Church and theological history
Seminar for Protestant Theology
The Seminar for Protestant Theology focuses on the historical dimension of Christian options for thought and action in the history of the church and theology. This is not limited to the period since the Reformation, but also includes the history of Christianity in the religious pluralism of antiquity and the Middle Ages.
Methodologically, there are convergences with history on the one hand and with the history of philosophy on the other. The range of courses regularly includes interdisciplinary events, e.g. with art history and musicology, and excursions. The projects based at this chair deal in particular with topics of modern times and contemporary history.
Research profile
The Chair of Church and Theological History in the Department of Protestant Theology at the University of Siegen is dedicated to researching Protestant church history from the 17th to 20th centuries.
One focus is on the Pietism of the 17th and 18th centuries as the most important reform movement in Protestantism since the Reformation.
In this context, the historiography of Protestant orthodoxy and the Enlightenment will also be examined as contemporaneous movements that differed from Pietism and at the same time had clear overlaps with it.
Another focus is the interdisciplinary research of Protestant popular cultures sincethe 19th century in the context of the transformations of the popular since around 1800. In the course of the development of the so-called revivalist movements, which followed on from Pietism, growing rivalries arose between theological experts and lay people, which are the focus of interest.
Finally, a central research focus of the professorship concerns contemporary church history, specifically the history of the Protestant church during the Nazi era and in the GDR. This also involves comparative dictatorship research.
Main areas of research
- Pietism
- Protestant Orthodoxy and the Enlightenment
- Protestant popular cultures
- Contemporary Church History
Latest publications
- Veronika Albrecht-Birkner et al. (eds.): Werbung für das Reich Gottes. Media in the revivalist movements of the 19th century. Göttingen 2025 (Works on the History of Pietism, 70)
- Revival Movements as Conflict Agendas of the Popular in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries [together with Stefanie Siedek-Strunk]. Cham 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-75117-2
- Stefanie Siedek-Strunk: "... going to church is only a mere letter work". Separation from the official church as an expression of lay theological self-empowerment in the Siegerland in the middle of the 18th century. Bielefeld 2023.
- Stefanie Siedek-Strunk / Veronika Albrecht-Birkner: "... that violent outbursts against me happened in a journal there". Media campaigns against religious interpretations of natural disasters by Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling in the context of late Enlightenment debates about apocalypticism and enthusiasm. In: Zeitsprünge 27/2, 2023, 224-247.
