Geist und Leben
Spirit and life. Journal of Christian Spirituality ( GuL ) is a forum for spiritual theology, Christian mysticism and spiritual practice. The magazine has been published since 2011, three monthly with a circumference of 110 pages each. From 1948 to 2010 published per year 6 issues for each 80 pages. The Issue 1/ 2011 is the 458th issue since the publication of the journal (including ZAM).
The magazine was founded in 1926 under the name Journal of asceticism and mysticism (ZAM ) by Alois Ersin in Innsbruck. It was published until 1939 in the publishing Tyrolia (Innsbruck, Vienna, Munich) and 1940 to 1944 in Franz Wegner Publisher (Würzburg ). 1943/44, she was forcibly merged with the Journal of Catholic Theology (Innsbruck ). Since 1947, it carries its current titles and published by the German Province of the Jesuits in conjunction with the Real Verlag, Wurzburg. Editors were 1926-1944 Heinrich Bleistein, 1947-1979 Friedrich Wulf, 1979-1986 Josef Sudbrack, 1986-1993 Paul Imhof and 1993-2005 Franz -Josef Steinmetz. From 2005 to 2013, Andreas Schönfeld (born 1961), Editor in Chief, since June 2013, it is Christoph Benke. Editorial office was from 1928 to 2004 Munich, 2005-2013 Cologne, since it is based in Vienna.
GuL is the only theological journal for Christian spirituality of its kind in the German language area. Your goal is to promote from a Catholic tradition a "Integrative Spirituality ," which combines modern life and the spiritual heritage of Christianity creatively. The program word " spirit and life " ( spiritus et vita ) is taken from the Gospel of John ( cf. Jn 6:63) and stands for the integrative approach of the magazine. A particular concern is to deepen the Ignatian retreats and promotion of Christian contemplation.
The design of the booklets based on current issue positions, thematic priorities and the liturgical Ordinary Time ( Easter, Christmas). The spectrum of the journal includes theology of the spiritual life, spiritual interpretation of Scripture, contemplation and retreat practice, Ignatian Spirituality, Spiritual Psychology, Spirituality History, Mystery History, Theory of mystical experience, hagiography, forms of spirituality, religious theology, Religious movements, Order, priests, lay and marriage spirituality, religious borderlands ( Esotericism ), discernment of spirits, integration of Eastern exercise methods, spiritual language culture, Christian art and literature.
The number of subscribers is currently at 1800th This " spirit and life " in the category of theological journals is relatively well placed. In the time of the Second Vatican Council ( in 1961 /65), the number was around 3000 subscribers. In the years 2001 to 2005, the magazine has lost about 400 subscriptions, but has increased due to the increased internet presence, the number of subscribers since. Mainly the decline due to the demographic development, a closing wave of religious houses, the declining number of priests and conservation measures of libraries was due.
The magazine is the first Catholic journal fully digitized on the Internet. Since September 21, 2010, it offers an online archive of all articles from 1926 to the current issue. The archive documents each booklet with complete bibliographic data. Every contribution is in the original text as a single PDF for free download and copy function in Word format. The text archive includes nearly 4,500 PDF documents ( 457 issues). Thus, the development of spirituality in the mirror of her subjects are pursued by the Weimar Republic to the present. The digitization was performed by the editorial team in the years 2007 to 2010. There are also around 40,000 pages were prepared text material, scanned and stored in a database. Planning and implementation of the digitization project together have about 3200 working hours. The online version is in the " Electronic Journals Library " at the University of Regensburg ( ECB) and " Journals Database " of the Berlin State Library ( ZDB) detected. The magazine also listed the contents index theologicus.