The five chapters of the Book of Lamentations reflect on the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem by the Neobabylonians in the years 598/7 - 587/6 BCE. They apply several different strategies to handle the challenges of this event. This article focuses on one of these strategies: the explanation of the catastrophe as a deserved divine punishment. The explanatoryinterjections are strikingly isolated in the text and even contradict their respective contexts. The design of the poems as acrostics, however, forbids a diachronic solution to this problem. The article therefore attempts a socio-historical solution to the findings: The reason lies in the non-harmonious relationship between the authors of the oldest lamentations (Thr 2 and 4) and late-monarchic prophets of doom.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the symbolic figure of resistance against the Nazi dictatorship, and Christoph Blumhardt, the symbolic figure of religious socialism, are united in their engagement with Friedrich Nietzsches call to remain faithful to the earth. On the basis of an Easter-focused theology, both theologians develop a decidedly positive understanding of corporeality, but there are also considerable differences between them: Unlike Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Blumhardts theological orientation towards a suspension of death that is to be lived is more earthbound and can therefore become a driving force for an ethical theology that, as an expression of protest against death, creates impulses for a transformative way of life on this earth threatened by death from the message of the Kingdom of God.
This essay aims at examining central topics of Christian theology from a praxeological perspective. It starts off by exploring the nature of a theological praxeology and its tools to meet both systematic-theological and practical-theological requirements. In a second step, the resulting praxeo-theological framework will be applied to key doctrines and areas of practice: a theology of the Cross, preaching and prayer. The central question is a twofold one: first, whether and to what extent an encyclopaedic praxeo-theology could adequately address the demands of both the practice of faith and the engagement with religion; and second, in which way Gods reality might be articulated if developed from those practices in which that very reality is getting concrete.
It is in the field of post-metaphysical thinking in particular, which centres on the concepts of difference and contingency, that the dividing line of Jüngels theological thinking can be outlined. This runs precisely between the ascending curves of identity and the declines of difference thinking. For Jüngels theological approach, which considers God as God from the event of Gods identification with the crucified, compels us to think about the classical constellation of identity and difference, the absolute and contingency, the infinite and the finite in such a way that they are neither fused into a closed identity nor fall apart into the opposition of absolute difference. This systematic fact can be demonstrated using the concept of difference. This is to be understood in such a way that actual negativity is integrated into Gods being itself, without at the same time allowing either a symmetrical relation or an infinite lack of relation, an immediate, closed identity or a repulsive difference at any point. God conceived in this way in difference corresponds to itself insofar as it infinitely allows finitude from itself by differing infinitely from it.
Time and again, preachers - both men and women - stand before those in power and protest against their actions in the name of God. This article analyzes two such protest sermons: Thomas Müntzers »Sermon to the Princes« (»Fürstenpredigt«) - in memory of the 500th anniversary of his death in 2025 - and the sermon delivered by Mariann E. Budde at the second inauguration of U. S. President Donald J. Trump in January 2025. The comparison sheds light on the potential impact a protest sermon can (and should) have but also its limitations.
The title and first line of Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata & raquo;Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit & laquo; (BWV 106) remained enigmatic for a long time. The present essay examines, firstly, whether and to what extent Bach can be considered the author of this line. Recent findings allow for its derivation from 17th-century devotional literature. Secondly, this essay explores the biblical concept of & raquo;God's time & laquo; in an exegetical-theological dialogue with texts from the Old and New Testaments. Thirdly, & raquo;God's time & laquo; is highlighted as a topos of the Baroque ars moriendi. Finally, an innovative, text-segmented presentation of the libretto of cantata BWV 106 is presented in the appendix.
The article outlines the deployment of the network & raquo;Discursive Theology & laquo; as a commitment to cultivating critically rational and open-ended discursivity within theology, church, and society. It also engages in a reflection on the risks and tensions inherent in contemporary cultures of discussion and debate. In three interrelated yet distinct series of theses, the article develops key dimensions of this shared concern. First, reflection on the culture of debate within theological research serves as the point of departure for explicating a discursive understanding of theology, in critical engagement with fundamental systematic distinctions-such as that between theology and religion-and with determinations of theology's relationship to key reference points, including the church, but also identity politics and activism. Second, a diagnosis of the present time situates the current state of Protestant theology in Germany under the central heuristic category of the > post-Enlightenment <. The internal dialectic of Protestantism in a post-Enlightenment context brings into view specific tasks for discursive theology. Third, observations concerning theological education provoke exploratory approaches to dealing with the & raquo;dual polarity & laquo; of the concept of theology and its concrete manifestation in current debates on reform. The focal point of these explorations is a commitment to reflected positionality and critical discursivity. The format of precise series of theses is intended to provide impulses for discussion and to stimulate critical dialogue.
