City of God (magazine)
The City of God is a magazine founded by St. Arnold Janssen in 1878 , which still appears today as a mouthpiece and advertising medium for his order, the Steyler Missionaries . In the fall of 2020, the editor changed the name of the magazine to Life Now .
history
On September 8, 1875, the Catholic, German - meanwhile canonized - priest Arnold Janssen founded his male order Society of the Divine Word (SVD) in Steyl in the Netherlands , today a district of Venlo . Derived from the place where it was founded, the name Steyler Missionare was generally adopted in Germany . The foundation could only take place abroad because of the current culture war in the German Reich . The community dedicated itself to the spread of the Christian faith in foreign countries. In addition to missionary priests and brothers, two congregations of sisters also belong to the religious family.
From the beginning, religious writings were part of the offer of the new order. Arnold Janssen was looking for ways to make the mission statement as public as possible, to reach like-minded people and to collect money for the missions. In 1877 he received an offer from a Dutch publisher to take over pictures from the Katholieke Illustratie (Katholische Illustrierte) for the German-speaking area. The order only had to contribute the corresponding article texts.
This is how the magazine Stadt Gottes , which was produced by Steyl in the Netherlands and was initially called “The Holy City of God - Illustrated Sunday Paper for the Catholic People”, was created. The first issue appeared on January 6, 1878; soon the title was simplified to City of God . Under this name, the newspaper expanded to become one of the most famous Catholic papers in the German-speaking area. The illustrated magazine reported on events in the order, church and world, brought theological contributions and reports from the Steyler mission overseas. She also had a considerable entertainment part. The Berlin sinology professor Klaus Mühlhahn describes the city of God in his book Rule and Resistance in the "Model Colony" Kiautschou , 2000, as "one of the most widely read, popular papers on Catholicism in the German Empire."
In addition to the Steyl order headquarters, a large part of the magazine was also created in the St. Gabriel Mission House near Vienna from 1918 . From 1939 to 1941, the magazine could only be produced in Steyl in the Netherlands; from 1941 until the end of the Second World War, the “City of God” was published as an emergency issue in Switzerland.
The paper appeared first weekly, then monthly, for more than 130 years without interruption. Its old editions offer an abundance of source material on church, missionary and also profane history. The stock of historical photos is particularly productive, as the magazine was richly illustrated from the start. In 2011 the German edition of the magazine had over 150,000 regular subscribers.
In autumn 2020 the magazine changed its name from “City of God” to “Live Now” , but otherwise continues to appear monthly.
Name reference
Between 413 and 426 , Augustine of Hippo wrote a text under the name De civitate Dei (“The State of God”) that reflects the tension between worldly power and religious claims; it was one of the most influential scriptures in the Christian world until the early modern period.
literature
- Klaus Mühlhahn: Rule and resistance in the "model colony" Kiautschou. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2000, ISBN 3-486-56465-X , p. 322.
Web links
- City of God website
- Website of the Steyler Missionaries on the history of the "City of God"
- Website on the history of the Steyler Mission, with mention of the "City of God"
Individual evidence
- ^ Announcement of the current number of subscribers from Father Manfred Krause SVD, Mother House Steyl, on October 27, 2011
- ↑ Divine Word Missionaries - Magazines. Retrieved August 26, 2020 .