Field of Research B “Mediality“ (2007-2018)

Media change is a crucial factor in the transformation of the relationships between religion and politics; one needs only recall the mutual reinforcement of the typographic media revolution and the Reformation, but also the role of the digital media revolution in contemporary political and religious movements. The „Mediality“ field of research examines, across historical eras, the question of media and how they represent and/or realise religious and political activity, and the extent to which changes in media have an influence on the relationships between religion and politics. Research during the Cluster of Excellence’s second funding period from 2012 to 2017 is concentrating on two main themes: (1) Which role do media play in processes of secularisation and sacralisation; to what extent do the media themselves change in these processes?; and (2) How are the boundaries between the religious and political fields established and maintained, but also breached or dissolved by means of imaginative and conceptual “figurations” found in texts, images, or monuments?

Second Funding Period 2013-2018 - Field of Research B: Mediality