Diakonische Kirchen(um)nutzung

Abstract

Diaconal and community-oriented transformations have previously played a minor role in research on the (re)use of churches compared to commercial and cultural uses. These strategies, however, offer great potential for the church, diaconia, and the respective social spaces. A social reuse is often supported by society and the church – but due to the different logics of diaconia and church, these transformations are exposed to particular challenges. On the one hand, the contributions in this book look at examples of explicit diaconal church (re)use: the co-use and reuse of churches by diaconal institutions or in dedicated participation in urban and regional development, but also church spaces in diaconal institutions in the past and present. On the other hand, they reflect the implicit diaconal nature of church spaces as open spaces of hospitality, as shelters, and as places of boundary-crossing community.