Search results for ""Vandenhoeck Ruprecht""

Korinna Zamfir explores the manner in which the Pastoral Epistles redefine roles and ministries within a changed ecclesiological framework (the ekklesia as oikos Theou). The contextual investigation focuses on the cultural and social background of the station codes and church orders. Applying the environmental approach advanced by Abraham Malherbe, Zamfir discusses the Pastoral Epistles as writings intimately linked to their Greco-Roman social and cultural environment. The volume addresses the mentalities reflected in moral philosophies, political theories, drama and epigraphy, focusing on the discourse articulated in these sources. Exploring the adoption of conservative mentalities, the monograph advances a reading of the Pastoral Epistles based on ideology critique. It also incorporates insights gained from research on the social world of earliest Christianity, in particular on private associations. Korinna Zamfir argues that the ecclesiology of the Pastoral Epistles presupposes the metaphorical use of oikos Theou and shows that in Greco-Roman antiquity oikos denotes larger social entities like the religious association, the polisand the cosmos. The ekklesia is the oikos and polis of God. As a consequence the Pastoral Epistles define roles and ministries based on the public-private divide and on honor and shame mentality. The theo-logical and cosmic dimension of the household of God explains the essentialist understanding of social and ecclesial roles. The author also tackles the contrast between discourse and ecclesial reality.

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Wolfhart Pannenberg (19282014) developed the program from Revelation as History into a theology of the history of religion at an early stage. Central aspects of the concept and its implementation are thematized in the anthology, taking current debates into account, with particular attention being paid to the relationship between the Christian and the Israelite-Jewish religion.

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This monograph provides an overview as an example of the fact that in Christianity eschatological hopes of salvation were widespread for all people from the beginning, but in different forms and frequencies. It is also shown how they were founded in the individual historical epochs and what contemporary significance was assigned to them in each case. The lack of a theological hermeneutics of eschatological biblical texts becomes evident in all of this. The manifold receptions and adaptations that these universal expectations of salvation experienced in European culture, especially in poetry, literature, philosophy and music, since the Middle Ages, are again presented in examples. It is shown that these transformations, especially in the literature, often took place from the beginning with the inclusion of non-Christian ideas of apocatastasis. Since the Enlightenment, as a result of the increasing disentanglement of religion and society, tendencies towards secularization can often be observed.

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Das Jahrbuch fÃ"r Liturgik und Hymnologie berichtet regelmäÃig und periodisch Ã"ber Neuerscheinungen auf dem Buchmarkt, die fÃ"r die Gesamtgebiete Gottesdienst, Liturgie, Liturgiewissenschaft und Liturgik von besonderem Interesse sind.

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Um geschichtspolitischen und erinnerungskulturellen Verengungen und Einseitigkeiten entgegenzuwirken, die im Rahmen des Reformationsjubiläums 2017 mit der Betonung auf Luther und Wittenberg allgegenwärtig waren, nimmt dieser Band den Prozess der Reformation in einer zeitlich und geographisch anders gelagerten Fokussierung in den Blick. Denn das Beispiel der Hansestadt Rostock zeigt, dass „Reformation“ nie ein lokal und zeitlich begrenztes Ereignis war. Von verschiedensten Akteuren (Gelehrte, Prediger, Drucker, Studierende) wurde mit Hilfe unterschiedlichster Medien (Kirchenordnung, Gesangbuch, Geschichtsschreibung, Verträge) ein regelrechtes Netz des neuen Glaubens geknüpft. Dieser Band beleuchtet nicht nur die Verbindungen zwischen der deutschen und skandinavischen Kirchengeschichte, sondern bringt auch frömmigkeits- und kommunikationsgeschichtliche Aspekte mit der Universitäts- und politischen Ereignisgeschichte ins Gespräch. Lokale Aspekte des reformatorischen Geschehens in Rostock, Mecklenburg und den skandinavischen Nachbarländern werden zudem in die Gesamtgeschichte und Zusammenhänge der Reformation eingeordnet und auf ihre aktuellen Bezüge hin beleuchtet. Die Diversität des historischen Phänomens spiegelt sich nicht nur in der Interdisziplinarität der Beiträge (Geschichte, Theologie, Germanistik, Archäologie, Buchwissenschaften), sondern auch in der Kombination von Überblicksdarstellungen und detaillierten Quellenstudien.

