Lea Schlenker

Lea Schlenker pursued her undergraduate and graduate studies in Protestant Theology at the University of Tübingen, Germany. In addition, she holds a M.A. degree in “Islamic Theology in the European Context” from the same university. During her studies, she benefitted from semesters abroad and study courses in Switzerland, New Zealand, Oman, and Turkey. These experiences grounded her theoretical formation in Christian-Muslim dialogue and relations in practical and diverse contexts.

During her PhD, Lea worked as a research fellow in a DFG-funded project on “De/Sacralization of Texts” at the University of Tübingen. Under the direction of Prof. Lejla Demiri, she was part of the research group “The Argument from Scripture,“ analyzing Muslim receptions of the Bible in the early Ottoman Empire (2022–2024). Lea’s PhD dissertation on “Theology at the Table” was also supervised by Prof. Gotlind Ulshöfer, allowing for a strong anchoring in both Protestant and Islamic theology. The dissertation follows the approach of Comparative Theology, engaging Islamic and Christian traditions on the theological understanding of everyday eating. To this end, Lutheran hymns and Sunni adab treatises are examined in their historical and doctrinal contexts. Given the devotional aspect of these sources, the PhD dissertation addresses comparative-theological questions of practice but also of religious everyday life.