Panel description: This panel highlights the vibrant and interdisciplinary landscape of religion-related research in Vienna, emphasizing its contributions to the broader discourse on religion and socio-cultural transformations. Vienna, with its unique position at the crossroads of diverse cultural, historical, and intellectual traditions, serves as a fertile ground for innovative scholarship that examines religion as a dynamic force in shaping and responding to societal change.
While rooted in the city's scholarly environment, the panel's scope transcends local boundaries, engaging with global perspectives on religion and transformation. By adopting an intentionally broad thematic framework, the panel welcomes contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including religious studies, theology, philosophy, sociology, history, ethics, educational sciences, law, and South Asian studies. This openness facilitates the exploration of religion's intersections with pressing contemporary issues, such as migration and the reconfiguration of identities and communities in an increasingly interconnected world, while also incorporating historical insights and in-depth case studies.
Through this diversity of perspectives, the panel seeks to demonstrate how Vienna-based research contributes to understanding religion as both a catalyst for and a reflection on socio-cultural transformation. It aims to foster dialogue among scholars and encourage new collaborations, ultimately showcasing Vienna as a hub for innovative and impactful research on religion.
Papers:
"PARTING OF THE WAYS" - THE LATE SEPARATION BETWEEN JEWS AND CHRISTIANS, AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR JEWISH-CHRISTIAN DIALOGUE
Tiwald M. (Speaker)
,
Öhler M. (Speaker)
University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria
This is a joint paper by Markus Tiwald and Markus Öhler (both Vienna): In the first part, M. Tiwald will show that all the books of the so-called "New Testament" can only be understood, it they are read against the backdrop of early Judaism. In the second part, M. Öhler will focus on the much-discussed passage in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians (9:19-22), and will show how the self-perception of identity was described by a religious innovator.
TAPPING INTO EMERGING GLOBAL PUBLICS IN THE 1960S: PUTTING TO USE RADIO TECHNOLOGY IN AN EFFORT TOWARDS PROMOTING THE GOSPEL IN APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA
Rüther K. (Speaker)
University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria
Across Southern Africa, the 1960s were a period of huge change in church and mission structures. They were also a time when apartheid and the struggle against it became entrenched more pertinently. Moreover, they were a period characterised by optimism in the promises of technology and its possible positive impact on society. In the context of this transformation at he Lutheran World Federation launched a radio project intended to broadcast a devotional, educational and cultural programme, geared towards listeners in African and Asian countries and recorded and written up mainly by local staff. Whom did Radio Voice of the Gospel address? Which professional career paths did it open up? Whose tastes did it respond to? Did it offer a sense of unity to parts of a fractured South African society?
REDEFINING RELIGION AFTER 1979: ORIENTALISM MEETS ISLAM
Lohlker R. (Speaker)
University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria
After the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the attacks of September 9, 2001, and after the perception of Islam changed. Islam was perceived as a threat to Western interest, civilization, religions. This development may be considered as the outcome of a conflictual history of Europe/Christianity and Islam since the emergence of Muslim communities. This contribution claims there is a qualitative difference in the Western perception of Islam after 1979 when Western polities defined what is to be considered Islamic without understanding this complex phenomenon, historically and contemporary. Religion turns out to be non-religion.
EXPLORING INTERTEXTUALITY AND CULTURAL INTERDEPENDENCE: THE ROLE OF ISRĀʾĪLIYYĀT IN ADVANCING QUR'ANIC TEXTUAL STUDIES
Kurt T. (Speaker)
University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria
This study examines the intertextuality and cultural interdependence between the Qur'an, its exegesis (tafsīr), and Jewish and Christian traditions, with particular attention to the role of isrāʾīliyyāt in shaping early Islamic thought. Qurʾānic exegesis emerged within the religious and cultural milieu of late antiquity, engaging with pre-existing Jewish and Christian narratives to affirm, reinterpret, and reorient theological paradigms. The incorporation of isrāʾīliyyāt, derived from biblical, pseudepigraphical, and apocryphal sources, reflects the dynamic interplay between the Qurʾānic message and external traditions. While these elements enriched exegetical efforts, they also introduced a potential tension between the Qurʾān's transformative theological vision and a later tendency in tafsīr to revert to pre-Islamic interpretations. This study highlights how the early exegetical tradition negotiated this tension, illustrating a broader process of interreligious exchange and theological redefinition that underscores the reciprocal and multi-dimensional interactions between Islamic, Jewish, and Christian intellectual and textual traditions.
AN ISLAM WITHOUT SHARI'A: TOWARDS CONCEPTUALIZATION OF ALEVI THEOLOGY IN CONTEMPORARY CONTEXTS
Yildirim R. (Speaker)
University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria
Over the past three decades, the history and religion of the Alevi community—a Muslim minority comprising approximately 12 to 15 percent of Turkey's population, as well as a significant immigrant population in Western Europe—have increasingly attracted scholarly attention across various academic disciplines, including history, sociology, anthropology, folklore, musicology, political science, and religious studies. This growing body of research has contributed significantly to our understanding of Alevism. However, while these studies have extensively explored the historical, cultural, traditional, and ideological dimensions of Alevi identity, relatively little scholarly focus has been directed toward the theological aspects of Alevi belief and practice. This is largely due to the tendency among scholars to regard Alevism as a heterodox tradition on the periphery of Islam, which is often presumed to lack a systematic theology.
