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Bennett, Sir William Sterndale

(Encyclopedia)Bennett, Sir William Sterndale, 1816–75, English musician. Bennett was a friend of Mendelssohn and Schumann, both of whom influenced his work. Besides composing, he was active as a pianist and condu...

mercantilism

(Encyclopedia)mercantilism mûrˈkəntĭlĭzəm [key], economic system of the major trading nations during the 16th, 17th, and 18th cent., based on the premise that national wealth and power were best served by inc...

Quarles, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Quarles, Francis, 1592–1644, English poet. His best-known work is Emblems (1635), a book of moral and religious verse. Though not an ardent royalist, he wrote pamphlets during the Commonwealth uphol...

Kanonji

(Encyclopedia)Kanonji känōnˈjē [key], city (1990 pop. 45,500), Kagawa prefecture, E Shikoku, Japan, on the Hiuchi Sea. It is a religious center and agricultural market noted for its Kanonji (Buddhist) Temple. ...

culture

(Encyclopedia)culture, in anthropology, the integrated system of socially acquired values, beliefs, and rules of conduct which delimit the range of accepted behaviors in any given society. Cultural differences dist...

Krishnamurti, Jiddu

(Encyclopedia)Krishnamurti, Jiddu jĭdˈo͞o krĭshˌnəmo͝orˈtē [key], 1895–1986, Indian religious figure whose message centered on the need for maximum self-awareness. In 1909, Annie Besant met him and procl...

Bar Mitzvah

(Encyclopedia)Bar Mitzvah bärmĭtsˈvə [key] [Aramaic,=son of the Commandment], Jewish ceremony in which the young male is initiated into the religious community, according to tradition at the age of 13 years and...

Chaitanya

(Encyclopedia)Chaitanya chītŭnˈyə [key], 1485–1533, Indian mystic, also called Gauranga (“the Golden”). He was born of Brahman parents in Nabadwip, Bengal, a center of Sanskrit learning. As a young man he...

Hildegard of Bingen, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Hildegard of Bingen, Saint hĭlˈdəgärthˌ, bĭngˈən [key], 1098–1179, German nun, mystic, composer, writer, and cultural figure, Doctor of the Church, known as the Sibyl of the Rhine. An aristo...

Eliade, Mircea

(Encyclopedia)Eliade, Mircea mûrˈshə āˌlē-ädˈə [key], 1907–86, American philosopher and historian of comparative religion, b. Bucharest. He studied Indian philosophy and Sanskrit at the Univ. of Calcutta...