Räume der Begegnung eröffnen

The exterior of the church, its organizational and legal form, surrounds us from the outside, and it belongs to the church, but its most essential reality, its true life, does not lie in that, but only in the spirit of love that brings us close to one another and unites us from within. Bernhard Welte, "Community of Faith" (1951) The Freiburg religious philosopher Bernhard Welte (1906-1983) is known not only for his philosophical thinking but also for his significant pastoral-theological, counseling, and homiletical dimensions. Welte seeks to illuminate the fundamental questions of human life so deeply that we find a convincing answer to these questions in the light of the Christian faith—and conversely, he aims to translate the Christian message into the reality of human life. In doing so, he opens up a wide space for encounter among people and with God. This spiritual and simultaneously pastoral program of Welte is to be made fruitful in the contributions of this year's volume of the Bernhard Welte Society's series for the particular challenges of church proclamation and pastoral care in our time and to be brought into dialogue with complementary theological concepts.