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[German Version] The concept of duty found its most prominent formulation in I. Kant's ethics. However, along with the concepts of the virtues and goods, it has always (Stoics, Cicero) belonged t…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Philosophy – III. Dogmatics – IV. Ethics – V. Practical Theology I. Religious Studies …

[German Version] For reasons of principle pertaining to the foundations of ethical theory, the acute experiencing of a so-called “conflict of duty” can only be acknowledged and taken up by theory through the conceptions of a specific type of ethics, while the majority of ethical systems are bound to classify it as something that merely appears to be a conflict. This has to do with the fact that the concept of duty unfolds the paradigm of the tasks which our exist…

[German Version] In its broadest sense, the variously used notion of “competence” refers to the ability to lead a responsible and self-determined life in all practical aspects of one's conduct of life. Basic competence, however, manifests itself only belatedly and indirectly in outwardly discernible actions, so-called “performance” (Noam Chomsky).…

[German Version] I. Social Ethics – II. Law – III. Practical Theology and Education I. Social Ethics Mediation (Lat. mediatio) strives for nonjudicial conflict resolution between disputing parties through the reconciling work of neutral third parties, who, in the course of their moderating and de-escalating activity, seek to activate the potentials for conflict resolution that are present but hidden in the disputing parties. Mediation aims at ag…

[German Version] For long periods of time, the word competence (or competency) denoted a person's means of subsistence. From the 17th century onward, it has been used systematically in its technical legal sense ¶ of responsibility or jurisdiction and has become a standard technical administrative term in the context of the modern state with its division of functions. Competence defines the responsibilities and mandates of organs of state, agencies, and other administrative bodies – including private entities such as businesses, associations, and other administrative units –, thus promoting clear regulation of a body's complex administration, especially with regard to d…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. History of Scholarship – III. Ancient Near East – IV. Old Testament and Early Judaism – V. New Testament – VI. Philosophy of Religion – VII. Christianity – VIII. Liturgical Practice – IX. Ethics…

[German Version] A state system is the external structure of state governance and the external organization of the execution of governance. The Aristotelian system has influenced all later theories. It arranges the forms of state according to the number of rulers – one ruler, a few rulers, or many rulers (Arist. Pol. 1278b - 1301a). All of these forms of state face the alternative of either ¶ …

[German Version] I. Terminology Both the name of the academic discipline and the understan…

[German Version] ( restitutio) is the removal of damage to another’s property by compensation, replacement or reimbursement. In general, the one guilty of the damages or his or her legal successor (cf. the German-Israeli restitution agreement) owes compensation to the one damaged or his legal successor. In a few areas of life part…

[German Version] The ethics of duty or deontological ethics (Deontology) offers a systematic presentation of the internal logic of rational action and the regular interdependencies between actions and differs in this way from a teleological ethics oriented toward the result of the action (Ethics of goods). The reference point of systematization, in this regard, is either (a) a purely formal reason, conceived a-historically – as transcending the boundaries of all systems of ethics oriented by inclinations and interests -, so that the ethics of duty develops the conditions for the possibility of an inherently non-contradictory, historically indifferent sphere of free rational actions (I. Kant, Categorical imperative) and, to this degree, is able to demand the assent of every rational being; or (b) an ultimate reason subject to a historical process of formation, so that the ethics of duty states, descriptively and not prescriptively, its presentation only from the perspective of a standpoint that has become historical and – only in this sense! – contingent, but which, under certain circumstances, can recognize that in it the perfection of human reason is present. Agreement with this kind of ethics of duty can, then, however, be no longer expected through appeal to its formal logicality, but can appear to be only contingent on the foundation of an inaccessible certainty of the truth of the finite concept of reason defined in terms of content. In general ethical discourse, a Kantian ethics of duty predominates, although, in place of an emphatic concept of reason, …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Bible – III. Dogmatics – IV. Ethics I. Religious Studies While (re)conciliation as an instrument for reaching an amicable settlement in a lawsuit has echoes of the legal ¶ dimension of expiation, the meaning of …

[German Version] (tutiorism). The term probabilism (Lat. probabilis) denotes in ethics a theory about conflict situations in which no morally preferable decision can be taken within the scope of absolutely incontestable and unambiguous convictions, but only on the basis of merely probable principles. Probabilism is developed either as a theory for solving individual and strictly limited problematical cases, where there is a lack of clarity as to which ethical principles should be adduced, or it is assu…

[German Version] In the biological sense, the term “life form” can refer to any conceivable form of life (plant, animal or human); however in the narrower anthropological or ethical sense, the more appropriate expression is “form of life,” which serves as an umbrella term for the various manifestations of specifically human life. The term is used in the latter sense, which is also the sense in which it is used (as …

[German Version] I. Concept The term revolution (from Lat. revolvere, “turn over”) denotes a sudden qualitative change of existing circumstances and processe…

[German Version] is the absolute (Death) or partial (e.g. divorce) loss of a person’s possibilities for shaping his or her relationship with another person or a complex web of relationships (Interaction). Separation can be ¶ incurred without any active involvement or brought about deliberately, but it never nullifies the fact of having once been in a mutual relationship. Even the absolute separation of death does not erase the former relationship totally but merely transforms it. Death does put an absolute and final end to all on…

[German Version] At an essential level, humans rely on cooperation with other humans. In a broad sense, an exchange takes place – whether consciously or not – in any interaction (exchange of ideas, affections, or animosities). In this sense, exchange is the experiential participation and sharing of the interactants in their individual personal lives. In a more restricted sense, i…

[German Version] Social ethics deals with the proper ordering (Order) of human coexistence – as intended, because it respects the transcendental conditions of the conditio humana. It is the indispensable counterpart to individual ethics, which examines the intended form of an individual’s life praxis. Since both social and individual ethics seek to unravel the ethical implications of one and the same transcendental concept of the conditio humana, they cannot be at odds within a single fundamental anthropological conception. Conflict can arise only between diff…

[German Version] I. Church History – II. Dogmatics – III. Ethics I. Church History The term “enthusiasts” ( Schwärmer) is not a historiographic category but a theologically evaluative term for a type of piety that by false appeal to the Holy Spirit (Spirit/Holy Spirit) pays inadequate regard to the …

[English Version] . Das bedrängende Erleben einer sog. P. kann aus prinzipiellen Gründen, welche die Grundlegung der ethischen Theoriebildung betreffen, nur von Konzeptionen eines bestimmten Ethiktyps anerkannt und in der Theorie aufgegriffen werden, während er von der Mehrzahl als eine nur scheinbare Kollision aufgefaßt werden muß. Warum? Antwort: Der Begriff der Pflicht entfa…