Research group "Religion"
Research group "Religion": Knowledge – Experience – Interaction
The research group "Religion" focuses on the generation and mobilisation of religious knowledge, the analysis of religious experiences and the significance of religious interactions for social processes, structures and hierarchies in Europe as a religiously plural space. The research group initially focuses on religious experiences and interpretations of upheaval from the point of view of historiographical interpretations as well as from the perspective of historical actors. Furthermore, shifts in the knowledge regimes of historical actors will be accentuated and the level of experience included. In addition, the research at the IEG asks what effects the strategies of breaking with tradition and norms postulated by the historical actors themselves have on religious and social interaction.News from the research group
3 – 4 July 2025
Massacre and the Law: Atrocity, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Thirty Years War
Conference, organised by Nicole Reinhardt (IEG), with Thyssen Foundation Project Grant, Co-PIs Harald E. Braun (University of Liverpool, UK), and Daniel Schwartz (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel), at the IEG Mainz.
2 June 2025
The Damascus Events
Online discussion panel on the book "The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Making of the Modern Middle East" by Eugen Rogan (Oxford), as part of the "Assemani Seminar for Eastern Catholic History 2025," co-organized by Jared Warren (IEG).
19 May 2025
History and Liturgy: Methods, Questions, and Approaches
Online event with Daniel Galadza (Pontifical Oriental Institute), Nadieszda Kizenko (University at Albany), Michael Shami (University of Notre Dame), as part of the "Assemani Seminar for Eastern Catholic History 2025," co-organized by Jared Warren (IEG).
10 – 11 April 2025
Hallowed Efforts? Work and the Sacred, c. 1350–c. 1815
Workshop, organised by Kilian Harrer, IEG Mainz
Programme
7 April 2025
Globalization: Eastern Catholics in New Geographies
Online discussion panel with Natalie Kononenko (University of Alterta), and Sonja Thoams (Colby College), as part of the "Assemani Seminar for Eastern Catholic History 2025," co-organized by Jared Warren (IEG).
3 March 2025
Confession/alization and Eastern Christianities: A Roundtable on the State of the Debate
Discussion panel with Liliya Berezhnaya (Austrian Academy of Sciences), Alfons Brüning (Radboud University), Iryna Klymenko (Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München), and Cesare Santus (University of Trieste), as part of the "Assemani Seminar for Eastern Catholic History 2025," co-organized by Jared Warren (IEG).
25 – 27 April 2024
Dark Green Religion in Europe: History and Impacts, Dangers and Prospects
Conference, organised by Bernhard Gißibl (IEG), Kate Rigby (Universität zu Köln) und Bron Taylor (University of Florida), IEG Mainz
Programme
Selected publications
Erol, Ufuk: Taşradaki Alevilik Külliyatına Bir Örnek: Şah İbrahim Veli Ocağı Çorum Kolundan Bir Yazma (Ein Beispiel aus der alevitischen Literatur der Provinz: Ein Manuskript aus dem Çorum-Zweig von Şah İbrahim Veli Ocagi), in: Journal of Alevism-Bektashism Studies 27 (2023), pp. 83–103, DOI.Gargova, Fani: The Central Synagogue of Sofia: Westernization, Urban Change, and Religious Reform, in: Das östliche Europa: Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte – volume 018, Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 2024.
Gargova, Fani / Tilmann Gempp-Friedrich: Forschungsdaten im Projekt „Synagogen-Gedenkbuch Hessen“, in: Anke Naujokat / Sophie Helas (Hg.): Build on data = Auf Daten bauen: Forschungsdaten in der historischen Bauforschung und Denkmalpflege. Tagungsband zur Community-Tagung des DFG-Projekts baureka.online 4–5 May 2023 at Technische Universität Berlin, Aachen: RWTH Aachen University 2024, pp. 62–65, DOI.
Harrer, Kilian: Pilgrimage, in: EGO: Europäische Geschichte Online = European History Online (2025-01-13), URL.
Harrer, Kilian: Wallfahrt als Grenzerfahrung? Zur Sakralmobilität zwischen Ostfrankreich und dem schweizerischen Raum im 18. Jahrhundert, in: Simona Boscani Leoni / Claire Gantet / André Holenstein / Timothée Léchot / Bérangère Poulain (Hg.): Le Corps helvétique et la France (1660-1792): Transferts, asymétries et interdépendances entre des partenaires inégaux, Genf: Slatkine 2024, S. 145–157.
Harrer, Kilian: Troubled Feast, Contested Fast: The Uniate Dilemma and the Rural Economy in Eighteenth-Century Poland-Lithuania, in: Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 72, 1 (2024): S. 20–43, DOI.
Jürgens, Henning: Täuferische Rechtskulturen, in: Kęstutis Daugirdas / Christian V. Witt (Hg.): Konfession, Recht, Politik. Konfessionelle Prägungen, interkonfessionelle Dynamiken und politisch-rechtliche Einhegungen konkurrierender Sozialgestalten, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag 2025, S. 99–117.
Jürgens, Henning: Andreas Osiander und Johann Agricola - Die „Gegenpole“ im Wittenberger Netzwerk: Beobachtungen zur Personalisierung der innerprotestantischen Debatten, in: Jan Martin Lies (Hg.): Streitkultur, Akteure, Wirkungen: Der lutherische Bekenntnisbildungsprozess in der zweiten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2025, S. 133–154, DOI.
