englischThe Catholic Church in Germany is facing great challenges. The loss of pastors, declining membership and lack of participation in church activities increase organizational insecurity and put pressure on the dioceses, while at the same time the still increasing church tax revenues stabilize [...]

englischThis study deals with the nineteenth-century Ottoman Sufi community of the Melâmiyye. It is the history of a social group for which modernization meant a crisis, which it sought to overcome with the help of trance and imaginary self-exaltation. Based on the texts of outstanding Melâmîs and [...]

englischAt the beginning of the 21st century, writing about the Shoah in French literature is undergoing transformation processes. Soazig Aaron, Frédéric Brun, Philippe Claudel and Jean-Pierre Gattégno transform the survivor, including his duality, into a literary figure and place a clear focus on [...]

englischThe history of the Kızılbaş-Alevis in the Ottoman Empire is often remembered and written as a history of persecution and oppression. This study opens up a perspective on the Ottoman state and the Kızılbaş-Alevis beyond such dominant narratives. It approaches the period between the 16th and [...]

Die Geier, die in den Bestattungsritualen der Parsi Zoroastrier eine zentrale Rolle spielten, sind in den letzten Jahren ausgestorben und auch die Parsi Zoroastrier selbst sehen sich mit düsteren demographischen Prognosen konfrontiert. Als einstige koloniale Elite war die religiös-ethnische [...]

Dieses Buch ist das Ergebnis eines Experiments. Es wurde von den Mitgliedern der Koordinierten Projektgruppe (KP) Säkularisierung und Sakralisierung der Medien im Münsteraner Exzellenzcluster Religion und Politik in den Kulturen der Vormoderne und der Moderne gemeinschaftlich verfasst, um die [...]

In dieser Publikation werden aussagekräftige Basiselemente und Schlüsselbegriffe der Gülen- oder auch hizmet-Bewegung anhand einer textuellen und multiperspektivischen Performanzanalyse (nach John L. Austin und Erving Goffman) untersucht. Im Zentrum steht die Frage, welche Gülen-Bewegung gegenüber [...]

Der vorliegende Band widmet sich der Biographie des Rabbis David Diespeck - geboren 1715 im fränkischen Diespeck an der Aisch. Seine Gelehrtenlaufbahn begann in Fürth, führte ihn nach Frankfurt a. M. und dann in die Praxis der Lehre. Diespeck, früh verheiratet und bald verwitwet, diente Gemeinden im [...]

englischBased on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the UK, the US, and Belgium, as well as an analysis of a wide array of digital sources, this volume compellingly conceptualizes the digital and the diaspora as separate but intertwined frontier-spaces in which religious adaptation and change can [...]

englischIn a time of rapid societal changes around the globe, there is a pressing need for genuine elucidation of Muslim moral values and norms, especially in migration contexts. These rapid changes raise questions about the conservation of the ‘self’ and the adaptation of norms and values to [...]

englischDiscover the groundbreaking insights of a visionary thought leader in the age of data-driven civilization. In this experimental essay, the author presents a radical innovation ethic of combining human creativity and artificial intelligence, whose complex interplay he explores herein. [...]

englischThe book presents six very different source texts on time and progress (four in Ottoman Turkish and two in Arabic). The accompanying commentaries examine in different ways the transformation of concepts and semantics, ideology and rhetoric, which changed significantly in these regions during [...]

englischThis collection of articles and lectures discusses the contributions of some of the most outstanding figures in the field of research on religion, like Durkheim, Weber, Geertz and Bourdieu. A second focus is on the heated debates on religion as a concept, modernization, secularization and [...]

englischBecause of the right-wing party AfD and the Pegida-movement, the Islam-critical scene in Germany has received much attention in recent years. But many campaigners have been politically active for a much longer time. The survey traces the developments since 9/11 and lets active opponents of [...]

englischReligions are important actors in civil society. The question of how they deal with each other is of decisive importance for the future of plural, open societies. For this book, three actors in interreligious understanding have come together for the first time: the nationally and [...]

englischThis book analyzes the Russian 19th-century discourse on the Orient as a field where the conceptual foundations of contemporary understandings of religion evolved. In case studies on the reception of Islam, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Shamanism with a focus on the first half of the century [...]

