Survey: Master Programme Religious Studies

Many thanks to all the participants of the survey!   The survey has shown that a focus on world-wide religion and its political relevance and its contemporary violent phenomena rank very high among the interests. The first lectureship of the winter semester, which has been assigned to the religious scholar and sociologist PD Dr. Karsten Lehman from Vienna deals with this very issue. Every other Tuesday he will provide an overview of key issues such as religion and the public sphere, NGOs, violence and fundamentalism in a global perspective. During the summer semester Prof. Nehring (Erlangen) will organise several sessions about Buddhism in Europe and beyond. In the field of contemporary spirituality, respondents were particularly interested in mindfulness as well as neo-Hindu or neo-shamanistic forms. Concerning one of these subjects visiting scholar Dr. Christian Hackbarth-Johnson will offer two courses about the reception of yoga in the “West”. There is a lively interest in meeting members of other religion or participating in rituals, especially rituals of alternative medicine. These demands will be met in the study programme in several ways: first, through the guest lecturers and activities from the Center for Intercultural Theology and Study of Religions and secondly, through field trips dealing with Prof. Koch’s special field of research: alternative medicine.

• results of the survey (in German language) here