German text / Vor dem Hintergrund gegenwärtiger Reformprozesse, sowohl in der Evangelischen Landeskirche Württembergs, als auch in der Evangelischen Kirche Deutschlands, reflektiert und kommentiert die vorliegende Arbeit das Reformbemühen der letzten Jahre und stellt es in den Kontext empirischer Forschung. So versucht die Studie explorativ pragmatisch Zugangswege zu den bisher nicht erreichten Menschen zu eruieren, die bei der Entwicklung einer zukünftigen Sozialgestalt von Kirche mitbedacht werden könnten. Mittels eines mehrstufigen Zufallsauswahlverfahrens wurden die Befragungspersonen ermittelt und 628 standardisierte Interviews durchgeführt. Dabei stehen zunächst die religiösen Einstellungen zur christlich-abendländischen Kultur- und Werteorientierung, zur kirchlichen Arbeit als solche und zum christlichen Glauben im Forschungsinteresse, dann die Erfahrungen mit Gottesdienst, Kirche und Leben, Erwartungen, Bedürfnisse und Interessenlagen und schließlich der Stellenwert von Gebet und Bibel als Bausteine christlich-spiritueller Lebenspraxis. Ausgehend vom Gottesdienst, als Zentralort gemeindlichen Lebens, will die Forschung die Chancen gottesdienstkultureller Ausdifferenzierung ergründen und nimmt unter anderem alternative Gottesdienstformen in den Blick. Ehrenamtlicher Mitarbeit in der Kirche, gemeindlicher Kleingruppenarbeit und religiöse Erwachsenenbildungsangebote sind von potenzieller Bedeutung und wollen ebenso als Zugangswege kirchlicher Zukunftsentwicklung bedacht sein, wie der Stellenwert gemeindlicher Seelsorge- und Lebensberatung in Umbruchsituationen, oder die Einrichtung einer landeskirchlichen Gemeindegründungsbewegung in bisher unerreichten soziokulturellen Umgebungen. Die vielfältigen Erkenntnisse und potenziellen Möglichkeiten zukünftiger Kirche sind nicht zu trennen von einer missionstheologischen und ekklesiologischen Positionierung, die in der Herausbildung von kulturrelevanter, multioptionaler Gemeinde, als Gemeinschaft von Brüdern und Schwestern, das Zentralgeschehen nachhaltiger Gemeinde- und Kirchenentwicklung erkennt. Damit ist die Studie als Diskussionsbeitrag in den Entscheidungsprozessen aktueller Reformdebatte platziert. / Against the background of current reform processes in the Evangelische Landeskirche von Würrtemberg (protestant national church of Baden-Württemberg as) well as the Evangelische Kirche von Deutschland (protestant national church of Germany), this paper reflects and comments on the reformation efforts of the past years and places them into the context of empirical research. The aim of this survey is to investigate in an explorative manner various forms of pragmatic access to people hitherto unreached, who could be factored into the church's future social form. The participants were selected using a multilevel random selection process and 628 standardised interviews were subsequently carried out. To begin with, this research focuses on the interviewee's religious stance on christian-occidental culture and values,on the work of the church in general and on christian faith, then on their personal experience with services, church and life, their expectations, needs and interests, and lastly the significance of prayer and the bible as integral parts of a spiritual Christian life. Based on the service as the centre of a congregation's community life, this survey wants to fathom the chances of service differentiation and takes a look at alternative forms of service among other things. Volunteer work in the church, work in small groups as well as religious education programmes for adults are of potential importance and need to be taken into consideration as possible access paths to the future development of the church as well as the value of pastoral care and life coaching in situations of radical change or the start-up of a national movement to establish new congregations in hitherto unreached sociocultural environments. The manifold findings and potential possibilities of our church in the future cannot be separated from our position with regard to missiology and ecclesiology, which identifies the central development of congregation and church as the formation of culturally relevant, multioptional congregations, as the community of brothers and sisters. This survey thus contributes to the current discussion of reform and the associated decision-making process. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

This thesis reassesses the nature and importance of the Scottish Episcopal Church in Edinburgh and more widely. Based on a microstudy of one chapel community over a twenty-four year period, it addresses a series of questions of religion, identity, gender, culture and civic society in late Enlightenment Edinburgh, Scotland, and Britain, combining ecclesiastical, social and economic history. The study examines the congregation of Charlotte Episcopal Chapel, Rose Street, Edinburgh, from its foundation by English clergyman Daniel Sandford in 1794 to its move to the new Gothic chapel of St John's in 1818. Initially an independent chapel, Daniel Sandford's congregation joined the Scottish Episcopal Church in 1805 and the following year he was made Bishop of Edinburgh, although he contined to combine this role with that of rector to the chapel until his