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Encounters with Modernity : The Catholic Church in West Germany, 1945-1975 / Benjamin Ziemann.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Studies in German History ; 17Publisher: New York ; Oxford : Berghahn Books, [2014]Copyright date: ©2014Description: 1 online resource (334 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781782383444
  • 9781782383451
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 261.8/30943
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. Counting Piety: Church Statistics and Its Uses -- 2. In Search of Social Reality: Sociography -- 3. Representation and Contestation after the Council: Opinion Polling -- 4. Planning the Future of the Church: Organizational Research -- 5. “Humane” Scientific Approaches: Psychology and Group Dynamics -- Conclusion The Scientization of the Church as an Encounter with a Dangerous Modernity -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary: During the three decades from 1945 to 1975, the Catholic Church in West Germany employed a broad range of methods from empirical social research. Statistics, opinion polling, and organizational sociology, as well as psychoanalysis and other approaches from the “psy sciences,” were debated and introduced in pastoral care. In adopting these methods for their own work, bishops, parish clergy, and pastoral sociologists tried to open the church up to modernity in a rapidly changing society. In the process, they contributed to the reform agenda of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Through its analysis of the intersections between organized religion and applied social sciences, this award-winning book offers fascinating insights into the trajectory of the Catholic Church in postwar Germany.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. Counting Piety: Church Statistics and Its Uses -- 2. In Search of Social Reality: Sociography -- 3. Representation and Contestation after the Council: Opinion Polling -- 4. Planning the Future of the Church: Organizational Research -- 5. “Humane” Scientific Approaches: Psychology and Group Dynamics -- Conclusion The Scientization of the Church as an Encounter with a Dangerous Modernity -- Bibliography -- Index

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http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

During the three decades from 1945 to 1975, the Catholic Church in West Germany employed a broad range of methods from empirical social research. Statistics, opinion polling, and organizational sociology, as well as psychoanalysis and other approaches from the “psy sciences,” were debated and introduced in pastoral care. In adopting these methods for their own work, bishops, parish clergy, and pastoral sociologists tried to open the church up to modernity in a rapidly changing society. In the process, they contributed to the reform agenda of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Through its analysis of the intersections between organized religion and applied social sciences, this award-winning book offers fascinating insights into the trajectory of the Catholic Church in postwar Germany.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 25. Jun 2024)