Translating Religion advances thinking about translation as a critical category in religious studies, combining theoretical reflection about processes of translation in religion with focused case studies that are international, interdisciplinary, and interreligious. By operating with broad conceptions of both religion and translation, this volume makes clear that processes of translation, broadly construed, are everywhere in both religious life and the study of religion; at the same time, the theory and practice of translation and the advancement of translation studies as a field has developed in the context of concerns about the possibility and propriety of translating religious texts. The nature of religions as living historical traditions depends on the translation of religion from the past into the present. Interreligious dialogue and the comparative study of religion require the translation of religion from one tradition to another. Understanding the historical diffusion of the world's religions requires coming to terms with the success and failure of translating a religion from one cultural context into another. Contributors ask what it means to translate religion, both textually and conceptually, and how the translation of religious content might differ from the translation of other aspects of human culture. This volume proposes that questions on the nature of translation find particularly acute expression in the domains of religion, and argues that theoretical approaches from translation studies can be fruitfully brought to bear on contemporary religious studies.

Translating Religion advances thinking about translation as a critical category in religious studies, combining theoretical reflection about processes of translation in religion with focused case studies that are international, interdisciplinary, and interreligious. By operating with broad conceptions of both religion and translation, this volume makes clear that processes of translation, broadly construed, are everywhere in both religious life and the study of religion; at the same time, the theory and practice of translation and the advancement of translation studies as a field has developed in the context of concerns about the possibility and propriety of translating religious texts. The nature of religions as living historical traditions depends on the translation of religion from the past into the present. Interreligious dialogue and the comparative study of religion require the translation of religion from one tradition to another. Understanding the historical diffusion of the world's religions requires coming to terms with the success and failure of translating a religion from one cultural context into another. Contributors ask what it means to translate religion, both textually and conceptually, and how the translation of religious content might differ from the translation of other aspects of human culture. This volume proposes that questions on the nature of translation find particularly acute expression in the domains of religion, and argues that theoretical approaches from translation studies can be fruitfully brought to bear on contemporary religious studies.

From the beginning of his career, Swiss theologian Karl Barth (1886-1969) was often in conflict with the spirit of his times. While during the First World War German poets and philosophers became intoxicated by the experience of community and transcendence, Barth fought against all attempts to locate the divine in culture or individual sentiment. This freed him for a deep worldly engagement: he was known as "the red pastor," was the primary author of the founding document of the Confessing Church, the Barmen Theological Declaration, and after 1945 protested the rearmament of the Federal Republic of Germany. Christiane Tietz compellingly explores the interactions between Barth's personal and political biography and his theology. Numerous newly-available documents offer insight into the lesser-known sides of Barth such as his long-term three-way relationship with his wife Nelly and his colleague Charlotte von Kirschbaum. This is an evocative portrait of a theologian who described himself as '"God's cheerful partisan"' who was honored as a prophet and a genial spirit, was feared as a critic, and shaped the theology of an entire century as no other thinker.

Since Dietrich Bonhoeffer's death in 1945, executed by the Nazis as a political dissident, he has continued to fascinate and compel readers as a theologian, witness, and martyr. Bonhoeffer's theological brilliance, committed discipleship, ecumenical insight, and courageous participation in the struggle against fascism have profoundly shaped contemporary Christian understanding and action. In John W. de Gruchy's estimate, had Bonhoeffer lived "he might have dominated the theological scene in-the second half of the twentieth century in succession to Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, and Paul Tillich. As it was, he became the paradigmatic martyr- theologian" for our time. In this new biography, Christiane Dietz masterfully portrays the interconnectedness of Bonhoeffer's life and thought, theology and politics, discipleship, witness, and resistance, tracing the path from his childhood to his imprisonment and execution. Brief, lucid, and imminently accessible, Tietz's new account brings Bonhoeffer's story and work to life in a vivid retelling, unfolding his important and widely read texts, and including new, previously unseen pictures.

From the beginning of his career, Swiss theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968) was often in conflict with the spirit of his times. While during the First World War German poets and philosophers became intoxicated by the experience of community and transcendence, Barth fought against all attempts to locate the divine in culture or individual sentiment. This freed him for a deep worldly engagement: he was known as "the red pastor," was the primary author of the founding document of the Confessing Church, the Barmen Theological Declaration, and after 1945 protested the rearmament of the Federal Republic of Germany. Christiane Tietz compellingly explores the interactions between Barth's personal and political biography and his theology. Numerous newly-available documents offer insight into the lesser-known sides of Barth such as his long-term three-way relationship with his wife Nelly and his colleague Charlotte von Kirschbaum. This is an evocative portrait of a theologian who described himself as "God's cheerful partisan," who was honored as a prophet and a genial spirit, was feared as a critic, and shaped the theology of an entire century as no other thinker.

