The faculty is characterized by a broad range of research topics and methodologies, reflecting the focus of its respective disciplines and departments.
Beyond discipline-specific research, it participates in research platforms, networks, and centers; focuses its research on specific thematic areas as well as the key research area “Religion and transformation”; and strives to increase the number of its externally funded projects.
in the needs and demands of their respective environments:
- the University of Vienna, with its two faculties of theology and the diversity of academic disciplines represented at the university
- the international scientific community in theology, religious studies, and their so-called “bridge disciplines” (philosophy, social ethics, etc.).
- Vienna’s social context, with its multicultural and multireligious society and its location at the crossroads of Western, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as
- the Catholic Church
and focuses on three thematic areas:
- Catholic Theology in Contemporary Discourses
- Interdisciplinary Religious Studies
- Ethical Challenges Facing Society
It draws upon (1.) its disciplines and hermeneutics to elucidate the biblical, historical, institutional, theological, philosophical, and practical foundations of Christianity. These foundations are examined in terms of their implications for modernity’s struggle for human autonomy and the recognition of the other. Conversely, societal developments are also critically analyzed and monitored, as exemplified by interdisciplinary research on values.
With regard to (2.) interdisciplinary religious studies, the faculty can build upon its constitutive interdisciplinary foundation and is committed to pooling the expertise of the various academic disciplines involved in religious studies at the University of Vienna, thereby generating synergies.
(3.) The faculty addresses a wide range of ethical issues (the climate crisis, modern technologies, migration and poverty, gender justice, political ethics, medical ethics, etc.). Based on a Christian-inspired anthropology, it makes a significant contribution to the scholarly reflection on these topics through its competence in philosophy, religious studies, social ethics, and theological ethics.
The thematic areas of the Faculty of Catholic Theology are reflected in its academic structure and take into account Vienna’s location at the intersection of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as of Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. They include: biblical, historical, systematic, and practical theology; ethics; as well as intercultural philosophy of religion, religious studies, and religious law.
