Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Augustenburg, Christian Augustus, Herzog von: see Schleswig-Holstein. ...

(Encyclopedia) Pentecost pĕnˈtəkôst [key] [Gr.,=fiftieth], important Jewish and Christian feast. The Jewish feast of Pentecost, in Hebrew Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, one of the three pilgrimage festivals, arose...

(Encyclopedia) Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), sometimes called Campbellites, a Protestant religious body founded early in the 19th cent. in the United States. Its primary thesis is that the Bible alone shou...

(Encyclopedia) Haugwitz, Christian August Heinrich, Graf von hīnˈrĭkh gräf fən houkˈvĭts [key], 1752–1832, Prussian foreign minister (1802–4, 1805–6). In 1805, after the French victory at Austerlitz, Ha...

(Encyclopedia) tropical year, time between successive vernal equinoxes; 365 days, 5 hr, 48 min, 46 sec of mean solar time (see solar time). The tropical year is the basis of the year used in the Gregorian calendar. ...

(Encyclopedia) flagellants flăjˈələnts, fləjĕlˈənts [key], term applied to the groups of Christians who practiced public flagellation as a penance. The practice supposedly grew out of the floggings administe...

(Encyclopedia) Sibelius, Jean Julius Christian zhän yo͞oˈlyo͝os krĭsˈtyän sĭbāˈlyo͝os [key], 1865–1957, Finnish composer. Sibelius was a highly personal, romantic composer, yet at the same time he repre...

(Encyclopedia) Südhof, Thomas Christian, 1955–, German-American biochemist. M.D., b. Göttingen, Germany, Ph.D. Georgia Augusta Univ., Göttingen, 1982. Südhof joined the faculty at the Univ. of Texas Southweste...

(Encyclopedia) apostolic succession, in Christian theology, the doctrine asserting that the chosen successors of the apostles enjoyed through God's grace the same authority, power, and responsibility as was conferre...

(Encyclopedia) New Year's Day, among ancient peoples the first day of the year frequently corresponded to the vernal or autumnal equinox, or to the summer or winter solstice. In the Middle Ages it was celebrated amo...