Topics
In my research, I aim to contribute to the dialogue with other disciplines and to relevant discourses in socity from my perspective as a researcher of the Bible. My work revolves around the following subject areas.
Stories
Storytelling is one of the most fundamental cultural practices that define us as human beings.
The topic concerns me in many ways. For example, I am also very much interested in literature and in the question of how artificial intelligence tells stories. A main focus of my work, however, is on very specific stories - the biblical stories. They are among the most powerful narratives that humanity has ever produced, and they continue to shape our thinking today - and influence how we tell our own stories and write our own biographies.
I have carried out two major projects on this topic:
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In my doctoral thesis, I dealt with the apostle Paul . Many people consider him to be an intellectual, a thinker who was incapable of telling gripping stories. Rather, so the general perception, he was more interested in theological ideas, in dogmas. In my dissertation, I show that this assumption is fundamentally wrong: Paul does tell stories, and he exhibits a unique profile as a storyteller. Moreover, his stories have shaped cultural history up to the present day. He is arguably one of the most influential storytellers of all time. My analysis of more than 1000 pages ( Paul as narrator? ) can be read here in open access. I was awarded the Manfred Lautenschläger Award 2022 for this work. An updated, more accessible presentation of my theses, written in English, was published by Eerdmans in 2024 (see here for Paul the Storyteller ).
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Since 2023, I have been leading an international junior research group at the University of Munich, which deals with the category of narrative perspective . This research builds on the recognition that narratives are not just determined by "what" is told, but also by the "how" of narration. Most importantly, the same story can be conveyed in very different ways, depending on whose perspective is adopted - through whose eyes we are granted a view at the unfolding events, so to speak. These different perspectives and evaluations in the early Christian narratives about Jesus Christ still influence us today. The project won a competitive grant from the Elite Network of Bavaria, which aims to enable excellent research through top-level funding. Details about the project can be found here . We also have a website on which we will report on our research on early Christian narratives over the next few years. In 2024, I completed my habilitation at the University of Basel on the topic of narrative perspective in early Christian narratives. This work was awarded the Dewetteaneum Prize by the Faculty of Theology, the award for the best academic work of the year. It will be published in 2026 in the WUNT I series by Mohr Siebeck.
Religion and Politics
We - that is, I and probably most of you - live in secular societies. Nevertheless, religion still plays a major role in the way we live our lives. Sometimes, this influence might be barely visible, because it is such a natural part of our shared cultural encyclopedia. For example, the slogan "He who does not work shall not eat" regularly appears in political debates concerning social benefits. Few will probably know, howver, that the slogan and the idea ultimately go back to a (completely misunderstood!) quote from the Bible.
However, most of my work focuses on the connection between religion and politics from the opposite perspective: What role did contemporary politics of the Roman Empire play in the writing of the New Testament? Does it simply confirm the rule of the Roman Empire or is there a critical examination of imperatorial ideology in these texts? And what can we learn today about the relationship between church and state - and especially about dealing with oppressive regimes?
For my work on this topic, I received the Mercator Award for the Humanities and Social Sciences 2018 (the laudation can be seen here ). The award particularly recognizes innovation, interdisciplinarity and social relevance.
My most important publications on the subject are the following:
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My first important publication on the subject is the book Hidden Criticism? It is based on the observation that the apostle Paul is often considered a coward who, in the Epistle to the Romans, called on Christians to pay taxes and submit to state power, but otherwise had little to say about the oppressive rule of the Romans. By contrast, my work examines the question of whether there is something like a hidden criticism of the Roman Empire in Paul's letters, attacks on the emperor written in code and thus less dangerous. The book is available in open access here
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In my second book ( Paul's Triumph: Reassessing 2 Corinthians 2:14 in Its Literary and Historical Context , Peeters: 2017), I apply these considerations to a specific passage in Paul's letters and examine the meaning of the strange metaphor of the Roman triumphal procession in the apostle's Second Letter to the Corinthians.
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In 2022 , The Apostle and the Empire: Paul's Implicit and Explicit Criticism of Rome was published, my attempt to bring the debate up to date and to outline the most promising direction in which research in this area could be continued.
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Artificial intelligence
How does someone who researches the Bible come to a topic like AI? At first glance, the contrast between this latest technology and the old, if not antiquated, texts of the Bible could hardly be greater. And in a certain sense, that is true: the masses of AI text raise the question of what relevance these ancient texts, which have been read as holy scriptures for thousands of years, can still have, even though they were written for very specific contexts. But it is precisely because this is such a great challenge that theologians have to deal with it - and in doing so they gain a lot of insights that are also relevant for other areas of science and life. Because there is competition between human and machine texts almost everywhere these days. Solid answers to existential questions are needed. Theology can contribute a valuable perspective here as a discussion partner. Because the vocabulary that has recently been used in AI development around the aspired superintelligences is deeply religious. Talking about this openly and critically is extremely important for the future that we are moving towards as a society. What role should humans play in this new age? What is a human anyway? What is the value of culture? What values do we base our actions - and AI on?
I have been thinking about such questions since 2025 as a member of the Young Fellows of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. This fellowship is highly competitive (only 18 young researchers in Bavaria from all disciplines are fellows, I am the first theologian ever in this circle) and I am very happy to be able to conduct my research on AI and culture in this excellent interdisciplinary context.
The broad range of skills I have acquired over the course of my research career helps me in my research. For example, I have already led an interdisciplinary project on probability theory. My doctoral thesis dealt with text linguistic issues. And large language models produce precisely text - and that as probable sequences of tokens. Thanks to my previous interest in the digital humanities, I also have certain digital skills, for example in programming. In addition, there is my expertise in literary studies, which allows me to assess the quality of these products. Recently - with the so-called "reasoning" models - my previous research on questions of epistemology is also playing an increasingly important role. And the more AI penetrates our everyday lives and poses challenges to politics and society, the more my cultural studies and ethical knowledge that I have acquired for my research on the connection between religion and politics helps me. It is therefore the interface of all these interests that allows me - of course limited, but at the same time quite unique - access to the topic.