The Center for Religious Studies (CRS, formerly the Religious Studies Program) is an academic forum at CEU (Central European University) fostering the study of religion. The mission of the center is to initiate and to coordinate research and the dissemination of resulting research by mounting academic events and fostering publications that address religion-related questions in critical ways.

The CRS collaborates with relevant departments and academic units at the CEU. It crosses the borders of disciplines, confessional and geo-political categorizations, and covers historical periods from ancient to modern times. With institutional contacts throughout the region and worldwide, the CRS provides an important site for academic research and communication.

The interest of the CEU in the history of religions is not only motivated by purely academic or antiquarian interests alone, but also by concerns that arise from the University’s public mission.

The CEU finds itself in a region which was at the confluence of a variety of histories, religious and otherwise, and at the intersection of Ottoman (predominantly Muslim but by no means exclusively so), Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Jewish religious cultures. It would therefore seem appropriate to structure thinking about religious studies at the CEU from this confluence, working backwards into matters historical, and forwards into society and polity.

Institutional Structure and Profile

As an independent unit, the CRS is integrated in the History Department and works very closely with the Medieval Studies Department, with the first academic appointments made in these departments. The Center, thus, works through and supports the existing tissue of the university, while at the same time, it seeks to reach out to other institutions and organizations world-wide and to extend the present potential of CEU.

After several years of discussions and various levels of preparation, the CRS (formerly, the RSP) began operation with the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation in 2005.

International Cooperation

The Center for Religious Studies engages in a growing number of exchanges and joint activities with the international academic community. CRS participates in Erasmus student and faculty exchange and welcomes affiliate guest researchers. It is currently acting as the European location of the international project on the History of the Society of Jesus and has participated in the REFO500 International Project, dedicated to fostering and coordinating the study the impact of the Reformation on European society and beyond.

Research

• Faculty Research Project: Striking from the Margins: Religion, State and Disintegration in the Middle East
• Faculty Research Project: The Māppila: Christians, Muslims, and Jews of South-West India
• Paleo-Qurʾānic Manuscript Studies: State of the Field

Contacts

• Address: Center for Religious Studies, Central European University, 1051 Budapest, Nador u. 11, Hungary
• Phone: +36 1 327-3000 extension 2170
• Email: religion@ceu.edu
• Website: https://religion.ceu.edu/