Alfred Bertholet

Swiss scholar
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Born:
November 9, 1868 Basel Switzerland
Died:
August 24, 1951 (aged 82) Switzerland
Subjects Of Study:
Bible Hebrew Bible Old Testament phenomenology of religion religion

Alfred Bertholet, (born Nov. 9, 1868, Basel, Switz.—died Aug. 24, 1951, Münsterlingen), Protestant Old Testament scholar, who also wrote on the phenomenology of religion.

After serving as pastor of the German-Dutch church at Leghorn (Livorno) for 18 months, he took his doctorate in Basel (1895) and taught there (1896–1912) and later in Tübingen (1913), Göttingen (1914), and Berlin (1928–39). In biblical criticism he moved progressively toward the school of comparative religion.

His Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen (1906; “Apocrypha and Pseudepigraphia”) was an important contribution to Jewish literary history, and the second volume of Biblische Theologie (1911; “Biblical Theology”), conceived as a history of Old Testament religion, broke new ground. His works on the history of religion, such as Dynamismus und Personalismus in der Seelenauffassung (1930; “Dynamism and Personalism in the Knowledge of the Soul”), Götterspaltung und Göttervereinigung (1933; “The Division and the Unification of Gods”), and Das Geschlecht der Gottheit (1934; “Sex in Godhood”), also are marked by immense care in the collection of material and by the skill with which problems are laid bare and solutions to them offered.

religion

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religion, human beings’ relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, absolute, spiritual, divine, or worthy of especial reverence. It is also commonly regarded as consisting of the way people deal with ultimate concerns about their lives and their fate after death. In many traditions, this relation and these concerns are expressed in terms of one’s relationship with or attitude toward gods or spirits; in more humanistic or naturalistic forms of religion, they are expressed in terms of one’s relationship with or attitudes toward the broader human community or the natural world. In many religions, texts are deemed to have scriptural status, and people are esteemed to be invested with spiritual or moral authority. Believers and worshippers participate in and are often enjoined to perform devotional or contemplative practices such as prayer, meditation, or particular rituals. Worship, moral conduct, right belief, and participation in religious institutions are among the constituent elements of the religious life.

The subject of religion is discussed in a number of articles. For treatment of major and historical religious traditions, see African religion; Anatolian religion; ancient Iranian religion; Arabian religion; Baltic religion; Buddhism; Calvinism; Celtic religion; Christianity; Confucianism; Daoism; Eastern Orthodoxy; Eastern rite church; Egyptian religion; Finno-Ugric religion; Germanic religion and mythology; Greek religion; Hellenistic religion; Hinduism; Islam; Jainism; Judaism; Mesopotamian religion; Middle Eastern religion; Mormon; mystery religion; Native American religions; Neo-Paganism; new religious movement; Old Catholic church; Orphic religion; prehistoric religion; Protestantism; Protestant Heritage, The; Roman Catholicism; Roman religion; Shintō; Sikhism; Slavic religion; Syrian and Palestinian religion; Vedic religion; Wicca; Zoroastrianism. For discussion of perspectives on the existence or role within human life of a supreme God or gods, see agnosticism; atheism; humanism; monotheism; pantheism; polytheism; theism. For cross-cultural discussion of religious beliefs, phenomena, and practices, see angel and demon; ceremonial object; covenant; creed; dietary law; doctrine and dogma; dualism, religious; eschatology; ethics; evil, problem of; feast; Five Ways, the; heaven; hell; Last Judgment; meditation; millennialism; miracle; monasticism; Moon worship; mysticism; myth; nature worship; prayer; priest; priesthood; prophecy; Providence; purgatory; purification rite; reincarnation; religious dress; religious symbolism and iconography; rite of passage; ritual; sacrament; sacrifice; sacred; sacred kingship; saint; salvation; scripture; shamanism; sin; soul; Sun worship; theology; worship. For a review of the efforts to systematically study the nature and classify the forms of religious behaviour, experience, and phenomena, see religion, phenomenology of; religion, philosophy of; religion, study of; religions, classification of; religious experience.

Domes of a mosque (muslim, islam) silhouetted against the sky, Malaysia.
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn.
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