Dr. Joel Klenk

Research Associate at the Chair for New Testament III

Joel Klenk

Office
Faculty of Protestant Theology
Liebermeisterstraße 12, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Room 134, 1st floor
+49 7071 29-76742
joel.klenkspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de

Office hours
By appointment via email.

ORCID
0009-0002-8330-1898

Joel Klenk is a research associate at the Chair for New Testament III (Prof. Dr. Christof Landmesser) at the Faculty of Protestant Theology, University of Tübingen. His research focuses on the theology of Paul, negative theology and ambiguity, and the Sermon on the Mount, which his habilitation project examines in the context of ancient Jewish testament literature. A project funded through the Excellence Strategy links this work with digital methods of genre annotation and embeddings-based text analysis.

Recent updates

Press release (PDF) on the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize for Early Career Researchers, May 15, 2026

Published (open access, with Jan Reitzner): Produktive Rezeptionen der Bergpredigt bei Tholuck und Baur. Verheißungsvolle Predigt des Erlösers oder erster Ursprung des Christentums? (History of Biblical Exegesis 13), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2026.

Published: Negative Theologie bei Paulus. Untersuchungen zur offenen Semantik in der Rede von Gott (Hermeneutische Untersuchungen zur Theologie 96), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2025.

Research interests

  • Theology of Paul
  • Negative Theology
  • Ambiguity
  • Hermeneutics and Hermeneutical Theology
  • Sermon on the Mount
  • Ancient Testament Literature
  • AI and Exegesis
  • ‘Productive Reception’ of the Bible

Projects

PhD: Ansätze Negativer Theologie bei Paulus (Degree awarded on December 10th 2024)

Habilitation: Das Vermächtnis des Auferstandenen. Gattungskritische Perspektiven auf die matthäischen Redekomplexe im Kontext antik-jüdischer Testamentenliteratur (working title)

Project funding for early-career researchers from federal and state excellence funds: The Sermon on the Mount as a Testament. Digital Genre Annotation and Embeddings-Based Analysis of Ancient Testament Literature (2026–2027)

EABS-Research Unit: Ambiguity in and of the Bible (together with Dr. Judith E. Filitz) (2026–2029)

CV

2024
PhD

Title: Ansätze Negativer Theologie bei Paulus (Traces of Negative Theology in Paul)

submitted: March 18th 2024
defense: December 10th 2024
summa cum laude
Award of the University of Tübingen: July 19th 2025
Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize for Early Career Researchers, May 15, 2026

since 2023
Research Associate

Chair for New Testament III with a focus on Paul and the Pauline School, New Testament Theology and Hermeneutics (Prof. Dr. Christof Landmesser)

August 2019 to December 2022
Research assistant

DFG-funded Research Training Group 1808: Ambiguity: Production and Perception (University of Tübingen)

August 2018 to May 2019
Fellow

Jerusalem School of Theology at the Laurentius-Klein-Chair of Biblical and Ecumenical Theology (Prof. Dr. Ulrich Winkler)

October 2012 to July 2018
Theological Studies

University of Tübingen, Jerusalem School of Theology, University of Heidelberg
Scholarships by the Foundation of German Business (sdw) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
Student assistant with Prof. Dr. Christof Landmesser
Diploma of Protestant Theology and First Church Exam at the Protestant Church of Württemberg

February 24th 1994
Date of Birth

Bibliography

With Jan Reitzner: Produktive Rezeptionen der Bergpredigt bei Tholuck und Baur. Verheißungsvolle Predigt des Erlösers oder erster Ursprung des Christentums? (History of Biblical Exegesis 13), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2026 (open access).

Open access e-book

PhD thesis: Negative Theologie bei Paulus. Untersuchungen zur offenen Semantik in der Rede von Gott (Hermeneutische Untersuchungen zur Theologie 96), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2025.

