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[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] I. History and Practical Theology – II. Law I. History and Practical Theology Confirmation, understood here in a narrower sense as a rite in Protestant churches, has been interpreted and shaped differently. Today, it is common in almost all Protestant churches, even in families that are rather distanced from the church. The problems of confirmation already appeared in the Reformation period when confirmation began to develop as an independent rite in Protestant ch…

[German Version] I. Concept and Scope – II. Practical Theology I. Concept and Scope In its broad sense, the term media denotes all the material conditions that enable coexisting individuals (individual persons and social systems) to be effectively present to each other and to respond effectively. Media in this broad sense are the material conditions for intersubjectivity. Even archaic, undifferentiated societies are characterized by a – likewise undifferentiated – complex of media. Social differentiation leads to…

[German Version] I. Ethics – II. Practical Theology I. Ethics The Greek noun κρίσις/ krísis originally denoted the action derived from the verb κρίνειν/ krínein: (a) “sepa¶ ration, quarrel”; (b) “selection”; (c) “decision, judgment, verdict”; (d) “turning point (in a battle or disease)” (cf. also criticism, kairology). The adoption of the forensic sense in the LXX added a theological dimension to the term. In the NT, krísis stands for the verdict of the judge, the court of judgment, and especially the eschatological Divine Judgment, the ultimate separ…

[German Version] I. Practical Theology – II. Sociology I. Practical Theology Mass media, i.e. “all the institutions within society that employ technical means of duplication for the spreading of communication” (Luhmann, 10), have become a general prerequisite of public and private communication throughout the world. They represent non-personal media that usually exclude a direct, personally mediated interaction (III) between sender and receiver; however, computer technology enables the linking of various…

[English Version] I. Zum Begriff Praktische Theol. (P. Theol.) bez. heute – nach der bereits im MA üblichen allg. Rede von der Theol. als »practica«, im Gegensatz zur »speculativa« (z.B. Thomas von Aquin, Summa Theologiae, 1–1 q.4f.; dagegen WA.TR 153) o. ä. – eine im dt. Protestantismus zu Beginn des 19.Jh. entstandene Disziplin der akademischen Theol. Enzyklopädisch durch F. Schleiermacher zur »richtigen Verfahrensweise bei der Erledigung aller unter den Begriff der Kirchenleitung zu bringenden Au…

[German Version] I. General – II. Social Mobility – III. Recreational Mobility I. General Contrary to present appearances, for much of history human development was in the direction of increasing stability (settlement, social order, etc.), not mobility (from Lat. mobilis, “moveable”). Only since the French Revolution and industrialization has there been a substantial increase in mobility on many fronts, studied by various disciplines (sociology, history, economics, etc.). It makes sense at the outset to distinguish between social …

[German Version] I. In the United States – II. In Germany I. In the United States Marriage counseling in the United States can be clarified by making three distinctions: (1) counseling for engaged couples (pre-marital counseling) and married couples (marriage counseling); (2) counseling informed by the social sciences and purely theological counseling; (3) counseling that is primarily educational or remedial or curative in intent. Most marriage counseling today combines theological with social scientific perspectives. Conservative and liberal churches diff…

[German Version] I. Definition In the Middle Ages, it was common to call theology practica in contrast to speculativa (e.g. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I/I q. 4f.; but contrast Luther, ¶ WA.TR, 153). In German Protestantism today, the term practical theology ( Praktische Theologie) denotes a discipline within academic theology that was established in the early 19th century. Introduced encyclopaedically by F.D.E. Schleiermacher for the “proper approach to dealing with all the functions that come under the heading of church leadership” ( Kurze Darstellung des theologische…

1. EinleitungDas G. (lat. oratio, preces), religionswissenschaftlich gesehen die »dialogische Zuwendung eines Menschen zu seinem Gott, um ihm das eigene Dasein in seiner Bedürftigkeit oder Zufriedenheit als den Wirkungsbereich ›dieses‹ Gottes darzustellen« [3. 32], ist eine grundlegende Kommunikationsform des Menschen. Das G. ist sowohl Ausdruck persönlich-individueller (privates G.) als auch institutionell organisierter Praxis (liturgisches G.; vgl. Gottesdienst), wobei beide Bereiche einander in den verschiedenen Religionen a…

1. IntroductionFrom the perspective of the academic study of religion, prayer (Latin  oratio, preces) is the “dialogical approach of an individual to his or her God, in order to represent their own existence to him in its neediness or satisfaction as the sphere of action of  this God” [3. 32]; it is a fundamental form of human communication. Prayer is an expression of both personal, individual practice (private prayer) and institutionally organized practice (liturgical prayer; see Worship). Both types of prayer influence and partially shape…

