Responsibility

Coined in the early 2000s, the term Anthropocene originally emerged from the natural sciences. It refers to a geochronological epoch shaped substantially by humans, which replaced the Holocene and in which humans themselves have become a force of nature. However, the concept is not limited to scientific and technological phenomena. Due to the entanglement between humans and nature implicit in the term itself, the Anthropocene also carries an ethical meaning that manifests itself above all in questions about human responsibility for nature. Despite various criticisms of its descriptive and normative adequacy, and despite its rejection by the International Commission on Stratigraphy in 2024, the term remains interdisciplinarily generative, especially with regard to theological, nature-ethical, nature-aesthetic, and cultural-philosophical questions

• Anthropology

Discipleship (imitation Christi) remains an unwieldy concept in Protestant theology, one that is often avoided in contemporary debates. In this article, however, discipleship is discussed as a Christian concept of empowerment, particularly in the horizon of religion experiences, theological vocabulary, and lived theology. In this way, discipleship can be understood as a key concept of an education inspired by liberation theology, which Ernst Lange  advocates and calls “a language school of freedom.”[i]

[i] Lange, Ernst, Sprachschule für die Freiheit. Bildung als Problem und Funktion der Kirche, in: Schloz, Rüdiger/Butenuth, Alfred (Eds.), Kirche für die Welt. Aufsätze zur Theorie kirchlichen Handelns, München/Gelnhausen 1992. German: “Sprachschule für die Freiheit.”

For the majority of people, family is the most important reality in their lives. Its forms and functions are highly variable. At its core, it is about the everyday, intergenerational care of oneself and others. Therefore, it makes sense to speak of diverse practices of living together and to ask theological and ethical questions about what it means to be human and to have the capacity for humanity. In biblical-theological terms, human beings are conceived as creatures and allies of the God of Israel and as participants in a humanity oriented toward hope. Scriptures document openness and breadth, but also the struggle for rights and justice for the disadvantaged. Human rights are the basic norm for political-ethical efforts on behalf of families in today’s society.

• Society