Diaconal Studies
Diaconal Studies is a young subject concerned with an old practice.
The subject investigates and interprets practical actions and the social context these actions take place in. Traditionally, diaconal work is what we call the practical social work that takes place in a church/Christian context. Historically, this has been an important and marked part of the churches’ and Christian organisations’ activities for many centuries. Until the reformation, for example, the sick were cared for in monasteries. After the reformation, the responsibility for the “sick and poor” was principally transferred from sacred to secular organs.
In the 1800s the diaconal movement arose again and set up hospitals and institutions. This also meant the expansion of the sphere of the research field of diaconal studies. Diaconal studies investigate actions and institutions that carry out health and social work within a church/Christian context. But since Lutheran Theology can also interpret secular health and social work as part of a church responsibility, diaconal studies will also investigate and interpret this kind of practice. At the Faculty of Theology, aid work, the welfare state, citizenship and theories of difference and marginalization are typically all important perspectives on diaconal research.
In Norway, the scholarly field of diaconal studies emerged both as a social scientific and as a theological discipline at the end of the 1900s. Today, diaconal research is carried out at the Faculty of Theology and the University College Diakonhjemmet. Several doctorates have been awarded in the discipline and a newly established international journal, Diaconia: Journal for the Study of Christian Social Practice (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) is edited from the Faculty of Theology.
Permanent staff connected to the research area:
- Knut W. Ruyter, Professor (seconded)
- Ulla Schmidt, Professor (seconded)
- Lisbeth Thoresen, Associate Professor (seconded)
- Aud V. Tønnessen, Professor
- Trygve E. Wyller, Professor
Research fellows connected to the research area: