Church History Section

• The rationality of faith and the science of theology in the Late Middle Ages (Lauge Olaf Nielsen)
• Religion, historiography and cultural encounters in the Middle Ages (Baltic area) (Carsten Selch Jensen)
• Christianity's attitude to violence and the use of violence in history (Carsten Selch Jensen)
• Monastic life as an interpretation of existence in the history of the church (Mette Birkedal Bruun)
• The history of the Reformation, the theology behind it and the history of its reception (Steffen Kjeldgaard-Pedersen, Anna Vind og Sven Rune Havsteen)
• Theological anthropology in Luther’s thought, and it’s aesthetic framework (Steffen Kjeldgaard-Pedersen og Anna Vind)
• Notions and forms of seclusion in Early Modern devotional culture (Mette Birkedal Bruun og Lars Nørgaard)
• Praxis pietatis and artistic culture, especially music, in the Lutheran tradition (16th-18th centuries) (Sven Rune Havsteen)
• The Moravian church in Denmark (Tine Reeh)
• Christian historiography in the Enlightenment period (Tine Reeh)
• Christianity, law and psychiatry in 18^th century lutheranism (Tine Reeh)
• Christianity, history and power in West Africa from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century (Niels Kastfelt)
• Christianity as a world religion (Niels Kastfelt)

• 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.

• 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

Global church history, mission history, church and national identity; holy wars; religion and secularism; cultural heritage; theology and gender; the reception history of the Reformation.

Topics: Christianity in Nigeria with a particular focus on Bachama; studies in African Church historiography; 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; understandings of Christianity and politics in Denmark with special reference to theological arguments for and against secularisation; female theologians and the ordination of women; Danish and German Luther research and Luther reception.