Project manager: Prof. Dr. Daniel Cyranka
Duration of project: ongoing
The research theme “Enlightenment and Religions” will address topics which play a fundamental role in the department for religious studies and intercultural theology.
In exploring the theological and philosophical controversies of the 1770s, this project centers on the notions of apokatastasis and metempsychosis, as invoked by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781), which can be traced back to Origenian debates. The controversies concerning reason and revelation, history and religion, as well as the anthropology of humankind played a crucial role in the formulation of the enlightened concepts of human autonomy and free will, which became highly influential in articulating a modern understanding of humanity. With Lessing as its point of departure, the project focuses on these debates in the second half of 18th century.
The IZEA is housed within the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg. As an institution of advanced study on the cultural and intellectual history of the 18th century, the IZEA contends with a period that laid the foundations of modern western society.
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für die
Erforschung der Europäischen Aufklärung (IZEA)
Franckeplatz 1 // Haus 54
06110 Halle
Deutschland
izea(at)izea.uni-halle.de
Tel.: +49 345 55 21781
Fax: +49 345 55 27252