{"id":2453,"date":"2025-01-14T13:14:06","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T13:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fiit-heidelberg.de\/uncategorized\/winners-of-the-lautenschlaeger-award-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-01-28T13:25:51","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T13:25:51","slug":"2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fiit-heidelberg.de\/en\/lautenschlaeger-award-en\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Winners of the Lautenschlaeger Award 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/i><\/i><\/span>Vilius Bartninkas (Vilnius University)<\/span><\/a><\/h4><\/div>
\n

<\/a>Award-Winning Work:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Traditional and Cosmic Gods in Later Plato and the Early Academy<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

Current Position:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Associate Professor of Ancient Greek Philosophy at the Faculty of Philology, Vilnius University<\/p>\n

Current Research Activities:<\/strong><\/p>\n

My next research project uses contemporary theories of agency to illuminate ancient Greek and Roman accounts of agency at all levels of reality from ethics and politics to theology and metaphysics.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod and spirituality\u201d in the award-winning publication:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Traditional and Cosmic Gods in Later Plato and the Early Academy provides a major reassessment of Plato\u2019s views of the relationship between philosophy and religion by examining his later dialogues and the works of his school, the Academy. Although Plato is generally regarded as a critic of Greek religion, this book demonstrates that Plato uses cosmological findings to orient key aspects of cult practice and conventional beliefs towards ethical fulfilment. At the same time, Plato situates his philosophical enterprises firmly within the religious culture of his time, showing how abstract ideals can be embedded into concrete religious environment. One distinctive finding about the Platonic spirituality is that cult worship can give theological role models for ordinary citizens by directing them to imitative practices in relation to the good character traits of traditional gods. However, the highest level of moral achievement lies in the assimilation to the cosmic gods via cosmological understanding, which can be achieved by the intellectual elite. Thus, a dual ideal of godlikeness emerges as the main ethical and the central religious principle in Plato\u2019s later works.<\/p>\n

Academic Address:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vilius Bartninkas
\nKlasikin\u0117s filologijos katedra,
\nFilologijos fakultetas, Vilniaus universitetas,
\nUniversiteto g. 5, LT-01131
\nVilnius, Lithuania<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/i><\/i><\/span>Alyssa Evans (Princeton Theological Seminary)<\/span><\/a><\/h4><\/div>
\n

<\/a>Award-Winning Work:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Karlstadt\u2019s Reading of Augustine and His Development as a Reformer, 1517\u20131519<\/span><\/div>\n

Current Position:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Alyssa Lehr Evans is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in Church History at the University of G\u00f6ttingen.<\/p>\n

Current Research Activities:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Evans\u2019 current project is a study of Martin Luther\u2019s works translated into English in the sixteenth-century. A detailed analysis of the translations, their contexts, and the actors involved offers insights into the English reception and adaptation of Luther, European networks of reform, and early modern translation more broadly.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod and Spirituality\u201c in the award-winning publication:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This work looks at how Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, a central player in the development of the Reformation in Wittenberg, became and continued to develop as a reformer. The reformers in Wittenberg were re-examining fundamental theological questions about the relationship between God and humanity. I show how the problem of which sources are most authoritative for understanding this relationship as well as how these sources ought to be read was central to Karlstadt\u2019s early reformation thinking. These questions lie at the heart of the Reformation and are central to all theological work. Questions of authority and interpretation remain key to the variety within Christianity; diverse understandings of Christian spirituality are often the result of different readings of the same texts. The shifts in Karlstadt\u2019s theology that came as a result of his reading of authorities like Augustine immediately led to a reevaluation of the spiritual practices of his day, including liturgical prayer and the cult of the saints. These changes became prominent features of Protestant spirituality and remain so today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Academic Address:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Theologische Fakult\u00e4t
\nPlatz der G\u00f6ttinger Sieben 2
\nD\u201137073 G\u00f6ttingen<\/p>\n

alyssa.evans@theologie.uni-goettingen.de<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/i><\/i><\/span>Isaac (Yitz) Landes (Princeton University)<\/span><\/a><\/h4><\/div>
\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Award-Winning Work:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Transmission of the Mishnah and the Spread of Rabbinic Judaism, 200 CE\u20141200 CE<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

