Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Baptists, denomination of Protestant Christians holding a distinctive belief with regard to the ordinance of baptism. Since 1644 the name has been applied to those who maintain that baptism should be ...

(Encyclopedia) Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, nondenominational, coeducational Christian seminary; opened 1836, chartered 1839. Originally Presbyterian, Union Theological Seminary has been free ...

(Encyclopedia) Arminius, Jacobus ärmĭnˈēəs [key], 1560–1609, Dutch Reformed theologian, whose original name was Jacob Harmensen. He studied at Leiden, Marburg, Geneva, and Basel and in 1588 became a pastor a...

(Encyclopedia) Elzevir, Louis ĕlˈzəvər, –vēr [key], 1540–1617, Dutch printer and bookseller, whose name also appeared as Elsevier or Elzevier. He produced his first book at Leiden in 1583. Under his descend...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Delaware dĕlˈəwâr, –wər [key], one of the Middle Atlantic states of the United States, the country's second smallest state (after Rhode Island). It is bordered by Maryland (W, S), and th...

(Encyclopedia) Merian, Maria Sibylla märēˈä zĭbüˈlä māˈrēän [key], 1647–1717, German naturalist, entomologist, and painter of insects and flowers, b. Frankfurt; daughter of Matthäus Merian, the elder....

(Encyclopedia) North Holland, Dutch Noordholland nōrtˌhôˈlänt [key], province (1994 pop. 2,457,300), c.1,080 sq mi (2,800 sq km), NW Netherlands, a peninsula between the North Sea in the west and the Markermeer...

(Encyclopedia) Ruisdael or Ruysdael, Jacob van both: yäˈkōp vän roisˈdäl [key], c.1628–1682, Dutch painter and etcher, the most celebrated of the Dutch landscape painters. He studied with his father Isack an...

(Encyclopedia) John, three letters of the New Testament. Traditionally, they are ascribed to John son of Zebedee, the disciple of Jesus. All three letters probably date to the end of the 1st cent. a.d., and may have...

(Encyclopedia) McEwan, Ian (Ian Russell McEwan) məkyo͞oˈən [key], 1948–, English novelist, b. Aldershot, B.A. Univ. of Sussex, 1970, M.A. Univ. of East Anglia, 1971. His early short-story collections, First Lo...