Welcome to the Research Programme on Religious Communities and Sustainable Development!
Current News
Preliminary Findings
Survey: Religious Leaders’ Perspectives on Corona
In the last few months, we have been conducting a survey: Religious Leaders' Perspectives on Corona hu.berlin/corona-survey. The participation of all religious leaders in this survey is greatly appreciated.
Click here for the preliminary findings.
The Research Programme on Religious Communities and Sustainable Development is hosting the VIRTUAL PaRD Annual Forum and the PaRD General Assembly of Members (GAM), 3-4 September, 2020.
Virtual PaRD Annual Forum and GAM 2020
Due to the recent developments relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and considering its implications on everyone’s personal health and the society in general, the annual exchange between the PaRD members takes place from 3 to 4 September virtually this year and is hosted by the Research Programme on Religious Communities and Sustainable Development, Humboldt-University of Berlin.
The Virtual Annual Forum will facilitate open and forward-thinking discussions between various donor organisations, governmental entities, multilateral agencies and Faith Based/Faith Inspired organisations (FBOs/FIOs) and other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).
Speakers Profile Virtual Annual Forum 2020 include:
Bishop Sithembele Sipuka (President of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), Hon Dr Zwelini Lawrence Mkhize (Minister of Health in the Republic of South Africa), Alvin Botes (Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa), Dr. Iyad Abu Moghli, Amanda Khozi Mukwashi (CEO of Christian Aid), Prof. Wilhelm Gräb and Philipp Öhlmann (Head of the Research Programme on Religious Communities and Sustainable Development) and many others.
Click here for the complete profile of the speakers.
For more information about this Annual Forum, please click here.
INVITATION
Capacity Building Webinar:
“Religious Communities and Ecological Sustainability
in Southern Africa”
Tuesday, 1 September 2020 9 am - 1: 30 pm (GMT +2)
The Research Programme on Religious Communities and Sustainable Development at Humboldt University Berlin and the Water, Environment and Climate Action (WECARE) Work-Stream of the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD) are hosting a webinar on “Religious Communities and Ecological Sustainability in Southern Africa.” The webinar will provide insights into ecological sustainability from a theological perspective as well as into the engagement of religious leaders and faith-based organisations. Expert inputs and interactive discussions will feature e.g. water management, climate change, agriculture and eco-feminism.
We cordially invite all PaRD members, religious leaders, staff of development organisations, academic researchers, and individuals engaged with ecological sustainability to participate in the event.
Click here for further information.
Breaking Ground With Partners on Teaching Religion and Sustainable Development
While much of the world was in a reactive state of pandemic recovery, Dr Tanya van Wyk, from the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Pretoria, was proactively investing in the lives of students both at home and abroad.
From 20 to 30 July, Dr van Wyk, as co-ordinator and representative of the Faculty’s collaboration with the Research Programme on Religious Communities and Sustainable Development (RCSD) at Humboldt University (Berlin), participated in a digital intensive course on Religion and Development for students from African and German universities.
This article is originally published on the website of University of Pretoria.
The article can be found here.
CALL FOR PAPER:
Youth, Faith and Environmental Consciousness: A Case for Sustainable Development
This South African/German partnership aims to investigate the connection of faith and environmental consciousness in connection to youth. Our focus is on Africa and Europe through a collaboration of excellent scholars from different scientific fields who want to participate in this project. This invitation serves as a twofold call for papers, namely 1) for a Special Collection publication in the Scopus and ISI indexed open access journal HTS Theological Studies, and 2) an AOSIS Book Publication on the theme, “Youth, Faith and Environmental Consciousness: A Case for Sustainable Development”.
More information can be found here.
Digital Intensive Course on Religion and Development
For the first time the Research Programme on Religious Communities and Sustainable Development organises and hosts an international intensive course on Religion and Development for students from African and German universities. This intensive course will take place digitally from the 20th of July until the 30th of July 2020.
