Prof. em. Dr. Klaus Koschorke

Office address:

Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1

Send an email

+41 (0)31 8390279

+41 (0)33 2216352

Postal address:

Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1

80539 Munich

Curriculum Vitae

1948: Born in Wuppertal (Germany)
1967–1973: Studied Protestant theology and various minor subjects in Berlin, Heidelberg, Edinburgh (UK), Tübingen, and Heidelberg
1976: Doctorate in theology in Heidelberg with a thesis on the newly discovered Coptic Gnostic texts from Nag Hammadi
1991: Post-doctoral lecturing qualification (Habilitation) in Berne in 1990 with a study on Basil of Caesarea (4th century)

Guest lectureships and professorial appointments in Kandy-Pilimatalawa (TCL), Sri Lanka (1982–83); Fribourg, Switzerland (1987–88); Madurai (TTS), India (1989); Berne, Switzerland (1990–91); and Lucerne, Switzerland (1991–92).
1993–2013: Chair of “Early and Global History of Christianity” and Director of the Institute for Church History at Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) Munich

Establishment and extension of the new research focus on “History of Christianity Beyond the West (Asia, Africa, Latin America)”. Series of Munich-Freising Conferences as an international platform for interdisciplinary exchange and instrument for the development of an polycentric approach to the "History of World Christianity“.
1996–1998: Senator of Munich University (LMU)
2003–2005: Dean of the Faculty of Protestant Theology at Munich University (LMU)

Repeated research stays and lecture trips in Asia, Africa, and Latin America
2012–2015/2017: DFG research project at Munich University (LMU): “Indigenous Christian Elites in Asia and Africa around 1900 and their journals and periodicals”; various follow-up projects on indigenous Christian journalism in the Global South
2013: Retirement as professor at Munich University LMU
2014-2023: Permanent Visiting Professor at Liverpool Hope University (UK) / Andrew Walls’ Center for African and Asian Christianity
2014–2018: Visiting professor at the University of Basel (Switzerland)

International teaching activities and temporary visiting professorships, e.g. in China (Shanghai 2012; Beijing 2016; Hangzhou 2018), Japan (Tokyo 2016), Korea (Seoul 2016), Pakistan (Lahore 2015), Myanmar (2011), Sri Lanka (regularly), East Africa (Ethiopia/Uganda 2014, 2019), South Africa (Pretoria 2015); Brazil (Sao Leopoldo 2016); United States (various locations, including Princeton, Boston, Stanford, Chicago, Atlanta 2014, 2017, 2019).
2020–2023: Senior Fellow at the newly founded DFG Research Group “Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities” at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (Department of History); 2023 Organization of the international conference “Early South-South Links in the History of World Christianity (16th to Early 19th c.)” (published in 2024)
2025: Awarded the “Lifetime Achievement Award of Excellence” at Princeton Theological Seminary for research on and development of World Christianity Studies