death in 1830. Methodologically, the thesis combines a detailed reassessment of Daniel Sandford's thought and ministry (Chapter Two) with a prosopographical study of 431 individuals connected with the congregation as officials or in the in the chapel registers (Chapter Three). Biography of the leader and prosopography of the community are brought to illuminate and enrich one another to understand the wealth and business networks of the congregation (Chapter Four) and their attitudes to politics, piety and gender (Chapter Five). The thesis argues that Daniel Sandford's Evangelical Episcopalianism was both original in Scotland, and one of the most successful in appealing to educated and influential members of Edinburgh society. The congregation, drawn largely from the newly-built West End of Edinburgh, were bourgeois and British in their composition. The core membership of privileged Scots, rooted in land and law, led, but were also challenged by and forced to adapt to a broad social spread who brought new wealth and influence into the West End through India and the consumer boom. The discussion opens up many avenues for further research including the connections between Scottish Episcopalianism and romanticism, the importance of India and social mobility within the consumer economy in the development of Edinburgh, and Scottish female intellectual culture and its engagement with religion and enlightenment. Understanding the role of enlightened, evangelical Episcopalianism, which is the contribution of this study, will form an important context for these enquiries.

La confrontation du théâtre et de la liturgie est un lieu commun de la pensée. Il est un motif rhétorique récurrent chez les pères de l’Église pour définir a contrario et par surenchère le bon ethos du chrétien à l’Église. Ce tour de pensée ecclésiastique, typique de la synthèse augustinienne de la rhétorique antique et du christianisme, n’est pas seulement un héritage livresque au XVIIe siècle. Il est particulièrement pertinent à la vue des enjeux auxquels est confrontée l’Église catholique : elle doit répondre aux accusations protestantes, qui traitaient la messe de farce ; le théâtre renouvelé de l’antique se rétablit grâce au soutien du pouvoir, se sédentarise et devient un divertissement régulier. Cette banalité nouvelle fait de la Comédie, aux yeux des augustiniens, le lieu d’une « représentation vive » et continuelle des passions du monde, particulièrement de l’amour et de l’honneur : le théâtre apparaît comme une liturgie inversée. Là où les pratiques de piété sont censées amoindrir les passions et nourrir la foi, le théâtre excite les passions et étouffe l’esprit de prière. La querelle de la moralité au théâtre montre non seulement une concurrence morale, mais aussi psychique et affective. Les deux représentations prétendent susciter la présence d’esprit et « toucher » le cœur, voire lui « imprimer des mouvements ». La messe est qualifiée de « représentation vive du sacrifice de la croix », pendant laquelle le fidèle doit se remémorer vivement le sacrifice christique et sa signification grâce à une lecture allégorique, et se l’appliquer à lui-même. Par la considération et l’accomplissement de cérémonies, par la vocalisation des psaumes, le fidèle est invité à produire des « actes » du cœur pour s’unir à Jésus-Christ. Ce rapport au texte comme trace à suivre, et ce rapport au corps et à la voix comme media pour s’auto-exciter, expliquent pourquoi les comédiens professionnels sont condamnés par les dévots : ils excitent en eux les passions contraires à l’Esprit saint, ils rappellent des sentiments qu’un pénitent ne pourrait pas se remémorer sans « horreur ». La « représentation » est alors conçue comme un effort de remémoration.Le rétablissement du théâtre à l’antique nécessitait un discours pour en éclairer les visées et en légitimer l’existence dans une société chrétienne et monarchique. Traduire la mimesis aristotélicienne par « représentation » plutôt que par « imitation » rendait le théâtre beaucoup plus proche de la liturgie et lui ajoutait les connotations de vue, de présence et de mémoire. Le débat entre plaire et instruire est un débat entre théâtre-divertissement et théâtre-cérémonie. Incomber au théâtre la fonction d’instruire, c’était le rapprocher d’une prédication et de la messe, car instruire, signifiait instruire chrétiennement. L’échec de sanctification du théâtre des années 1640 fit conclure à une incompatibilité du théâtre avec la folie et la modestie chrétienne, mais la possibilité d’une instruction civique par le théâtre émerge à la fin du siècle. Le théâtre participe de la construction d’une morale laïque. / The confrontation between liturgy and theater is a topos of the discourses which reveal deeply-rooted issues of representation in the seventeenth century. This commonplace had been a recurrent rhetorical device in the patristic sermons, where it emphasized the differences between Christianity and paganism. It is vigorously reactivated in seventeenth-century France as the Catholic Church faces its Calvinist critics, who accuse mass of being a comedy. Profane theater becomes a regular and professional kind of entertainment in the city and at the court, thanks to the protection of the royal power. This is why it