For more information, please visit our page:
Digital Intensive Course: Religion and Development
Newsletter 02/2020
Please click here to find our current newsletter.
Here, we provide news from our Research Programme as well as information concerning new publications, upcoming events and our most recent activities.
Survey: Religious Leaders' Perspectives on Corona
The coronavirus pandemic has severely impacted people's lives all over the world. In this unprecedented situation, the perspectives of religious leaders are of fundamental importance. The Research Programme RCSD hence conducts the Online-Survey: Religious Leaders' Perspectives on Corona. How are religious leaders guiding their communities in the current situation and what is their vision for the time after the pandemic?
Click here to participate in the survey: hu.berlin/corona-survey
The survey is addressed to leaders of all religious communities, as well as leaders of inter-confessional or interreligious organisations. It will take approx. 15 minutes and can be done in English, French or Arabic.
Joint initiative with over 30 global partners: Berlin Research Hub on Religion and In/Equality
To further expand our work, we recently submitted a joint proposal to the Berlin University Alliance’s Grand Challenge Initiative on Social Cohesion to establish a transdisciplinary Berlin Research Hub on Religion and In//Equality. It is a joint initative with several collaborators at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (inter alia Prof. Dr. Torsten Meireis, Dr. Ayşe Almila Akca, Prof. Dr. Judith Becker, Dr. Martin Lutz), Freie Universität Berlin (inter alia Prof. Dr. Almut-Barbara Renger) and Technische Universität Berlin (inter alia Prof. Dr. Hubert Knoblauch). Forming part of our long-term strategy to build up the International Network on Religious Communities and Sustainable Development (IN//RCSD), the Berlin Research on Religion and In/Equality brings together over 30 global partners - such as our long-standing academic partners University of Lagos (Prof. Dr. Olufunke Adeboye), University of Pretoria (Dr. Tanya van Wyk), University of the Western Cape (Prof. Dr. Ignatius Swart), Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, Ghana (Prof. Dr. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu) as well as our policy and practice partners such as Maltester International, DanChurchAid, JLIFLC and UNEP-Faith for Earth.
Over the past months we engaged in a highly participatory process of drafting a joint research agenda with these partners. Regardless of the application’s outcome, the collaborative effort has already substantially deepened the collaborative ties of all partners involved and substantially influenced our research agendas. We look forward to engaging in in-depth collaborative research on the highly relevant topic of Religion and In/Equality jointly with our national and international partners and to thereby contribute to solving the global challenges ahead of us!
Guest lecture by Tanya van Wyk: "The Christian Church's Involvement in Creating Sexual Ethics"
We are delighted to announce a guest lecture by our partner Tanya van Wyk (University of Pretoria) "The Christian Church's Involvement in Creating Sexual Ethics". Her lecture will take place as part of the International Week at Freie Universität Berlin on 10 June 2020, 7 pm (CET). This event is part of the series "Religion, Geschlecht und Sexualität" of the Institue of Religious Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, organized by Almut-Barbara Renger. Tanya van Wyk and Almut-Barbara Renger are core partners of our Research Programme in the establishment of a Berlin Research Hub on Religion and In/Equality in the framework of the International Network on Religious Comunities and Sustainable Development (IN//RCSD).
More information can be found here.
Newsletter 01/2020
Please click here to find our current newsletter. Here, we provide news from our Research Programme as well as information concerning new publications, upcoming events and our most recent activities.
Panel on "Re-shaping development – African Initiated Christianity’s contribution to decolonizing development" at GloPent 2020 Conference in Basel
The Research Programme RCSD convened a panel on "Re-shaping development – African Initiated Christianity’s contribution to decolonizing development" at the Conference of the European Research Network on Global Pentecostalism (GloPent 2020) in Basel, Switzerland. Afe Adogame (Princeton Theological Seminary), Theresa Mayer (Tübingen University & Research Programme RCSD) and Mangaliso Matshobane (University of Pretoria) contributed excellent papers to the panel, which was chaired by Marie-Luise Frost (Research Programme RCSD). Adogame opened the panel with a presentation on “Revisiting Religion as an Antinomy of Development: African Christianities and the Public Sphere”. In the second presentation on “Ghana’s Pentecostal Churches – between Hotspot of the Holy Spirit and Postcolonialism”, Mayer emphasized that “the ‘post’ of postcolonialism is more than a temporal description. … It is more about decentering … structures of thought.” Matshobane concluded the panel with a paper on “Development Cooperation and Independent Pentecostal Churches – Decolonial Perspectives”.
