Research Fellow

The Research Fellow is the recipient of the current Seelisberg Prize, who spends a research stay at the “Center for Intercultural Theology and the Study of Religions” as part of the Theological Excellence Program

prof. sieversProf. Dr. Joseph Sievers

Prof. Sievers wurde für seinen herausragenden Einsatz in Forschung und Lehre gegen die Verbreitung antisemitischer Stereotype, seine intensive Erforschung der biblischen und nachbiblischen Geschichte des Judentums und des frühen Christentums sowie sein Engagement im Dialog zwischen Wissenschaft und Kirche geehrt, so die Begründung der Jury. Besonders hervorgehoben wurde seine „ruhige und inspirierende Art“ sowie seine engagierte Netzwerkarbeit, die maßgeblich zur Förderung der „interreligiösen Solidarität“ beigetragen haben.

Joseph Sievers, born in 1948 in Recklinghausen, Germany, completed his Jewish studies in Vienna from 1966 to 1971. From 1972 to 1981 he conducted research at Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Since 1988 he has lived and researched mainly in Italy – including at the Gregorian. In 2000, Sievers was ordained a priest in Münster, Germany. Since 1991, Sievers has taught at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, where he became Full Professor of Jewish History and Hellenistic Literature in 2007. Sievers has also completed research stays in Jerusalem, Oxford and Münster, among other places. Since 2008 he has been a consultor to the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism.