Die theologische und praktische Bedeutung der Taufe in den skandinavischen Volkskirchen: Anspruch und Wirklichkeit volkskirchlicher Taufpraxis
This essay is a critical examination of the traditional links between the practice of infant baptism and the Volkskirche. The long-held idea that baptism represents a commitment to Christ is to be criticised, because the Church - just because it needs to remain a Volkskirche - has reinterpreted its...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | German |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
1995
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| In: |
Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte
Year: 1995, Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Pages: 23-40 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This essay is a critical examination of the traditional links between the practice of infant baptism and the Volkskirche. The long-held idea that baptism represents a commitment to Christ is to be criticised, because the Church - just because it needs to remain a Volkskirche - has reinterpreted its doctrine of belief in Christ into a more universalistic belief in creation, and so has made baptism an instrument for other purposes, and thus reduced its significance. This has robbed baptism of its character as a personal act of commitment, and of its sacramental nature in its relationship to the person of Christ, and instead has factually reduced it to becoming a secular initiation rite or kind of general religious celebration of the gift of life, in which the Volkskirche becomes an institution for a generalised religiosity. The claims to a Christ-centred doctrinal basis in the Volkskirche are not only not fulfilled by this practice of infant baptism, but are directly contradicted. There is a yawning gulf between the claims and the reality, which in the long run puts in danger the continued existence of the Volkskirche as a Christian community. |
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| ISSN: | 2196-808X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte
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