Church In Germany Research Articles

Digitization in the Evangelical Church(es) in Germany: Exemplary Insights

This article presents exemplary insights into the state of digitization and the corresponding efforts of selected Evangelical Churches in Germany (the federal ekd and three of its member churches) to address an array of challenges triggered by the digital transformation. Three short reports on broader studies demonstrate how the church is responding to these challenges as an actor within civil society, as well as an organization and a community of faith. This preliminary assessment suggests that the ekd is capable of both: taking part in the societal debate as well as designing and reinventing itself anew in the digital realm. Nevertheless, it will do well to figure out more context-sensitive solutions while stimulating both ethical and theological discussions.

German Churches in Times of Demographic Change and Declining Affiliation: A Projection to 2060

The problem of declining membership in Germany’s churches has been apparent for almost half a century. However, few scientific studies have investigated the respective influences of demographic and church-specific phenomena, as well as the potential impact if present trends continue. To answer these questions, we use a cohort component model and project the membership of each German Catholic diocese and Protestant regional church until 2060. Thus, for the first time we present a projection of church members for each of the 27 Catholic (arch-) dioceses and the 20 Protestant regional churches, as well as for the entire Evangelical Church and the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. We collected data from dioceses, Protestant regional churches and the Federal Statistical Office. Under the assumptions made, the results suggest a continued decline in membership and that by 2060 the number of church members would be half the number of 2017. Protestant Church membership would have shrunk slightly more than Catholic Church membership. We can conclude that church-specific factors (baptisms, leaving, and joining the church) would have a stronger influence on declining numbers than demographic factors. Moreover, demographic change would have a greater impact on registered church membership than on the total population. The proportion of Christians in the population would sharply decrease. Although in 2017 54.4 percent of the population belonged to one of the two major churches, according to the projection model, only 31.1 percent would be church members in 2060. As our results are not predictions but projections using trend analysis, we show how changed conditions would affect the projected development in five scenarios.

Exclusive Border Crossing

Abstract From 1933, the inner Protestant ‘German Christians Church Movement’ from Thuringia took control over some Protestant regional churches in Germany. For the German Christians the main motives of their agitation were the creation of a ‘volkisch’ belief system based on race, Christianity and ‘dejudaization’ (of Christianity). Based on the theoretical considerations of spaces, boundaries and exclusion, the article uses the example of the German Christians to show under which conditions individuals are denied entry into an imaginary religious space. ‘Exclusivist border crossings,’ as this phenomena is named here on the theoretical perspective, can explain how religious arguments exclude people from entering a religious space such as salvation when the access criteria are linked to birth-related conditions.

The Rise of Faith-Based Welfare Providers in Germany and Its Consequences

Since the 1970s welfare organisations operated by the churches in Germany have evolved into the country’s largest employers. While church affiliation and attendance dropped sharply, the churches grew as employers. Caritas and Diakonie, the two largest faith-based welfare providers, enjoy a special status as ecclesiastical employers. They can dismiss employees that do not live in congruence with their worldview such as homosexuals, those who have re-married or those who exit the church. Moreover their employees are exempted from the right to strike. The following is the first study that offers a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenal rise of faith-based welfare providers in Germany and the consequences of their special status for employees. The encompassing analysis of labour-law conflicts in German courts between ecclesiastical employers and their employees shows that the contentiousness of those controversies has increased over time. We explain this with the changed composition in the workforce of Caritas and Diakonie which has, in contrast to former times, today much less connection to the values of the church. Moreover, our analysis of legal cases shows that Caritas and Diakonie so far have been able to successfully defend their special status in front of German courts.

Church Taxpayers in Germany – Results from the Income Tax Statistics

Due to the anonymised church tax collection in Germany, the churches have neither information on the number and structure of the church taxpayers nor on the individual church tax payment. Therefore, a specific evaluation of the income tax statistics transfers the data to the regional structure of the Evangelical and Catholic Church in Germany is necessary. Between the years 2010 and 2015 - despite the high numbers of deregistrations - church tax revenue increased. Although the share of church members in all taxpayers decreased during this period, the number of church taxpayers and their average age-specific church tax payment increased due to economic growth. Furthermore, an analysis by income group shows that the church membership rate decreases with increasing income. Almost 15 percent of church members in Germany with a taxable income starting at € 30,000 make up 77 percent of the church tax revenue.

