Church theory

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The term church theory has been used since the beginning of the 20th century for a specific theological self-understanding of the church with regard to its organizational structure and functional tasks. The term has been reinterpreted in various ways.

In the current discussions about the image and self-image of Protestant churches , the concept of church theory, deliberately delimiting it from ecclesiology, is once again experiencing a new interpretation through networking with other scientific disciplines such as business administration, organizational theory, geography or sociology.

The older debate - Church theory as a negative delimitation concept (around 1900)

The term "church theory" was first used in connection with the modernism debate of Catholicism at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. As a classification of the understanding of the church by the "modernists", the term is verifiable among the Catholic anti-modernists. On the one hand, the anti-modernists regard Protestant-theological “modernism” with Adolf von Harnack (“essence of Christianity”) as an opponent . On the other hand, on the part of the Catholic official church, the Catholic reform movement of modernism is negatively assigned the term “church theory”. The negative delimitation of the term lies in the inner-worldly interpretation of the church. This idea of ​​an inner-worldly organization church was disqualified by Pope Pius X in the encyclical Pascendi of 1907 with the disparaging term "modernists" at the time. In the Catholic Church in 1910 , the negative interpretation led to the anti-modernist oath , which Catholic clerics had to take by 1967.

This negative interpretation of the "church theory" was recently made by Pope Benedict XVI. in his Regensburg speech of September 12, 2006, specifically taken up again and explained as the second of the three fundamental problem areas of the “de-Hellenization” of Christianity (with mention of the evangelical theologian Adolf von Harnack ). The current renewed Catholic demarcation was hardly discussed due to the debates about the so-called Pope quote from Regensburg .

Positive interpretation: functional church theory (around 1970)

It was not until the 1960s, and especially since around 1970, that the term found frequent use again in the theological and ecclesiastical landscape. The use of the term ecclesiology , on the other hand, is less important . Based on the socio-theoretical debates (social theory, institutional theory, “organizational theory”, “state theory” or “system theory”) the term church theory is newly emerging. He receives a positive reinterpretation.

A group of people around Karl-Wilhelm Dahm worked intensively on the search for a positive term that on the one hand avoided dogmatic-ecclesiological narrowing and on the other hand allowed a socio-political orientation. The book Beruf: Pfarrer des sociologist and theologian Karl-Wilhelm Dahm is seen as the hour of birth of the term “church theory” in its sociological-functional dimension . The book, published in autumn 1971, established the "functional theory of church action". Although Dahm already used the term “church theory” internally and was identified with him as a person, he does not use the term himself in his book. His theory was immediately received as a “functional church theory”. With Dahm's "functional theory of church action", the term "church theory" was given a programmatic orientation that was suitable, on the one hand, a theological position (life companion and conveyance of values) and, on the other hand, a sociological variant (sociological-empirical description of the church) via the content-related adjective junction " functional ”appropriately. As a “functional church theory”, this connection became a viable alternative to previous ecclesiological church models.

Church theory in the current discussion

Reiner Preul: Church Theory (1997)

Reiner Preul published the first monograph in 1997 with the title “Church Theory”. In it, the practical-theological attempt is made to introduce cybernetic ideas and system-theoretical concepts into an ecclesiological world of thought. He places church theory as a link between practical and systematic theology.

Current facets of church theory

Since Preul, various attempts have been made to describe the church in its connection between sociological form and theological location. Since then, the various approaches to the existing churches or to church requirements in the world have neither been homogeneous in their understanding of access nor developed according to a uniform methodology, nor have they been limited to sociological aspects. The following accesses can be proven:

  • Business administration (Becker, 1995; McKinsey, 1996),
  • Ecumenical (Scherle, 1998),
  • Urban (Leo, 1999),
  • Contextual (Anselm, 2000),
  • Occupational sociological (Karle, 2001), or
  • Geographical access (Scherz, 2005).

The analyzes and evaluations of the “empirical church” often result from identified fractures between (church) theoretical ideas and empirical practical experience. These breaks are described, among other things, as a conflict between parish and non-parish, as a discrepancy between member mobility and urban parishes, as differing interests (e.g. evangelical to evangelical, educational to house group interested parties) of different member groups within a parish, as a minority church in East Germany or as Profile crisis.

Jan Hermelink: Church Theory (2017)

Management structures: Synod of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (2009)
Casualia: Protestant wedding in the Tettnang Castle Church (2008)

In 2017, Jan Hermelink published an article on the theoretical church situation in “Practical Theology. A textbook ”(2017).

Challenges are exemplified by the cultural change since the 1960s (resignations, questions about denominational religious instruction, sexual ethics, church tax, ...), and changes since the 1990s (economic crises, migration, obsolescence, ...), which leads to reorganization and deconstruction processes in the church (Job cuts, building sales, mergers, ...) (1).

A Protestant regional church consists of parochial territorial, but also personal and functional congregations, organized in church districts and summarized in the superordinate EKD , whereby club-like and social-diaconal organizations more or less belong to the church (2.1). The church has members, for whom it provides casualia and from whom it receives church taxes , and employees who are either employed in the pastoral office like civil servants or are employed in other areas under general labor law , with voluntary work playing no small role (2.2). The church has a media-public presence (2.3) and is characterized in its governance structures primarily by committees that consist mainly of lay people (unlike in the Roman Catholic Church) (2.4).

29% of the German population was a member of the Protestant Church in 2010, employees and above all pastors decreased in the period from 2003 to 2013, but social-diaconal and voluntary engagement increased (3.1). Religious (casual, festival and family services) as well as social (diakonia) services are expected from the church (3.2). Membership is mostly justified with biographical and social contexts, whereby the church's commitment to society also plays a role, whereas one's own beliefs are less important (3.3). The church is financially supported to a large extent through church taxes, to a lesser extent also through state subsidies and to a lesser extent through donations. Around two thirds of the expenditure consists of paying employees, and building maintenance also plays a major role at 10% (3.4).

