Protestant pastors and religious socialisation. Institutionalised religion and secularism in the Federal Republic in sociohistorical perspective (1945-1980)

(finished)

The project, which was conducted from 2006 to 2008, was aimed at an analysis of Protestant pastors in the Federal Republic from as instances of religious socialization. The focus of two problem complexes - socialization of different generations on the one hand and their pastor socializing effect in the historical course were on the other. These response patterns were the minister elaborated on the loss of their dominant position in the religious socialization in the context of secularization and social change.

The analysis showed that was the social profile of the clergy after the Second World War until the 1960s, relatively stable: The pastors were recruited mainly from the middle classes, especially from employees and official families. As a relevant social group, the clergy took part in socialization crises of the 20th Century in part. Over the first three postwar decades have also changed the forms and contents of socialization activities of the church. The "worship in a new form" in the 1960s sought with their non-traditional approaches to address new target groups, the confirmation class became the confirmation of work and the problem of child and adult baptism became the subject of disputes within the Church who found a wide public response. These processes are also in the context of the reactions of church organization and the clergy to interpret the decline of its socializing effect.

Individual results of the project, as part of the conferences held by the research group "Transformation of Religion in the Modern and the Institute for social movements and in the context of the international interdisciplinary workshop" religious socialization in the 20th Century "(Bochum, November 2007 presented).

Publications:

• Dimitrij Owetschkin: Die Suche nach dem Eigentlichen. Studien zu evangelischen Pfarrern und religiöser Sozialisation in der Bundesrepublik der 1950er bis 1970er Jahre, Essen 2011.

• Dimitrij Owetschkin: Zeuge – Berater – Krisenagent. Zum Wandel des Pfarrerbildes und der Pfarrerrolle nach 1945, in: Wilhelm Damberg (Hg.), Soziale Strukturen und Semantiken des Religiösen im Wandel. Transformationen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1949-1989, Essen 2011, S. 37-53.

• Dimitrij Owetschkin: Zwischen Glaubensvermittlung und „kritischer Sozialisationsbegleitung“. Kirchlich-sozialisatorisches Wirken evangelischer Pfarrer in der Bundesrepublik vor dem Hintergrund der Tauffrage (1950er-1970er Jahre), in: Monatshefte für Evangelische Kirchengeschichte des Rheinlandes 60 (2011), S. 225-246.

• Dimitrij Owetschkin: Von der kirchlichen Unterweisung zur „Konfirmandenarbeit“. Zum Wandel religiöser Sozialisation in der Kirchengemeinde nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, in: Klaus Tenfelde (Hg.), Religiöse Sozialisationen im 20. Jahrhundert. Historische und vergleichende Perspektiven, Essen 2010, S. 89-108.

• Dimitrij Owetschkin: Sozialisationsforschung und religiöse Sozialisation im 20. Jahrhundert aus historischer Sicht. Ein Forschungsaufriss, in: Mitteilungsblatt des Instituts für soziale Bewegungen 36 (2006), S. 65-84.


To contact us, please contact: Dr. Dimitrij Owetschkin