The full panel description and abstracts can be found here.
Call for Applications: Intensive course “Between Cosmology and Community: Religion and Sustainable Development” 20/07-01/08/2020 at the University of the Western Cape
In an exciting intensive course on religion and development, master students and PhD candidates will be teamed up to explore empirical research methods in theory and practice. The course investigates the relations of religion with decolonial development, ecology, politics, gender equality and peace through high-profile lectures and conveys vital academic methods and soft skills, e.g. participatory observation, research ethics, grant application writing, academic networking etc. The ambitious course supports aspiring young academics to pursue their individual interests in the field of religion and development and connects international students and researchers in a personal setting at the University of the Western Cape. Please see here for more details and the possibility to apply until 31 March 2020.
Q-Kolleg: “Religion and sustainable development. Empirical research seminar in cooperation with University of Pretoria” 25/01-31/01/2020 at University of Pretoria
From 25/01-31/01/20 the Research Unit for Religious Communities and Sustainable Development, in collaboration with the Faculty of Theology of the University of Pretoria, organized a joint Q-Kolleg. Q-Kollegs are innovative, research-based seminars supported by the Bologna.Lab at HU Berlin. The journey of the Berlin students to South Africa was well prepared by seminar sessions with text work, discussions and lectures. Students from Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of Pretoria developed their own empirical research in learning tandems, which they then presented to the group during the seminar in Pretoria. The seminar was followed by field research for the majority of participants. The topics ranged from the Zion Christian Church's relation to ecological beliefs in traditional African religions to the work of Muslim development organizations for women in South Africa. The broad spectrum of empirical research projects sparked lively discussions and was framed by lectures by scholars from both partner universities on the subject of religion and development.
Call for Papers: The Grammar of the Spirit World in Pentecostalized Africa
The above-named workshop concerned with the significance of the Spirit World and ways of talking about it within the context of research on pentecostalized Africa will be held as part of the Programme Point Sud 2020 from 5 through 9 September 2020 at the University of Ghana, Accra.
The call for papers will be open for the submission of abstracts until 31 March 2020 and can be found here.
On 25 November 2019 the presentation of the Research Programme's conclusive report for its project on "Potentials of Cooperation with African Initiated Churches for Sustainable Development" took place on the premises of the Federal Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ).
Following the pesentation, the findings were discussed by researchers and representatives of African Initiated Churches and developmental organisations and institutions.
Lecture Series African Independent and Pentecostal Approaches to Theology and Development
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The Research Programme RCSD of the Humboldt University Berlin held their anual Lecture Series "African Independent and Pentecostal Approaches to Theology and Development". Prominent Churchleaders from South Africa Uganda, Ghana und Kenia held lectures at the theological fakulty at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin:
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Videos der Lecture Series 2019
His Grace the Right Rev. Bishop Dr. Barnabas E. Lekganyane gives a Lecture on "The Zion Christian Church: Praying for Peace in a Changing South African and Global Context".
For further Videos of the Lecture Series 2019 please click here
Please Note: all views and opinions that are voiced reflect the views and opinions of the individuals. They do not reflect the views and opinions of the Research Programme RCSD and Humboldt University Berlin.