Kryzys Kościoła jako kryzys wartości w niemieckim dyskursie teologiczno-socjologicznym

Artykuł poświęcony jest przemianom następującym w sferze aksjonormatywnej, których skutkiem jest zmiana miejsca i roli Kościoła we współczesnym społeczeństwie, często określana mianem kryzysu. Autorka przedstawia najważniejsze wątki toczącej się od kilku dziesięcioleci w środowisku teologów i socjologów niemieckich dyskusji na temat możliwych przyczyn osłabienia społecznej pozycji instytucji Kościoła oraz sposobów radzenia sobie z tą sytuacją. Problemy Kościoła katolickiego w Niemczech są nieco inne niż w Polsce, jednak zbliżone kierunki przemian społeczno-kulturowych, w tym również tych zachodzących w sferze wartości, sprawiają, że Kościół w Polsce w przyszłości prawdopodobnie będzie musiał stawić czoła podobnym problemom. Potrzebne mogą okazać się pewne zmiany strukturalne oraz pastoralne, które mogłyby się przyczynić do wzrostu wiarygodności i skuteczności głoszenia Ewangelii współczesnemu człowiekowi.

Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Priests, Deacons, and Male Members of Religious Orders in the Authority of the German Bishops' Conference 1946-2014.

This study explores the extent of sexual abuse of minors by members of the Catholic Church in Germany. It is the first comprehensive study to examine this extent in a European country. The goals of this study are as follows: (a) to analyze whether the extent and characteristics of sexual abuse in a European country are comparable to those in the United States and Australia and (b) how discrepancies can be explained. The personnel files of 38,156 Catholic Priests, deacons, and male members of religious orders in the authority of the German Bishops' Conference were analyzed. The study period lasted from 1946 to 2014. All 27 German dioceses took part in this study. A total of 4.4% of all clerics (N = 1,670) from 1946 to 2014 were alleged to have committed sexual abuse, and 3,677 children or adolescents were identified as victims. These results are similar to those from comparable studies in the United States. Sexual abuse of minors within the authority of the Catholic Church seems to be a worldwide phenomenon.

Does Church Tax Matter?

Abstract Disaffiliation indicates a major future challenge to the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches in Germany, particularly regarding the church tax. This article addresses that issue by first describing the particular German context of disaffiliation. It then summarises previous research, which indicates that the church tax is the trigger to leave the church. An analysis of recent data reveals that the portion of church members is lowest in those income classes that have to pay an above average amount of church tax. Moreover, the likelihood to resign from church membership is highest when the individual begins his or her first paid job. Both findings ascribe church tax a more powerful role in the process of disaffiliation than previous research.

Different Contexts of Sexual Abuse With a Special Focus on the Context of Christian Institutions: Results From the General Population in Germany

Recent revelations of the extent of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Germany and the United States have once more triggered the debate about sexual abuse. Those inquiries identify cases that are known to authorities or have been recorded in these institutions. However, to assess the full magnitude of the problem, data beyond recorded or known cases are needed, as it can be assumed that a vast number of cases are not reported and are hence not included in such file reviews. Therefore, representative surveys are needed. The aim of the present study was to examine the prevalence of sexual abuse by priests and in different contexts in the German population based on a representative sample. A total of 2,510 participants (54.3% female, M = 48 years) were retrospectively asked about different experiences, offenders, contexts, and so on, of child sexual abuse using questions that were used to assess child sexual abuse in prior surveys and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). In sum, 0.21% (n = 7) of the participants reported child sexual abuse by a priest or pastor. 0.16% reported child sexual abuse in an institution of the Roman Catholic Church. Results also indicated that victims of sexual abuse by priests and pastors reported rather severe types of sexual abuse based on the CTQ in comparison with other contexts, such as schools. Extrapolating the data for the population, it can be assumed that the estimated number of victims is much higher than those identified by research based on recorded cases.

Demografischer Wandel und nachlassende Kirchenzugehörigkeit: Ergebnisse aus der Mitgliederprojektion der evangelischen und katholischen Kirche in Deutschland und ihre Folgen für die Religionspädagogik.

