Centre – Call for Papers

Issue Theme: Beyond Secularization. Religion in Culture, Society and Politics in Central Europe during the 19th and 20th Centuries.

Deadline for submissions: December 31, 2017

Contact: stred@mua.cas.cz

Publication languages: Czech, English, German

Journal Website:
http://www.mua.cas.cz/cs/stred-centre-casopis-pro-mezioborova-studia-stredni-evropy-19-a-20-stoleti-113

Full text of the journal: www.ceeol.com

Abstracts: http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl

Indexing: ERIH+, SCOPUS, CEEEOL, CEJSH

Religion’s role and influence in the public sphere rises and falls in all socioeconomic contexts – pre-industrial, industrial, and post-industrial – something the inhabitants of Central Europe have once more become aware of, whether from a global or a local perspective. The mission and impact of religion are not necessarily connected and contingent on the growth of human knowledge, rationality, or technology. In fact, the retreat of religion from the public space and the privatization of religious values and practises did not imitate the processes of industrialization, urbanization, or political processes and changes. A critical view of the secularization paradigm is thus an integral part of current academic discussions. These are the perspectives through which the theme of the next Střed/Centre issue would like to examine the role of religion and the development and trajectory of the historiography of religion.
The field of inquiry should not be limited only to traditional institutional entities, but should also focus on smaller and peripheral religious communities and sects (spiritism, atheist movements). With the theme of this issue we would like to go beyond the traditional and dominant topics of the establishment of national churches, political catholicism, diplomatic relations, and biographies of religious community leaders towards a consideration of religious thought and practise within regions, industrial areas, among social groups, generations, and in terms of gender. Also welcome are contributions that connect social and cultural history with religious history and other historical and social sciences. We will appreciate contributions on how society was shaped according to the religious and confessional principle, the relationship between religion and violence, the transfer of modern religious movements and currents, reactions to social and economic problems and changes, or different types of religiosity (among workers, women, young people, veterans, in pastors’ appeals to industrial society, the life of smaller and marginal religious communities and sects). We are also interested in how religious motifs and practices are imprinted upon the relationships that form identities, everyday life, inform decision-making processes, or the methodological reflection of the (Central) European historiography of religion.