Volume 75, Issue 6

This article analyses, with a systematic interest, the relevance of the experience of exile for the self-understanding of Protestant theology. Starting from the insight that within the German context the question of exile is hardly being raised, the attempt of a theological definition of the term is made. In view of the strong tendency of theology and the church to inculturate, the historical experience of both Israel and the Church invites the understanding of exile as a corrective for (inner-)theological discourses of self-reflection. The self-reflexive questioning of one’s own theological identity from the border has great relevance, especially for ecumenical hermeneutics.

Although Karl Barth showed some reservations especially against the Geneva ecumenism, by his theology of God’s word he established a contribution to an ecumenical perspective which has actually not yet been taken up. God’s word has to remain God’s word. The church cannot dispose freely of God’s word but remains in need of being addressed time and again by this word. It is a fundamental part of the liberty of the church to stay first and foremost open towards God’s word. Consequently, the efforts devoted to the survival of the church have to be redirected to a concentration on a timely actualization of its mission. The church has to bear witness not to itself but to the »sound of the Easter morning« perceivable even today. The unity of the church, characterized by reciprocal diversity, becomes an incidental by-product of its vital focus on God’s word.

Which traits of elderly people can symbolize human being - especially of frail, senile elderly people in need of help, not only of those who have remained vital and capable of actively organizing their twilight years? This question is sharpened regarding people willing to learn to experience their transience in view of God and to accept their afflictions and their suffering from old age as God’s action and to let themselves in with the perspective that their biographies will be kept in God’s memory.

The social-philosophical discussion about the role of religion in late modern society opens up new perspectives for a public theology in general and a public religious pedagogy in specific. This contribution develops some of these perspectives referencing primarily Jürgen Habermas’ proposal to understand secularization as a common complementary process of learning of religious and non-religious people, in which translation gains central relevance. The consequences for religious pedagogy include the foundation as well as the conceptualization and impact of public religious learning.

Theological anthropology determines the human being as image of God. He/she is a social being directed towards a counterpart. This is plausible from a psychological perspective as well: the experiences of meaning, happiness, longing and love define the life of the individual in an essential way; these sentiments can be experienced primarily in relation with others or with nature and culture. Based on such existential considerations, religious pedagogy can devote itself to (more) concrete questions and human experiences. It is thereby leaving the traditional scheme of given teaching content and addressee behind, which cannot convince any longer and which is neither overcome by elementarization nor by performative religious didactics. Religion is symbolic interpretation of life; therefore religious pedagogy is plausible inasmuch as it takes questions of (the meaning of) life as its start and brings them to a religious interpretation.