Publications 2018

How do Muslim citizens across the globe perceive the European Union? And what factors influence their EU attitudes? This book offers the first systematic theoretical and empirical analysis of Muslim citizens’ EU attitudes in and outside the European Union.

For their book “Religion and Modernity. An International Comparison”, the sociologists of religion Prof. Dr. Detlef Pollack and Prof. Dr. Gergely Rosta were awarded the Karl Polányi Prize of the Hungarian Society of Sociology (MSZT).

The Islamic theologian Mouhanad Khorchide of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” has published the first volume in the series “Herder’s Theological Commentary on the Quran”. The project combines for the first time the findings of historical-critical and literary analysis practised by Arabic and Islamic studies with the Islamic tradition of text commentary.

In his latest publication entitled “Warum es kein islamisches Mittelalter gab” (Why There Were No Islamic Middle Ages), the scholar of Arabic studies Prof. Dr. Thomas Bauer questions historical epochal boundaries and widespread stereotypes about Islamic history. He shows by means of numerous examples how antiquity lived on in the Islamic world until the 11th century.

A new volume of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics”, edited by Old Testament scholar Prof. Dr. Reinhard Achenbach, addresses sacred places of antiquity. Under the title “Heilige Orte der Antike” (Holy places of antiquity), the publication brings together contributions from the lecture series of the same name.

“Religionspolitik heute” is a new overview volume on religious policy today in Germany from the Cluster of Excellence “Religion und Politik”. It combines religious political analyses and positions from academics, politics and religious and philosophical communities for the first time.

The Islamic theologian Prof. Dr Mouhanad Khorchide of the University of Münster’s Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” has published two new Islam books for the general public.

In a public book launch hosted by the University of Münster’s Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” and the Center for Religion and Modernity (CRM), social ethicists Prof. Dr Karl Gabriel and Prof. Dr Hans-Richard Reuter will present research results regarding the denominational influence on welfare-state key concepts in Germany.

Leading sociologists of religion have presented the first comprehensive handbook on the sociology of religion in German-speaking countries. It provides an overview of the state of research and expounds the field of research’s spectrum and relevance. In the handbook, they edit the basics of their subject for scholars and students of sociology, theology and religious studies as well as for those who are interested in politics and the media.

The renowned legal philosopher and former Hans Blumenberg Visiting Professor Prof. Dr. Horst Dreier has published a monograph on religion in secular modernity under the title “Staat ohne Gott” (State Without God). The first four chapters of the volume cover the topics of his lecture series “Herausforderungen des sekulären Verfassungsstaates” (Challenges of the secular constitutional state), which was part of the Hans Blumenberg Visiting Professorship at the Cluster of Excellence.

A new study from the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” presented by historian Dr Sara-Marie Demiriz deals with sacred elements in the early years of the Turkish Republic.

A new publication by the philosopher Prof. Dr. Kurt Bayertz from the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” addresses the philosophical roots of Karl Marx. 200 years after Karl Marx was born, not everything has been said about his thinking, the scholar underlines.

Scholar of Arabic studies Prof. Dr Thomas Bauer of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” has published an essay on the tendency of contemporary Western societies to simplify the world.

The Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” introduces the wealth of its research in a new format: “Religion and Politics: The Magazine” presents in richly illustrated reports, interviews, portraits, and essays the research and the researchers connected over the past few years to the interdisciplinary network of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (WWU).