Areas of research

Our Vision

"Together we create" - this slogan is programmatic for the work of our team at the Chair of Systematic Theology. We let ourselves be challenged by current social and political situations, bring them in dialogue with Christian theology, and develop theological reflections that are able to contribute to an open society. Our goal of a rationally responsible God-talk presupposes the presence of God in all aspects of life, traces them, questions them and tries to reflect, articulate and depict the unspeakable. As scientists, we work on clear conceptual frameworks that present reflections on Christian faith in systematic ways, and, simultaneously, remain aware of the provisional nature of our positions and statements.

The forms of theology we develop have a critical stance: We work out theological reflections that question hegemonic discourses, the boundaries they draw and the taxonomies they establish – like the boundary between human and animal life in the Anthropocene, or the supposed superiority of human lives in regard to other forms of live. We highlight the social construction of these boundaries / distinctions and try to overwrite them critically and creatively, by drawing from theological heritage and critical theories. Beyond questions of human-animal interaction, a particular object of study are protest cultures, political art or provocative performances that intervene in the public sphere, question existing normative frames and claim performatively modified ways of live excluded before, often by drawing from religious traditions or theological symbolic orders. 

Our research is interdisciplinary and international. It takes shape in dialogue with scholars from other disciplines at the TU Dresden (e.g. PRISMA), on the national and international level (especially with references to theologians in USA, Austria, Belgium). At the same time, our research is rooted in the particular contexts of to the city of Dresden and Eastern Germany. We cooperate with extra-academic partners (like the Catholic Academy of the Diocese of Dresden-Meißen, the Deutsche Hygiene-Museum Dresden, local parishes or student groups). This enables us to link our research both to theological practice and to concrete places of social life and activity.

We apply different critical methods, including contextual hermeneutics, critical theories, discouse analysis and performance analysis, participant observation.

"Together we create" – this means for us not only that we act as a team in research, teaching, and university self-governance, not only that we shape these areas together. It implies also a particular social and ethical stance: We see ourselves as part of a living and co-creative network that does not act at the expense of the other members of the network, but seeks to act together with them and to open a space of creative, vibrant, communicative space of cooperation and discovery.

Our research interests at a glance:

• Animal theology; theological human-animal studies (international, interdisciplinary research network on this under construction).
• Animal rights
• Theologies of Creation
• Theology & Sustainability
• Ecocide and Anthropocene
• Sexism, racism, speciesism (Unity of Oppression)
• Performance theology, performative theologies
• Critical Theologies
• Ecclesiology

Other areas of focus:

• Process theologies, Relational theologies.
• Guilt and sin (in) the church
• Gender Studies, Feminism, Theology & Gender
• Theology of failure
• Intercultural, postcolonial and decolonial theologies

More information on the research of individual team members:

• Prof. Dr. Julia Enxing: www.juliaenxing.de
• Dr. Christian Kern: https://tu-dresden.de/gsw/phil/ikt/systematik/die-professur/mitarbeiter-innen