Abstract In 2020, for the first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, less than half of the 6- to 18-year-old population will be members of the Protestant or Catholic Church. By the year 2060, this percentage will continue to decrease to 25 %. These are the results of the first coordinated member projection study for the Evangelical and Catholic Church in Germany. The article depicts the method of the projection model and the developments for the coming four decades. It examines regional peculiarities in West and East Germany by viewing the states of Baden-Württemberg and Saxony as exemplary cases. Questions about the possible consequences for church, school, and society will conclude the article

Perspektiven der kirchlichen Gerichtsbarkeit

The reform of the ecclesiastical data protection law of the Catholic Church in Germany due to the European General Data Protection Regulation has come to an end with the establishment of a specialized ecclesiastical data protection jurisdiction. What at first sight appears to be the convincing keystone of the reform turns out to be doubtful seen in a wider institutional context: The establishment of the ecclesiastical data protection jurisdiction is yet another step towards an alarming fragmentation of ecclesiastical jurisdictions as a whole. The ecclesiastical data protection jurisdiction is in fact another (over-)specialized ecclesiastical administrative jurisdiction under a different name. On that basis, the article argues for the establishment of a uniform administrative jurisdiction of the Catholic Church which will lead to a convincing institutional structure of the ecclesiastical court system.

Neue Entscheidungen zum Recht der steuerbegünstigten Zwecke im religiösen Bereich

The German Federal Tax Court recently published several decisions containing specific requirements for the granting of tax benefits, especially concerning the nonprofit status of religion in general and religious communities in particular. So the court had to decide, if a religious organization classified as extremist by an Office for the Protection of the Constitution can enjoy nonprofit status for tax purposes. Furthermore can a society, that excludes women from membership, be recognized as a nonprofit organization? Then there was a decision regarding the question of equal tax treatment of donations to churches in Germany and abroad in the EU/EEA – European Economic Area. And finally a court ruling on statute requirements for nonprofit organizations to be met by religious communities. The above article reflects the decision makings as well as the opinions and reasons of these court rulings, partially critically and also what they mean for the tax law practice.

Evangelische Schulseelsorge

The christian churches in Germany are engaged in pastoral care and counceling in school. The schools are obliged to support it. The ecclesiastical law says: teachers of religion may be given a mandate in pastoral care, if they have been qualified in special courses by the churches. By this mandate they are bound to secrecy and may be allowed to refuse their testimony at court.

Die „Handreichung zur Seelsorge an Sterbenden und ihren Angehörigen“ der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) und der Orthodoxen Bischofskonferenz (OBKD)

The article introduces into the bilateral recommendation regarding pastoral care for the dying and their relatives published by the Evangelical Church in Germany and the Orthodox Bishops Conference in Germany.