Challenging this assumption, the present paper argues that Alevi tradition has developed a coherent and systematic theological framework, distinct from both Sunni and Twelver Shi'ite theological systems. Drawing on recent research into primary sources produced by Alevis from the fourteenth century onward, this paper explores the foundational principles of Alevi theology and offers a conceptualization that presents Alevi theology as a spiritual, pledge-based alternative to the Shari'a-centered theologies of Sunni and Twelver Islam.
RELIGIOUS WOMEN AS POLITICAL ACTIVISTS AND/OR SEARCHERS FOR TRUTH. REFLECTIONS ON POST-SECULAR ENTANGLEMENTS
Grenz S. (Speaker)
University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria
The focus of this paper is on religious/spiritual women who also identify as feminists. The aim is to reconstruct their lived religiosity in terms of two aspects, their political activism and their knowledge production as self-empowered religious subjects. In both aspects their perspectives and activities on gender and sexuality or gender and sexuality rights is in the center of the analytical reconstruction. More concretely, this paper is on interviews with two feminists who are activists in the field of environment and gender and who link their religious/spiritual knowledge production and practices to academic knowledge stemming from areas such as quantum physics or climate research. Thus, both are spiritual but nevertheless academically interested. They do not neglect scientific results but instead integrate it into their religious/spiritual knowledge production and lived religiosity. As a result, they form an interesting case against stereotypical conceptions of religiosity.
RE-CONCEPTUALIZING SECULARITY: FREEDOM OF BELIEF, STATE NEUTRALITY, AND BEYOND
Hammer S. (Speaker)
University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria
In today's liberal democracies, the principle of State secularity tends to be perceived as having been absorbed by equal religious freedom and religious neutrality of the State: Everybody has a guaranteed right to follow his/her convictions, and the State is limited to neutral rationality and must not adopt any positions based on particular comprehensive worldviews. Yet the possibility of isolating public political reasoning from deep convictions about the essence of being human is questionable. Thus, in a democracy, religions and other worldviews cannot be prevented from impacting political decisions. As an alternative, State secularity may be re-conceptualized by attaching it to the early modern virtue of tolerance and developing it into an institutional virtue: Beyond merely guaranteeing equal freedom of belief, secular democracy would thus aim at accommodating conflicting worldviews in political decision making as far as compatible with upholding equal rights for everybody.
JEWISH STUDIES IN THE FIELD OF TENSION BETWEEN CONFESSIONAL CULTURE AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Langer G. (Speaker)
University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria
As an academic institution, Jewish studies is caught between the conflicting priorities of an objective academic focus and at the same time a positive reference to Judaism in the face of a massive rise in anti-Semitism and a growing urgency to position itself in an "identitarian" way. Jewish communities, but also the political and social public, expect clear stances and often statements. The paper sheds light on this, but also on the current situation of Judaism in Europe. All statistics point to a decline in the Jewish population in the coming decades from around 1.4 to 1.2 million people (2050). At the same time, the Haredi/ultra-Orthodox Jewish orientation is the only movement worldwide, and therefore also in Europe, that is ensuring a growth in the Jewish population. In their attitudes, these groups often counter a so-called "Western" model of society. This poses new challenges. How can and should Jewish Studies respond to these developments?
POLITICS AND THE SACRED. THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN SIMONE WEIL AND GEORGES BATAILLE AMIDST A EUROPE IN CRISIS
Schneider P. (Speaker)
University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria
The personal and theoretical relationship between the philosophers Simone Weil (1909-1943) and Georges Bataille (1897-1962) remains largely unexplored, despite their shared involvement in the French anti-fascist group Cercle communiste démocratique from 1932 to 1934. In my presentation, I will introduce you to the few surviving fragments of their stunted discussions about the nature of political revolution and appropriate forms of action against the rising threat of fascism in Europe. After the dissolution of the Cercle in 1934, Weil and Bataille each went their own ways - but not, as I will argue, without having left a lasting mark on each other. I will follow them on their respective journeys through the horrifically changing political landscapes of 1930s Europe. Constantly thinking, writing and acting in opposition to these developments, I want to reconstruct how both would eventually conclude that the political crisis of their time also has a religious dimension.
WHATEVER IT TAKES? A THEOLOGICAL CRITIQUE OF SACREDNESS IN CONTEMPORARY HIGH-PERFORMANCE SPORTS
Wolsink S. (Speaker)
University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria
Contemporary high-performance sports are often about stories of athletes as heroes and legends, as the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) achieving something superhuman. Such a view neglects the human nature of the athlete. This paper offers a theological critique of the sacredness in high-performance sports by considering modern sports in light of John D. Caputo's radical theology of the cross. Rather than seeing the cross as the site of divine victory, Caputo argues that the cross symbolizes the mortality and vulnerability of both humans and God. The cross represents the shattering of our expectations and illusions of power, status, and control. But it is exactly this shattering that opens up the possibility of the impossible beyond our expectations. What does this mean for sport? Instead of focusing on achievement and status, this paper argues for a view of sport in which the sacred is found in human vulnerability.
