About Me

I am a historian of modern Europe with an interest in questions of culture, politics, and religion.  My current research focuses on the relationship between Christian theology and West German protest movements during the 1960s and 1970s.  More specifically, I study the ways in which Christian activists employed theological principles to justify political action, encourage opposition, and pursue social justice.  These goals, expressed most clearly by the Politisches Nachtgebet movement, challenged traditional Christian institutions and brought Christian protest groups into close contact with the New Left, the Student Movement, and the Extra-Parliamentary Opposition. Exploring these issues puts my work in dialogue with recent debates concerning the character of the German Left, the nature of church-state relations in modern Germany, and the relationship between secularization and religious renewal in twentieth-century Europe.