Herzliche Einladung zum Gastvortrag von Gijsbert van den Brink

Abstract: Theology used to be designated as the ‘queen of the sciences’. In this lecture, the genealogy of this view is laid bare and it is examined how and why theology lost this special status in modernity. Since the founding of the Humboldt University (1810) theology continued to have a place in the modern university for more practical reasons. Today this modern justification for academic theology is rapidly losing credibility. This raises the question in which form and under which conditions theology (and not just religious studies) deserves a proper place at academic institutions in our current postmodern context. An attempt is made to sketch the contours of what a present-day theological faculty or department in a post-secular and multi-religious context might look like.

Gijsbert van den Brink holds the University Research Chair for Theology and Science at the Faculty of Religion and Theology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Next to studies on evolutionary theory and Christian Dogmatics, he published a Philosophy of Science for Theologians with Peter Lang (2009).