Research
RaT's research deals with the exploration of transformation processes in the interplay between religions and society. The diversity of the disciplines involved enables the research centre to approach topics from various perspectives and to apply empirical and hermeneutic methods. The analysis of social processes of transformation is thus part of the work at RaT, as is the interpretation of those religious texts that carry meaning for the self-understanding of a specific society and its members.
The quest for exits out of our established cultural, social and political orders has become an ubiquitous existential mood characterizing our times and is, therefore, one of the most urgent topics in contemporary society. The sense of living in a world without escape presses the urge to exit. An exit can manifest in alienation, destruction, or the potential to transform world orders. In this last scenario exits become redemptive and the pressure to exit discharges itself in the creation of an immense number of exit strategies into alternative worlds. Not only can these alternative worlds often resemble new forms of religion, but against this background also traditional forms of religion can be interpreted as exit strategies. Read more
Main Research Fields
Long-term Research Projects
Third-party Funded Research Projects and Book Projects
Third Party Funded Project
Reframing Space. Film as History
FWF Lise Meitner Project by Milja Radovic
Third Party Funded Project
Two Sarahs: Victimhood in the Bible and Its Reception
FWF Lise Richter Project by Katerina Koci
Research Project
Was glaubt Österreich?
Programme Collaboration with the ORF, led by Regina Polak and Astrid Mattes-Zippenfenig
Third Party Funded Project
Glocal Buddhas
FWF project by Lukas Pokorny
- Open Access Journal JRAT - Julian Strube (ed.): Global Religious History and Religious Comparison (2024)
- RaT Series, Volume 32 - Mattia Coser: The Evil in God? Ontology of Evil and Suffering in the Philosophy of Luigi Pareyson