In the modern age, the place, significance, and transformation of religion can only be explained and understood adequately by an interdisciplinary approach. Thus, the analysis of religion needs to be located in its various social, political, legal, economic, and historical contexts. Founded in 2015, the book series "Religion and Modernity" commits itself to this goal, comprising monographs and edited volumes outstanding academic quality.
Editors
The series "Religion and Modernity" is published on behalf of the Center for Religion and Modernity at the University of Münster by Thomas Großbölting, Detlef Pollack, Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger and Ulrich Willems.
Advisory Board
Prof. Dr. Thomas Bauer, Prof. Dr. Matthias Casper, Prof. Dr. Marianne Heimbach-Steins, Prof. Dr. Mouhanad Khorchide, Prof. Dr. Judith Könemann, Prof. Dr. Hans-Richard Reuter, Prof. Dr. Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Prof. Dr. Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf (all Münster), Prof. Dr. Hans Joas (Berlin), Prof. Dr. Hugh McLeod (Birmingham)
Submission of Manuscripts
Manuscripts (or a book proposal with a table of contents and a sample chapter) should be submitted in electronic form to the office of the Center for Religion and Modernity (religionundmoderne[at]uni-muenster.de).
Volumen 31: Karl Gabriel, Die soziale Macht des Christlichen
The religious power of Christianity and the churches is on the wane in Germany and Western Europe. As a social power, however, Christianity remains a relevant social factor. Charismatic personalities founded social organisations in the 19th century that still form the backbone of independent welfare work in Germany today. More...
Volume 30: Daniel Weidner, Rhetorik der Säkularisierung
"Secularisation" is an important and controversial term for the self-understanding of Western societies - it refers to both the disappearance of religion in the modern age and its transformation. Daniel Weidner shows how secularisation was discussed in the 20th century and how central these considerations were for philosophical, theological, sociological and cultural self-understanding. more...
Volume 29: Britt Schlünz, Pastoral und Politik
Spain is a region that has long been neglected in European history. Britt Schlünz analyses - in the interplay between centre and periphery, between Madrid, Catalonia, the Vatican and the colony of Cuba - the conflict-ridden Spanish secularisation of the 19th century. Her study places the clerical actors at the centre and contributes to an understanding of the key conflicts and central phenomena of the century in Europe. More...
Volume 28: Uta Elisabeth Hohmann, Chosen or Elected?
In the search for the right relationship between Protestantism and democracy, the parliamentary activity of German theologians suggests that they were and are particularly challenged to synthesize their religious convictions with the democratic idea. In three individual studies, Uta Elisabeth Hohmann examines the political activities of the theologians Rudolf Otto (1869-1937), Magdalene von Tiling (1877-1974) more...
Volume 27: Marcel Bubert and André Krischer, Between Divine Punishment and Conspiracy Theories: Competing interpretations of epidemics from antiquity to the present day
Conspiracy theory and "alternative theology" interpretations as well as negations of the Corona pandemic have been unusually effective in Germany since 2020; in the "liberal milieu," which is convinced of the evidence of medical and scientific expertise, they have caused considerable irritation. However, such divergent perceptions are not new in times of epidemics. more...
Volume 26: Karl Gabriel, Skinning of a controversial institution
The Catholic Church is in the midst of the most serious crisis in its recent history. There are even voices that expect an imminent demise of Catholicism. But does this stand up to sociological analysis? In the 26th volume of the series "Religion and Modernity," Karl Gabriel explores the historically determined self-blockades that have led to the decline of the Catholic Church. more...
Volume 25: David Rüschenschmidt, Between Steeple and Minaret: The Christian-Islamic Dialogue since 1973.
Migration processes have contributed to the religious and cultural diversity of German society. In public debates, this plurality often appears as a challenge or even as a cause of conflict. As David Rüschenschmidt in the Center for Religion and Modernity’s latest publication shows, the history of the Christian-Muslim dialogue does not conform to this narrative: more...
Volume 24: Uta Elisabeth Hohmann (ed.), Arnulf von Scheliha (ed.), "Eyn sonderlicher Gottisdienst"? Protestant Theologians as Parliamentarians.
How was and is the theological profession represented in German parliaments? In which parties were Protestant theologians primarily involved and in which epochs? Which political tasks did they concentrate on in parliament? more...
Volume 23: Florian Grumbach, Predigt, Publikum und Seelenheil: Lutherische Pfarrpraxis im Berlin des 18. Jahrhunderts
How did the Lutheran clergy in the royal capital of Berlin in the 18th century – an era of secularization and the emergence of bourgeois culture – move between church congregation and political authorities? Based on a wide array of sources, Florian Grumbach explores in “Predigt, Publikum and Seelenheil” (‘Sermon, audience, and salvation’) the pastoral practice and daily work of the clergy such as their sermons or publishing activities. more...
Volume 1 (new edition): Detlef Pollack and Gergely Rosta, Religion in Modernity: An International Comparison.
Are religion and modernity compatible, do modernization processes lead to secularization? Or does religion itself have modernizing potential? On the basis of selected countries-including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, the United States, South Korea, and Brazil. more...
Volume 22: Karl Gabriel, The Many Faces of Religion: Sociological Analyses of Religion Beyond Secularization.
At the turn of the millennium, many scholars of religion spoke of a "return of religion" in modernity. Today, secularization theory, which had been considered outdated in the meantime, seems to be celebrating a "comeback" on a broad front. more...
Volume 20: Lucia Scherzberg, In Between Party and Church. National Socialist Priests in Austria and Germany (1938-1944).
In April 1938, National Socialist priests led by Johann Pircher came out into the public eye. The goals of this group were to reconcile the Catholic Church and the Nazi regime and to infuse the Church with "National Socialist spirit." more...
