Tübingen-Toronto Workshop: The Study of Religion — Pasts, Presents, & Futures

The broad intel­lec­tu­al con­tri­bu­tion of the work­shop will be cre­ative and expan­sive think­ing about press­ing needs and future goals for the study of reli­gion as a mul­ti-method­olog­i­cal aca­d­e­m­ic enter­prise with vary­ing publics and com­plex respon­si­bil­i­ties. The his­to­ry of our field includes a record of assess­ing how the study of reli­gion has been shaped by and has addressed the chang­ing demands of soci­ety and cul­ture. Tübin­gen has been a cen­ter of his­tor­i­cal crit­i­cal study of the bible and of Chris­t­ian the­ol­o­gy since the 19^th cen­tu­ry, which even­tu­al­ly con­tributed to the estab­lish­ment of the study of reli­gion as a sep­a­rate field in the human­i­ties. Since then, the study of reli­gion has shift­ed from an awk­ward rela­tion­ship with Chris­t­ian the­ol­o­gy, char­ac­ter­ized by attrac­tion and repul­sion, to a dis­ci­pline that con­sid­ers “reli­gion” itself to be a con­cept in need of crit­i­cal exam­i­na­tion, as it is deeply impli­cat­ed in colo­nial­ism, provin­cial­ism, and pow­er. The study of the­ol­o­gy, in the mean­time, has evolved and expand­ed in many ways, among them the increas­ing inte­gra­tion of reli­gious stud­ies into the­o­log­i­cal research and the estab­lish­ment of Islam­ic the­ol­o­gy with­in the west­ern acad­e­my. At a broad­er lev­el, we also rec­og­nize that reli­gion as a cat­e­go­ry can­not be ignored if we want to under­stand how sus­tain­able coex­is­tence on our shared plan­et can be achieved—or at least attempt­ed. 2025 is an excel­lent time to bring these two com­mu­ni­ties togeth­er to take stock and look ahead: the Depart­ment for the Study of Reli­gion at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to will begin cel­e­bra­tions for its 50^th Anniver­sary and the Cen­ter for Reli­gion, Cul­ture, and Soci­ety (found­ed in 2021) ani­mates new intel­lec­tu­al net­works, with close con­nec­tions to the Crit­i­cal Prox­im­i­ties Clus­ter of Excel­lence, at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tübin­gen.

This work­shop show­cas­es the strengths and pos­si­bil­i­ties of the study of reli­gion at Tübin­gen and Toron­to by con­ven­ing schol­ars who study a broad array of time peri­ods and regions, with a diver­si­ty of meth­ods, lan­guages, and reli­gious tra­di­tions at play. By build­ing con­ver­sa­tion across four key themes, the work­shop will address the chang­ing shape and pur­pose of the mul­ti-method­olog­i­cal study of reli­gion and artic­u­late a vision for what ques­tions, meth­ods, and the­o­ries will best enable futures for the study of reli­gion.

If you would like to attend the work­shop, please reg­is­ter by e‑mail to crcs@uni-tuebingen.de

The con­fer­ence venue Tübin­gen Cas­tle is unfor­tu­nate­ly not bar­ri­er-free. If you need assis­tance, we will be hap­py to help and organ­ise what­ev­er we can. Please let us know in advance by e‑mail, if help is need­ed.