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EXC 212:  Religion and Politics in Pre-Modern and Modern Cultures

Subject Area History
Term from 2007 to 2018
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 39235621
 
Seen from the perspective of the "post-secular age", the relationship between politics and religion appears in a completely new light. Following upon the far-reaching deconstruction of the historical "master narratives" of modernisation and secularisation, the historical cultural sciences (in the broadest sense) face the challenge of adapting to the new situation in order to help clarify and deal with contemporary problems. We take it for granted that, in order to accurately evaluate present-day developments, the historical long-term perspective and the diachronic examination of various cultures will also be indispensable in the future. But to this end, historical questions of comparative religion must be expanded and newly formulated, and traditional process categories based upon the Christian West need to be reconsidered.
Starting from the interdisciplinary experiences gathered from new approaches to the cultural sciences at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Muenster, the cluster of excellence will bring together the existing capabilities in the departments of history, theology, law and social and cultural sciences. This will enable a readjustment of the relationships between religion and politics in various pre-modern and modern cultures. The goal is to expand the horizon of possibilities for evaluating present-day problems through a more precise understanding of pre-modern structures and, moreover, to enter into discussion with a broader public.
The area of investigation extends from pagan, Jewish and Christian antiquity through the Jewish, Christian and Islamic Middle Ages and the religious pluralisation in the early modern period up to the present. To structure this area systematically, we will direct our interest to four dimensions in which the relationship between religious and political community can be described historically and comparatively:
(1) Normativity,
(2) Staging,
(3) Integrative procedures,
(4) Violence.
DFG Programme Clusters of Excellence
Applicant Institution Universität Münster
 
 

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