An Americanist by training, Jan Stievermann has held the newly created Bridge Professorship for the History of Christianity in the U.S. since 2011, serving as an interdisciplinary liaison between the Theological Seminary (Dept. of Church History) and the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA). Accordingly, Prof. Stievermann teaches and conducts research on topics in American religious and cultural history in an interdisciplinary manner. Before coming to Heidelberg, he worked at the Eberhard-Karls University in Tübingen.

Prof. Stievermann’s research focuses on the cultural and theological history of American Protestantism in the 18th and 19th centuries, especially the contrasting developments of evangelicalism and radical liberalism (esp. transcendentalism), and the relationship between religion and literature. His major publications include “Der Sündenfall der Nachahmung: Zum Problem der Mittelbarkeit im Werk Ralph Waldo Emersons” and “Cotton Mather and Biblia Americana — America’s First Bible Commentary” (ed. with R. Smolinski). He is currently working primarily on the edition of the first comprehensive biblical commentary from North America, Cotton Mather’s Biblia Americana (1693–1728).

Research Area:

I. Religion in America

Projects:

• Scholarly Edition of Cotton Mather’s Biblia Americana
• Religion and the Marketplace in the US
• Pennington Award
• Multiple Reformations? The Heidelberg-Notre Dame Dialogue on the Legacies of the Reformation Age