Book at Mohr Siebeck

For a detailed list of publications, please see:

List of publications (PDF)

(see also ORCID 0009-0002-8330-1898)

Courses

Winter semester 2026/2027

  • Undergraduate seminar Introduction to New Testament Methodology (2 credit hours)
  • Language workshop on Coptic (2 credit hours)

Summer semester 2026

  • Undergraduate seminar Introduction to New Testament Methodology (2 credit hours)
  • Christological Models in the New Testament and the Early Church (together with Dr. David Burkhart Janssen, 2 credit hours)

Winter semester 2025/2026

  • Undergraduate seminar Introduction to New Testament Methodology (2 credit hours)
  • Reading the Synoptic Passion Narratives (2 credit hours)
  • Time in Philosophy and Narrative Theory (together with Anne Rath, 2 credit hours)

Summer semester 2025

  • Undergraduate seminar Introduction to New Testament Methodology (2 credit hours)
  • What Is and Why Do We Practice ‘New Testament Ethics’? (2 credit hours)

Winter semester 2024/2025

  • Undergraduate seminar Introduction to New Testament Methodology (2 credit hours)
  • The History of the Interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount Since the Reformation (together with Dr. Jan Reitzner, 2 credit hours)

Summer semester 2024

  • Survey on the Bible (New Testament) (2 credit hours)
  • Introductory course to the Study of Protestant Theology (together with Dr. Matthias Ruf, 2 credit hours)

Winter semester 2023/2024

  • Survey on the Bible (New Testament) (2 credit hours)
  • Undergraduate seminar Introduction to New Testament Methodology (2 credit hours)
  • Seminar for Excursion Preparation: Israel – Land of the Bible, Space of Religion (together with Prof. Dr. Birgit Weyel, Prof. Dr. Christof Landmesser, and Dr. Hans-Ulrich Probst)

Summer semester 2023

  • Survey on the Bible (2 credit hours; New Testament section to be attended together with Old Testament section, apl. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Oswald)
  • Paul’s discourse about God (2 credit hours)

Winter semester 2022/2023

  • Survey on the Bible (2 credit hours; New Testament section to be attended together with Old Testament section, apl. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Oswald)

2018 – 2019

  • History and Society of the Near East from Late Antiquity to the Present from the Perspective of Israel/Palestine (2 credit hours, together with Christian Boerger and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Winkler)
  • Archaeological-Topographical and Historical Foundations of Old Testament and New Testament Traditions (Biblical Archaeology / Realia Studies and Biblical Texts) (3 credit hours, together with Christian Boerger and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Winkler)

Positions and memberships

(Honorary) positions

  • Member of the local committee of the SNTS general meeting 2027 in Tübingen.
  • Elected Member of the Faculty Council, Faculty of Protestant Theology, University of Tübingen (since July 2025)
  • Representative for Mid-Level Academic Staff, Faculty of Protestant Theology, University of Tübingen (since July 2024)
  • Deputy Representative for Mid-Level Academic Staff, Faculty of Protestant Theology, University of Tübingen (July 2023 – July 2024)
  • Associate Member of Subproject 6: De/Sacralization in and of New Testament Texts (PI: Prof. Dr. Christof Landmesser) within the DFG-funded Research Unit 2828: De/Sacralization of Texts (January 2023 – December 2025)
  • Board Member, Ecumenical Foundation Jerusalem for the Study of Religion, Culture, and History in the Middle East (since March 2022)
  • Editorial Coordinator, scholarly book series Jerusalemer Theologisches Forum (JThF), Aschendorff Verlag (since January 2019)
  • Spokesperson of the Doctoral Fellows, Research Training Group GRK 1808: Ambiguity – Production and Perception (September 2021 – September 2022)
  • Team Member, Digital Humanities Project TInCAP – Tübingen Interdisciplinary Corpus of Ambiguity Phenomena (2019 – 2022)

Memberships

  • European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS)
  • Rudolf Bultmann Society for Hermeneutic Theology (Rudolf-Bultmann-Gesellschaft für Hermeneutische Theologie e.V., Marburg, Germany)
  • Society of Biblical Literature (SBL)
  • Support Association “Forum Studienjahr” (Förderverein Forum Studienjahr, Münster / Jerusalem)
  • Associate Member of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS)
  1. Share on Facebook (opens in new window)
  2. Share on LinkedIn (opens in new window)
  3. Share on Mastodon (opens in new window)
  4. Share on Bluesky (opens in new window)
  5. Share via email (opens in new window)
  1. Share on Facebook (opens in new window)
  2. Share on LinkedIn (opens in new window)
  3. Share on Mastodon (opens in new window)
  4. Share on Bluesky (opens in new window)
  5. Share via email (opens in new window)