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[German Version] Linguistics, as an academic discipline with its own name, first established itself in universities at the beginning of the 19th century. In the early days, it was devoted to historical research into languages, particularly their development, and relationships between languages. While work on language up to the period of the Enlightenment was largely only a means to better understanding, particularly of biblical and classical philosophical texts, 19th-century philology was concerne…

[German Version] I. Terminology 1. The term subject has gone through many changes of meaning (Subject and object) throughout its history. Initially it did not refer to the category in the epistemological process that defines things and assigns them corresponding meanings; it included semantic features that today we often associate with the term object. 2. This understanding of the subject, which was definitive throughout the period of Scholasticism and beyond, was replaced by a contrary interpretation. In the controversy over the Cartesian cogito ergo sum, the subject came to b…

[German Version] Premises. Person-centered psychotherapy (also called client-centered or partner-centered) is related philosophically to Socratic maieutics and the psychological liberalism of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Theologically it rests primarily on Old and New Testament covenant traditions (the Jewish and Christian God as a God of relationship), soteriological arguments (actualization of justification in pastoral acceptance of a client), and precepts of Christian ethics: individuals are meant to live auton-¶ omously; if they are to do so, dialect…

[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Religious Studies – III. Fundamental Theology – IV. Ethics – V. Practical Theology I. Philosophy In the 20th century, philosophical issues were primarily treated as issues of language and communication. While Rorty spoke of a “linguistic turn,” and thereby focused on methodological innovations in theoretical philosophy, Apel and Habermas postulated an objective shift of paradigm from consciousness to communication that is meant to have revolutioni…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Semiotics, a discipline inaugurated primarily by C.S. Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure (see II and IV below), is the systematic analysis of signs (Gk σημεῖον/ sēmeíon) and the way the human mind perceives and understands them. A sign in the sense of semiotics can be any present physical or mental entity that is in a position to stand for an entity not present. A sign is constituted by the conjunction of two elements, the signifier and the signified. In religious studies, semiotics examin…

[German Version] I. General Preaching (from Lat. praedicare, “proclaim publicly”) is spiritual or religious speech, in contrast, for example, to forensic speech, political speech, or celebratory speech. Its setting is the worship of the community (Ministerial offices), church activities such as evangelism, devotions (Devotion [Attitude]), and ordinations (Consecration/Ordination/Dedication), and – in various forms – the media (see IV below). ¶ Communication in preaching, reduced to its basic elements, can be represented as a triangle of the preacher, th…