Tradition(s)
Second annual theme at the Cluster of Excellence to examine how traditions emerge and change
The second annual theme of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” will soon begin under the title “Tradition(s)”. Using selected examples ranging from antiquity to the present, it will examine in the winter and summer terms of 2021/22 how traditions emerge and change, as well as the process of transmitting traditions, how various disciplines conceptualize this process, and the importance of this process for understanding religions. The thematic spectrum ranges from the ancient Egyptian god Amun, to tradition and innovation in Arabic literature, and to the passing down of religious traditions in families today. The annual theme will begin on 2 November with the lecture series “Tradition(s)”.
The 2021/22 annual programme will also include a number of events and contributions in various media formats, with researchers from the humanities, law, and social sciences at the Cluster of Excellence and the University of Münster exploring, for example, how far criticism of traditions, as well as the rewriting and re-appropriation of traditions, help bring innovation to the religious landscape. The Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2018, will also read from and discuss motifs in her work.
“Reinterpreted, reshaped, veiled”
“Traditions are subject to change. Depending on the needs of the community that bears them, they are reinterpreted, reshaped, concealed, veiled, or even invented”, explain the Jewish scholar Regina Grundmann and the Catholic theologian Michael Seewald. Traditions and arguments about tradition play an important role in religions. “Judaism, Christianity and Islam draw on revelations. They assume that, at a certain point in time, God communicated something significant for the times to follow”. From the point of view of these religions, what has been communicated requires one or more so-called carrier groups that believe and affirm what has been revealed, that constantly appropriate it, and that ensure that it is passed on. “Even religions that do not claim to be based on revelations are familiar with traditions and processes of tradition-building, such as in the form of rituals, narratives or ministries passed down through generations”.
At least three perspectives can be distinguished in the study of tradition(s): the process of transmission or the act of handing down (“tradition”); the content or practices of what is handed down (“traditions”); and the actors or the groups carrying the tradition (“tradents” and recipients, as well as their relationship with one another). The annual theme “Tradition(s)” will examine these three perspectives across different epochs and from the viewpoint of different disciplines.
The Cluster of Excellence’s first annual theme took place in 2020/21. Entitled “Belonging and Demarcation: Dynamics of Social Formation”, it focused on how different social groups live together in plural societies, how belonging to groups and ideas of identity emerge, and how conflicts are regulated and social balance can be achieved. (sca/vvm)