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[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. Judaism – IV. New Testament – V. Historical and Systematic Theology– VI. Practical Theology I. Religious Studies From the perspective of religious studies, blessing and curse are dense, complex terms, hard to summarize in a single concept that would include every religious symbol system. They should not be thought of primarily as opposites but as parallel polyvalent ter…

[German Version] I. General – II. Latin America, Asia and Africa I. General Catechumenate is a term, derived from Gk κατήχειν/ katḗchein as used by Paul (e.g. Gal 6:6), for the institution through which the church, with reference to baptism, forges the necessary link between Christian faith and learning. It is found, after precursors in the scholarly Latin of the 16th and 17th centuries, in the early 19th century as a term for Early Church instruction, but it then quickly became the designation for programs of catechesis and church reform (Henkys). 1. Early Church baptismal catechu…

[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. Concept – II. Philosophy – III. Greco-Roman Antiquity – IV. Bible – V. Church History – VI. Ethics – VII. Practical Theology and Pedagogy – VIII. Judaism – IX. Islam I. Concept Traditionally, “education” has denoted the intentional interaction of adults with the younger generation in order-usually-to influence them positively; whether it makes sense to speak of education when negative goals are deliberately pursued is …

[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. General Background and History – II. Practical Theology – III. Orthodox Church I. General Background and History The church year – like church art, architecture, etc. – is one of the great cultural products of the Christian faith. It attempts to give cultural form to the gospel by means of the human perception of time. It thus stands alongside other attempts to cultivate the experience and perception of time, and to structure it meaningfully. As a sign of salvation…

[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] 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. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Medieval and Modern Judaism – V. The Law – VI. History and Sociology – VII. Social Ethics – VIII.  Socialization Theory – IX. Education – X. Practical Theology I. Religious Studies The term family describes a varied network of relationships between parents, children and other persons in a social system. In ethnically shaped small-scale societies, family groups are bearers of religious rituals (Rite and Ritual) and centers of religious community. Fa…

[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. 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] (May 8, 1858, Eibenstock, Saxony – Aug 1, 1912, Halle an der Saale). In 1894, after several years of parish ministry, Drews was appointed associate professor of pastoral theology at Jena; in 1901 he was appointed professor at Giessen and in 1908 at Halle. He was a cofounder of Die Christliche Welt (1887); his initial work was in church history, especially historical liturgics. Together with F. Niebergall and O. Baumgarten, he championed reform of “impractical practical theology.” In his programmatic Das Problem der praktischen Theologie. Zugleich ein …

[German Version] The term piety, from Lat. pietas, largely synonymous with Gk εὐσέβεια/ eusébeia, OHG and Gothic fruma, and modern Ger. Frömmigkeit stands on the borderline between ethics and religion. It denotes an obedient and respectful attitude toward a person or object, usually considered a positive trait. Today it is often reduced to a person’s attitude toward the departed. A shift of meaning is already visible in Latin: on the one hand, pietas denotes behavior in the interpersonal sphere, especially toward one’s parents (Cic. Partitiones oratoriae 78; De inventione 2.66); on…

[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. History of Religion – II. Church History – III. Practical Theology – IV. Liturgics – V. Law – VI. Orthodox Church – VII. Judaism – VIII. Islam I. History of Religion In Christendom marriage was considered a secular act until well into the Middle Ages, before it was declared a sacrament in 1184. Many religions view marriage as a religious duty, and nuptial rites (Rites of passage; see III below) often have sacral character, but civil marriages are also obligatory in certain countries. Regulations gover…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies People and nationhood are functional political terms that serve to define a collective entity and to incorporate it into a specific context (see III below). Only since the 18th century has it been possible to speak of a German nation as the active subject of its own history. The rupture of the church at the Reformation and the subsequent wars of religion in the 16th and 17th century long prevented the development of an inclusive political or religious identity. It …

[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] 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] I. Terminology The German word Gottesdienst (“worship,” lit. “service of God”) is attested since the 13th/14th century as a German translation of Latin cultus (Cult/Worship). It came into common use in the 16th century, especially in Luther’s works. Starting with an ethical understanding of the word, Luther himself used it as a technical term for the common celebration of the Word of God, as it evolved from the evangelical reform of the Catholic sacrifice (IV) of the mass. For centuries the term Gottesdienst remained limited to this specific form of worship of …

[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] 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. Terminology The growing popularity of the term spirituality and its equivalents in other Western languages in religious and theological literature is a 20th-century phenomenon. Although the adjective spiritalis (or spiritualis) appeared in early Christian Latin, translating Pauline πνευματικός/ pneumatikós (1 Cor 2:13–3:1, etc.), along with its antonym carnalis (for σαρκικός/ sarkikós) and rapidly became common, the noun spiritualitas did not appear until the 5th century and then only sporadically. In the 12th century, it began to app…

[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] 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…

[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…

[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…

[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] 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. History Religious education (RE) in schools, in modern usage of the term (for RE in a broader sense see Christian doctrine classes, Confirmation classes), is the result of the general differentiation process that led to the promotion of religious learning beyond the contexts of family and worship. The schools of the European cultural sphere arose largely in the area of the church (School and church, Church schools, Monastery schools); for a long time, schooling was essentially based on religious texts. Since each country established its own particular forms…

[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. New Testament – III. Church History – IV. Dogmatics – V. Practical Theology – VI. History of Liturgy – VII. Law – VIII. Missions – IX. Art I. History of Religion From the standpoint of the history of religion, baptism is not a general type of rite (Rite and ritual) but a lustration ritual that is carried out not only in Christianity but also in historically related religions such as …

[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] 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…

[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 …