Does Church Tax Matter?

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Riegel ◽  
David Gutmann ◽  
Fabian Peters ◽  
Tobias Faix
Keyword(s):  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Church Membership ◽  
Future Challenge ◽  
Church Members ◽  
Average Amount ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church

Abstract Disaffiliation indicates a major future challenge to the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches in Germany, particularly regarding the church tax. This article addresses that issue by first describing the particular German context of disaffiliation. It then summarises previous research, which indicates that the church tax is the trigger to leave the church. An analysis of recent data reveals that the portion of church members is lowest in those income classes that have to pay an above average amount of church tax. Moreover, the likelihood to resign from church membership is highest when the individual begins his or her first paid job. Both findings ascribe church tax a more powerful role in the process of disaffiliation than previous research.

Reformation und politisch-gesellschaftliche Emanzipation

2014 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Oberdorfer
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Priesthood Of All Believers ◽  
Pluralistic Society ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church ◽  
Modern Sense

AbstractThe relevance of the reformation for the development of modern liberty rights is much debated. Although the Protestant Reformers fought for the »Freedom of a Christian« against religious patronization, they were not tolerant in a modern sense of the term. However, the Reformation released long-term impulses which contributed to the origin and formation of a modern civil society, e. g. the respect for the autonomy of the individual over against the church, the passion for education, the emphasis on the »universal priesthood of all believers«, and the appreciation of civil professions. Long historical learning processes were necessary, though, until the Protestant churches acknowledged and adopted modern liberty rights, a participatory democracy and a pluralistic society as genuine forms of expression of a Protestant ethos.

The ideational clinch of the Roman Catholic Church and the EU

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-197
Author(s):  
Petr Kratochvíl ◽  
Tomáš Doležal
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Eu

The article explores the so far largely ignored question of the political relations between the European Union and the Roman Catholic Church. It analyzes the deeper mutual ideational influences of the two entities, asking whether there has been a convergence of views about several basic political notions between the Church and the EU. The analysis centres on the Church’s approach to four fundamental notions related to the EU – (1) secularism, (2) the individual(ism), (3) free market, and (4) the state, stressing in particular the discursive strategies the Church employs to defend its own position. The conclusion focuses on the relation between the RCC’s “theopolitical” imagination and the EU’s political form and argues that the surprisingly strong support of the Church for the integration process is not only a result of the aggiornamento, but a peculiar example of the Church’s ongoing Europeanization. Methodologically, the paper builds on a discourse analysis of almost 160 documents released by the three key Church bodies which often comment on the EU: the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community, the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, and the Curia.

The Nation and Nationalism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Halvor Moxnes
Keyword(s):  
Central Government ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
National Character ◽  
German Empire ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
Independence Movement ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
Nation States ◽  
American National Identity ◽  
The Church

This chapter discusses the relations between Christianity and nation in three different state constructions: the unification of smaller states into a nation state, older states already with a central government, and nation states that were established by peoples breaking away from empires. It emphasizes new forms of sources for nationalism such as: the Lives of Jesus studies that portrayed Jesus as a model for democratic nationalism or for national character; the use of conservative nationalism to establish the German Empire in 1871; the Anglican Church’s attempts in England to give the Church an inclusive, national character; Roman Catholic ultramontanism, which emphasized the centralized rule of the Church from Rome; the Balkan political independence movement which led to the establishment of independent Orthodox churches; and finally, the ‘mainline’ Protestant churches which influenced the formation of an American national identity.

scholarly journals Space forming a community, community forming a space

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 26-51
Author(s):  
Zorán Vukoszávlyev
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Church Architecture ◽  
Spatial Form ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
Aesthetic Sense ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church

The identity is expressed in a self-picture, which has visible and immaterial marks. The church architecture is the essential appearance form of this, because it represents not the individual but the community. It gives an account of the self-identity conscience of the church through the community. In this way, architecture gets a great task: physically visualising this immaterial identity. This picture is formed with respect to the technical and aesthetic knowledge.Does the basically recognizable protestant form exist? Are there ground-plans or spatial form elements, which are the obligate characteristics of these churches? Reflected well on the theological questions, we seek to detect what can determine the identity of the protestant churches in an aesthetic sense by a research highlighting the most important decesions on theological background and churches built in a term of a century.

scholarly journals Celebrating the feasts of the Old Testament in Christian contexts

2006 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdel Le Roux
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Church

Many early Christian churches incorporated a number of non-biblical, even “pagan” symbols and rituals into their liturgy (e. g. the origin of Christmas). They were contextualized into the church by a brand new Christian content to them. From its first inception Christianity attempted to slander and suppress the pagan myths and rituals in the name of its own message. This, however, does not alter the fact that the church also sought some connections in the sphere of myth. Since the Reformation many Protestant churches have tended to “cleanse” the church from all forms of symbols and rituals that could be reminiscent of its earlier connection with the Roman Catholic Church. The article argues that this left an emptiness, a longing for symbols and rituals which usually form an essential part of a normal religious experience. The Old Testament has both a “deficit” and a “surplus” which might have an abiding significance for Christians. It has become clear from archaeological discoveries that Jewish societies formed an integral part of early Christian societies.

