A Matter of Perspective? The Emic and Etic Assessment of the Emergence of the First Free Evangelical Church in the Nineteenth Century in Germany.

EVANGELICAL Church ; CATHOLIC Church

Summary: As a church historian, in this article I use the distinction between the 'etic' and the 'emic' perspective to analyse the historiography of the early Free Evangelical Churches in Germany. The first Free Evangelical Church was founded in Wuppertal in 1854 by Hermann Heinrich Grafe and its first historian was Heinrich Neviandt. Because church history examines the inner-worldly and at the same time other-worldly subject of 'the Church', I am arguing that the emic and the etic method and their respective possibilities should be differentiated and then used. The categories 'etic' and 'emic' do not determine right and wrong, real and unreal, true and untrue. Rather, their transfer from anthropology to historical research creates possibilities to describe the perspective from which scholars make their observations, as the work of Wolfgang Heinrichs shows. The two perspectives do not contradict one another and their distinction enables us to trace inner-worldly processes more clearly without resorting to God too quickly. Determining the driving forces behind history will remain the task of faith-based scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Theology is the property of Amsterdam University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)