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In den vergangenen Jahren ist das Thema Säkularisierung zu einem beliebten Forschungsparadigma geworden. Geschichtliche Prozesse und gegenwärtige Phänomene werden unter der Perspektive von Säkularisierung beschrieben und gewinnen so ein besonderes Profil. Was aber steckt hinter der Begrifflichkeit und mit welchen Theorien und Theorieentwicklungen sind wir konfrontiert? Die Beiträge dieses Bandes versuchen dies zu klären und sowohl historische als auch gegenwartsbezogene Zugänge zu entwickeln. Dabei geht es um Säkularisierungsschübe und deren Auslöser in der Geschichte; um die Frage danach, wie Religion und religiöse Praxis in jeweils unterschiedlicher Weise auf Säkularisierungsphänomene reagierten. Denn Tatsache ist, dass die Religion in welcher Ausprägung auch immer nie ganz verdrängt wurde. Auch die Auswirkungen von Säkularisierung und Säkularisierungsschüben auf die gelebte Religion werden thematisiert, ebenso wie mögliche gesellschaftliche und politische Auswirkungen. Kam es zu einer Verdrängung der Religion aus der Öffentlichkeit oder zu einer Selbstbehauptung der Religion gegen säkularisierende Tendenzen? Um dies zu beleuchten werden verschiedene geographische und religiöse Räume abgeschritten, wobei auch geschichtliche Entwicklungen aufgezeigt werden sollen, um den Blick auf Säkularisierungen in der Gegenwart zu schärfen.

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The present volume aims at a clarification and a discussion of the church in the 16th century: What did the reformers think about the essence and origin of the holy, apostolic and Catholic church? What was seen as the aim of it, its task and mission? Can human beings see the true church or not? Does it have one existence in this world and another in the world to come? Furthermore, the concept of church is indissolubly connected to the theological concepts of sin, faith, justification, sanctification, and salvation, and the study of the church also involves reflection upon the nature and scope of the sacraments, the role of the clergy, the aim of church-buildings, the significance of church properties and upon the constituent parts of the mass/church service. Finally, and not least, it is important to investigate the role of the church in the societies of the 16th century, such as the impact of the ruling powers upon them, their significance for education and social cohesion, and the cultural significance of migrating believers, on the run within and beyond the borders of Europe. Together with theological, philosophical and art-historical questions, these issues are considered in order to create a much fuller picture of the church at the time of the Reformation.

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Die Anregung, eine Dekade der Gewaltlosigkeit auszurufen, ging auf die so genannten Historischen Friedenskirchen zurëck und ist vom Ökumenischen Rat der Kirchen aufgenommen worden. Seither wird intensiver als zuvor, weltweit ëber das Friedenszeugnis der christlichen Kirchen beraten und versucht, es mit dem Auftrag zu verbinden, Wege zur Einheit der Kirchen auf immer wieder neue und andere Weise gemeinsam zu gehen. In den letzten Jahrzehnten des vergangenen Jahrhunderts war das ein besonderes Anliegen des mennonitischen Theologen John Howard Yoder (1927-1997). Er zählte in Nordamerika zu den fëhrenden Theologen, die sich bemëht haben, aus dem Geist des historischen Täufertums eine Friedenstheologie zu erarbeiten, die genau diese Verbindung mit neuen Argumenten durchdacht hat. Auf diese Weise hat er das friedenskirchliche Zeugnis so zu Gehör gebracht, dass es sich im Gespräch mit anderen Kirchen selbstkritisch neu zu begreifen lernte; und die Kirchen, die aus staatskirchlichen Traditionen hervorgegangen sind, hat er daran erinnert, dass sie die inzwischen erreichte Trennung von Kirche und Staat noch nicht konsequent genutzt haben, um vorbehaltlos fër den Frieden in der Welt einzutreten. Er fordert sie heraus, ihr friedenstheologisches Defizit in den Gesprächen um die Einheit der Kirchen auszugleichen.

