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，德国新教婚礼的习俗发生了巨大的变化。据统计，自20世纪70年代以来，教堂婚礼的数量一直在减少，远远超过了整体婚礼的数量。在文化上，把婚礼作为一件大事来庆祝的趋势，也对人们对教堂仪式、地点和舞台的期望产生了越来越大的影响。最后但并非最不重要的是，教会的实践受到普通婚姻法变化的影响，例如关于离婚或同性恋伴侣的婚姻：这些伙伴关系也应该在教会公开祝福吗？特别是通过观察教堂婚礼的实践，我们可以研究成人仪式的一般领域的文化和宗教变化。教堂婚礼的法律秩序在这里具有特别重要的意义。在各自的教会法律中，在其条例和实施细则中，可以清楚地看到，在过去的几十年里，教会机构是如何准备接受婚姻文化的普遍转变的，以及该机构在哪里选择抵制这种法律和文化的变化。在这方面，尤其是牧师的婚姻法，是很有启发性的。婚礼的一般社会习俗和教堂制度之间错综复杂的关系，在这里我们不像通常那样，过多地分析婚礼的礼拜秩序或牧师规则，而是分析其法律秩序和规定。此外，在教会会议、行政和牧灵会议上的辩论将成为研究的重点。将调查东德和西德选定的国家教堂的各自档案文件，涉及以下问题：在教会辩论中使用哪种论点，哪种教条式，牧区或组织推理的方式来将婚礼实践与重要的法律变化同化，例如关于离婚或同性婚姻？关于宗教的变化，例如不同教会甚至不同宗教的成员之间的婚姻，使用了什么论点？新教婚礼的神学轮廓在各自的辩论中是如何表达的，性别关系在这里是如何被看到的？通过这项研究，教会法的总体地位也可以得到澄清：婚姻法（以及一般的成人仪式法）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（基督徒生活秩序）中？因此，对新教婚礼秩序的研究将导致实践神学与教会法和婚姻法学科之间更密切的合作。

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.