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[German Version] I. Fundamental Theology Although proclamation is not a specifically religious term, it plays a central role in Christianity. Generally speaking, it is “a form of address in which what is proclaimed takes effect in the moment it is proclaimed” (K.E. Løgstrup, 1358). It goes together with communication and message. While the term message has more to do with the content of the address, proclamation focuses more on the process. The term communication interprets the process as an objective event, whereas the term proclamation includes its effect on the person addre…

[English Version] I. Kirchengeschichtlich 1.  Deutschland und Europa a)  Definition Der P. ist eine rel. Erneuerungsbewegung im Protestantismus  (: I.,1.) des späten 17.Jh. und des 18.Jh., neben dem angelsächsischen Puritanismus die bedeutendste rel. Bewegung seit der Reformation. Gleicherweise in der luth. wie in der ref. Kirche entstanden, löste sich der P. von der als totes Gewohnheitschristentum angesehenen, obrigkeitlich regulierten Gestalt des altprot. Kirchentums, drang auf Individualisierung und …

[German Version] I. Church History 1. Germany and Europe a. Definition. Pietism was a religious revival movement in late 17th- and 18th-century Protestantism (I, 1), alongside Anglo-Saxon Puritanism (Puritans) the most significant post-Reformation religious movement. Emerging within both the Lutheran and the Reformed churches, Pietism broke with orthodox Protestantism regulated by the authorities, which it perceived as a moribund Christianity of habit, pressed for an individualized and spiritualized rel…

[German Version] I. European Christian Churches – II. Churches Worldwide – III. Islam I. European Christian Churches 1. Catholic Church A division of the church into clergy and laity does not coincide with New Testament evidence. The designation “laity” derives from laikós, the adjective form of λαός/ laós, “people.” In the Septuagint (LXX), this term describes the people of Israel in contrast to the (pagan) nations. In all important passages in the NT, it describes the people of God consisting of believers and dis…

Overview The term “church growth” can refer to church renewal, church organizational and structural maturation, the empirically verifiable numerical growth of churches, and the theory of how and why churches grow or decline. The so-called church growth movement (see 5) began in the United States in the 1960s, although not everyone who studies the dynamics of church growth and decline would consider themselves part of this movement. Corresponding to Eng. “church growth” is Ger. Gemeindeaufbau, which to a large extent has become a programmatic word today in the German…