New Testament III

Joel Klenk

Contact

CV

2024
PhD

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

submitted: March 18th 2024
defense: December 12th 2024
summa cum laude
Award of the University of Tübingen: July 19th 2025

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 2019
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

Projects

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

Research Interests

  • Theology of Paul
  • Negative Theology
  • Ambiguity
  • Hermeneutics und Hermeneutical Theology
  • Sermon on the Mount
  • Research history

(Honorary) Positions

  • 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) https://www.studienjahr.de/forum-studienjahr/oekumenische-stiftung/kontakt-stiftung

  • Editorial Coordinator, scholarly book series Jerusalemer Theologisches Forum (JThF), Aschendorff Verlag (since January 2019) https://www.studienjahr.de/jthf

  • 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)

Bibliography

Monographs

  • Joel Klenk, Negative Theologie bei Paulus. Untersuchungen zur offenen Semantik in der Rede von Gott (HUTh), Tübingen forthcoming.

Edited Volumes

  • Christian Boerger, Joel Klenk (Hg.), Ökonomie, Anökonomie, Heilsökonomie. Gottesrede im Spannungsfeld von Tausch und Gabe, JThF 43. Ökumenische Beiträge aus dem Theologischen Studienjahr Jerusalem), Münster 2023.
  • ​​​​​Ulrich Winkler (†), Christian Boerger, Joel Klenk (Hg.), Von Peripherien und Zentren, Mächten und Gewalten. Jerusalemer Ansätze für eine postkoloniale Theologie (JThF 41. Ökumenische Beiträge aus dem Theologischen Studienjahr Jerusalem), Münster 2021.

Articles and Reviews

  • Joel Klenk, Die Danielrezeption bei Paulus. Relevanz durch Orientierung und geteilte Motivwelten, in: ZNW 116,2 (2025), 213–251.
  • Joel Klenk, Rez. Wörn, Katharina, Ambiguität. Paul Tillichs Begriff der Zweideutigkeit im Kontext interdisziplinärer Debatten, 2022. XII, 421 Seiten, Dogmatik in der Moderne 38,3 in: ThR 89,3 (2024), 400–406 (https://doi.org/10.1628/thr-2024-0020).
  • Asya Achimova, Maren Ebert-Rohleder, Lorenz Geiger, Joel Klenk, Angelika Zirker: “Ambiguity in Discourse: The Tübingen Interdisciplinary Corpus of Ambiguity Phenomena”. In: Ilaria Fiorentini/Chiara Zanchi (Hg.), Vagueness, ambiguity, and all the rest. Linguistic and Pragmatic Approaches (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 347), Amsterdam 2024, 85–108 (https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.347.05ach).
  • Joel Klenk, Rez. Sautermeister, Jochen, Blumenthal, Christian, u. Christian Hornung [Hgg.]: Ambiguitäten – Identitäten – Sinnentwürfe. Theologische Analysen und Perspektiven. Freiburg i. Br. u.a.: Herder 2023. 240 S. Kart. EUR 40,00. ISBN 9783451397318, in: ThLZ 149,9 (2024), Sp. 839–841.
  • Christian Boerger, Joel Klenk, Gottesrede im Spannungsfeld von Tausch und Gabe. Editorial, in: dies. (Hg.), Ökonomie, Anökonomie, Heilsökonomie. Gottesrede im Spannungsfeld von Tausch und Gabe, JThF 49. Ökumenische Beiträge aus dem Theologischen Studienjahr Jerusalem), Münster 2023, 9–12.
  • Christian Boerger, Joel Klenk, Von Peripherien und Zentren, Mächten und Gewalten. Editorial, in: Ulrich Winkler, Dies., JThF 41, Münster 2021, 11–16.
  • Joel Klenk, Rez. Stefan Silber, Postkoloniale Theologien (UTB 5669), Tübingen 2021, in ThRv 118 (2022): Dezember.
  • Jutta Hartmann, Asya Achimova, Lisa Ebert, Natascha Elxnath, Joel Klenk, Miriam Lahrsow, Sarah Metzger, Gesa Schole, Christian Stegemann, Raphael Titt, Thalia Vollstedt, Wiltrud Wagner, Susanne Winkler, TInCAP User Manual GRK 1808 Ambiguity Database, 2019.

Non-Academic Writing and Public Engagement

  • Joel Klenk, Dirk Vanhauer, „Gerettet und getröstet – Gottes Feier des Lebens“. Jes 25,6–9 (21.04.2025 Ostermontag), in: PrSt I/1 2024/2025, Freiburg 2024, 246–252.
  • Joel Klenk, Was bietet heute überhaupt noch Sicherheit? Eine Erinnerung an die paulinische Heilsgewissheit in einer ambigen Welt, in: Julia Drube (Hg.), Zwischen den Krisen. Theologische Denkanstöße zu wichtigen Fragen unserer Zeit, Trier 2024, 136–143.
  • Joel Klenk, ‘God as Domestic Economist’: Cognitive Metaphors Actualized in the Minds of Paul’s Addressees, blog entry (1st July 2024) published on: Diegesis in Mind (blog founded by Jan Rüggemeier/Elisabeth Shively).
  • Joel Klenk, Wahrheit, Lüge, Leben. Neutestamentliche Impulse zum Umgang mit Fakenews, in: Evangelisches Gemeindeblatt für Württemberg (119,10), 10. März 2024, 4f.

(As of September 2024 [vgl. zudem https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8330-1898])

Recent updates

Summerschool: The Sermon on the Mount. Its productive Perception in 19th Century Interpretations (with Dr. Jan Reitzner September 29th to October 1st 2025)

Courses

  • 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) (2SWS) 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) (2SWS) 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) 2 credit hours, together with Christian Boerger and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Winkler)