Praktische Theologie

Is “practical theology” unknown territory? What is this discipline all about—the discipline that was anchored in the university system in the nineteenth century in order to enable church action, to serve the cultivation of piety, and to facilitate the transfer of bodies of religious knowledge? What exactly had happened before, what has happened since—and how will one be able, now and in the future, to identify the distinctiveness, quality, and appeal of this special scholarly discipline? This guide invites readers on three tours. Its aim is to acquaint them with the largely unfamiliar conceptual worlds, historical worlds, and future worlds of a practical theology that, in the twenty-first century, seeks to concentrate on the perception and shaping of culturally mediated religious practice.