Religion and Modernity

The research cluster “Modernity”, chaired by Prof. Dr. Ernestine van der Wall, coordinates various research activities related to the roles and functions of religions in the recent past and present.

The research cluster “Modernity”, chaired by Prof. Dr. Ernestine van der Wall, coordinates various research activities related to the roles and functions of religions in the recent past and present.

A particular field of research of “Modernity” is the question how religious beliefs and practices respond to, and are transformed by, modernity in its various aspects such as the rise of the natural sciences and the modern nation state, Western democracies, globalization and migration, and the internet. Research concentrates on transformations of Islam, Judaism and Christianity in Europe, as well as Christianity and Islam in the Middle East, on social and psychological analysis of institutional and non-institutional religion, and on interactions between religious convictions and science and technology.