Members & Fellows

Members of the board / staff

Dr. Walter Dürr
Member of the Board

Director Center Faith & Society
University of Fribourg

Prof. Dr. Ralph Kunz
Member of the Board

Professor for Practical Theology
University of Zurich

Dr. Silvianne Aspray
Member of the Board

British Academy
Postdoctoral Fellow
Cambridge University

Prof. Dr. Benjamin Schliesser
Member of the Board

Professor of New Testament
University of Bern

Dr. Oliver Dürr
Administrative Coordinator

PostDoc Researcher
Co-worker at the Center Faith & Society
University of Fribourg

Fellows

Prof. Dr. Christophe Chalamet
Fellow

Professor of Systematic Theology
University of Geneva

Prof. tit. Dr. Gregor Emmenegger
Fellow

Professor for Patristics and the History of Dogma
University of Fribourg

Prof. Dr. Thomas Schumacher
Fellow

Professor of New Testament
University of Fribourg

Dr. Barnabas Aspray
PostDoc-Fellow

Oxford University

Dr. Martin Brüske
PostDoc-Fellow

University of Fribourg

Dr. Drew Collins
PostDoc-Fellow

Yale University

  • Research Focus

    My first book, The Unique and Universal Christ: Refiguring the Theology of Religions, provides the first comprehensively critical account of the apologetic logic of the “exclusivist, inclusivist, pluralist” paradigm and why it is unfit for the purpose of orienting Christian engagement with non-Christian religions, drawing on the work of Hans W. Frei to point towards a view of the Christian theology of religions as a mode of hopeful exploration for encounters with the unique and universal presence of Jesus Christ. My research interests also include the theological interpretation of Scripture and the theology of human flourishing. I am currently a postulant for ordination as a priest in the Episcopal Church of Connecticut.

Dr. Matthew Croasmun
PostDoc-Fellow

Yale University

Dr. des. Zachary Fischer
PostDoc-Fellow

University of Fribourg

Prof. Dr. Angela Gorrell
PostDoc-Fellow

Baylor University, Texas

Dr. Ryan McAnnally-Linz
PostDoc-Fellow

Yale University

Dr. Clifford Owusu-Gyamfi
PostDoc-Fellow

University of Geneva

Luc-Olivier Bosset
Doc-Fellow

University of Geneva

  • Research Focus

    After having worked on the missiology of George Lindbeck ("Absording the World", Master's research thesis, 2017), I am currently studying the works of David Kelsey ("Eccentric Existence: A Theological Anthropology, Louisville, Westminster John Knox Press, 2009) as well as the work of Eilert Herms (Systematische Theologie: Das Wesen des Christentums: in Wahrheit und aus Gnade Leben, Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2017) seeking to exhume from their theological fresco, their vision of the good life. By organising the debate between these two contemporary theologians, my intention is to show how theology can offer a vision of the human condition in this world under the gaze of God that can motivate and guide everyone in their daily choices.

Matthias Bühlmann
Doc-Fellow

University of Bern

Heike Breitenstein
Doc-Fellow

University of Zurich

  • Research Focus

    My research focuses on the question how the perspective of hope could shape the life of the church. I’d like to explore how churches could become educators of hope so that church members are empowered to speak about hope and to translate perspectives of hope into secular contexts.

Dario Colombo
Doc-Fellow

University of Fribourg

Michel Degen
Doc-Fellow

University of Berne

  • Research Focus

    I will analyse the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts in order to determine whether the theme of the eschatological temple, which consists of humans, is a central concern. In order to answer this question I will compare the use of the Old Testament in Luke-Acts with the use of the Old Testament at Qumran.

Ryan D. Donell
Doc-Fellow

University of Geneva

  • Research Focus

    My dissertation is about the topic God means freedom: personhood and freedom in the theologies of Colin E. Gunton and Leonardo Boff. I'm interested in the intersections of biblical theology, systematic theology, and theological ethics as they converge upon Christian formulations persons, divine and human. My research aims to uncover, integrate, and deploy the different trinitarian theologies of Boff and Gunton for a theological anthropology of 'free personhood', which critiques and serves the Christian Church, other religions, and the pluralist social imaginations of the 21st Century.

Tobias Frehner

Florence Gantenbein
Doc-Fellow

University of Bern

  • Research Focus

    As part of the wider research project ECCLESIAE, I am looking into the cultural, religious, and social life of early Christians in the urban setting of Ephesus.

Agnès Gros
Doc-Fellow

University of Geneva

Elio Jaillet
Doc-Fellow

University of Geneva

Wolf-Ruben Kammerer
Doc-Fellow

University of Zurich

  • Research Focus

    Ich beschäftige mich im Rahmen meiner Doktorarbeit mit christlichen Lebensgemeinschaften/Kommunitäten.
    Was hält sie zusammen? Was ist ihre Wirkung auf Umwelt und Kirchen?

