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1. BegriffDer Begriff D. (von griech. diakonía, »(Kirchen-)Dienst«) war vor dem 19. Jh. im kirchlichen Bereich nicht gebräuchlich, da er sich seit der alten Kirche eng mit demjenigen des Diakons verband. Dieser hatte zwar ursprünglich die Zuständigkeit für die Armenfürsorge in den Gemeinden besessen, war aber seit der Spätantike mehr und mehr in die klassische Ämterstruktur Bischof – Presbyter – Diakon eingeordnet worden (Amt) und bezeichnete schließlich einen nachrangigen Priester. Die Reformation, v. a. in ihrer lutherischen Ausprägung, behielt diese Bedeutung weitgehend bei. Die v…

1. ConceptThe term diaconal welfare (from Greek diakonía, “(church) service”) was not widely used in ecclesiastical contexts before the 19th century because since early Christianity the word “diaconal” had been closely related to the term deacon. Although the deacon was originally responsible for poor relief in the congregation, from Late Antiquity the position became chiefly defined as part of the classical hierarchy of bishop, presbyter, and deacon (Office), and ultimately it came to mean nothing more than a junior priest. The Reformation, especially Lutheranism, largely preserved this meaning. Sporadic attempts to revive the deaconship of the early church (e.g. by Johannes Bugenhagen) did not succeed. Only in the reformed tradition (Calvinism) was the deacon, a non-theologian and member of the congregation leadership, made responsible for the supervision, but not the practical running of poor relief. Rather than diaconal welfare, therefore, it seems better at this stage to speak of church poor relief in the sense of caring for the weak of society in the congregation or the community of the early modern town, in which at first the Christian community an…