is seen by Augustinians as a recurrent “lively representation” of the values of the world, such as love and honor, which are contradictory to the celestial Christian spirit. Treatises against Comedy written by Christian zealots reveal not only a moral, but also an emotional and psychological competition between liturgical practices and theater. Both “representations” try to force the presence of the mind and to touch, or even to print, the heart. The mass is then qualified as the “lively representation” of the Passion of the Christ, during which Catholic prayers must commemorate the mystery of divine sacrifice. By considering and acting out ceremonies, by vocalizing prayers, the believer is invited to produce certain acts of the heart and to unite with Christ, applying the Christ’s sacrifice to himself. Thus, the believer can be assimilated to an existential comedian on the divine stage : he actively involves his sensibility in the imitation of the great Christian model, by entering into the spirit of the psalms. This relationship to the text as a vestige to follow, this use of the voice and the body as mediums to excite devotion, explain the condemnation of the professional comedian by the Christian zealots (dévots). Indeed, the comedian is seen as someone who excites his own passions, playing a dangerous game with his heart and reminding himself of former worldly passions which can only lessen his faith.The reestablishment of theater questions the legitimacy, the definition and the goals of this art in a Christian society. Translating mimesis by “representation” and not “imitation” brought the theater closer to the liturgy. The discourses on theater in the 1620s and 1630s show that the authors tended to see a memorial, reiterative and visual dimension in theater that was not present in Aristotle. The debates finally conclude on the definition of theater as an honest form of entertainment rather than as a living form of instruction, namely because the latter was the responsibility of predication and mass. Saint Thomas could justify theater as a way of merely releasing the mind without interesting the heart or touching the soul ; at that time, indeed, instruction meant Christian instruction. In the 1640s, to please the devout Spanish queen Anne of Austria, several playwrights did attempt to call back the theater to its former institutional position by assimilating it with religious ceremony and creating sanctified tragedies. But this attempt failed for both poetic and political reasons. The disposition of the spectators in the city was not to be instructed. The theater was finally recognized as incompatible with Christian folly and modesty, but slowly participated in the formation of a secular morality in a new civic sphere.

German text / Vor dem Hintergrund gegenwärtiger Reformprozesse, sowohl in der Evangelischen Landeskirche Württembergs, als auch in der Evangelischen Kirche Deutschlands, reflektiert und kommentiert die vorliegende Arbeit das Reformbemühen der letzten Jahre und stellt es in den Kontext empirischer Forschung. So versucht die Studie explorativ pragmatisch Zugangswege zu den bisher nicht erreichten Menschen zu eruieren, die bei der Entwicklung einer zukünftigen Sozialgestalt von Kirche mitbedacht werden könnten. Mittels eines mehrstufigen Zufallsauswahlverfahrens wurden die Befragungspersonen ermittelt und 628 standardisierte Interviews durchgeführt. Dabei stehen zunächst die religiösen Einstellungen zur christlich-abendländischen Kultur- und Werteorientierung, zur kirchlichen Arbeit als solche und zum christlichen Glauben im Forschungsinteresse, dann die Erfahrungen mit Gottesdienst, Kirche und Leben, Erwartungen, Bedürfnisse und Interessenlagen und schließlich der Stellenwert von Gebet und Bibel als Bausteine christlich-spiritueller Lebenspraxis. Ausgehend vom Gottesdienst, als Zentralort gemeindlichen Lebens, will die Forschung die Chancen gottesdienstkultureller Ausdifferenzierung ergründen und nimmt unter anderem alternative Gottesdienstformen in den Blick. Ehrenamtlicher Mitarbeit in der Kirche, gemeindlicher Kleingruppenarbeit und religiöse Erwachsenenbildungsangebote sind von potenzieller Bedeutung und wollen ebenso als Zugangswege kirchlicher Zukunftsentwicklung bedacht sein, wie der Stellenwert gemeindlicher Seelsorge- und Lebensberatung in Umbruchsituationen, oder die Einrichtung einer landeskirchlichen Gemeindegründungsbewegung in bisher unerreichten soziokulturellen Umgebungen. Die vielfältigen Erkenntnisse und potenziellen Möglichkeiten zukünftiger Kirche sind nicht zu trennen von einer missionstheologischen und ekklesiologischen Positionierung, die in der Herausbildung von kulturrelevanter, multioptionaler Gemeinde, als Gemeinschaft von Brüdern und Schwestern, das Zentralgeschehen nachhaltiger Gemeinde- und Kirchenentwicklung erkennt. Damit ist die Studie als Diskussionsbeitrag in den Entscheidungsprozessen aktueller Reformdebatte platziert. / Against the background of current reform processes in the Evangelische Landeskirche von Würrtemberg (protestant national church of Baden-Württemberg as) well as the Evangelische Kirche von Deutschland (protestant national church of Germany), this paper reflects and comments on the reformation efforts of the past years and places