria for defining what falls under the generic term “Celtic religion” are in part linguistic, in part archaeological, and in part historical; however, distinct regional variations and chronological ¶ differentiations, not a fundamental inner unity of the respective phenomena, are to be assumed. Our knowledge derives primarily from archaeological finds from the pre-Roman and Roman periods, accoun…