Developments in religious studies: towards a dialogue with religious education

Fundamentalism as a Challenge for Religious Education

Empirical research on fundamentalist biographies—presented are three case studies and a summary of research results—demonstrate the complex biographical-motivational factors for fundamentalist turns, but also a transformational potential. Explaining fundamentalist conversion and deconversion within a theoretical framework of fundamentalism as “modern anti-modernism” and as “dislocation of relig...

Religious Intolerance towards Western Churches in Russia

Our 2005 representative national survey (2,972 interviews) shows an overwhelmingly common and strong religious intolerance towards Western churches that are legally deemed “non-traditional” and are commonly perceived as foreign to Russia. Most Russians would not let Western groups build churches, establish religious schools, or engage in other basic religious activities in their hometowns. West...

Aspects of reductionism in religious studies

  Reductionism is a major methodological mistake in research and generally in thought; because it can pose as an obstacle to comprehensive views about the researched issue. This issue is more tangible in religious phenomena - due to the multidimensional entity of this subject – and can be more destructive. A researcher through focusing on one role and aspect of religion and concentrating on a ...

The Secular Benefits of Comparative Religious Education

Towards an Epistemology of Religious Traditions"

The vast majority of human beings derive their religious convictions from participation in a tradition, into which they were either born or converted. An important, but largely neglected, topic, therefore, is when, if at all, such participation is warranted) Quite a lot hangs on the answer to this question. For, as I shall make explicit, if it is warranted to participate in one tradition rather...