Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formations Blog

UrbRel Workshop “Urbanity & the formation of religious groups”

How has an ‘urban way of life’ influenced the genesis of different religious and confessional groups? This June, UrbRel postdoc Martin Christ is convening a workshop setting out from this question. The working hypothesis of the workshop is that by considering the mutual formation of religion and urbanity, we can also gain new insights into the phenomenon of religious group formation(s) and find new ways to understand how, when and why, groups formed. The workshop will take place in June in Erfurt.

Vergangene koloniale Größe – Das Überseemuseum und die Stadt Bremen im 19. Jahrhundert und heute

Im öffentlichen Diskurs ist das Thema Kolonialismus derzeit sehr präsent. Oft geht es hierbei um unrechtmäßig angeeignetes Kulturgut. Dass hinter der Aneignung von Objekten viel mehr steckt, zeigt Mirjam Wien in ihrem Beitrag. Darin nimmt sie die Narrative des Überseemuseums Bremen damals und heute unter die Lupe.

Martin Christ receives 2022 Ecclesiastical History Society Book Award           

Martin Christ has received the 2022 Ecclesiastical History Society Book Award for first monograph. The award was bestowed on Christ’s “Biographies of a Reformation: Religious Change and Confessional Coexistence in Upper Lusatia, 1520-1635”, published with Oxford University Press in 2021. Its the third book award for Christ, who is a Junior Fellow with the UrbRel group.

Conference report: Urbanity. History, Concept, Uses

Our 2022 annual conference was planned as an interdisciplinary event of with innovative format including three parts: a theoretical part on conceptual tools widely used by the KFG, a World Café and lightening talks. It took place in Ettersburg castle (Weimar) and continued on the results of two summer workshops. The conference looked at the concept of urbanity and its possible variations. How do we live (together) in dense urban spaces? How has urbanity been defined so far, how can we contribute to better grasp and describe it?

Impressions from Srirangam

In addition to working on Lyon and Hamburg, Susanne Rau also writes on early modern Indian cities, especially Calicut on the Malabar coast. In September 2022, her itinerary took her to, amongst other places, Srirangam. We are sharing some of her impressions from her last trip to Srirangam and its temples!

Christmas and Christmas Markets

The basic theological idea of the Christian Christmas is the incarnation of God, the “birthday of the Lord”, as it has been called since the fourth century AD, natalis domini. What the Latin churches celebrate on 25 December, the Eastern churches associate with 6 January, Epiphany, the “Epiphany of the Lord”. You have to delve deep into the philosophy and mythology…

Take a look at the UrbRel glossary!

Following the 2022 annual conference on “Urbanity – History, Concept, Uses”, we are delighted to publish the first entires of the UrbRel glossary. More entries will follow during 2023, for now we are starting with more space-oriented terms from the first funding phase.

Corinna Riva and Harry Maierr

UrbRel podcasts: Corinna Riva & Harry Maier

In this week’s edition of our podcasts Corinna Riva (UCL), talks to Harry Maier about his research and the books and music he’d take to that island out at sea. Harry Maier is professor of New Testament and Early Christian Studies at the Vancouver School of Theology and last came to Erfurt in the summer of 2022 as a visiting fellow to the UrbRel gorup.

UrbRel podcasts: Corinna Riva & Austin Collins

2021/22 Corinna Riva (UCL), the Distinguished Fellow at the Max Weber Centre and member of our UrbRel research group, hosted a series of interviews with other UrbRel fellows, inspired by the radio show Desert Island Disks on the BBC. We’re delighted to present the first episode where Corinna interviews Austin Collins, one of our PhD students. Enjoy!

Research foci for the next years

In the winter of 2021/22, the Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies “Religion and Urbanity” (UrbRel) was positively evaluated for a second funding phase and in April 2022 the main committee of the DFG granted a second funding period from 2023 until 2026. During this time, the UrbRel group will continue its work within the chosen temporal and spatial framework of the first millennium BC until today in Europe, the Mediterranean and South Asia. To this end, we have selected three focal areas of investigation and will establish three focus groups: Group formation and segmentation, mercantilisation, and boundary drawing.

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