Projects
Historical-critical Study of the New Testament and its Reception History in the Early Church KU Leuven
My research covers two fields that both have to do with the study of the New Testament. The first is the historical-critical study of the New Testament. In this respect, three aspects should be mentioned: study of the Synoptic Problem (i.e., the relationship between the three synoptic gospels), specifically, the defence of the Two-Document Hypothesis and the reconstruction of Q, the source of Matthew and Luke for the double tradition ...
Sabbatical Patrick Pasture: A History of Christendom: Church, State and Religious Freedom in the West KU Leuven
I want to use the sabbatical in the first place to finally write the book that I've researched for twenty years: "A History of Christendom: Church, State and Religious Freedom in the West." In it I will develop a new interpretation of the long-term history of the relations between the Christian church(s) and the state in Europe and North America, analyzed in their global context (i.e. including the impact of colonization and imperial and ...
Reparations for African Americans? A metahistorical investigation into the ways in chisch Americans relate to the history of slavery Ghent University
My research will examine the ways history has been used in recent debates that have taken place in the United States about the idea of paying reparations to African Americans for the historical injustice of slavery. This examination will involve a discussion of the way modern societies perceive the past, and the relationship between the past and the present day.
The church in the middle. An inquiry into the urban parish and parish church in the Southern Low Countries (ca. 1450-1700) Ghent University
The aim of this project is to analyse the meaning of the urban parish and the urban parish church in the Southern Low Countries between ca. 1450 and 1700. The focus will be on the archives generated by the institutions themselves.
Sabbatical Brigitte Meijns: Church Reform and the Transformation of Society in the Low Countries (10th-12th C.) KU Leuven
During this sabbatical period I wish to fully focus on my research domain, i.e. the religious history of the high Middle Ages (10th -12th century). In a first phase (September-December 2022), the completion of three articles is planned: a historiographical article on reform within the secular clergy (for the Routledge Companion on Church Reform), a study on a little-known tenth-century treatise (Dialogus de statu sanctae ecclesiae) dealing ...
'We All Knew': A Historical, Empirical-Theological Study of Bystandership in Cases of Transgressive Behavior Towards Minors Within Flemish Church Contexts KU Leuven
More than 10 years after the strong awareness of sexual abuse in the Belgian Catholic Church and the continued publication of disconcerting research reports, sensitivity to the prevention and awareness of transgressive behaviour in a broad church context is still limited. This doctoral research wants to investigate how people have thought, and think, about forms of transgressive behaviour that have happened to others. Through oral history, ...
A Comparative Study of Orientalium Ecclesiarum 24-29 and Unitatis Redintegratio 14-18 and the Reception of the Conciliar View on the Relations with the Eastern Churches in the Indian Catholic Church KU Leuven
The study of ecumenism has been an integral part of the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council and we have come to recognise that ecumenism is no more “some sort of appendix” to the life of the Church rather, “it is an organic part of her life and work” (Ut Unum Sint, 20). Inspired by this insight, this research is an attempt to discover the fruits of ecumenism with the Oriental Churches in India over the last five decades. This ...