Research

Cover development

Development as a paradigm. Reflections on Sustainable International Cooperation, ed. by Patrick Becker and Knut V.M. Wormstädt, Bielefeld (transcript) 2023.

Ethics and Christian Musicking [Congregational Music Studies], ed. by Nathan Myrick and Mark Porter, London/New York (Routledge) 2021.

Research foci

  • Religion in the global (post-)modern age
     
  • Cultural transformation processes in modern societies
     
  • Dialogue between natural sciences and theology
     
  • Concepts of the afterlife
     
  • Rituals, Music and Sound
     
  • Climate change and new ecological relationships

Ongoing third-party funded projects

Youssef Dennaoui
  • Religious interpretive power conflicts and outbidding struggles in the global field of Salafism: 
    A discourse-analytical study of Salafist beliefs between Germany and Morocco, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) 2020-2024; carried out at RWTH Aachen University, project manager Youssef Dennaoui

    Film "Das Projekt Deutungsmacht"
     
  • Final conference of the project - 31.01. to 01.02.2025 in Aachen
  • Final report of the project (published on 19/09/2025)

 

Ongoing doctorates and habilitations

Research colloquium

Research colloquium from 7 - 9 July 2023 in Erfurt

Ongoing doctoral projects

  • Christian Gyamfi: The Phenomenology of African Traditional Religion and Culture - Reconfiguring the African Mind
  • James Victor Innyasi: Gender Roles in the Philosophy of Family: A Comparative Study of the Ancient Tamil Literature and the Contemporary Western Literature
    (Scholarship of the MWI)
  • Benedikt Nießen: An investigation of late medieval concepts of the afterlife in the context of socio-cultural developments
  • Kulandai Yesu Raja: An Inclusive Anthropological Conscientisation for the Synodal-Centric Church. A Rereading of Gaudium et spes 23-32
    (Scholarship of the MWI)
  • Claudia Stenske: The religiously meaningful potential of Technology. A multi-perspective investigation
    (Cusanuswerk scholarship)
  • Asad Madni: Transhumanism and the Future of Religion. A Comparative Analysis of Resonance in Transhumanist Groups and Spiritual Traditions
  • Sijo Chirayath: Beyond Mortality. A Comparative Study of Eschatological Perspectives in Eastern and Western Religious Traditions within the Multireligious and Multicultural Tapestry of India

Ongoing habilitation projects

  • Maryann Egbujor: Artificial Intelligence, Social Media and its Influence on Culture
    (university lecturer IMS - DW/Uni-Bonn/HBRS)

  • Judith Gruber: Theology as cultural studies? An interdisciplinary exploration in random samples
    (Professor of Systematic Theology Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

Series publishing

Cover Ceneno
  • Global Religion - Religion global (BRILL)
    edited by Patrick Becker and Claudia Jahnel
    Editorial Board: Afe Adogame (Princeton), Sharon A. Bong (Kuala Lumpur), Tomáš Halík (Prague), Carlos Mendoza-Álvarez (Mexico City/Boston), Markus Mühling (Wuppertal), Myriam Renaud (Chicago)
    Volume 1: Kenneth Centeno: Renegotiating the Sacred. A Search Towards a New Way of Understanding the Filipino Consciousness of God, 2022
    Volume 2: Bernhard Grümme et al. (eds.): Globale Christentümer. Theologische und religionswissenschaftliche Perspektiven, 2022
    Volume 3: Izak Y. M. Lattu: Rethinking Interreligious Dialogue. Orality, Collective Memory, and Christian-Muslim Engagements in Indonesia, 2023
Hanns Lilje Foundation Prize
  • Technology und Religion - Technology and Religion (Nomos)
    edited by Patrick Becker and Axel Siegemund
    Volume 2: Axel Siegemund: Grenzziehungen in Industrie- und Biotechnik. Transcendence and assertions of meaning in technological modernisation in Asia and Europe, 2022

    Awarded the Hanns Lilje Foundation Prize for Freedom and Responsibility