RaT-Newsletter

ao. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Christoph Augustynowicz
Head of the Department of Eastern European History
Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies

My academic interests are focused on relations between the Habsburgs and Eastern Europe in the early modern period on the Galician-Polish border region research on the cultural history of Poland, on social history of Poland(-Lithuania) with special consideration of the Jews and images and stereotypes of Eastern Europe (vampire(ism) belief) and recently especially on history of historiography (concepts of East Central Europe). Concerning the activities of the Research Centre „Religion and Transformation“ my interests in jewish-christian coexistence with a focus on Poland on the one hand and on the belief in Vampires on the other hand can be stressed.

To learn more about Christoph Augustynowiczs' research, visit his profile on our website.

Mag. Dr. Dr. Constanza Cordoni de Gmeinbauer, Privatdoz.

Department of Jewish Studies

Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies

As a scholar of Jewish Studies, I am delighted to have joined the interdisciplinary research centre Religion and Transformation.

My research focuses on the literature and culture of rabbinic Judaism in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. I am particularly interested in the so-called literature of the sages, a literature that can be regarded as exegetical in character and that is rich in its combination of hermeneutics and narrative.

A common denominator of my two current lines of research is an interest in sources from the early Middle Ages. On the one hand, I am investigating the literary representation of the Land of Israel in late antique and early medieval Jewish sources in a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) - The Land of Israel in Geonic Times. On the other hand, I am working on the reception of the Book of Job in early medieval Jewish literature.

To learn more about Constanza Cordonis' research, visit her profile on our website.

JRAT Supplementa, Volume 3: Religious Experience, Secular Reason and Politics around 1945. Sources for Rethinking Religion and Spirituality in Contemporary Societies, edited by Hans Schelkshorn and Herman Westerink.

The emergence and downfall of fascism and the Nazi regime in the mid-twentieth century mark the definitive decline of Europe's geopolitical hegemony. The end of the Second World War is the beginning of both decolonization processes and the founding of the United Nations as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this context, we find a variety of philosophical interpretations on religious traditions, secular conceptualizations of reason and political theories. In and outside of Europe, philosophical and spiritual movements develop different political orientations, whereas fruitful dialogues between religious and secular philosophical positions emerge. In this volume, such positions and interactions are explored in an exemplary way.

Link to the publication (full access).

Hans Schelkshorn and Herman Westerink have  previously co-edited several, thematically connected RaT publications:

• JRAT 5 (1/2019): Religious Experience, Secular Reason and Politics around 1900. Sources of the Contemporary Turn to Spirituality
  
• RaT Series volume 12: Reformation(en) und Moderne. Philosophisch-theologische Erkundungen
  

RaT Series Volume 28: Agents of Violence. Non-Governmental Armed Forces in Southwest Asia, North Africa and beyond, edited by Rüdiger Lohlker and Katharina Ivanyi.

The violent conflicts of recent decades in Southwest Asia, North Africa and adjacent regions are often read in terms of the conventional parameters of an international order of sovereign nation states. However, in recent years, non-governmental armed forces have emerged to play an increasingly significant role in the political, social and military fields of the region. These forces are usually analyzed as isolated actors, operating in their respective local or regional spheres, without attention to wider structural commonalities. The aim of this volume is to examine these groups not only as military actors, but also as forces of social significance, indicative of substantial historical shifts relating to notions of sovereignty, beyond the usual prioritization of the state. Comparing the nature, operation and discourses of such forces allows for new understandings of their social impact, beyond common reductionist approaches of securitized worldviews and essentializing lines of inquiry centered on religion.

Link to the publication.

RaT Series Volume 30: The Heir. A Christology, by Leonardo Paris

A man stands out on the scene, a free man. He puts forth a new way of relating to the God of Israel. He is the heir. He is the one who knows how to receive and communicate what has been given to him. He does so by impressing his unique trait on it. Many are fascinated by this figure. Others are scared to the point of precipitating events until the man is killed. However, precisely in his death, this figure will release his vision of God in all its strength. A vision that, from that moment in time, will never cease to attract, to scandalize, and to provoke reality. Today as yesterday. From this story, the idea of God emerges forever overturned, and with it the forms of power, freedom, and human identity. In this book, Christian theology is presented through engaging events, with the flavour of a contemporary novel. A fresh and groundbreaking Christology.

Link to the publication.

