European Churches Research Articles

Działalność pastoralna Kościoła w świetle Dossier Europejskiego Zgromadzenia Synodalnego

Started by Pope Francis in 2021, the Synod on Synodality is intended to be a guiding principle for the self-awareness of the Church in the coming decades of the 21st century. The Church faces numerous challenges as a global institution, grappling with various issues among its followers who currently inhabit all continents. The situation of young churches in Africa, emerging after the era of colonialism, is different, as they seek their own identity. Similarly, the Church operates differently on the Old Continent, permeated by ideas of freedom, secularism, and liberalism. This article focuses on certain topics presented by participants of the synodal meeting in Prague in early 2023, addressing the functioning of the Church in Europe. The content of the article centers around the discussion of the idea of synodality and its place in the history of the Church and its current ecclesial vision. It then explores the relationship between mercy and truth in theology, openness to contemporary culture while preserving tradition, and the dynamics of power competition within the Church. All of these aspects are presented based on the Dossier of the Synodal Meeting in Prague, which outlines practical and pastoral challenges for the Church’s activities in Europe.

II wojna światowa jako przyczyna zmian w podziale administracyjnym Kościoła katolickiego. Przykład diecezji Görlitz

War is a huge political change, which, in addition to its social, political, or economic effects, also has other effects. One of these may be the impact on churches and religious associations, especially on their organizational and administrative structures. An excellent example confirming this thesis is World War II, after which the organization of the Catholic Church in Europe was transformed and the Holy See revised the boundaries of archdioceses and dioceses in various countries for almost 50 years. In this article, the author addressed the specific case of the creation of the Diocese of Görlitz, which is the smallest diocese in modern Germany. Through his analysis he showed that the war has a huge impact on the functioning and efficient management in the Catholic Church and causes legal and interpretative difficulties in its administrative division and consequently, the division of competencies, while requiring delicacy, since strictly religious documents can be perceived in an explicitly political way.

Dutch Lutheran Women on the Pulpit

Abstract In the course of the Twentieth century, the roles for women in Protestant churches in Europe expanded to include the possibility of participating in the church office of minister. For the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the year 2022 marked the centenary of women in the ordained ministry. On June 12, 1922, the Lutheran synod decided that, according to the existing regulations, women could also be admitted as candidates for the ministry. In 1929 Jantine Auguste Haumersen (1881–1967) became the first female Lutheran minister in the Netherlands and worldwide. This made the Lutheran church, after the Mennonites and the Remonstrants, the third denomination in the Netherlands where women could hold the office of minister. Utilizing a broad cultural analysis and based on recent extensive archival research this article describes the turning points in the development of women’s ordained ministry in the Lutheran Church in the Netherlands.

Ecumenism in modern Europe: adaptation to secular society

The ecumenism ideology is based on evangelical foundations and is aimed at achieving universal Christian unity. The historical differentiation of Christianity and the various circumstances of the church organizations development have caused the ecumenical movement internal heterogeneity. Each of the Christianity directions is guided by its own theological interpretation of ecumenism. Doctrinal agreement of these interpretations cannot be achieved. The political situation in the world and the situation of national churches within countries also hinder organizational unification. Therefore, ecumenical organizations, mainly the World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches, develop dialogue and cooperation programs aimed at Eucharistic and liturgical communication between different Christian confessions believers, as well as joint social services of representatives of different churches. The ecumenical movement in the twentieth century developed almost synchronously with the deployment of large-scale secularization. The secular nature of modern European societies determines the priority of social activity over theological activity in the ecumenical movement. The dependence of international ecumenical organizations on current politics is also obvious - they currently follow the European Union governing bodies’ ideo-logical rhetoric. The current situation of the ecumenical movement cannot be called a crisis, rather, there is a transformation into a new state - going beyond intra-Christian cooperation and inclusion in an interreligious dialogue, as well as in a dialogue with non-religious institutions of modern society.

