Prof. Arnd Bünker

Speaker at the St. Gallen Symposium

Prof. Arnd Bünker is Director of the Swiss Institute for Pastoral Sociology (SPI), a position he has held since 2009. He also serves as Executive Director of the Pastoral Commission of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference and has been a Titular Professor at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Fribourg since 2014. A theologian and social pedagogue by training, Prof. Bünker is a leading expert in pastoral sociology and religious studies, with a focus on church and pastoral development, mission, evangelisation, and interculturality. Prior to his current roles, he spent eleven years as a research associate and assistant at the Institute for Missiology at the University of Münster. In addition to his academic work, Prof. Bünker is actively involved in advisory and lecturing activities within the Church, particularly in the areas of pastoral planning and strategy. He is also a founding member of feinschwarz.net, an influential platform for theological and ecclesiastical discourse, and served on its editorial board from 2015 to 2019. Prof. Bünker studied Catholic theology in Münster and Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and social pedagogy in Münster.