The original form of Parish Social Work - DietS

See the list of Literature about more information

2.0 New testament

2.1 Apostolic Fathers

2.2 Early Fathers:

• Justin Martyr, Aristides, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebios of Caesarea, Irenaeus, Hippolytos, Cyprian

2.3 Church orders:

• Didascalia, Apostolic Constitutions

^{Useful texts}

• Diaconia, diaconiae, diaconato (2010)
• Collins 2012a/b
• Latvus 2017
• Deacons and Diakonia in Early Christianity 2018
• Deacons and Diaconia in Late Antiquity, 2024

^{See also activities of project leader}

• “Orthodoxia 51”, 43–68, 2010 (about Apostolic Fathers)
• Ryökäs – Voitila 2013 about the deacons as letter carrier
• Supervised doctoral student Pylvänäinen about diakonia in Apostolic Constitutions
• Deacons and Diakonia (Ed., 2018, WUNT, more here)
• Der Gebrauch von “diaconia” in der Bibel. Collins John N, Hentschel Anni, Ryökäs Esko. 2017. Diaconia Christi. 52: 22-32.

See the list of Literature about more information

3.1 East:

• Athanasius of Alexandria, Epiphanius of Salamis, The Cappadocian Fathers, Sozomenus, John Chrysostom

3.2 West:

• Ambrose, Saint Jerome / Hieronymus, Augustine of Hippo, Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
• 3.3 Councils and Church Orders: The Seven Ecumenical Councils, Canons

3.3 The Buildings called Diaconia

^{Useful texts}

• Barrett-Lennart, JECH 13, 2005, 137–164.
• Diaconia, diaconiae, diaconato (2010)
• Latvus 2017
• Pylvänäinen Agents in Liturgy, Charity and Communication (2021)
• Deacons and Diakonia in Early Christianity (2018)
• Deacons and Diakonia in Late Antiquity (2024)
• Koet, The Go-Between: Augustine on Deacons. (2019)

^{See also activities of project leader}

• “Diakonian tutkimus”, 2/2011, 145–163. (about buildings)
• Diakonit ja saarna (Deacons and the sermon). Diakonian tutkimus (2017)1: 36-53.

Comments

• This period also includes Late Antiquity in this project.
• Naturally, the understanding of deacons’ tasks and roles also evolved during the later Middle Ages.

See the list of Literature about more information

4.1 Luther

4.2 Calvin

4.3 Buzer

4.4 Tridentium

^{Useful texts}

• Many articles by Kari Latvus
• Latvus  Diaconia as care for the poor? (2017)

^{See also activities of project leader}

• Supervising doctoral thesis about deacons by Luther
• Diakonian tutkimus, 2/2011, 145–163. (about Luther and diaconia, see also the following)
• Diaconia as a place – Why Luther did not speak about “diaconia”? In: Raunio, Antti, 2020. Darkness, Light, and Active Love. Studies on Theory and Practice in Luther and Lutheran-Orthodox Ecumenical Theology 165-192.
• “Diaconia according to Martin Luther”, a presentation on IDZ/IDC/CID 22.10.2015 (Rome): Ryökäs 2015b.
• The Church as diaconia. One view of the Reformed understanding of diaconia. Avila, Mariano; Ryökäs, Esko. 2020. Diakonian tutkimus, 20-35.
• Ryökäs, Esko (2021), Deacons before Diaconia. – In E. Schlarb (Ed.), Den Orient erforschen, mit Orthodoxen leben: Festschrift für Martin Tamcke zum Ende seiner aktiven Dienstzeit. (Göttingen Orientforschungen 1, Reihe: Syriaca; Vol. 61). Harrassowitz Verlag. 741–756.

