Lay movement

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A lay movement is understood as an association of lay people , usually with a specific goal or task. There are lay movements especially in the Roman Catholic Church .

history

Christian lay movements were particularly popular in the Middle Ages with the rise of the mendicant orders . At the turn of the 13th century , a large number of lay people organized themselves into their own communities. Their hallmark was an ideal of life of the Vita apostolica or Vita communis . These included voluntary poverty , Bible study , works of charity, and the lay preaching . The most important early communities were the Cathars , Waldensians , Humiliates , Beguines, and Begarians . Since these lay movements were mainly based on the poverty ideal, they are therefore also referred to as “poverty movements”. The Third Orders go back to such pious lay associations of both sexes , who joined religious and social communities . The Third Orders also emerged from the intention of individual people to live according to the spirituality of a certain order, although their living conditions prevented them from entering a monastery. Such Third Orders go back to St. Francis who, when a great number of men and women demanded admission to monasteries, gave them a rule in 1221.

In recent history, Latin American liberation theology has been largely shaped by lay people. Spiritual lay movements in the narrower sense are some of the Movimenti characterized as a spiritual community . Many of the newer religious orders and congregations, such as the Little Sisters of Jesus , began as a lay movement.

literature

  • Herbert Grundmann : New contributions to the history of religious movements in the Middle Ages. In: Ders .: Religious Movements, Vol. 1: Selected essays (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Schriften 25/1). Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-7772-7614-6 .
  • Herbert Grundmann : Religious Movements in the Middle Ages . Olms, Hildesheim 1977, ISBN 3-487-00097-0 (also. Habilitation thesis, University of Leipzig 1933; unchanged reprint from EA Berlin 1935).
  • Adolf Martin Ritter , Hans-Martin Barth , Friedrich Wintzer : Art. Layman I. Church history II. Systematic-theological III. Practically theological . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 20 (1990), pp. 378–399, ISBN 3-11-012655-9 (with further references)
  • Rolf Zerfaß : The dispute over the lay sermon. A pastoral historical investigation into the understanding of the ministry of preaching and its development in the 12th and 13th centuries (Investigations on the practical theology of pastoral care; Vol. 2). Herder, Freiburg / B. 1974, ISBN 3-451-16626-7 .