Christian diaspora
The Christian diaspora (from Greek: διασπορά diaspora = scatteredness) are Christians who are a religious minority in the respective region . This can be the totality of Christians, but also denominational minorities in a region dominated by another denomination . Even the migration churches that are very widespread today represent a diaspora .
history
The Christian diaspora is a very old phenomenon: already the 1st letter of Peter turns
" To the chosen ones who live as strangers in the diaspora, in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, in the province of Asia and in Bythinia "
and until the fourth century, Christians invariably existed in the diaspora. A diaspora as a result of Christian missions continues today, especially in Asia, but also in parts of Africa.
Orient
Diaspora churches also emerged from religious upheavals, such as the expansion of Islam in the 7th century or the Reformation and Counter-Reformation , which put existing churches in a minority situation. All ancient oriental churches, with the exception of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church , live in the diaspora as a result of the expansion of Islam in the 7th century.
Europe
In Europe, a denominational diaspora emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries as a result of migrations to unified denominational areas. As a result of the French Revolution , the ban on worship for other denominations was lifted in many places; in 1807, for the first time since the Reformation, the small council of the Canton of Zurich allowed Catholics to celebrate masses again. The Central Board of the Protestant Church recorded a hundred Protestant diaspora congregations in Catholic areas in Germany around 1850.
In order to support the diaspora congregations of their own church, the Evangelical Gustav-Adolf-Werk was created in 1832 . Lutheran churches formed regional divine caste associations, which later joined together in the Martin Luther Bund . The Catholic Church founded the Bonifatiuswerk of German Catholics .
Germany
In particular, internal migration and the population shifts after the Second World War led to the emergence of large Catholic diaspora communities in northern Germany and Protestant diaspora communities in southern Germany , which today are also shaped by other immigrant groups such as southern Europeans or repatriates from the former Warsaw Pact states.
See also
literature
- Diaspora . In: Erwin Fahlbusch (ed.): Taschenlexikon Religion und Theologie , Vol. 1. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1983, ISBN 3-525-50123-4 . Pp. 278-282
- Peter Schellenberg: Diaspora Works. In: Gerhard Müller, Horst Balz , Gerhard Krause (Eds.): Theologische Realenzyklopädie. Volume 8. De Gruyter, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3110138980 , p. 719 ff.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Guido J. Kolb: When the priests were still called Reverend - A reading book for the 200th anniversary of the Catholic community in Zurich . Theological Publishing House, Zurich 2007, ISBN 9783290200381 . P.56
- ^ Peter Schellenberg: Diasporawerke . Berlin 1993. p. 719 ff.