International Conference Between Cosmology and Community: Religion and Sustainable Development
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The conference took place at Humboldt University Berlin from 02 to 06 July. We would like to thank all distinguished church leaders, researchers and participants again for their excellent contributions and the open and lively discussions that made this conference an unique experience of exchange. Reports on the opening lectures as well as on the thematic days on Equality and Ecology can be found here:
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Internationale Konferenz Between Cosmology and Community: Religion and Sustainable Development - Panel Discussion
"Development Policy and Religion: What is the way forward?" - Panel Discussion at the Humboldt University Berlin in July 2019.
Chair: Gabriele Meister
Nicta Lubaale:
General Secretary, Organization of African Instituted Churches
Reinhard Palm:
Head of Africa Department, Bread for the World
Michael Plesch:
Head of Division “Churches, Political Foundations, Social Structure Advancement Programmes, Religion & Development”, German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development
Claudia Zilla:
Head of Research Division "The Americas", Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik – German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
Please Note: all views and opinions that are voiced reflect the views and opinions of the individuals. They do not reflect the views and opinions of the Research Programme RCSD and Humboldt University zu Berlin.
European Conference on African Studies (ECAS)
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Marie-Luise Frost and Madlen Geidel orginized a Panel at the European Conference on African Studies (ECAS), from 11. until 14. June 2019. The Panel was held at the Centre of African Studies of the University of Edinburgh, on the topic: "Continuities or disruptions? The role(s) of women in African Religions". |
Permanent Panel on Religion and Development // 5th Joint Nordic Conference on Development Research (NorDev) in Kopenhagen, 27.-28. Juni 2019
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The submitted proposal from Philipp Öhlmann, Wilhelm Gräb, Marie-Luise Frost and Ignatius Swart (University of the Western Cape, Südafrika/VID Specialized University, Norwegen) for a Permanent Panel on Religion and Development was accepted by the Norwegian Assocation for Development Research (NFU). This Panel will be dedicatet to the tematics on Religion and Development at the Joint Nordic Development Research Conferences 2019 and 2021 aswell as the Norwegian Development Conference 2020 aus. Philipp Öhlmann, Marie-Luise Frost and Ignatius Swart moderated the first Panel at the 5th Joint Nordic Conference on Development Research (NorDev) in Kopenhagen from the 27. - 28. June. |
International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD)
The Research Programme RCSD became a Member of the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD). PaRD is a international Forum for Exchange and Cooperation on the Topic ov Religion and Development. Philipp Öhlmann participated for the Research Programm at the annual Meeting for Members at the PaRD in Kopenhagen.
http://www.partner-religion-development.org/
GloPent international Conference
The eleventh international and interdisciplinary conference of the European Research Network on Global Pentecostalism (GloPent) will be held on 14–15 February 2020 at the University of Basel, Switzerland.
This call for papers invites contributions to our parallel panels. We are particularly interested in presentations that study concepts, strategies and agendas of how Pentecostals shape public spheres. Papers may present case studies or comparative analyses of Pentecostal strategies of public engagement. What are peculiar issues, themes, and areas of Pentecostal public engagement? How do Pentecostal communication, network and support structures look like in specific contexts? Last but not least: what are the limits of Pentecostal theo-political imaginations, and who are opponents of Pentecostal strategies to direct and redirect of public opinion making?
Proposals of entire panels or individual papers from current research on a different aspect of Pentecostal Christianity are also welcome, but we advise to contact the conference organiser before submitting your abstract.
Submission deadline for abstracts: 30th September 2019 (300 words max/send to Anna Kühleis: anna.kuehleis@unibas.ch)
Colloquium fo the Reschearch Programme RCSD
On the 3. of May 2019 the Research Programm held its colloquium.
Collaboratativ Research with the University of Pretoria, South Africa
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Within the interdisciplinary research seminar (Q-Kolleg) "Religion and sustainable development. Interdisciplinary approaches to the study of an emerging research field" Students, reisten Studierende, Postgraduates ans Researchers from RCSD traveld to South Africa. With our Partner, the University of Pretoria, we discussed current research Topics from the 27. to the 31. of January 2019. Read the Report |