Nineteenth-century religious-spiritual revival movements in the Catholic Church. The religious and social context of the life and activity of Jadwiga Zamoyska née Działyńska

Showing the context of the religious and social revival in Europe at the turn of the 19th and 20th century appears to be necessary to present the atmosphere in which Jadwiga Zamoyska lived and worked. A wide panorama of issues related to the renewal of spirituality helps to find the roots and motives of the awakening religious and social awareness, the role of the laity in this process, and especially the women’s movement. Pointing to the sources of renewal gushing from European centers is intended to show the relationship between spirituality in Poland and the spirituality of the Church in Europe, which then influenced the development of spirituality around the world. Numerous schools of spirituality point to the richness of the religious life of that period. One of them, the Oratorian school, deepens Zamoyska’s spirituality. Undoubtedly, also other schools, whose spirituality permeated the faithful living in the Polish lands, had an impact on the beginning and development of the religious and social activities of the founder of the School of Economics in Kórnik.

A Latin American Perspective on the Leuenberg Agreement

AbstractAmong the 104 churches signatory to the Leuenberg Agreement of 1973, which created ecclesial communion between Lutheran, Reformed, and United churches in Europe, are six churches from Latin America, five of them from the Southern Cone. This article reviews how the Protestant churches in the Southern Cone came to be signatories of the Leuenberg Agreement and its significance for their life and witness. Two elements in particular have proven significant over the years. The first is the theological and ecumenical platform the Leuenberg Agreement provided, which gave visibility to a phenomenon already taking place. The second is the fact that the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe has a regional group in South America: this was the case almost from the beginning, which also poses an interesting theological and contextual challenge.

The Responsibility of the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe for Society Today

AbstractThis article explores the potential of the 1973 Leuenberg Agreement – which resulted in the creation of the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE) – for the work and witness of churches in Europe today. Recalling its 50th anniversary not only celebrates the agreement, but also encourages the development of a European‐wide community. Until now, Reformation theology could rely on the fact that Christian influence still had a living role within European culture. Today, however, churches must shape the message of their public mission not only to be heard, but also to win over fellow human beings. Churches need to have a “prophetic” influence and thus engage in advocacy for justice and democracy. This article explores how the CPCE can place its Reformation potential at the service of the peoples of Europe, based on solidarity, commitment, unity, representation, and trust.

Ecclesial Online Identities during the Covid-19 Pandemic

The majority churches in Europe are paradoxically considered to be both powerful and weak religious institutions. Their complex position in secular society makes it important for them to communicate who they are to the public. The Covid-19 pandemic was a situation in which churches and other religious institutions were ‘forced’ to use digital media as a primary arena of outreach. This article investigates how three Scandinavian majority churches negotiated their ecclesial identities on Facebook during 2020, the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. The following question is explored: did ‘online’ enactments represent their religious identities and core values in new ways to the public? The data material consists of material from the official Facebook pages of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark (the ELCD), the Church of Norway, and the Church of Sweden, as well as interviews with Facebook editors from each church. The study demonstrates how the Church of Norway and the Church of Sweden enact church practices on Facebook, while the ELCD tries not to be too ‘churchy’. Facebook emerges as a hybridized third space where Scandinavian majority churches pursue new logics and forms of meaning making to retain their position in secular societies. Overall, the churches’ online identities on Facebook are not new representations but intensified versions of their distinct offline identities as ‘folk churches’ for the whole population.

Churches in Europe and the Challenge of Cultural Witness

It is a commonplace sentiment that the church in Europe is declining [...]

Lutherische "Orthodoxie" als historisches Problem. Leitidee, Konstruktion und Gegenbegriff von Gottfried Arnold bis Ernst Troeltsch by Christian Volkmar Witt

