Completed Projects

Head: Dr. Stefan Schröder
Duration: 2021-2024
Funding: Robert Bosch Stiftung

The project started on 1 March 2021. In addition to Dr. Stefan Schröder, our research associate Sophie Faulstich is also involved in the project.

The goal of the project is to develop empirically grounded didactics for teaching religion in schools. The method will be suitable for popular religion-related subjects such as ethics and values and norms, as well as languages, history, and geography. The overarching learning objective of the didactics of the Study of Religion is Religion Literacy, which entails a critical and informed understanding of religion as a social phenomenon rather than a reproduction of common essentializing concepts of religion based in personal experience.  

The project comprises a programmatic and an empirical dimension, which are intended to inform and complement one another. The empirical part of the project involves putting common preconceptions students hold about religion “in a dialogue” with the broader didactic framework. 

In the framework of the project, there will be a constant exchange of ideas between scholars, education specialists and teachers in the form of workshops and conferences organised by the project team. The goal is to develop a didactic concept that will advance disciplinary discourse and contribute to the advancement of teaching practise.

Head: Dr. Benjamin Weineck
Duration: 2014 – 2016; 2017 – 2022
Funding: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)

Project description (in German)

Head: PD Dr. Monika Schrimpf
Duration: 2011 – 2014

Short description (in German)

Head: Dr. Karsten Lehmann
Duration: 2010 – 2014

Short description (in German)

Head: Prof. Dr. Christoph Bochinger
Duration: 2010 – 2013, extended until 2015
Funding: Schweizer Nationalfond

Short description (in German)

Head: Prof. Dr. em. Ulrich Berner, Dr. Magnus Echtler, Dr. Franz Kogelmann; PD Dr. Asonzeh Ukah
Duration: 2010 – 2011; 2013 – 24.5.2018
Funding: DFG

Project description 

Head: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Berner
Duration: 2008 – 2012
Funding: DFG

Further information (in German)

Head: Prof. Dr. Christoph Bochinger
Duration: 2007 – 2010
Funding: DFG

Short description (in German) 

Head: PD Dr. Monika Schrimpf
Duration: 2007 – 2011

Head: Prof. Dr. Christoph Bochinger
Duration: 2006 – 2012
Funding: SNF

Publication:
Christoph Bochinger (Hg.): Religionen, Staat und Gesellschaft. Die Schweiz zwischen Säkularisierung und religiöser Vielfalt, Zürich 2012.

Christoph Bochinger (Hg.): Religions, Etat et société. La Suisse entre sécularistion et diversité religieuse, Zürich 2012.

Press statement

Head: Prof. Dr. Christoph Bochinger
Duration: 2006 – 2008

Short description (in German) 

Head: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Berner, Dr. Franz Kogelmann
Duration: 2006 – 2009
Funding: DFG

Further information 

Head: Dr. Stefan Kurth
Duration: 2003 – 2007

Head: Prof. Dr. Christoph Bochinger (verantwortlich), Prof. Dr. Fuchs (Kath. Pastoraltheol., Tübingen), Prof. Dr. Gebhardt, (Soziologie, Koblenz), Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schoberth (Systematische Theologie, Erlangen).
Duration: 1999 – 2003
Funding: DFG

Short description (in German) 

Head: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Berner
Duration: 1998 – 2005
Funding: Thyssen-Stiftung

Further information (in German) 

Habilitation: Religionskundliche Didaktik als Anwendungsfeld der Religionswissenschaft

Habilitation: Routinizing the Black Messiah

Cumulative Habilitation to the scripture "Writing Religion. The Making of Turkish Alevi Islam. Oxford University Press 2013" and different essays. 

Habilitation: Stepping onto the Stage of International Relations – On the Construction of the Religious and Secular inside Religious NGOs in the context of the UNO

Cumulative Habilitation

Habilitation: Self-Cultivation and Guidance to Living in Contemporary Japanese New Religions. A Discourse Analytical Approach.

Habilitation: Der Askesediskurs in der Religionsgeschichte: Eine vergleichende Untersuchung der hinduistischen Saṃnyāsa-Upaniṣads und der frühchristlichen Apophthegmata Patrum

Dissertation: Elam in Exile: Religion and Nation among Iranian Christians in the Diaspora (Elam im Exil: Religion und Nation unter iranischen Christ*innen in der Diaspora)

Since the 1990s, a steadily growing community of Persian-speaking evangelical Christians has emerged in Iran. Today, the vast majority of its members are converts from Shiite Islam. While the Islamic Republic of Iran grants official autonomy rights to the Armenian and Assyrian Christian minorities that have lived there for centuries, Persian-speaking Christian communities are subjected to significant repression. These repressive measures lead many members of the Persian-speaking Christian community to emigrate from Iran. In exile, they often establish Persian-speaking diaspora churches attended by other Iranian emigrants.

My dissertation examines the publications and media productions of Persian-speaking evangelical churches in exile, with the aim of identifying the prevailing conceptions of an explicitly “Iranian-Christian” national identity. To this end, five Persian-language magazine series and 70 hours of Persian-language video material are analyzed, most of which consists of recordings of church services held in diaspora congregations. Although interviews with emigrated Iranian pastors were originally intended to be a central source, I was only able to conduct limited fieldwork due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, my dissertation also draws on seven interviews with leading Iranian pastors who were previously active in the evangelical movement within Iran.

