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Professor Maureen Junker-Kenny

Fellow Emeritus (School of Religion)
      
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Professor Maureen Junker-Kenny

Fellow Emeritus (School of Religion)

 Maureen.Junker-kenny@tcd.ie

 


Born in Münster/Westf., Germany, German and Irish nationalities. Maureen Junker-Kenny did M.A.s (Staatsexamen) in English, Catholic Theology and Philosophy at the universities of Tübingen and Münster. She completed a Ph.D. on F. Schleiermacher's Christology and theory of religion at the university of Münster in 1989 and her Habilitation on J. Habermas's discourse ethics in Tübingen in 1996 where she was a lecturer before coming to Trinity College Dublin in 1993. She was elected Fellow of Trinity College Dublin in 1998. She served as Head of Department of the School of Hebrew, Biblical and Theological Studies from 1997-2000, and of the renamed Department of Religions & Theology from 2012-2018. From 2011-2013, she was Head of the Confederal School of Religions, Theology and Ecumenics, now School of Religion.
  Biomedical Ethics   Christian ethics and philosophical social ethics   Contemporary Theology and Hermeneutics   Critical theory and Theology   Philosophy of religion   Religion in Modernity   Religion in pluralist democracies   Religion in the Public Sphere   Theology at the University   Theology in the Public Sphere
Project Title
 The reception of Paul Ricoeur's work in German-speaking theology
From
March 2024
To
July 2024
Summary
Funding Agency
Exzellenzcluster Religion und Politik, Univ. Münster, Germany
Person Months
4
Project Title
 The Bold Arcs of Salvation History (Berlin and Boston: de Gruyter, January 2022, Paperback October 2023)
From
May 2020
To
May 2021
Summary
In Juergen Habermas's two volume publication of 2019, Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie (Also a History of Philosophy), the interaction of the two strands appearing in the Axial Age, philosophical systems and the world religions, is reconstructed especially regarding the role of biblical monotheism for the development of postmetaphysical thinking. In this study, entitled, "The Bold Arcs of Salvation History". Faith and Reason in Jürgen Habermas's Reconstruction of the Roots of European Thinking, his outline of the impact of "Pauline Christianity" on European thought is analysed in nine chapters from the origins of Christianity to the modern era.
Funding Agency
n/a
Project Type
Monograph
Project Title
 Self, Christ and God in Schleiermacher's Dogmatics. A Theology Reconceived for Modernity (Berlin and Boston: de Gruyter, 2020)
From
Summer 2014
To
March 2020
Summary
Schleiermacher's theology is a test case for the encounter of the Enlightenment with Romanticism and Kant's Critiques with analyses of subjectivity. Celebrated and contested in his role as "Father of cultural Protestantism", co-founder of the University of Berlin in 1810, his work has inaugurated modernity in the history of Christian thinking. 2021 is the 200th anniversary of the publication of the first edition of The Christian Faith, a thorough reconception of dogmatic theology after Kant's critique of the proofs for the existence of God. The study compares the two editions of 1821/22 and 1830/31 in their method, order and content and relates long-standing and recent debates in German-speaking and Anglophone scholarship to each other.
Funding Agency
none
Programme
n/a
Project Type
Monograph
Person Months
24
Project Title
 Approaches to Theological Ethics - Sources, Traditions, Visions
From
2018
To
Jan 31, 2019
Summary
- Approaches to Theological Ethics: Sources, Traditions, Visions offers an overview of sources and approaches to Christian Ethics. Part I treats its four sources and how they relate to other disciplines relevant for theology, such as biblical studies and hermeneutics, philosophy and the insights and issues arising in a scientific and technological culture. Part II compares current approaches to this theological discipline. Within each of the five frameworks, different conceptions are analyzed for their philosophical and theological backgrounds. They are compared according to criteria such as their selection of biblical sources, their theological consistency, and their ability to contribute to inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives. In an age of globalisation where different cultures, religions, lifestyles and values meet in the workplace, in schools, and in public spaces shaped by religious and cultural traditions, it is important to create possibilities and venues for dialogue. Analysing the variety of approaches to Theological Ethics will help articulate different visions of what constitutes a fulfilled life, of how the moral vocation of each human being can be supported, and of the role of the Christian faith for ethics.
Funding Agency
none
Project Type
Monograph
Person Months
12
Project Title
 DAAD Senior Research Fellowship
From
To
Summary
Research visits to the Faculties of Protestant Theology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and the Humboldt University in Berlin on my current research on F. Schleiermacher
Funding Agency
DAAD
Programme
DAAD Senior Research Fellowship
Person Months
1