Latest articles published online in advance (all articles are published open access):

• Global Religious History and Religious Comparison: a Programmatic Outline, by Julian Strube
  
• Church Life LIVE! Ritual Innovations and Repertoires of Belonging in Czech and Slovak Christian Communities during the COVID-19 Pandemic, by Barbora Spalová and Adam Gajdoš
  
• Encounters of the Brahmanical Sanskrit Tradition with Persian Scholarship in the Mughal Empire. Genealogical Critique and the Relevance of the Pre-colonial Past in a Global Religious History, by Michael Bergunder
  
• The Potentials and Limits of Going Global
  Islam’s Social Contingency and Absolute Truth in Arabic Sociologies of Religion, by Florian Zemmin
  

Ednan Aslan, Tamara Nili-Freudenschuß (eds.): 40 Jahre Islamischer Religionsunterricht in Österreich. Islamische Bildung im europäischen Kontext. Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2024.

Austria was one of the first Western European countries to recognize Islam as a public corporation. This historic recognition goes back to the long, multifaceted history of Islam in Austria and fulfilled a long-cherished wish of Muslims in Austria, which also exists in many other European countries.

For 40 years, this recognition has enabled Muslims to teach Islam as a regular subject in public schools. The findings from these many years of experience in the field of Islamic religious education are of great importance for other European countries that are also striving to integrate Islamic religious education into the public school system.

This volume offers a comprehensive overview from the perspectives of religious education and didactics, social and educational policy, law and empirical research. It sheds light on the 40-year history of Islamic religious education in Austria and shows what contribution religious education can make to the integration of Muslim children into society.

Link to the publication.

Constanza Cordoni: Reconfiguring the Land of Israel. A Rabbinic Project. Leiden/Boston: Brill 2024.

This book is about ways in which the land of Israel, the homeland of the most paradigmatic of all diasporas, was envisioned in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages in the literature of the sages. It is about the Land according to the redefined Judaism that emerged in the centuries following the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE. This Judaism replaced the temple cult with Torah study - a study that pertained in part to that very temple cult, that became a portable homeland, and that reconfigured the Land.

Link to the publication (full access).

Christian Danz (ed.): Medien – Erinnerung – Affekte. Dimensionen einer Theologie der Kultur. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2024.

Link to the publication.

Christopher Arnold, Christian Danz, Michael Hackl (eds.): Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling: Theologische Jugendschriften. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog 2023.

This volume presents a selection of all of Schelling's major early writings for the first time. They provide an insight into Schelling's theological, historical and philosophical areas of interest during his time as a student in Tübingen in the years 1790-1794 and document his intensive reception of the many upheavals and innovations in Old and New Testament scholarship, as well as his engagement with the philosophy of Kant and Plato. Furthermore, during this period Schelling presented an innovative concept of biblical hermeneutics that takes into account the historical-critical standards of the time. These writings are significant not least for the understanding of Schelling's later historical and moral philosophical work. The volume contains a detailed introduction, explanatory notes on the texts, an extensive bibliography and indexes.

Link to the publication.

Christian Danz (ed.): The Impact of German Idealism on Religion. Special Issue of Religions 12 (2023)

The intention of the Special Issue “The Impact of German Idealism on Religion” is to comprehensively reconstruct the developments of modern philosophy of religion emanating from German Idealism in a systematic perspective and to analyze the contribution of German Idealism to the formation of the modern understanding of religion.

Link to the publication (full access).

Birgit Heller, Edith Franke (eds.): Religion und Geschlecht. Berlin: De Gruyter 2024.

Religion and gender are closely intertwined: Religious traditions, beliefs, symbols and practices are gendered; gender roles, stereotypes and ideals are religiously underpinned and sanctioned. Not only religious traditions themselves, but also the study and presentation of religions are predominantly characterized by androcentric perspectives. The subject of this introduction is an overview of the methodological and theoretical foundations of gender studies in religious studies as well as a revision of data and perspectives on the history of religion based on extensive research findings. In addition, selected systematic analyses reveal connections and differences between various religious traditions with regard to the construction, idealization, standardization and symbolic use of gender. In addition, exemplary fields of social interaction are used to illustrate the diverse interactions and intersectionality of religion, gender and society. The volume demonstrates the aims and approach of gender-sensitive religious studies and offers correspondingly revised insights into the history of religion.

Link to the publication (full access).

H. Kalb, R. Potz, B. Schinkele, W. Wieshaider (eds.): Österreichisches Archiv für Recht & Religion 70 (1/2023), Freistadt: Plöchl Verlag.

