"Multiple Secularities - Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities" is the name of a German Research Foundation (DFG)-funded Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (CASHSS) that has been investigating the complex distinctions between the religious and the secular for almost eight years. "The aim is to create a better understanding of the problems associated with the demarcation of these areas in different regions of the world, also in order to explain related conflicts," says religious scholar and co-spokesperson of the collaborative research project, Professor Christoph Kleine from Leipzig University. The final conference on the results and perspectives of the project will take place from 12 to 14 October.
By taking a global and interdisciplinary approach that also looks at history in different periods, the researchers succeed in overcoming conventional views of secularisation, secularism and secularity. Professor Kleine explains: "Our research allows us to look at religion and secularity from different angles. We want to understand how societies in different parts of the world have demarcated religious and secular spheres of activity, institutions, ideas and norms, and thus institutionalised a particular form of secularity. And we believe that such distinctions are made not only in Western modernity, but in many cultures and epochs, albeit in very different ways. That is why we speak of multiple secularities." In this respect, the interdisciplinary research team differs from conventional academic approaches, which are often based on modernisation theory, evolutionary, ethnocentric or normative approaches: "Instead, what we offer is a global perspective that takes a broader view of the issue. By integrating a variety of historical and regional contexts, we can also find historical explanations of the reasons for the diversity of secularities in the present."
What is particularly remarkable about the "Multiple Secularities - Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities" Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences is its diversity. Some 70 scholars from around the world have studied the diversity of secularities and their manifestations in different cultures and regions - with very different results. However, one conclusion can be drawn for all of them: "While the differentiation between the religious and the secular varies greatly in different societies and is often highly controversial or even questioned, it is established everywhere in some way. And the way in which boundaries are drawn, particularly between religious and secular stakeholders, is very often a source of conflict and tension. This is very often about who has the power of interpretation and control over
About Professor Kleine
Professor Christoph Kleine has been Professor for the History of Religions with a focus on Buddhism at Leipzig University since 2008 and is currently co-spokesperson of the "Multiple Secularities - Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities" Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences. He is also vice-chairman of the German Association for the Study of Religions (DVRW) and editor of the Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft. He also contributes his scientific expertise to the New Global Dynamics Cluster of Excellence project at Leipzig University.Katrin Henneberg