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David Wolffsohn (1850s - 1914) was the closest assistant to Theodor Herzl and became his successor in the presidency of the World Zionist Organization in 1905. Using him as an example, this study shows how the World Zionist Organization, an internally quarelled, financially and politically uninfluential, loose affiliation in its modest beginnings finally succeeded in acting historically powerful.The study does not present a classical type of biography but an entangled history of a person and an institution, for which Meybohm chose the term "integrated biography". By combining the methodological approaches of the new cultural history, social-, political and economic history, person as well as institution will be thoroughly analyzed. The multiperspectivity also covers Wolffsohns network, which includes his colleagues, supporters and opponents. It contextualizes the Zionist organization with other contemporaneous national movements as well as international emancipation movements, such as social democracy or the international women's movement.Besides domestic and foreign politics, especially the Zionist commercial politics will be analyzed for it is as uninvestigated by recent scholarship as the life and work of Wolffsohn himself.The results of this integrated biography challenge earlier scholarship of Zionism which mostly presents a teleological reading of Zionist history based on the successful founding of the state of Israel in 1948. In contrast to this, using the example of Wolffsohn's biography, it is possible to show, that the long range success of this extraordinary project could not be forseen in the beginning.

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Der bekannte Genfer Naturforscher Jean André Deluc wirkte als Physiker, Meteorologe, Geologe und Literat in maÃgeblichen Zentren europäischer Gelehrsamkeit des ausgehenden 18. Jahrhunderts. Aufgrund seiner politischen Rolle als AnfÃ"hrer der demokratischen Unruhen im Genf Rousseaus und Voltaires und seiner Leistung zur Standardisierung von Barometer und Thermometer und ihrer Anwendung in der Höhenmessung wurde er europaweit berÃ"hmt. In Delucs Forschung spiegeln sich genuin protestantische Werte ebenso wie politische Gegensätze im revolutionären Europa. Im Zentrum eines Netzwerks von Naturforschern, Theologen und Literaten profilierte sich Deluc als Verfechter innerchristlicher Toleranz und zunehmend als Gegner der Aufklärung. Marita HÃ"bner zeichnet das Profil eines Calvinisten, der Modernisierungen kritisch gegenÃ"berstand und doch bis ins hohe Alter fÃ"hrend an der Entwicklung von Technologie und Naturforschung beteiligt war.

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Arnold Huijgen analyses und assesses the idea of divine accommodation in John Calvins theology. He proves that Calvins idea of accommodation was terminologically influenced by Erasmus, while its content originated in patristic theology. Though Calvins idea of accommodation is multifaceted, Huijgen subsumes and analyzes it in the light of the two main perspectives of pedagogy and revelation. The pedagogical aspect relates to Calvins understanding of salvation history, and the relation between the Old and the New Testament. In this perspective Christ as the mediator holds a central position. The aspect of revelation focuses on Calvins comprehension of Gods nature which for him is behind Gods revelation. Calvins understanding of accommodation implies a distinct dynamic to revelation, which is disrupted by its static, hierarchical ontology. Huijgen points out the weaknesses of Calvins idea of accommodation on the basis of modern critiques by Karl Barth, Isaak August Dorner, and Harry M. Kuitert; he also explores the viable points for present day theology.

