Dr. Michael Hjälm
Biography
Michael Hjälm
[born 1968] is Assistant Professor in Eastern Christian Studies at Uppsala University. His dissertation, Liberation of the Ecclesia: The Unfinished Project of Liturgical Theology, is a critical and constructive study of liturgical theology using Jürgen Harbermas’ emancipatory theories.
Since 2012 he has been the Dean of Sankt Ignatios Theological Academy, which is a unique institution where the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches have committed themselves to a joint project on academic studies, research and education. Together they have established three research fields – Syriac Christian Studies, Eastern Christian Studies and Political Ecclesiology – but retain the different traditions through their own seminaries.
Hjälm’s research focuses on the relationship between liturgy and communication, and how the ontological church functions in the empirical reality.