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Petra

(Encyclopedia)Petra pēˈtrə [key], ancient city, in present-day Jordan, known to the Arabs as Wadi Musa for the stream that flows through it. A narrow, winding pass between towering walls leads to the flat, open ...

reading, mental process

(Encyclopedia)reading, process of mentally interpreting written symbols. Facility in reading is an essential factor in educational progress, and instruction in this basic skill is a primary purpose of elementary ed...

Mainz

(Encyclopedia)Mainz mīnts [key], city (1994 pop. 185,487), capital of Rhineland-Palatinate, W Germany, a port on the E bank of the Rhine River opposite the mouth of the Main River. Its French name, also sometimes ...

Pan-Slavism

(Encyclopedia)Pan-Slavism, theory and movement intended to promote the political or cultural unity of all Slavs. Advocated by various individuals from the 17th cent., it developed as an intellectual and cultural mo...

Freemasonry

(Encyclopedia)Freemasonry, teachings and practices of the secret fraternal order officially known as the Free and Accepted Masons, or Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Because of its identification with 19th-cent...

Spinoza, Baruch

(Encyclopedia)Spinoza, Baruch or Benedict spinōˈzə [key], 1632–77, Dutch philosopher, b. Amsterdam. Politically, Spinoza and Hobbes again share assumptions about the social contract: Right derives from p...

theology

(Encyclopedia)theology thēŏlˈəjē [key], in Christianity, the systematic study of the nature of God and God's relationship with humanity and with the world. Although other religions may be said to have theologi...

Saxe-Weimar

(Encyclopedia)Saxe-Weimar săks-vīˈmär [key], Ger. Sachsen-Weimar, former duchy, Thuringia, central Germany. The area passed in the division of 1485 to the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty and remained wit...

Brahms, Johannes

(Encyclopedia)Brahms, Johannes brämz, Ger. yōhänˈnĕs bräms [key], 1833–97, German composer, b. Hamburg. Brahms ranks among the greatest masters of the romantic period. The son of a musician, he early showed...

German literature

(Encyclopedia)German literature, works in the German language by German, Austrian, Austro-Hungarian, and Swiss authors, as well as by writers of German in other countries. The postwar decades saw a gradual litera...