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[German Version] I. Sociology and Social History First attested in the writings of R. Pannwitz ( Die Krisis der europäischen Kultur, 1917), the concept of postmodernism spans a wide spectrum of heterogeneous meanings, the extremes of which are marked, on the one hand, by the notion of a new age that is meant to follow upon the end of modernity, and on the other hand by conceptions of a reflexive radicalization of modern experiences of plurality. The rapid adoption of the concept since the 1970s began in North Amer…

[German Version] The expression “narrative preaching” arose in the 1970s as a programmatic concept in the context of various conceptions of narrative theology (Metz, Ritschl). Today, the expression is more often used analytically, to describe particular linguistic achievements of a type of preaching under its homiletical aspects (Homiletics). We may speak of narrative preaching where a whole sermon (or large parts of it) is shaped by the narrative form. This is not only external to a sermon but co…

[German Version] Although cultural research is able to look back on a long scholarly tradition, it has unmistakably gained in significance in the last 20 years. In the context of globalized and pluralistic societies, research on local cultures, but also cultures in a broader context, faces new challenges. Today, in this regard, cultural ¶ research itself is understood pluralistically: empirical, hermeneutic, semiotic, and ideological approaches have been developed. A common critique of certain restrictions on cultural research in the …

[German Version] can refer in a quite general sense to the language spoken in a particular ecclesiastical, theological, liturgical (Liturgical languages), or religious context. To that extent, a certain vagueness attaches to the term itself, whose semantic content can then only be determined more clearly through an analysis of its concrete use. Such analysis distinguishes strategically between descriptive, critical, and constructive levels, though in certain contexts all three levels may be interwoven. The expression is used descriptively when it describes …

[German Version] I. Philosophy Vision or intuition (Ger. Anschauung) is a fundamental concept of epistemology, denoting immediate access to an object of knowledge instead of knowledge mediated through concepts or deductions. For Plato, for example, ideas are grasped through such intuition or intellectual “vision” ( noein). Through the concept of visio intellectualis of Nicholas of Cusa (“Trialogus,” 38) and I. Kant’s concept of non-sensory intuition, which nevertheless “lies outside our cognitive faculty” ( KrV, B 307), intellectual intuition became a fundamental con…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies, Systematics – II. Academic Research Disciplines – III. History – IV. Christian Theology I. Religious Studies, Systematics 1. Methodology. In defining the relationship between art and religion from the perspective of religious studies, one cannot speak of a universal concept of art and religion on the phenomenal level. To do comparative work, however, sufficient abstract characteristics must be established as a tertium comparationis to enable a systematic examination of the relationship betwe…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies From the outset, religions are involved in processes of exchange with their (religious) environment. This structural relationship to the surrounding world finds expression in internal representations of what is “strange/alien/foreign” or “other” and is part of the self-reference of religious systems. Because other religions are often experienced as competing entities, in most traditions they represent a great challenge to the adherents’ own identity. Therefore re…

[German Version] 1. Philipp Karl Eduard (Jun 28, 1800, Berlin – Jun 20, 1877, Dresden) studied natural science and German language and literature in Breslau (Wrocław), Halle, and Berlin, encouraged by K. v. Raumer. From 1824 to 1861 he taught at various (private) schools and ¶ published works for teachers. In 1827 he received a doctorate from Erlangen on the basis of his work on mineralogy; in 1861 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the theological faculty of Breslau. After 1839 he devoted himself increasingly to hymnology, publishing …

1. Basic Considerations 1.1. Distinctions No systematic hermeneutical examination of miracles in the larger sense can avoid articulating exactly which elements are to be addressed as objective facts and which as part of the concept itself. Because arguments on the two sides can no longer be adduced in support of one another, the modes in which the two aspects are examined necessarily also diverge. The remaining conceptual content prompts even further distinctions, depending on whether one is dealing with a simple or a complex concept. Only simple concepts mu…