Kirche – Volk – Staat – Nation // Church – People – State – Nation


Book Description

Die erstmals 2001 veröffentlichte Studie widmet sich in exegetischen, historischen und systematischen Analysen sowie Fallbeispielen aus einzelnen Ländern dem spannungsvollen Verhältnis der evangelischen Kirchen zu Staat und Nation. Sie kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass der Protestantismus gerade aufgrund seiner Vielfalt und seiner Verwurzelung in nationalen und territorialen Identitäten eine besondere Rolle bei der Einigung Europas zu spielen hat. In Zeiten von Europaskepsis und wachsendem Nationalismus hat sie neue Aktualität gewonnen. [Church – People – State – Nation. A Protestant Contribution on a Difficult Relationship] First published in 2001, this study deals with the fascinating relationship of Protestant churches to state and nation. This is shown in exegetical, historical and systematic analyses as well as case studies from different countries. It comes to the conclusion that Protestantism has a special role to play in the integration of Europe, precisely because of its diversity and roots in national and territorial identities. In times of Euroscepticism and growing nationalism, the study has only gained in relevance.




Charting Churches in a Changing Europe


Book Description

The countries of Europe are seeking to redefine themselves, both individually and in relation to each other. This volume examines the role of the Christian churches at various levels of that process. The Charta Oecumenica, a ground-breaking document from the Conference of Churches in Europe and the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, aimed to set forth the ecumenical response of the European Christian Churches to the living out of faith in today’s world. Four theologians, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Lutheran, respond to this document, assessing its strengths and the areas where further development is required. At least implicitly this discussion raises questions about the nature of catholicity and communion, a topic the following four essays address. What is catholicity, what happens when there is too strong an emphasis on the national church, and are there models of gradual church communion to which the churches could assent? Gradual communion sets out to attain full, including sacramental, unity and the final two essays explore how sacramental theology might assist in this process.




Kirchengemeinschaft | Church Communion


Book Description

Kirchengemeinschaft – communio wurde zu einem Schlüsselbegriff ekklesiologischer Überlegungen in der Ökumene. Dieser Band dokumentiert ein Lehrgesprächsergebnis, das die Vollversammlung der GEKE sich 2018 zu eigen machte. Es zieht eine Bilanz der seit 1973 auf der Grundlage der Leuenberger Konkordie verwirklichten Kirchengemeinschaft und präzisiert das theologische Konzept von Kirchengemeinschaft unter Berücksichtigung der neuesten ökumenischen Diskussionen. Ferner diskutiert es die Herausforderungen, vor denen die GEKE als Gemeinschaft von Kirchen in Europa gegenwärtig steht, und zeigt Perspektiven für eine weitere Vertiefung dieser Gemeinschaft auf. Abgedruckt ist auch ein bislang kaum verfügbarer Text, der Vorüberlegungen zur Leuenberger Konkordie enthält und für das Verständnis ihres Modells wesentlich ist. Church communion – communio has become a key concept in ecclesiological deliberations in ecumenical contexts. This volume presents the result of a doctrinal conversation, adopted by the General Assembly of the CPCE in 2018, evaluating the church communion realised on the basis of the Leuenberg Agreement since its signing in 1973 and specifying the theological concept of church communion in the light of the latest ecumenical discussions. In addition, it contemplates the challenges that the CPCE currently faces as a communion of churches in Europe and suggests potential approaches to further intensifying this communion. This volume also contains a reprint of a previously scarcely available text revealing key considerations prior to the conclusion of the Leuenberg Agreement, which provides an invaluable tool for understanding this model of church fellowship.




Ecumenical Ecclesiology


Book Description

A rich collection of fifteen articles by European, North American and Asian theologians, concerned with the concept, life, unity and future of the church.




Living with Antisemitism


Book Description

The issues are addressed in both a historical and theoretical context. several essays Center around questions which are often overlooked in similar works.