Reviewed by: Lutherische "Orthodoxie" als historisches Problem. Leitidee, Konstruktion und Gegenbegriff von Gottfried Arnold bis Ernst Troeltsch by Christian Volkmar Witt Joar Haga Lutherische "Orthodoxie" als historisches Problem. Leitidee, Konstruktion und Gegenbegriff von Gottfried Arnold bis Ernst Troeltsch. By Christian Volkmar Witt. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021. 300 pp. Most books present familiar material in new ways, fewer break new territory. Rarer still are those which change the way we think about a given period. This is such a rare book. The German church historian Christian Witt has written a book about the framing of the period that many until recently have referred to as Lutheran Orthodoxy. After this, it will be difficult or impossible to use the term "Orthodoxy" as a neutral category, suited to designate a period of church history. Packed with analytical tools from the theory of [End Page 230] institutional symbolic orders by sociologist Karl-Siegbert Rehberg, Witt deconstructs the function of a central term in history. A term that postulates a correct faith, ortho-doxa, "orthodoxy" does not merely function as a formula of identification of certain concrete features, it is also an instrument of demarcation and marginalisation (18). Witt uses the three concepts in the title (Leitidee, Konstruktion, Gegenbegriff) as perspectives on his material, stretching from Arnold to Troeltsch. Witt traces how the idea of truth is at work among central European church historians not merely in how they treat historical facts; he also uncovers how it is built into the very theories the interpretations rely on. These theories are in some ways connected through their truth-claims, or their resistance to making truth claims. To highlight this aspect of the conceptual framework, Witt draws on the historian Reinhard Koselleck, a scholar close to Carl Schmitt, who viewed politics through the categories of friend and foe. Indeed, one could read the whole German Begriffsgeschichte as an attempt to utilise Schmitt´s understanding of the political as a battle ground. Witt's twelve pages about "Gegenbegriff" (oppositional concept) could serve as a fruitful theoretical reflection on a wider range of materials, due to its unpacking of an almost silent pejorative potential in the analytical tools. In the conclusion, Witt in a more direct manner comes to the fore and fleshes out his understanding of heterodoxy, the opposite of orthodoxy. Witt underlines that the so-called heterodox theologian does not become heterodox by framing himself in the image of a different doctrinal conception. It is much more likely that the heterodox would construe his own identity as orthodox (40). Witt's deconstruction of the (in)famous Gottfried Arnold´s (1666–1714) supposedly Impartial History of the Church and of Heresy (1699)—the most unwillingly ironic title of all time—is perhaps the most fruitful part of this work. One could claim that Witt's presentation of Arnold offers nothing new. Arnold´s revisionist claims and radical pietist assumptions have been previously noted. For Arnold, to be orthodox meant to be a hard-headed persecutor of true believers. The strength of Witt´s text lies in showing how far the implications [End Page 231] and consequences of Arnold's fundamental distinction reverberated among church historians. By Witt's thorough step-by-step analysis of how Arnold unleashed his pejorative power, Arnold's method and its results become clear. In one sense, Witt's book is a portrayal of the rhetorical power of historians. Witt's nuanced tracing of how the normative choices of a man at the close of the seventeenth century dominated successive research is simply mindboggling. Witt traces the categories of interpretation influenced by Arnold through several church historians from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. For example, the analysis of the normative positions of supposedly neutral Enlightenment theologians such as Johann Semler (1725–1791) is rewarding. The search for an "inner attitude" (102) corresponded to Semler's lamenting how the Catholic church attempted to create a monopoly of the truth by allegedly suppressing an original plurality (109). The chapter on August Tholuck (1799–1877) and his book Der Geist der lutherischen Theologen Wittenbergs (1852) is a gem. Witt shows how Tholuck fought on two fronts, against the rationalism of yore and the confessionalism of...

Research on the Evolution of the Architectural Style of Catholic Church in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance

Architects and artists in the Renaissance believed that Gothic architecture was a symbol of Christian theocracy, while ancient Greek and Roman architecture was non Christian. With the impact of humanism and Protestantism on Catholicism during the Renaissance and Reformation, the architectural style of the Catholic Church changed dramatically. From 1500 to 1700, the style of the church also changed from the original Gothic style and the Latin cross to the Greek cross, and even integrated the Baroque style. From the perspective of the time axis, this paper mainly adopts the method of literature analysis, combined with the social background, the evolution of artistic style and other factors, trying to explain and analyze the changes in the architectural style of the Catholic Church during this period. After analyzing the historical trend of Catholicism and the literature at that time, it is not difficult to find that the pursuit of humanism in the Renaissance, the change in the style of the mainstream of art, and the anti-Renaissance movement directly affected the change in the style of the Catholic Church, becoming more secular and popular; this change also reflected the spirit of Florence and other places where the Renaissance originated at that time.