Jürgens, Henning: Peace of Westphalia 1648, in: Karel van Nieuwenhuyse / John Maiden / Stefanie Sinclair (Hg.): Teaching and Learning about Religious Diversity in the Past and Present: Beyond Stereotypes, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan 2024, S. 81–92, DOI.
Jürgens, Henning: Confederation of Warsaw 1573, in: Karel van Nieuwenhuyse / John Maiden / Stefanie Sinclair (Hg.): Teaching and Learning about Religious Diversity in the Past and Present: Beyond Stereotypes, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan 2024, S. 71–80, DOI.
Jürgens, Henning / Wien, Ulrich A. (Hg.): Rezeption und Memoria der Reformation im östlichen Europa (VIEG 142), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2024, DOI.
Jürgens, Henning / Vasques Filho, Demival / Deicke, Aline: Laien und Experten während der ersten Medienrevolution. Transformation der christlichen Wissensordnung in der frühen und späteren Reformation, in: Berger, Joachim /Wübbena, Thorsten (Hg.): Wissen ordnen und entgrenzen – vom analogen zum digitalen Europa? Ein Europa der Differenzen, Band 4, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2023, S. 159–180.
Jürgens, Henning (Hg): Dass Gerechtigkeit und Friede sich küssen: Repräsentationen des Friedens im vormodernen Europa. Beiträge der Tagung „Dass Gerechtigkeit und Frieden sich küssen – Repräsentationen des Friedens im vormodernen Europa“, 28.–30. Juni 2018, perspectivia.net 2021, DOI.
Radeva, Zornitsa: Innovation or (Latent) Calvinisation? Jean Sperlette (1661–1725) and His Logica nova at the University of Halle, in: Marian Füssel / Andreas Pečar (Hg.): Aufklärungsuniversitäten im Alten Reich? Halle, Göttingen und der Wandel der deutschen Universität im 18. Jahrhundert Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter 2024, S. 95–125.
Radeva, Zornitsa: Hermann Conring (1606–1681), die Geschichte der Naturphilosophie und die Herausforderung der frühneuzeitlichen Empirie, in: Hartmut Beyer / Sinem Kılıç / Bernd Roling / Benjamin Wallura (Hg.): Alte und neue Philosophie: Aristotelismus und protestantische Gelehrsamkeit in Helmstedt und Europa (1600–1700), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2023, S. 179–202.
Reinhardt, Nicole: Distinction and Emulation: The Accademia degli Oziosi between Bologna, Mantua, and Rome, in: Rivista di letteratura storiografica italiana 7 (2023): S. 125–140, DOI.
Reinhardt, Nicole: Orizzonti (non) solo europei in un archivio patrizio Bolognese. La collezione di manoscritti di Vincenzo Ferdinando Ranuzzi Cospi tra Bologna, Londra e Austin/Texas, in: Francesca Boris / Maria Teresa Guerrini (Hg.): Il patriziato bolognese e l'Europa, Bologna: Il Chiostro dei Celestini 2022, S. 203–218.
Reinhardt, Nicole: Confessors, in: Erin Griffey (Hg.): Early Modern Court Culture, London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 2022, S. 84–97.
Sing, Manfred: Islam und Antisemitismus, in: Merkur 900 (2024): S. 99–108.
Research Aims
This research group conceives of Europe as a space marked by religious plurality and analyses how religion articulates itself here as knowledge, experience and interaction. The study of the emergence of knowledge of and about religion is part of the history of a European epistemics of comprehending the world, one that always took place in dialogue with the non-European world. The focus here is on the generation and mobilisation of religious knowledge by historical actors. Religious knowledge is created, secured and constantly renegotiated in the conflict between religious experts and laypeople. The dynamic exchange with other fields of knowledge – such as (natural) philosophy, medicine, economics or politics – contributes to the fact that religious knowledge is not only constantly repositioned but also constantly reformulated.The research group "Religion" focuses on the generation and mobilisation of religious knowledge, the analysis of religious experiences and the significance of religious interactions for social processes, structures and hierarchies in Europe as a religiously plural space. The research area initially focuses on religious experiences and interpretations of upheaval from the point of view of historiographical interpretations as well as from the perspective of historical actors. Furthermore, shifts in the knowledge regimes of historical actors will be accentuated and the level of experience included. In addition, the research at the IEG asks what effects the strategies of breaking with tradition and norms postulated by the historical actors themselves have on religious and social interaction.
Religious experience and interaction are closely interwoven, but are to be kept analytically separated. Experience is primarily understood as inwardly oriented aspects and practices of lived religion, for instance mysticism, spirituality and piety, aesthetics, self-cultivation and individualisation, including the role of the senses and emotions. The differentiated examination of religious experiences makes it possible to grasp historical ruptures but also individual and collective re-positioning as well as their identity-forming function.
Religion as interaction considers the pragmatic dimension of religion and thus reveals how and by what means religious knowledge and religious experience become socially relevant. In this way, religion comes into view as a social fact and fundamental form of human communication that characterises, establishes and maintains human communities. Religious interactions are therefore fundamental to how groups and individuals understand time, their origins and their future. They mediate and legitimise structures and hierarchies that are historically characterised by constant change, new arrangements and syncretism. Mission, migration and diaspora, but also expulsion and enslavement act as constitutive but ambivalent factors in these processes. The IEG’s research agenda therefore includes the investigation of the role of complex religious constellations in the internal configuration of Europe on the one hand and in the resulting ways of relating to the world since the early modern period on the other.