Eric Carlsson
LUMEN ADVISOR
Areas of expertise
European intellectual and religious history in the early modern era; history of Christianity; history of theology and biblical scholarship.
Bio
Dr. Eric Carlsson is a Foundation Advisor for the Lumen Center. He also directs the Upper House Fellows Program and serves as Teaching Professor in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is a historian of early modern Europe, with a research focus on the intersection of religion and Enlightenment thought, c. 1650-1800. At UW—Madison, he teaches a range of courses on European intellectual and religious history, the Enlightenment, and the history of Christianity. He has published articles on the history of Protestant theology in Germany in the eighteenth century and is currently writing a book on the seminal theologian and biblical scholar Johann Salomo Semler and the creation of Protestant “liberal theology” in the context of the German Enlightenment’s debates over the nature and place of religion in modern society.
External Appointments
Experience
Selected Writing and Public Engagement
Education
Selected Honors/Awards
European intellectual and religious history in the early modern era; history of Christianity; history of theology and biblical scholarship.
Bio
Dr. Eric Carlsson is a Foundation Advisor for the Lumen Center. He also directs the Upper House Fellows Program and serves as Teaching Professor in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is a historian of early modern Europe, with a research focus on the intersection of religion and Enlightenment thought, c. 1650-1800. At UW—Madison, he teaches a range of courses on European intellectual and religious history, the Enlightenment, and the history of Christianity. He has published articles on the history of Protestant theology in Germany in the eighteenth century and is currently writing a book on the seminal theologian and biblical scholar Johann Salomo Semler and the creation of Protestant “liberal theology” in the context of the German Enlightenment’s debates over the nature and place of religion in modern society.
External Appointments
- Teaching Professor, Department of History, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Director of Upper House Fellows Program
Experience
- Teaching Associate, Department of History, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2010-2024
- Visiting Lecturer, Department of History, University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, 2008
- Visiting Lecturer, Department of History, Edgewood College, 2007
Selected Writing and Public Engagement
- The Protestant Enlightenment. In The Oxford History of Modern German Theology, vol. 1, ed. Grant Kaplan and Kevin Vander Schel, 80-101. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.
- Eighteenth-Century Neology. In The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Theology, 1600-1800, ed. Ulrich Lehner, Richard Muller, and A. G. Roeber, 642-50. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
- Pietism and Enlightenment Theology’s Historical Turn: The Case of Johann Salomo Semler. In The Pietist Impulse in Christianity, ed. Christian T. Collins Winn, Christopher Gehrz, G. William Carlson, and Eric Holst, 97-106. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2011.
Education
- Ph.D., History, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- M.A, History, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- M.Div., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
- B.A., History, University of Michigan
Selected Honors/Awards
- Fellowship for Enlightenment Studies, Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für die Erforschung der Europäischen Aufklärung, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 2023
- Excellence in Teaching and Student Engagement Award, Department of History, UW–Madison, 2023
- Fellow of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Teaching Academy, 2020-present
- Distinguished Honors Faculty Award, College of Letters & Science, UW–Madison, 2016
- University Housing Honored Instructor, UW–Madison, 2011, 2016