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"The John Templeton Award for Theological Promise"

Is Becoming the

"Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise"

From 2013 on, the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise will be given to 10 young scholars from all over the world. In addition to the prize of $10,000 each, the winners will have the chance to propose an international and interdisciplinary colloquium on an important academic topic. At least two winners from at least two countries and at least two disciplines should organize and lead this colloquium. Each year two Lau­ten­schlaeger Colloquia will be supported with 15,000 € each.

Religious traditions are a powerful factor also in today's society.  They have been shaped in history and will continue to influence individuals and societies.  As an example, the political upheaval in central and east Europe in 1989 has shown the large extent to which religious convictions contribute to a con­scious­ness of freedom, to democratic thought and an active quest for peace.

In the new research project on "Theology  and Civil Society," FIIT seeks to explore critically the importance of theology in the development of civil societies and dis­cus­sions within civil society.  The project involves scholars from Christian theology, Jewish studies and Islamic studies.

In the context of this project, a compact seminar is discussing a posthumous work of J. Rawls' in order to explore the contribution of religion to humane societies (held by Dr. William Schweiker, Chicago, and Dr. Michael Welker, Heidelberg, on Dec. 2./3. at FIIT Heidelberg; registration by email).

With a joint seminar held in summer 2011, FIIT (RCIIT) initiated a closer cooperation between legal studies and theology. Scholars of the two fields met to discuss G. W. F. Hegel's Philosophy of Right. This classic gave ample opportunity to explore concepts, conditions, and perspectives of a legal sys­tem that provides a maximum of freedom and liberty in today's complex society.  Among the participants were Dr Armin von Bogdandy, Dr Ute Mager  (Legal Studies), Dr Klaus Tanner, and Dr Michael Welker (Sys­te­ma­tic The­o­lo­gy).  With postdocs and doc­to­ral stu­dents, a younger generation of re­sear­chers was also involved. The co­o­pe­r­a­ti­on is being continued in the winter term with meetings focusing on N. Luhmann's Law as a Social System (Das Recht der Gesellschaft). The interplay be­tween law, political philosophy, and the­o­lo­gy was also explored in an ad­van­ced seminar on J. Rawls' posthumous A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith: With "On My Religion" (2010), held at FIIT by Dr. William Schweiker, Chicago, and Dr. Michael Welker, Heidelberg (December 2011).

Since 2009, researchers from the universities of Aberdeen, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Heidelberg, Helsinki, Oxford and Zurich have cooperated in their work on the subject Love and Forms of Empathy: Religious, Social, Political and Diaconical Dimensions in Contemporary Europe.

In four different groups, theologians, psychologists, sociologists and re­pre­sen­ta­tives from other fields are focussing on the issues Love and Law, Family Ethos, Value Formation, Religious Education, Cultural and Political Processes of Integration and Exclusion and Diaconical Perspectives on Poverty and Disability in the Transformation of the Welfare State.

Scholars meet both in joint colloquia and their individual research groups.  Moreover young scholars, doctoral students and postdocs meet regularly to work on the pertinent issues.  Upcoming scholars have so far met alternatingly at the uni­ver­si­ties of Helsinki and Heidelberg in order to present their work.

Meanwhile further researchers from Eu­ro­pean uni­ver­si­ties have joined the project, which led to new plans to intensify this successful research cooperation.  The next meeting is scheduled for summer 2012.

The research project "Images of the Divine and Cultural Orientations" attempts to illuminate correlations among perceptions of God, concepts of God and doctrines about God on the one hand and basic cultural and ethical orientations on the other. This will be carried out in a cooperation of scholars in the fields of Christian theology, Jewish studies and Islamic studies. Furthermore, the thought and research processes that in Europe are more aligned with intellectual history and in North America more with cultural and sociological studies need to be brought into dialogue.

Body - Mind - Culture

A Cooperation of IFBK, FIIT and the Centre for Subjectivity Research

Coperating with IFBK (Interdisciplinary Forum for Biomedicine and Cultural Studies) and the Centre for Subjectivity Research, FIIT is establishing the research association "New Interdisciplinary Anthropology: Body - Mind - Culture." In 2012, the research association is hosting a summer school on the issue as part of the Marsilius Kolleg.

On the one hand the research association is to explore the interrelationship of progress in life sciences and image of the human person and worldviews passed on in culture. On the other hand it is dealing with the interactions of biological, anthropological and cultural evolution. Participants hope to overcome a disadvantageous binary opposition of na­tu­ra­list and culturalist positions and to arrive at a practice of political consulting that rests on a multidisciplinary foundation and reflects a refined interdisciplinary approach.

The research association "New In­ter­dis­ci­pli­na­ry Anthropology: Body - Mind - Culture" is structured in three departments:

(A) Progress in Life Sciences and the Images of the Human Person and Worldviews Passed on in Culture

(B) Interactions of Biological, An­thro­po­lo­gi­cal and Cultural Evolution

(C) Life Sciences and Ethics

It is an explicit goal of the research as­so­ci­a­ti­on to incorporate young upcoming scholars  in the international cooperation.  An im­por­tant step in this direction is the international summer school "New In­ter­dis­ci­pli­na­ry An­thro­po­lo­gy: Body - Mind - Culture," which will be organized by the research association in July 2012 in the International Forum of the Sciences Heidelberg as one of its first projects.