Organisation
Research Unit of Systematic Theology and the Study of Religions
Research Unit
In agreement with tradition, the scientific research conducted by the Research Unit Systematic Theology and the Study of Religions takes place from within a hermeneutical-theological perspective. This results in a historically founded and systematic-theologically explored reflection on the religious experience and expressions of Christians and Christian communities, both past and present. Special attention is paid to the different hermeneutical fields of tension that arise when religious experience and its expressions are embedded in particular historical, cultural, and societal contexts. The most important fields harvest the tensions between religious experience and tradition, doctrine and praxis, faith and reason, faith and science, faith and history, faith and society and the theology of inter-religious dialogue. Within the same perspective basic themes in systematic theology are studied: doctrine of God, Christology and Trinity, doctrine of grace, ecclesiology, doctrine of creation, and eschatology. This methodological approach requires acquaintance and dialogue with philosophy, human sciences (sociology, psychology, cultural anthropology a.o.), and natural sciences.