Current Position and Research Activities<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Dr. Yitz Landes is an Assistant Professor of Rabbinic Literature and Culture at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he teaches lectures and seminars on Rabbinic texts, Ancient Jewish History, Jewish Liturgy, and medieval Hebrew manuscripts. He is currently preparing his 2023 Princeton dissertation, \u201cThe Transmission of the Mishnah and the Spread of Rabbinic Judaism: 200\u20131200CE,\u201d for publication as a monograph. His next project is a study of the place of writing and book production in Ancient Judaism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cGod and Spirituality\u201c in the award-winning publication:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The processes by which Rabbinic concepts of authority, theology, and religious practice became the hegemonic form of Judaism have been the focus of several studies. My dissertation turns to this phenomenon from an angle that has yet to have been pursued by studying the history of the transmission, reception, and study of the Mishnah, the central text of the Rabbinic corpus, from its inception in third-century Galilee until the publication of Maimonides\u2019 commentary to the Mishnah in 12th<\/sup> c. Egypt. In the first half of the dissertation, I analyze evidence for the Mishnah\u2019s creation and initial dissemination in Roman Palestine and Sasanian Babylonia. The second half focuses on the earliest manuscript evidence for the Mishnah and on attitudes towards the Mishnah and its creation in the works of Medieval Jewish writers, all of which are used to shed light on Rabbinic education and on understandings of religious authority. Throughout, I discuss the impacts of the rise of Christianity and Islam on Jewish concepts of the Rabbinic canon and on the spread of Rabbinic practice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Academic Address:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yitz Landes
\nAssistant Professor of Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures The Jewish Theological Seminary of America
\n3080 Broadway Ave., Office U\u2011506, New York, NY, 10033<\/p>\n

islandes@jtsa.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/i><\/i><\/span>Mark Lester (Yale University)<\/span><\/a><\/h4><\/div>
\n

<\/a>Award-Winning Work:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deuteronomy and the Material Transmission of Tradition<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

Current Position:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Mark Lester is Instructor in the Department of Theology at Loyola University Chicago and Lecturer in Biblical Hebrew (summers) at Yale Divinity School.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Current Research Activities:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lester\u2019s current research project examines textual metalepsis in the Hebrew Bible and early Jewish literature.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod and Spirituality\u201c in the award-winning publication:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deuteronomy and the inscribed texts depicted within it are often called \u201cbooks.\u201d Moreover, Deuteronomy\u2019s treatment of writing has earned it a prominent place in historical accounts of the religion of ancient Israel and Judah. Neither Deuteronomy nor its text-artifacts, however, are books in any conventional sense of the term. Deuteronomy and the Material Transmission of Tradition (Brill Press, 2024) seeks to reconstruct the ancient attitudes towards writing that are reflected in Deuteronomy. It contends that Deuteronomy adapts the media aesthetics of Iron Age treaty tablets and monuments in the wider ancient Near East. In this way, it embodies Israel\u2019s relationship to its God in a vital and dynamic text-artifact that draws in audiences, presents them with a tangible mark of God\u2019s actions on behalf of Israel, and invites them to respond accordingly. Far from a dead letter, the written word in Deuteronomy embodies the overflowing vitality of an ongoing corporate relationship with God.<\/span><\/div>\n

Academic Address:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mark Lester, Ph.D.
\nDepartment of Theology
\nLoyola University Chicago
\n1032 W. Sheridan Road
\nCrown Center, Room 300
\nChicago, IL 60660<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/i><\/i><\/span>Nadia Marais (Stellenbosch University)<\/span><\/a><\/h4><\/div>
\n

<\/a>Award-Winning Work:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Homo Florens? Cultivating Grammars of Salvation<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

Current Position:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Senior Lecturer of Systematic Theology (Stellenbosch University)<\/p>\n

Current Research Activities:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am currently participating in a cross-training program in psychological science entitled \u201cThriving in Diverse Contexts\u201d, offered \u2013 for theologians \u2013 by the Centre of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, USA. I intend to continue with my research on soteriology and theologies of human flourishing, with a specific future focus on Augustine.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod and Spirituality\u201c in the award-winning publication:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

God wills human flourishing.<\/p>\n

                \u2013 Charles Taylor, Dilemma and Connections<\/p>\n

Human flourishing lies at the heart of the great faith traditions \u2013 including Christianity. At the same time the story of the rise of exclusive humanism, which is a Christian story, would attempt to remove God from any account of human flourishing. This would signal a turn away from the transcendent and toward the individual self in attempts to seek out what it means to live meaningfully in the world \u2013 and would prevail as the dominant modern narrative that continues to shape the rhetoric of human flourishing today, according to Charles Taylor.<\/p>\n

