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[German Version] Technical colleges ( Fachschulen) were established in German-speaking Europe during the 19th century as a result of the “scientification of production” (Grüner, 248). Until c. 1890, senior technical colleges ( Fachhochschulen) could also be called technical colleges; since that time, the increasing differentiation of the educational system has narrowed the definition of technical colleges. The definition established on Oct 29, 1937, is still in effect: “Technical colleges are schools that provide training in a…

[German Version] The Synoptic Gospels explicitly report that Jesus blessed children (Mark 10:13– 16 parr.). Whether an early Christian practice lies behind this report is an open question (Hahn). Later, the pericope was naturally employed at the baptism of children (Baptism) and was also used for its theological legitimization (e.g. Luther in WA 17/II, 72–88; Calvin in CR 45, 534–536). Against the background of the theological critique of pedobaptism by K. Barth ( KD IV/4), recent pedagogical objections (Stuhlmann), and the emerging …

[German Version] (Jul 18, 1877, Berlin – Mar 13, 1963, Potsdam). Following theological studies in Berlin, during which he developed a lifelong attachment to the CVJM (YMCA equivalent), and after short temporary employments as a private tutor and curate, Le Seur was appointed mission inspector of the Berlin City Mission by A. Stoecker in 1905 and later became his successor. It was in the course of these activities – which were only interrupted by a military chaplaincy in Brussels during World War I…

[German Version] Church statistics record the measurable data of the church’s life and circumstances. Such statistics, in a preliminary stage, begin to appear in the 14th century, in the form of registers recording baptisms, marriages, and burials (Ministerial offices). In the Churches of the Reformation, too, we soon find church registers with similar entries. The beginning of modern statistics was signaled by the numerical recording of data to identify regularities (political arithmetic). As the…

[German Version] A family service in the narrower sense refers to a form of worship that generally replaces the normal Sunday morning church service (including children's church), is usually prepared and organized by a team, and focuses on special needs, problems, as well as on the hopes and joys of families. After initial precursors, especially in the German Democratic Republic (Eichenberg) and not least because of problems that had arisen with the children's service there, the concept of family services emerged the late 1960s and early 1970s i…

[German Version] I. Theology – II. Church Law – III. Practical Theology I. Theology Consecration (Ger. Einsegnung) is a theologically vague term of liturgical (or more specifically benedictional) practice. It denotes the public ceremony, with laying-on of hands, that communicates God's blessing to certain individuals at special times in their lives. Without being clearly distinguished from other forms of blessing, consecration today denotes primarily the blessing of ¶ young people at confirmation and of other members of the congregation at the beginnin…

[German Version] (Jan 12, 1788, Bremen – Aug 22, 1868, Bremen), Protestant clergyman. From 1814 he was associated with G. Menken ¶ at the Church of St. Martin in Bremen; in 1826 he succeeded Menken as pastor primarius. A man of great organizational ability, he founded and supported numerous associations, primarily for missionary and charitable purposes, and maintained numerous contacts (in Germany and abroad) in the revival movement (Revival/Revival movements). In 1861 he received honorary doctorates from Göttingen and Berlin. Christian Grethlein Bibliography K.H. Voigt, BBKL XI…

[German Version] The relationship between school and church reflects the relationship between church and state and current views in education or educational theory (Education, Theory of) and religion or theology – it is therefore subject to change and is subject to different regulations in different countries. In antiquity there were no schools for Christian children. The earliest emerged in monasteries, which – as the Prologus Regulae Benedicti (45) states – could be thought of as dominici scola servitii. Over time – initiated by the ¶ offering of children as oblates (I) – mona…

[German Version] Halieutica, derived from Mark 1:17 (Gk ἁλιεὺς ἀνϑρώπων/ halieús anthrṓpôn, “fisher of men”), was the term for a sub-discipline of practical theology in the 19th century. G.A.F. Sickel introduced it in 1829. Against the background of the loss of pastoral effectiveness, he wanted to establish a “science… that, with greater attention to the inner being of a person, would instruct young theologians in how one could win people for the Kingdom of God through preaching that followed the laws of …

[German Version] In areas where children are traditionally baptized shortly after birth, and where baptism is still effectively coterminous with social location, admission to the church is regarded as self-evident. Churches requiring so-called “believer's baptism” (or “credobaptism”) have also developed routines for church admission, for example in the form of blessing and presentation ceremonies or of a customary age for baptism, often without awareness of the a…

[German Version] The night (Day and night) has particular significance for the feeling of human beings and thus also for their religious practice (on the findings of the phenomenology of religion, see Reimbold). In all cultures, not only those without electricity, the night is a realm of ambivalent experience, in which – as the symbolic use of night demonstrates – anxiety and fear of the dark (Light and darkness) and destruction predominate, but, on the other hand, the stillness of the night, for …