With articles by the following RaT members:

• Eva Synek, „Man braucht Zeit, bis eine gewisse Sache reif wird“. Die Orthodoxe Kirche in Nordmazedonien (58-93)
  
• Richard Potz (Judikatur):
  • OGH 26. 1. 2022, 7 Ob 25/21h Verbandsverantwortlichkeit, kirchliche
    juristische Person, Missbrauchsfälle (R. Potz 198)
    EuGH 13. 10. 2022, C-344/20, L. F. / S.C.R.L. Gleichbehandlung, islamisches
    Kopftuch einer Arbeitnehmerin (R. Potz 216)

Markus Öhler: Ecclesia und Collegium. Christliche Versammlungen und griechisch-römische Vereinigungen. Gesammelte Aufsätze. Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck 2024.

The contextualisation of early Christian assemblies within Greco-Roman associations has led to significant insights into the history of early Christianity. The fifteen essays collected here deal with the legal status of associations, association rules, local characteristics, and even burials.

Link to the publication.

Congratulations! VDTR graduate Esther Heiss has been appointed as director of the  Jewish Museum Eisenstadt (Burgenland)!

Esther Heiss completed her dissertation on Humor als Coping-Mechanismus im Kontext von Einzelschicksalen und zentralen Ereignissen der jüdischen Traditionsgeschichte (bes. am Beispiel des Babylonischen Talmuds) in the fall of 2023 and started her new job in December of the same year.

We wish her and the Jewish Museum Eisenstadt the best of luck in these challenging times!

If you want to know more about her appointment, a report by the Austrian national public broadcaster ORF can be found here.

Book Presentation and Panel Discussion

Mattia Coser: Das Böse in Gott? Ontologie des Bösen und des Leidens in der Philosophie Luigi Pareysons

The question of evil and suffering presents one of the most important challenges to philosophy and Christian theology. The doctoral thesis attempts to address this question in a critical manner by the analysis of the philosophical propositions of the Italian philosopher Luigi Pareyson. One key for a new philosophical elaboration of the question of evil Pareyson sees on the one hand in a development of ontology of freedom which is tied closely to Schelling and on the other in a hermeneutic of myth. Schelling already emphasised that the question of evil and suffering cannot be solved reflexively especially by the idea of an “ecstasy of reason” as a transition from a purely rational (metaphysical) philosophy into a “positive” (Christian-salvation-historical) philosophy, which resorts to myth as a genuine form of language. Continuing this thought, Pareyson considers  a hermeneutics of myths as the only suitable philosophical tool which allows to develop a new perspective upon the question of evil and suffering.[...]

To read the full abstract in English, click here.

Julius Günther: Geschichte der Persönlichkeit. Untersuchungen zur Dynamik des Religiösen und des Unbewussten bei F. W. J. von Schelling
After an explanation of the method of Schelling's philosophy, the study is divided into a part about the religious dimension of the unconscious and a part about the unconscious dimension of religion in Schelling's work. In the beginning, the stages of transcendental-historical becoming conscious are first presented within the framework of the “System of Transcendental Idealism”, thus providing an initial religious conception of the unconscious in Schelling. From there, the religious unconscious is illuminated in the “Philosophy of Art” by means of Schelling's theory of imagination and fantasy as symbolic gods of mythology. The extent to which the unconscious functions as the ground of God's and man's freedom, and is therefore religiously conceived, is traced with the transition from Schelling's philosophy of identity to the philosophy of freedom and ages of the world. [...]

To read the full abstract in German and English, click here.

New Third Party Funded Project (in cooperation with the Research Centre RaT):

„WEAVE-Projekt: „Between Intensification and Relativisation. Modalities and Mechanisms of Religious Change among Muslim and Christian Refugees from Syria in Germany, Austria and Switzerland”, 2024-2027

This research project, which was approved by the FWF in January 2024, will start at the Department of Practical Theology on April 1, 2024 and will be led by Regina Polak (University of Vienna) together with Martin Baumann (University of Lucerne/Switzerland, Religious Studies, lead of the whole project) and Alexander-Kenneth Nagel (Social Sciences) as part of an international WEAVE project. The project is carried out in cooperation with the Research Centre Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society.