From its Reformation origins, the church is determined ecclesiologically as a creature of the word ( creatura verbi ), constituted by the general priesthood as a community and, not least, linked to the state government by the sovereign church government (4.1). The sovereign as summus episcopus had a considerable influence, whereas pietistic currents turned, which pursued a community church ideal, similar to Schleiermacher's ecclesiology, which was critical of the state. In the course of the 19th century, church and state diverged more sharply, school supervision passed from church to state, and church tax was paid from now on (4.2). Between 1918 and 1945 the church was primarily concerned with the question of its relationship to culture, which could either be affirmative (e.g. Dibelius ) or negative ( Barth - Barmer Theological Declaration ) (4.3). From the 1950s onwards, the understanding of missions changed through decolonization to the concept of “missio dei”. In the 1960s, pluralization dissolved what had been taken for granted and a political theology emerged ( Sölle , JB Metz ). Ernst Lange (4.4) was formative for the attempts at church reform during this period .

Depending on the perspective, the church assumes the role of an association, a service organization or a company (5.1). As a community, it makes faith tangible and enables regular personal encounters and participation (5.2). As with other organizations, church leadership depends heavily on the competence of individual leaders. The leadership principles discussed include, for example, “spiritual leadership” or Ernst Lange's “conciliarity” (5.3). The goal of church activity is to stimulate lived religion again and again (5.4).

Economization and regionalization are currently being discussed, which have become an issue due to the church's financial problems since the 1990s (6.1). In addition to these structural changes within the church, thought is given to outward movement, be it in missionary church building (e.g. institute for evangelization and church development) or in fresh expressions of church, which experimentally look for forms of expression beyond conventional structures (6.2). In any case, the church is already moving in various publics, such as in the ethical discourse (public theology), in education, culture, politics and tourism (6.3).

The plurality of church action increases, which also increases the demand for a clear profile. This tension between plurality and profiling will determine questions of church theory particularly strongly in the future (7).

Approaches to the content of the term "church theory"

At least four aspects of church theory can be distinguished today:

  1. First of all, the term is a demarcation from the dogmatic term “ecclesiology”. The social form of the church as an institution or as an organization comes into focus. The church thus becomes a tangible unit that can be recorded and described with regard to its functions, structures and characteristics by means of observation, measurement and hermeneutic methods
  2. Church theory tries to give answers to the strategic question about the inner-worldly functions of the church. What tasks and functions does the church have to perform in the world or in society? The church organization throws this second intention back onto its own structures and processes. It asks about the goal of church practice and becomes a planning or strategic component of church theory. Church functions and tasks are causally linked to the professional functions (primarily: pastor profession) within the church organization.
  3. Church theory is always linked to the tasks of the church's professional functions (e.g. pastoral, educational, administrative). Dahm's church theory is established through the profession of pastor. Today all the professions of the church and their church-theoretical / practical functions should be drafted in a conception for the theory of the church in order to meet one's own and social demands.
  4. The discussion about a church theory ultimately reveals a fundamental theological science problem. With church theory, empirical methods of social research are given equal access to the church as hermeneutic methods. Hermeneutics is still the leading method of theological science. Even if it has only been established in this form for a maximum of 100 years, a paradigm shift seems to be imminent. With Thomas S. Kuhn's reference to the forms of a scientific revolution, one can speak of an extraordinary phase of science in theology, which is revealed in the church as an object of research.

This also opens up new “directions” for church-theoretical approaches that result from socio-empirical access to reality with the latest social and societal theories (e.g. “Church as a network organization”).

literature

  • Reiner Anselm : Ecclesiology as contextual dogmatics , Göttingen 2000
  • Dieter Becker: The challenge of the future - suggestions for a market economy church structure , in: DtPfrBl 10/1995, 647-650
  • Dieter Becker: Kirchentheorie , in Pastoraltheologie 7/2007, pp. 274–290 http://www.agentur-aim.com/kirchentheorie.pdf
  • Michael Beintker : Article "Ekklesiologie", in: RGG 4th edition, Vol. 2, Tübingen 1999, 1183.
  • Karl-Wilhelm Dahm: Profession: Pastor , Munich 1971; 2nd edition 1972; 3rd edition 1974.
  • Adolf v. Harnack: Das Wesen des Christianentums , Leipzig (1st edition 1900) 2nd edition 1902.
  • Isolde Karle : The parish profession as a profession , Gütersloh 2nd edition 2001
  • Frank Löwe: The problem of the city churches under the aspect of the urban community structure , Münster 1999.
  • Uta Pohl-Patalong : Local church and supra-church work in conflict. An analysis of the arguments and an alternative model , Göttingen 2003.
  • Reiner Preul: Church Theory , Berlin-New York 1997.
  • Peter Scherle : Church in question: Ecumenism and liturgy - Barth's unheard-of inquiry to an ecumenical church theory , Münster 1998
  • Peter Scherle: Church theory in practice , in: Herborn contributions - Volume 1, On theology of practice, ed. v. Theological Seminary Herborn, Frankfurt a. M. 2002, 10-30.
  • Florian Scherz: Church in space. Church spatial planning between theological reflection and concrete design , Gütersloh 2005
  • Stefan Schweyer: Contextual Church Theory: A critical-constructive examination of the understanding of the church in recent practical-theological drafts , Zurich 2007.

Individual evidence

  1. Jan Hermelink: Church theory . In: Kristian Fechtner, Jan Hermelink, Martina Kumlehn, Ulrike Wagner-Rau (eds.): Practical Theology. A textbook . 15 (Theological Science. Collected Works for Study and Work). Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2017, p. 81-104 .