Matthias Lutz-Bachmann

Foto: privat
Foto: privat

Projects and positions at the research center
Principal Investigator

Funding period 2019-2021
Project management: Language and Practice of Religion. On the normative meaning of religious symbols and rituals | Research focus 3 – Frayed orders: Social cohesion under conditions of radical plurality

Funding period 2012-2017
Project management: Multinormativity | Research field 1
Project management: Genesis and validity of the concept of the secular | Research field 2

Funding period 2007-2012
Project management: The School of Salamanca | Research field 1
Project management: Human dignity in the early modern period | Research field 2

Subject areas
Philosophy

Main research
Philosophy of the Middle Ages, Practical Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Critical Theory

  • Biografische Angaben

    Since 2017: Founding Director of the Johanna Quandt Academy for the promotion of the best internationally recognized young scientists at Goethe University (together with Prof. Enrico Schleiff)

    2017: Together with Volker Mosbrugger, winner of the Hessian Culture Prize for special achievements in art, science and cultural mediation

    Since 2015: Member of the Research Council of Goethe University

    2015-2019: Project leader of the sub-project “Potestas, Iurisdictio and Dominium: Discourses of Weakness and Power in the 13th and 14th Centuries” in the DFG-funded CRC 1095 “Discourses of Weakness and Resource Regimes”

    Since 2012: Director of the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften at Goethe University in Bad Homburg

    2012-2018: Project manager in the sub-project “Sustainability” in the BMBF joint project “Saisir l’Europe – Europe as a challenge”

    Since 2009: Member of the Frankfurt Scientific Society

    2009-2015: Vice President of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main with special responsibility for research and humanities. During his time as Vice President, he founded the Academy for Educational Sciences and Teacher Training, the Institute for Studies in the Culture and Religion of Islam and the Center for Islamic Studies, the Research Center for Historical Humanities, the “Dagmar Westberg Lectures for the Humanities”, the Institut Franco-Allemand de Sciences Historiques et Sociales (IFRA) in cooperation with EHESS (Paris), the initiation of cooperation with the universities of Mainz and Darmstadt, the opening of the GU’s Brussels office at the European Union, the expansion of the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften into an “Institute for Advanced Studies”, the support of the IZO through the introduction of a permanent professorship for Korean Studies, the expansion of the Institute for Jewish Studies and the preservation of the musicology and archaeology institutes at Goethe University, etc.etc.

    Since 2007: Member of the Board of Directors and PI of the Cluster of Excellence 243 “The Formation of Normative Orders” at Goethe University

    Since 2006: Head of the “Section for Philosophy” of the Görres Society
    2004-2008: Member of the Philosophy Review Board of the German Research Foundation (DFG)

    Since 1999: Member of the Board of Directors of the Scientific Center: Institute for Research in Philosophy of Religion (IRF) at Goethe University

    1999-2009: Project leader and deputy speaker of the DFG-funded research college SFB 435 “Knowledge Culture and Social Change” at Goethe University

    1999-2003: Director of the “Institute for Religious Philosophical Research (IRF)” at Goethe University

    From 1996 to 1997 and from 2007 to 2009 Dean of the Department of Philosophy and History at Goethe University (1996-1997: merger of the Departments of Philosophy and History)

    Since 1994: Professor of Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy at Goethe University and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy at Saint Louis University, St. Louis/USA (Graduate Faculty)

  • Publikationen

    Auswahl

    Lutz-Bachmann, Matthias 2021: Hoffnung aus Vernunft. Kants Hoffnung auf ein “ethisches Gemeinwesen”, in: Gruber, Franz/ Knapp, Markus (Hrsg.): Wissen und Glauben, Freiburg i.Br., S. 145-205.

    Lutz-Bachmann, Matthias 2022: Die Frage nach Gott in der postsäkularen Konstellation, in: Viertbaur, Klaus/ Lang, Stephan (Hrsg.), Gott nach Kant?, Hamburg, S. 44-74.

    Lutz-Bachmann, Matthias 2024: Die Transformation des Konzepts des “Gerechten Kriegs” (Bellum iustum) in der Geschichte der Philosophie: Von Thomas von Aquin bis zur Schule von Salamanca, in: Martín Gómez, María (Hrsg.), El pensiamento vivo de la Escuela de Salamanca: Filosofia y Guerra, Granada, S. 5-26.

