Church History Section

The Church History Section has a double scholarly profile. It combines classical textual sources and questions (intellectual history of Christianity and history of the institutional church within culture and society) with more aesthetic source-material and questions (the role of literature, music, architecture and art within Christianity). The Section carries out research in the history of Christianity from ancient times until today.

This double profile lies at the back of a row of specific research themes dealt with at the Section: Christian historical narratives and their meaning for national self-conceptions; Christian life within and withdrawn from the world; the cultural heritage of Christian rituals; theological anthropology and its aesthetic framework in language, images and music; synergy between politics/law and theology in early modern and modern times and finally global encounters between Christianity and other religions and cultures.

These research themes go across the following research fields that have traditionally enjoyed special attention at the Section: Research in Medieval Theology, Luther-research, research in Christianity and the Arts, research in Danish Church History and research in Global Christianity.

In the years to come research fields such as Reformation theology, Danish Church History and History of Christianity and the Arts will be strengthened through the achievements of the Danish National Research Foundation Centre of Privacy Studies (2017-2023). Church History is one of the Centre’s four core disciplines (the other are History of Architecture, Legal History and History of Ideas). The on-going exchange and collaboration between the Centre and the Church History Section will contribute to scholarly developments at the Centre as well as the Section.

Read more about Centre of Privacy Studies (PRIVACY)

It is a characteristic of the Section that besides specific research interests every staff member is obliged to teach the entire history of Christianity from ancient times to today. This obligation contributes to establishing a fruitful specialist environment within a broad historical framework.

Centres and Projects

Centre and research projects

Centre for Privacy Studies (PRIVACY)

Center for Kunst og Kristendom

Managing Melancholy (MM) - Dynamics of Theology and Medicine in 18th-century Denmark-Norway

Publications

Plublication list

Publication list Church History Section

Research Strategy 2020-2023 at the Church History Section

Vision and research objectives

The Section develops and adds nuances to the discipline of Church History, and conducts studies into various periods from antiquity until today. All full-time researchers have an overview of all of the periods covered, as well as the subject’s methodological diversity, and concentrate on one or more important academic areas. The basic research covers most periods of church history. We are proud of this and we aspire to maintain it.

Under the Research Strategy 2020-2023, the Section aims to ensure the best possible conditions for every individual researcher. They also have the opportunity to participate in dynamic collaborations with colleagues from the Section and beyond, in Denmark and abroad, who work not only in theology but also in other subjects, such as history, musicology, art history, history of ideas, literary history, philology, architecture, law and medicine. The strategy also serves as a framework for the development of four particular fields of research.

The four fields are organised chronologically and reflect the breadth of church history covered by the Section. The research explores how certain recurring themes in the various fields are interrelated: Reception history; the relationship between theological and philosophical thinking and material culture; Christian piety in practice, with special focus on mediality (words, music, images, space); traditional and global church historiography; Christianity, politics and national identity; inter-denominational conflicts and Christian warfare. These lines of study enhance and expand the research community and act as thematic focal points.

One of the special characteristics of the Section’s research is that it focuses on how theological and religious thinking are combined in material culture, artistic works, social practices and the way in which societies are formed. During the strategy period, the Section will continue to promote discussions of methodology in its field and to conduct research that focuses on the intellectual and material aspects of church history. Thinking and materiality will be viewed in terms of how they interrelate and can be used to approach each other.

During the strategy period, the focus will be on:

Targeted development and strengthening of the activities in the four research fields that reflect the Section’s academic breadth, based on of the overall aim of approaching church history as a tension between thought and tangible materiality.
Development of the theological and interdisciplinary methodological foundation for the subject area
Strengthening research collaboration and exchanges, both within and beyond the Section.

Research fields

Ancient Church and Late Antiquity

Isolation, sociality, space and movement in the culture of theology and religious history; Christianity and mediality.

Topics: Processions and urban spaces in late antiquity; principles of isolation in early monastic culture; musical understanding and the use of classical rhetoric in early Christianity; piety culture and ritual practices.

High and Late Middle Ages

Theology and philosophy; academic and religious culture; Christianity and holy wars.

Topics: Medieval theology and philosophy and its interactions with academic and religious culture (e.g. the culture of the orders); the Reformation’s roots in scholastic theology, mystical theology and Renaissance humanism; the Cistercians; the Crusades, missions and power politics in German and Nordic Middle Ages.

Early Modern Era

The interplay between theology, philosophy, historiography, history of ideas, art, music, architecture, law and psychiatry between 1500 and 1800.

Topics: Luther’s theology, the Reformation in Germany and Denmark, Luther reception and the history of Lutheranism in Denmark; theological aesthetics in Protestant culture: the relationship between theology, poetry and music; interdisciplinary studies in privacy, 1500–1800; the relationship between Lutheran theology and law during the Enlightenment; the Moravians in and outside Denmark; the relationship between Lutheranism and psychiatry in the 18th century.

19th and 20th century

Danish and global church history, mission history, church and national identity; philosophy og law; holy wars; religion and secularism; cultural heritage; theology and gender; the reception history of the Reformation.

