‘Different’ and ‘Foreign’ Pastoral Practices and Their Public Relevance in ‘Secular’ Societies

The everyday pastoral praxis represents a practical-theological type of public theology. This pastoral praxis can be perceived with the help of social theory categories and specified as social and interpersonal proceedings. In secular contexts, this praxis is characterized by ‘absence’ and ‘difference’ and is an expression of modern society precisely in this respect. Therefore, current approaches from practice theory are used as a methodological background to discern the realities of human life and the unique nature of pastoral practices. The epistemic and critical function of this reflective process follows a theological agenda. Additionally, it reveals the specific public character of this praxis: It can be described as an interaction with the ‘user interface’, it expects the coexistence of heterogeneous milieus and styles and refers to different inner logics.