News Archive 2016

According to a new study of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics”, the majority of people in Arab countries is critical of the European Union (EU). “In almost all of the countries included in the study, a minority of respondents – between 10 and 45 per cent – see the EU as positive”, says political scientist Prof. Dr. Bernd Schlipphak. Major reason is the rejection of external interference with domestic concerns. Religion, in contrast, plays a much lesser role for the scepticism in countries influenced by Islam than has so far been assumed.

In his study, historian Klaus Große Kracht provides an analyzis of the “Catholic Action” in Germany 1920-1960.

The role of religion and the church in modern societies is the focus of the book, “Religion and Social Differentiation”, by Prof. Detlef Pollack, sociologist of religion at the Cluster of Excellence, “Religion and Politics”.

During the first centuries after having been written down, the Bible’s Ten Commandments were not nearly as set in stone as had been assumed, according to latest research. Bible scholar J. Cornelis de Vos from the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” presents the first full study of all ancient texts about the Decalogue.

Religious communities find it more difficult than other organisations to make decisions. The lecture series “Religion and decision-making” of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politcs” and of the collaborative research centre “Cultures of Decision-Making” will deal with how Judaism, Christianity and Islam make decisions about religious issues and who is entitled to do so and in what manner.

The book analyzes how religious plurality was always part of different epochs, regions and religious cultures.

Bible scholar Cornelis de Vos examines the impact and reception of the Decalogue up to 200 CE, scrutinizing the versions of the Decalogue, and the history of the Decalogue in ancient Jewish writings, the New Testament, and early Christian writings.

The internationally renowned legal scholar and legal philosopher Prof. Dr. Horst Dreier assumes the “Hans Blumenberg Visiting Professorship” of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” in the winter semester 2016/17.

The new public lecture series of the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" and the Collaborative Research Centre 1150 "Cultures of Decision-Making" of Münster University will address the topic "Religion and decision-making" in the winter semester 2016/2017.

The book addresses the question about the implications of secularism as a state principle for the role of religious arguments in the public sphere.

The Cluster of Excellence has undertaken one of the as yet most comprehensive surveys among people of Turkish origin in Germany about integration and religion: 90 per cent of respondents enjoy living in the country, but more than half of them do not feel they are socially recognised. This is associated with a partially vehement defence of Islam, said the sociologist of religion Prof. Dr. Detlef Pollack.

David Kästle-Lamparter examines the “World of Commentaries” from a comparative historical perspective. He analyses how commentaries have become an essential medium of legal discourse in German and European jurisprudence and lays the foundation for a theory of legal commentary.

In his book philologist Christian Peters emphasizes the different functions of pagan mythology in Latin literature.

With the aim of attracting investors from Arab countries, the People’s Republic of China purposefully presents itself pro-Islam, according to a study from the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics”.

The characteristics, circumstances and dynamics of the path of Catholicism to recognizing religious freedom in all its diversity were the object of research of the project “Dispensing with coercion among religious traditions: modern Catholicism between distinction and integration”, which was carried out in the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” at the University of Münster.

Four fifths of people who originate from Syria and who have been in Germany for quite some time appreciate the country’s open policy towards refugees. According to an Emnid survey which the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” has conducted together with the polling institute TNS Emnid.

The Bochum historian Prof. Dr. Lucian Hölscher is the first holder of the newly set up “Hans Blumenberg Visiting Professorship” at the University of Münster’s Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics”.

This recently translated study in the sociology of religion sheds new light on the question of what has happened to religion and spirituality since the 1960s in modern societies.

The Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” has newly set up the “Hans Blumenberg Visiting Professorship for Religion and Politics”. The first visiting professor is the renowned Bochum historian Prof. Dr. Lucian Hölscher, who will be at the research institution in the summer semester of 2016.

This book focuses on transcultural processes of entanglement in the early modern period.

In his book Gerd Althoff examines the different forms and rules of political counselling in the Middle Ages.

The radical acknowledgement of religious freedom by the Catholic Church more than 50 years ago has its origin not in the Roman center, but on the edges of the world church, as a study of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics“ shows.

The book deals with the criticism of unjust government in the so called “Fürstenpredigt” (Sermon to the Princes) of the radical Protestant reformer Thomas Müntzer (1489–1525) – Luther’s main adversary during the inner-Protestant conflicts in the early Reformation period and the Peasant Wars of 1525.

With the aim of attracting investors from Arab countries, the People’s Republic of China purposefully presents itself pro-Islam, according to a study from the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics”.

„Secular Taboos“ deals with the role of taboos in secular western legal systems and asks for the possibility of a secular justification of intangible legal norms.