This study provides the outline of the Research Project ‘Parables and the Partings of the Ways’, a comparative reading of Rabbinic and synoptic parables (Utrecht and Tilburg Universities, 2014–2019). It delineates the status quaestionis of comparative parable research, focusses on issues of form and rhetoric of parables and argues a multi-faceted methodology to study parables […]

Reflecting on the contributions to this special issue, in this afterword I argue that the current fragmented state of religious studies in the Netherlands may well be taken as a laboratory to develop a study of religion for the future. Religious studies ‘new style’ can break with all sorts of path-dependent constraints, including the religious […]

In her book Material Christianity, published in 1995, the American scholar of religion Colleen McDannell calls attention to the importance of material culture in the everyday religious practice of American Christians in the 19th and 20th century. Her book demonstrates a breakthrough in the study of the history of Christianity: the one-sided emphasis on institutions […]

Looking beyond religious studies, not in a temporal but in a spatial sense, this brief essay identifies openings for multidisciplinary research and reflection in the study of material religion. The discussion focuses on categories, formations, and circulations—the historical contingency of basic categories of religion, the colonial and imperial forces in formations of religion, and the […]

In Germany the distinction between theology and Religionswissenschaft remains firmly in place. This article compares the institutional context of both disciplines. A related development is the recent creation of chairs and programs of Islamic theology. While Christian theology is shielded by constitutional and legal privileges and is far bigger than Religionswissenschaft, the latter has benefited […]

How has the study of religion in the UK been shaped by its institutional contexts? Consideration is given to the Christian and secular foundations of universities and higher education colleges, the relationship of theology and religious studies, and the impact of institutional structures and drivers associated with teaching and research. The formation of ‘TRS’ as […]

The relationship between scholars working in the field of Islamic Studies and those affiliating themselves with Religious Studies (in the Netherlands, but also beyond) is plagued by a number of mutual misperceptions. These misperceptions should, and in fact can, be overcome. To argue this point, I (1) sketch the institutional framework of Islamic and Religious […]

The recent Report of the KNAW-research committee describes the extreme fragmentation of the field of Theology and Religious Studies in the Netherlands. This has negative consequences for the visibility and viability of research. This article focuses on Church History and the various ways it has been conceptualised in various environments. It argues that Church History […]

This essay outlines the major issues and tensions in the field of theology and religious studies in the Netherlands. The institutional variety of the field is huge and one of the reasons why it is hard to come to fruitful cooperation. Moreover, as one research assessment formulates it, ‘the research landscape of theology and religious […]

Wat is het belang van confessionele theologie? In dit artikel dient de Kamper theologie als casus voor het beantwoorden van die vraag. Eerst geef ik een schets van het Nederlandse theologische landschap aan de hand van de drie fora van de theologie: maatschappij, academie en kerk. Ten Daarna typeer ik de Kamper theologie in een […]