Prof. Dr. Martin Leiner is chair of Systematic Theology and Ethics at the Faculty of (Protestant) Theology at Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena. Prof. Leiner is a pioneer ("Father") of transdisciplinary Reconciliation Studies. In 2013 he founded the Jena Center for Reconciliation Studies (www.jcrs.uni-jena.de), in 2016 the first doctoral program on Reconciliation Studies, in 2018 the Academic Alliance for Reconciliation Studies in the Middle East and North Africa (www.aarmena.uni-jena.de), and in 2020 he became the first president of the International Association for Reconciliation Studies (www.iars-world.de).
Born in Homburg/Saar in 1960, Martin Leiner studied protestant theology and philosophy in Tübingen (1979-1988) and as a PhD student in Heidelberg (1988-1990). Martin Leiner's academic career had four different phases. He started as a New Testament scholar focussed on Psychological Exegesis of the Bible. His Dissertation "Psychologie und Exegese. Grundfragen einer textpsychologischen Auslegung des Neuen Testaments" (Heidelberg 1995; published at Christian Kaiser/Gütersloher Verlagshaus: Gütersloh 1995) is a critical and constructive overview of the use of modern psychology for the explanation of the New Testament.
The second phase of Martin Leiner´s writings is caracterised by the personalistic philosophy and theology. With a new interpretation of Martin Buber´s Work "I and thou" and a discussion of its reception in protestant theology Martin Leiner received his habilitation at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Publication under the title: "Gottes Gegenwart. Die dialogische Philosophie Martin Bubers und der Ansatz ihrer theologischen Rezeption bei Friedrich Gogarten und Emil Brunner" (Chr.Kaiser/Gütersloher Verlagshaus: Gütersloh 2000). Martin Leiner completed his work on personalism by a series of texts on theologians such as Karl Barth and Paul Tillich`s views of Martin Buber.
In 1998 Leiner has been appointed professor at the Faculté de théologie protestante at the university of Neuchâtel/Switzerland. His field was systematic theology and religious hermeneutics. During this time he focused on hermeneutical debates of the 19th and 20th century. His position in hermeneutics is briefly presented in the manuel "Methodischer Leitfaden Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie" ( Göttingen: Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht 2008 (=UTB 3150)) where his distinguishes a text describing type of hermeneutics and a dialogical hermeneutics which are both important for every interpretation.
Since 2002, Prof. Martin Leiner started his fourth phase when becoming professor of Systematic Theologie and Ethics at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität in Jena. Starting with a series of Summer Schools, he found the main topic of his researches in the transdisciplinary and comparative study of reconciliation processes of very different kind in a global perspective. In addition, Professor Martin Leiner is also involved in the academic work after South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation commission. The Faculty of Theology of Stellenbosch University appointed him twice as extraordinary professor in the ield of Ethics and Practical Theology.
The topic of trust is extremely relevant for reconciliation processes, not only because distrust is a critical obstacle for reconciliation, but also because reconciliation and trust-building are going hand in hand. The more we know about trust, the better we will understand reconciliation and vice-versa.