Public Theology as Cultural Witness: Christological Contours for “Times That Are A’Changin’”

Churches in Europe are being faced with a transformation that can be described as a seismic shift. In order to face the challenge of cultural witness in this context, this contribution proposes a Christologically contoured public theology. This will be spelt out in four consecutive steps. After a brief introduction on the paradigm of public theology, the second part tackles the question of addressees. Is the witness of public theology directed at the church or at the world? Making use of the insights of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, this contribution argues for going beyond the binary and understanding the one Christ-reality as the frame of reference for public theology and cultural witness. The third part seeks to uncover the transformative power of Christology for public witness by making use of the traditional dogmatic figure of the munus triplex for the task of witnessing to the “public Christ” (Michael Welker). In the final part, three theses sketch out the implications of public witness in “times that are a-changin’.” (1) Public witness needs religious literacy and bilinguality. (2) For public witness, diaspora existence and missional existence are sisters. (3) Public witness is ecumenical, practical, and spiritual.

A New Way of Life: The Challenge of Cultural Witness in the Early Jesus Movement

This article portrays innovative and distinct features of the Christ groups of the first decades with the underlying premise that the lived reality of the early Christian communities has the potential to inspire present-day churches in Europe when they face the challenge of cultural witness. People were drawn to Christ groups because they were different from the surrounding culture. Christianity would not have survived if it did not offer a counter-cultural ethical stance; a new social imaginary; alternative membership options; a flexible organizational structure; a holistic worldview; and a creative, innovative communication style—in one phrase: a new way of life.

Less Known Iconography of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary in the Prague Loreto in Connection with the Teaching of St Lawrence of Brindisi

The text describes and contextualises collections of sermons by Lawrence of Brindisi about the Virgin Mary called Mariale, mainly the sermons about the teachings of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. Lawrence of Brindisi, a capuchin monk and a European diplomat, was an important person in European church history of the 16th and the 17th centuries, but his texts are not yet fully appreciated. The text compares the theological question with the works of art from Prague Loreta. The comparison of the layout of this Marian pilgrimage place and thoughts of Franciscan spirituality contained in Lawrence’s sermons demonstrates the mutual interconnection between the specific period of theological thinking and a particular example of artistic expression.

(Des) igualdades de género nas igrejas evangélicas na Europa

This article presents the theme of our research "The role of women in evangelical churches in Europe". We intend to conduct an in-depth, intensive, and qualitatively study based on the Grounded Theorymethodology on gender (in)equalities in evangelical churches in Europe. This is a contemporary, pertinent and original theme, little developed in sociology of religion. We intend to compare the data collected in five European countries, diversifying the geographical location and other relevant sociological anddenominational variables described in the following text.

Соотношение религиозной и эстетической функций в произведениях абстрактного искусства в пространстве христианских церквей

The article reflects the results of the study of works of abstract art in the context of the interaction of Christian Western European churches with contemporary art. The close connection of this topic with the problem of the correlation between the aesthetic and religious functions of religious art is shown. As a result of the study, three main trends are revealed that are manifested in the works of modern abstract art in the church space: the aesthetic side of the work goes through several stages of religious correction, while influencing the artist's approach to abstract art; the aesthetic side of the work comes to the fore; the aesthetic and religious side of the work are almost in equal proportions. It is concluded that the meanings of abstract art are in demand in the situation of individualization of spiritual practices in the countries of modern Western Europe.

Рецензия на книгу: История русского Православного зарубежья: В 5 т. Т. 1. Кн. 2: Русское церковное присутствие в Европе до 1917 г. М.: Индрик, 2021. — 800 с.: ил.

A five-volume edition of "History of the Russian Orthodox Diaspora" is prepared by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Moscow Theological Academy. The historical circumstances that determine the typical features of the Russian church presence in Western Europe are analyzed, starting from the first Russian embassy house churches to the flourishing of the Russian church building in Europe in the pre-revolutionary years. It is noted that the Russian church in Europe was not only a clear evidence of Orthodoxy, but also a signature landmark of Russia itself – its “clerical and diplomatic representation” and religious and cultural image.