Die Herausgeber hinterfragen die Wende von der Kirchen- zur Religionssoziologie und die damit verbundene Hochschätzung angeblich in der Gesellschaft frei flottierender Religiosität bei gleichzeitiger Geringschätzung kirchlich-religiöser Kommunikation. Dagegen halten sie an der hohen Bedeutung der [...]

englischThe complex Gnostic teachings of antiquity and their revival and remythification in neo-Gnostic and occultist groups at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century form the core of this two-volume publication. The "Gnostic Mystery School" of the pastor E. C. H. Peithmann is [...]

englisch‘Turkish Studies’ deal with the history, culture, religions, languages and literature of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey. The scope of the book includes everything relating to Turkey, e.g. Kurdish, Armenian, Greek or Jewish matters, as well as its relations with the Turkic [...]

Die 1997 erstmals erschienene Studie setzt sich empirisch-soziologisch mit der kirchlichen und standesamtlichen Hochzeit auseinander und geht der Frage nach, warum sich viele Partner gleich zweimal das Jawort geben. Welche Bedeutung haben die standesamtliche und die kirchliche Trauung zur [...]

Dem zunächst evangelischen Theologen Erik Peterson (1890-1960), der im Jahre 1930 in Rom zum Katholizismus konvertierte, ist in letzter Zeit größeres theologisches Forschungsinteresse zuteil geworden. Peterson fordert zum ökumenischen Nachdenken heraus, weil er sich mit vergessenen [...]

englischThis book takes on the forcefulness of post-modernist appeals and their rational fantasies of omnipotence. Since the Enlightenment, theology has sought to bring faith and reason together. In doing so, it usually presupposes an image of the human being that understands the subject as a [...]

englischThis study discusses the historical and (power-) political backgrounds as well as the legally and theologically questionable justification of the historically unique constitutional amendment with which the Pakistani parliament excommunicated Ahmadi Muslims from Islam—a decision wholly at [...]

Die Studie untersucht das Verhältnis von Pentekostalismus und Politik auf den Philippinen. Dafür werden zuerst Diskurse und Figuren mit nationaler Ausstrahlung beschrieben – auch solche, die von der Forschung bislang ignoriert wurden wie die einflussreichen Kreise um den Pfingstbischof Villanueva. [...]

englischNizari Ismailis are one of most active Muslim communities in academic education and knowledge production in the fields of Islamic studies and humanities. For this purpose, the community runs two academic institutions based in London: The Institute of Ismaili Studies and the Institute for the [...]

Die wirkungsreiche und hochumstrittene Studie des klassischen Philologen und Religionswissenschaftlers Walter F. Otto (1874-1958) "Dionysos. Mythos und Kultus" bildet erstmals den Gegenstand einer Monographie. Ottos Klassiker aus dem Jahr 1933 wird vor dem Hintergrund sämtlicher Publikationen dieses [...]

Wie sind Recht und Religion aufeinander bezogen und wie ist ihr Verhältnis im pluralistischen Gemeinwesen zu bestimmen? Die Autorinnen und Autoren der in diesem Band versammelten Beiträge lassen es nicht damit bewenden, Trennendes und Abgrenzendes aufzudecken. Sie gehen vielmehr auch den [...]

englischThis volume brings together fifteen new perspectives on the angel in primarily Islamic contexts. The contributions examine the origin, evolution, visual representation, and conceptual elaboration of this vital class of beings that bridges the gap between divine and human realms. The [...]

englischAlthough deviance as a historical phenomenon has been well researched, only few studies have focused on clerics who were unwilling or unable to adhere to the norms of priestly conduct. This volume presents selected cases from the 18th century to show how deviance arose, in which forms it [...]

englischWhereas early modern cathedral chapters have mostly been studied as electoral bodies of prince-bishops and noble corporations, this study examines the administrative and governmental practices of the Bamberg cathedral chapter from the perspective of the history of knowledge. Its active [...]

englischBased on a corpus of twelve wills of Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist sovereigns of three territories of the Holy Roman Empire from the period of the Confessional Age, this study investigates the influence of the confession of the testator princes on the use of language in their wills. For [...]

Der Band knüpft an die 1995 (als Bd. 1 der Reihe) erschienene Aufsatzsammlung „Religionssoziologie um 1900“ an. Ebenso wie sein Vorgänger behandelt der Band anhand von Fallstudien ausgewählte Probleme der Geschichte der Religionssoziologie, darunter das Verhältnis der Religionssoziologie zu [...]

englischThe subject of this study is the invective of the Franconian imperial knight Ulrich von Hutten and that of his opponents. Ulrich von Hutten succeeded in becoming one of the most prominent and productive authors on the eve of the Reformation through broad transalpine connections and intensive [...]

englischAlthough humans are biologically omnivores, there is no community that makes full use of all the food available to it. Something is always not eaten. This anthology sheds light on why we don't eat what we don't eat from the perspectives of neuro-, nutritional-, social science and religious [...]

