Books published by V&R unipress GmbH

At what point is a place perceived as holy? And when does it become officially so in its definition? Inspired by the UNESCO debate and decisions made concerning holy places, the authors seek answers to these questions. "Naming the Sacred" is a diachronic excursus into the issues of perception and denomination of holy places. The volume examines historical cases in which names and places have been modified or literally eliminated and others where places were subject to policies of protection and tutelage. The work appertains to an ongoing, evolving global debate where the challenge of the reciprocal recognition of holy sites has become increasingly complex.

Die auf den ersten Blick provozierende Verbindung zweier fernstehender Begriffe zielt auf ein Dilemma der Theologie: Gott wird zur beliebig einsetzbaren Legitimation von ganz verschiedenen Inhalten und Positionen. In Geld oder Gott? widmet sich Falk Wagner der höchst aktuellen Frage nach der ambivalenten sozialen Bedeutung des Geldes. In seinen Augen hat das Geld unter den Bedingungen der modernen, ökonomisch bestimmten Gesellschaft die Stelle Gottes als alles bestimmende Wirklichkeit eingenommen, weil es sämtliche Bereiche des individuellen und sozialen Weltumgangs durchdringt. Die kritische Aufgabe von Theologie und Kirche verortet Wagner demgegenüber in der Kultivierung einer Rede von Gott als Grund einer nicht ökonomisch bestimmten, sondern auf wechselseitige Anerkennung zielenden Form menschlicher Freiheit. At first sight, the provoking connection of two distant concepts hints at the dilemma of theology: God becomes a random legitimation of various contents and positions. In Geld oder Gott? (Money or God?) Falk Wagner focuses on the very recent debate on the ambivalent social meaning of money. In his view, money has taken the position of God as the only leading reality as it - under the influence of the modern and economically-driven society - penetrates all aspects of individual and social behaviour. The critical task of theology and church in Wagner's opinion is located in the cultivation of a speech of God as the foundation of a non-economically defined but reciprocal form of human freedom.