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[German Version] I. Religious Studies Piety (recently often also “spirituality”) is understood, first, as the forms of expression of lived religiosity; research in this area is particularly the subject of folklore studies and church history for the idividual, secondly, piety has to do with particular qualities of feeling, such as reverence, with which the psychology of religion (Gruehn, Sundén) is concerned. Objective and subjective components are combined in various ways in the historical developme…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Philosophy of Religion and Historical Theology – III. Philosophy – IV. Dogmatics – V. Practical Theology – VI. Ethics I. Religious Studies Perceptions of animate and inanimate nature, dreams, ecstasy, trance, and death, as well as sickness and physical sensation, and finally self-reflection and self-transcendence have led to highly diverse models for interpreting …

[German Version] I. Catholic Usage In the strict sense, a prelate is the spiritual leader (Bishop: III, 1; or priest) of a particular church (also occasionally called praesul or antistes at Vatican II) or other incardination community. In this sense, CIC/1983 speaks of a territorial prelate as the head of a territorial prelature (c. 370; formerly “free prelature”). In this case we have a particular church that is similar in many ways to a diocese but for specific ongoing reasons has not developed a full diocesan structure; it is head…

[German Version] I. Philosophy In philosophical usage, the term power is perhaps more protean than any other. Its spectrum of meanings extends from subtle influence to threat backed by naked violence; it therefore encompasses such diverse phenomena as intellectual and spiritual power, the modern media, the economy, technology, political institutions, and military might. These attributions are arbitrary until the ¶ term is defined more precisely. Power is defined too broadly as possession of technical or technological tools and the ability to employ them…

[German Version] is a tool for congregational development and growth (Church growth) that originated in North American churches and has been influential in parish life since 1900. On the basis of the biblical use of the term (e.g. 1 Cor 4:1; 1 Pet 4:10), an attempt is made to employ the gifts and talents of church members as effectively and efficiently as possible in the service of the gospel. The background of the conception is the problem of support for the Free churches in the United States. To…

[German Version] Wherever Christians assemble regularly, and with obligations, around word and sacrament, this social entity requires a mechanism of leadership responsible for doctrine, planning, and finances. In the NT, the question of the government (Cybernetics) of local congregations appears in the letters of Paul and in the Pastoral Epistels: προίστημι/ prohístēmi not only indicates the task of leadership, itself, but simultaneously implies care for the congregation and its individual members (e.g. 1 Cor 12:28; 1 Thess 5:12). …

[English Version] I. Katholisch Prälat (P.), im eigentlichen Sinn Bez. für den Oberhirten (Bischof [: III.,1.] oder Priester) einer Teilkirche (im Vaticanum II vereinzelt auch: Praesul, Antistes) oder eines Inkardinationsverbandes. In diesem Sinn kennt der CIC/1983 den Gebietsprälaten als Vorsteher einer Gebietsprälatur (c.370; früher »freie Prälatur«). Bei dieser handelt es sich um eine der Diöz. weitgehend angenäherte, aber wegen bestimmter dauerhaft bestehender Umstände nicht zur Vollform entwic…