Topics: Christianity and politics in Denmark and globally; studies in modernity and theology; The Church of Denmark; studies in Grundtvig and Kierkegaard theology and reception; studies in theological arguments for and against secularisation; female theologians and the ordination of women; Danish and German Luther research and Luther reception; studies in the christianity in Africa; nationalism and historiography in Orthodox Church communities; the relationship between nationalism, Christianity and the notion of holy war in contemporary Western currents of thought and political positions.

Researchers

Name	Title	Phone	E-mail
Anders Holm	Associate Professor	+4535323702	E-mail
Anna Vind	Head of Section	+4535323618	E-mail
Anni Haahr Henriksen	Guest Researcher	+4535326392	E-mail
Asta Mønsted	Postdoc		E-mail
Bastian Felter Vaucanson	Guest Researcher	+4535326936	E-mail
Beate Elise Skakkebæk Lindegaard	Student		E-mail
Benedikte Emilie T Steensgaard	Student FU	+4535325696	E-mail
Benedikte Xenia B Dimpker	Student FU		E-mail
Benjamin Brandt Christiansen	PhD Fellow	+4535323856	E-mail
Carsten Selch Jensen	Dean	+4535323781	E-mail
Catherine Susan Beck	Postdoc	+4535325797	E-mail
Christian Gottlieb	Affiliate Professor	+4535323581	E-mail
Christian Troelsgård	Associate Professor	+4551298742	E-mail
Christine Jeanneret	Associate Professor	+4524262485	E-mail
David Lebovitch Dahl	Academic Research Staff		E-mail
Ditte Johanne Rieder Kjær	Student FU	+4535334965	E-mail
Ellen Inger Fabricius Harms	Student FU	+4535325660	E-mail
Emma Klakk Christensen	Academic Officer		E-mail
Fabio Gigone	Guest Researcher	+4535334633	E-mail
Florian Wöller	Associate Professor	+4535332259	E-mail
Jelena Baki¿	Guest Researcher		E-mail
Jens Refslund Poulsen	Teaching Assistant Professor	+4535333301	E-mail
Johannes Ljungberg	Assistant Professor	+4535331626	E-mail
Jonas Kjøller-Rasmussen	PhD Student	+4535326490	E-mail
Joos Nordberg-Rasmussen	Research Assistant	+4535334816	E-mail
José Eloy Hortal Muñoz	Guest Researcher		E-mail
Lars Cyril Nørgaard	Associate Professor	+4535323713	E-mail
Lauge Nielsen	Professor Emeritus	+4535323613	E-mail
Lee Palmer Wandel	Guest Researcher		E-mail
Liam Paul Benison	Guest Researcher		E-mail
Louise Lillie	Emerita	+4535323628	E-mail
Maj Riis Poulsen	Special Consultant	+4535332232	E-mail
Maria Angélica Martins	Guest Researcher		E-mail
Maria del Carmen Garcia Sanchez	Guest Researcher		E-mail
Marie Hammershøj Beck	Student FU	+4535336484	E-mail
Martin Almbjär	Guest Researcher		E-mail
Martin Schwarz Lausten	No job title VIP	+4535323619	E-mail
Mette Birkedal Bruun	Professor	+4535323787	E-mail
Miriam Have Watts	PhD Fellow		E-mail
Nanna Eva Nissen	Postdoc	+4535333482	E-mail
Natacha Klein Kafer	Assistant Professor	+4535332987	E-mail
Natalie Patricia Körner	Guest Researcher		E-mail
Natália da Silva Perez	Guest Researcher	+4535331068	E-mail
Niels Kastfelt	Associate Professor Emeritus		E-mail
Nils Holger Petersen	Associate Professor Emeritus	+4535323621	E-mail
Ninna Jørgensen	Associate Professor Emerita	+4535323620	E-mail
Nuno M da S C P Grancho	Postdoc	+4535336970	E-mail
Paolo Astorri	Assistant Professor		E-mail
Peter Balslev-Clausen	Guest Researcher	+4535333844	E-mail
Rasmus H.C. Dreyer	Assistant Professor	+4535335217	E-mail
Rasmus Markussen	PhD Student	+4535323662	E-mail
Sara Ayres	Guest Researcher		E-mail
Sara Taglialatela	Postdoc	+4535334738	E-mail
Sari Lilly Maria Nauman	Guest Researcher		E-mail
Sigrid Nielsby Christensen	PhD Fellow		E-mail
Steffen Kjeldgaard-Pedersen	Professor Emeritus	+4535323626	E-mail
Sven Rune Havsteen	Associate Professor	+4535323634	E-mail
Søren Frank Jensen	Guest Researcher		E-mail
Taís Giacomini Tomazi	Guest Researcher		E-mail
Theis Schønning Johansen	PhD Fellow	+4535325937	E-mail
Tine Ravnsted-Larsen Reeh	Associate Professor	+4535322394	E-mail

Faculty of Theology