Ulrike Wagner-Rau

Ulrike Wagner-Rau (* 1952 in Hamburg ) is a German practical theologian and university professor.

Life

She studied Protestant theology until 1977 and graduated with the first church exam. She then completed a vicariate from 1978 to 1980 and was ordained in 1980 . From 1980 to 1986 she was a pastor, first in Bad Bramstedt and then in Hamburg. She then worked from 1987 to 1997 as a research assistant at the chair for practical theology at Kiel University . Here she received her doctorate in 1992. In 1997 she changed to the position of director of studies at the preachers and study seminar of the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Preetz , where she was employed until 2002. In 1999 she completed her habilitation. Since 2002 she has been Professor of Practical Theology at the University of Marburg . She retired at the end of the winter semester 2017/2018 .

theology

In addition to the fields of pastoral theology and casualia, a research focus is on pastoral care, which is why she wrote the contribution to pastoral care in the anthology "Practical Theology. A Textbook" (2017), in which she develops her understanding of pastoral care .

For them, the fundamental challenge of the church's field of pastoral care is the connection between religious conviction and the historical situation. The question also arises as to what distinguishes pastoral care as specifically religious in contrast to other supportive forms of communication. According to the claim, Christians have an open ear for their fellow human beings, the pastor enjoys a special trust due to the confidentiality and thus has a greater responsibility. Due to other professional groups with special qualifications (medicine, psychotherapy), the demands on the professionalism of pastoral care of full-time and volunteer workers are growing.

The basic poimenical distinction between cura animarum generalis (general pastoral care in community worship, ...) and cura animarum specialis (special pastoral care in the exchange of individuals or groups) serve as orientation in the field of action. The diversity of pastoral care is characterized by its occasions (everyday encounters, casual talks, crisis talks, conflict situations, questions of wisdom in the art of living, emergency pastoral care), locations (hospital, advice centers, police, military, prison, airport), media (letters, telephone, internet), Degrees of professionalization (parish, volunteers, pastors, deacons, parish educators, functional parishioners). There are two basic forms of pastoral care, namely conversation and ritual. Typical communication media are the Bible, other texts, music, images, and art.

Empirical findings from church membership and professional self-image studies show that pastoral care is expected as a church task and that pastors identify with the model of "pastor". Pastoral care works empirically and case-oriented, the self-expressions of people can be understood as "living human document" (Boisen). The connection between religion and health has been empirically investigated and shows that religion can strengthen resilience - on the other hand, rigid images of God and strict social control of religious communities can also make people sick.

From a historical-systematic perspective, the basic tensions are those between turning to the sufferer and overcoming suffering, between redemption / forgiveness and damnation / judgment, between loving and failing in it. In the old church and in the Middle Ages, penance, confession, pastoral care for the suffering and the mystical striving for union with God played a role. During the Reformation, Luther advocated consolation through forgiveness, while the Reformed tradition emphasized reform and discipline. Pietism and the Enlightenment focus on the subject and the personal religious biography. Schleiermacher assumes the freedom and maturity of those seeking pastoral care and would like to encourage them. Pfister and Haendler are considered to be pioneers of psychologically enlightened pastoral care because they made Freud and Jung fruitful for practical theology. Thurneysen saw the role of psychology limited to an auxiliary science and shaped the kerygmatic pastoral care, in which in the optimal case there is a break that leads to prayer and confession. In contrast, pastoral psychology prevailed (Stollberg, Scharfenberg, Winkler): "Today, professional pastoral care is only conceivable as a psychologically enlightened and methodically reflected practice" (186).

The basic practical theological provisions include the distinction between implicit (self-image of those involved, church context, religious connotations) and explicit (beliefs, Christian rituals, Bible, ...) religion. Anthropologically, the term "soul" integrates emotional, spiritual, physical and social patterns of experience. Creativity and the likeness of God establish respect for the dignity of the other, which includes knowledge of the fragmentarity of life and pastoral secrecy and excludes psychological or sexual abuse. Speaking to Klessmann, pastoral care is accompaniment that shows understanding, encounters that allow the unfamiliar to come together, and an interpretation of life with meaningful potential.

As current discourses the relationship between pastoral care to ethics (where a clear own position and respect for the decision of others is required) called Spiritual Care and other cultures or religions. As future issues of the lack of time of full-time staff, strengthening of volunteering, training models and saving processes are indicated by their effects on special pastoral care and the threat of Selbstabschließung of Churches.

Publications

Monographs

• Between the father world and feminism. A study on the pastoral identity of women, Gütersloh 1992
• Blessing room. Casual practice in modern society, Stuttgart 2000, expanded and fundamentally revised 2nd edition 2008
• On the threshold. The rectory in the process of church change, Stuttgart 2009, 2nd edition 2011

Editorships

• Peter Cornehl, "The world is full of liturgy". Building blocks for an integrative worship practice, Stuttgart 2005
• Bring God into play. Handbook for the New Evangelical Pastoral, published together with Klaus Eulenberger / Lutz Friedrichs, Gütersloh 2007
• Halved emancipation? Fundamentalism and Gender, ed. according to with Elisabeth Rohr and Mechthild Jansen, Königstein 2007
• The new dress. Feminist-theological perspectives on spiritual and secular clothing, Sulzbach / Taunus 2010 (together with Elisabeth Hartlieb and Jutta Koslowski)
• Difference competence. Religious Education in Time, Festschrift for Bernhard Dressler , Leipzig 2012 (together with Thomas Klie and Dietrich Korsch)
• Gender relations and pastoral profession in transition. Irritations, Analyzes and Research Perspectives, Stuttgart 2013 (together with Simone Mantei and Regina Sommer)

Web links

• Homepage of the Department of Practical Theology and Religious Education at the Philipps University of Marburg

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wagner-Rau: Pastoral care . In: Practical Theology. A textbook . 2017, p. 171-192 .