Divided Passions


Book Description

Paul Mendes-Flohr is emerging as the leading Jewish intellectual historian of the present generation. In particular, he is responsible for a significant amount of the important and pertinent scholarship in the field of German-Jewish intellectual history. No one else is quite as intimately knowledgeable with this material, the ambiguous legacy of one of the most inventive and poignant episodes of creativity in the life of the Diaspora. Divided Passions is a collection of published and unpublished essays and articles by Paul Mendes-Flohr from the past decade. In a manner that underscores their continued relevance and significance, Mendes-Flohr writes about the problems that Buber, Rosenzweig, Bloch, Simon, Scholem and others tried to crystallize and resolve. Mendes-Flohr moves with effortless authority among the disciplines of theology, philosophy, literature, history, and sociology. Fitted with these interdisciplinary resources, he enriches his treatment of themes and figures in ways that exceed the scope, to say nothing of the execution, found in other literature. The book conveys a rare metaphysical depth, for questions of faith, identity, and Dasein explored by the intellectual figures of the past are also personal ones for the author as well. Mendes-Flohr's exceptional ability to keep this body of work alive and available provides an outstanding source of commentary on the subjects that dominate the agenda of modern Jewish studies.




On Nations and the Churches: Ecumenical Responses to Nationalisms and Migration / Nationen und Kirchen: Ökumenische Antworten auf Nationalismus und Migration


Book Description

Kirchen in Europa haben eine spezifische Erfahrungs-Geschichte mit ihrer Verhältnisbestimmung zur Nation. Obwohl im Prinzip darüber einig, dass der christliche Glaube in seiner Grundtendenz von einem übernationalen, ja universalistischen Charakter geprägt ist, wird spätestens seit dem 19. Jahrhundert immer wieder gefragt, ob nicht doch Nation und nationale Identität zur Schöpfung Gottes gehören. Gegenwärtig wird das in den Kirchen Europas kontrovers diskutiert, eng verbunden mit Erfahrungen von Migration. "Nation" klingt anders für protestantische Minderheitskirchen als für orthodoxe oder römisch-katholische Kirche in ehemals kommunistischen Staaten und wieder anders für deutsche Kirchen, die ihre Verquickung mit dem Nationalsozialismus verarbeiten müssen. Können Nationalbewusstsein und gegenwärtige Migrationserfahrungen zusammengehen? Haben die Kirchen in ökumenischer Perspektive dazu etwas Spezifisches zu sagen? Mit diesen Fragen beschäftigt sich dieser Tagungsband der Societas Oecumenica. Mit Beiträgen von Elzbieta Adamiak, Niko Huttunen, Petre Maican, Ivana Noble, Friederike Nüssel, Peter Phan, Hector Scerri, Peter-Ben Smit, Andrea Strübind, Ulrike Link-Wieczorek, Kaholi Zhimomi Churches in Europe have specific historical experiences regarding their relationship with the nation. Although in principle it is agreed that the Christian faith is in its basic tendency shaped by a supranational, even universalistic character, since the 19th century at the latest it has been repeatedly asked whether nation and national identity do not belong to God's creation. At present this is controversially discussed in the churches of Europe, closely connected with experiences of migration. Can national consciousness and current migration experiences go together? Do churches have anything specific to say about this in an ecumenical perspective? These are the questions addressed in this conference volume of the Societas Oecumenica.




Roots of Theological Anti-Semitism


Book Description

Exploring the link between German biblical interpretation and anti-Semitism, this book is a fresh, comprehensive study of leading German exegetes, concluding that although Nazism brought anti-Semitic exegesis to a head, age-old thought structures provided powerful legitimation for oppression.




The Early Karl Barth


Book Description

"Paul Silas Peterson presents Karl Barth (1886-1968) in his sociopolitical, cultural, ecclesial, and theological contexts from 1905 to 1935. In the foreground of this inquiry is Barth's relation to the features of his time, especially radical socialist ideology, WWI, an intellectual trend that would later be called the Conservative Revolution, the German Christians, the Young Reformation Movement, and National Socialism."--From back of book.