Upcoming Lectures

by Prof. Dr. Anne Käfer

• A Question of Justification. On the ius animalium

8^th May 2026, lecture at the workshop „Law and Religion“ to hand over the commemorative volume celebrating the 70^th birthday of Senior Professor Elisabeth Gräb-Schmidt, University of Tübingen

• Must Millions of Animals be Culled? Disease Control vs. Animal Protection

30^th May 2026, Moderation of the panel discussion, „Can we still be saved? The Crisis in the Relationship between Humans and Nature“, Animal Protection Conference, Evangelische Akademie Hofgeismar

• God’s Work and the Lust of the Flesh – Ethical Discussions on Animals from a Theological Perspective

31^st May 2026, „Can we still be saved? The Crisis in the Relationship between Humans and Nature“, Animal Protection Conference, Evangelische Akademie Hofgeismar

• Panel discussion on the topic: „Between Conviction and Impact – How Powerful Are Religious Virtues in the Struggle for Sustainability?“

  18^th June 2026, „Virtues as the Driving Force of Sustainable Democracies: Between Tradition and Innovation“, Interdisciplinary Symposium, Franz Hitze Haus Münster

FORMER LECTURES (selection)

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• Protestant Theology at this Moment

  4^th March 2026, lecture at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University

• Are Christians Allowed to Eat Animals? On the Command of love and the Life of Fellow Creatures

23^rd February 2026, lecture and discussion at the Environment-Talk (online) of the Evangelische Kirche von Kurhessen-Waldeck 

• God’s Justice in Luther

22^nd November 2025, Book Panel on Risto Saarinen’s Philosophical Justice and Reformation Righteousness: The Latin Aristotle to Luther and Melanchthon, AAR, Boston

• Living in an environment-friendly way: Approaches to Theological Animal Ethics

Lecture at the eco-theological workshop „Humans and Animals“, Protestant Academy Loccum, 3^rd to 4^th November 2025

• Not Merciless and Not Magic. Schleiermacher as a Real Supernaturalist

16^th September 2025, „Reception - Transformation - Imagination“, International Schleiermacher-Congress, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel 

• Further Education in Animal Ethics with References to Learning Areas 13.1 and 13.2 of the Protestant Religious Education Curriculum at Secondary School 

9^th to 11^th July 2025, Religionspädagogisches Zentrum, Heilsbronn

• German-Nordic Research Colloquium. Lectio Difficilior: Martin Luther, On the Bondage of the Will/De servo arbitrio (1525)

8^th to 10^th May 2025, Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg, Greifswald

• Hello Nature. In Conversation: Fellow Creatures or the Last of Their Kind?

10^th January 2025, Conversation with Dr. Dag Encke in the Friday Evening Talks-Series, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg

• God's Creation and Flesh's Lust (German Original: Gottes Werk und Fleisches Lust) 

12^th December 2024, Online-Lecture Series „Human-Animal-Relationship“, University Witten-Herdecke

• From Where vs. For What. Of God according to Kant and Schleiermacher 

8^th November 2024,  „Light and Counter-Light: Reflexions of the Finite Schleiermacher – Kant – Friedrich“, Symposium, Leucorea, Lutherstadt Wittenberg

• Contemporaries, Where Are You Going? Sustainability As a Theological Topos 

6^th July 2024, „Human – Nature – Technology Interaction of Creation of Norms and Conceptions of the conditio humana“, International Conference on the occasion of the retirement of emeritus Professor Elisabeth Gräb-Schmidt, Universität Tübingen

• The Three-Powerful. God's Regiment in Kant's Philosophy

4^th July 2024, „Kant and the Spirit of Enlightenment in Protestantism“, Symposium, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen

• Am I chosen? On God's Predestination and the Horror Reprobationis

31^st May 2024, International Reformed Summer-University 2024 „‚We, here, now – confess thus!‘ Reformed Confession – Reformed Confessional Writings“, Universität Siegen

• (Dis)Belief Conversation – Spectations of the Universe and a Look Onto the Christian Faith

1^st December 2023, an Event of the Friends' Group of the Foundation St. Matthäus, St. Matthäus-Kirche in Berlin

• Perspectives on Dealing With Nature From the View of Creation Faith

25^nd November 2023, lecture at the autumn congress of the Reformed Conference, Nordhorn

• Panel Discussion on the Topic of Sustainability Education

13^th October 2023, Campus Earth 2023 – 2^nd Sustainability Day at the University of Münster

• Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Doctrine of Faith as Doctrine of the Church

2^nd of June 2023, Church Teachers (German original: Kirchenlehrer und Kirchenlehrerinnen) – Creation, Change, Meaning, Interdisciplinary Symposium at the University of Freiburg (Switzerland)

• From Remorse to Blessedness. Religious Feelings in Schleiermacher’s Theology

29^th March 2023, Lecture at the 2^nd meeting of the DFG-Network „Religion and the Emotions“, HU Berlin

• Baptism and Church Fellowship from a Protestant Perspective

18^th November 2022, Lecture at Dies Academicus 2022 „Baptism – Church – Recognition. Inner Church and Ecumenical Perspectives on the Occasion of 50 years of SELK and 15 years of the Magdeburg Declaration“, Oberursel Lutheran University of Theology

• Do Christians have to be Vegetarians?

