Our research focus areas
Theological Women's and Gender Studies
This research focus has been anchored at the faculty for 30 years and forms an important identity feature for theology at the Graz location for research, teaching and scientific as well as social external impact. Thus, the faculty takes up the interdependent category "gender" as one of the central categories of perception and identity of today's societies and reflects it critically in the context of society, church and theology.
Applied ethics in science and society
This research focus concentrates on identifying aspects of contemporary life in society that require scientific ethical reflection. The focus is on the overarching goal of promoting a successful life as well as on addressing new ethical questions that arise in various contexts. This inherently interdisciplinary research area covers a broad spectrum and includes, for example, aspects of medical ethics, bioethics, health care ethics, social and peace ethics, digital ethics, up to relationship ethics and animal ethics.
Religion(s) and theology(s) in cultural discourses
This research area encompasses the entire faculty and, in addition to many individual projects, fans out into three larger focal areas:
Art, media and digital transformation
This long-established research focus deals with questions of theological aesthetics and image theologies, the dialogue between theology and art, media theory and media analysis in connection with theology and religion, film and theology, religion in film and media, and digital transformations in these areas. Concrete individual projects include "The Iconic Turn in the Christian Confessions," image theologies and the question of "idolatry" in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, or religious motifs and theological concepts in (post-apocalyptic) films and computer games.
Further links: Context Group Art-Media-Theology (uni-graz.at) Speaker - iconic-turn (uni-graz.at) Art and Media in Theological Discourse - Institute for Systematic Theology and Liturgical Studies (uni-graz.at) JRFM (un i-graz.at) ZeitKunst
Theologies and religions in heterogeneous socio-cultural contexts
This focus includes projects in ancient studies, e.g. the participation of biblical studies in the international and interdisciplinary graduate school "Resonant World Relations in Socio-Religious Practices in Antiquity and the Present", but also in contemporary history in the field of tension between church and politics, for example with the project "Edition of the Diaries and Travel Diaries of Federal Chancellor Prelate Dr. Ignaz Seipel (1876-1932)" or in intercultural and interreligious exchange in history and the present. Further links: UNESCO Chair
Educational concepts in plural religious and social contexts
This research focus includes, on the one hand, religious education projects that take the increasingly heterogeneous and plural religious situation of society as their starting point. On the other hand, it includes research that deals with theological, pastoral and practical education and communication in different social spaces (big cities, municipalities, vulnerable social spaces). Last but not least, it includes those projects that address the relationship between (secular) science, spirituality, and theological or religious education, or that address current issues of political and social education and communication from a theological perspective. Further links: Center for Interdisciplinary Aging and Care Research.