Digital Teaching
The seminar will be held in-classroom.
Course Contents
"Believing in God or a higher power is a purely private decision - it has nothing to do with society" - or so is often said today. Or: "Religion has no meaning for modern societies, since the expansion of scientific rationality forecloses any possibilities of being seriously religious." Or: "We need religion, because our society would lose all values, ethics or morals otherwise - only religion warrants charity, manners and mutual respect." Or: "Without religion, modern life is meaningless."
In this seminar, we will investigate the various roles and functions which religion can take on in modern societies. We will look at, on one hand, theories in the sociology of religion by Simmel, Durkheim, Luhmann, Oevermann and others. On the other, we will read empirical case studies on, e.g., the role of religion in the US tech Mecca of Silicon Valley, Islamic practice in Germany or the 'neoliberalization' of religion in Indonesia today.
One main focus of the seminar is going to be the relationship of religion and the social structures which have been described as "neoliberal". We ask, e.g., how religion and the 'entrepreneurial self' (Bröckling) interact and how the approach of Political Theology can shed light on the problem of social inequality in Neoliberalism. On the converse, we investigate questions such as why it is especially conservative religion that seems to carry the day in late modernity.
The seminar will be held in-classroom.
Course Contents
"Believing in God or a higher power is a purely private decision - it has nothing to do with society" - or so is often said today. Or: "Religion has no meaning for modern societies, since the expansion of scientific rationality forecloses any possibilities of being seriously religious." Or: "We need religion, because our society would lose all values, ethics or morals otherwise - only religion warrants charity, manners and mutual respect." Or: "Without religion, modern life is meaningless."
In this seminar, we will investigate the various roles and functions which religion can take on in modern societies. We will look at, on one hand, theories in the sociology of religion by Simmel, Durkheim, Luhmann, Oevermann and others. On the other, we will read empirical case studies on, e.g., the role of religion in the US tech Mecca of Silicon Valley, Islamic practice in Germany or the 'neoliberalization' of religion in Indonesia today.
One main focus of the seminar is going to be the relationship of religion and the social structures which have been described as "neoliberal". We ask, e.g., how religion and the 'entrepreneurial self' (Bröckling) interact and how the approach of Political Theology can shed light on the problem of social inequality in Neoliberalism. On the converse, we investigate questions such as why it is especially conservative religion that seems to carry the day in late modernity.
- Lehrende: Demian-Noah Niehaus
Semester: ST 2023