Contemplating religion has long ceased to be the sole privilege of theology and religious studies. In cultural studies, a broad spectrum of theories and methods has developed, exploring the role of religion as an important socio-cultural factor in the modern world. This volume is a collection of contributions from history and political studies, sociology and Islamic studies, ethnology, religious studies and theology, demonstrating and interpreting these changes in research on religion.

The ethical significance of pneumatology lies in its concept of reality, which includes personal and cultural ethics. In discussion with Karl Barth’s and Paul Tillich’s theology of the Holy Spirit this concept is presented as a fundamental approach to ethics. While Barth focuses on aspects of personal ethics, Tillich accentuates cultural ethics. This essay brings together both perspectives and especially exposes the relevance of the cultural aspects. Eventually it sketches the outlines of a contemporary theological concept of ethics.

The interpretation of Christian religion and theology is a very important aspect of Michel Foucault's work. But in theology Foucault is predominantly noticed as the thinker of the “death of the subject”, less as an thoughtful and original interpreter of Christianity. This essay presents an outline of Foucault's statements on Christianity from his early works to his later books and lectures. It especially focuses on his interpretation of the Reformation and Protestantism. The central thesis is, that reading these texts it (...) becomes clear, that Foucault's interest is not the “death” of the subject, but the concept of the individual and its conduct of life in the modern world. Furthermore it is shown, that Reformation and Protestantism are key factors in this concept. (shrink)

The Protestant sources used by Max Weber in his early writings, especially The Protestant Ethic, are well known. They show his familiarity with the theological discourses of his day. Weber's conception of religious individualism and his activities in church politics, e.g. the Evangelisch-Sozialer-Kongress, are the result of his juxtaposition of Lutheranism and Calvinism, of active and passive states of religiousness. This itself was deeply influenced by nineteenth-century Protestant theology. Due to this, it is common to speak of Weber's affinity with (...) German liberal theology. Although Weber's famous lectures on science and politics as a vocation, delivered in Munich in 1917 and 1919, have been called, the authentic offspring of The Protestant Ethic‘, the lectures have not yet been properly researched with respect to their theological sources. This paper argues that in Science as a Vocation Weber, firstly, regards modern Protestant theology and its distinction between ‘religion’ and ‘theology’ as a fundamental insight favouring the rise of modern science. This has to be understood in the context of the debate on the ‘revolution in science’ in the early twentieth century, when Weber passionately defended the right of specialised science. Secondly, Weber had been increasingly influenced by Julius Wellhausen's work on the history of Israel, especially his interpretation of the prophets, which Weber studied intensively for his own work on ancient Judaism. Wellhausen's opposition of the prophet's heroic individualism, on the one hand, and institutionalized religion, on the other, affects Weber's later interest to clearly distinguish between the Christian ethics of brotherhood and the needs of modern politics. This is of fundamental import for the well-known differentiation between ‘the ethic of principled convictions’ and ‘the ethic of responsibility’. This paper puts forward the thesis that in the lecture Politics as a Vocation Weber develops a normative and radical concept of religion and theology, which leads him to criticize the conception of liberal theology within its own terms – despite the fact that it was a major source for his own work. (shrink)