Arcane principle

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The arcane principle (from Latin arcanum - "secret") is the principle of making cult customs and rituals accessible only to a group of initiates.

Arcane discipline

Under arcane discipline means a formal commitment of to preserve into a religious mystery initiate this. The term was coined in modern times . It comes from the French Reformed theologian Jean Daillé (Dallaeus), who in his work De usu patrum ad ea definienda religionis capita, quae sunt hodie controversa (Geneva 1656) wrote of a disciplina arcani that was unknown in Christianity before the 4th century be. In his treatise, Daillé turned against the Catholic tradition, which granted the Church Fathers authority on questions of faith and cult. In the disputes between Reformed and Catholic theologians at the time, the question of a secret tradition of the church fathers, which was only passed on orally, played a role; Catholics justified the secrecy, the Reformed scholar Isaac Casaubon attributed it to the influence of pagan mystery cults .

Under the impression of the appropriation of the Christian churches in the time of National Socialism and the simultaneous quasi-sacred self-staging of the National Socialist regime, Dietrich Bonhoeffer called for the restoration of an arcane discipline in the church "through which the secrets of the Christian faith are protected from profanation ". The church must develop a language for the public, "which is perhaps completely irreligious, but liberating and redeeming, like the language of Jesus". Until then, “the cause of Christians will be silent and hidden”. But there will be people "who pray and do what is just and wait for God's time".

The expression Arcandiscipline , which had not been used in a non-religious context until then , was first used disparagingly by Jürgen Habermas in 1962 on the secrecy practices of public administration and is now used as a polemical term in the political debate about the creation or expansion of freedom of information laws.

The arcane principle is still a valid command of Freemasonry, among others .

The sociolinguistics explores the so-called Arkansprachen .

Arcane Principle in Early Christianity?

In ancient mystery cults there was an obligation to keep cult customs secret. Contrary to some theories widespread in the 19th century, which portray early Christianity as a secret religion analogous to these cults, a tradition of secrecy in Christianity can only be established in late antiquity and even then only to a very limited extent. It was not until the 3rd century that traditional commandments to keep rites and texts secret were found; Hippolytus of Rome is the earliest evidence . In front of the unbaptized, for practical reasons, to avoid ridicule or misunderstanding, or - in the case of rites, not of doctrines - also because of the sacred nature of the matter, the rite of baptism and the confession of baptism, the ritual of the Lord's Supper , certain theological teachings such as B. the doctrine of the Trinity and the Our Father kept secret. However, there was no generally accepted definition of the scope of the duty of confidentiality, and no criminal provisions are known in the event of a violation. A Christian Arcane discipline in the sense of ancient mystery cults should therefore not have existed.

See also

literature

  • Jürgen Habermas: Structural Change in the Public . 5th edition, Neuwied / Berlin 1972.
  • Bernd Lutterbeck: The European information society and German official secrecy - farewell to a holy cow of the authoritarian state? Download (PDF; 0 kB).
  • Jörg Martin Meier: Worldliness and arcane discipline with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. (= Theological existence today. New series No. 136.) Chr. Kaiser Verlag, Munich 1966.
  • Andreas Pangritz : Dietrich Bonhoeffer's demand for an arcane discipline - an unfinished business with the church and theology. Cologne 1988, ISBN 978-3-7609-5259-8 .
  • Othmar Perler: Art. Arcane discipline . In: Real Lexicon for Antiquity and Christianity . Vol. 1, 1950, 667-676.
  • Douglas Powell: Art. Arcane Discipline . In: Theological Real Encyclopedia . Vol. 4, 1979, pp. 1-8.
  • Adolf Hampel: Arcane discipline . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 1 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1993, Sp. 990 f . ("a historical construction that arose in the post-Reformation controversies")

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ D. Bonhoeffer, DBW 8,415.
  2. ↑ ibid., 436; see. comprehensive: Andreas Pangritz : Dietrich Bonhoeffer's demand for an arcane discipline - an unfinished inquiry to church and theology , Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1988, ISBN 978-3-7609-5259-8 .
  3. ↑ Languages ​​in Secret , diepresse.com, November 13, 2010, accessed on November 16, 2010.