Martin Leiner

Martin Leiner (born November 30, 1960 in Homburg ) is a German Protestant systematic theologian and ethicist . He holds the chair for systematic theology and ethics at the Friedrich Schiller University (FSU) Jena and has headed the Jena Center for Reconciliation Studies (JCRS) for conflict transformation and reconciliation research since it was founded in 2013.

biography

After completing his studies in philosophy and evangelical theology at the University of Tübingen , Leiner joined the Theological Faculty of the University of Heidelberg in 1994 with a thesis entitled “Psychology and Exegesis. Basic questions of a text-psychological interpretation of the New Testament ”. The work created by Gerd Theißen develops a model of interdisciplinary cooperation between historically and literary-oriented New Testament science and contemporary empirical psychology. In 1998, Leiner completed his habilitation at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz with a study entitled “God's Presence. The dialogical philosophy of Martin Buber and the approach of the theological reception in Friedrich Gogarten and Emil Brunner ”. From 1998 to 2002, Leiner was first assistant professor, then professor of systematic theology and hermeneutics at the Université de Neuchâtel . In 2002 he switched to a professorship for systematic theology with a focus on ethics at the University of Jena. Here he was vice dean from 2004 to 2006 and dean of the theological faculty from 2008 to 2010. Between 2000 and 2002 he was the presidency of the Institute Romand de Systématique et d´Éthique (IRSE) in Geneva and has also been a permanent member of the board of the Ethics Center at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU) since 2003 .

Research priorities

During his academic career, Leiner specialized in the history of ethics, media ethics and reconciliation research. Since 2013, Leiner has been director of the Jena Center for Reconciliation Studies (JCRS), which is associated with the Theological Faculty of the FSU Jena. This research center develops theoretical foundations for transdisciplinary and comparative international reconciliation research as well as practical guidelines for application in crisis regions. The international summer school series “Societies in Transition. Between Conflict and Reconciliation ”under the direction of Martin Leiner and the JCRS team. The DFG project “Hearts of Flesh not Stone”, headed by Leiner, received worldwide press coverage, in the course of which the first academic study trip of Palestinians from the West Bank to Auschwitz took place in March 2014, which was headed by the Palestinian professor Mohammed Dajani. At the same time, a group of Israeli students traveled to places of suffering for Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel. In his research on reconciliation, Leiner developed what he called the “Hölderlin perspective” after the statement in the novel Hyperion, “Reconciliation is in the midst of a dispute”. The Hölderlin perspective assumes that reconciliation cannot only begin after the end of conflicts, but rather begins in their midst and must assert itself against the violent aspects of a conflict. Conflicts are seen as part of life that must not be eliminated, but rather made fruitful for better coexistence and better justice. Leiner is the editor of the 7-volume series "Research in Peace and Reconciliation" (RIPAR), which publishes findings on conflict and reconciliation research using the case study of various crisis regions around the world and has been published by Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht since 2012.

Font selection

Monographs (selection)

Methodological guide to systematic theology and philosophy of religion. UTB, 2008, ISBN 978-382-52315-0-7 and Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-352-50362-4-2
God's presence: Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue and the approach of its theological reception in Friedrich Gogarten and Emil Brunner. Kaiser, Gütersloher Verl.-Haus, Gütersloh 2000, ISBN 3-579-02666-6
Psychology and exegesis: basic questions of a text-psychological exegesis of the New Testament. Kaiser, Gütersloher Verl.-Haus, Gütersloh 1995, ISBN 3-579-01839-6

Editing (selection)

with Maria Palme (ed.) u. a .: Societies in Transition. Sub-Saharan Africa between Conflict and Reconciliation , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-525-56018-1
with Jürgen Boomgarten (Ed.): Nobody who could escape responsibility : ethics of responsibility in theological, philosophical and religious studies perspective , Herder Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 2014, ISBN 3-451-33295-7

with Susann Flämig (Ed.): Societies in transition: Sub-Saharan Africa between conflict and reconciliation , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 3-525-56018-4

with Michael Trowitzsch (ed.): Karl Barth's Theology as a European Event , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 3-525-56964-5 and ISBN 978-3-525-56964-1