Jiří Mrázek is appointed Dean of the Protestant Theological Faculty in Prague

Jiří Mrázek is the new Dean of the Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague (PTF) for the period 2014–2018. He was elected unanimously by the Academic Senate of the PTF (consisting of representatives of both the teaching staff and the student body) on 1 April 2013. He succeeds the previous Dean, Jindřich Halama, whose term of office came to an end on 31 May 2014.

On 3 June 2014 the Rector of Charles University, Professor Tomáš Zima, came to the PTF to formally install Mrázek in his new office. The ceremony, which was attended by representatives of both the university and the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren as well as students and staff of the PTF, struck a good balance between the serious and the light-hearted. In his introductory speech, the Chairperson of the PTF Academic Senate, Jan Kranát, noted that as the current Minister of Education was named Chládek (which means Cold) and the newly-elected Rector was called Zima (Winter), the Academic Senate had acted in complete conformity by electing Mrázek (Frost). He also pointed out that although Mrázek had said he did not plan any major changes but wanted to continue in the footsteps of his predecessor Halama, in fact under Halama the PTF had seen the biggest changes in recent years. Following Halama’s example would therefore logically mean introducing more changes.

The retiring Dean, Jindřich Halama, provided a retrospective of his term of office and thanked all those who had helped him, and received a Charles University silver memorial medal from Rector Zima in recognition for his work as Dean. Professor Zima then formally gave Jiří Mrázek his letter of appointment and expressed his conviction that the cooperation between Winter and Frost would be successful.

The new Dean concluded the ceremony, and at the same time commenced his period of office, with a lecture on the different models of relationships between the church and the world in the New Testament, and how this could be applied in today’s world.

Jiří Mrázek studied theology at PTF and at Halle an der Saale. After graduating he served for five years as a pastor of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren. In 1990 he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on “The Transformation of Messianism in Aramaic Texts

from the Qumran”, and in 2005 his habilitation dissertation on “Parables in the Context of Matthew’s Gospel.” He has been teaching at PTF since 1989 and is currently Associate Professor and head of the Department of New Testament Studies. He has in the past served as Vice-Dean for Development and as Vice-Dean for Research and Postgraduate Studies.

Peter Stephens