Autumn Seminar 2020

“Challenging Europe—Challenges of Europe: Analysing European social, religious, cultural, and political landscapes (Post) Covid-19”

October 7th-11th, Weimar/Germany

Europe is a site of diversity, a space of possibilities and of societal collaboration. Europe is characterised by a religious/worldview pluralism that has long since overtaken societal cohesion in the sense of a uniform national or religious homogeneity. Pluralization does not only mean the multiplication and differentiation of identities, but also the strengthening of religious/worldview communities. In Europe’s diverse communities, critical self-confidence is being tested, societal inclusion demanded, and participation in public discourse encouraged.
Europe is, at the same time, characterised by political fragmentation and polarisation. The shift to the right in Europe and the increasing restriction of civil society freedoms in individual EU countries is calling into question – not only – the pluralism of religions and worldviews. Nationalist governments’ position supposedly Judeo-Christian values against Islam and European values, considered to be the foundation of the European Union, seem to end at the barbed wire of the EU’s external borders.

Addressing the various aspects, chances and challenges of European pluralism, we thus turn to the nagging questions of the plurality and pluralism of European societies, political participation, alliance building, and shared, inclusive modes of shaping our environments in spite of – or, perhaps, because of – the ambivalences and interdependence of linguistic, religious/worldview, and political diversity.

We challenge you to join us in considering these questions, to experience European diversity, and to grapple with your own ambivalent perspectives.