[German Version] In education all instructional materials used by both teachers and learners are called media. But the emergence of the modern mass media has produced new challenges for pedagogics, which has led to the development of a specialized interdisciplinary field (and the founding of the Gesellschaft für Medienpädagogik und Kommunikationskultur, in 1984), related to both educational theory and communication theory and drawing on such disciplines as psychology and sociology as well. The his…

[German Version] I. Precursors – II. Beginnings in Germany – III. Conceptual Development – IV. Challenges and Innovations I. Precursors Given Jesus' attention to children (Mark 10:13–16 parr.), it is not surprising that in early Christian worship they often performed important duties, such as reading lessons or singing psalms (Bottermann). As early as the 11th century, and with increased frequency since the Reformation, besides the liturgical life of schools (School worship) – parti…

[German Version] refers to the scholarly discipline that uses statistical methods to ascertain the social contingency of moral and religiously relevant action. Having flourished in the second half of the 19th century, it soon declined in importance and occurs today, as a rule, only in the reduced form of criminal statistics. In the late 17th century, studies linked to mortality (J. Graunt, Observations on the Bills of Mortality, 1662) led to the discovery that human behavior can be measured by statistics. This realization was soon theologically interpreted in t…

[German Version] Parenthood denotes the common relationship of man and woman to their children, in which biological, social, and religious aspects need to be taken into account. Procreation by the two sexes has until now meant that everyone has a woman and a man as biological parents. Possible biotechnical intervention (clones) could change this in future, with as yet unforeseeable consequences. Human cultural determination means that the basic biological fact requires qualification. It is true th…

[English Version] Treviranus, Georg Gottfried (12.1.1788 Bremen – 22.8.1868 ebd.), ev. Theologe, ab 1814 mit G. Menken an der Bremer St. Martinikirche, ab 1826 dessen Nachfolger (Pastor primarius). Von großem Organisationstalent gründete und unterstützte er zahlreiche Vereine v.a. missionarischer und diakonischer Zielsetzung und unterhielt zahlreiche (auch internationale) Kontakte in der Erweckungsbewegung. 1861 D. h.c. (Göttingen und Berlin). Christian Grethlein Bibliography K.H. Voigt (BBKL 12, 1997, 474–479).

[English Version] Nacht, praktisch-theologisch. Der N. (Tag und Nacht) kommt für das Befinden der Menschen und damit auch deren rel. Praxis bes. Bedeutung zu (zum religionsphänomenologischen Befund s. Reimbold). Nicht nur in Kulturen ohne elektrischen Strom ist die N. ein ambivalent erfahrener Raum, wobei – wie nicht zuletzt die symbolische Verwendung von N. zeigt – die Angst vor Finsternis (Licht und Finsternis) und Zerstörung überwiegt, aber u.a. auch die Ruhe der N. als wohltuend empfunden werde…

[English Version] . Das Verhältnis von Sch. und K. spiegelt das Verhältnis von Kirche und Staat und die jeweiligen Auffassungen in Erziehung bzw. Pädagogik und in Rel. bzw. Theol. wider, unterliegt also dem Wandel und ist in einzelnen Ländern unterschiedlich geregelt. In der Antike gab es keine Sch. für christl. Kinder. Ein Beginn erfolgte in Klöstern, die – wie im Prologus Regulae Benedicti (45) formuliert – als »dominici scola servitii« gelten konnten. Im Laufe der Zeit entstanden hier – initiiert durch die Oblation von Kindern (Obla…

[English Version] Pietät, ein aus dem Lat. (pietas) stammender, sich weithin mit dem griech. ευ᾿σε´βεια/euse´beia und dem ahd.-gotischen »fruma« deckender Begriff auf der Grenze zw. Ethik und Rel., bez. eine – meist – positiv gesehene, gehorsame bzw. rücksichtsvolle Haltung zu einer Person, einem Gegenstand o. ä., heute v.a. auf das Verhältnis zu Verstorbenen reduziert. Schon im Lat. findet sich das Changieren im Bedeutungsgehalt: auf der einen Seite bez. pietas ein Verhalten im zwischenmenschlichen Bereich, bes. gegenüber den Eltern (Cic. Partiti…

[English Version] . Kirchl. S. dient der Erhebung der meßbaren Daten des kirchl. Lebens und mit ihm zusammenhängender Sachverhalte. – Vorstufen begegnen ab dem 14.Jh. in Form von Matrikeln, in denen Taufen, Trauungen und Beerdigungen (Kasualien) erfaßt sind. Auch in den reformatorischen Kirchen finden sich bald Kirchenbücher mit entsprechenden Aufzeichnungen. Am Anfang der modernen S. stand dann die zahlenmäßige Erfassung von Daten, um Gesetzmäßigkeiten auf die Spur zu kommen (Polit. Arithmetik). …