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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 erfuhr das K. v. a. im 4./5. Jh. Im Mittelpunkt stehen die drei österlichen T…

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…

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 …

[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 …

[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…

[German Version] In education all instructional materials used by both teachers and learners are called media. But the emergence of the modern mass media has produced new challenges for pedagogics, which has led to the development of a specialized interdisciplinary field (and the founding of the Gesellschaft für Medienpädagogik und Kommunikationskultur, in 1984), related to both educational theory and communication theory and drawing on such disciplines as psychology and sociology …

[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 spe…

[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. General Background and History – II. Practical Theology – III. Orthodox Church I. General Background and History …

[German Version] I. Precursors – II. Beginnings in Germany – III. Conceptual Development – IV. Challenges and Innovations I. Precursors Given Jesus' attention to children (Mark 10:13–16 parr.), it is not surprising that in early Christian worship they often performed important duties, such as reading lessons or singing psalms (Bottermann). As early as the 11th century, and with increased frequency …

[German Version] I. General – II. Social Mobility – III. Recreationa…

[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 religi…

[German Version] I. History and Practical Theology – II. Law I. History and Practical Theology …

[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 Evangelical Free Church …

[German Version] (May 8, 1858, Eibenstock, Saxony – Aug 1, 1912, Halle an der Saale). In 1894, after several years of parish ministry, Drews was appointed associate professor of pastoral theology at Jena; in 1901 he was appointed professor at Giessen and in 1908 at Halle. He was a cofounder of Die Christliche Welt (1887); his initial work was in church history, especially historical liturgics. Together with F. Niebergall and O. Baumgarten, he championed reform of “impractical practical theology.” In his programmatic …

[German Version] The term piety, from Lat. pietas, largely synonymous with Gk εὐσέβεια/ eusébeia, OHG and Gothic fruma, and modern Ger. Frömmigkeit stands on the borderline between ethics and religion. It denotes an obedient and respectful attitude toward a person or object, usually considered a positive trait. Today it is often reduced to a person’s attitude toward the departed. A shift of meaning is already visible in Latin: on the one hand, pietas denotes behavior in the interpersonal sphere, especially toward one’s parents (Cic. Partitiones oratoriae 78; De inventione 2.66); on…

[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. 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…

[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. Concept and Scope – II. Practical Theology I. Concept and Scope In its broad sense, the term media denotes all the material conditions that enable coexisting individuals (individual persons and social systems) to be effectively present to each other and to respond effectively. Media in this broad sense are the material conditions for intersubjectivity. Even archaic, undifferentiated societies are characterized by a – likewise…

[German Version] Technical colleges ( Fachschulen) were established in German-speaking Europe during the 19th century as a result of the “scientification of production” (Grüner, 248). Until c. 1890, senior technical colleges ( …

[German Version] The Synoptic Gospels explicitly report that Jesus blessed children (Mark 10:13– 16 parr.). Whether an early Christian practice lies behind this report is an open question (Hahn). Later, the pericope was naturally employed at the baptism of children (Baptism) and was also used for its theological legitimization (e.g. Luther in WA 17/II, 72–88; Calvin in CR 45, 534–536). Against the background of the theological critique of pedobaptism by K. Barth ( KD IV/4), recent pedagogical objections (Stuhlmann), and the emerging …

[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] (Jul 18, 1877, Berlin – Mar 13, 1963, Potsdam). Following theological studies in Berlin, during which he developed a lifelong attachment to the CVJM (YMCA equivalent), and after short temporary employments as a private tutor and curate, Le Seur was appointed mission inspector of the Berlin City Mission by A. Stoecker in 1905 and later became his successor. It was in the course of these activities – which were only interrupted by a military chaplaincy in Brussels during World War II – that he showed his great talent in addressing even church-alienated and communism-inclined young people during evening discussions. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the theological fac…

