New entries in “Religion and Urbanity online” (upload 2/2024)
The peer-reviewed, open access database of the “Religion and Urbanity” research...
Tagged: Antiquity
Congratulations to Christopher Degelmann on receiving the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz prize 2024!
Our former fellow Christopher Degelmann has been awarded with the prestigious Heinz Meier-Leibnitz prize by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The Meier-Leibnitz prize is the most important award presented by the DFG to early career researchers…
Conference Announcement: Making Boundaries 2025
The KFG « Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formations » is announcing its next annual conference, which will take place in Erfurt from the 4th to 6th June 2025. The topic is Making Boundaries – Performing Religion and Urbanity.
Some highlights from our blog
Since 2018 we have been publishing articles, reviews, reports and personal reflections on a variety of topics. In most cases they are tied in one way or an other to one of our research areas: South Asia, especially India and Pakistan, the Mediterranean from Antiquity until today, and Europe, especially in the Medieval and Early Modern period. We have picked some of our favourite entried by fellows and core group members of the Religion and Urbanity group in Erfurt.
Archäologie aus der Ferne: Religion und Urbanität im spätantiken Nordsyrien
von Verena Fugger. Wenn es um das Thema „Archäologie in Syrien“ geht, werden den meisten LeserInnen dieses Blog-Beitrags vermutlich noch die durch zahlreiche Medienkanäle verbreiteten Bilder der Sprengung des Beltempels in Palmyra durch Gruppen der Terrormiliz Islamischer Staat am 31. August 2015 lebendig in Erinnerung sein. Abgesehen von der unfassbaren humanitären Katastrophe, die dieser Krieg über die Bevölkerung brachte, gehörten die Zerstörung und Plünderung archäologischer Fundstätten, historischer Altstädte wie jener von Aleppo und musealer Exponate zu den größten Gräueltaten des Terrorregimes. Unwiederbringlich verloren sind zahllose Kulturgüter, die – wenn sie nicht durch direkte Kriegshandlungen oder Vandalismus zerstört worden sind – ihren Weg aus den örtlichen Museen in den illegalen Kunsthandel und von dort mittlerweile auch nach Deutschland gefunden haben.
Workshop: Making New Faith In/Visible
On 6 & 7 June 2024, the “Religion and Urbanity” research group is convening an international workshop in the visibility of new religious movements in urban space across time and space. The workshop is organised by Martina Stercken, Susanne Rau and Klara-Maeve O’Reilly.
New entries in “Religion and Urbanity online” (upload 1/2024)
The peer-reviewed, open access database of the “Religion and Urbanity” research group, which is published by De Gruyter and edited by Susanne Rau and Jörg Rüpke, has been updated with eight new articles. All articles are published open access.
Emotional Urban Apes – A Different Take on Religion and Urbanity
At the core of the research group Religion and Urbanity at the Max Weber Centre in Erfurt lies a keen interest in the ascription of value to different life forms relating to city and civic life, that is urbanity. Yet such valorisations do not necessarily presuppose one’s physical presence in a city. One may live a perfectly happy life in a villa rustica at a safe distance from interactions with the ‘masses’, but nevertheless – and presumably for that very reason – attributing urbanity to one’s own lifestyle by assuring oneself that true civil life is not found within the city, but either outside it or in the outskirts of it at the Sans souci.
Religious Ambivalences: Podcasts II
Part two of recordings of the introductory comments by participants of the 2023 “Religious Ambivalences” conference, organised by Elisa Iori and Jörg Rüpke in November 2023 in Erfurt.
Going West: Migrating Personae and Construction of the Self in Rabbinic Culture
A discussion of an example chosen from the series of readings concerned with the reception of Babylonian immigrants in the domain of the Palestinian rabbis. The example is taken from the chapter in which I discuss the Palestinian rabbis’ use of the figure of the Babylonian Other in shaping their collective Self. Those examples deal with the mockery of the Babylonian newcomers. This story is a final anecdote in the tragicomic trilogy of encounters between Babylonian immigrants and the Galilee’s inhabitants.
Panel Report: City Branding: Urbanity and the Construction of City Images in Europe and South Asia
On h-soz-kult, you can now read the panel report by our fellow Heinrich Lang on the “Religion and Urbanity” panel at the 2023 Deutscher Historikertag in Leipzig. the panel “City Branding: Urbanity and the Construction of City Images in Europe and South Asia” was convened by Martin Christ, Sara Keller and Susanne Rau.
Jörg Rüpke on “Holidays as Divine Property”
Jörg Rüpke has just published an article on Roman holidays with our colleagues at the SFB “Strukturwandel des Eigentums/ Structural Changes of Property” on “Holidays as divine property: Moving symbols of ownership from the countryside into the city”.
Robert Wiśniewski’s Lecture on Stealing and Preventing Theft in Late Antique Cities
How did people try to avoid being robbed and how did they react when it happened? Wiśniewski, drawing from a complex and varied set of sources (including letters, petitions, hagiography and inscriptions) focused on the interface of religion and society, showing how people used various strategies like divination or seeking help from religious figures. Theft in his lecture appeared to us as a complex societal phenomenon, shaking the sometimes fragile trust in local communities.
Erfurt Lectures in Late Antiquity
The ELLA series of lectures will bring to Erfurt the foremost experts in the field from Germany and abroad to discuss their research and to present new approaches on various aspects of this dynamic and fascinating time. In line with the focus of the “Urbanity and Religion” centre in Erfurt, a keen eye will be kept o the intersection of religion and urbanity.
Ashokan Places. A Tour in Madhya Pradesh with Meera Dass and Susanne Rau
In April 2023, Meera Dass visited a series of places linked to the Ashokan period in Madhya Pradesh, together with Susanne Rau. The initial stop was at the District Museum at Vidisha, where amongst other exhibits, Dr. Dass discussed a Yaksa and Yaski statue from the 2nd century BCE.