Syrian refugees, who arrived in Austria, Germany and Switzerland in the wake of the ‘Arab Spring’ and the war, represent the largest or second largest group of asylum seekers in these countries. Since then, the religion of refugees has increasingly become the focus of attention in the political discourses of these countries. Despite this high level of attention to the religion of refugees, however, neither the characteristic differences between Muslim and Christian refugees nor the processes of change in the religiosity of refugees in the course of the migration process have been scientifically researched. The project aims to close this research gap. The aim of the project is to investigate the changes in individual and group-related religiosity in the course of flight and migration from a comparative country perspective. The project assumes that religious change moves along a spectrum: religious beliefs, religious practices and group ties can intensify or be relativized, i.e. become stronger or weaker, in the course of flight and migration. The project suggests, that in this process of change, systemic structures of the host countries also have an impact on the changes in religiosity, i.e. that the country-specific migration and welfare regimes, the politicization of Islamophobic discourses and institutional framework conditions for religious minorities also have an influence.

For more information about the project, click here.

Forum Religionsphilosophie Summer Term 2024

• Katharina Limacher: „…denn schließlich ist man nicht nur für sich selbst verantwortlich,
  sondern für eine ganze Religion!“ Religionsphilosophie und empirische Religionswissenschaft – ein Werkstattbericht.
  
  • April 23, 2024, 09:45 a.m.-11:15 a.m. Lecture Hall 3D, Department of Philosophy, Universitätsstraße 7
    1010 Vienna
• Martin Koci: After Deconstruction: Jean-Luc Nancy on the Essence of Christianity
  
  • May 13, 2024, 03 p.m.-04:30 p.m.. Lecture Hall 3D, Department of Philosophy, Universitätsstraße 7
    1010 Vienna
• Olaf Müller: Warte, bis Du stirbst. Postmortale Hausaufgaben von Moritz Schlick
  • June 19, 2024, 04:45 p.m.-06:15 p.m. Lecture Hall 3C, Department of Philosophy, Universitätsstraße 7
    1010 Vienna

To view the full program, click here.

Gottesbeweise

Forum Religionsphilosophie in cooperation with Logik-Café

• György L. Geréby: What Anselm and Gaunilo told each other. A new interpretation of Anselm‘s argument for the existence of God
  
  • April 08, 2024, 04:45 p.m.-06:15 p.m. Lecture Hall 2H,Department of Philosophy, Universitätsstraße 7
    1010 Vienna
• Tim Lethen: Kurt Gödels ontologischer Beweis: Hintergründe, Einflüsse, Varianten
  • May 27, 2024, 04:45 p.m.-06:15 p.m. Lecture Hall 2H, Department of Philosophy, Universitätsstraße 7
    1010 Vienna

To view the full program, click here.

CRS Book Launch: "The Christian Right in Europe: Movement, Networks, and Denominations"

March 14, 2024, 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Vienna Campus of the Central European University, Quellenstrasse 51, Room: D-001

With lectures by: Gionathan Lo Mascolo, Andras Bozoki, Armin Langer, Zsolt Enyedi, Katharina Limacher, Astrid Mattes-Zippenfenig

To view the full program, click here.

Religionskunde im Ethikunterricht – Anfragen aus Theorie und Praxis. Fachtagung der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Religionswissenschaft (ÖGRW)
March 15, 2024, 09 a.m. - 01 p.m.
Otto-Mauer-Zentrum, Währinger Straße 2-4, 1010 Vienna

If you are interested, please register until March 11 at religionswissenschaft@univie.ac.at.

For the detailed program, click here.

u:africa talks: Missionary Ethnography: Indigenous Knowledge and/or African Christian Modernity?

Lecture by Lize Kriel

May 7, 2024, 05 p.m. - 07 p.m.

Department of African Studies, University of Vienna Campus, Spitalgasse 2, courtyard 5, seminar room 1

To view the full program for the summer term 2024, click here.

Religious Exits: Transitions into Alternative Symbolical and Political Worlds?

RaT Panel at the Upcoming European Academy of Religion in Palermo

May 20-23, 2024

The quest for exits out of our established cultural, social and political orders has become a 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 which 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 worlds often resemble new forms of religion, but against this background also traditional forms of religion can be interpreted as exit strategies. Understood in this way, religions and religious practices are ambivalent as they can enforce destructions, but are also capable of radically opening established orders, insofar as the world of transcendence contains neither a definite territory nor an immovable order of time.

To view the full program of the RaT panel, click here.

November 2-3, 2023: OSCE Workshop at the University of Dublin

In her honorary role as Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination, also focusing on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians and Members of Other Religions, Regina Polak participated in a workshop at the University of Dublin, which was organized in cooperation with ODIHR on the role of interreligious and intercultural dialogue as a diplomatic tool to support peacebuilding and sustainibility. There, her research results were also discussed.  Furthermore, she participated in the development of a guide that will provide measures against the discrimination of Christians for the 57 participating member states.