[English Version] I. Begriff und akademisches Fach Die V. befaßt sich mit materiellen und sprachlichen Überlieferungen (z.B. Haus, Tracht, Mundart, Märchen), mit dem geistig-rel. Bereich des »einfachen Volkes« (Brauch, Frömmigkeit) sowie mit hist. und gegenwärtigen Phänomenen der Alltagskultur. Im Gegensatz zur Völkerkunde (Ethnologie) beschränkt sich die V. regional auf Europa. Die V. ist in ihrer Profilierungsphase wesentlich an der Schaffung von Mythen der Nation und von damit verbundener Identität…

[English Version] I. Evangelisch 1.  Begriff und Gegenstandsbereich. Religionspädagogik (RP), als Fachterminus erstmals 1889 bei Max Reischle (1858–1905), Schüler A. Ritschls, nachweisbar (Bockwoldt 9f.), erste Professur für (ev.) RP 1924 in Göttingen (Roggenkamp-Kaufmann 119f.), bez. »eine ›moderne‹ dt. Wiss. zw. Theol. und Pädagogik« (Grethlein, 1998, 1f.), wobei mittlerweile die Religionswissenschaft als dritte Bezugswiss. hinzutritt, inhaltlich die Theorie rel., christl. und kirchl. Bildung, Sozial…

[German Version] I. Protestantism 1. Concept and subject area Religionspädagogik (RP), as the German technical term designating the science of ¶ religious education or pedagogics, is first attested in 1889 in the writings of Max Reischle (1858–1905), a disciple of A. Ritschl (Bockwoldt, 9f.). The first professorship for (Protestant) RP was instituted in 1924 in Göttingen (Roggenkamp-Kaufmann, 119f.). The term denotes “a ‘modern’ German science situated between theology and educational theory (Education, Theory of)” …

[German Version] I. Church History – II. Practical Theology – III. Missions in the Free Churches I. Church History 1. General Free churches are non-established Protestant bodies in countries or regions where there is a Protestant state church or regional churches. The term is often used more loosely, however, and is liable to impose discontinuities through geographical or political changes which do not correspond to the heritage and sense of identity of particular religious communities. For example, the Evangelic…

[German Version] I. The Term and the Academic Discipline – II. Religious Studies – III. Social Science – IV. Practical Theology I. The Term and the Academic Discipline Folklore is concerned with material and linguistic traditions (e.g. dwellings, costumes, dialects, fairy tales), the spiritual and religious life of the “common people” (Customs, Piety), as well as with historical and contemporary phenomena of everyday culture. Unlike ethnology, folklore is regionally limited to Europe. During the formative stage, folklo…

1. EinleitungDer Begriff K., wohl erstmals in der Postille des lutherischen Pfarrers Johannes Pomarius (Magdeburg 1585) bezeugt (s. u. 4.1.), bezeichnet den Jahreslauf der christl. Feste und Feiertage. Im Rhythmus von Woche und Jahr feiert die Kirche das Gedächtnis Jesu Christi (Herrenjahr) [1], wobei der Feier der Heiligengedenktage (Namenstag) sekundäre Bedeutung zukommt (Heiligenjahr).Kern und »Ursprung« ist der Sonntag, an dem in der Feier der Eucharistie (Gottesdienst) des zentralen Ostergeschehens gedacht wird (Wochenostern). Seine weitere Ausprägung erfu…

1. Introduction The term “church year,” probably first attested (as German Kirchenjahr) in the postil of the Lutheran pastor Johannes Pomarius (Magdeburg 1585) (see below, 4.1.), denotes the annual cycle of Christian festival and holiday. In the rhythm of the week and year, the church celebrates the memory of Jesus Christ (year of the Lord) [1], with the celebration of the saints’ days (Name day) taking a secondary role (year of the saints).The core and “origin” of the year was the Sunday on which the key events of Easter are celebrated (Passion Week) in the fe…

[English Version] I. Geschichtlich Der Religionsunterricht (RU) an Schulen, und nur dieser ist entsprechend heutigem Sprachgebrauch im Blick (s. zu RU im weiteren Sinne Christenlehre, Konfirmandenunterricht), ist Resultat des allg. Differenzierungsprozesses, der zu Bemühungen um rel. Lernen auch außerhalb von Familie und Gottesdienst führte. Entsprechend der Entstehung von Schule im eur. Kulturkreis im kirchl. Bereich (Schule und Kirche, Schule, kirchliche, Klosterschulen) bestand lange Zeit der sc…