Nordisk praktisk-teologisk ekklesiologi: Aktuelt fagfelt og aktuelle spørsmål

##article.abstract##

The article first identifies and explicates three research areas as central to Nordic
practical-theological research in ecclesiology: studies of local congregations, of statechurch – relations, and of processes of change and reform. In dialogue with these
three research areas, it reflects on fundamental features pertaining to an empirically
oriented contemporary practical-theological ecclesiology: First its origin within as well
as close collaboration and porous interface with other disciplines, especially social
sciences – and the implications for understanding practical-theological ecclesiology
as a theological discipline. Second, how practical-theological ecclesiology studies and
explicates “church” as a social reality along three different dimensions: as interaction,
institution and organization, evoking the question about the relation between these three
perspectives. And third, how empirically oriented practical-theological ecclesiology
also challenges and destabilizes “church” as a social and concrete phenomenon and
area of research