TECHNOLOGY, RELIGION AND MORAL CHANGE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF SOLIDARITY
Filipovic A. (Speaker)
,
Dolezal E. (Speaker)
University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria
Solidarity, traditionally understood as the foundation of social cohesion, is caught in-between opportunities and challenges of digital technologies.
The article first examines theoretical foundations, in particular classical, religious and contemporary approaches to solidarity, and shows how its concept is being transformed by technological influences.
Second, the role of solidarity in digital spaces is analyzed. Here it becomes clear how digital technologies not only create new forms of networking, but also challenge existing moral and social values, even those with ties to the religious sphere.
The third section focuses on the political dimension: The digital structural transformation of the public sphere is changing the conditions under which solidarity, understood as a fundamental principle of Christian social ethics, can act as a political principle.
The article concludes with the proposition that solidarity must be rethought in the context of digitalization in order to stay meaningful as a moral and political guiding principle.
RELIGION, EXISTENTIAL RISK, AND SOCIAL CHANGE: HOW RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS CAN HELP SOCIETIES ADAPT TO EMERGING THREATS
Sandsmark E. (Speaker)
University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria
Existential risks, ranging from climate change to rapidly advancing artificial intelligence systems, are exerting new pressures on the contemporary world, transforming societies, regions, and nations. As we attempt to grapple with these evolving threats, what role can religion play? This paper uses the Catholic Church as a case study to examine how religious institutions might play a more active role in addressing existential risks, with interventions spanning the abstract to the concrete. I focus primarily on the former, looking at the teaching functions of the Church (in the form of official pronouncements from the Vatican and more informal guidelines issued by local authorities), but I also consider some more practical, everyday actions religious leaders and practitioners can take as the paper concludes.
INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE AS A TOOL FOR STRENGTHENING TOLERANCE, SOCIAL COHESION AND PEACE? EXPERIENCES AND PRACTICAL-THEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS
Polak R. (Speaker)
University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria
International organizations such as the UN or the OSCE as well as governments in Europe have recently discovered the contribution of interreligious dialogue to tolerance, social cohesion and peace. In fact, these social concerns are central to the theological self-understanding of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which are the focus of this lecture. Nevertheless, empirical studies demonstrate that the associated attitudes are not only absent among a significant proportion of believers, but that prejudices, nationalism and a limited universal ethical horizon are part of their set of values. Moreover, the understanding, expectations and interests with regard to interreligious dialogue often diverge - both in religious and political self-understanding as well as in practice. The lecture offers insights into this heterogeneous field and develops criteria and perspectives from an interdisciplinary perspective on how interreligious dialog can better unfold its potential. Thus, the possibilities, and the limits of interreligious dialogue will be explored.
EXPERIENCES OF FAILURE. THE TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATIONAL POTENTIAL OF NEGATIVITY IN THE CONTEXT OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATIONAL PROCESSES
Novakowits D. (Speaker)
University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria
As early as 2008, in her Discourses on Learning, Käte Meyer-Drawe coined the metaphor of the 'high-speed learner' as a new model for the learning sciences: oriented towards the requirements of increased efficiency and optimization, learning tends to become a process that should not be interrupted by disturbances and irritations. However, from the perspective of the philosophy of education, it is precisely such 'negative' moments of interruption that are considered to have an important educational potential. The relevance of these perspectives lies not least in the fact that even in current cultural studies discourses, moments can be identified that attribute to negativity a high significance for anthropological questions and for questions concerning the shaping of human self and world relations, which has so far received far too little attention. The lecture aims to take up the last-mentioned traces and to translate them into the context of religious education. Experiences of negativity (unavailability, absence, irritations, conflicts and failure) characterize a theological thinking that is oriented towards the biblical narratives. An attempt is made to show by way of example what educational potential can be developed from a stronger theological consideration of such negative elements in religious learning processes and how this can be used in the context of transformational educational processes.
RELIGION AND VALUES - A COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP. INSIGHTS FROM AN AUSTRIAN PERSPECTIVE
Rohs P. (Speaker)
University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria
In recent years, religion has increasingly become a politically and medially important issue in many European countries - including Austria. On the one hand, ongoing secularisation processes can be identified in large parts of the population, while on the other hand the observable plurality in the religious field is on the rise. At the same time, these developments are also accompanied by discussions about the claim of religions to the public sphere and the relationship between state and religious communities. In the public and political debate, the concept of values plays an important role, especially against the context of social integration and social cohesion. This contribution aims to shed light on the complex relationship between religion and values based on various empirical survey data from Austria and to discuss the opportunities, challenges and consequences associated with this.