Religion and Decision-making
Collective volume provides historical and cultural perspectives on religious decisions
The new collective volume “Religion und Entscheiden. Historische und kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven” (Religion and Decision-Making. Historical and Cultural Studies Perspectives) of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” examines religious decisions from antiquity to the present day. The volume, edited by the historians Prof. Dr. Wolfram Drews and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Pfister and by the literary scholar Prof. Dr. Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf, is based on lectures given in two lecture series of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics”: on "Conversion. Reversals in faith and life” held in the winter semester 2015/16 and “Religion and Decision-Making” held in the winter semester 2016/17.
The contributions of the volume deal with questions such as: how can religious teachings be decided, especially when they are revealed? How can people decide on their faith? How can religious world views influence the perception of non-religious decision subjects? In this volume, fourteen authors examine the tension between religion and decision-making in exemplary individual studies. Chronologically, the topics covered by the disciplines of history, literature, ethnology, Christian theology, Islamic studies, Jewish studies and Byzantine studies range from Old Testament Judaism to the late 20th century.