Das Bonhoeffer Handbuch bietet einen umfangreichen Einblick in Person, Leben, Werk und Rezeption Dietrich Bonhoeffers, eines der international einflußreichsten deutschsprachigen Theologen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Das Handbuch orientiert über die wichtigsten Ausgaben und Hilfsmittel zur Erforschung Bonhoeffers. Es erhellt die familiären und geistesgeschichtlichen Traditionen, die ihn geprägt haben, und analysiert die verschiedenen Beziehungskonstellationen, in denen sich sein Leben vollzog. Zentrale Texte werden konzise zusammengefaßt, die wichtigsten Themenbereiche pointiert entfaltet. Ein eigener Abschnitt ist der umfangreichen Wirkungsgeschichte und weltweiten Rezeption gewidmet.

Christian theology traditionally regards the sacramental as the polar opposite of the profane. The polarity is a memorial of contemporary desacralisation, profanisation, and sacralisation that stands as a portal to the story of modern reality. In our liminal space, we neither de-sacralise our environs nor re-sacralise the world. The lines are blurred and our perception of spirituality is neither immanent nor transcendent. While words fail to articulate the condition, stories are told and tales of experiences come together to form new theoretical nets, systems and categories. The conference volume, Sacrality and Materiality: Locating Intersections seeks to reply to the questions: Where does the sacred intersect with the material? What happens when they meet? First, however, does the sacral even exist? Would it be more productive to ignite sacramental discourse at the intersections of a new matrix? Historically, materiality is other than spirituality -- an intersection of the two is an intangible event of the intellect and spirit. We must engage a bipolar setting in the context of its own history in order to speak about the unspeakable. Despite that spirituality and materiality refuse to assume the categories assigned to the initial polarities of sacrality and profanity, the volume addresses the constrictions. Sacral materialism and sacral spiritualism both exist in their own right, and Christian theology has more to offer than polarities. The sacral is the meeting point for the fission of thought. Is the sacramental a topos for telling a postmodern story of spiritual experience? Is Evangelical sacramental theology relevant? Does theological talk about holy materiality belong in denominational and inter-religious dialogue?

English summary: In his postdoctoral thesis, Akt und Sein (1931), Dietrich Bonhoeffer discusses the significance of transcendental philosophy and ontology for systematic theology in a dialogue with contemporary views. Taking other early Bonhoeffer works into account, Christiane Tietz-Steiding reconstructs and criticizes the theory of knowledge based on a critique of reason, which can be regarded as an original contribution of Bonhoeffer's early works. In these, the young Bonhoeffer's central conviction becomes clear: It is not the self-incurvation of reason in philosophy which can reveal an appropriate self-conception to a human being but rather a belief turned towards revelation in which the incurvation of human reason is broken open. German description: In seiner Habilitationsschrift 'Akt und Sein' (1931) erortert Dietrich Bonhoeffer im Dialog mit zeitgenossischen Positionen die Bedeutung von Transzendentalphilosophie und Ontologie fur die systematische Theologie. Unter Einbeziehung von 'Sanctorum Communio' und anderen fruhen Schriften Bonhoeffers rekonstruiert Christiane Tietz-Steiding die vernunftkritische Erkenntnistheorie, die als origineller Beitrag dieses Bonhoefferschen Fruhwerks gelten kann. Dabei wird die zentrale Uberzeugung des jungen Bonhoeffer deutlich: Nicht die Selbstverkrummung der ratio in der Philosophie kann dem Menschen ein angemessenes Selbstverstandnis eroffnen, sondern nur ein der Offenbarung zugewandter Glaube, in dem die Verkrummtheit der menschlichen Vernunft aufgebrochen wird. Indem der Mensch sein Sein im Akt des Glaubens versteht, kommt er zu sich selbst. Christiane Tietz-Steiding zeigt - im Unterschied zur bisherigen, allzuoft glattenden Bonhoeffer-Interpretation - Bruche und Unstimmigkeiten in Bonhoeffers Argumentation auf und macht daruber hinaus deutlich, weshalb Bonhoeffer sich spater von 'Akt und Sein' inhaltlich distanzieren musste. Mit der Rekonstruktion von Bonhoeffers Auseinandersetzung mit Philosophen und Theologen seiner Zeit (Heidegger, Barth, Bultmann, Gogarten u.a.) gibt sie zugleich eine problemorientierte Einfuhrung in die philosophische und theologische Diskussion der zwanziger Jahre.