Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Ibn Tufayl

(Encyclopedia)Ibn Tufayl ĭˈbən to͞ofālˈ [key], d. 1185/86?, 12th-century Spanish-Arab philosopher and physician, b. near Granada. His chief work was a philosophical romance, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, describing the de...

Pew Charitable Trusts

(Encyclopedia)Pew Charitable Trusts, philanthropic foundation established (1948) by the children of Sun Oil Company founder Joseph N. Pew (1886–1963) of Philadelphia to provide funds for “general religious, cha...

Thomson, Sir John Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Thomson, Sir John Arthur, 1861–1933, Scottish naturalist and writer. From 1899 to 1930 he was Regius professor of natural history at the Univ. of Aberdeen. In 1924 he lectured at Union Theological S...

Thwing, Charles Franklin

(Encyclopedia)Thwing, Charles Franklin twĭng [key], 1853–1937, American educator and Congregational clergyman, b. New Sharon, Maine, grad. Harvard, 1876, and Andover Theological Seminary, 1879. Until 1890 he ser...

Baha'i

(Encyclopedia)Baha'i bähäˈē, –hīˈ, bə– [key], religion founded by Baha Ullah (born Mirza Huseyn Ali Nuri) and promulgated by his eldest son, Abdul Baha (1844–1921). It is a doctrinal outgrowth of Babis...

Cabiri

(Encyclopedia)Cabiri kəbīˈrī [key], in ancient religion of the Middle East, nature deities of obscure origin, possibly Phoenician. They were connected with several fertility cults, particularly at Lemnos and at...

deists

(Encyclopedia)deists dēˈĭsts [key], term commonly applied to those thinkers in the 17th and 18th cent. who held that the course of nature sufficiently demonstrates the existence of God. For them formal religion ...

apostasy

(Encyclopedia)apostasy, in religion: see heresy. ...

Neander, Johann August Wilhelm

(Encyclopedia)Neander, Johann August Wilhelm yōˈhän ouˈgo͝ost vĭlˈhĕlm nāänˈdər [key], 1789–1850, German theologian and church historian. Of Jewish parentage, he became a Lutheran (1806), changing his...

Bellah, Robert Neelly

(Encyclopedia)Bellah, Robert Neelly bĕlˈə [key],1927–2013, American sociologist and educator. He was educated at Harvard (Ph.D., 1955) and taught there before becoming Elliot professor of sociology at the Univ...