Böttcher Vowed to Community or Ordained to Mission?

Aspects of separation and integration in the Lutheran Deaconess Institute Neuendettelsau, Bavaria
1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-3-647-55263-7
Verlag: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, Band Band 114, 253 Seiten

Reihe: Forschungen zur Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte

Lena Böttcher offers an overdue exploration of the early years of the deaconess community in Neuendettelsau from a gender perspective. Drawing on rich archival material, she focuses on the process of a distinctive collective identity. Central to this study is the assumption, drawn from the social sciences, that collective identity is a social construction which requires the participation of the whole group through identification and which is consolidated by developing specific rituals, symbols, codes and normative texts, which facilitate integration, and by constructing external boundaries, which separate from the world and the wider church. This approach highlights the fact that the women were not merely passive recipients but participated and contributed to the formation of a distinct Neuendettelsau deaconess culture. Thus, this study offers an explanation for the popularity such institutes enjoyed amongst single and widowed Protestant women in the latter half of the nineteenth century. In consequence, this study significantly widens the scope of historical research on the Institute which so far has tended to take into account solely the male perspective of the Rektoren.

Dr. Judith Lena Böttcher ist lutherische Pfarrerin Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kreuzkirchen Kolbermoor.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Böttcher, Judith Lena

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Kirchengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christliche Kirchen, Konfessionen, Denominationen Christliche Orden und Vereinigungen, Ordensgeschichte, Mönchstum

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Title Page;4
2;Copyright;5
3;Table of Contents;6
4;Body;10
5;Acknowledgements;10
6;Chapter 1: Introduction;12
6.1;1.1 Literature survey;14
6.2;1.2 Sources;22
6.3;1.3 Cultural history;24
6.4;1.4 Insights from the social sciences;28
6.5;1.5 The structure of the study;36
7;Chapter 2: The Deaconess Institute and its context;38
7.1;2.1 Nineteenth-century contexts;38
7.2;2.2 The making of bourgeois femininity in the nineteenth century;39
7.3;2.3 The entrance of women into the philanthropic arena;45
7.4;2.4 Löhe’s theological development and congregational ideal;53
7.5;2.5 The founding and early development of the Deaconess Institute Neuendettelsau;62
7.6;2.6 The process of restructuring the Institute into a mother house;73
7.6.1;2.6.1 The house rules;73
7.6.2;2.6.2 The system of rotation;78
7.6.3;2.6.3 Retaining the link between “inside” and “outside”;82
7.6.3.1;2.6.3.1 The Correspondenzblatt;86
7.6.3.2;2.6.3.2 Chapter meetings;89
7.6.3.3;2.6.3.3 Personal rule of life;92
7.6.3.4;2.6.3.4 Inspections;93
7.7;2.7 Conclusion;94
8;Chapter 3: Constructing a threshold. The initiation ceremony;96
8.1;3.1 The order of the ceremony;96
8.1.1;3.1.1 The published liturgical formulas;96
8.1.1.1;3.1.1.1 The Aussegnung;96
8.1.1.2;3.1.1.2 The Einsegnung;98
8.1.2;3.1.2 The unpublished additions;99
8.2;3.2 Löhe’s conception of the deaconess office;101
8.3;3.3 The initiation ceremony and the ecclesiastical authorities;105
8.4;3.4 The later devaluation of the initiation ceremony;108
8.5;Excursus: Fliedner’s conception of the deaconess office and initiation ceremonies in Kaiserswerth;110
8.5.1;End of Excursus;115
8.6;3.5 The initiation ceremony in practice;116
8.6.1;3.5.1 Ritual in anthropology and sociology;116
8.6.2;3.5.2 Initiation rites: Separation, liminality, and incorporation;118
8.6.3;3.5.3 The performance of the ceremony;121
8.6.3.1;3.5.3.1 Space, symbols and gestures;121
8.6.3.2;3.5.3.2 Participants and spectators;123
8.6.4;3.5.4 Evoking and constructing shared memory;125
8.6.5;3.5.5 The possibility of failure;129
8.7;3.6 Conclusion;134
9;Chapter 4: Constructing and consolidating collective identity through literary means: Normative and formative texts;136
9.1;4.1 The “dictations”;136
9.2;4.2 Obituaries;148
9.3;4.3 Curricula vitae and the construction of biography;157
9.4;4.4 Female hagiography: The Rosenmonate, and the Neuendettelsau calendar;168
9.5;4.5 Conclusion;175
10;Chapter 5: Constructing and consolidating collective identity through non-literary means;176
10.1;5.1 Boundary-markers;176
10.1.1;5.1.1 Distinctive dress;176
10.1.2;5.1.2 The dichotomy of cleanliness and dirt, purity and impurity;187
10.2;5.2 Rites and collective action;198
10.2.1;5.2.1 The foundational myth of the origins of the deaconess community;199
10.2.2;5.2.2 Sacred spaces: The “Family room” and the “Betsaal”;201
10.2.3;5.2.3 Christmas as the Institute’s “family feast”;205
10.2.4;5.2.4 Sacred times: The daily liturgy;208
10.2.5;5.2.5 Commemorating the dead;213
10.2.6;5.2.6 Conclusion;218
11;Chapter 6: Conclusion;220
12;Chapter 7: Bibliography;222
12.1;7.1. Abbreviations;222
12.1.1;7.1.1 Archives;222
12.1.2;7.1.2 Further abbreviations;222
12.2;7.2. Unpublished archival sources;222
12.2.1;7.2.1 Letters;222
12.2.2;7.2.2 Other unpublished archival sources;224
12.2.3;7.2.3 Unpublished and published addresses given by Löhe at the Neuendettelsau initiation ceremonies in chronological order;225
12.3;7.3. Published primary sources relating directly to the Neuendettelsau Deaconess Institute;226
12.3.1;7.3.1 The dictations;226
12.3.2;7.3.2 The obituaries (in chronological order);226
12.3.3;7.3.3 Articles from newsletters;227
12.3.3.1;7.3.3.1 Correspondenzblatt der Diaconissen in Neuendettelsau [CorDiac];227
12.3.3.2;7.3.3.2 Correspondenzblatt der Gesellschaft für Innere Mission im Sinne der lutherischen Kirche [CorIM];231
12.3.3.3;7.3.3.3 Armen- und Krankenfreund. Eine Monatsschrift für die Diakonie der evangelischen Kirche [AuKF];231
12.3.4;7.3.4 Miscellaneous sources relating to the deaconess house;232
12.3.5;7.3.5 Miscellaneous sources relating to the deaconess house in Kaiserswerth;233
12.4;7.4. Further primary literature (originally published before 1900);233
12.5;7.5. Secondary literature (published after 1900);235
13;Long Abstract;248
14;Name Index;254

Über Autor(innen)

Böttcher, Judith Lena
Dr. Judith Lena Böttcher ist lutherische Pfarrerin Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kreuzkirchen Kolbermoor.