Pluralisation and Social Change

How can one describe the pluralisation of the religious realm, which is of such significance for processes of social change? How can it be done from an international perspective? The book sharpens the idea of religious pluralisation by elucidating it against the backdrop of specific religious phenomena and practices. Concepts and interpretations of religious praxis are correlated here in a way that has proven most fruitful in the field of Practical Theology.

We take a closer look at twelve highly relevant topics that are formative for the practical-theological discourses in South Africa and Germany: poverty and wealth, education, transitional rites and passages, health, religious community formation and the future of the Church, beginning and end of life, transformation of the media, migration and interculturality, populism and radicalisation in religion and knowledge, processing of the past, communal living.

Each topic will be introduced by one scholar from a certain country and commented on by another. The conversational procedure contributes to a contextual theology that understands theology essentially as dialogue. In all contributions pluralisation is the overarching topic. It shall be developed as a conception and theory respectively, both of which are not self-evident their theoretical implications must be explicitly unfolded.

Lars Charbonnier, Führungsakademie für Kirche und Diakonie, Berlin, Germany; Johan Cilliers, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa; Matthias Mader, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Cas Wepener, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa; Birgit Weyel, Eberhard Karls Universität, Tübingen, Germany.