The orders of the protestant wedding in the light of a transforming culture and law of marriage

在过去的几十年里，德国新教婚礼的惯例发生了很大的变化。据统计，自20世纪70年代以来，教堂婚礼的数量正在减少，远远超过整个婚姻的数量。在文化上，将婚礼作为一项重大活动来庆祝的趋势，也对人们对教堂仪式、地点和举办的预期产生了越来越大的影响。最后但并非最不重要的一点是，教会的S实践受到普通婚姻法变化的影响，例如关于离婚或同性伴侣婚姻的变化：这些伙伴关系是否也应该在教会中得到公开祝福？我们可以特别通过观察教会婚礼的实践来研究宗教仪式在一般宗教仪式领域的文化变化。教堂婚礼的法律秩序在这里具有特别重要的意义。在各自的教会法及其实施条例和细则中，可以清楚地看到教会机构在过去几十年里是如何准备接受婚姻文化的普遍变革的--以及该机构选择在哪里抵制这种法律和文化变革。在这方面，特别是关于牧师婚姻规则的具体传道法是很有启发意义的。这里将不像往常那样分析婚礼的礼拜命令或牧民规则，而是关于它的法律命令和规则，来分析婚礼的普遍社会习俗和教会制度之间的复杂关系。此外，教会会议、行政管理和牧区议会中的辩论将成为研究的重点。将就以下问题调查东德和西德选定的州立教堂各自的档案文件：在教堂辩论中使用哪种论点，哪种教条、牧歌或组织推理方式，以将婚礼实践同化为重要的法律变化，例如关于离婚或同性婚姻的？关于宗教变化，例如关于不同教会成员之间的婚姻，甚至不同宗教之间的婚姻，使用了什么论据？新教婚礼的神学形象是如何在各自的辩论中表达出来的，这里的性别关系是如何看待的？通过这项研究，教会法律在总体上的地位也可以得到澄清：婚姻法(以及一般的通道礼仪法)的强制程度是多少，特别是在教会自20世纪50年代以来发明的所谓的Lebensordnungen(基督教生活秩序)中？对新教婚礼秩序的研究，将使实践神学与教会法、婚姻法学科之间的合作更加紧密。

The practice of protestant wedding ceremonies in Germany is changing heavily within the last decades. Statistically, the number of church weddings is decreasing since the 1970s, far more than the number of overall marriages. Culturally, the trend of celebrating the wedding as a big event, has an increasing influence also on the expectations concerning the church ceremonies, its location and its staging. Last but not least, the church´s practice is affected by changes in common marriage law, e.g. regarding divorce or the marriage of gay couples: Should these partnerships also be blessed publicly in the churches?The cultural, also the religious change in the general field of rites of passage may be studied especially by looking on the practice of church wedding. The legal orders of church wedding are of special importance here. In the respective church laws, in its regulations and rules of implementation, it can be seen clearly how the institution of church, over the last decades, has been ready to accept the general transformation in marriage culture - and where the institution chose to resist to that legal and cultural changings. In this respect, not least the specific law of ministry, with regard to the marriage regulations for the pastors, is quite instructive.The intricate relationship between the common social practice of wedding on the one hand and the church institution on the other hand, will be analyzed here not so much - as usually - with regard to the worship orders or the pastoral rules of wedding, but with regard to its legal orders and regulations. Additionally, the debates in church synods, in administration and in pastoral councils will come into the focus of research. The respective archive documents of selected state churches, in east and west Germany, will be investigated concerning the following questions: Which kinds of arguments, which way of dogmatic, pastoral or organisational reasoning is used in church debates to assimilate the wedding practice to important legal changes, e.g. concerning divorce or gay marriage? And what arguments are used with respect to religious changes, e.g. concerning marriages between members of different churches or even of different religions? How is the theological profile of protestant wedding expressed in the respective debates, how are gender relations seen here?By that research, also the status of church law in generally can be clarified: What is the degree of compulsion of the wedding law (and the law of Passage Rites in general), especially in the so called Lebensordnungen (orders of christian life) which churches invented since the 1950s? The research on the orders of protestant wedding will thereby lead to a more intense cooperation between Practical Theology and the disciplines of Church Law and Marriage Law.