Brief history of the institute
The department was established in 1966 as the "Department for Dogma History and Ecumenical Theology" and Johannes B. Bauer (1927-2008) was appointed Department Head, who held this position until his retirement in 1995. Johannes Bauer was a pioneer in Catholic biblical studies, worked in the field of "Antiquity and Christianity" and was an ecumenist above all in practice. He was the first lay theologian in the German-speaking world to habilitate in Graz in 1962. (Publications)
He was succeeded by Anne Jensen (1941-2008) as the first woman at the Graz faculty, who had habilitated in "Theological Women's Studies and Ecumenical Theology" in Tübingen and was instrumental in advancing research in the field of gender and the Graz faculty focus on theological women's studies. She directed the institute from 1997-2008( Publications).
Since 2011 Pablo Argárate Institute Director with a focus on pneumatology and Orthodoxy.
In 1990, a separate section for Orthodox Theology was established at the Institute, which was headed by Grigorios Larentzakis until his retirement in 2007. Prof. Larentzakis was the first non-Catholic theologian to receive a doctorate in Catholic theology from a Catholic faculty in Austria, the University of Innsbruck, in 1969, and was appointed a university professor in Graz in 1987.
Some interesting articles on the history of the Institute (until 2007) and the above-mentioned persons can be found in volume 30-31 of our Ökumenisches Forum.
Univ.-Prof. DDr. Pablo Argárate Head of Department
