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[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. 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…

1. EinleitungDas G. (lat. oratio, preces), religionswissenschaftlich gesehen die »dialogische Zuwendung eines Menschen zu seinem Gott, um ihm das eigene Dasein in seiner Bedürftigkeit oder Zufriedenheit als den Wirkungsbereich ›dieses‹ Gottes darzustellen« [3. 32], ist eine grundlegende Kommunikationsform des Menschen. Das G. ist sowohl Ausdruck persönlich-individueller (privates G.) als auch institutionell organisierter Praxis (liturgisches G.; vgl. Gottesdienst), wobei beide Bereiche einander in den verschiedenen Religionen a…

1. IntroductionFrom the perspective of the academic study of religion, prayer (Latin  oratio, preces) is the “dialogical approach of an individual to his or her God, in order to represent their own existence to him in its neediness or satisfaction as the sphere of action of  this God” [3. 32]; it is a fundamental form of human communication. Prayer is an expression of both personal, individual practice (private prayer) and institutionally organized practice (liturgical prayer; see Worship). Both types of prayer influence and partially shape…

[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…

1. EinleitungDer Begriff K., wohl erstmals in der Postille des lutherischen Pfarrers Johannes Pomarius (Magdeburg 1585) bezeugt (s. u. 4.1.), bezeichnet den Jahreslauf der christl. Feste und Feiertage. Im Rhythmus von Woche und Jahr feiert die Kirche das Gedächtnis Jesu Christi (Herrenjahr) [1], wobei der Feier der Heiligengedenktage (Namenstag) sekundäre Bedeutung zukommt (Heiligenjahr).Kern und »Ursprung« ist der Sonntag, an dem in der Feier der Eucharistie (Gottesdienst) des zentralen Ostergeschehens gedacht wird (Wochenostern). Seine weitere Ausprägung erfu…

1. Introduction The term “church year,” probably first attested (as German Kirchenjahr) in the postil of the Lutheran pastor Johannes Pomarius (Magdeburg 1585) (see below, 4.1.), denotes the annual cycle of Christian festival and holiday. In the rhythm of the week and year, the church celebrates the memory of Jesus Christ (year of the Lord) [1], with the celebration of the saints’ days (Name day) taking a secondary role (year of the saints).The core and “origin” of the year was the Sunday on which the key events of Easter are celebrated (Passion Week) in the fe…

[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…

[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. 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. 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] 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 – 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. 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. 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] 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 …