Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological PromiseTheology: Distinction for Ten Young Scholars
5 May 2023
Presentation of 2023 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise
Ten young scholars have been honoured for their outstanding dissertations or first post-doctoral book publication on the topic of “God and Spirituality”. During a ceremony at Heidelberg University, they received the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise, which comes with prize money of 3,000 euros each and is awarded by the Research Centre for International and Interdisciplinary Theology (FIIT) of Ruperto Carola. Following the award ceremony, the FIIT hosted a colloquium with the award winners, with participants including FIIT members and some of the 20 international referees who evaluated the scholarly publications submitted.
The award ceremony began with introductory words from the Vice-Rector for Innovation and Transfer, Prof. Dr Matthias Weidemüller, the Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Prof. Dr Jan Stievermann, and FIIT director Prof. Dr Dr Michael Welker. Markus Lautenschläger spoke on behalf of the prize donor, Honorary Senator Dr h.c. Manfred Lautenschläger, and his foundation. Then three Heidelberg theologians presented the recipients and their publications, before the prizes were awarded to the young researchers. The keynote speech was given by economist Prof. Dr Jürgen von Hagen, a researcher at the University of Bonn. In his lecture, held in English, Prof. von Hagen spoke on the topic of “Capitalism and Theological Promise”.
Those who received the distinction for 2023 are Carson Bay (Florida State University), Helge Bezold (University of Basel), Mattias Brand (Leiden University), Ryan Collman (University of Edinburgh), Robert Edwards (University of Notre Dame), Emily Gathergood (University of Nottingham), Annemarie Pilarski (University of Regensburg), Jacob Rodriguez (University of Oxford), Matthew Sharp (University of Edinburgh) and Jeffrey Skaff (Princeton Theological Seminary). During the colloquium the award winners presented future research projects and discussed them with the referees and members of the Research Centre for International and Interdisciplinary Theology.
The Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise goes annually to ten young scholars from all over the world working in different disciplines, such as theology, philosophy, religious studies, ethics and related subjects. This year’s award ceremony was held on 28 April 2023 in the Great Hall of the Old University.