7^th July 2022, Lecture at the Long Night of Theology „Theology of Animals – Co-Created, Co-Caught?“, University of Erlangen

• Of Arrogant Devils and Vanity Fools. Or how Sin is just Ignorance

17^th June 2022, Lecture at the Conference “Albrecht Ritschl – On the Topicality of his Theology Program. Scientific Conference on the Occasion of the 200^th Birthday of Albrecht Ritschl”, University of Göttingen

• Faith of Creation and its Deeds. Christian Action in Times of Destruction of Nature

9^th June 2022, Lecture at the Reformed Summer University 2022, Universiteit Apeldoorn, The Netherlands

• He has not seen. New Clarity in Caravaggio’s “The Conversion of Saint Paul”

11^th February 2022, University of Marburg

• Anthropocentric Principles and AI

3^rd February 2022, WWU Münster

• More Flesh than Spirit? Animals in the World of Humans and in God’s Creation

28^th January 2022, University of Munich

• The Future of Animals. A Foresight onto the Work of Humans from a Christian-Ethic Perspective

10^th January 2022, Lecutre Series „Future Decisions?! Interdisziplinary Research on Sustainability“

• Animal Bites, Colloquium on “a Good Life for Everyone”

1st July 2021, WWU Münster

• How Intelligent is Artificial Intelligence? Discussion with Prof. Dr. Michael Heghmanns and Prof. Dr. Benjamin Risse

7^th June 2021, WWU Münster

• Text and Revelation. Hermeneutics from a Theological Perspective

23^rd March 2021, WWU Münster

• Thinking Faith. Interdisciplinary & International Online-Consultation of the Collegium Emmaus “Towards A Renewed Theological Culture”

30^th January 2021, University of Fribourg

• Ethics of Production Animals

21^st January 2021, WWU Münster

• Systematic-theological Perspectives on the Exegetic Lectures of Friedrich Schleiermacher

13^th March 2020, CAU Kiel

• Systematic-theological Subsumption of VELKD-Agenda

15^th February 2020, Augustana Neuendettelsau

• “Have you had Animal today?” Ethical Consideration on Human Handling of Animals from a Christian Perspective

15^th January 2020, Münster

• Truth Commitment as the Task of Christians and its Realisation in the Barmen Declaration

15^th November 2019, Wuppertal

• Myth and Demythologization. The Concepts of Bultmann und Cullmann

13^th September 2019

• Truth Commitment as a Responsibility. A Protestant Perspective on the Democratic State

30^th April 2019, WWU Münster

• Certainty, Conscience, Conscientiousness? Looking for Matter-of-Fact Criteria for Conversion

5^th April 2019, Greifswald

• Plate. The Place of Unification of Human and Animal 

30^th November 2018, lecture at the Protestant Academy in Berlin

• The Talk of Values and Their Meaning for Humans 

29^th November 2018, Lecture at the Conference of the Senate Administration for Justice, Consumer Protection, and Anti-Discrimination, Berlin

• Omnipotence, Love and Predetermination. An appraisal of Schleiermacher’s theology on the 250^th anniversary of his birth (21^st November 1768)

21^st November 2018, Lecture at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge

• The Animal in Ethics. A Late Completion of the Morale-Theory 

4^th July 2018, Lecture at the Protestant Theology Faculty at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz

• What Theology is Up to

2^nd June 2018, Podium Discussion at the public Discussion Forum of the Schleiermacher Research Centre on the occasion of the Friedrich D. E. Schleiermacher's 250^th Birthday, Kiel

• Appropriateness and Adequacy. On the Relation of Truth and Justice 

23^rd February 2018, Conference of the Theological Convent of the Augsburg Confession (TKAB) in Eisenach

• Creation and Right. Just Living of the Created as a Christian Challenge 

11^th September 2017, XVI. European Congress for Theology „Christianity and Europe“, Wien

• The Dignity of Animals

17^th July 2017, inaugural lecture of the 8^th Heilbronn Summeracademy „Humans and Animals – Community of Life?“

• When the Best of All Worlds fell. Just Life as a Challenge of Theology 

5^th July 2017, inaugural lecture WWU Münster

• Environmental Protection as Opposition. A Connector between Churches and Groups in the Late GDR 

11^th March 2017, Conference „Christian Life in the GDR“ at the Theological Faculty of the Humboldt-University in Berlin

• Freedom, Conscience, and Responsibility in Political Discourse

10^th March 2017, Contribution at the Podium Conversation in the Deutscher Bundestag at the Conference „Reformation Means to Question the World. Politic and Responsibility in the 21^st century“ der SPD-Bundestag Party

• The Miracle – Faith's Favourite Child? 

5^th December 2016, Forum „Faith and Theology“, Evangelisches Forum Kassel