Theologians who engage the claim that God wills human flourishing speak in various ways about what it means to flourish. What governs our speaking? What is the logic that shapes our grammars of salvation? In my book (entitled Homo Florens? Cultivating Grammars of Salvation) I argue that there may be multiple contemporary soteriological discourses, each offering a rich array of theological concepts \u2013 including piety, joy, and comfort; fulfilled life, healing, and dignity; grace, happiness, and blessing \u2013 that could host a theological rhetoric of human flourishing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Academic Address:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nadia Marais
\n171 Dorp street
\nFaculty of Theology
\nStellenbosch University
\nWestern Cape
\nSouth Africa
\n7600<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/i><\/i><\/span>Justin Reed (Princeton Theological Seminary)<\/span><\/a><\/h4><\/div>
\n

<\/a>Award-Winning Work:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Injustice of Noah\u2019s Curse and the Presumption of Canaanite Guilt: A New Reading of Genesis 9:18\u201329<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

Current Position:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Associate Professor of Old Testament\/Hebrew Bible at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Current Research Activities:<\/strong><\/p>\n

My current research explores how ideas from critical race theory have informed and can continue to inform biblical scholarship.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod and Spirituality\u201d in the award-winning publication: <\/strong><\/p>\n

The strange episode of Noah\u2019s curse (Genesis 9:18\u201329) is infamous for its history of consequences. For hundreds of years, communities who revere the Bible\u2019s stories have deployed this text as divine support for denigrating or subjugating others, most notoriously to justify enslaving Black people. However, doing so has required interpreters to explain away peculiarities in the passage, the most conspicuous being that Noah\u2019s reaction seems misdirected and overblown: he voices a curse of slavery against Canaan (who did nothing) in response to Ham seeing the patriarch naked. Modern scholars write with no intent to weaponize Noah\u2019s curse against their contemporaries; yet almost every scholarly publication presumes that the Israelites hated the Canaanites and, therefore, good interpretation must show that a curse of Canaan, the forefather of hated Canaanites, is just in its literary context. I argue the opposite. In a literary approach informed by intertextuality, irony, and critical race theory, I assert that acknowledging the injustice of Noah\u2019s curse\u2014especially in contrast to God\u2019s justice\u2014is the best reading of this passage in its literary context in Genesis.<\/p>\n

Academic Address:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Justin Reed
\n1044 Alta Vista Rd box 66
\nLouisville, KY 40203
\nUNITED STATES<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/i><\/i><\/span>Jonathan Torrance (Cambridge University)<\/span><\/a><\/h4><\/div>
\n

<\/a>Award-Winning Work:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sin and Theory: Martin Luther\u2019s Doctrine of Sin in Dialogue with Critical Theory<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

Current Position:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chaplain and Lord Crewe Career Development Fellow, Lincoln College, University of Oxford. Alongside overseeing the worshipping life of the college and providing pastoral care for students, I have a fellowship to pursue my own research interests and teaching.<\/p>\n

Current Research Activities:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am currently working on a project on theology and comedy. My interest is in the intersection of theology and literature, and specifically how \u201cthe comic\u201d can offer resources for understanding the theological concepts of hope and grace. The main theological source for the project is Martin Luther, whose thought is crucial to my own understandings of hope and grace, and, perhaps surprisingly, was himself committed to the centrality of humour in the life of the theologian.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod and Spirituality\u201d in the award-winning publication: <\/strong><\/p>\n

My dissertation focuses on reading Martin Luther\u2019s doctrine of sin in dialogue with contemporary critical theory, in order to retrieve the Reformer\u2019s thinking on  this central Christian teaching. As such, it is deeply concerned with the concepts of God and Spirituality. It is a work of Christian theology, focussed on the Divine-Human relationship, and touching on areas of Christian spiritual practise. The thesis asks penetrating questions about sin, which I maintain is a way to understand the pathological in the human condition, always in relation to God. To talk about sin is, I insist, always to talk also about God, and in particular the God who saves \u2014 it is this relation to God which makes sin authentically sin. This is, in turn, what makes hamartiology a uniquely theological, and not simply anthropological, task. Moreover, I also committed to a theology that engages human experience, and so I pay sustained attention to Christian spirituality as the arena of human encounters with the divine, in particular thinking about what it might mean experientially to be a \u2018sinner.\u2019 Luther famously defined the subject matter of theology as \u2018man guilty of sin and condemned and God the justifier,\u2019 and both are at the centre of this thesis\u2019 argument and enquiry.<\/p>\n

