Rites of passage are family celebrations. Baptisms, weddings, confirmations, and funerals not only address biographical transitions that affect individuals or couples, but also deal with the complex changes in the family system that are affected by a “Kasus” (case). Family members and friends make up a large part of the congregation gathered at a church service, and they play a significant role in shaping the explicitly familial part of the festive culture following the act of blessing in the church service.
The significance of the “family” for rites of passage has been pointed out when aspects of socialisation theory, family history and family religion have been mentioned. As a rule, however, the “family” is categorised as a social entity which, unlike the “congregation” developed in terms of church theory, is assigned to the private sphere, but whose social-institutional character is not taken into account. What “family” is, how it is constituted and how it understands itself, is staged and symbolised on the occasion of religious ceremonies. This is the question explored by the project “Kasualien als Familienfeste” (“Rites of passage as family celebrations”). In this strand, a thematic edited volume was produced. Furthermore, the joint exchange between the grant applicants (*) will continue to be cultivated in an extended working group on the theory of the church service (speaker: Christian Albrecht, München).
(*) Ulrike Wagner-Rau (Marburg), Ursula Roth (Frankfurt am Main), Kristian Fechtner (Mainz), Jan Hermelink (Göttingen), Benedikt Kranemann (Erfurt) und Christian Albrecht (München).
