Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

cardinal, in the Roman Catholic Church

(Encyclopedia)cardinal [Lat.,=attached to and thus “belonging to” the hinge], in the Roman Catholic Church, a member of the highest body of the church. The sacred college of cardinals of the Holy Roman Church i...

Derrida, Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Derrida, Jacques zhäkˈ dĕrˌrēdäˈ [key], 1930–2004, French philosopher, b. El Biar, Algeria. A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, he taught there and at the Sorbonne, the Éc...

Greenspan, Alan

(Encyclopedia)Greenspan, Alan, 1926–, American economist, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board (1987–2006), b. New York City. Influenced by the philosophy of Ayn Rand, Greenspan is a strong supporter of the fr...

Pharisees

(Encyclopedia)Pharisees fârˈĭsēz [key], one of the two great Jewish religious and political parties of the second commonwealth. Their opponents were the Sadducees, and it appears that the Sadducees gave them th...

Trent, Council of

(Encyclopedia)Trent, Council of, 1545–47, 1551–52, 1562–63, 19th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, convoked to meet the crisis of the Protestant Reformation. Earlier efforts at reforming the ch...

Diophantus

(Encyclopedia)Diophantus dīəfănˈtəs [key], fl. a.d. 250, Greek algebraist. He pioneered in solving a type of indeterminate algebraic equation where one seeks integer values for the unknowns; work in this field...

Ebionites

(Encyclopedia)Ebionites ēˈbēənītsˌ, ĕbˈē– [key] [Aramaic,=poor], Jewish-Christian sect of rural ancient Palestine, of the first centuries after Jesus. There were two groups, according to Origen. The Juda...

Clichy

(Encyclopedia)Clichy klēshēˈ [key], suburb N of Paris, Hauts-de-Seine dept., N central France. It is a m...

Clotilda, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Clotilda, Saint klətĭlˈdə [key], d. 545, Frankish queen. She converted her husband, Clovis I, to Christianity and built with him in Paris the Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul, later renamed (...

Frazee, John

(Encyclopedia)Frazee, John frāˈzē [key], 1790–1852, American pioneer sculptor, b. Rahway, N.J. Without formal instruction, he advanced from tombstone cutting to portrait busts, including those of Daniel Webste...

Browse by Subject