The future impact of the churches on the societies in which they are situated depends on how they are experienced as healing and solidarizing communities (concerning their religious and social praxis) within themselves and to the outside. Exactly this is the question of the diaconical dimension of the church: the question of how much love (in terms of mercy and justice) and freedom (to the individual and to society) are being spread by the churches in this world. Theologically this book refers not only to the biblical foundations but also to the latest theology of the II Vatican Council (and of the appropriate understanding of the term «Evangelization») within the Catholic Church, without suggesting that this theological position is something exclusive in the ecumenical sphere. It rather may support similar theologies emerging from other churches, as a kind of offer to solidarize with each other looking for the possibilities of substantiating the Christian faith.

The Author: Dr. Ottmar Fuchs (born 1945) has been Professor of Pastoral Theology at the University of Bamberg, Germany, since 1982. Beforehand he worked as Parish Priest in Nuremberg (beginning 1972) followed by a period of five years as Chaplain to the students in Bamberg. This book is the result of the guest lectures he was invited to hold at the University of South Africa in autumn 1991.