'Pastoral Care with Travelling Showmen – Lifeworld and Religious Meaning Making' (DFG-project)

Duration: 15. May 2013 – 14 May 2015

Team: Bernhard Eisel (Research Assistant), Dr. Kristin Merle und Prof. Dr. Birgit Weyel (Project Applicants), Viola-Kristin Rüdele (Student Assistant)

This project intends to develop a practical theology of pastoral care with travelling showmen. Practical theology has largely neglected pastoral care with circus and travelling show people. The distinct constitutions of the lifeworld and religious needs of travelling showmen have not been methodically reflected yet, neither is there a theoretical concept for specific pastoral counselling.

We use qualitative empirical surveys to observe, describe and interpret the social structures and lived religion of travelling showmen.

Studying the relationship between religious opinions, religious practices, mobility and the significance of institutional commitment of this distinctive occupational group is expected to render crucial results for practical theology as well as cultural studies because they can be seen as examples for modernized society in general.