"Zeitgeist" and Christianity. The magazine "Christian World" as a medium of cultural Protestantism

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jörg Lauster
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 454317254

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

The “Christliche Welt” (1886 to 1941) is considered one of the most important magazines of Germanspeaking Protestantism in the modern era. Its self-declared aim was to appeal to a wider public. This resulted in a thematic breadth that went far beyond the program of a specialist journal. At the same time, the journal's circle of editors and contributors makes it the most prominent organ of Germanspeaking cultural Protestantism. The study of “Christliche Welt” thus also serves to provide a thorough and precise exploration of the world of ideas of cultural Protestantism. Since the “Christliche Welt”, with its period of publication, covers the epoch of the most serious upheavals in recent German history, it is also an outstanding source not only for theology, but also for the intellectual and cultural history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is therefore of interdisciplinary relevance. In going through the source material, it has become clear that the concept of crisis is a particularly suitable instrument for structuring the central motifs of the debates of the time and bringing their particularities to light. Fortunately, in close cooperation with the University Library of the LMU Munich, an optimal processing and future digital provision of the sources for academic use could be achieved.

Publications

• Der heilige Geist. Verlag C.H.BECK oHG.
  Lauster, Jörg
  
• Das Christentum. Verlag C.H.BECK oHG.
  Lauster, Jörg
  
• Englische Variante: Christianity and the Spirit of the Age, in: german research. Magazine of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (2022), Heft 2, S. 14–17.
  Jörg Lauster & Marieluise Clotz
  
• Zeitgeist und Christentum, in: Forschung. Das Magazin der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (2022), Heft 1, S. 24-27.
  Jörg Lauster & Marieluise Clotz
  
• Tagungsbericht: (11.10.2023), Digitale Forschung in der Theologie. Erkenntnisweisen – Methoden – Gegenstände. Tagungsbericht
  Friederike van Oorschot & Knut V.M.
  
• Zeitgeist und Christentum. Eine Analyse des Krisenbegriffs in der Zeitschrift Die Christliche Welt (1886/7-1941), Vortrag bei der Tagung Digitale Forschung in der Theologie. Erkenntnisweisen – Methoden – Gegenstände (29.-31.03.2023) in Aachen.
  Marieluise Clotz