Leon Krause participated in this year’s Luther Study Days (Lutherstudientage) hosted by the Protestant Academy of Saxony-Anhalt (Evangelische Akademie Sachsen-Anhalt) in Wittenberg. Under the title “Whether Soldiers, Too, Can Be Saved – From Just War to Just Peace,” representatives from academia, the military, and the church discussed from October 30 to November 1 whether the Christian faith can be reconciled with soldiering and rearmament.
The Study Days were based on Martin Luther’s text “Whether Soldiers, Too, Can Be Saved” (Ob Kriegsleute in seligem Stande sein können) and the 2025 Peace Memorandum of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). Participants examined the ideas of a just war and a just peace and discussed the consequences that follow from them.
In his lecture on “War as a Political Means,” Leon Krause shed light on perspectives regarding rearmament and current dynamics in international politics. Alongside Krause, Prof. Dr. Matthias Rogg and retired Major General Oliver Kohl discussed the topic “Soldier and Christian – A Contradiction or Not?” Military General Dean Thorsten Kirschner spoke about challenges in military chaplaincy.
Leon Krause is an associate researcher in the Research Department International Institutions at PRIF and a doctoral researcher at the Research Institute Social Cohesion (FGZ) in Frankfurt. His research deals with public opinion on foreign policy, the effects of international events on national polarization and politicization, and the identification of causal effects through (survey) experiments.
Further information about the Luther Study Days can be found on the website of the Protestant Academy of Saxony-Anhalt.