Studying the Kingdom of God: Consequences for Empirical Ecclesiology

This article explores the methodological and theological implications of beginning empirical ecclesiological research not with the church, but with the Kingdom of God. Drawing on Jürgen Moltmann’s eschatological epistemology, it develops two core concepts—reversal and order—to argue that knowledge of the Kingdom arises not through detached observation but through communal, attentive participation in lived reality. Using “experiences of abundance” as an operationalisation of the Kingdom, the article examines how this shift in starting point reshapes empirical ecclesiology by emphasizing discernment as an essential methodological practice. Situated within ongoing debates on ethnographic theology and qualitative approaches, the article contends that empirical research serves as a means of being led into theological knowledge rather than producing it. It concludes that ecclesiology must have a receptive attitude and participative methodology, grounded in concrete life where the Kingdom’s reality becomes perceptible.