GLADSTONE AND CHRISTIAN ART, 1832–1854

2003 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
JONATHAN CONLIN
Keyword(s):  
Church And State ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
The State ◽  
Christian Art ◽  
French Art ◽  
Renaissance Italy ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Catholic Churches ◽  
The Church ◽  
Religious Personality

Although his activity as a private collector has been documented, the extent to which William Ewart Gladstone's interest in art was implicated in his thought on church and state has been overlooked. Previously unnoticed memoranda and correspondence of the 1830s and 1840s with the French art historian and Roman Catholic thinker, François Rio, demonstrate a fascination with religious painting of early Renaissance Italy, of the sort which only came to be appreciated in Britain many years later. For Rio, however, introducing Gladstone to ‘Christian art’ was as much about encouraging Gladstone in his hopes of reuniting the Protestant and Catholic churches as it was about reforming his taste. The manuscripts considered here show Gladstone to have viewed art history in terms of a struggle between sanctity and sensuality, visualized in terms both of the individual as well as of nationalities. In so far as the young Conservative politician formulated this history in tandem with his theory of the religious personality of the state, a study of his model of Christian art's development affords a new path into an old debate: did Gladstone betray the principles of his first book, The state in its relations with the church (1838) in his subsequent political evolution into Liberal statesman?

An “Echo in the Soul”: Worship Music in Evangelical Spanish-Language Latino Churches of Oregon

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-225
Author(s):  
Deborah L. Berhó
Keyword(s):  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Latino Population ◽  
Worship Music ◽  
Protestant Church ◽  
Significant Growth ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
Worship Services ◽  
The Church ◽  
The U.S

Abstract While a majority of the fast-growing U.S. Latino population is Roman Catholic, a significant and growing percentage is Protestant – some calculate that they now number 10 million in the U.S. Despite this significant growth, Latino Protestant churches remain understudied, particularly the music in worship services. Several Latino theologians criticize the music as being of foreign extraction, a form of neocolonialism in the church, not an autochthonous expression of worship. However, these claims do not align with music actually being used in these congregations. This carefully documented study of 25 Spanish language Protestant churches in Oregon reveals that, while music used in worship at one time may have been created and imposed by non-Latinos, this is no longer the case, and bi-musicality is the norm, reflecting the diaspora and agency of the Latino Protestant church.

Collective Sovereignty? Conscience in the Gathered Church c. 1875-1918

1987 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 479-506
Author(s):  
Clyde Binfield
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Political Concept ◽  
Religious Concept ◽  
The Times ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Articles Of Faith ◽  
The Church

Sovereignty ought to be a natural concept for Christians whose rhetoric is full of words or collections of words like ‘Lord’ or ‘King’ or ‘Kingdom’ or ‘Crown Rights of the Redeemer’. It ought to be doubly natural for the Christian inhabitants of an earthly kingdom whose monarch protects a national church. In fact, ‘sovereignty’ is not a word which comes trippingly to ordinary Christian lips, and it is a religious concept as fraught with theological ambiguity for Christians as it is a political concept fraught with secular ambiguity for citizens. Indeed, for British Christians and citizens the ambiguities merge. For a Roman Catholic who recently edited The Times, ‘Liberty puts the individual in command of his own decisions; his vote is the ultimate political sovereign in a democracy; his purchase is the ultimate economic sovereign in a free market.’ For a critic of the Methodist-turned-Anglican who was Prime Minister when that was written, ‘Where the Church of England lists thirty-nine essential articles of faith, Mrs Thatcher names three: the belief in the doctrine of Free-Will; in the divinely created sovereignty of individual conscience; and in the Crucifixion and Redemption as the exemplary, supreme act of choice.’ Yet to a political journalist, interpreting the same Prime Minister’s view of British sovereignty as opposed to any Western European understanding, it seems that Parliament alone is sovereign: ‘no citizen or subordinate authority can have any unalienable rights against the state, which can lend out power to groups or individuals but never give it away.’ Whose vote then is ultimate political sovereign? Whose conscience then is divinely-created sovereign?

scholarly journals German Churches in Times of Demographic Change and Declining Affiliation: A Projection to 2060

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gutmann ◽  
Fabian Peters
Keyword(s):  
Demographic Change ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Church Membership ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Church Members ◽  
Projection Model ◽  
Protestant Church ◽  
Specific Factors ◽  
First Time

The problem of declining membership in Germany’s churches has been apparent for almost half a century. However, few scientific studies have investigated the respective influences of demographic and church-specific phenomena, as well as the potential impact if present trends continue. To answer these questions, we use a cohort component model and project the membership of each German Catholic diocese and Protestant regional church until 2060. Thus, for the first time we present a projection of church members for each of the 27 Catholic (arch-) dioceses and the 20 Protestant regional churches, as well as for the entire Evangelical Church and the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. We collected data from dioceses, Protestant regional churches and the Federal Statistical Office. Under the assumptions made, the results suggest a continued decline in membership and that by 2060 the number of church members would be half the number of 2017. Protestant Church membership would have shrunk slightly more than Catholic Church membership. We can conclude that church-specific factors (baptisms, leaving, and joining the church) would have a stronger influence on declining numbers than demographic factors. Moreover, demographic change would have a greater impact on registered church membership than on the total population. The proportion of Christians in the population would sharply decrease. Although in 2017 54.4 percent of the population belonged to one of the two major churches, according to the projection model, only 31.1 percent would be church members in 2060. As our results are not predictions but projections using trend analysis, we show how changed conditions would affect the projected development in five scenarios.

The Commemoration of the Reformation as the Starting Point for a Joint Declaration on Church, Eucharist and Ministry?

Ecclesiology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-50
Author(s):  
Peter De Mey
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
Joint Declaration ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Church

In recent years a discussion has been taking place on whether it would make sense to work towards a Joint Declaration on Church, Eucharist and Ministry between the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Churches. The invitation was made by Cardinal Koch who, however, set a preliminary condition that the twofold Grunddifferenz both with regard to their understanding of the Church and their model of unity would first be overcome. After introducing Cardinal Koch’s views on the matter, this article discusses a number of recent documents by ecumenical bodies and contributions by individual theologians – all written on the occasion of the 2017 commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the symbolic start of the Reformation – that, explicitly or implicitly, comment on aspects of Cardinal Koch’s proposal.

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