Collapse and Recovery

About power, censorship and changing perspectives.
Or: What is behind the word threatening?
A conclusion from the documenta controversy surrounding Stephan Balkenhol by students at the Institute of Catholic Theology at the University of Kassel.

"Collapse and Recovery - Demolitions, Upheavals, New Beginnings in the History of Theology" was the title of a seminar held at the Institute of Catholic Theology at the University of Kassel from April to July, based on documenta 13. Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Johanna Rahner and Erik Müller-Zähringer, ten students dealt with crises and changes in the church from late antiquity and the Middle Ages through nominalism and the Reformation to the modern era. The seminar focused in particular on the Enlightenment and the two Vatican Councils with their central importance for the development of the Church. In subsequent student project sessions, selected topics from the history of theology were explored in greater depth, as well as documenta 13 and Stephan Balkenhol's exhibition. After various failed ideas and projects intended to express our protest against the attempted censorship, what finally remained was: the idea, the failure, the protest, a newspaper article and a group-dynamic process characterized by collapses and recoveries... [more]