Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauung questions

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauungsfragen ( EZW ) is an institution of the Evangelical Church in Germany .

It was set up in 1960 as the successor to the Berlin “ Apologetic Central ”, founded in 1921 and forcibly closed by the National Socialists in 1937 . The first head of the EZW based in Stuttgart was Kurt Hutten (1901–1979). The institute has been located in Berlin- Mitte since 1995 .

The EZW acts as the central apologetic research, documentation and information center. She publishes her work results in her monthly magazine Materialdienst. Journal for religious and ideological issues as well as in the series EZW texts . In addition, the EZW regularly holds conferences, sometimes in cooperation, on a variety of ideological topics. In 2001 she presented in book form an overview of the current panorama of the new religiosity (2005 in the 2nd edition).

One of the main tasks of the EZW is the coordination of the ideology work within the Evangelical Church in Germany. It therefore cooperates closely with the ideology officers of the Protestant regional churches. The EZW wants to "contribute to the Christian orientation in religious and ideological pluralism, promote an appropriate dialogue with those of different and non-believers" and "inform about developments and tendencies in the religious landscape in Germany".

The main research areas are currently being worked on in four units:

  1. NN, Head of the EZW: Fundamental questions, currents of the secular and religious zeitgeist, evangelicalism and Pentecostal - charismatic Christianity
  2. Friedmann Eißler : Islam and non-Christian religions (including Hinduism , Buddhism ), new religious movements , interreligious dialogue
  3. Michael Utsch : Psychological aspects of new religiosity, illness and healing, life support market, special communities
  4. Kai M. Funkschmidt : Esotericism , occultism , Mormons and apostolic communities in a European context

See also

Fonts

  • EZW (Hrsg.): Materialdienst . Magazine for religious and ideological issues ; ISSN  0721-2402
  • EZW (Ed.): EZW texts ; ISSN  0085-0357
  • Matthias Pöhlmann : Battle of the Ghosts. The journalism of the “Apologetic Central” (1921–1937). Denomination and Society, 16. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-17-015461-3 .
  • Matthias Pöhlmann, Hans-Jürgen Ruppert , Reinhard Hempelmann: The EZW in the train of the times. Contributions to the history and mandate of Protestant world view work. EZW texts 154. Berlin 2000.

literature

  • Elisabeth Arweck: Researching New Religious Movements. Responses and redefinitions . Taylor & Francis, London & New York 2006, ISBN 0-415-27755-8 , pp. 227-253.
  • Silja Joneleit-Oesch: The Church and the Gurus. The history of the Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauung issues with the Hare Krishna and the Osho / Bhagwan movements . Lembeck, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-87476-433-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reinhard Hempelmann : 50 years of the Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauung questions. (pdf, 58 kB) In: EZW -tex 210/2010. June 3, 2010, pp. 9-10 , accessed March 9, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Papers. Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauung questions - presentations, accessed on March 9, 2015 .