This virtual roundtable will invite panelists to interrogate the past and present meanings of "religion" "in" "Europe." Each presenter will discuss a single image for approximately 5-7 minutes to reflect on the assessment, definition, or problematization of these three keywords. Situating particular spaces, events, ideas, and communities in context will illuminate the challenges posed to assumed semantic and historical relationships between "religion" and "Europe." To what extent do these terms speak to the experiences of historical and contemporary actors in western Eurasia? How might these terms produce boundaries and exclusions in the lives of those we study, as well as in scholarly disciplines? Is "religion in Europe" even a coherent field of inquiry? We seek to spark a trans-Atlantic theoretical and methodological conversation regarding the limitations and generative possibilities of present and future comparative work. Ample time will be given to discussion among presenters and with the audience.
This paper examines the diasporist French Jewish political group, Le Cercle Gaston Crémieux, founded in 1967 “to promote a diasporic Jewish existence without subjugation to the synagogue or to Zionism.” In contrast to an assimilationist model which demanded the acceptance of French national identity in the public sphere, or a Zionist model of Jewish nationalism, the Cercle offered exile and diaspora as constitutive of Jewish identity, positioned as an alternate mode of being-in-the-world defined against white Christian European nationalism. Yet to expose the historically constructed, economically calculative nature of European nationalisms that claim the status of organic and natural, the Cercle offered a narrative of the historical construction of Jewishness, and this social constructionism conflicted with the almost metaphysical status they accorded to Jewish exile and otherness. Thus the Cercle failed to construct an anti-national model of Jewishness, but this failure sheds light on larger fault lines in Jewish politics.
Responding to the Religion in Europe Unit’s Roundtable question: “What is religion in Europe”?, I suggest that religion in Europe is marked by how religious people navigate the "local" and the "transnational." These claims arise from my research on how South Asian owned "Indian dance" studios in Barcelona function as spaces for community building and the observance of religious holidays for Hindus. I will discuss the methodological challenges of a project that considers commercial sites as religious sites, which are also linked to transnational resources in the form of Indian government funding.
The European socio-cultural concept of religion is highly diverse. In my presentation, I will
focus on the situation in Austria and argue that present-day changes will challenge the
implicit concepts of religion up to a point where they will no longer be applicable in day-to-
day use. In Austrian, the implicit concept of religion is very much dominated by the
traditional ideal of the Roman-Catholic Church – with hierarchical institutional structures,
parochial day-to-day practices and more or less clearly defined sets of beliefs (Lehmann /
Reiss 2022; Zulehner 2020; Vocelka 2013). This becomes particularly obvious with regards to
the two forms of legal status religious organizations can apply for – the status of ‘Gesetzlich
anerkannte Kirche und Religionsgesellschaft‘, as well as the status of ‘Staatlich anerkannte
religiöse Bekenntnisgemeinschaft’. First, these two forms of legal status provide different
degrees of access to a subsidiary system of religious services. Second, they are confronted
with significant challenges.
Is spirituality possible without the belief in a transcendental God? The French philosopher, André Comte-Sponville’s answer is positive. In his 2006 publication, L’Esprit de l'athéisme: Introduction à une spiritualité sans Dieu, Sponville presents his case for atheist spirituality. One does not need, he suggests, to throw out the baby of culture with the bathwater of organized religion. Unlike the populist evocation of the decadence of the Judeo-Christian civilization by thinkers such as Michel Onfray or the essentialist framing of Islam as the civilizational Other of Europe by Marcel Gauchet, Sponville’s Spirit of Atheism takes on an optimistic tone. It draws on diverse cultural, spiritual, and intellectual traditions of Europe to build a new reenchanted collectivity.