Volume 19: Anja Hennig (ed.), Mirjam Weiberg-Salzmann (ed.), Illiberal Politics and Religion in Europe and Beyond. Concepts, Actors, and Identity Narratives.
Global migration movements, security threats, and social upheavals have fueled the rise of populist right-wing parties and movements in Europe and the transatlantic region in recent years. more...
Volume 18: Olaf Blaschke (ed.), Thomas Großbölting (ed.), What Did Germans Believe Between 1933 and 1945? Religion and Politics under National Socialism.
Did National Socialism unfold despite or because of the basic Christian attitudes of the majority of Germans? Contrary to the conventional view, which assumes a "church struggle" between the Nazi movement and the two potentially resistant churches. more...
Volume 16: Mariano Barbato/Melanie Barbato/Johannes Löffler (eds.), Paths to the Digital Papacy.
The papacy is holding steady in the structural transformation of the public sphere. This interdisciplinary volume shows which communication strategies the Vatican uses to stage the pope as a political actor in the interplay of text and image, and how these are taken up and transformed by the media. more...
Volume 14: Maren Behrensen/Marianne Heimbach-Steins/Linda E. Hennig (eds.), Gender - Nation - Religion.
Gender-related issues are increasingly intertwined with religious and national-conservative discourses. Which actors become visible in the public sphere? What goals do they pursue? How do they argue? The contributions to this volume explore these questions in an international comparative perspective. more...
Volume 13: Wilfried Loth, "Freedom and Dignity of the People".
Catholicism was not among the pioneers of democratization in Germany. This book traces the relationship between Catholicism and democracy - from its stigmatization in the Bismarck era to its contribution to the parliamentarization of the Weimar Republic and resistance in the "Third Reich" to the emergence of the postwar order after 1945. more...
Volume 12: Olaf Blaschke / Francisco Javier Rámon Solans (eds.), World Religion in Transition.
Christianity was in a state of upheaval in the 19th century. In an increasingly global environment, new spheres of action and challenges emerged. This volume asks whether transnational and global-historical perspectives can offer new explanations for the fundamental transformation of Christianity since the 19th century. more...
Volume 10: Gunnar Folke Schuppert, Governance of Diversity.
Today, dealing with cultural and religious minorities can be described as the central governance problem of secular societies. This book shows which strategies for a secular constitutional state can be considered for this purpose and which parts of the religious constitution of a pluralistic society are indispensable. more...
Volume 9: Sarah Thieme, National - Socialist Martyr Cult
The Ruhr region was difficult terrain for the National Socialists in the years before 1933. Sarah Thieme impressively shows how the regional Nazi movement positioned itself as an independent provider of faith in the cult of martyrs and addressed activists with forms of "sacralized politics." At the same time, the study proves that the Nazi movement in the Ruhr region remained Christian in character. more...
Volume 8: Heike Bungert/Jana Weiß (eds.), "God Bless America".
In the U.S., the religious is omnipresent in politics - God is regularly mentioned during presidential elections or in important presidential speeches on foreign policy. From a European perspective, this religious charging of the political message usually seems alienating. This volume takes a look at the close connection between religion and politics, the so-called civil religion, for the 20th century. more...
Volume 7: You Jae Lee, Colonial Civil Society
Between the 1890s and the 1940s, the number of Christians in Korea grew rapidly. Korean Christianity - according to the thesis of You Jae Lee's book - established a successful link between a modern image of Christianity and a specific form of community that was able to meet the everyday needs of the locals. more...
Volume 6: Antje Schnoor, Obey and Shape.
Antje Schnoor's book examines the role of the Jesuits in Chile during the Christian Democratic government of Eduardo Frei, the socialist government of Salvador Allende, and the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Her study demonstrates how the order helped shape the political stance of the Catholic Church while also emerging as a political force in its own right. more...
Volume 5: Matthias Casper/Karl Gabriel/Hans-Richard Reuter (eds.), Criticism of Capitalism in Christianity.
This volume presents the positions of important protagonists of the Christian critique of capitalism in the Weimar Republic and the early Federal Republic, such as Paul Tillich, Georg Wünsch, Karl Barth and Oswald von Nell-Breuning, and thus exposes central intellectual roots of the social market economy. It is the fifth volume of the interdisciplinary series 'Religion and Modernity'. more...
Volume 4: Ulrike Spohn, Rethinking the Secular State
In the fourth volume of the series 'Religion and Modernity', political scientist Ulrike Spohn examines the question of the legitimacy of religiously based moral arguments in the context of the formation of political opinion and will. Following the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor, the author discusses how the "secular state" can be rethought with regard to political discourse today. more...
Volume 3: Ulrich Willems/Astrid Reuter/Daniel Gerster (eds.), System of Religious Plurality.
The debates on "religious plurality" are mostly based on the assumption that the diversity of religions is a specifically modern phenomenon. The third volume of the interdisciplinary series 'Religion and Modernity' differentiates this finding by probing for orders of religious plurality in different epochs and religious cultures. more...
Volume 2: Peter L. Berger, Altars of Modernity.
Religions and religious communities currently show tendencies toward both more liberalism and more fundamentalism. The religious field has become more complex - and more conflictual. Thus, modernization does not necessarily lead to the decline of religions, but to the pluralization of worldviews and value systems. more...
Volume 1: Detlef Pollack/Gergely Rosta, Religion in Modernity.
On Wednesday, May 20, 2015, Detlef Pollack and Gergely Rosta will present their new study 'Religion in Modernity. An International Comparison'. The book also opens the new CRM series 'Religion and Modernity'. more...