Religion & Theology

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.

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.

Resocialisation, victim protection and atonement as well as aspects of a sustainable and victim-centred approach to criminal proceedings embedded in the concept of restorative justice need developing continuously and adapting to new findings from related fields. At the same time, it must be emphasised that any research findings resulting from this can only be partially integrated into practical investigative procedures, criminal proceedings, the implementation of criminal sentencing and committed discharge management. On the one hand, this series of publications is aimed at experts and managers from all German-speaking countries working in the fields of criminal, justice and social policy, professional associations, the media and civil society. On the other, its publications will also be relevant to researchers and lecturers from the fields of law and the social sciences, particularly criminal law, criminology, social work and social pedagogy. We welcome submissions of monographs from various disciplines, dissertations, habilitation theses, edited anthologies and conference proceedings for publication in the series.

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.