Finished projects

Regional Regulation of Religious Plurality in Comparison (RePliV)

Graduate School

For pluralistic societies, peaceful coexistence between members of different religious communities and non-religious people is a fundamental challenge. But how could such a peaceful existence be possible? What sort of consequences does increasing religious diversity bring about? Moreover, how do politics, the economy, media and civil society influence the processes of religious pluralism? And how do religions regulate themselves within a pluralistic environment?

From January 2021 until June 2024, the graduate school "Regional Regulation of Religious Plurality in Comparison" (Regionale Regulierung religiöser Pluralität im Vergleich, RePliV) will address these central questions. more

The Transmission of Religion Across Generations

An international study of religious transmission in families

Empirical findings show that institutional religiosity and religious practice have been steadily declining in most European countries (and more recently in the US and Canada, too) since the 1960s. While there is a large body of evidence to suggest that the decline in church religiosity is due mainly to intergenerational change (with one generation being less religious than the previous), there is also a general lack of detailed knowledge about how this change actually happens. In addition, the conditions in which religious and non-religious worldviews are passed on through generations have rarely been the object of international comparative study.  more...

RaMi – From the Margins to the Centre

right-wing populist interpretations of (radical) Islam as a societal challenge in Europe and beyond

Existing studies have not yet systematically considered the question of whether, how, under what conditions and in what direction the overall public discourse has changed as a result of the populist interpretation and linking of national identity, (Muslim) migration and Islam and to what extent this has an impact on liberal democracy itself. The influence and role of established religious actors (churches, etc.) will be considered separately. more...

The Legions of the Pope

A Case Study of Social and Political Transformation

“How many legions does the pope have?” Magnified by the media, flows of pilgrims to Rome and to the pope himself on pilgrimage create the sociological basis for the political resurgence of the Holy See. Entitled “The legions of the pope”, the interdisciplinary DFG project in the political sciences uses papal pilgrims and pilgrim popes in its case study to analyze transnational constructions of identity and political agency in the transformations of (post)secular modernity. more...

Statistical timeseries on church life from 1949 to 2010

How are the striking transformation of Christian churches and their practices and the significant social and societal developments of the last decades interrelated? The sociological project 'Statistical timeseries on church life from 1949 to 2010' – conducted between 2013 and 2015 – provides data that facilitates a detailed analysis of the development of the two large Christian churches since World War 2 against the backdrop of the socio-economic and cultural changes in the German Federal Republic and the (former) German Democratic Republic. more...

Religious Plurality and its Regulation in the Region (RePliR)

Graduate School

The interdisciplinary graduate school "Religious Plurality and its Regulation in the Region" (RePliR) dealt with the consequences of religious pluralization for the Münsterland and Ruhr regions from July 2016 to October 2020. Ten doctoral students, together with university teachers and partners from practice, developed questions for research, identified needs to act and worked out practical solutions.

RePliR was a joint project of the Center for Religion and Modernity together with the Center for Religious Studies (CERES) at the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB). Prof. Dr. Volkhard Krech (RUB) and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Willems (WWU) chaired it as spokespersons. It was funded by the Ministry for Research of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The second project phase, which started in January 2021 after a successful application for extension, is entitled "Regional Regulation of Religious Plurality in Comparison" (RePliV).