The members of the Chair of Ancient Church History and Patrology, together with the entire Faculty of Catholic Theology, mourn the loss of Thomas Rudolf Karmann, who passed away on 15 November 2021 at the age of 48. Thomas Karmann had been closely associated with the Chair and the Faculty for over twenty years.

Following his degree, which was honoured by the university's alumni association with the prize for outstanding academic achievement, and the thesis supervised by Norbert Brox and Franz Dünzl in 2001, he was a research assistant at the Chair until 2006. in 2006, he completed his doctorate with a thesis on Meletius of Antioch and Neo-Niceneism, for which he received the Dr Kurt Hellmich Foundation Prize for Ecumenical Theology. He then worked as a senior lecturer at the chair until 2014. During this time, he also took on deputy professorships in Münster (2010-2011 for Alfons Fürst), Regensburg (2011-2012 for Andreas Merkt) and Freiburg (2013-2014 for Thomas Böhm).

In 2014, he moved to Innsbruck to join Günther Wassilowksy, where he initially represented the subject of Ancient Church History and Patrology as a university assistant before accepting the professorship for Church History and Patrology in 2017. After being appointed to the University of Würzburg in 2021, he has taught there since the beginning of the winter semester.

In 2016, he completed his habilitation at the University of Regensburg with a thesis on the reception of the Matthean genealogy of Jesus in patristic literature, for which he received the Armin Schmitt Foundation Prize for Biblical Textual Research. In 2021, the directors of the Centre for Advanced Studies "Beyond Canon" at the University of Regensburg appointed him Honorary Fellow.

Thomas Karmann has made a name for himself in the academic world through his work on early church Trinitarian theology and biblical reception, ancient Christian apocrypha, Origen and his reception, as well as asceticism and monasticism in antiquity. Colleagues fondly remember his pleasant, calm, always level-headed and friendly manner. His first priority was his students, for whom he always had an open door and an open heart.

Thomas Karmann always pursued theology in the knowledge that it had to develop and legitimise itself in the dialogue between the sciences, but at the same time was at home in the church and had the task of serving religious life. And he was convinced that Christian faith always entails social responsibility. With this in mind, he was always involved in the church, especially in the parish of St Martin in Deggendorf, but also in politics, including eight years as a city councillor and municipal children and youth representative for Deggendorf.

We have not only lost a great scientist and committed academic teacher, but also an extremely kind person. Our condolences go out to his beloved wife Kerstin.