Guanzini, Isabella

My research is intended as a contribution to a philosophical exploration of religions in the contemporary context. The aim is not to reduce or delegitimise religious traditions, but rather to rediscover their symbolic resources and harness them for a critical and productive dialogue – between religions and the secular world, as well as between different religious cultures.

A particular focus is on the processes of transformation and translation of religious motifs and categories in non-religious contexts – above all in contemporary continental philosophy, psychoanalysis and art. In doing so, I examine the persistence and metamorphoses of the religious and the question of God in new contexts, as well as the interconnections between different cultural and symbolic constellations. At the same time, a critique of religion is an essential part of this philosophical enlightenment: it takes the ambivalence of the religious seriously – its potential to provide meaning and its social potential, as well as its links to violence and political instrumentalisation.

• Contemporary Philosophy of Religion Religion in Translation 
• Transformations of the Religious in Secular Thought 
• Religion and Psychoanalysis 
• Critique of Religion and the Enlightenment: Klaus Heinrich (1927–2020) 
• Religion and Aesthetic Perspectives 
• Ethics and Politics of the Affects

• 1997 Degree in Philosophy, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
• 1999–2000 Master’s degree in philosophical and historical disciplines, Università Bocconi, Milan, Italy
• 2004 Bachelor’s degree in Catholic Theology, Facoltà Teologica dell’Italia Settentrionale, Milan, Italy
• 2009 Licentiate in Fundamental Theology, Facoltà Teologica dell’Italia Settentrionale, Milan, Italy
• 2000–2009 Secondary school teacher of philosophy and social sciences in Lodi, Italy
• 2008–2012 Lecturer in the philosophy of religion, Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose, Crema, Italy
• 2009–2015 Lecturer in the History of Philosophy, Theological Faculty of Northern Italy, Milan, Italy
• since 2011 Lecturer in Aesthetics, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
• 2012 Doctorate in Catholic Theology (Dr. theol.), University of Vienna
• 2013 PhD in Philosophy (Dr. phil.), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
• 2013–2016 Senior Postdoctoral Researcher at the Research Centre for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society, University of Vienna
• 2013–2015 Lecturer in Philosophy, Catholic Private University of Linz
• 2014–2017 Lecturer in Jewish-Christian Theologies on the Master’s programme in Islamic Religious Education, University of Vienna
• 2016–2019 University Professor of Fundamental Theology (§ 99), Karl-Franzens University of Graz
• 2019–2026 University Professor of Fundamental Theology, Catholic Private University Linz
• 2021 Habilitation in Fundamental Theology, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main 
• 2024–2025 Guardini Chair in Philosophy of Religion and History of Theological Thought, Humboldt University of Berlin 
• since 2024 Visiting Professor of Philosophy in the International Master’s Programme at the Sinclètica Escola Monàstica, Tarragona, Spain 
• since September 2026 Professorship of Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Anthropology, Faculty of Catholic Theology, University of Vienna