Klaus Koschorke

Klaus Koschorke (born April 13, 1948 in Wuppertal ) is a German Protestant church historian and was Professor of Elderly and Worldwide Church History at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich from 1993 to 2013 .

Life and academic background

Klaus Koschorke studied Protestant theology and minor subjects in Berlin, Heidelberg, Edinburgh, Tübingen and Heidelberg from 1967 to 1973 and obtained his doctorate in Heidelberg in 1976 with a study of the newly found Coptic Gnostic writings by Nag Hammadi . He was a research assistant at the University of Heidelberg and senior assistant at the University of Bern , where he completed his habilitation in 1991 with a thesis on Greek ecclesiology of the 4th century ( Basilius of Caesarea ). At the same time he held guest lectureships and teaching positions in Switzerland and Asia (especially Sri Lanka 1982/83).

In 1993 he was appointed to succeed Georg Kretschmar at the University of Munich. Here he built the chair - in addition to working on patristic topics - into a center for research into the non-European and global history of Christianity. He developed the concept of a polycentric history of Christianity, which seeks to do justice not only to the denominational, but also to the geographical and cultural plurality of world Christianity and which pays special attention to the diversity of regional developments and transcontinental interactions.

From 2003-2005 Koschorke was Dean of the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Munich. Regular research stays and lecture tours have taken him to Asia, Africa and Latin America. He founded and developed the Munich-Freising Conferences as an international platform for interdisciplinary exchange and as an instrument for the further development of the new historical sub-discipline "History of World Christianity". Koschorke was appointed visiting professor at Liverpool Hope University (UK) and at the University of Basel (Switzerland, 2014-2018) in 2010 and has been a visiting professor in Sri Lanka (since 1982), India (Madurai), China (Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou), Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto), Korea (Seoul), Myanmar (Mandalay), Singapore, Pakistan (Lahore), South Africa (Pretoria) and Uganda and has given several lectures in Brazil and the USA. Current research projects deal with the broad spectrum (western and non-western) “Christian internationalisms around 1910”.

The scientific approach to the history of world Christianity, which was developed by Koschorke and some of his colleagues in Munich, has recently been called the "Munich School of World Christianity". It can be characterized by reference to three guiding principles: (1) the need for new and expanded maps of global Christian history that enable a comparative study of the different denominational, cultural and regional expressions of Christianity; (2) the perception of “polycentric structures” in the history of world Christianity - not just in the recent past since 1945, but from its inception; and (3) the focus on transregional connections between Christian groups and movements in different regions and contexts as well as the resulting concept of a global history of Christianity as a history of multidirectional transcontinental interactions, taking into account early examples of South-South connections.

Editorships (selection)

• Studies on the history of Christianity outside Europe (Asia, Africa, Latin America). (Studies in the History of Christianity in the Non-Western World (Asia, Africa, Latin America)). Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1998 ff .; Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2002 ff. (Together with Johannes Meier )
• Studies on the Intercultural History of Christianity. (= Studies in the Intercultural History of Christianity / Études d'histoire interculturelle du Christianisme). P. Lang, Frankfurt am Main / Bern / New York a. a. 1999ff.
• Yearbook of Comparative Overseas History. (Research Foundation for Comparative European Overseas History). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2000ff.
• The Journal of World Christianity. (Member of the Editorial Board, Open-Access Journal, journalofworldchristianity.org, 2008 ff.).
• Religion in Past and Present. Brill, Leiden 2006ff.
• Documents on the history of Christianity outside Europe (Asia, Africa, Latin America). (= Documents on the History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, Latin America). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2010ff.

Fonts (selection)

