The Department of Church History deals with the question of how Christian ecclesiastical and spiritual life has been understood, experienced and developed since its emergence.

The Chair of Church and Theological History in Basel strives to understand with the history of Christian institutions, the history of theological thought, and expressions of historical Christianity across global cultural contexts. This also includes examining the role of the history of gender, piety, art and music in the history of Christianity.

Christian life – not independently of the social, political and cultural developments of the last 2000 years, but as an expression of them! – is at the heart of our teaching and research endeavors.

Theology students in Basel deal with six eras in the history of the Church/Christianity during their studies:

• Antiquity
• Late antiquity and early Middle Ages
• High and late Middle Ages
• Reformation period
• Early modern period
• Modern era

They study the most important events and figures of these eras in general lectures and in the intro course to Church History. In the proseminar and in Bachelor's and Master's seminars, they learn to critically assess historical sources and to classify them in terms of the intellectual, cultural and social history.

Full-time professorships

Prof. Dr. Andrea Gabriele Hofmann

Private lecturer

PD Dr. Hans-Georg Ulrichs

Assistant/PhD students

Claartje Ille

Auxiliary assistant

Miriam Kupfer

Bettina Lehmann

Emeritus professors

Prof. Dr. Michael Bangert
Prof. Dr. Rudolf Brändle
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ulrich Gäbler