Thorsten Moos is a physicist and Protestant theologian. Since 2021, he has held the Chair of Systematic Theology (Ethics) at the Faculty of Theology at Heidelberg University. He is a co-founding director of the Camilla-und-Georg-Jellinek-Zentrum für Ethik at Heidelberg University.

Thorsten Moos’s research focuses on fundamental concepts and practical applications in bioethics and medical ethics; theological anthropology and the concept of illness; political ethics; the ethics of diaconal work; practice-theoretical foundations of ethics; and the role of empirical research in systematic theology. He is a member of several ethics committees, including the Central Ethics Commission for Stem Cell Research at the Robert Koch Institute.

His publications include the following monographs: Krankheitserfahrung und Religion (Tübingen 2018); Diakonische Kultur. Begriff, Forschungsperspektiven, Praxis (Stuttgart 2018); Diakonische Ethik (Stuttgart 2023); Diakonische Theologie. Eine empirische Dogmatik religiöser Kommunikation in der Diakonie (Stuttgart 2025, co-authored with Megan Arndt); Religion im urbanen Raum. Neue Stadtquartiere und ihre religiöse Topographie (Bielefeld 2023, co-authored with Juliane Kanitz and Christopher Zarnow); Ethik in der Klinikseelsorge. Theorie, Empirie, Ausbildung (Göttingen 2016, co-authored with Simone Ehm, Fabian Kliesch, and Julia Thiesbonenkamp-Maag); and Staatszweck und Staatsaufgaben in den protestantischen Ethiken des 19. Jahrhunderts (Münster 2005).

His more recent articles include “Praktiken der Moralisierung und Entmoralisierung. Vorschlag einer theologischen Analytik des Verhältnisses von Politik und Moral,” in Ekkehard Felder, Friederike Nüssel, and Jale Tosun (eds.), Moral und Moralisierung (Berlin/Boston 2024), 231–256; “Practices of climate responsibility,” Climate Action 2 (2023), 16 (co-authored with Megan Arndt); “Späte Subjekte. Skizze einer perimortalen Eschatologie im ethischen Interesse,” Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 120/3 (2023), 320–341; and “Ethik und Empirie in der Theologie,” Zeitschrift für Evangelische Ethik 67 (2023), 185–199.

See also: https://www.theologie.uni-heidelberg.de/de/personen/thorsten-moos

Arbeitsbereiche:

II. Theology, Bioethics, and Medical Law

Projekte:

  • Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Immunology (Max Planck School Matter to Life; EXC SynthImmune)

  • Ethics of Stem Cell-Based Human Embryo Models (BMFTR project SEEM)

  • Academic Freedom in Polarized Societies (TRN)

  • Religion in Polarized Societies (Heidelberg–Harvard Collaboration)

  • Digital Animism: Attributions of Subjectivity to Artificial Systems in Medicine (TRN)

  • Loci diaconici: Topiken theologischen Sprechens in der Diakonie: empirische Analyse und systematisch-theologische Rekonstruktion (completed)