Comments

• Naturally, the understanding of deacons’ tasks and roles also evolved during the later Middle Ages.  However, there seems to have been a significant shift in thinking on deacons and diaconia during the 16th century.
• Although deacons had a clear role in the church, during the Reformation era, the idea of deacons as mere social workers was strengthened (or emerged). What actually happened and who was the driving force behind the development is unclear. Apparently, Jean Calvin played a significant role, perhaps also Bucer.
• It seems possible that John Calvin may have introduced the charitable understanding of a deacon’s tasks, perhaps in cooperation with Bucer. His influence can be seen in the Netherlands, where Theodor Fliedner encountered it. Fliedner introduced this understanding to the evangelical churches, where the Lutheran churches later adopted it.
• Martin Luther’s view on deacons deserves its own study. Deacons by Luther has been read through the 19th-century understanding.

See the list of Literature about more information

5.1 Fliedner

5.2 Wichern

5.3 Löhe

5.4 Local Teachers

^{Useful texts}

^{See also activities of project leader}

• Supervising Doctoral thesis about understanding of deacons during the latest 50 years in Finland
• About Fliedner: Diakonische Einblicke, DWI, 2011, 49–71.
• Deacon before Diaconia : The concept of deacon in early European general encyclopaedias.
  In: Schlarb, Egbert, 2021. Den Orient erforschen, mit Orthodoxen leben, 741 – 756.
• Ryökäs, Esko (2023), “Stabilisierung des karitativen Diakonie-Begriffs.” In: Johannes Eurich/Lisanne Teuchert (eds.), Diakoniewissenschaft in Forschung und Lehre 2022/2023, DWI-Jahrbuch 48, Heidelberg: Diakoniewissenschaftliches Institut, 9–24.

Comments

• The role of Theodor Fliedner appears to be significant in Protestant churches and countries. However, it emerged in a context where the role of deacons had a specific understanding, not similar to our present times.

See the list of Literature about more information

^{Useful texts}

• local analyses
• Wendland Project: Dietzel 2013
• Wohltätigkeit im antiken und spätantiken Christentum, ed. by Andreas Müller 2019

^{See also activities of project leader}

• About Paul Philippi in TRE: Ryökäs 2015.
• Aikaan sidottu diakonia-käsite (“Diakonia” as a term of its time), Ryökäs 2019.

The name DietS:

• This project combines the concept of a ‘diet’ with its focus on understanding what we consume and have consumed, particularly in relation to Deacons and Social work. We must delve into the origins, ‘ad fontes’, to find out what we have truly consumed and assimilated from the roles and responsibilities of deacons. We need this kind of “diet”. 
• Diakonia et parish Social work = DietS.
• The background of project leader Ryökäs: My-Way
• More about the background of this project is here: Background

It appears that many books and articles from the 19th and 20th centuries tend to see their specific (charitable) view of a deacon’s service as the only possible option (Collins, Dietzel, Ryökäs 2011 [about Fliedner], Latvus 2017).

Even in the 1980s, it seemed easy to attribute a charitable understanding to a deacon’s ministry at the highest level of scientific presentation, despite what the sources indicated (Ryökäs 2015).

The concept of a deacon’s work as humble service seems to be an invention of the 1930s, and not earlier (Ryökäs 2014a).

In the 4th century and in Egypt, deacons had almost nothing to do with sick persons (Barrett-Lennart).

The thesis of Collins seems to explain the function of deacons in the Early Church (Koet & Murphy & Ryökäs 2018 & 2023) (Pylvänäinen 2020)

Its time to accentuate the other side: Many ideological factors have influenced how diakonia and the function of deacons have been understood (Conference 2021, publication in process)

Very preliminary results are characterized by the following diagram and explained on the mp4 below. If you can not see the video, try open it with Chrome. Or download the video.

See the list of literature for more info.

