Religion and Modern European Cultures

While a large part of scholarly literature of the 20th century argued, in various ways, that modernity in Europe was a triumph of the secular, religion plays an increasing role in the 21^st century studies on European culture, identity and politics. We wanted to take advantage of the broad range of competence within the partners of CEMES and UCPH (historical, philosophical, aesthetic, cultural studies, regional studies, law, science and theology).

Academic work on the role of religion in modern European societies has often either had a political node itself or been used in political arguments and this is a theme of study in its own right. But it is also of vital importance to contextualize how religion (often along with ethnicity) has been tool for concord and cohesion as well as destruction, and how religion remains a vital element in collective memory and cultural production.

Purpose of the research group

The aim of the group is to make use of this rich expertise and to create a platform that stimulates and brings together the diverse research in religion and modern European cultures. The group will investigate agents and arenas for the discussions and negotiations about the role of religion in politics, intellectual heritage, identify formation and cultural life.

The objective of the group is to form a broad, yet focused, platform to:

• Connect students, scholars and international researchers in order to cultivate critical and creative research on religion and religious actors (local as well as global) in addition to the negotiation of religious components of heritage and culture in modern Europe.
• Create a visible/noticeable framework (workshops, seminars, conferences, PhD courses panel discussions, author meets critics and other public events) for researchers working with topics related to religion in order to create synergy and to make UCPH an attractive base for projects and research.
• Facilitate collaboration and further applications for funding for research in the area.

External members

The group is open for members affiliated to other institutions.