“When religious traditions influence one another”

Lecture series investigates the transfer between religions from antiquity until today

In the summer semester 2015, the lecture series of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” and Centre for Religious Studies (Centrum für religionsbezogene Studien, CRS) deals with the “Transfer between religions. When religious traditions influence one another”. The interdisciplinary series will start on 14 April and discuss how numerous forms of influence and of the transfer of religious and cultural traditions occurred between religions of diverse cultural regions and historical epochs from late antiquity until the present day. Topics range from multi-religious identities and the Christian kabbalah to the reception of Platonism in Abrahamic religions and the reception of Hindu concepts in the West and vice versa. The lectures will be held on Tuesdays from 6.15 to 7.45 pm in lecture theatre F2 of the Fürstenberghaus at Domplatz 20-22 in Münster. The lecture series is organised by the Cluster’s project group “Transfer between world religions: adoption – transformation – dissociation” and by the CRS.

Prof. Dr. Regina Grundmann, Judaist and coordinator of the project group, explains, “From antiquity until the present, numerous forms of influence and of the transfer of religious and cultural traditions occurred between religions of diverse cultural regions – be it in oral, written, graphical or practical ritual form.” Furthermore, representatives of different religions frequently received the same philosophical and scientific ideas and concepts, which thus brought about common bodies of traditions – but also culturally different interpretations. These processes of exchange and reception developed in various ways and triggered further religious and cultural dynamics. “As the reference to the ‘own’ tradition usually serves as a dissociation from other religious communities, the development of these processes of exchange and reception was not always purely positive or perceived as such.”

The public lecture series traces the diverse forms of the transfer of traditions from late antiquity until the immediate present. Representatives from various disciplines will contribute, i.e. of religious studies, Byzantine studies, Indology, Islamic studies, Judaism, sinology, theology and philosophy. (exc/vvm)

Programme

14.04.2015	Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Münster	Warum mit nur einer Religion leben? Anmerkungen zum Phänomen multi-religiöser Identität
21.04.2015	Joachim Gentz, Edinburgh	Das Große Dao ist ohne Form, ohne Wesen und ohne Namen. Formen des Transfers zwischen Religionen im regulierten Pluralismus Chinas
28.04.2015	Angelika Neuwirth, Berlin	Traditionsbildung durch Textstrategie: der Weg der koranischen Gemeinde von Jerusalem nach Mekka
05.05.2015	Katrin Kogman-Appel, Beer Sheva	Buchkultur und Bildkultur in der mittelalterlichen jüdischen Gesellschaft: Kulturaustausch zwischen Christen, Juden und Muslimen
12.05.2015	Andreas Speer, Köln	Philosophie und Wissenschaft als gemeinsames Erbe der abrahamitischen Religionen im Mittelalter
19.05.2015	Annette Wilke, Münster	Rezeption hinduistischer Konzepte im Westen und westlicher Konzepte im Hinduismus
02.06.2015	Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, Berlin	Politische Theologie der christlichen Kabbala. Der Fall Guillaume Postel (1510–1581)
09.06.2015	Michael Zimmermann, Hamburg	Vom Nicht-Selbst zur Buddha-Natur? Buddhistische Vorstellungen vom Wesen des Menschen in Wechselwirkung mit anderen indischen Religionen
16.06.2015	Görge Hasselhoff, Dortmund	Ein neues Bild vom Judentum? Maimonides im Paris des 13. Jahrhunderts
23.06.2015	Jens Halfwassen, Heidelberg	Warum ist die negative Theologie für monotheistische Religionen attraktiv? Überlegungen zur Platonismusrezeption in den abrahamitischen Religionen
30.06.2015	Michael Grünbart, Münster	Reliquientransfer – Verbindendes zwischen den christlichen Welten des Mittelalters?
07.07.2015	George Sabra, Beirut	Christian-Muslim Dialogue in the Middle East: Tradition and the Exigencies of Context

Summer semester 2015
Tuesdays,6.15 bis 7.45 p.m.
Lecture hall F1 at the Fürstenberghaus
Domplatz 20-22
48143 Münster