Against the backdrop of the late medieval development of book censorship in both canonical and secular law following the invention of the printing press with movable metal type, this article highlights the increasing importance of state regulation with the Reformation era. Even leading representatives of the Wittenberg Reformation supported censorship measures to suppress the opinions of opponents within their own camp. Using examples from the imperial cities of Augsburg, Nuremberg, and Strasbourg, a broad spectrum of different approaches and levels of censorship are illustrated. The dynamic international spread of Reformation literature is reflected clearly in censorship measures in Hanseatic cities.
Based on the difference between sensory experience and self-testing as the immediacy of life before any language, an a priori of silence arises within the originality of our own lives. According to the phenomenological and linguistic-pragmatic analyses of Heidegger, Henry and Wittgenstein, this > sigetics < is taken to the point where silence touches the > loud voice < of Jesus on the cross according to Mark 15:34-37. The latter appears as a phenomenon before all cultural discursivity in order to be given as the > word of life < in all saying. As immanent self-testing, voice/silence are then identical with the momentary truth of our corporeality as incarnational verbum carnis above all world appearance. Hermeneutic approaches to traditions and texts are not thereby eliminated, but only recognised in their subsequent mediating function, should the immediately original life momentarily reveal itself as forgotten, or its silence not be perceived as presence.
In his farewell lecture, the author combines considerations on this academic rite of passage with a review on life for, by and in the university. It is illuminated from various perspectives: as a living context with intellectual and institutional opportunities and challenges, as a place of learning and teaching between church and humanities, and as an ivory tower with permanent reflection of ideas, the variation and further development of which, despite all contingency, also reveals lines. The image of the double scale, which originates from business management, stands for the weighing up that is required - and it marks an anchor for open and perspective-widening reflections beyond the limits of offsetting.
True statements are required to reflect reality appropriately. And whilst reality is that which is given to mankind in its entirety, ultimately it can only be discovered through an existential approach. Truth, reality and faith therefore belong together, finds this article.
Based on the example of Johann Joachim Spalding (1714-1804), this article examines how St. Paul was received in neology. What it reveals is that while the theologians of the Enlightenment held the apostle in high esteem as Christs decisive hermeneutic figure, they also tended to access his letters selectively and distinguish between time-specific and generally valid statements in their own theological competence. Overall, it can be observed that Spalding, like most other neologians, frequently turned to Paul as a fruitful source of inspiration for their own theological teaching and preaching work.
This article is dedicated to the life and work of Egyptologist and cultural scholar Jan Assmann, who died in 2024 at the age of 85. It places Assmanns cultural-historical theses, such as those on cultural memory and the Mosaic distinction, in the context of his Egyptological work, beginning with his biographical stages and how he was influenced by his Egyptology teachers Georges Posener and Eberhard Otto. Particularly prominent among his research contributions are his studies on Egyptian religion, for which he developed the significant concept of cosmotheism. Furthermore, tribute is also paid to the contribution of Aleida Assmann, whose constant dialogue with her husband helped develop his influential cultural-historical theories.
Geboren 1992; 2012-17 Studium der Ev. Theologie und Mathematik für das Lehramt an Gymnasien in Marburg; 2018-20 Wiss. Mitarbeiterin und Wiss. Hilfskraft m. A. in Marburg; 2020 Promotion; 2025 Habilitation; Wiss. Mitarbeiterin am Seminar für Kirchengeschichte II der Universität Münster im DFG-Projekt „Bibliothek der Neologie.
The reception of the doctrine of justification is a striking touchstone for the theological quality of sermons and their relevance in the everyday lives of listeners. In both respects, it proves to be a problem: sermons that refer to the topos of justification usually do so in the speech act of assertion; and they often claim the justification of the sinner for experiences for which no justification is needed at all, which paradoxically gives them a legal note. This homiletical practice is, among other things, the consequence of inconsistent but highly effective anthropological premises concerning human freedom and dignity. This article takes the view that part of the challenge of a justifying sermon is not simply to proclaim freedom and dignity as a gift, but to support the audience in appropriating, deepening and consolidating them as an attitude.
Geboren 1965; Studium der Ev. Theologie und Philosophie in Bethel, Heidelberg und München; 1995 Promotion; 1998 Ordination; 2005 Habilitation; 2008 Professor für Systematische Theologie an der Universität Bonn; seit 2011 Professor für Systematische Theologie an der Universität Göttingen.
This article analyses unbuilt religious places as spaces, using three theoretical discourses to do so: the social construction of spaces, practice theory, and the concept of arrangement, which includes physical phenomena in addition to geographical characteristics. The theoretical approaches are discussed using a qualitative case study with regard to their yield for the analysis of unbuilt religious places, whereby the interactions of practices, materiality, arrangement and geographical dimension are of methodological interest.
