Von der Moglichkeit einer anderen Andersartigkeit

The work explores the question of how the pastoral profession can be thought and lived responsibly in the demands of a postmodern present. Using the method of correlation, perceptions of empiricism are linked with theological considerations. It is shown that the various realities of life – also in the church context – are determined by market-compliant discourses and practices that form a form of domination internalised by the subjects with the imperative to act entrepreneurially. In the external framework of neoliberal freedom, the compulsion for self-optimisation becomes a subjugating invocation. Against this background, a theological position beyond the alternative of a retreat into fundamentalism or traditionalism and an unreflected adoption of the dominant market discourses and value systems must be considered. A critical opposition of church and theology is considered in the fields of community, Holy Scripture, mysticism, eschatology and asceticism. The parish ministry is then designed as a critical ministry that is theologically based and committed to the movement of openness. The fundamental attitude and practice for practising the possibility of living differently under the totalitarian invocations of the market is prayer as a gesture of openness.

• By (author) Christoph Eidmann