EXC 212 C2-10 - CRITIQUE FROM WITHIN: MODELS OF SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

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Description

Critical impulses from within religious practice have always entailed new social forms and shapes of expression of the Christian belief within the scope of the Church (schisms, the formation of denominations, orders and reform movements, theological awakenings, etc.). Critique is to a considerable extent motivated by a conscious return (retour aux sources) to the founding impulses of the religious community. Even so, it would be too narrow to explain the effect and form of critique coming from within the Church by the inner religious interplay of forces alone. Rather, forms of expressing critique have to be seen in relation to the development of the relevant social, cultural and mental context: according to the hypothesis, inner religious critique can only be understood on the basis of the interplay between “religious heritage” and social context or, respectively, between the self-concept of a religious community and the “borrowings” from outside the religious field which the critique draws on.