Kolleg-Research Group "Religious Individualisation in Historical Perspective" (FOR 1013)

The research group investigates cases of individualization within the medium of religion and their consequences for religious change, that is, in terms of their religious historical dynamics. In particular, it scrutinizes the presence and extent of individual scope for religious action, the resulting forms of religious traditions and religious reflections on individuality prior to and external to occidental modernity and during the period of modern theory formation. The idea here is to replace sweeping theories on individualization and corresponding universal histories with scrutiny of the preconditions for, and forms of, phases of increasing and decreasing individualization, together with investigation of the handing down and diffusion of religious concepts of individuality. By drawing on historical and systematic disciplines, we intend to open up new sources for religious history and scrutinize and modify paradigms for the description of religions, religious experience and religious change.