Der römische Adlige und Humanist Pietro Della Valle bereist von 1614 bis 1626 das Osmanische Reich, Persien und Indien. In einer Zeit des Umbruchs sucht er nach neuen Allianzen für Rom: Gegen die Reformatoren will er die Einheit mit den orientalischen Christen wiederherstellen. Gegen die Osmanen [...]

englischFrom the earliest periods of history human beings have used mind-altering substances. In addition, in almost all religions we find techniques for meditation which may induce states of trance or ecstasy which serve to facilitate experiencing the divine. Yet in many societies, trance, ecstasy [...]

englischThe book is focused on the religiosity of a migrant group that has hardly been researched so far. Using young adults with Vietnamese roots as examples, it shows how intergenerational changes in religiosity take place in the diaspora. By means of biographical-narrative interviews with more [...]

englischThe relationship of Sharia to secular law, human rights, gender roles and ethical issues of thought and action has been the focus of media, social and political attention for decades. By combining an in-depth understanding of pre-modern Islamic jurisprudence with modern legal and social [...]

englischThe 15th century saw the last wave of mass conversions to the Christian faith on the Iberian Peninsula. The formerly large Jewish population there was coerced, sometimes with open violence, to accept baptism. However, significant parts of the Christian majority never accepted the converts as [...]

Musik ist ein zentrales Element in den Ritualen zahlreicher Religionen. Ebenso vielfältig wie die religiösen Traditionen sind die hierbei relevanten klanglichen Elemente. Im vorliegenden Band wird das vielschichtige und vielfältige Verhältnis von Musik und Religion in Vormoderne und Moderne aus der [...]

englischDeceits were evaluated ambivalently in the Middle Ages. Although Christian authors condemned the use of deceits in general, they often regarded them as praiseworthy or even holy if they served a good cause. On the basis of the lives of high medieval bishops and abbots this study examines [...]

Entstanden aus einer Ringvorlesung an der Universität Basel in den Jahren 2011 und 2012, will dieser Band zu einer 'alternativen' Perspektive auf die europäische Religionsgeschichte beitragen. Es geht um eine Alternative, die sowohl die Verengung auf die Geschichte des Christentums als auch die [...]

englischBetween the age of confessionalization and the comprehensive edicts of tolerance of the late 18th century lies a period in which research emphasises the role of the confession in very different ways. The concept of tolerance existed in the intellectual history, but the regulations of the [...]

Wie jedes Lebensereignis wird auch die Erfahrung von Schwangerschaft, Geburt und neuem Leben von den Betroffenen immer aufs Neue gedeutet, wobei soziale Deutungsmuster herangezogen werden. Die Vorstellung von Geburt wird heute von einer Logik dominiert, die das Kind als "Projekt" der Eltern versteht [...]

englischBetween 2015 and 2017, various scholars from the University of Potsdam and the University of Lausanne contacted and interviewed religious, spiritual and humanistic communities in Potsdam. They operated with an inclusive concept of religion, referring also to groups and networks beyond the [...]

englischBetween 2015 and 2017, various scholars from the University of Potsdam and the University of Lausanne contacted and interviewed religious, spiritual and humanistic communities in Potsdam. They operated with an inclusive concept of religion, referring also to groups and networks beyond the [...]

englischThe discourse about several worlds is richly illustrated by science fiction and computer games. It seems evident that people have the desire to imagine astounding realities. However, 'alternative worlds' are not only fictions, but are discussed rationally in the scientific community: [...]

englischThe publication deals with texts calling for violence and justifies this by religious arguments. It is however not always possible to distinguish, whether these arguments are motivated by religious convictions or whether they are later justifications. In most cases, they are intertwined. It [...]

englischFor decades, the Maoist New People's Army in the Philippines has been fighting exploitation and poverty. In the 1980s, several Catholic priests joined and shaped it. One faction pursued national revolution, while another emphasized the preservation of indigenous culture. Conrado Balweg [...]

englischIn the year 1685, the Great Elector issued the “Edict of Potsdam,” which has been fundamental for Potsdam’s self-conception as a city of tolerance and religious freedom. But what does it mean for the people of Potsdam today? Whom do they believe in – and why? In the series Glaube in Potsdam [...]