"Religion and Politics" – Cluster of Excellence at the UNiversity of Münster

The Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics. Dynamics of Tradition and Innovation” has been investigating since 2007 the complex relationship between religion and politics across eras and cultures. In the funding phase from 2019 to 2025, the 140 researchers from 20 disciplines in the humanities and social sciences analyze in transepochal studies ranging from antiquity to the present day the factors that make religion the motor of political and social change. The research network is the largest of its kind in Germany; and, of the Clusters of Excellence, one of the oldest and the only one to deal with the issue of religion. full story

Papst Franziskus Tod
© Pixabay/Annett Klingner

“He was a reform pope, but not a modernizer”

On the death of Pope Francis, theologian and historian of dogma Michael Seewald from the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” has published an assessment of his pontificate in the media. One of the articles can be read on ZEIT Online. In an interview, he also talks about the question of whether it was an “unfinished pontificate”. Religious scholar and theologian Perry Schmidt-Leukel talks to epd and in a website article about Francis and the relationship with other denominations and religions.

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