Department of Protestant Theology and Religious Education

The research focus of Protestant theology integrates biblical, historical and systematic perspectives in order to methodically reflect upon the tenets of the Christian faith and translate them into contemporary contexts.

Biblical Theology: The development of conceptions of God and the image of humanity is traced through the exegesis (interpretation) of the Old and New Testaments.

Church History: This discipline demonstrates how the Christian faith has, to a greater or lesser extent, withstood the challenges of society over the centuries. Of course, one cannot simply extract the answers to the questions people ask today from this history. However, the history of Christianity makes us more sensitive to current problems, which often have a history of their own.

Systematic Theology: The Christian faith is presented in a coherent manner, enabling teachers to provide answers to the curious questions of young people and to provocative questions from society. To this end, dialogue with the natural sciences is particularly important, as these are the primary sources of opinion-forming for a large proportion of people. The same applies to contemporary philosophy, which also develops answers to questions of an existential nature, both on an individual and a societal level. Last but not least, systematic theology also involves a discursive engagement with non-Christian religions and world views.

Further details can be found on the individual pages of the lecturers at the Institute.

You can choose Protestant Theology / Religious Education as a subject at our university in all teacher training programmes for primary and lower secondary education.

Our students can attend selected modules on other denominations and faith traditions at our university and at partner institutions if they also undertake the university certificate programme in ‘Interreligious Encounter-Based Learning’. This enables them to develop their ability to deal with ideological diversity in our schools and acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to implement ‘interreligious encounter-based learning’ in schools. 

Link to the subject within the teacher training programme.

Dr Eva Jenny Korneck has not been working at our university since 1 September 2025, but is now employed at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences in Freiburg. She can be contacted at the following email address: evajenny.korneck@eh-freiburg.ekiba.de
Mr Jun. Prof. Dr Simon Dürr has not been working at our university since 1 September 2024, but is now based at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He can be contacted at the following email address: duerr@pust.it