PD Dr. Benedikt Brunner
Personal Details:
Benedict studied History, Politics and Evangelical Theology in Münster, Marburg and Bonn. PhD 2017 at Wilhelms-Universität in Münster. Member of academic staff at Exzellenzcluster für “Religion and Politics“ in Münster, 2013–2015. Member of academic staff at the academic chair of Modern Church History , in particular History of Reformation at Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, 2015—2018. Since 2018 research associate at the Leibniz Institute for European History (IEG), Department of Abendländische Religionsgeschichte. Furthermore, fellow at the Kolleg-research team »Religion und Urbanität. Wechselseitige Beziehungen« at the Max-Weber-Kolleg in Erfurt, 04.-09.2023. In 2024, he completed his habilitation with a thesis on "Drawing Death into Life. Comparative perspectives on the Protestant approach to death and dying in the early modern period (1580-1750)" at the Faculty of Protestant Theology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
Research Interests:
Church History and History of Theology in Reformation and Confessional times
Contemporary Church History of East and West Germany
History of Preaching
Pietism and Puritanism
North American Religious History
Selected Publications:
Volkskirche. Zur Geschichte eines evangelischen Grundbegriffs (1918–1960), Göttingen 2020 (Arbeiten zur Kirchlichen Zeitgeschichte, Reihe B: Darstellungen, Bd. 77).
Gefühlte Erlösung? Friedrich Christoph Oetingers 'Abriß der evangelischen Ordnung zur Wiedergeburt' von 1735 und ihr Beitrag zur pietistischen Gefühlskultur des 18. Jahrhunderts, in: Christian Soboth/Daniel Cyranka/Thomas Ruhland/Friedemann Stengel (Hg.), Gefühl und Norm. Pietismus und Gefühlskulturen im 18. Jahrhundert. Beiträge zum V. Internationalen Kongreß für Pietismusforschung 2018, Bd. 2, Halle 2021 (Hallesche Forschungen, Bd. 61/2), S. 497–508.
Heilige Stimmen. Die kommunikative Funktion der Toten in protestantischen Funeralschriften der Frühen Neuzeit, in: Jahrbuch für Kommunikationsgeschichte 24, 2022, S. 29–55.
Protestantische Prognostik. Georg Picht, Helmut Gollwitzer und die Frage nach der 'Zukunft des Christentums', in: Christian Hoffarth/Stefan Brenner (Hg.), Prophetie, Prognose und Politik. Personengeschichtliche Perspektiven zwischen Antike und Neuzeit, Frankfurt am Main 2022 (Bensheimer Forschungen zur Personengeschichte, Bd. 5), S. 95–122.
'wie Chrysostomus schreibet'. Kirchenväterzitate als normative Referenzen für den Umgang mit Trauer in frühneuzeitlichen Funeralschriften. Herausforderungen und Potenziale der Digital Humanities für ihre Erforschung, in: Journal of Ethics in Antiquity and Christianity 4, 2022, S. 77–99
Research projects:
Drawing Death into Life. Comparative Perspectives of Protestant Ways in Coping with Death between Desacralization and Resacralization, 1580–1700
To "die gently and blessedly": the project explored the background to this ideal and investigated how dying was reflected in the lives of people in early modern Europe. On the one hand, it enquired into the norms in which the emotions triggered by death and dying were embedded. On the other hand, it focussed on the ethical implications that were associated with this.
Leibniz Research Alliance "Value of the Past"
The Leibniz Research Alliance "The Value of the Past" investigates the significance of the past for societies in the past and present. The first phase runs from 1 September 2021 until 31 August 2025.