Zugl.: Tübingen, Universiẗat, Diss., 2009.

Habilitation - Kirchliche Hochschule Bethel, Bielefeld, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 545-560).

The thesis named "People with no religious affiliation as workers of diaconia - Current situation in Catholic and Protestant traditions" deals with stances of chosen Churches and diaconal organizations towards the employment of workers who are not members of any Church or not religiously defined. At the beginning the thesis deals with a definition of basic terms and their Biblical origins, then the thesis shortly describes important milestones in history of diaconia with closer look at the implementers. The main part of the thesis presents specific attitudes of the Roman Catholic Church, Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren and their diaconial organizations to cooperating with non denominational people and their employment. This part also presents these attitudes in the light of documents of Second Vatican Council. A chapter about spirituality and religiosity of the present time brings up a topic of the current situation in the field of employment of non denominational people in chosen church organization and fields which may appear problematic. Finally, the thesis concludes with opinions of current Czech and world theologians about what employment of non denominational people in Church organization might mean and where it might lead. There are also highlighted areas of discussion, especially these...

This work deals with pastoral care at the facilities of The Diaconia of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (DECCB) with a focus on residential facilities for the elderly. It brings a closer look into the organization DECCB, its history and organizational culture, it summarizes the current knowledge of elderly age. Attention is paid to communication with seniors as well as to residence facilities for the elderly and to spiritual needs in elderly age. The practical part of the thesis presents the results of qualitative research carried out among pastoral workers who work in the residential homes for elderly people. The research deals with the offer of pastoral care in homes, specific questions within individual pastoral care of the elderly, and also personal requirements of the pastoral worker.

Zugl.: Chemnitz, Univ., Diss., 2009

The thesis aims to contribute to the theoretical grounding of diakonia as the Christian-oriented practice of helping in modern society. Methodologically the author works with the social systems theory developed by Niklas Luhmann, which enables a differentiated description of the multidimensional reality of Christian helping action in its historical development and present situation. In the first part, the topic is theologically grounded ? biblically, historically and dogmatically. Then the main features of social systems theory are presented. Emphasis is placed on the dual ? primary (functional) and secondary (social) ? differentiation in society and its consequences for understanding diakonia. In this context diakonia is observed as the structural coupling of the systems of social help and Christianity and subsequently defined as helping in gospel perspective, which can be observed at micro-, meso- and macro-levels, i.e., in the context of interaction, organization and society ? and at the same time different theories must be developed for Christian helping at the individual levels. In the second part, the sociological description of the differentiation of diakonia is first confronted with theologically-oriented descriptions of differentiation in the context of Christianity and, following especially Wichern?s division of diakonia into civic, free and ecclesial, attention is focused on the ?tripod of diakonia? in the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren in the form of Diaconia of ECCB, Christian service and diaconate. This multi-focus view of diakonia makes it possible to reflect on its mutually irreducible layers and search for adequate theories for each of them. In the formation of the Christian dimension of the organization emphasis is placed on cultivating an adequate organization culture. Interaction has to do with the mutual ?neighborly? help within a community. The specific function of diaconate is identified in constructing bridges between the ecclesial level of Christianity and its connection with the system of social help, as well as other partial systems in society ? and in this sense it is perceived as again highly relevant. In the concluding chapter, the communication-based approach of social systems theory is correlated with the practical-theological paradigm of gospel communication. In this context diakonia is understood as an inseparable part of ?gospel communication?.

T h e project deals with adopting children from a distance in India and the assessment of the righteousness of the process from an ethical perspective. The first part introduces current India from a political, cultural, and religious perspective. The second part focuses on the introduction of the adoption from a distance process and evaluates the suitability and purposefulness of the individual parts of the project. The third part deals with the terms of righteousness and suitability of such adoption from a catholic perspective, where we also find the justification of the ethical part of the process. Such justification is later described in the description of Caritas in the threefold service to the church. following, you will find the incorporation of the human being into the social teachings of the church and the situational ethics. The project later focuses on the terms of solidarity, subsidiarity, and the universal relationship between men and charity. The last part is a practical excursion into the life of a community center in the Indian town of Moobidri, where the author visited himself.

This thesis describes place of encounter Travná from the time of its establishment to 2014. The main aim of this work is to describe what types of influences affected meetings of youth in Travná. The main sources used in this work are several interviews which were conducted with people who are connected to Travná in some way. Methods of oral history were used for the realization and processing of these interviews. Thanks to a wide variety of interviews across the investigated time period, we can find out a lot about the history of youth meetings. A large part of the thesis is devoted to pastor Adolf Petr, who was the founder of Travná and who influenced many other events connected with youth meetings. Other topics which arose from the interviews and which are important for the youth meetings are different types and displays of piety, work in Travná, ecumenical and foreign collaboration, time of Communism and social work in Travná. The author tries to put encounters in Travná before 1989 into the context of other young people church meetings in Czechoslovakia. Events from 1990s Travná are seen in the context of a newly formed legal and economic system.

The theological basis for the charitable activities of the Christian Church. The thesis focuses on the charitable work of the Christian Church today known as Diakonia, characterised as a service of love to others, which is currently considered one of the key, i.e. constitutive elements, of the fundamental structure of the Church. Based on analyses of the relations between theological disciplines, particularly Biblical, systematic theology and Christian social ethics, it identifies the Christian Church's idea of charity as the communion of love in the service of those who suffer. A fundamental defining characteristic of the Diakonia charity is God's love and the structure of the assessment system that unfolds from it that is specific and essential for the Christian Church. Keywords Charitable work, Diakonia, service of love, Christian social ethics, Catholic social teaching

This thesis looks at the general character of the synod of the Evangelical church of Czech Brethern (ČCE), based on archival documents since 1990. (The) first chapter describes how the Synod functions within the church and briefly mentions the issue of coping with communism, especially how some pastors got involved politically. I also touch on the events of the Velvet Revolution. The next chapter focuses on an analysis of the Synod's work based on classifying the synod's resolutions into different catogories. The results are given in three diagrams. The goal of this analysis is to show which types of resolutions dominate and which types are more unusual. The third more extensive chapter deals with the most important topics being resolved in the synod. It describes the origin of …, its progress and consequences for the church. To show the character of the ČCE Synod, I highlight its internal discussions regarding church law, the practical and theological discussions on …(church education, ordination and baptism…). Then I discuss the ČCE Social Welfare organisation, a free standing topic, as well as subjects that have revealed the Synod's views. This third group address the church's outside concerns. The synod talked about these topic both inside and outside the church as well as with the ecumenical...