The title is misleading. This book, which combines the reprint of a 30-page journal article with dictionary entries taken mainly from the 20th edition of the Brockhaus encyclopedia, covers an assortment of terms from religious studies, theology, the Bible, church history, etc. with a clear focus on Christianity. It lacks entries covering persons, other than biblical figures. No bibliographic information accompanies the entries, and the concluding bibliography is indeed very selective. It is doubtful whether those interested in the survey would find this dictionary to be necessary. And the results of the survey are not so earthshaking that they needed to be republished in this form. [sh/rs]

 

This little lexicon of Christian iconography has a complicated and successful history under various titles since first appearing in 1956. It was thoroughly revised and reworked by Barbara Knopfloch-Zingerle in 1993. Most of the illustrations of saints are drawn from the German-language areas. A paperback version that appeared at the same time included selected sketches of clothing, but no other illustrations. The current publication is actually an unchanged reprint of the illustrated edition of 1993. The lexicon is divided into two parts, a list of attributes and concepts and an alphabetical directory of saints: the two are linked by extensive cross-references. The work is intended primarily for the layperson interested in identifying saints depicted in works of art, and therefore is in no way competititve with volumes 5-8 of Engelbert Kirschbaum's rich and scholarly Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie (Freiburg, 1994). [sh/erh]

 

In preparation for the Jubilee Year 2000, the Apostolic letter Tertio millennio adveniente of November 10, 1994, called on the regional churches of the world to compile collections of documentation on the men and women of the 20th century who suffered and died for their Christian beliefs. The three closely related collections reviewed here are a result of the project initiated by the German Bishops' Conference in 1995. Zeugen für Christus amounts to a biographical dictionary of over 700 martyrs. Qualifications for inclusion are based on the canonization criteria issued in the 18th century by Pope Benedict XIV and amended in 1983. Published hastily in time for the millennium and reissued in a second, revised edition shortly thereafter, the work is divided into four sections: (1) Martyrs of the National Socialist Era (1933-1945); (2) Martyrs of the Communist Era (1917-); (3) Purity Martyrs (20th century); and (4) Martyrs from the Mission Regions. Part 1 is by far the largest, encompassing 900 pages; the others are around 100 pages each. The articles, written by 135 contributors, are headed with the person's name, diocese, birth and death dates and places, and a portrait if available. A biographical narrative follows, emphasizing the circumstances of the martyrdom. The length of the articles varies according to the source material available; eyewitness accounts are provided wherever possible. A list of the individual's writings is added if available. Sources and secondary literature are cited at the end of the articles. Indexes of martyrs' names and of places are included.

The second title, Die katholischen deutschen Märtyrer des 20. Jahrhunderts, was originally the initial volume of the 1999 edition of Zeugen. In addition to an introductory chapter it contains the biographical data that head the articles in the work above, supplemented by date of ordination, but omits the narratives. It includes indexes of martyr names and places of birth and death.

Blutzeugen der Erzdiözese München und Freising is an excerpt from Zeugen covering martyrs from the Bavarian diocese during the Nazi era: three priests and 17 lay persons. The biographies appear to have been used unchanged, but better pictures were sometimes added. An essay on the Munich/Freising diocese in the Nazi era by Georg Schwaiger provides an introduction. [sh/hh]

 

Just eight years after publication of the first volume of the newly revised Lexikon, the eleventh and concluding volume has appeared. Its introduction notes that the entire set contains some 26,000 entries by 4,150 contributors. The present volume contains, in addition to two pages of corrections to the earlier volumes, additional articles on such newly emerging topics as "globalization," a topical index, an author index, and a list of abbreviations (this last replacing a supplement issued with volume 1). The topical index includes entries for article headings and cross references for variant names of persons discussed.

Many topics covered in earlier volumes are already being repackaged in the open series Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche kompakt, the first two volumes of which are reviewed below (see RREA 7:73). [sh/gw]

 

Word processing has opened up many possibilities for publishers to extend the life of reference works. Not only can books be put on CD-ROM, but they can also be excerpted and republished as shorter, thematically based works with updated bibliographies, or, as in the case of this unnumbered series, new articles can be added, or shorter articles integrated into existing articles, along with the newer bibliographies.

The Lexikon der Kirchengeschichte contains 320 articles, in which "the wealth of information of the main work [was] brought together in large headword entries." Nonetheless, the length of the articles varies a great deal. The longest, dedicated to countries ("Germany" with 45 columns, "Italy" with 25), also take up the most space. The other two types of entries treat classic themes and events such as Reformation, and terms associated with the "system," like Papsttum (papacy) and Mönchtum (monastic orders). Individual orders and personal names are not given entries. Unfortunately, there is no name index. Terms with their own entries in LThK but not in this work are indexed with reference to the articles that have subsumed them. Articles contain bibliographies updated to 2001.

The Lexikon der Päpste und des Papsttums, which appears as the first volume in the series, is divided into a section on individuals and a subject section, both arranged alphabetically. The selections in the latter are unconvincing (nothing on the Petruskirche [St. Peter's Basilica], but long entries on the Petrusgrab [St. Peter's grave] and the arguably obscure Campo Santo Teutonico [German Cemetary]). The former section has a good deal of competition, as the work's own bibliography suggests. Although the bibliography names Bray's excellent Enciciopedia dei papi (2000), individual article bibliographies do not always refer to it, even when they ought to. The subject part does not lack for competition, either, such as Niccolo del Re's Vatikanlexikon (IFB 99-B09-049), which is not mentioned in the bibliography.

Who will buy the volumes in this series? Certainly not libraries that already own the third edition of the LThK, since the amount of new information, even in the updated bibliographies, does not warrant purchase. Maybe students and interested nonspecialists who cannot afford the LThK will be interested, but even these readers might do better to wait for the probably inevitable special edition, or a future CD-ROM edition. [sh/rb]

 

This work represents a considerable effort in collating and analyzing statistics of religious participation that were collected by all German Protestant churches from approximately the middle of the 19th century to the Second World War, particularly for the period 1880 to 1930 (for which the most complete statistics exist). The statistics are based primarily on six indicators: (1) communion statistics, (2) baptism statistics, (3) marriage statistics, (4) burial statistics, (5) change of faith or denomination statistics, and (6) church elections statistics. The editors believe these data provide unique source material for the "history of modern society and the changes in its religious practices." The detailed statistics, which track numbers of people involved in traditional practices of the Protestant church, provide a "solid quantitative basis" for research about the importance of religion in people's lives during the given period.

The heftiness of the work's four volumes testifies to the mass of statistics assembled. Detailed maps have been constructed on the basis of the available data for various time periods. In addition, the editors have used charts, graphs, and diagrams to display the results of their statistical analysis. [sh/akb]