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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
In 1961 H. Wendland delivered a lecture expressing the opinion that the lack of theological discussion has meant that we have had to go without a thorough inquiry into the problems of diakonia seen as a whole. Since then, four larger contributions have been made to the debate. The first to appear was a Roman Catholic collection of essays edited by K. Rahner and H. Vorgrimmler under the title Diakonia in Christo. The thirtynine contributions cover a wide range of material in three main sections: the deacon in history and at present; the theology of the diaconate with regard to its renewal; efforts, practical possibilities and stimuli towards renewal of the diaconate. The chapter of immediate interest is that by J. Colson, Der Diakonat im Neuen Testament. He looks at the subject from four angles:
page 423 note 1 Christos Diakonos: Drei Vorträge (Zürich, 1962).Google Scholar
page 423 note 2 Freiburg, 1962.
page 423 note 3 pp. 3–22. Colson's chapter is also reproduced in French as the first part of his book, La Fonction diaconale aux origines de l'Église (Paris, 1960).
page 425 note 1 e.g. von Harnack, A., Kirchenverfassung (1910)Google Scholar; Wurster, P., Die Lehre von der Inneren Mission (1905)Google Scholar; Dahlhoff, N., Die christtliche Liebestätigkeit, (1904)Google Scholar; Albertz, M., Die Kirche und ihre Dienste (1949)Google Scholar; Leipold, J., Ethik der Liebe (1938).Google Scholar
page 426 note 1 Kirchliche Dogmatik, IV, 3, p. 1020. Philippi comments: ‘Banal ausgedrückt, die Spur der Diakonie müsste, negativ oder positiv, auch in den Bänden I/I-IV/2 nachzuweisen sein, soll sie ihren Ort in IV/3 mit Notwendigkeit einnehmen’ (P. 29).
page 427 note 1 Kirchliche Dogmatik, IV/3 (2), p. 1020. Cf. IV/2, E.T. p. 6g2f: ‘We may recall how futile have been the attempts to use the terms diakonia and ministerium to denote particular functions within the life of the community: diakonia to describe the loving assistance extended by the Church to the sick, poor etc.; and ministry, the regular preaching office. Surely the freedom to serve cannot be narrowed down in this way. Surely the community's whole action can and must be a diaconate and the ministerium verbi divini.’
page 427 note 2 Stuttgart, 1965. A second and largely altered edition of an earlier work that appeared in 1953.
page 427 note 3 Translated as ‘Diakonia: Today's Task’, in S.J.T., March 1967.
page 428 note 1 London, 1966. The area covered by the other contributions is similar to that in the Krimm volume with essays on the historical manifestations of diakonia and its present-day state in some of the churches. But fresh ground is covered with chapters on the Old Testament, the secular Greek world, the Puritans, and diakonia in the present secular and ecumenical worlds.
page 429 note 1 In Handbuch der Theologischen Wissenschaften, ed. Otto Zöckler, vol. IV, Praktische Theologie, pp. 450–529.
page 431 note 1 For a useful brief selection of Wichern's writings, see Krimm, , Quellen zur Geschichte der Diakonie (Stuttgart, 1960), 63, sections 91–103, 177.Google Scholar
page 431 note 2 ibid., sections 104–19, 176.
page 431 note 3 2nd ed., Stuttgart, 1895.
page 432 note 1 Except N. Dahlhoff's book of the same name in 1904. P. R. Abbing produced Diakonia: een studie over het begrip dienst in dogmatiek undpractische theologie (Utrecht, 1950). But it is such a wide ranging work as to come better under some other title such as ‘Introduction to Systematics’. For a useful account of some work undertaken by Roman Catholics in Germany led by Bishop Ketteler, see Vidler, A. R., A Century of Social Catholicism (London, 1964)Google Scholar. Cf. Krimm, H., Diakonie im oekumenischen Bereich (Stuttgart, 1960).Google Scholar
page 432 note 2 Gütersloh, 1931.
page 432 note 3 Stuttgart, 1935. vol. II, pp. 81–93.
page 432 note 4 p. 81 in vol. II of E.T. by G. W. Bromiley, Michigan, 1964.
page 433 note 1 Abbot-Smith, G., Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT (Edinburgh, 1937).Google Scholar
page 433 note 2 ‘Die Diakonie im NT’, in Neue Kirchliche Zeitschrift, 42, (1931).Google Scholar
page 433 note 3 World Council of Churches, Geneva, 1965.
page 433 note 4 ibid., p. 9.
page 433 note 5 ibid., p. 10.
page 434 note 1 London, 1965, p. 132f. Cf. T. Klausner, in Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum, Stuttgart, 1957, vol. III, col. 905f: ‘Von der technischen Verwendungen des Wortes diakonos ausserhalb des Vereinslebens ist besonders bemerkenswert die Bedeutung–Krankenwärter (Artist. Rhet., 48, 38).’