Die Lieder by Martin Luther

Reviewed by: Die Liederby Martin Luther Robin A. Leaver Martin Luther. Die Lieder. Herausgegeben von Jürgen Heidrich and Johannes Schilling. Stuttgart: Reclam; Stuttgart: Carus-Verlag, 2017. [Pref. in Ger., p. 7; Die Lieder, p. 11-148; appendix, p. 151-204. ISBN 978-3-15-011096-6 (Reclam); ISBN 978-3-89948-287-4 (Carus). i35.] The hymns of Martin Luther are foundational not only for Lutherans but also for other Protestant traditions created by the Reformations of the sixteenth century, and notwithstanding Luther's views on the Catholicism of his day, Roman Catholics in subsequent generations have also taken to singing at least some of his hymns. It is Luther who promoted the vernacular singing of the congregation, a concept and practice that quickly developed and spread geographically and chronologically from Wittenberg in the early sixteenth century. Their associated melodies have become the backbone of a great deal of other music, from the homophony of Lucas Osiander to the polychoralism of Michael Praetorius, from the cantatas and organ preludes of Johann Sebastian Bach to the motets and organ pieces of Hugo Distler, from Felix Mendelssohn's exploration of Luther's Ein feste Burgin his Reformation Symphony to Igor Stravinsky's somewhat sparse reworking of the same [End Page 701]melody in his L'histoire du soldat, among other examples. Thus especially from early in the nineteenth century there have been a succession of editions of Luther's texts and melodies, some more scholarly, others more popular, notably those edited by August Jakob Rambach ( Ueber D. Martin Luthers Verdienst um den Kirchengesang[Hamburg: Bohnische Buchhandlung, 1813; reprint, Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1972]), by Carl von Winterfeld ( Martin Luthers Deutsche geistliche Lieder[Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1840; reprint, G. Olms, 1966]), and by Philipp Wackernagel ( Martin Luthers geistliche Lieder: Mit den zu seinen Lebzeiten gebräuchlichen Singweisen[Stuttgart: S. G. Liesching, 1848; reprint, G. Olms, 1976]). The foundational modern critical edition of the texts and melodies was published as volume 35 of D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe(often referred to as the "Weimarer Ausgabe," hereinafter WA, 136 volumes) edited by Wilhelm Lucke, Otto Albrecht, and Hans Joachim Moser (Weimar: Hermann Böhlau, 1923), which provided the scholarly background for more popular editions, such as those edited by Hans Preuss and Ernst Schmidt ( Luthers Lieder[Leipzig: G. Schloessmann, 1931]), and, more recently, by Johannes Heimrath and Michael Korth ( Ein feste Burg: Luthers Kirchenlieder nach der Ausgabe letzter Hand von 1545[Munich: Artemis, 1983]). With the passage of time, the discovery of new sources, and the development of new ideas about Luther, in the 1980s a series of supplementary volumes to WA was begun: Archiv zur Weimarer Ausgabe der Werke Martin Luthers: Texte und Untersuchungen. The fourth volume is Luthers geistliche Lieder und Kirchengesänge: Vollständige Neuedition in Ergänzung zu Band 35 der Weimarer Ausgabe, edited by Markus Jenny (Cologne: Böhlau, 1985, here-inafter AWA 4). The volume under review, jointly issued by Reclam and Carus, is therefore one of the latest in a long succession of editions, some of which were published in or around 2017. The primary reason for this phenomenon is that 2017 marked the 500th anniversary of the beginning of Luther's Reformation in 1517, and for many people their most tangible contact with Luther's protest in the early sixteenth century is in their familiarity with his hymns. But these new publications have been able to draw on recent significant German hymnological publications in which Luther's hymns are prominent. These include: the critical edition of published melodies associated with German hymns from the beginnings until 1570 ( Die Melodien bis 1570, vol. 1 in the series Das deutsche Kirchenlied: Kritische Gesamtausgabe der Melodien, Abteilung III, Melodien aus gedruckente Quellen bis 1680, ed. Joachim Stalmann, et al. [Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1993-98]; see my reviews in Notes54, no. 4 [June 1998]: 907-11; 56, no. 2 [December 1999]: 388-91; and 59, no. 3 [March 2003]: 664-67]); and the detailed commentaries on each of the hymns in the common hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch(published in various editions for each regional church in Germany, 1993-96)—the replacement of the Evangelische Kirchen-gesangbuch...

Lasst Beides Wachsen bis zur Ernte’: Toleranz in der Geschichte des Christentums by Arnold Angenendt

Reviewed by: Lasst Beides Wachsen bis zur Ernte’: Toleranz in der Geschichte des Christentums by Arnold Angenendt Franz Posset ‘Lasst Beides Wachsen bis zur Ernte’: Toleranz in der Geschichte des Christentums. By Arnold Angenendt. (Münster: Aschendorff Verlag. 2018. Pp. 243. €17,90. ISBN 978-3-402-13246-3.) The book title is taken from Mt 13:30: “Let them grow together until harvest,” which is part of Jesus’ parable of the weed and the wheat. Its thesis is: The biblical command, Mt 13:30, is the Leitmotiv (p. 16) that dominates the concept and the historical development of religious tolerance. This Scripture verse is the most significant contribution that Christianity has made to the coming into existence of religious tolerance. This verse is “Jesus’ words of tolerance” (p. 16). As far as I can see, no scholar before Angenendt has ever traced the use of Mt 13:30 through the centuries. The book does not provide any biographical information about its author. He was born in 1934, a priest of the Catholic Church in Germany, a church historian, professor emeritus of the University of Münster. He shows the impact of Mt 13:30 up to the Second Vatican Council with its Declaration on Religious Liberty of 1965 (without, however, providing the exact source reference, which would be no. 11). Early examples of dealing with heresies show the use of Mt 13:30 by Irenaeus of Lyon (ca. 200), Cyprian (died 258), Tertullian (ca. 220), Origen (died ca. 253). In the Christian East, the verse was consistently utilized for non-violence and for the prohibition of killing heretics, i.e. especially by John Chrysostom (died 407). In the West, Augustine (died 430), too, worked with this verse in order to object to the killing of heretics. In the Middle Ages, the verse still had its lasting impact in terms of “do not pull up” (Mt 13:28–29)—during the time of the church-political struggles between popes and emperors. Major figures are Anselm of Luttich (died ca. 1056), Sigebert de Gembloux (died 1112), John of Salisbury (died 1180), Gerhoch von Reichersberg (died 1169), Peter Abelard (died 1142), and Anselm von Havelberg (died 1158). Even Gratian’s Decretum (the foundation of medieval church law; ca. 1130) incorporates Mt 13:30 in favor of patience and tolerance. “The outrageous change” (Der unerhörte Umbruch, p. 99) in favor of killing heretics occurred with Pope Gregory IX (died 1241) and Thomas Aquinas (died 1274) who advocated the “pulling up” of the weed in order to justify the killing of heretics for the “spiritual common good” (geistliches Allgemeinwohl, p. 101). The Protestant Reformation with its main figures Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin is tackled all too briefly. The elder Luther’s long sermon on Mt 13 (of 1545, Weimarer Ausgabe vol. 52: 828–839) is overlooked. In it Luther pointed out that the Lord commanded that Christians shall not eradicate heretics. There is one other, major lacuna in the display of the [End Page 157] Wirkungsgeschichte of Mt 13:30: Johann Reuchlin. As I indicated in my book, Johann Reuchlin (1455–1522) (Berlin/Boston, 2015), Reuchlin advised obedience to the devise of Mt 13:30 that one should not pull up one with the other (see his Expert Opinion for the emperor of 1510, Recommendation Whether to Confiscate, Destroy and Burn All Jewish Books). In the Age of Enlightenment, Mt 13:30 was used by Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Pierre Bayle, Voltaire, Immanuel Kant—each in his own way. Chapter VI covers the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Modern Religious Liberty). Flaws are found in the index of names where the given pages usually are removed by two page numbers. Unfortunately, there is no list of abbreviations that were used. Nevertheless, Angenendt’s study is to be highly recommended. Endnotes are copious and comprise pages 185–212. The list of source material is given on nine pages (pp. 213–221). The bibliography is gigantic (pp. 222–240). Instead of “Marin Bucer” it should read Martin Bucer (p. 218). This book demonstrates that church history is essentially the history of Bible interpretation. Franz Posset Independent Researcher Copyright © 2019 The Catholic University of America Press