Ukrainian Music in the 18th – 21st Centuries: A Retrospective Study

The purpose of the article. The study seeks to characterise traditional Ukrainian music of the 18th-21st centuries influenced by Western European stylistic trends. To do this, the study analyses the similarities and differences in the historical development of music in Ukraine by looking into some historical events. The contextual relationships of Ukrainian music history with national traditions and global trends were established. The research methodology. The study relies on comparative and culturological analyses to compare the historical heritage of Ukrainian music art as a cultural process with Western European traditions and influences. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the expanding of the historical knowledge about Ukrainian music in the context of artistic styles. Conclusions. Culturological analysis revealed that Ukrainian Baroque was most vivid between the mid 17th and the mid 18th centuries. During this period, polyphonic pieces were written in the Baroque style not inferior to Western European church music in terms of artistic quality and national originality. Partes is a new Ukrainian style of church music born from the baroque tradition. Under the influence of Western Europe, the single-frequency partes singing or partsong transformed to become a spiritual concerto in the Classical period. The influence of European Romanticism had a weak effect on Ukrainian music. Its elements can be traced only in the works by Ukrainian composers of the second half of the 19th century, such as S. Hulak-Artemovskyi, M. Lysenko, V. Matiuk, S. Vorobkevych, and A. Vakhnianyn, to name a few. Later, the Ukrainian music culture was enriched by compositions from B. Liatoshynskyi, A. Kos-Anatolskyi, S. Liudkevych, and A. Shtoharenko. The avant-garde music of the 1960s (L. Hrabovskyi, V. Khodziatskyi, V. Sylvestrov, and V. Zahortsev) stands out with its innovation. At the beginning of the 20th century, national music culture entered into a dialogue with the modernist discourse, leading to the emergence of Ukrainian Modernism. Key words: Ukrainian music tradition, Western European influences, Classicism, Romanticism, Avant-gardism.

Educational Effectiveness of Catholic Schools in Poland Based on the Results of External Exams

Church education boasts a rich history of achievements. European church education (referred to as Catholic) was already present at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries and in Poland at the end of the 11th (schools educating future members of the clergy). In Poland, the collapse of church education was marked by the communist system (1945–1989), and a dynamic revival was possible thanks to the democratic change in 1989. At present, Catholic schools, i.e., schools run by church legal entities and schools run by other legal or natural persons recognized as Catholic by decree of the diocesan bishop, entertain the same possibilities with respect to setup and operations on equal rights. Their number and proportion of the overall student population remain relatively stable. As the results published by District Examination Boards and rankings of Catholic schools show, the teaching efficiency of Catholic elementary schools is higher than average. High schools reach a very good level of education as well, although in their case, the dominance of Catholic schools is not in place. Teaching efficiency is one of many factors that influence the well-established position of Catholic schools.

THE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF GEORGIA AND THE ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT (BEFORE AND AFTER 1997)

The article analyzes the stance of the Orthodox Church of Georgia (OCG) towards the Ecumenical Movement before and after OCG’s departure from the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Conference of European Churches (CEC) in 1997, and documents the controversies accompanying this development. Up until the 1990s, the hierarchy of the OCG was outstanding for its energetic ecumenical activities within the country as well as in the international arena. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the gaining of independence, religious nationalism and a hostile attitude towards religious and ethnic minorities grew stronger in Georgia. Having been tainted by a Soviet past, a mass mentality found such phenomena as pluralism, equality, religious freedom, etc, characteristic of the free world, to be foreign. A contingent of Orthodox fundamentalistsis gradually growing stronger in the OCG, which considers the defense of Orthodoxy against ‘sects’ and the ‘ruinous’ innovations of the West its holy obligation. Since the middle of the 1990s, this group intensified its agitation against ‘ecumenism’, and its pressure on the church hierarchy to keep its distance, threatening with schism in the worst case. This anti-ecumenical propaganda organized by monks is supported by a part of the married clergy, their parishes, the media, and some politicians. The OCG was eventually forced to leave the WCC and the CEC, although it inflicted church penances upon the monks leading the rebellion. Some of the anti-ecumenist monks go even further and are demanding the OCG to cease Eucharistic communion with all the Orthodox churches who are still members of ecumenical organizations. As the OCG would not satisfy this demand, the result was an actual schism of the radical anti-ecumenists and the foundation of their own ‘Truly Orthodox’ Church in Georgia.