In vastly different contexts around the world � such as South Africa and Germany � human dignity has proved itself to be an important and useful concept. Despite at times being open to political instrumentalization, Christian theology has also developed a close relationship to this concept. In this article, a theological interpretation of human dignity is developed by employing theological concepts such as the image of God, the preferential option for the poor, the commandment of love and the relational nature of being human.
The article dealt with the moral and political problem of international food justice in which the deep contradiction between the present situation of malnourishment and starvation in large parts of the global population on the one hand and the biblical notion of the preferential option for the poor on the other hand was described. This ecumenically widely accepted notion was clarified in several aspects. How deeply this is rooted in the history of Christian social thought was shown by Martin Luther's writings on the economy which have remained relatively unknown in the churches and in the scholarly world. The article then presented three models of Christian economic ethic: the technical economic model, the utopian economic model and the public theological economic model. On the basis of the public theological model seven challenges for international food justice were presented. The basis for these challenges is an understanding of globalisation which guarantees just participation for everyone and deals with nature in an ecologically sustainable way. The interests of small farmers are the basis for judging the activities of big agro-corporations. Public theology is the background for an active involvement of the churches as agents of a global civil society to promote international food justice. ; http://www.ve.org.za ; am2013 ; mn2013
The role of prophetic witness of the churches in the public discourse of modern civil societies is analysed on the basis of three public memorandums of the German Protestant churches on economic questions and their impact on the public. Among the ten systematic conclusions which are drawn from this case study is the importance of the specific context for the role of prophetic statements. The article tries to show how prophetic witness is a necessary element of a public theology, which is not based on fundamental criticism, but develops both critical and constructive perspectives for politics and society. If such public theology is liberation theology for a democratic society it is the task of the church to get involved in the public debate in a 'bilingual' way, that is, on the basis of its biblical-theological sources but at the same time with the ability to engage in the secular language of pluralistic societies. ; http://www.hts.org.za ; hb2015
Es gehört zu den Errungenschaften der Neuzeit, einer Vermischung von Kirche und Staat zu wehren. Weder soll die Kirche theokratisch das politische Gemeinwesen bestimmen noch der Staat totalitär über die Kirche herrschen. Kirche und Staat sollen getrennt sein. Deutschland, Frankreich und die USA versuchen auf je andere Weise, diese notwendige Trennung von Kirche und Staat zu realisieren. Was war der Grund für die unterschiedlichen Modelle? Worin liegen die Stärken, worin die Schwächen des jeweiligen Modells? In jüngster Zeit stellen sich diese Fragen neu, nicht nur angesichts der Verortung der islamischen Religion in den westlichen Gesellschaften.Für einen sinnvollen Vergleich der drei Länder nimmt der Band eine doppelte Perspektive ein: Auf der einen Seite wird historisch danach gefragt, wie es zu der spezifischen Form des jeweiligen Staat-Kirche-Verhältnisses gekommen ist. Auf der anderen Seite werden Probleme und Chancen des jeweiligen Modells diskutiert, wobei Veränderungen und Herausforderungen der jüngsten Zeit besonders ins Gewicht fallen.Der Band dokumentiert die Vorträge der XIV. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Vorlesung 2010 in Mainz.
