Isolde Karle

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Isolde Karle (2016)

Isolde Karle (born August 22, 1963 in Schwäbisch Hall ) is a German Protestant theologian . Since 2001 she has held the chair for practical theology at the Ruhr University in Bochum . Since 2015 she has been the director of the newly founded Institute for Religion and Society.

Live and act

Isolde Karle studied Protestant theology in Tübingen, Cambridge (Massachusetts / USA) and Münster. After her first church examination in Tübingen in 1992, she worked for three years as a research assistant at the Institute for Practical Theology at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel . There she received her dissertation “Pastoral care in modern times. A Critique of the Psychoanalytically Oriented Pastoral Teaching ”. Following vicariate and ordination , she completed her habilitation at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn with the monograph “The pastor's profession as a profession. An occupational theory in the context of modern society ”(2000). Karle has been Professor of Practical Theology at the Ruhr University Bochum since November 2001 . She has been a university preacher since 2003 and was dean of the Evangelical Theological Faculty from 2009 to 2011 . In the fall of 2014, Isolde Karle was offered a position at the Humboldt University in Berlin , which she refused in 2015. Since 2017 she has been the spokesperson for the professors' group in the Senate of the Ruhr University Bochum.

After the professional paper, Karle came out in 2006 with a monograph on the constructional nature of gender identities (“There is no longer a man or a woman”). Karle takes up social science, especially Anglo-Saxon gender theory for theology. As a consequence, she advocates church weddings for homosexual couples, the full right to adopt same-sex parents and the right to live in same-sex partnerships in the rectory. In principle, following the New Testament baptismal formula “There is no longer a man or a woman” (Gal 3:28), she is concerned with gender identities beyond cultural constraints and gender norms. In 2010 Karle published a monograph on the church reform processes currently being sought (“Church in Reform Stress”), which sparked diverse discussions. Karle also carried out a comparative DFG research project with the sociologists of religion Detlef Pollack and Karl Gabriel (both from Münster) on the church reform processes . In addition, her research continues to deal with poimenical questions, but also with questions of illness, physicality, sexuality and marriage. In 2014, her monograph “Love in the Modern Age” was published in which Karle combines sociological analysis with socio-ethical and practical-theological perspectives. As director of the Institute for Religion and Society, Karle intensifies the interdisciplinary dialogue to research the relationship between religion and society.

Isolde Karle has been a member of the Scientific Society for Theology since 2001, a member of the International Academy of Practical Theology (IAPT) since 2002, a member of the Societas Homiletica since 2016, a member of the Standing Conference for Pastoral Care in the EKD since 2017, and a member of the Ecumenical Presidium since 2017 Kirchentag and since 2018 member of the Rudolf Bultmann Society for Hermeneutic Theology. She is also co-editor of the journal "Evangelical Theology" . From 2006 to 2010 Karle was co-editor of the Göttingen Sermons on the Internet . From 2010 to 2016 she was editor of the sermon portal “Online-Sermachten” in cooperation with “evangelisch.de” alongside Christoph Dinkel and Johannes Neukirch. Since 2011 Karle has been a member of the scientific advisory board of the journal "Spiritual Care - Journal for Spirituality in the Health Professions".

Isolde Karle is married and has two children.

Fonts (selection)

As an author:

  • Pastoral care in the modern age. A criticism of psychoanalytically oriented pastoral teaching . Neukirchen-Vluyn 1996
  • The parish profession as a profession. An occupational theory in the context of modern society . Gütersloh 2001, 3rd edition Stuttgart 2011 (with a new foreword)
  • "There is no longer a man or a woman ...". Theology beyond the gender difference . Gütersloh 2006
  • Church in the stress of reform . Gütersloh 2010, 2nd edition 2011
  • Love in the modern age. Physicality, sexuality and marriage . Gütersloh 2014

As editor:

  • Church reform. Interdisciplinary Perspectives (APrTH 41). Leipzig 2009
  • with Günter Thomas: Interpretation of illness in the post-secular society. Theological approaches in an interdisciplinary discussion . Stuttgart 2009
  • with Anna Henkel, Gesa Lindemann and Micha Werner: Dimensions of worry. Sociological, philosophical and theological perspectives . Baden-Baden, 2016
  • with Anna Henkel, Gesa Lindemann and Micha Werner: Don't worry - criticism of worry. Dimensions of concern . Baden-Baden 2019
  • with Andrea Bieler, HyeRan Kim-Cragg and Ilona Nord: Religion and Migration. Negotiating Hospitality, Agency and Vulnerability . Leipzig 2019

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Karle, Isolde
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH 22nd August 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwaebisch Hall , Germany