History of the chair

The subject “Liturgical Science” was elevated to one of the main subjects of theology by the Second Vatican Council (cf. Liturgy Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium Art. 16). This requirement was implemented at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in 1992 with the establishment of a separate Chair of Liturgical Studies.

With the appointment of Professor Dr. phil. Gabriele Winkler, who held the chair from 1992-2005, the chair was given a specific orientation in the sense of comparative liturgical studies. This involved a philologically based exploration of liturgical sources from Eastern and Western traditions with a focus on interdisciplinary research into Oriental liturgies. The diverse religious views that manifest themselves in the rites of the East and West were compared and made accessible in numerous publications.

With the appointment of Professor Dr. theol. Andreas Odenthal in 2006, the focus of the chair changed. Liturgical studies was now understood as a practical theological discipline that (in an inclusive sense) utilizes the diversity of methods that are common in theology. Under Andreas Odenthal, humanistic, historical, systematic-theological and exegetical research was incorporated into the question of the conditions and possibilities of worship in the church today.

Prof. Dr. theol. Stephan Winter M. A. (phil.) has held the chair since the summer semester 2020. Liturgical studies, as practiced at the chair, is understood as a method-oriented reflection on ritual and worship practice in the past and present. Taking into account the historical, systematic and practical-critical dimensions of the subject, the focus is on reconstructing and exploring this practice in all its diversity as a place of human identity formation, taking into account the respective socio-cultural contexts.

Such liturgical science is ecumenical and oriented towards dialog with other religions and their theologies. It works as intensively as possible in an interdisciplinary network: above all with the theological disciplines, with philosophy as an orientation science and with history, cultural and social sciences, whereby the interdisciplinary “ritual studies” represent an important common working framework.