[German Version] I. Ethics – II. Practical Theology I. Ethics The Greek noun κρίσις/ krísis originally denoted the action derived from the verb κρίνειν/ krínein: (a) “sepa¶ ration, quarrel”; (b) “selection”; (c) “decision, judgment, verdict”; (d) “turning point (in a battle or disease)” (cf. also criticism, kairology). The adoption of the forensic sense in the LXX added a theological dimension to the term. In the NT, krísis stands for the verdict of the judge, the court of judgment, and especially the eschatological Divine Judgment, the ultimate separation of belief from unbelief (John 3:19; 5:24).…

[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] Church statistics record the measurable data of the church’s life and circumstances. Such statistics, in a preliminary stage, begin to appear in the 14th century, in the form of registers recording baptisms, marriages, and burials (Ministerial offices). In the Churches of the Reformation, too, we soon find church registers with similar entries. The beginning of modern statistics was signaled by the numerical recording of data to identify regularities (political arithmetic). As the…

[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 …

[German Version] refers to the scholarly discipline that uses statistical methods to ascertain the social contingency of moral and religiously relevant action. Having flourished in the second half of the 19th century, it soon declined in importance and occurs today, as a rule, only in the reduced form of criminal statistics. In the late 17th century, studies linked to mortality (J. Graunt, Observations on the Bills of Mortality, 1662) led to the discovery that human behavior can be measured by statistics. This realization was soon theologically interpreted in terms of statisticall…

[German Version] Parenthood denotes the common relationship of man and woman to their children, in which biological, social, and religious aspects need to be taken into account. Procreation by the two sexes has until now meant that everyone has a woman and a man as biological parents. Possible biotechnical intervention (clones) could change this in future, with as yet unforeseeable consequences. Human cultural determination means that the basic biological fact requires qualification. It is true th…

[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. Theology – II. Church Law – III. Practical Theology I. Theology …

[German Version] (Jan 12, 1788, Bremen – Aug 22, 1868, Bremen), Protestant clergyman. From 1814 he was associated with G. Menken ¶ at the Church of St. Martin in Bremen; in 1826 he succeeded Menken as pastor primarius. A man of great organizational ability, he founded and supported numerous associations, primarily for missionary and charitable purposes, and maintained numerous contacts (in Germany and abroad) in the revival movement (Revival/Revival movements). In 1861 he received honorary doctorates from Göttingen and Berlin. Christian Grethlein Bibliography K.H. Voigt, BBKL XI…

[German Version] The relationship between school and church reflects the relationship between church and state and current views in education or educational theory (Education, Theory of) and religion or theology – it is therefore subject to change and is subject to different regulations in different countries.…

[German Version] A family service in the narrower sense refers to a form of worship that generally replaces the normal Sunday morning church service (including children's church), is usually prepared and organized by a team, and focuses on special needs, problems, as well as on the hopes and joys of families. After initial precursors, especially in the German Democratic Republic (Eichenberg) and not least because of problems that had arisen with the children's service there, the concept of family services emerged the late 1960s and early 1970s i…

[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 particula…

[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

[German Version] Halieutica, derived from Mark 1:17 (Gk ἁλιεὺς ἀνϑρώπων/ halieús anthrṓpôn, “fisher of men”), was the term for a sub-discipline of practical theology in the 19th century. G.A.F. Sickel introduced it in 1829. Against the background of the …

[German Version] In areas where children are traditionally baptized shortly after birth, and where baptism is still effectively coterminous with social location, admission to the church is regarded as self-evident. Churches requiring so-called “believer's baptism” (or “credobaptism”) have also developed routines for church admission, for example in the form of blessing and presentation ceremonies or of a customary age for baptism, often without awareness of the a…

[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, …

[German Version] The night (Day and night) has particular significance for the feeling of human beings and thus also for their religious practice (on the findings of the phenomenology of religion, see Reimbold). In all cultures, not only those without electricity, the night is a realm of ambivalent experience, in which – as the symbolic use of night demonstrates – anxiety and fear of the dark (Light and darkness) and destruction predominate, but, on the other hand, the stillness of the night, for …

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…