Katharina von Kellenbach

Katharina von Kellenbach is Professor of Religious Studies and former Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, the Honors College of the State of Maryland. A student of protestant evangelical theology in Berlin and Göttingen (1979-1982) she completed her PhD in the religion department at Temple University in Philadelphia in 1990.

Her focus of expertise is in the area of feminist theology and Jewish-Christian relations (Anti‑Judaism in Feminist Religious Writings, (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1994). She has been instrumental in recovering the historical records of the first ordained female Rabbi Regina Jonas of Berlin (1902-1944) and published “God Does Not Oppress any Human Being: The Life and Thought of Rabbi Regina Jonas,” Leo Baeck Institute: Yearbook XXXIX, (1994): 213-225, as well as “Denial and Defiance in the Work of Rabbi Regina Jonas,” In God's Name: Genocide and Religion in the 20th Century, Phyllis Mack and Omar Bartov, eds., (New York: Berghahn Publishers, 2001), 243-259. Her work in Holocaust Studies focuses on the theological, ethical, personal and political issues raised by the perpetrators of genocide. Her research examines Christian theologies of forgiveness in light of archival records of the pastoral work of prison chaplains with imprisoned Nazi perpetrators in post-war Germany. This research was funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2000, 2007) and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (2006). She serves as co-chair of the “Religion, Genocide and Holocaust Group” at the American Academy of Religion and is an active member of the Christian Scholars Group, a think tank dedicated to improving Jewish-Christian relations. Currently, she is exploring the unique role and contribution of Jewish-Christian dialogue in the emerging field of interreligious dialogue and the new reality global of religious pluralism. 

Publications include: Mit Blick auf die Täter, written with Björn Krondorfer and Nobert Reck (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2006), and Von Gott Reden im Land der Täter: Theologische Stimmen der dritten Generation nach der Shoah, edited with Björn Krondorfer and Norbert Reck (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2001). She is the author of “God’s Love and Women’s Love: Prison Chaplains Counsel Wives of Nazi Perpetrators.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 20 (2004/2):7-24. “Vanishing Acts: Perpetrators in Postwar Germany.” Journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies 17 (2003/2): 305-329. She is the editor of Zwischen-Räume: Deutsche feministische Theologinnen im Ausland, with Susanne Scholz (Münster: LIT Verlag, 2000) and of Feminist Approaches to Interreligious Dialogue, with Annette Esser and Annette Mehlhorn (Peeters Verlag 2009). For a complete list of publications, please consult the publication page.