them into the context of empirical research. The aim of this survey is to investigate in an explorative manner various forms of pragmatic access to people hitherto unreached, who could be factored into the church's future social form. The participants were selected using a multilevel random selection process and 628 standardised interviews were subsequently carried out. To begin with, this research focuses on the interviewee's religious stance on christian-occidental culture and values,on the work of the church in general and on christian faith, then on their personal experience with services, church and life, their expectations, needs and interests, and lastly the significance of prayer and the bible as integral parts of a spiritual Christian life. Based on the service as the centre of a congregation's community life, this survey wants to fathom the chances of service differentiation and takes a look at alternative forms of service among other things. Volunteer work in the church, work in small groups as well as religious education programmes for adults are of potential importance and need to be taken into consideration as possible access paths to the future development of the church as well as the value of pastoral care and life coaching in situations of radical change or the start-up of a national movement to establish new congregations in hitherto unreached sociocultural environments. The manifold findings and potential possibilities of our church in the future cannot be separated from our position with regard to missiology and ecclesiology, which identifies the central development of congregation and church as the formation of culturally relevant, multioptional congregations, as the community of brothers and sisters. This survey thus contributes to the current discussion of reform and the associated decision-making process. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

This thesis contends that the image of fire is a multivalent and theologically valuable image for application in British Christian communities. My research offers an original contribution by contextualising the image of fire for Christian practice in Britain, and combining critical observation of several contemporary fire rites with theological analysis. In addition, I conduct original case studies of three Scottish fire rituals: the Stonehaven Fireball Ceremony, the Beltane Fire Festival, and Up-Helly-Aa in Lerwick, Shetland. The potential contribution of fire imagery to Christian practice has been overlooked by modern theological scholarship, social anthropologists, and Christian practitioners. Since the multivalence of the image has not been fully recognised, fire imagery has often been reduced to a binary of ‘positive' and ‘negative' associations. Through my study of non-faith fire rituals and existing Christian fire practices, I explore the interplay between multivalence, multiplicity, and liminality in fire imagery. I demonstrate that deeper theological engagement with the image of fire can enhance participation, transformation, and reflection in transitional ritual experience. I argue that engaging with the multivalence of the image of fire could allow faith communities to move beyond dominant interpretive frameworks and apply the image within their own specific context. First, I orientate the discussion by examining the multivalence of biblical fire imagery and establishing the character of fire within the British social imagination. Second, I use critical observation of community fire practices in non-faith contexts to build a new contextual framework for the analysis of fire imagery. Finally, I apply my findings to a contextual analysis of existing Christian fire practices in Britain. Throughout, I argue that sensory and imaginative interaction with the image of fire provides a way to communicate and interact with theological ideas; experience personal and communal change; and mediate experience of the sacred.

Music Culture of the Elisabethan Convent in Prague Jakub Michl Abstract The Sisters of Saint Elizabeth (Elizabethan Nuns) were a spiritual order primarily focused on administering healthcare. Therefore, music was never the main focus of the order's activities, as it often was in others, particularly educational orders. However, thanks to the uninterrupted historical continuity of the Prague convent, which was exempted from the restrictions of Joseph II's era, many sources illustrating the convent music culture were preserved, including an extensive collection of music. The dissertation aims to describe this music culture in the context of the order structure and its personal hierarchy, as part of the city of Prague and its civic institutions, and in its everyday life and characteristics such as enclosure, hospital service and recreational activities. Music in convents was always tightly bound to liturgy. In the case of the Elizabethan order, significant music production was focused on the order's main liturgical feasts such as S. Elizabeth, S. Francis of Assisi, Porciuncula, Christmas, Epiphany, Easter and also memorial services for deceased patrons of the convent. The convent cooperated with many lay musicians and composers such as F. X. Brixi, Z. V. Suchý, F. X. Labler, J. N. Bayer, among others. At the...