In:
Historische Zeitschrift, Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Vol. 301, No. 3 ( 2015-12-30), p. 593-625
Abstract:
According to the written record foundations can be traced back to roughly 3000 B. C. and were found in Babylon and Egypt. They originally served the cult, or more precisely the nourishment, of the gods as well as the provision of ancestors in the post-mortal state. Beginning from the time of the so-called Axial Age, according to Karl Jasper around the middle of the first millennium B. C., endowments involved people, that is the founder himself or beneficiaries designated by him in the spirit of philanthropy. The monotheistic religions of the Near East, which in this respect were perhaps influenced by Persian Zoroastrianism, developed an extremely successful type of foundation, namely the foundation for salvation. This appeared alongside or replaced the older foundations for the soul, which were essentially meant to support one’s continuing existence in the afterlife and aimed at an enhanced and blissful form of existence through the mercy of or closeness to God. The second universal historical caesura for foundations was brought about by modernity, by removing the religiously-motivated motivation for the lasting purpose of the endowment. The „operative“ or „provisional endowments“ of the present, essentially an American innovation, have parted ways with a millennia-old interpretation, in order to meet the requirements of inexorable societal and cultural change.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2196-680X
,
0018-2613
DOI:
10.1515/hzhz-2015-0460
Language:
English
Publisher:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Publication Date:
2015
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2052403-1
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2450857-3
detail.hit.zdb_id:
120689-8
SSG:
0
SSG:
1
SSG:
8
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