Church, Power, and Politics: An Ambivalent Relationship

Abstract

Academic research attempts to answer questions, solve problems, and clarify ambiguities. Some fields of research seem far removed from the everyday realities of life. This may seem to be true, at first glance, of biblical studies and the study of the ancient Near East and archaeology, to which Angelika Berlejung and I have devoted much of our lives. Scholarship encompasses countless disciplines and fields, large and small, seemingly important, central, and comprehensive, and seemingly less important, peripheral. Together they form the concert of science, the Universitas litterarum.