“Dialogue as a Space of Faith: Toward an Epistemology of Jewish-Christian Relations“

Around 2015, a new phase in Jewish-Christian dialogue began. In official documents issued by both Christian and Jewish representatives to mark the 50th anniversary of the declaration Nostra aetate, questions emerged concerning the theological dimension of Jewish-Christian dialogue and the significance of Judaism for Christian theology. These developments reveal a broader impact on the methods and frameworks of Catholic theology. In proposing an epistemology of dialogue, the study highlights shifts in traditional, magisterially regulated forms of Catholic knowledge and outlines a forward-looking epistemological model—one that is dialogical in nature and open to ambiguity and plurality.

Andrea Schmuck is employed at the Archdiocesan Ordinariate of Munich and holds a part-time postdoctoral position within the research project “Theology as research on hope? Effects of the climate crisis on theological reflection and religious practice” at the Faculty of Catholic Theology, Salzburg University. She completed her studies and doctoral degree at the University of Salzburg in 2024, supported by the “Exzellenzprogramm” since 2015. Her research interests include Theological epistemologies, intercultural theology, and interdisciplinary fields such as cultural theory, the study of hope, and environmental humanities Andrea Schmuck lives with her family in Upper Bavaria, near Salzburg.

Ulrich Winkler was born in 1961 in Gallneukirchen/Mühlviertel (Upper Austria) into a family of small farmers. After school and grammar school, which he completed at the Collegium Petrinum in Linz, he began studying theology in Linz in 1980, soon transferred to the renowned year of study at the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem and then went to Salzburg, where he completed his studies with a Master’s degree in 1987 after guest stays in Munich and Tübingen. After completing his doctorate in 1997 with a thesis on the theology of creation, Ulrich Winkler focussed on a subject area that was becoming increasingly important in German-speaking theology: the theology of religions. He played a decisive role in the founding of the now internationally recognised Centre for Intercultural Theology and the Study of Religions (2001). His habilitation thesis “Wege der Religionstheologie. Von der Erwählung zur komparativen Theologie 2010), Ulrich Winkler focussed in particular on comparative methods and the theology of Israel. This was also applied in the university course ‘Spiritual Theology in the Interreligious Process’, which he co-developed and led. In 2016, Winkler took over the Laurentius Klein Chair of Biblical and Ecumenical Theology at the Theological Year in Jerusalem. After falling ill, he passed away on 27 January 2020. In the award he initiated and financed, he would like to continue to promote the topics of his research life in theology.