Unification and peace: How were the German churches involved in the search for unity to overcome conflicts of the last decades of the last century?

This article is a narrative reflection of the author’s perspective on the role of the Church in the unification process of Germany in the last part of the last decade. It is presented from his perspective of being a German citizen, as well a member of the church in Germany. The author situates this experience amidst the political and ideological movements shaping the binary notions ‘East’ and ‘West’.

An essay on what the reformation could not prevent the identification of church and 'volk'. Three examples reconsidered

In this year of REFO 500 the author investigates the question why the Reformation with its ‘theology of sola Scriptura and solus Christus’ could not prevent the successive identification of church and ‘volk’ in history and why it could not prevent the fatal consequences this identification had for the gospel message of reconciliation, the exemplary existence of the church of Christ and the coming of the kingdom of God. Three examples serve as proof for this statement: the attitude of the Anglican Church in England during the second Anglo-Boer War (now called the South African War)(1899-1902); the Lutheran Church in Germany during the Second World War (1939-1945) and the Reformed Churches in South Africa during the years of apartheid (1948-1994). All three examples reveal an untenable identification of church and ‘volk’, although in varying degrees. How could that happen?

Pentecostal Mission: A German Free Church Perspective

AbstractThe Pentecostal movement is growing worldwide. This applies both globally and to the German context. Pentecostal mission, therefore, plays an increasingly important role – a role that is also reflected in new networks and institutions emerging in Germany. As Pentecostal churches increase in importance, their ecumenical relationships are also moving into focus. The reproach of prosyletism arises repeatedly at the intersection of mission and ecumenism in ecumenical discussions. This article illustrates the development of ecumenical relations in Pentecostal churches in Germany from a Free Church perspective, viewing ecumenical challenges and opportunities in relation to approaches of church theory.

Revisiting the Message to the People of South Africa: 1968–2018

AbstractThe year 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Message to the People of South Africa in 1968, the same year in which the 4th Assembly of the World Council of Churches was held in Uppsala. The Message was the first major South African ecumenical statement that rejected apartheid as unbiblical and unchristian, a “false gospel.” At the time it was likened to the Barmen Declaration of the Confessing Church in Germany (1934). It also set in motion a process of ecumenical opposition to apartheid that prepared the way for declaring its theological justification a heresy and its practice a sin that had to be rejected and resisted. This article sets out the background to the Message, describes the process which led to its publication, outlines its content, and considers its significance looking back after 50 years.