Benjamin Limbeck
Doc-Fellow

University of Zurich

  • Research Focus

    Short description of my project:

    Recruiting members in sports clubs and church congregations.

    After a discourse analysis, a possible added value of sports club development for missionary church development in the context of organizational development is discussed. This is done with regard to the question of membership recruitment. The work approaches the subject via church theory on the one hand and sports sociology and sports management on the other. Practical-theological conclusions are contrasted with a practical example at the interface of sport and church (Sportler ruft Sportler e. V.).

Nicolas Matter
Doc-Fellow

University of Fribourg

  • Research Focus

    My Doctoral Work focuses on the intersection between narrativity and embodiment as the anthropological sine qua non of spatio-temporal Existence. Within the Horizon of the historical changes regarding the conditions of the possibility of faith, these anthropological Dimensions give rise to the question of the importance for an embodied liturgical pedagogy for the Christian Faith in the 21. Century.

Francesco Mordasini
Postdoc-Fellow

Pastor
Reformed Church of Zurich

  • Research Focus

    Interest: The interplay between science and faith, Apologetics, early Christian literature and the interpretation of the New Testament.
    Project: The understanding of love in the early church.

Stefanie Neuenschwander
Doc-Fellow

University of Zurich

Benjamin Oester
Doc-Fellow

University of Fribourg

Shari L. Oosting
Doc-Fellow

Western Theological Seminary / University of Zurich

  • Research Focus

    My research focuses on the cultivation of shared Christian calling within congregations. In the preliminary stage of research, I will explore the impact of neighborhood ethnographic exploration in congregational teams as a means to discern shared calling and engage in local mission. This work is situated at the intersection of vocational discernment, missiology, ecclesiology, and ethnography.

Pfr. Hans-Hermann Pompe

Doc-Fellow

University of Zurich

Hanna-Maria Riesner
Doc-Fellow

University of Bern

  • Research Focus

    My PhD project tries to investigate the foundation and formation of the first Christian Community at Colossae and its neighbouring cities Laodicea and Hierapolis. I am interested in understanding how and why this new faith spread, which networks were involved and how traditions were transmitted that became formative for the identity of Christianity.

Abigail Rusert
Doc-Fellow

Princeton Theological Seminary/University of Zurich

Jodie Sangiorgio
Doc-Fellow

University of Geneva

  • Research Focus

    My PhD is about the relationship to the self and what kind of relationship it should be to respond to God's calling, from a feminist theology perspective.

Aaron Schawalder
Doc-Fellow

University of Fribourg

Martin Scheidegger
Doc-Fellow

University of Zurich

Gabriel Schmid
Doc-Fellow

University of Aberdeen

  • Research Focus

    On the Political Recovery of the Church at the End of Christendom. Eschatology, History and Politics.

    Knowing that our historical identity and our social identity coincide, I examine the question of how the church can narrate the „history“ of „the West“ as part of the history of God's salvation. This is pivotal, since the formation of the church depends on a truthful answer to the question „where are we and what is going on?“.

Jan Segessenmann
Doc-Fellow

University of Fribourg

Daniela Seibert
Doc-Fellow

University of Zurich

Andreas Steingruber
Doc-Fellow

University of Zurich

Saskia Urech
Doc-Fellow

University of Berne

  • Research Focus

    My project is dedicated to the relationship between Spirit and faith. While in Gal 3,2-5 Spirit is described as a gift of faith, in 1 Cor 12,8 Paul treats Spirit as a manifestation of faith. What conclusion can be drawn by statements like this?

Emma van Dorp
Doc-Fellow

University of Geneva / Ecumenical Institute of Bossey

  • Research Focus

    My interests are the relation between Church and Ethics in Swiss society and the relation between dogmatic theology and ecumenism. Therefore, I started a Ph.D. on communal faith in the Swiss Reformed Tradition. This research uses an ecclesiological study of the Reformation and an ecumenical response to the challenge of individualism in today’s Swiss Protestantism.

Niklas Walder
Doc-Fellow

University of Bern

  • Research Focus

    I work as a doctoral candidate in the ECCLESIAE project at the University of Bern.

Joel Gerber
Doc-Fellow

University of Zurich

Corinne Kurz
Doc-Fellow

University of Zurich

International advisory board

Prof. Dr. Miroslav Volf
International Advisor

Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology
Founding Director for the Yale Center for Faith and Culture
Yale Divinity School

Prof. Kenda Creasy Dean
International Advisor

Mary D. Synnott Professor of Youth, Church, and Culture
Princeton Theological Seminary

Prof. N. T. Wright
International Advisor

School of Divinity Professor
University of Oxford

Rt. Revd. Dr. Graham Tomlin
International Advisor

President of St. Mellitus College
Bishop of Kensington

Prof. Dr. Michael Herbst
International Advisor

Director of Research Institute for Evangelism and Church Development
Theological Faculty
University of Greifswald