The new research group “Epistemology of the Divine: In Search of the Religious Thought Structures of Ancient Palestine/Israel” is examining the emergence of monotheism in the southern Levant during the 1st millennium BCE. “This remains one of the great mysteries of human history,” says Prof. Dr. Jan Dietrich of the Department of Old Testament Literature and Religious History at the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Bonn, as spokesperson for the new research group. “The development in this direction was by no means a foregone conclusion.” The research team is investigating the thought structures underlying the construction of images of God in the pre-Hellenistic period.
The team will examine biblical and extra-biblical textual and visual sources (such as seals) as well as archaeological remains (approximately 30 temple complexes from Israel and Palestine). In doing so, the team will employ current methods of religious archaeology, digital tools for texts and terrain models, social epistemic network analysis (SENA), and artificial intelligence (AI). Image recognition uses a specially trained AI to identify recurring structures and standardizations. In this way, it supports the analysis of seals and enables new insights into motifs.
“We are not only contributing to the history of premodern knowledge and the reconstruction of its underlying thought structures and patterns, but also aim to present conceptual alternatives to contemporary research that will significantly reshape current debates on the conception of the divine in interreligious dialogue and comparative theology,” says Dietrich, who is a member of the transdisciplinary research areas “Individuals & Societies” and “Present Pasts” and conducts research in the Cluster of Excellence “Bonn Center for Dependency & Slavery Studies.”
The research group will launch in July 2026 and will receive nearly two million euros in funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) over the next four years. Additional subprojects are based at the universities of Leipzig (Prof. Dr. Angelika Berlejung), Wuppertal (Dr. Thomas Wagner), and Vienna (Prof. Dr. Annette Schellenberg-Lagler). The research group is also funded as part of the D-A-CH collaboration with the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Following a successful evaluation, research groups may be extended by the DFG for an additional four years.
Research Group on China
The University of Bonn is involved in another new research group funded by the DFG: “Learning Empire. Autonomy, Dependence, and China’s Emerging Imperial Practices” examines practices for building a new type of empire in the key areas of finance and foreign investment, infrastructure, raw materials, ideology, and science. The spokesperson is Prof. Dr. Tobias ten Brink from Constructor University Bremen. Additionally, the universities of Tübingen, Bremen, and Goethe University Frankfurt, Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin are participating.
“The digital infrastructures of Chinese companies are becoming increasingly important worldwide,” says Assistant Professor Dr. Maximilian Mayer of the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS) at the University of Bonn. The digital dimension focuses on the question of how Chinese companies are creating new dependencies by providing technical infrastructure, platforms, and cloud-based services.
“The project focuses, on the one hand, on strategic learning and coordination between the Chinese party-state and the country’s high-tech companies, and, on the other hand, on the emerging infrastructural freedoms and dependencies of local actors, particularly in the Global South,” says Mayer, who is also a member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area “Individuals & Societies” at the University of Bonn. The research group will launch in June 2026 and will receive a total of approximately five million euros in funding over the next four years, of which 490,000 euros will go to Bonn.
Precise Measurement of Earth’s Rotation
High-pressure systems in the atmosphere, the movement of water masses caused by tides, and the melting of the polar ice caps all affect Earth’s rotation. Precise measurements of Earth’s rotation are essential not only for climate change research but also for the proper functioning of navigation devices. The research group “RING: Rotational Movements in Physics, Geophysics, and Geodesy” aims to create improved conditions for this. The DFG is funding the project with a total of approximately five million euros, of which about one million euros will go to the University of Bonn.
“Rotational movements of the Earth’s surface offer a new approach to studying and better understanding the Earth system,” says Prof. Dr. Simon Stellmer of the Institute of Physics at the University of Bonn. “To this end, we are developing portable laser interferometers that can be deployed in hard-to-reach locations such as volcanoes or on the seafloor.” The scientist is co-spokesperson for the new research group, a member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area “Matter,” and site spokesperson for the Cluster of Excellence “ML4Q” at the University of Bonn. The spokesperson is Prof. Dr. Heiner Igel from LMU Munich. Other participants include the Technical University of Munich, Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg, the Universities of Hamburg and Hanover, the Federal Agency for Geodesy and Cartography, the Technical University of Berlin, the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences GFZ, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
Further information on DFG-funded research groups: https://www.dfg.de/de/aktuelles/neuigkeiten-themen/pressemitteilungen/2026/pressemitteilung-nr-07