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Anhand der BÃ"cher von Sami Michael und Eli Amir untersucht Stefan Siebers, inwieweit das westlich-zionistische Konzept von der jÃ"dischen Nation mit klar definierten Grenzen aufgegangen ist. Ist der "Judenstaat" der uneinnehmbare Leuchtturm des Okzidents im Nahen Osten?Der Autor lädt uns ein, die Erzählungen und Romane der hebräischen Schriftsteller neu zu lesen. Mit zahlreichen Beispielen belegt er, dass bald nach der GrÃ"ndung Israels 1948 ein tiefgreifender Prozess der Transkulturation einsetzte, der sich in der modernhebräischen Literatur nicht nur niederschlägt, sondern von dieser auch befördert wird. Ãber alle Grenzen hinweg ist Israel mit dem Orient längst verwoben.Aus den Randzonen zwischen Tag und Traum, zwischen Kulturland und Ãdnis ist fast unmerklich der Orientale ins Bewusstsein der israelischen Leser getreten. Zunächst war er noch der unheimliche Fremde, begehrenswert und erschreckend zugleich. Doch inzwischen erhebt er seine Stimme gleichberechtigt und selbstbewusst in der polyphonen Kultur des Landes. Israel ist dabei, sich aus der Isolation zu befreien. Zu BrÃ"ckenbauern wurden die jÃ"dischen Autoren, die selbst aus dem Orient stammen. Stefan Siebers lenkt unser Augenmerk auf die Romanciers und Erzähler aus dem Irak, deren Werke von Zerrissenheit und dem Willen zum Neuanfang zeugen. Mit ihnen vollzieht er den Weg Israels zu einer modernen, zum steten Wandel bereiten und somit im wahrsten Sinne "transkulturellen"Gesellschaft nach.

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Die Zeit von 1583 bis 1622 ist fër Heidelberg eine Periode des Streites, besonders zwischen Reformierten und Lutheranern. Neben der Abendmahlslehre steht die Prädestinationslehre im Zentrum der Auseinandersetzungen. Die reformierten Heidelberger Theologen sahen diese Lehre nicht als spekulatives Modethema an, sondern als die Grundlage fër Trost und Gewissheit, so wie es sich auch in den Dordrechter Canones findet. Nam Kyu Lee behandelt vier, ausgewählte Heidelberger Theologen; Georg Sohn (1551-1589), Herman Rennecherus (geb. 1550), Jakob Kimedoncius (1554-1596), Daniel Tossanus (1541-1602). Die Lehre Georg Sohns hat dogmengeschichtlich eine besondere Bedeutung. Untersucht sind seine seelsorgerliche Motivation, seine Lehre und deren Struktur, sowie die Spuren Melanchthons, die sich in seinen Ansichten wieder finden. Herman Rennecherus betont durch seine Goldene Kette des Heils die seelsorgerliche Bedeutung der Prädestinationslehre. Hierbei ist auch darauf hinzuweisen, dass seine goldene Kette dem Werk Golden Chain von William Perkins vergleichbar ist und anhand dessen der Unterschied in der Entwicklung der Heilsordnung zwischen Großbritannien und dem europäischen Festland deutlich wird.Jacob Kimedoncius geriet mit Samuel Huber, der schon einige Bëcher gegen die Heidelberger Theologen geschrieben hatte, in heftigen Streit darëber, fër wen Christus gestorben sei. Daniel Tossanus behandelt nicht nur die Behauptungen der Scholastiker und der Lutheraner, sondern auch die Verschiedenheit zwischen Melanchthon und Genf und ferner zwischen verschiedenen Heidelberger Theologen. Er vergleicht den so genannten Supralapsarismus mit dem Infralapsarismus und stellt sich selbst dabei als Supralapsarianer heraus.

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Das Lutherjahrbuch ist das bedeutendste Organ der internationalen Lutherforschung und wird im Auftrag der Luther-Gesellschaft e.V. von Christopher Spehr, Jena, herausgegeben. Ausgewählte Buchbesprechungen und die für Lehre und Forschung unverzichtbar Lutherbibliographie orientieren darüber hinaus über bedeutende Publikationen zur Luther- und Reformationsforschung.

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This study is the first to present a monograph on psalm exegesis from the perspective of interdisciplinary trauma research. The work reveals how traumatic events have affected the narrative-aesthetic form of representation of the psalms. With the help of classical-philological, literary and psychological approaches, a phenomenology of literary handling of traumatic experiences is shown in the individual psalms. The trauma research serves to develop the texts in two ways: on the one hand for their ancient origins, which processes collective and individual experiences of violence, and on the other hand for the analysis of the processes of appropriation of the texts in terms of reception aesthetics. The work provides important insights into the central themes of psalm research: the hermeneutics of violence, dealing with suffering, the image of God, the role of lamentation, anthropology. In addition, it also gives impulses for the current social discourse of collective memory and for exploring narrative-poetic strategies for coping with trauma.