An analysis of this material shows how Iranian evangelical Christians in exile reinterpret key components of Iran’s national cultural heritage in order to establish a connection to Christianity. For example, the ancient Iranian King Cyrus—often revered by Iranians as the “father” of their nation—appears as a spiritual role model for Iranian Christians and as a messianic figure sent by God for the Iranian people. Furthermore, my dissertation describes Iranian-Christian interpretations of the Iranian New Year festival, Nowruz, as conveying a Christian message. Nowruz celebrations play a central role in Iranian evangelical diaspora churches; in some cases, Iranian evangelicals argue that the full meaning of the festival can only be understood in connection with the message of the Christian Gospel.

A second focus of the study is the analysis of the relationship between religious practice and exile. Iranian evangelicals in the diaspora interpret their displacement from Iran as part of a larger divine plan, at the end of which lies a return to Iran or even the “Christianization” of the country. In doing so, Iranian evangelicals often draw comparisons with the fate of the people of Israel. Various passages from the Old Testament are used by Iranian pastors to support their claims to a role in the Christian history of salvation.

Overall, the dissertation is the first work in the academic study of religion on Iranian evangelical Christians to rely extensively on Persian-language primary sources. I hope that it can contribute to a better understanding of Iran’s religious landscape and its complexities.

Link to the book: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/iranian-christian-diaspora-9780755651726/

Dissertation: Being a "Good Muslim": The Muslim Students' Society (MSS) and the promotion of Islamic reform in Southwest Nigeria betweeb 1954 and 2014

Short description: By the 1950s, the Yoruba of southwest Nigeria had converted both to Christianity and Islam. However, while Nigerian education was dominated by Christians who mostly used their advantage to win converts into the religion, majority of Nigeria’s (northern) Muslims also looked down on Yoruba Muslims as less serious about their faith. As a result, Yoruba Muslim youths began to create their own sense of what it meant to be good educated Muslims in Nigeria, appropriating the influences of modernization to achieve their objective. Providing both mutual support and envisioning what a modern Muslim identity might look like, they engaged both with the practices and activities of important Muslim communities and modern institutions (and ideas) through a wide range of local, associational and social activities which sometimes breeds conflict and dissension in the larger Yoruba Muslim community. The proposed PhD will thus focus especially on the factors that led to the development of Muslim youth identity and culture and how they are constructed. It will also examine the influence of modernization and globalization in the formation of Muslim youth identity and culture and the conflicts between the vision of a modern Muslim youth identity and those of the mainstream Muslims.

Dissertation: Kızılbaş-Aleviten im osmanischen Staat zwischen Verfolgung und Integration

Dissertation: Freigeistige Organisationen in Deutschland

Dissertation: Die Grüne Bewegung. Ästhetische Formationen des Protests in der Islamischen Republik Iran

Dissertation: Conceptualizing Witchcraft - Investigating the Cultural and Cognitive Dimensions of Magic-Related Discourses in West African Context: A Case Study

Dissertation: Religion and Nature: The Case of Matobo National Park and its Vicinity

Dissertation: Witchcraft Accusation: A Case Study of Northern Ghana

Dissertation: 'Between belonging and rejection': The relationship of Charismatic churches in Ghana and traditional African culture

Dissertation: Modernizing Indigenous Priesthood and Revitalizing Old Shrines: Current Developments on Ghana's Religious Landscape

Dissertation: Managing Irreecha Ritual: Religion and Politics in Post 1991 Ethiopia

Dissertation: Die Entwicklung der jüdischen Gemeinschaft in Russland nach dem Zusammenbruch der Sowjetunion. Eine Gemeindestudie.

Dissertation: The Transformation of Aladura Christianity in Nigeria

Dissertation: Pilgrimages and Sycretism: Religious Transformation among the Arsi Oromo of Ethiopia

Dissertation: The Izala-movement in Nigeria: Its Split, Relationship to Sufis and Perception of Sharia Re-Implementation

Dissertation: Die Religionspolitik des Kaisers Julian. Ein inklusiver Monotheismus in der Spätantike?

Dissertation: Individualsynkretismus – Konstellationen und biographischer Wandel 'individualisierter' Religiosität

Dissertation: Untersuchungen zur Verwendung des ‚Numinosen’ als religions-wissenschaftliche Kategorie. Die Religionstheorie Rudolf Ottos und die norwegische Sagenwelt.

Dissertation: Religious Healing in East Africa. A Case Study of the Marian Faith Healing Ministry

Dissertation: The Living Faith Church (Winners Chapel), Nigeria. Pentecostalism, Prosperity Gospel and Social Change in Nigeria

Dissertation: Konversion zur Philosophie in der Spätantike. Kaiser Julian und Synesios von Kyrene

Dissertation: The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Nigeria. Local Identities and Global Processes in African Pentecostalism

Dissertation: Imbalu: Initiation Ritual among the Bamasaba of Uganda

Dissertation: The Emergence and Shaping of an African Independent Church: Christ Apostolic Church of Nigeria

Dissertation: Celestial Church of Christ: The Politics of Cultural Identity in a West African Prophetic-Charismatic Movement