Search

[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…

[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…

[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…

[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] 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. 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…

Overview In Christianity, baptism—either by plunging in water or by sprinkling with it—represents the first act of incorporation “into Christ” and into the fellowship of the church. Further acts of incorporation are confirmation (Initiation Rites 2) and the Eucharist. Other religious societies have similar rites (Initiation Rites 1). Jewish proselyte baptism incorporates the baptized not only into the religious fellowship but also into God’s covenant people. This matter is relevant in the dialogu…