Ecumenical Institute

The Ecumenical Institute was founded in 1946 by Edmund Schlink as the first ecumenical institute at a German university. Its research and teaching is devoted to the confessional profile and interconfessional relations of Christian churches and communities. In particular, it deals with basic questions of ecumenical theology on the basis of the various ecumenical dialogues of the churches.

The research of the Ecumenical Institute focuses on the dialogue process in the ecumenical movement. Based on this, the Institute dedicates its research to ecumenical-theological questions. At the Institute, doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers from different denominations and cultures work on ecumenical and systematic-theological research topics and at the same time engage in ecumenical exchange.

The Ecumenical Institute's courses broaden Protestant systematic theology to include a perspective on different confessional profiles and the interconfessional relations of Christian churches and communities. In addition, the Institute repeatedly offers introductory courses in confessional studies and ecumenical theology.

The Oecumenicum consists of the Ecumenical Institute and the Ecumenical Student Residence and is an institution of the University of Heidelberg. It emerged from the Ecumenical Movement and is connected to it. In the Ecumenical Residence, German and foreign students from different fields of study, denominations, cultures and religions live together as a living community in diversity.