all
23.10.2016Public Lecture on "Religious Identity"
On 2 November 2016 Professor Alexander Deeg (Institute of Practical Theology, Leipzig University) will give a lecture on "Religious Identity!? About the Identity Confusing and Creating Role of Religion" ("Religiöse Identität!? Über die Identität verwirrende und stiftende Rolle der Religion").
The lecture is part of the studium universale at Leipzig University, which is focussing on questions of "Identity" in this semester. All lectures of the studium universale will take place at Hörsaal 1 (Universitätsstraße 3) from 07:00-08:30 p.m. and will be held in German.
Short abstract:
"Your name shall be changed to ..." - sentences like that can occasionally be found in the bible. People receive new names and experience religion as an act of creating a new identity. At the same time religion is confusing individual identity fundamentally. Paul the Apostle writes: "I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galater 2,20). The "I" gets brittle, the subjective existence is questioned.
In the light of current debates about the role and importance of religion in an increasingly secular society the lecture analyses the creating und confusing role of "God" in the individual and social construction of identity. Simultaneously mechanisms of religious identity building will be examined: Where and how does religion determine human identity? Which role is played by liturgy, preaching, education and the media? - Starting point of these reflections is Christianity; but Judaism and Islam will be looked at as well.
