With a distinguished faculty in the principal disciplines and an array of special professorships, the Faculty of Theology in Göttingen ranks among the most research-intensive institutions of its type in Germany. Its leading position is founded in no small part on the Faculty’s close cooperation with the Academy of Science and with other institutions outside the University, both in Germany and abroad. It is further strengthened by Graduiertenkollegs and other forms of graduate education.

The research activities of the Faculty cluster around two focal points.

The first focal point lies in the area of the historical disciplines (Biblical Studies and Church History). In addition to the commentary and book projects of the regular professors, one should mention here third-party funded research projects that are flanked by research-oriented initiatives in graduate education: the Septuagint Institute (critical edition of the Greek Old Testament), the Qumran Institute (compilation of a lexicon elucidating the vocabulary of the non-biblical texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls), Scripta Antiquitatis Posterioris ad Ethicam REligionemque pertinentia (SAPERE, edition and commentary on ethical, religious, and philosophical texts from the Roman imperial era that have received little scholarly attention to date), the Patristic Commission (editions of Christian authors of Late Antiquity), Centrum Orbis Orientalis, and the Center for Medieval and Early Modern Research; in the area of graduate education, the Graduiertenkolleg GK 896 "Götterbilder-Gottesbilder-Weltbilder. Polytheismus und Monotheismus in der Welt der Antike" ("Concepts of the Divine and of the World. Polytheism and Monotheism in Antiquity"), the network Old Testament Studies: Epistemologies and Methodologies (OTSEM, in cooperation with the Faculties in Aarhus, Helsinki, Lund, and Oslo).

The second focal point lies in the area of Systematics (Dogmatics and Ethics), Practical Theology, and Religious Studies. Here questions that arise from the modern "organizational society" concerning the presence of believers in social (particularly intermediary) institutions, in (new) religious movements, and in organizations shaped by Christian faith are investigated through discourse analysis as well as through historical and empirical methodologies. The following research projects and collaborative endeavors, which are funded in whole or in part by third-party sources of different types, should be noted: The DFG Project "Ethik und Organisation: Zu weltanschaulich-konfessionellen Bedingungen und kommunikativen Strukturen ethischer Entscheidungen in klinischen Ethik-Komitees" ("Ethics and Organization: On Ideological-Confessional Conditions and Communicative Structures of Ethical Decisions in Clinical Ethics Commissions"); the BMGS Research Project "Patient als Partner—Tumorpatienten und ihr Mitwirken bei ethischen Entscheidungen" ("Patient as Partner—Tumor patients and their Part in Ethical Decisions"); the FEST-Research Group, "Arbeit am Lebensbegriff" ("Work on the Concept of Life"); empirical and theoretical research on church affiliation in the sphere of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD); empirical research in education, conducted in part within the framework of the Zentrum für empirische Unterrichts- und Schulforschung (ZeUS) "Lernende Lehrerbildung" (Center for Empirical Research in Education, "Adaptive Teacher Education"; sponsor organization for German scholarship); and the research network New Religious Movements. In the future, many of these projects will be linked together in the research network "Glaube-Ethik-Organisation" (Faith-Ethics-Organization). Research-oriented graduate education e.g. will be supported by the Graduiertenkolleg GK 1507 "Expertenkulturen des 12. bis 16. Jahrhunderts" ("Expert Cultures from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century"). The advanced course of studies (MA) "Theologie und Leitung" ("Leadership and Theology") will also influence research in this focal area.