Presentation of results, YouTube

Seminar: From Idealism to Realism, September 22-23, 2014 (Joensuu)
• See the special number of Diakonian tutkimus -journal 3 (2015): https://journal.fi/dt/issue/view/7863/1307

Symposium: What Did Deacons Do?, September 22-23, 2015 (Joensuu)
• A charitable role of a deacon was not the main theme in the papers presented at this symposium.
• See the special number of Diakonian tutkimus -journal 1S (2020): https://journal.fi/dt/issue/view/6468

Symposium: What Did Deacons Do 2017?, September 13-15, 2017 (Joensuu)
• An analysis of many church fathers showed that a charitable role of a deacon was not the main theme in the papers.
• See also Koet & Murphy & Ryökäs 2018
• See also the special number of Diakonian tutkimus 1S (2022): https://journal.fi/dt/issue/view/8678

Symposium: What Did Deacons Do 2020?, mid-May (Joensuu)
• Due to COVID-19, the symposium was modified into a series of online conferences, in cooperation with Bart J. Koet and Arnold Smeets.
• See also Koet & Murphy & Ryökäs 2023 (in preparation)

Symposium: Understandings of Diakonia, December 2021 (Joensuu, webinar)
• Publication in preparation

Participating in: Webinar Celebrating John N. Collins’ 90th Birthday, 8 March 2022

The tasks and roles of a deacon, as well as the concept of ‘diaconia,’ have taken on many different meanings at various times and in different cultures. It is easy to interpret texts from previous centuries through the lens of contemporary terminology. When discussing the duties of Protestant church workers, the overall picture becomes distorted if the historical context is not understood. One can only grasp this context by reading the primary sources of the respective time period, as the view of history in recent decades has often been colored by the charitable diaconia concept from the late 19th century. Therefore, analyses are needed that examine development from various perspectives and attempt to understand its underlying principles.

• Very generally, the hundreds of individuals who worked under the title of “archdeacon” in Protestant churches after the Reformation era have been completely forgotten. Understanding the use of this title helps to better comprehend the content attributed to the title “deacon” since the 19th century.  Now we are collecting a book with presentations from many Churches.
• Why the terms “deacon/διακονος (also in Latin, Syriac, etc.)” and “diaconia/διακονια (also in Latin, Syriac, etc.)” has been misunderstood. A hermeneutic book project with many examples is ongoing.
• see also our Call for Authors
• It is quite easy to discuss deacons solely from the perspective of the present day. However, deacons have a history spanning nearly two thousand years. For instance, the existence of archdeacons in post-Reformation Protestantism seems to have been forgotten. One of my sub-projects is mapping out what is known about Lutheran archdeacons. Studying them sheds further light on the extent to which deacons are associated with the work of love and to what degree they can be considered leaders. The overall picture of Lutheran archdeacons is quite different from that of deacons in the Protestant churches of the late 19th century. Acknowledging this helps in understanding the current discourse on deacons.

The project needs to:

• Identify those who have written or are writing about diakonia (in Greek, Latin, Syriac etc.) in the early church.
• Ascertain what has already been written.
• Compile a book or series of books similar to Madigan-Osiek 2005, but focusing on deacons (“where something is written”). We initiated this with Deacons and Diakonia 2018 with this continuation Deacons and Diakonia in Late Antiquity.
• Gather comparable knowledge about Parish Social Work in the Early Church.
• Assign research subjects to various researchers in collaboration. See our Call for Authors below.

Perhaps you can help in this project. Read this Call for Authors below. In short:

In recent years, the study of deacons and deaconesses in early Christianity has advanced, with new publications addressing their roles and responsibilities. However, there is still much to uncover, as numerous documents from the first three centuries remain unanalyzed. This project invites researchers who can read early church languages to contribute to the study of deacons by following a five-step process: training in the language, studying example works, reserving a research subject, preparing a well-written English analysis, and submitting the completed article for review. Two potential publication routes are available: presenting at the Oxford Patristics Conference in August 2024 and publishing in Studia Patristica, or contributing to a special issue of Diakonian Research Journal between 2025 and 2027.

Call for Authors -10