Multi-confessional Austria

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Multi-denominational Austria is the title of a book by Karl Vocelka in which, in 2013 , he tries to portray Austria's religions in the past and present , so the subtitle. The book received attention from experts in religious studies and church history as well as in the public media.

Concern and content

With this book, Vocelka would like to refute “the often heard judgment that Austria is a Catholic country” (as in the foreword, p. 7) and instead draws “a picture of diversity”. Hence the book title Multi-Confessional Austria . The result is "a good overview of over 40 different religious communities" that can be found in Austria. Representing so many different religious traditions "is a tremendous challenge" that a scholar can hardly master on his own. The result disappointed some reviewers, since Vocelka treats the individual religious communities in a more general way and does not go much into their specific Austrian history. Connected with this is the impression that Vocelka's main source for his book was the Internet and that he hardly used any newer printed specialist literature. Not considered was e.g. B. the Austria- related denominational studies by Frank Hinkelmann (2009) or the journal Jahrbuch for the history of Protestantism in Austria with their articles.

Other originally Catholic or Protestant countries have also shown a gradually increasing religious diversity since around 1950. This was illustrated for Switzerland by the book One Switzerland - Many Religions .

Comprehensibility

The great diversity in the religious landscape of Austria sometimes appears confusing, for example as a “maze of believers of various convictions”; but Vocelka had succeeded in organizing this “maze” “into an easily understandable order”.

Faithfulness to facts

With regard to the reliability of the information, the book leaves different impressions: positive, for example, with regard to the "historical sections, especially in the area of ​​the history of Christianity and the orders" - these "bear the confident signature of the renowned and experienced historian" negative impressions where fragmentary information creates a crooked picture, for example when the anti-modernist oath merely states: "since 1910", but its abolition in 1967 is not mentioned.

Terms

Some conceptual imprecision was pointed out: Vocelka continues to use its former name Methodist Church (p. 126) for the Evangelical Methodist Church (p. 126), despite its renaming in 2004. The worldwide association of Methodists is the “World Council of Methodist Churches”, ie not one Church, as Vocelka writes: "Seen worldwide, the Methodist Church is with 60 million believers ..." (p. 126)

Vocelka's ideological position

Vocelka professes to be an atheist (p. 7). He does not write as a representative of a certain religion about his own or "foreign" religions, so he is to a certain extent impartial. The opinion was therefore expressed that this distant attitude “enabled him to present the topic more objectively”. However, Vocelka's lack of familiarity with the religions described was also criticized, for example in his statement that the “Gospel of John was written around 130” (p. 118); however, this gospel is dated before or shortly after AD 100 in current research. And also Vocelka's assessment that the Old Catholics who "strongly emphasize the tradition of the old church" differ from this tradition and the like. a. When it comes to celibacy, “being far away” (p. 160) is criticized as a mistake, because the old Church by no means consistently represented celibacy for priests.

Bibliographical information

Karl Vocelka: Multi-denominational Austria. Religions in the past and present . Styria, Vienna a. a. 2013, 285 pages (the imprint follows after book advertising on p. 288).

Reviews

Single receipts

For more information and links, see reviews above .

  1. ↑ Konrad Holzer in the radio show "Erfüllte Zeit", 2013: Vocelka's concern is to "dispel the cliché of the Catholic monoculture in Austria".
  2. ↑ KirchenZeitung im Netz (Diocese Linz), 2013.
  3. ↑ KirchenZeitung im Netz (Diözese Linz), 2013: “The project can be compared to climbing an eight-thousander”.
  4. ^ So Ernst Fürlinger in "Blinde Flecken" in Die Presse , 2013.
  5. ↑ Ernst Fürlinger in "Blinde Flecken" in Die Presse , 2013.
  6. ↑ According to Frank Hinkelmann, who in his book review focused on Vocelka's presentation of the Free Churches and the Evangelical Church, in allianzspiegel , 2013.
  7. ↑ Graf-Stuhlhofer refers to this in his review in the yearbook for the history of Protestantism in Austria 2013, p. 234f.
  8. ↑ Martin Baumann , Jörg Stolz (ed.): One Switzerland - many religions. Risks and opportunities of living together . Bielefeld 2007.
  9. ↑ As formulated by Fritz Keller in the book show , 2013.
  10. ^ So Ernst Fürlinger in "Blinde Flecken" in Die Presse , 2013.
  11. ^ So Ernst Fürlinger in "Blinde Flecken" in Die Presse , 2013.
  12. ^ By Graf-Stuhlhofer in his review in the yearbook for the history of Protestantism in Austria, 2013.
  13. ^ So Fritz Keller in the book show of the Austrian Trade Union Confederation, 2013.
  14. ^ This criticism of Vocelka's dating of the Gospel of John as well as of his judgment on the Old Catholics in Graf-Stuhlhofer's review, in JGPrÖ 2013, p. 233.