Philosophy

The series Media and Religion offers a platform for innovative and creative contributions to this particular research field. It presents research projects from the fields of religion, theology, sociology, media, film and gender studies, political science, cultural studies and visual studies. Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary studies are particularly welcome. The series aims to publish critical analyses of the multi-layered interactions between religion and media in history and contemporary society from an empirical, theoretical, and hermeneutical perspective.

This series publishes works that open up a social pedagogical perspective on democracy education in different fields of social work. With reference to Oskar Negt's (2016) insight that democracy is the only politically constituted social order that needs to be learned, there is a need to reflect on the forms of democracy education and democracy practice. The focus is therefore on theoretical and conceptual reflections on participatory democracy, political democratic education, and participatory research that discusses sustainable social inclusion.

According to Johannes C. Hoekendijk, the foundation of the technical civilization came without religion. Even before theology started to reflect on technology as a relevant cultural achievement, technology itself raised the question of truth and meaning. Today, discourses on the cultural shape of the post-industrial, bio-technical, and digital reality are part of our daily life. In this series, ethical questions are related to the motives and beliefs that influence the development and application of technology. Interpretations of meaning in techno-societies and the reconstruction of theological positions come into play. As does the intercultural perspective, for technology and religion are widespread throughout the world as common approaches to crises and solutions.

Concern for oneself, for others and for the environment plays a significant role in both individuals’ lives and social institutions. This series publishes studies which explain the various dimensions of the concept of concern from the point of view of theology, social theory, cultural hermeneutics, anthropology or normative ethics and, where appropriate, attempt to critically evaluate or justify them. Starting from this specific field of research but also taking into account possible links to other subject areas, the studies in this series examine relevant epistemological and practical perspectives found in the interplay between the factuality, limitation and unleashing of concern. Their aim in doing this is to address the questions of how concern manifests itself as an existential constant among humans today and which methods can be employed to deal with it. In this respect, the editors welcome studies from a variety of fields and in different languages for publication in this series.