"Sacred Times. Understanding between Theology and Cultural Studies

The "sacred" is never "given" as such, but shows itself exclusively in the profane. Therein lies an insurmountable bond of the sacred to culture in its changing, historical forms of expression. The understanding of the sacred is thus always also an understanding of the cultural and refers theology to the perspectives and methods of cultural studies.

It is necessary to find out which strategies and techniques of demarcation are effective: What makes times "sacred," how are differences from "normal" times produced, what practices are associated with them, where do religious conceptualizations of time continue to operate in the secular? Time is not to be understood solely as a medium that is more or less fixed in its structure. Rather, it is about temporality in its religious-cultural forms of appropriation, which in turn can be reflected theologically as well as philosophically and considered with regard to their respective situation of the (religious) subject. Finally, the question of the sacred is posed: How do conceptualizations of time affect conceptions of and dealings with the sacred, which, after all, can only be thought of as accessible to human beings insofar as it manifests itself in the temporal?

The event will begin on Thursday, November 10, 2022, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in Lecture Hall 2, Diagonale 3, with a lecture by Prof. Dr. Isabella Guanzini (fundamental theologian in Linz) on the topic "Das Heilige im Profanen. Philosophical-Theological Perspectives on the Messianic Era."

This evening is also intended as the semester opening event of the Institute of Catholic Theology, to which we cordially invite you.

Other dates (all on Thursdays from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.):

November 17, 2022:
Esther Jonas-Märtin (rabbi and publicist in Leipzig): Making a Difference - or How Time Becomes Holy.

December 1, 2022:
Prof. Dr. Amir Dziri (Islamic scholar in Fribourg): God, Time and the Sacred: Time Pessimism and Time Optimism in Islamic Thought.

January 12, 2023:
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Riegel (religious educator from Siegen): The Spiritual Quality of Sunday. Sunday cultures between religious and secular meaning.

January 26, 2023:
Dr. Fana Schiefen (fundamental theologian in Münster) - On the value of forgetting.

February 2, 2023:
Prof. Dr. Ann-Charlotte Trepp (historian in Kassel): From the End Times to the Saeculum? Notes on the Genesis of Progress and Future Thinking in Western Modernity".

Contact

Prof. Dr. Ilse Müllner
Institute for Catholic Theology
Tel.: 0561 804-3492
Mail: ilse.muellner[at]uni-kassel[dot]de