Kommunikation mit Gott – ein Gegenstand der Geschichtswissenschaften?

Abstract

Religious actors converse not merely about God, the saints, or more generally: transcendence, but also with these transcendent entities. Even though this peculiar kind of communication is by no means equally relevant to all religions, it is at least so for medieval Christianity. In numerous contemporary sources, God is described or pictured as a communication partner of human beings. Although the historian must refrain from asking whether this communication is possible per se, he or she can (and should) contribute to a historicization of divine-human communication. Even though the traditional forms are often presented as something God-given by religious actors, from a cultural studies perspective, the fundamental historicity of divine-human communication must be stated: which ritual practice, which habitual gesture or which emotional state is considered acceptable and appropriate in each case in order to address God is decided on and changes with the historical context – and is thus in need of historical explanation. This article aims to contribute to this explanation by examining historical aspects of divine-human communication in medieval Christianity. It is the article’s basic methodological axiom that irritation represents an observation opportunity for such an approach: wherever communication with God was contested, disputed or even fought over, the form of communication in question became itself the object of communication – and can thus be observed from the perspective of cultural studies.