\n

Academic Address:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jonathan Torrance
\nLincoln College,
\nTurl Street
\nOxford
\nOX1 3DR<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/i><\/i><\/span>Christine Trotter (University of Chicago)<\/span><\/a><\/h4><\/div>
\n

<\/a>Award-Winning Work:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hellenistic Jews and Consolatory Rhetoric: 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, 1 Thessalonians, and Hebrews<\/em><\/p>\n

Current Position:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christine Trotter is currently an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University.<\/p>\n

Current Research Activities:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trotter is working on a series of articles that explore the agency of creation in the Gospel of Matthew. The first analyzes the actions of the sun and earth during the crucifixion of Jesus in light of mourning gestures, while others explore the sea, winds, and fig tree as nonhuman characters. Additionally, Trotter is finishing an article on Sibylline Oracles 4 as ancient consolation literature.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod and Spirituality\u201c in the award-winning publication:<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the innocent suffer and the faithful are killed, what is God up to? Moreover, how should God\u2019s people respond to such atrocities? For Jews living through the horrors of state-sponsored religious persecution in the Hellenistic and early Roman periods, compelling answers to these questions were urgently needed. Hellenistic Jews in the Jesus movement also wrestled with these questions as they grappled with society\u2019s hostility towards Christ-believers and later had to make sense of the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Romans. This book explores how diverse Hellenistic Jewish authors answered these pressing questions using trusted conventions of their day for how to comfort someone. By intertwining consolatory rhetoric from their biblical heritage, Greco-Roman culture, and, for some authors, Jesus tradition, they attempted to ameliorate grief, cultivate joy, and transform the behavior of distressed audiences. In doing so, they advocated forms of spirituality intended to enable people to cope with trauma and remain faithful to their God, irrespective of the costs of their allegiance.<\/p>\n

Academic Address:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christine Trotter
\nGeorgetown University
\n37th and O Streets, NW
\nDepartment of Theology & Religious Studies<\/p>\n

Christine Trotter
\nNew North 120
\nWashington, D.C. 20057<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/i><\/i><\/span>An-Ting Yi (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)<\/span><\/a><\/h4><\/div>
\n

<\/a>Award-Winning Work:<\/strong><\/p>\n

From Erasmus to Maius: The History of Codex Vaticanus in New Testament Textual Scholarship<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

Current Position:<\/strong><\/p>\n

An-Ting Yi is Assistant Professor of New Testament and Migration at the Faculty of Religion and Theology of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.<\/p>\n

Current Research Activities:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yi\u2019s next research project explores the intersection between the scholarly usage of manuscripts, the application of technology, and uncovering the \u201cauthentic text\u201d in the nineteenth century. In addition, Yi is working on several articles, reflecting upon the history of scholarship and its various perceptions of manuscripts and texts.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod and Spirituality\u201c in the award-winning publication:<\/strong><\/p>\n

From Erasmus to Maius addresses the changing perceptions of one of the most important witnesses to the Greek New Testament text, the Codex Vaticanus. It traces, narrates, and uncovers stories surrounding this ancient manuscript and thus illustrates how scholars have been searching for a reliable text. Intellectual conversations and innovative practices have emerged over time, which often resulted in the challenge and renewal of traditions. On the other hand, scholars involved in this journey were conscious that what they were pursuing was a firmer ground of \u201cthe Word of God\u201d, the fountain for all spiritual and theological convictions. In this regard, textual critics were trying to respond to the quest for the invisible God and his revelation by (re)constructing the words from and about the divine, namely the sacred yet tangible text of the New Testament. By looking into the scholarly history of Codex Vaticanus, this book contributes from a unique perspective to our spiritual pursuits of God and the beyond.<\/p>\n

Academic Address:<\/strong><\/p>\n

An-Ting Yi
\nFaculty of Religion and Theology
\nVrije Universiteit Amsterdam
\nDe Boelelaan 1105
\n1081 HV Amsterdam
\nThe Netherlands<\/p>\n

Email: an-ting.yi@vu.nl<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are pleased to announce the 2025 winners of the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lautenschlaeger-award-en"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fiit-heidelberg.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/placeholder.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiit-heidelberg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiit-heidelberg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiit-heidelberg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiit-heidelberg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiit-heidelberg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fiit-heidelberg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2457,"href":"https:\/\/fiit-heidelberg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453\/revisions\/2457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiit-heidelberg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiit-heidelberg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiit-heidelberg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiit-heidelberg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}