Fellow 2021-2022 MICHAEL SCHULZ
Term: 09/2021 – 02/2022
Michael Schulz is a C-4 professor and director of the Arbeitsbereich Philosophie und Theorie der Religionen(Department for Philosophy and Theory of Religions) within the Philosophical Faculty (Humanities) of the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn. He is also Speaker for the Interdisciplinary Latin America Center (ILZ) at the University of Bonn. From 1978-1985 he studied philosophy and theology at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz as well as at the Pontifical Gregorian University as a student of the Collegium Germanicum-Hungaricum; receiving his Lic. Theol. entitled “Analogie und Gotteserkenntnis bei Gustav Siewerth” (Analogy and Knowledge of God in the Work of Gustav Siewerth) in 1985. In 1990 he began his doctoral studies in Munich while in 1994-2001 he acted as Academic Assistant at the Institute for Dogmatics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
In 1995 he completed the inaugural dissertation “Sein und Trinität” (Being and Trinity) and was awarded the faculty prize. In 2001-2004 he was the Professor for systematic theology at the Facoltà di Teologia di Lugano while in 2003 he completed his Habilitation in dogmatics at the University of Munich on a topic concerning the theology of “original sin”. In 2004 he was Director of the seminar for dogmatics within the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn. Following this, he undertook a Visiting Professorship at the faculty of theology at San Dámaso, Madrid from 2004-2005. From 2008-2009 he was Dean of the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Bonn, while in 2010 he changed to the philosophical faculty as director of the Department of Philosophy and Theory of Religions. In 2010 he became Director and Speaker of the interdisciplinary Latin America Center; finally in 2020 he was appointed “docente colaborador no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Filosofia” by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
INTERVIEW WITH CAPAS FELLOW MICHAEL SCHULZ
The Latin-American Apocalypse of the Radically Other
The eschatological-apocalyptic orchestration of the discovery, conquista, and colonization of the Americas creates a striking ambivalence. The apocalyptic motifs were used to justify both peaceful mission as well as the use of violence and served as a threatening backdrop both as a way to force indigenous peoples to convert and as a way to curb the inhumanity of the Spanish in their treatment of said indigenous population. My research project focuses on this ambivalence and the particular functions of eschatological and apocalyptic motifs, with the help of which the revelation of the radically other will be interpreted in its revolutionary effect on one’s own world. This research develops a diatopic hermeneutic that is aimed at the apokálypsis of radical otherness and at fostering understanding between diverse cultural topoi.