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The question of how theology shapes a Christian historians reading of the past has been debated thoroughly in various academic periodicals. Should historians recognise the role of providence in their accounts of past events? Should they sympathise with their subjects theology? Can objectivity be lost due to theological bias? And, last but not least, is there a compromise of faith if one writes natural instead of supernatural history? Such questions are important for understanding the historians profession. Arnold Dallimore, who trained and specialised in pastoral ministry in Canada, wrote an influential biography of the revivalist George Whitefield, as well as others on Charles and Susanna Wesley, Edward Irving, and Charles Spurgeon. How did his Reformed theological perspective impact his historiography? How does his work fit into larger historiographical debates concerning the nature of Christian history? While other books look at Christian historiography using abstract and methodological approaches, this book examines the subject precisely by looking at the life and work of an individual historian. It does so by placing Dallimore in the context of being a minister in twentieth-century Canada as well as his role in the development of Reformed Theology in the Anglosphere. It also examines the quality of his various biographies focusing on key issues such as the nature of religious revival, the problem of Christianity and slavery, and the question of charismatic religious experience. His study concludes by examining the relationship between the discipline and profession of church history and asking what is required for one to be considered a church historian.

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The eighth volume of the series -Studium Systematische Theologie" provides dogmatical information about harmatiology by reference to generic case studies. Delineations of a Harmatiology beyond Pelagianism and Manichaeism are attached. Gunter Wenz is dealing with questions of physical curse and theodicy under soteriological aspects.

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The first three volumes discussed the topics religion, revelation and church. The fourth of this series offers now a historical insight into the doctrine of the Trinity. Wenz explains brilliantly the preconditions of a Christian God and His classic expression in the doctrine of the Trinity and makes therefore this study suitable for students in the main course. The history of Israel as well as the teachings of the Hebrew Bible and the Ontotheology of ancient Greek philosophy form the basis of this book. Special emphasis is put on the development of monotheism.

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In the 16th century - due to the lack of local higher education institutions - Wittenberg was the most important university for Protestants in Hungary. Up to the end of the century about 1200 students stayed here, 430 of them were direct pupils of Melanchthon between 1522 and 1560. The Coetus was created on June 24th, 1555, in a period in which the Wittenberg University was in its flourishing epoch. Melanchthon will have played a decisive role in the creation of the Coetus. It was he who presided over the regular biweekly disputations of the community until the end of his life. Looking at the list of names, it is easy to see that in the first ten years Melanchthon was the common denominator, and although the majority of the members consisted increasingly of supporters of the Swiss Reformation over the years.

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This book gives attention to the language and style of the letter of James, with a hypothesis about its rhetorical purpose in mind. It focuses on what we can learn about the author of James, by reading the text in light of a guiding research question: How does the author establish and assert authority? The letter builds literary authority for a number of purposes, one of which is to address socioeconomic disparity, a major concern for the author. The author of James presents a speech-in-character in the shape of a letter to establish his ethos (Ch. 2), employing vocabulary and style to signal his education implicitly (Ch. 3 & 4) and includes himself in the categories of sage, teacher and exegete explicitly (Ch. 5). From this standpoint, the author can address the rich as equals, rebuke them and admonish both rich and poor to receive Gods wisdom (Ch. 6).The comparison with ancient literary criticism shows that the categories at play are the same. The insight that language and ethos are inseparable categories in antiquity provides us with renewed ways to interpret the literary production of early Christianity. Both James and the Classicists present a competing epic in the context of the early imperium, the former with an Israelite piety that is superior to contemporary economic and moral categories and the latter with the supremacy of Greek culture as a foundation for Rome. The letter of James emerges as a document that builds educational ethos as a balance against the rich and powerful, a strategy that calls for a revision of both its rhetoric and socio-economic situation.

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Thomas F. Torrance ist einer der meistrezipierten englischsprachigen Theologen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Zum ersten Mal wird seine frühe Christologie nun kritisch und historisch sensibel rekonstruiert. Hat sie das Potential, realistisch von Gottes Neuschöpfung unserer Wirklichkeit zu sprechen? Philip Geck rekonstruiert diesen Zusammenhang in einer historisch sensiblen Werkinterpretation.

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Menschliches Leben bedarf der Stellvertretung. Eltern treten für ihre Kinder ein, diese dann umgekehrt für ihre alt oder krank werdenden Eltern, Freunde für einander, wieder anders Liebespaare. In funktionierenden Demokratien vertreten Abgeordnete die Bevölkerung. Auch elementare Äußerungen christlichen Lebens sind wesentlich Stellvertretung, etwa diakonisches Handeln oder das stellvertretende Bittgebet. Nach biblischem Zeugnis tritt Gott für sein Volk und für einzelne Menschen ein, um ihnen Gemeinschaft mit sich zu gewähren und sie in seine Nähe zu führen. Zugleich zeigen sich hier besondere Schwierigkeiten des Verstehens, weil unter anderem die Semantiken des Opfers und des stellvertretenden Leidens Jesu Christi aufgerufen sind, die nicht selten mit Empörung zurückgewiesen werden. Martin Hailer bietet für die komplexe Sachlage der Stellvertretungsthematik zweierlei: Zum einen wird die Rede von der Stellvertretung Gottes für Menschen entfaltet und nicht zuletzt durch ausführliche Bezugnahmen auf die klassischen Passagen Lev 16 und Röm 3,21-25 diskutiert. Zum anderen wird eine Reihe von Konkretionen zwischenmenschlicher Stellvertretung in theologischer Perspektive vorgestellt, unter ihnen Liebe, Freundschaft, das Phänomen des Vorbilds, Lehren/Lernen und das Gebet füreinander. Stellvertretung zeigt sich in all diesen Facetten als unverzichtbares Element einer theologischen Anthropologie.

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Migrations are a phenomenon that can be traced back to the beginning of the history of mankind. In modern times, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, numerous migration movements took place from Europe to North America. It was also at this time that the migrations of the Schwenkfelders, followers of Caspar Schwenckfeld?s teachings, from Silesia then belonging to the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy to Pennsylvania took place. On the basis of their spiritualistic theology as well as their intense, personal piety, they rejected some essential doctrines of Christianity and ecclesiastical institutions. Therefore governmental and ecclesiastical authorities meted out severe punishments to them. However, it was not until the establishment of a Jesuit Mission for their catholicization in 1719 that more than two hundred of them left Silesia for the sake of their faith. They emigrated first to the Electorate of Saxony and several years later to Pennsylvania, where they settled scattered widely northwest of Philadelphia between 1731 and 1737. In this multireligious, multicultural, and multiethnic English colony they become acquainted with other religious beliefs and forms of piety. Here, moreover, they were challenged by other social, political, and cultural circumstances. This monograph is the first to pursue, in detail, the effects of these acquaintanceships and challenges on the faith of the Silesian refugees. These effects ranged as becomes clear from declines and multifarious alterations (modifications, changes, or even revisions) to the strengthening and deepening of their traditional faith and piety. However, the study shows, for most of the Schwenkfelders the migrations did not primarily involve risks. Rather they opened up great opportunities for their religious development and their individual and community life. Without doubt, the Schwenkfelder migrations are characterized by uniqueness; nevertheless certain features can also be detected in other religious migrations. Therefore their migrations represent in certain ways a paradigm, for this time and beyond.

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If one understands decision-making as a social act in which certain decision alternatives are compared and these alternatives are mutually exclusive, one recognizes that a decision is always contingent and that it could therefore always turn out differently. Decisions and decisions are therefore also an impertinence. How does the decision-making practice in Responsa look like? In order to answer this question, Nicola Kramp-Seidl analyzes Salomon Adret's response with the aim of presenting the decision-making process and the visibility of the decision-making in this scholar's response as an example. The author examines when decision-making situations arise, so that inquiries are submitted to Adret, how Adret presents a decision in Responsa, which sources he uses to reduce the burden of decision-making and how he stages his subject authority.

