Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History Volume 6: Western Europe (1500-1600)

Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History, volume 6 (CMR 6), covering the years 1500-1600, is a continuing volume in a history of relations between followers of the two faiths as it is recorded in their written works. Together with introductory essays, it comprises detailed entries on all the works known from this century. This volume traces the attitudes of Western Europeans to Islam, particularly in light of continuing Ottoman expansion, and early despatches sent from Portuguese colonies around the Indian Ocean. The result of collaboration between numerous leading scholars, CMR 6, along with the other volumes in this series, is intended as a fundamental tool for research in Christian-Muslim relations.

„Als Christ, als Theologe, als Geschichtsschreiber, als Bürger kann ich diese Lehre nicht annehmen.“ Altkatholische Argumentation gegen die Dogmen des Ersten Vatikanischen Konzils

Als sich der altkatholische Protest gegen die Dogmen des Ersten Vatikanischen Konzils von 1870 formierte, brachten die Altkatholiken ganz unterschiedliche Argumente vor: Zum Teil argumentierten sie juristisch, dem Konzil habe die nötige Freiheit in Diskussion und Entscheidung gefehlt; sie griffen die Stringenz der Schrift- und Traditionsargumente der Befürwortre der Dogmen an und versuchten zu zeiten, dass Schrift und Tradition eher eine gegenteilige Ansicht favorisieren würden; aber sie argumentierten auch politisch. Der Vortrag zeichnet diese unterschiedlichen Argumentationslinien nach.

Sich erlaufen. Pilgern als Identitätsstärkung

Against the background of an unexpected upswing in pilgrimages, this article states the thesis that pilgrimage enables a strengthening of one’s identity. In addition, the problem of a fragmented and indefinite identity is sketched, with reference to Zygmunt Bauman. In contrast stands a model of identity (connected with Albrecht Grçzinger) in which one contributes to a tradition in which one already is situated. In its main part, the article investigates the various factors of pilgrimage that contribute to this process of gaining one’s identity. Thus, a route frequented as much as theWay of St. James forms an already patterned space that offers the pilgrim traditioned roles to adopt. Walking, as a characteristic element of pilgrimage, is interpreted as physically generating and distinctively opening the space in which pilgrims understand themselves in the world. It also can be shown how walking as a form of physical being that leads from an instrumental relationship to one’s body to an immediate being in living one’s life, conveys certainty about one’s self and the world, activates one’s potential to overcome challenges, and provides self-empowerment. The author makes a strong case for a definition of pilgrimage oriented to an understanding of the hardship of crossing a foreign land, which is an image of a goal-oriented understanding of existence. The resulting poles of self-assurance and self-estrangement in pilgrimage are, in connection with Wilhelm Gräb, interpreted as an expression of a truly known but at the same time distanced self-understanding. Pilgrimage is therefore a form of physical self-interpretation in which people learn to view and be aware of their self-familiarity. Finally, against the background of this representation, criteria are elaborated for organizing a pilgrimage journey that is conducive to identity.

Kollektive Erinnerung. Topographie und Topik in Walthers ›Palästinalied‹

The French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs (1877–1945) conceived re- membrance as a product of ›collective memory‹ and explained this idea in his book on ›La Topographie légendaire des Évangiles en Terre sainte‹ (1941) showing that the topography of the Holy Land was predominantly an imaginary landscape construed by Christian communities. Following this concept, this article studies the ›Palästinalied‹, a text describing the arrival of a pilgrim in the Holy Land in the time of the crusades, abundantly transmitted under the name of Walther von der Vogelweide. The high degree of textual variance in the diverse manuscripts testifies the acting of ›collective memory‹ in the medieval poetic tradition. Of special interest in this context are the strophic arrangements, the variation of deictic markers, the reworking of melodic models documented in the manuscript transmission and the diatopic opposition existing between the emphasis of ›distant love‹ expressed in Jaufré Rudel’s Occitan song ›Lanqand li jorn son lonc en mai‹ (one of the named models) and the attitude of proximity prevailing in the ›Palästinalied‹.

Value Priorities and Content of Religiosity - New Research Perspectives

In this study the relationship of religiosity and value priorities is differentiated, based on a multidimensional measurement of different contents of religiosity. The structure of values is conceptualized using Schwartz’ (1992) two orthogonal dimensions of Self-transcendence vs. Self-enhancement and Openness to change vs. Conservation. The relations between these two dimensions and eight religious contents, ranging from open-minded to more close-minded forms of religiosity, were tested in a sample of church attenders (N = 685), gathered in Germany. The results show, that depending on the content of religiosity, different values are preferred (self-direction, universalism, benevolence, tradition and security values). The results indicate the importance of the content of religiosity for predicting value-loaded behaviors.