Welker, Michael

English

Heidelberger Dokumentenserver

EditorialThe Global Networkof Research Centers forTheology, Religious,and Christian Studies(2007–2019)Michael WelkerUniversity of Heidelberg, GermanyThe Initial Phase and BackgroundsThe idea to create a Global Network of Research Centers for Theology, Religious,and Christian Studies was put into practice by Konrad Schmid (teaching OldTestament in Zu¨rich) and myself (teaching Systematic Theology in Heidelberg)during a common stay at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton in2007. We invited colleagues from established, promising universities across theglobe with whom we had already cooperated well in the past. The idea was tocreate bottom-up partnerships with at least three and not more than 15 research-active and motivated English-speaking colleagues in each place, with modest timecommitments and maximum potential impact. Fruitful academic cooperationamong colleagues and doctoral and postdoctoral students without language bar-riers, financial responsibilities, and administrative complications across the globewas the goal.The expected commitments were: (1) To occasionally be open to send or receivedoctoral or postdoctoral students, recommended by colleagues in the GlobalNetwork, for a short research leave. Regrets are always possible; no financingand no teaching responsibilities, just hospitality (for example a place in the doc-toral seminar) and some advice with respect to academic resources and contacts.(2) To be eventually interested in short (2–3 days) weekend compact seminars withcolleagues on joint research interests (with advanced and doctoral students,Corresponding author:Michael Welker, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg 69117, Germany.Email: michael.welker@ts.uni-heidelberg.deTheology Today2019, Vol. 76(3) 189–193! The Author(s) 2019Article reuse guidelines:sagepub.com/journals-permissionsDOI: 10.1177/0040573619858863journals.sagepub.com/home/ttjpublication optional). (3) Openness to offer a reading course from time to time,should a small group of international students be present and interested in it.We asked each colleague for a few lines on his or her research and teachingprofiles, a photo, and a list of up to ten publications. The response was amazing. Inaddition to the colleagues and schools we approached, a few universities expressedtheir interest to join this circle. Some of the schools could not come up with at leastthree English-speaking research-active participants in the field. But still we havenow 45 more or less active universities and schools involved.Several good experiences in North America, Germany, and Switzerland gavebirth to this initiative. Konrad Schmid and I had been several times guests at theCenter of Theological Inquiry in Princeton and enjoyed the academic interactionfor several months among 10 or 12 international colleagues. I was also a fellow atthe Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion (now the Martin Marty Center) atthe University of Chicago Divinity School, which not only hosted a group ofinternational colleagues for a weekly academic exchange, but also included somepromising doctoral students. In 1996 the president of the University of Heidelbergmade me director of the Internationales Wissenschaftsforum Heidelberg (IWH) fortwice five years. It was founded as an endowment at the 600th anniversary of theuniversity in 1986. This place hosted and still hosts 50–70 research events everyyear—in all fields, from mathematical stochastics to Egyptian death tombs, tobioethical problems, to the dialogue of law and religion.The key impulse, which also generated strong support for the first phase of thedevelopment of the Global Network, was the establishment of the Research Centerfor International and Interdisciplinary Theology (FIIT) at the University ofHeidelberg in 2005.The Research Center for International and InterdisciplinaryTheology, University of Heidelberg (FIIT) as a First Promoterof the Global NetworkIn 2005 we were able to secure a 12-room villa in the middle of the Old City ofHeidelberg, with a quiet garden and a nice view on the famous castle as a researchcenter. Two rooms for small consultations and workshops and six computerizeddesks for scholars in residence can be offered. Next door is the InternationaleWissenschaftsforum for larger conferences and symposia, and a 250,000-booktheological library is just three minutes away. Since 2007, about 70 colleaguesfrom Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, the UK, HongKong, Hungary, India, Israel, Korea, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway,Switzerland, South Africa, Taiwan, Tanzania, and the USA—many of them mem-bers of the Global Network—have made good use of this opportunity, some morethan once. They stayed between a few weeks and a whole year.The FIIT started with eight units of research, led by Heidelberg professors. Itnow has 15 active units which cooperate in various formats and