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The volume brings together 18 individual studies on the Book of Jeremiah, which the retired Munich Old Testament scholar Hermann-Josef Stipp developed to accompany the writing of a commentary on Jer 25-52 in order to substantiate and deepen the central theses of the commentary in detail. Three of the essays have not yet been published

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Until now, hymnological representations were mostly conceived historically, as the history of hymns and hymns. There is a risk that attention will be shifted from the songs to their historical context, even if this is indispensable for understanding. This book takes a different approach in that it first takes a look at the songs themselves and examines them on the basis of their various design aspects: according to the linguistic form, according to the relationship between language and music on the formal and content level, according to melody types and musical elements linguistic, literary and theological criteria of linguistic form. The book is the result of many years of teaching. It refers to the German-language hymn repertoire with an emphasis on that of the Protestant churches, whereby, in contrast to earlier representations, both the Lutheran and the Reformed are dealt with in detail. The Catholic hymn tradition is included, so that the book can be used in the entire German-speaking area for teaching and studying.

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This is the first work to examine Calvin's understanding of the relationship between Jews and Christians at such a fundamental level. After an overview of the status of Jews in Europe during the late Middle Ages and the interest at that time in the knowledge of Hebrew and Judaism, the author turns specifically to Calvin and his interpretation of the Bible. Several important questions are addressed: How did Calvin understand the relationship between Jews and Christians? Have Christians taken the place of the Jews, or do they belong to the Jews because they are included in the relationship between God and Israel? What does Calvin have to say about the future of the Jews? The author concludes that Calvin's view of the relationship between Jews and Christians is closely tied to his view of the unity of the Old and New Testaments.

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Johanna Eleonora Petersen (1644-1724) is one of the most important women in the early history of Pietism. Her published theological works are for the most part devoted to eschatological subjects such as Chiliasm and Apokatastasis.

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This volume contains 11 reports with the minutes of the Protestant Church Council of Germany from the years 1954/1955. The texts are thoroughly annotated. The themes taken up in the meetings held during this period were discussed in part with great controversy, ranging from atom-bomb tests to the many problems connected with church work abroad to the revising of Bible texts for new versions; from church finances and the situation of the East German church to the disciplinary rules of the church; from the future role of church pastoral care in the military to the question of whether pastors should serve at all in the military; from church opinions on legal matters of marriage to family law. The extensive indices made the volume easy to access.

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The work of the EKD Council in 1952 was overshadowed by the General Treaty between the Federal Republic and the Western occupying powers. The sharp debate about this agreement presented the EKD with a crucial test, although without the widely feared split between opponents and supporters of the western orientation. After the conclusion of the General Treaty in May 1952 and the associated increasing repression of the GDR against church officials and private individuals, the debates about the foreign policy orientation of the Federal Republic receded into the background. The pragmatic handling of the Council with the new political situation in Germany is documented in the seven minutes of the Council meetings, which are extensively commented on and supplemented by documents.

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The annual reports by the church leadership to the synod of the Evangelical Church in the church province of Saxony regularly commented on current socio-political issues in the SBZ/GDR. The state apparatus of the GDR has always critically evaluated these reports, in which positions were taken responsibly and government measures repeatedly contradicted, and tried to influence the design of the text and the synodal debate. For the first time, the socio-politically relevant sections of the church leadership reports of an East German regional church from the years 1946 to 1989 are published in full. They show the position of the church in the atheistic state and thus open up a piece of GDR history in a general overview.

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In den Jahren 1961 bis 1989 geriet die Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) in ein doppeltes Spannungsverhältnis: Einerseits kam ihr die Rolle als letzte gesamtdeutsche Klammer zu. Andererseits entwickelten sich die deutschen Staaten durch die Einbindung in antagonistische Machtblöcke zÃ"gig auseinander und waren gänzlich verschiedenen Rahmenbedingungen ausgesetzt, die sich auch auf die Kirchen auswirkten. Es kam zur organisatorischen Teilung der EKD, wobei an der Vorstellung einer geistlichen "besonderen Gemeinschaft" festgehalten wurde. Anke Silomon untersucht die getrennte Entwicklung des Kirchenbundes in der DDR und der EKD in der Bundesrepublik, die partnerschaftlichen Beziehungen und gemeinsamen Aktivitäten und fragt nach Anspruch und Wirklichkeit dieser "besonderen Gemeinschaft".

