Structuring concepts are an obvious form of such knowledge. Concepts such as “syncretism” and “evolution” relate different religious traditions to one another by entering into competition with internal perspectives and influence them. The identification and spread of internal religious inventories of knowledge can also lead to conflicts. From the perspective of the history of religions, “profanation” has been a significant accusation.
Producing and disseminating Knowledge about religion is not the exclusive privilege of the academic discipline of religious studies or of other disciplines that deal with religion. Knowledge about religion arises or is necessary in many contexts, for example intercultural relations stimulated by trade, immigration and tourism, or imperial expansion and the subsequent administration of large political formations. Colonialism and mission are particularly significant for the inception of the European study of religion. Knowledge thus generated becomes instrumental but may also constitute an element in a reciprocal exchange, a confrontation between knowledges. It may be be fruitful to investigate topics such as the relationship between Orientalism and Occidentalism or the perception of the major Christian confessions in Western and Eastern Europe from this perspective.

Knowledge about religion is not always a stabilizing factor but can sometimes be understood as problematic or even as a threat. Betraying the secrets of the mysteries in antiquity, the (alleged) revelation of the real reasons behind the polemics of the founders of religions against others, exploration of cultural debts, for example the relation between Biblical narratives and Mesopotamian or Egyptian myths and rites, parallelization between Holy Scripture and texts from “pagan” sources: all of these have been considered blasphemy or profanation by people of faith, and generated – even continue to generate - considerable resistance. Moreover the spread of religious knowledge from the elite to the general population may be viewed with mixed feelings. This section will trace the interplay between the “desire to know” and resistance to profanation in various religious and historical contexts.

Asaph Ben-Tov

"Ancient Oracles and Mystery Cults and the End of Christian Humanism (c. 1680-1750)" more: Asaph Ben-Tov

Daniel Weidner

"Glauben, Wissen, Verstehen – Der Streit um das Wissen der Bibel um 1800" more: Daniel Weidner

Jan Dresler

Mihaela Holban

"Hero of Alexandria and the polyphonic knowledgescape of the Roman Empire: on technical devices employed in the management of religious experience" more: Mihaela Holban

Riccarda Suitner

"Die Machtlosigkeit des Teufels. Wissenschaftliche Erkenntnis und Dämonologie bei Clemente Baroni Cavalcabò (1726-1796)" more: Riccarda Suitner

The close, multi-faceted, and conflict-laden relationships between the Orthodox East and the Latin West within history are well known and have continuously been the subject of discussion. In addition, these relationships have been connected to the production and dissemination of definite forms of knowledge about the respective other in quite different contexts. In light of a reciprocal polemic throughout history, a series of specific knowledge constructs and knowledge systematizations (e.g. in their respective historical writings) has emerged, which have been based on each church’s own perspectives in addition to existing prejudices. Images of the Christian West in the East and of the Christian East in the West developed as a result. The respective external or foreign perception of the other was almost always called into question, criticized as unacceptable, and consequently sharply rejected within each tradition. Several studies exist which deal with the historical confrontations (e.g. in the Byzantine era and thereafter). The topic has, however, received renewed attention recently in the context of new cultural studies, post-colonial studies, and post modernity. The theses of Orientalism (E. Said) or Balkanism (M. Todorova) have lent a new dynamic importance to the topic, because their major focus is the deconstruction of specific forms of knowledge, and the exposure of their criteria and motives. The question is: what does one know about the other today? How is it that such knowledge is nowadays more differentiated? What conclusions are we to draw? The panel encompasses the three most important Christian perspectives: Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant.

Karl Pinggéra

"Hinhören und Hinsehen - Evangelische Wahrnehmungen des Orthodoxen Christentums" more: Karl Pinggéra

Stamatios Gerogiorgakis

"Man kennt sich selber meist schlecht Wieso die Fortentwicklung der römisch-katholischen Theologie nicht mit einer veränderten Wahrnehmung der orthodoxen Theologie ihrerseits einhergeht" more: Stamatios Gerogiorgakis

Thomas Bremer

Zwischen Bewunderung und Abneigung - die katholische Sicht auf die Orthodoxie more: Thomas Bremer

Vasilios Makrides

"Die Weisheit der Halbwissenden: Orthodoxe Evaluierungen des westlichen Christentums" more: Vasilios Makrides

Not Applicable

From an anthropological perspective, Religions can be understood as comprehensive forms of life, experience, and symbolic meaning, in which invariant features articulate themselves in a culturally variable and historically path-dependend manner. Anthropologically, knowledge of religion always stands in light of the double perspective of both systematic and historical anthropology although an exchange between these two disciplines is often missing. From an evolutionary-anthropological and cognitive-scientific perspective, it is currently possible to observe a strong interest in religion. This interest, however, often proceeds with neglect of the historic anthropological knowledge of the variability and cultural embeddedness of religious practices. Conversely, a considerable distance on the part of the representatives of cultural anthropology can be observed over and against systematic approaches, which concentrate on trans-cultural invariants. In this panel, the goal will be to relate both dimensions to each other. This is most easily achieved by means of an emphasis of pragmatic-semiotic forms of knowledge of religion and their historic concretization. Possible examples of topics: the “axial-age debate”, the enlightenment’s discourse about religion, processes of semanticization of daily practices, the historic and systematic meaning of forms of embodiment, etc.

Bernhard Maier

"Knowledge, Faith and Speculation in Victorian Social Anthropology: The not so strange case of William Robertson Smith and James George Frazer" more: Bernhard Maier

Guo Ting

"Reconsider Divine Knowledge (Human Condition, Terminology and Methodology) in the Scope of Technoscience Age" more: Guo Ting

Magnus Schlette

"Supernaturalismus als Idolatrie. Mark Johnstons Konzeption einer natürlichen Theologie" more: Magnus Schlette