    Lutz-Bachmann, Matthias 2025: Ius naturale und Lex naturalis bei Autoren der “Schule von Salamanca”, in: Lutz, Ralf u.a. (Hrsg.): Natur und Vernunft. Zur Wiederentdeckung naturrechtlichen Denkens in der Ethik, Berlin/Boston, S. 113-130.

    Lutz-Bachmann, Matthias 2026: Machtpolitik und Religion. Der Streit um den Victoria-Altar in der kaiserzeitlichen Spätantike und seine Implikationen für ein Konzept des “Dialogs der Religionen”, in: Fidora, Alexander (Hrsg): Religionsdialoge und Wissensordnungen in Antike, Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit.

    Lutz-Bachmann, Matthias (Hrsg.): Religionsdialoge und Wissensordnungen in Antike, Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit, Tübingen, S. 5-54.

News from the research center

Event
25./26.06.2026 | Frankfurt

Shifting Regimes, Changing Orders

Conference

Conference as part of WDC2026 in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Designtheorie und -forschung (DGTF), Kunstgewerbemuseum/Design Campus SKD and Design and Democracy

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Event
06./07.05.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Liberalism and the Masses: Revisiting José Ortega y Gasset’s Political Thought

Conference

Two-day Conference with Keynotes by Alan Kahan (University of Versailles/St. Quentin) and Javier Zamora Bonilla (Complutense University of Madrid)

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Event
04.05.2026 | Frankfurt

Meinungsfreiheit, Meinungsvielfalt und Verantwortung für die Demokratie: Wie gestalten Medien neue Räume für Debatten und Teilhabe?

Panel Discussion

Im Rahmen der Woche der Meinungsfreiheit 2026 laden die World Design Capital Frankfurt RheinMain 2026 in Kooperation mit dem Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, dem Hessischen Rundfunk, der Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft und dem Forschungszentrum Normative Ordnungen der Goethe-Universität herzlich zu einer Diskussionsveranstaltung am 4. Mai 2026 in den WDC-Hub im Museum Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt ein.

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Event
29.04.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Kulturindustrie heute?

Panel Discussion

Das Gespräch „Kulturindustrie heute?“ widmet sich der Aktualität und Tragfähigkeit eines zentralen Begriffs der Kritischen Theorie. Die Filmwissenschaftlerin Gertrud Koch diskutiert im Rahmen der Gesprächsreihe "Frankfurter Schule" mit dem Filmkritiker Bert Rebhandl die gegenwärtigen Formen kultureller Produktion und Verbreitung vor dem Hintergrund von Digitalisierung, Plattformen und globalen Medienmärkten.

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Event
12.05.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Zwischen Transformation und Abolitionismus

Book Presentation

Buchvorstellung mit Christine Graebsch, Katrin Höffler, Jochen Bung & Ronen Steinke

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Event
28./29.05.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Global Health Justice: Principles and Practice

Conference

Following the research focus of the Global Health Justice Postdoctoral Programme, funded by Höppsche Stiftung, the "Global Health Justice: Principles and Practice" conference places a particular emphasis on themes such as the human right to health, political activism and health justice issues, and problems of structural injustice and vulnerable populations in health care. Keynote lectures by Jonathan Wolff and Kanchana Mahadevan. The Global Health Justice Programme and this conference are supported by the Höppsche Stiftung in Villmar.

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Event
14.07.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Democracy Over Time and the Climate Crisis

Lecture Series

Vortrag von Anja Karnein (Binghamton). Die Vortragsreihe untersucht Fragen der Klimakrise als Herausforderungen für demokratische Gesellschaften und konzentriert sich auf Themen wie politische Legitimität, Widerstand gegen fossile Brennstoffe und die Interessen künftiger Generationen. Sie wird organisiert von Prof. Dr. Darrel Moellendorf und Dr. Lukas Sparenborg.

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Event
10.06.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Capital Investment, Inequality, and State Power in a Time of Climate Emergency

Lecture, Lecture Series

The lecture series examines questions of the climate crisis as challenges for democratic
societies and focuses on issues of political legitimacy, fossil fuel resistance, and the interests
of future generations.

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Event
13.05.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Failed States and Cloudy skies: Tipping Points, Overshoot and Permanent Emergency, after America

Lecture Series

The lecture series examines questions of the climate crisis as challenges for democratic
societies and focuses on issues of political legitimacy, fossil fuel resistance, and the interests
of future generations.

more information ›