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Der Geist der 68er Bewegung hat zahlreiche gesellschaftliche Veränderungen angestoÃ

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Using the example of the Evangelical Church in Leipzig, the author examines and compares the politics towards the church and the reaction of the pastors in the time of the Third Reich and the GDR up to 1958. The focus is on the one hand on questions of the implementation of church policy guidelines from official bodies and the secret services, on the other hand, the behavior of the Leipzig pastors before and after 1945. Using sources from Saxon archives evaluated here for the first time and concrete examples, the author shows the differences and similarities between the two dictatorships in their relationship to the Protestant Church.

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In her study Chaoluan Kao offers a comprehensive investigation of popular piety at the time of the European Reformations through the study of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Protestant prayerbooks. It pursues a historical-contextual approach to spirituality by integrating social and religious history in order to yield a deeper understanding of both the history of Christian piety and of church history in general. The study explores seven prayerbooks by German authors and seventeen English prayerbooks from the Reformation and post-Reformation as well as from Lutheran, Anglican, and Puritan traditions, examining them as spiritual texts with social and theological significance that helped disseminate popular understandings of Protestant piety. Early Protestant piety required intellectual engagement, emphasized a faithful and heartfelt attitude in approaching God, and urged regular exercise in prayer and reading. Early Protestant prayerbooks modeled for their readers a Protestant piety that was a fervent spiritual practice solidly grounded in the social context and connections of its practitioners. Through those books, Reformation could be understood as redefining the meanings of people's spiritual lives and re-discovering of a pious life. In a broader sense, they functioned as a channel of historical and spiritual transition, which not only tells us the transformation and transmission of Reformation historically but also signifies the development of Christian spirituality. The social-historical study of the prayerbooks furthers our understanding of continuity, change, and inter-confessional influence in the Christian piety of early modern Europe.

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In this study Charles Raith II fills a gap in Reformation-era scholarship by analysing Calvins teaching on works and reward in light of medieval theological developments surrounding the doctrine of merit. While significant analysis has been given to Calvins doctrine of justification, its relation to sanctification, the notion of union with Christ, and the role of participation, there is as yet no sustained analysis of how these teachings are shaped by the most hostile and pervasive of his polemics, namely, his confrontation with a merit-based framework for understanding Christian salvation. This volume, however, interprets Calvins own theological constructions as contextually determined by the reigning polemics of his day. In addition, previous scholarship on these topics has largely failed to properly contextualise Calvins own thought against the background of scholastic theological developments -- developments that Calvin both accepts and rejects in the formulation of his own theology. After Merit addresses these gaps by (1) analysing Calvins tracts, scriptural commentaries and Institutes to demonstrate Calvins unique distain for the doctrine of merit among the early Reformers and the pervasiveness of this polemic within his theological program; (2) reviewing the scholastic developments surrounding the doctrine of merit from the High to Late Middle Ages as background to Calvins thought; (3) highlighting Calvins principle problems with the doctrine of merit: the competitive-causal schema between divine and human causality, merit as a basis for justification, and good works as deserving of reward; and (4) unpacking Calvins theology of justification, sanctification, the worth of works, and the role of works in salvation as an alternative to the opponents doctrine of merit. The volume concludes by reflecting on the reception of Calvins theology of works and reward in later Reformed thought.

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In der Reformationszeit gab es neben der Auseinandersetzung zwischen Protestanten und Altgläubigen auch Initiativen, eine Trennung zu verhindern und die Einheit der Kirche zu wahren. Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560) kam bei den Verständigungsversuchen eine zentrale Rolle zu. Wibke Janssen beleuchtet seinen Beitrag zu den Religionsverhandlungen vom Augsburger bis zum Regensburger Reichstag (1530-1541). Den Schwerpunkt bildet dabei die Sichtung des Quellenmaterials zu Melanchthons Wirken bei den "Reichsreligionsgesprächen" in Worms und Regensburg 1540/41. Seine theologischen Aussagen zu den Streitthemen (Erbsënde, Rechtfertigung, Kirche, Abendmahl u.a.) werden im Zusammenhang mit seiner Verhandlungsstrategie und dem Ausloten von Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Verständigung betrachtet.

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