In view of the upheavals and breakups of classical institutional authority promoted and even staged by the media, the question arises concerning the effects these processes of change entail for the institution of the church, its power of interpretation and its practice. In an interdisciplinary discussion of practical theology together with communication and media studies, political science and jurisprudence, sociology of religion as well as journalism and rhetoric, the book examines current theoretical developments in understanding institutions as well as the associated changes in claims to authority and dynamics of articulation. From the point of view of practical theology, church leadership and Protestant media communication, the book discusses the question concerning which tasks and presumptions of authority can be ascribed in the future to the church as an institution of freedom and theologically justified in view of these processes of change and how they are to be communicated internally and externally.
