On 22-26 August 2022, the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at ACU will host Professor Christoph Markschies who will deliver the English version of a lecture series originally given for the Joseph Ratzinger Papst Benedikt XVI.-Stiftung at the University of Regensburg in 2017 on the topic ‘How theological is church history? Excursions into the history and present of a discipline’. All lectures will be delivered in-person at ACU’s Melbourne campus. All are invited however registration is essential for catering purposes. (see below). Registration closes on 14 August.

General Abstract

How history should be written and what history actually is, is not only disputed between historians. In theology, too, there has been controversy at all times about what historiography should look like and how history should be conceived. Is there a different understanding of “history” in theology than in other academic disciplines, especially in the science of history? Must theologians also write history “as if God did not exist”?

These lectures not only address how people have argued and thought about these connections in past centuries since the first Christian historians of antiquity, but also present a new outline that attempts to address the problem at the level of historiographical as well as theological discussion at the beginning of the 21st century.

Lecture titles

  1. ‘The History of Christianity as a theological and/or secular discipline: General introduction’
     Time: Monday, 22 August 2022, 18:00-19:00
      Location: Level 4 (room 4.28), 250 Victoria Pde, EAST MELBOURNE (opposite Main Campus)
  2. ‘The History of Christianity as a theological discipline in antiquity’
     Time: Tuesday, 23 August 2022, 11:00-12:30
     Location: Level 4, (room 4.28) 250 Victoria Pde, EAST MELBOURNE (opposite Main Campus)
  3. ‘The History of Christianity as a theological discipline in 19th and 20th centuries’
     Time: Thursday, 25 August 2022, 11:00-12:30
      Location: Level 4, (room 4.28) 250 Victoria Pde, EAST MELBOURNE (opposite Main Campus)
  4. ‘The History of Christianity as a theological or secular discipline in the 21st century: Some conclusions’
     Time: Friday, 26 August 2022, 11:00-12:30
     Location: Level 4, (room 4.28) 250 Victoria Pde, EAST MELBOURNE (opposite Main Campus)

All lectures will be delivered in-person at ACU’s Melbourne campus. The first lecture will be followed by a drinks reception and lectures 2-4 will be followed by a catered lunch.

Christoph Markschies is professor of Ancient Christianity at Humboldt-University in Berlin, president of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and president of the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities. He was born on October 3, 1962 in Berlin. He studied Theology, Classics and Philosophy at the Universities of Marburg, Munich, and Tübingen and at the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem, and was awarded a doctoral degree (1991) from the University of Tübingen, where he completed his habilitation (post-doctorate) in 1994.

Prof. Markschies served as Chair of Church History at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena from 1994–2000 and at the University of Heidelberg from 2000–2004. In 2004, he was appointed Professor of Ancient Christianity at Humboldt-University, Berlin and currently holds that post. During 2006–2010, he served as president of the university.

Prof. Markschies was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin/Institute for Advanced Studies in 1998–1999 and at the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University Jerusalem in 1999–2000. He served as a visiting Fellow at Oxford's Trinity-College in 2009, and as a visiting Fellow at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study in 2011. Prof. Markschies is a member of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz, the Akademie Gemeinnütziger Wissenschaften in Erfurt, the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the European Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Academia Europea. He is member of several scientific advisory councils such as the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology as well as a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI).

Prof. Markschies was awarded the title Doctor Honoris Causa by the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania (2007), the University of Oslo (2011), and the Pontifical Lateran University (2017). He received the Leibniz Award of the German National Research Council in 2001.

The numerous publications that he has authored and edited include a variety of introductory course books in his area of expertise.

If you have any questions, please contact Associate Professor Matthew Crawford, the Director of the IRCI’s Program in Biblical and Early Christian Studies: matthew.crawford@acu.edu.au.

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