• "Owned and Conducted entirely by the Native Christian Community". The 'Christian Patriot' and the indigenous Christian press in colonial India around 1900 (Studies in the History of Christianity in the Non-Western World. Vol. 34). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2019, ISBN 978-3-447-11274-1 .
• (with Adrian Hermann, Frieder Ludwig, Ciprian Burlacioiu) "To give publicity to our thoughts". Journals by Asian and African Christians around 1900 and the emergence of a transregional indigenous Christian public / "To give publicity to our thoughts". Journals of Asian and African Christians around 1900 and the Making of a Transregional Indigenous Christian Public Sphere (Studies in the History of Christianity in the Non-Western World. Vol. 31). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2018, ISBN 978-3-447-11112-6 .
• Transcontinental Links, Enlarged Maps, and Polycentric Structures in the History of World Christianity . In: Journal of World Christianity , 6/1, 2016, pp. 28–56.
• (with Adrian Hermann, Ciprian Burlacioiu, Phuti Mogase) Discourses of Indigenous-Christian Elites in Colonial Societies in Asia and Africa around 1900. A Documentary Sourcebook from Selected Journals . (Documents on the History of Christianity in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Vol. 4) Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-447-10578-1 .
• (with Adrian Hermann) Polycentric Structures in the History of World Christianity / Polycentric Structures in the History of World Christianity. (Studies in the History of Christianity in the Non-Western World. Vol. 25). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2014, ISBN 978-3-447-10258-2 .
• Stages of globalization from a Christian history perspective. / Phases of Globalization in the History of Christianity. (Studies in the History of Christianity in the Non-Western World. Vol. 19). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2012, ISBN 978-3-447-06672-3 .
• The Dutch Reformed Church in Colonial Ceylon (18th Century). Minutes of the Consistory of the Dutch Reformed Church in Colombo held at the Wolvendaal Church, Colombo (1735–1797) (Documents on the History of Christianity in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Vol. 2). Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-447-06546-7 .
• Non-European Christian history (Asia, Africa, Latin America) 1450–1990. Ed. Together with F. Ludwig and Mariano Delgado (Church and Theological History in Sources, Vol. VI). 4th edition. Neukirchen 2012.
  • Spanish edition: Historia del cristianismo en sus fuentes. Asia, África y América Latina [1450–1990] Editorial Trotta, Madrid 2012, ISBN 978-84-9879-252-2 .
  • English edition: A History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 1450–1990. A Documentary Sourcebook. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids 2007, ISBN 978-0-8028-2889-7 .
• Falling walls. The Year 1989/90 as a Turning Point in the History of World Christianity. / Walls collapsing. The year 1989/90 as an epoch year in the history of world Christianity. (Studies in the History of Christianity in the Non-Western World. Vol. 15). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009.
• Transcontinental Relations in the History of Non-Western Christianity / Transcontinental Links in the History of Non-Western Christianity. (Studies in the History of Christianity in the Non-Western World [Asia, Africa, Latin America] / Studies in the History of Christianity in the Non-Western World Vol. 6). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2002.
• "Christians and Spices". Confrontation and interaction of colonial and indigenous Christianity variants. (Studies in the History of Christianity in the Non-Western World [Asia, Africa, Latin America] / Studies in the History of Christianity in the Non-Western World Vol. 1). Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1998.
• Traces of old love. Studies on the concept of church by Basil of Caesarea. (Paradosis vol. 32). Freiburg / Switzerland 1991.
• The polemics of the Gnostics against ecclesiastical Christianity. With special consideration of the Nag Hammadi tracts “Apocalypse of Peter” (NHC VII, 3) and “Testimonium Veritatis” (NHC IX, 3). (Nag Hammadi Studies XII), Leiden 1978.
• Hippolytus's fight against heretics and polemics against the Gnostics. A critical analysis of his “Refutatio omnium haeresium”. (Göttinger Orientforschungen VI / 4), Wiesbaden 1975.

Literature about Klaus Koschorke

• Mira Sonntag (Ed.), 'Gurôbaru historî' no naka no kirisutokyô: kindai Ajia no shuppan media to nettowâku keisei [Christianity in 'Global History': Print Media and Network Building in Modern Asia]. Tokyo, Shinkyo Shuppansha 2019.
• Special Issue: The "Munich School of World Christianity", Journal of World Christianity , Vol. 6, No. 1, 2016.
• Ciprian Burlacioiu, Adrian Hermann (ed.), Altered maps. On the way to a polycentric history of world Christianity . Festschrift for Klaus Koschorke on his 65th birthday. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 978-3-447-06967-0 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Klaus Koschorke in the catalog of the German National Library
• Homepage at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich
• Web portal for the history of Christianity outside Europe (Asia, Africa, Latin America)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München: Klaus Koschorke CV ( Memento of the original from September 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed March 2017) 
2. ^ David D. Daniels III: A Note on the “Munich School of World Christianity” and the Special Issue . In: Journal of World Christianity . tape 6 , no. 1 , January 1, 2016, p. 1-3 , doi : 10.5325 / jworlchri.6.1.0001 .
3. ↑ Klaus Koschorke: Transcontinental Links, Enlarged Maps, and Polycentric Structures in the History of World Christianity . In: Journal of World Christianity . 6, No. 1, 2016, pp. 28–56. doi : 10.5325 / jworlchri.6.1.0028 .