constellations190 Theology Today 76(3)(Theology and Natural Sciences; Theology and (Bio)Ethics; Theology and Law;Religion and Education; Media-Related Anthropology; Theology andArchaeology; Jewish–Christian Dialogue; Anthropology and Ethics in EarlyChristianity; Monasteries in the High Middle Ages; Religion in America;Potentials of Confessional Differentiations; Religious Studies and InterculturalTheology; Theological Diaconal Studies and Social-Scientific Research; PastoralCare and Psychology; Liturgical Praxis and Religious Transformation).The FIIT created a website of the Global Network, which will be administeredin the future by the University of Zu¨rich. It also secured with the help of theGerman Karl Schlecht Foundation 30 globally advertised small stipends (e6000each) for doctoral students and postdocs, to help finance a one-term move fromone place to another, which will now be organized by a colleague fromFordham University.With the help of two foundations, first the American John TempletonFoundation and, after five years, the German Manfred LautenschlaegerFoundation, we were able to establish a globally announced and evaluatedAward for Theological Promise. We invite applications and nominations for aca-demic books (doctoral dissertations or first postdoctoral works) on the topic “Godand Spirituality” (broadly understood). Applications came from many fields, notonly theology, religious studies, philosophy, sociology, or psychology of religion,but also Egyptology, fields of ancient history, history in general, literature, mediastudies, and the dialogue of science and religion. Christian studies of all denomi-nations, Jewish studies, Islamic and Hindu studies, all applied. A group of 23, later20, evaluators with excellent reputations (many of them members of the GlobalNetwork) from 15 different countries, different academic fields and religious affili-ations offered strict multiple evaluations. Each year, 10 prizes of $10,000 each inthe beginning, later e3000 each, were awarded. A festive celebration in the GreatHall of the University was followed by a two-day colloquium on the next researchprojects of the winners. The award enjoys an excellent reputation. About 90 per-cent of the previous 110 winners already hold a professorship (assistant, associate,or full; reader or senior reader). Some of the winners are already members of theGlobal Network.The core of the FIIT’s activities and radiations were international and interdis-ciplinary research projects, most of them involving many members of the GlobalNetwork. Several of them followed a format created at the Center of TheologicalInquiry: a series of four or five consultations, leading to a book publication.A science and religion multi-year dialogue resulted in a book: The Depth of theHuman Person: A Multidisciplinary Approach (Eerdmans, 2014). A project con-necting theology, sciences, and law led to the publication Concepts of Law in theSciences, Legal Studies, and Theology (ed. M. Welker and G. Etzelmueller, MohrSiebeck, 2013). Results of a dialogue between theologians of all fields, ethicists,political and cultural studies came out under the title Quests for Freedom: Biblical–Historical–Contemporary (Neukirchen, 2015, 2nd. ed. Wipf & Stock, 2019).A series of consultations relating to religion and economy resulted in Money asWelker 191God? The Monetization of the Market and its Impact on Religion, Politics, Law, andEthics (ed. J. von Hagen and M. Welker, Cambridge University Press, 2014).Interreligious dialogues in Heidelberg and Chicago led to the book Images ofthe Divine and Cultural Orientations: Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Voices (ed.M. Welker and W. Schweiker, EVA Leipzig, 2015).Scholars of the FIIT took part in four consultations with colleagues of NotreDame University on Reformation and Reformations and organized a multi-yearWolfgang Huber Guestprofessorship for Ecumenical Theology (2018, supportedby the German EKD) to foster a long-term connection between the GlobalNetwork partners of Heidelberg and Notre Dame. Many two-shot projects werecreated with Global Network members from the USA on “Political Theology: Oldand New” and on “The Holy Spirit and the Dialogue with Pentecostal Theology.”With Orthodox theologians and scientists, mainly from Russia, we worked onconcepts of the Spirit in different academic and religious contexts. The FIITlaunched consultations with Chinese colleagues in the Global Network on thedialogue between science and religious studies, and with Korean colleagues onconcepts and practices of freedom and human and divine justice. Sponsored bythe Karl Schlecht Stiftung, we developed the project “Entrepreneur Ethics in SouthEast Asia.” Young professors from Korea, Japan, the People’s Republic, HongKong, and Taiwan, who had received their doctoral degrees in Heidelberg, con-ducted interviews with CEOs of internationally active firms and corporations intheir countries. We then brought the five academics and eight CEOs to