Praxis or Talk about Praxis? The Concept of Praxis in Ecclesiology

Churches are in crisis. The turn to praxis in ecclesiology appears to attend to the current crisis; yet, the appearance might be deceptive. Since post-liberal ecclesiologies – such as John Milbank’s – consider neither quantitative-empirical nor qualitative-empirical accounts of concrete churches, th...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Schmiedel, Ulrich (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2016
In: Ecclesial practices
Year: 2016, Volume: 3, Issue: 1, Pages: 120-136
IxTheo Classification:KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
KDD Protestant Church
KDE Anglican Church
NBN Ecclesiology
Further subjects:B John Milbank Ernst Troeltsch ecclesiology ethnography sociology practice praxis identity church community
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Summary:Churches are in crisis. The turn to praxis in ecclesiology appears to attend to the current crisis; yet, the appearance might be deceptive. Since post-liberal ecclesiologies – such as John Milbank’s – consider neither quantitative-empirical nor qualitative-empirical accounts of concrete churches, the turn might be assessed as a turn to talk about praxis instead of a turn to praxis. Confronting Milbank’s concept of praxis with the ecclesiology of Ernst Troeltsch (1865–1923), I argue that Troeltsch allows for accounts of concrete churches since he conceptualises the identity of Christianity not as a proposition but as a project. Hence, praxis is the criterion for the evaluation of concepts of identity. Both churches and reflections on churches are to be ‘elasticised’ in order to attend to the current crisis.
ISSN:2214-4471
Contains:In: Ecclesial practices
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/22144471-00301007