Gefahrlicher Gott, riskanter Teufel, normalisierter Mensch

For Catholics in the 19th century the human scope for action expanded considerably compared to the divine. At first, a divine disposition of grace prevailed, which offered few opportunities for action corresponding to little pressure to act and few opportunities for participation. Increasing social pressure to act and increasing opportunities for participation led to a demomaniac disposition for exorcism, which was characterized by an agonistic approach to the world. Therefore, the Catholic social-ethical designs did not aim at social security, but at the transformation of one kind of insecurity into another, namely from unpredictable danger to calculable risk. The religious-historical study analyzes the contemporary Catholic discourses and shows how a normalizing set of rules developed during the dominance of Ultramontanism, in which the human being, who was subject to the laws of nature, emancipated himself from transcendent powers.