Presentation
The Catholic Theology and Religious Studies (Théologie catholique et sciences religieuses, UR 4377) research unit is composed of more than thirty teacher-researchers and researchers and supervises around 70 doctoral students. It is the result the 2009 merger of EA 1343 (Théologie catholique) and EA 1328 (Sciences bibliques) and is organised into 6 sections: Bible, History, Systematic Theology, Philosophy, Ethics, Practical Theology. As a result, its work is organised along lines that reflect the multi-disciplinary nature characteristic of university theology (biblical sciences, history of Christianity, philosophy of religion and theology, practical disciplines), along with some more specific programmes. The presence of different epistemological approaches is an asset that enables both the reality of Christianity in general, and of Catholicism in particular, to be examined through the prism of several sciences. This multidisciplinary approach has a common denominator: a twofold approach to the phenomenon of religion, focussing on the identity created by religion and its consequences for theology and the human sciences in the broadest sense. This research is conducted in conjunction with other disciplines at the University of Strasbourg, in particular the historical, literary and philosophical disciplines, resulting in a large number of interdisciplinary initiatives.
Research topics
Biblical sciences
Most of the research activity of this section falls within the scope of the Biblical Exegesis Research Team (Équipe de recherche en exégèse biblique – Ereb), whose 2018-2022 five-year contract focused on the theme of Hopes and Societies: Individual and Collective Expectations Regarding Jewish and Christian Texts from Antiquity.
Historical sciences
This section is split between 2 teams: the Ancient and Medieval Christianity Research Team (Équipe de recherche sur le christianisme ancien et médiéval – Ercam), dealing with ancient and medieval Christian theology, and the Catholicism in Alsace Research Team (Équipe de recherche pour le catholicisme en Alsace – Ercal), which addresses the contemporary history of the local Church. It is complemented by the history of liturgy and the history of religions.
Systematic theology
For the 2018-2022 five-year period, this section will deal with the "Sacramenta Fidei", methodically scrutinising sacramentality as a point of convergence of sources, discourses and Christian action where research must seek to characterise the act of faith itself.
Philosophy
Research in philosophy revolves around 5 main themes: the relationship between religion and rituality, the place of religion in society and its relationship with the state, the philosophy of religion, patristic philosophy and the philosophy of art.
Ethics
The five-year theme of this section for 2018-2022, which focused on current developments in society, both in terms of technologies and the discourses of legitimation in economics and politics, was Biomedicine and technologies, ethics and society.
Practical theology
As part of a project entitled Individual, community, territory, this section deals with the interactions between individuals (persons), communities and territories (where people live together) from a faith perspective.
Major events and works
The achievements of UR 4377 are illustrated by the variety of highlights and major projects, in continuity with the previous five-year period. In the field of biblical sciences, particular mention should be made of the work on the Historical and Theological Dictionary of the Septuagint (Agence nationale de la recherche - ANR programme), which was awarded with two Gutenberg Chairs in 2016 and 2018; research into ancient and medieval theology by the Ancient and Medieval Christianity Research Team, with a particular focus on the transposition of exegetical-theological issues into Christian poetic texts in Greek and Latin (this research was also rewarded 2 Gutenberg Chairs in 2014 and 2019); research in philosophy of religion, with a particular focus on examining theological-political issues at a time of globalisation and interfaith dialogue, which is a reference in this respect in France and in the international sphere; activities implemented by the Ethics section, particularly in the field of bioethics, in collaboration with the Centre européen d'enseignement et de recherche en éthique (Ceere).
The results of the team in general, as of 2016, are quantitatively significant, both in terms of the number of productions (63 monographs and books edited and around 260 articles and contributions over 4 years) and the ratio per researcher (around 12).