Page 1 of 2
Details Date
International Council of the Faculty of Theology, University of Ceské Budejovice, Czech Republic 2025
International and Specialist Advisor to Studies in Christian Ethics 2018 -
Elected Member of the Presidium of the European Society of Catholic Theology September 2017 - 2021
Elected Member of the Board of the Societas Ethica August 2017 - 2021
Member of the International Advisory Board of the International Centre for Ethics in the Sciences and the Humanities, University of Tübingen, Germany; 2010 -
Member of the International Advisory Board of European Theology (ET) Studies; 2014-
Co-Editor of Series Practical Theology in the Discourse of the Humanities 2007 - 2021
Co-Editor of Etudes Ricoeuriennes/Ricoeur Studies 2010-
Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
French Fluent Medium Fluent
German Fluent Fluent Fluent
Spanish Medium Basic Basic
Details Date From Date To
Irish Theological Association 1993 ongoing
European Society for Catholic Theology; (Co-founder of Irish section with Prof. Eamonn Conway) 1996 ongoing
Internationale Schleiermacher Gesellschaft 1999 ongoing
Society for Ricoeur Studies 2010 ongoing
Societas Ethica. Research Society for Philosophical and Theological Ethics 2001; 2017 ongoing
European Academy of Religion 2021-
Justice and mercy as a paradoxical task? The perspectives of Friedrich Schleiermacher and Paul Ricoeur on evil, accountability and the question of reconciliation in, editor(s)Klaus von Stosch and Lukas Wiesenhütter , Describing God? Christian and Muslim Approaches to the Divine Attributes in Dialogue, Leiden, Brill/Schöningh, 2025, pp69 - 86, [Junker-Kenny], Book Chapter, IN_PRESS
Religious experience as inescapably particular or as a general feature of human consciousness? A critical analysis of Schleiermacher"s argumentation in paragraphs 3 and 4 of The Christian Faith (1830/31 in, editor(s)Lang, Stefan, und Viertbauer, Klaus , Friedrich Schleiermacher's Philosophy of Religion: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, London, Routledge, 2025, [Junker-Kenny], Book Chapter, IN_PRESS
Subjektivität und Einbildungskraft, Sollen als Filter und Hoffnung an den Grenzen des Handelns: Zur Bedeutung Kants in Ricoeurs philosophischer Anthropologie in, editor(s)Andreas Hofer, Christian Rößner, Jakub Sirovátka , Freiheit, Moral, Religion, Hamburg, Meiner, 2025, [Junker-Kenny], Book Chapter, SUBMITTED
Junker-Kenny, Rezeptivität und Einbildungskraft. Ein Vergleich der Subjektivitätsanalysen Schleiermachers und Ricoeurs, Internationaler Schleiermacher-Kongress: Rezeption Transformation Imagination, University of Kiel, Germany, Sept 14 - 18, 2025, 2025, Invited Talk, ACCEPTED
Junker-Kenny, Human Genome Editing and Theological Anthropology, The Ethics of Human Genome Editing, University of Bonn, Germany, February 18/19, 2025, Seminar für Moraltheologie, Katholisch-Theologische Fakultät, Invited Talk, ACCEPTED
"Die Macht des Wortes" in, editor(s)Brigitte Buchhammer, Bettina Zehetner , What Does it Mean to Be Human? Was heisst es, Mensch zu sein? Festschrift Herta Nagl-Docekal, Vienna, LIT Verlag, 2024, pp291 - 317, [Junker-Kenny], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Losing `reason' as a counterpart to `religion'? Stances on the specificity of faith in God in, editor(s)Ethna Regan and Alan J. Kearns , Critical Questions in Contemporary Theology: Essays in Honour of Dermot A. Lane, Oxford - Berlin - Lausanne - New York, Peter Lang, 2024, pp93 - 102, [Junker-Kenny], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Junker-Kenny, Paul Ricoeur's Philosophy of Religion, International Seminar, University of South Bohemia in Ceské Budejovice, Czech Republic, January 30/31, 2024, Faculty of Theology, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Junker-Kenny, Religiöse Erfahrung als historisch partikular oder als allgemeiner Vollzug?, World Congress of Philosophy, Round Table, Rome, Italy, August 1-8, 2024, FISP, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Junker-Kenny, Handlungsfähig durch Erinnerung, Hoffnung, Erzählung. Response zu Jürgen Kroth, ERINNERUNG, HOFFNUNG, COMPASSION. Zur aktuellen Bedeutung der Theologie von Johann Baptist Metz, Münster, Germany, December 7 and 8, 2024, Franz-Hitze-Haus, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
  

Page 1 of 17
The Irreversibility of Time and the Ability to Be a Self in, editor(s)Brenninkmeijer-Werhahn, Aldegonde , Marriage - Constancy and Change , Muenster, LIT-Verlag, 2017, pp234 - 243, [Junker-Kenny], Notes: [Trans. Brian McNeil, of Ununmkehrbarkeit der Zeit und Selbstseinkoennen], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Unumkehrbarkeit der Zeit und Selbstseinkoennen in, editor(s)Brenninkmeijer-Werhahn, Aldegonde , Ehe - Bestand und Wandel im Miteinander, Muenster, LIT Verlag, 2017, pp266 - 275, [Junker-Kenny], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Junker-Kenny M., The Church of Vatican II: German Theologians in Debate with Cardinal Ratzinger, Doctrine and Life, 55, 2005, p21 - 28, Journal Article, PUBLISHED

  


Award Date
Fellowship at the Exzellenzcluster Religion und Politik, University of Münster, Germany 2024, March 16 - July 15
DAAD Senior Research Fellowship 2014
Visiting Fellowship to the Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy 2011
2009 European Cultural Exchange - Bilateral Agreements (International Section, Department of Education & Science, Dublin) 2009
Berkeley Fellowship 2002/03
Fellow of Trinity College Dublin 1998
PhD Summa cum laude, University of Münster 1989
Cusanuswerk Scholarship for doctoral research 1983-85