Heidelbergtogether and evaluated the interesting results. With colleagues from the GlobalNetwork in Hungary and South Africa we held and published dialogues onReligion and Civil Societies in Germany and South Africa, and Religion andCivil Societies in Germany and Hungary. With colleagues from the FreeUniversity of Amsterdam we engaged in dialogues on “The Holy Spirit:Creativity and Novelty in God.” All these activities resulted in book publications,in some cases in collections of journal articles.Numerous two-day weekend compact seminars with colleagues from the GlobalNetwork on various topics, with advanced students, doctoral students, and post-docs cannot be listed here. They were not only relevant for research, but also forteaching, the promotion of Heidelberg and international doctoral students, and forthe creation of substantial academic connections between students from differentcountries and students and teachers from other parts of the world.A final big project should be mentioned that was conceived by John Witte andme at Emory University. We started with a series of consultations on “CharacterFormation, Ethical Education, the Communication of Values in Late ModernPluralistic Societies.” We explored “The Impact of the Market on CharacterFormation, Ethical Education and the Communication of Values in LateModern Pluralistic Societies,” greatly helped by the Bonn Economist Ju¨rgen vonHagen. Australian, South African, and other North American members of theGlobal Network joined us in a kind of steering committee. We held consultationson the Impact of Religion, the Impact of Law, the Impact of Academic Research,192 Theology Today 76(3)which will all result in book publications. Consultations on the Impact ofthe Family, the Impact of Education, the Impact of the Media, the Impact ofthe Defense Systems, the Impact of the Medical and Healthcare System, and theImpact of Politics will follow. Several of these consultations are supported by theAlonzo McDonald Agape Foundation. Some, but not all members of the GlobalNetwork will take part in these projects. They will provide another exampleof what we intend to achieve with the Global Network: a lively international,interdisciplinary, and interreligious academic cooperation on vital issues for theenlightening and flourishing of humankind.Heidelberg–Zu¨rich–Hong Kong–Stellenbosch: GettingReally GlobalIn 2009 we held the first meeting of representatives of members from the differentschools involved in the Global Network in Heidelberg. We worked on a jointmemorandum of understanding which declared the limited responsibilities andthe constructive intentions of the Network. In 2016 we met at the University ofZu¨rich not only for further planning, but also reflecting on the common topic“Religion and Civil Societies.” It became clear that we had to overcome thestrong centering on Heidelberg and the activities of the FIIT in order to gainlong-term international vitality and sustainability. A meeting in Hong Kong in2019 (followed by a visit of four universities in Shanghai), carefully organized byKonrad Schmid and Tobias Brandner, helped us to take this important step. Instrong cooperation with new colleagues from Hong Kong, we first worked togetherin the Divinity School of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and in the HongKong Institute of Sino-Christian Studies on the common topic “The Family inCultural Transitions.”We then elected a new Steering Committee with Konrad Schmid (Zu¨rich,Switzerland), responsible for the general organization of the Global Networkand its presentation on the web; Sonia Wong (Hong Kong), responsible for real-istic listing, updating, and expanding of participating individual members andschools (globalnetresearch.org); J. Patrick Hornbeck (Fordham, USA), responsi-ble for the search for support of stipends that help doctoral students and postdocsin the Global Network to spend a semester at another school relevant to theirresearch, and also potential support for joint seminars and small research projectsamong participating scholars; Louis C. Jonkers (Stellenbosch, South Africa),responsible for the organization of the next meeting of representatives from thedifferent schools in the Global Network 2022 in Stellenbosch.Although the FIIT will continue to offer places for Scholars in Residence at theUniversity of Heidelberg and will also continue to organize the ManfredLautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise, a new phase in the short historyof the Global Network was started, with better shared responsibilities and a hope-fully even stronger global outreach.Welker 193

The Global Network of Research Centers for Theology, Religious, and Christian Studies (2007–2019)

http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/28446/1/10.1177_0040573619858863.pdf

The Global Network of Research Centers for Theology, Religious, and Christian Studies (2007–2019)

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Heidelberger Dokumentenserver