Lexicographical Appraches to the Definition of Religious Languages.
How did past societies define what we today may call a religious language? What kind of basic distinctions were made for defining a religious field? Which kind of concepts were used for defining religion? In modern Western societies concepts like "transcendence", "god", "heaven", "church" play an important role for defining the religious field, often in contrast to concepts such as "immanence", "man", "earth" and "secular society. Are there different or corresponding concepts in other cultures, regions and periods of time? I should like to invite you to a summary of aspects and an exchange of semantic and conceptional approaches to define the religious field in each of your fields of research. It would be most welcome, if you could prepare a statement of about one page for this discussion.
Second Part:
In his lecture our colleague Prof. Michael Weinrich will present the most prominent results of his recently published study on "Religion und Religionskritik". We should use the chance to discuss them with him in the view of our interest in the comparative history of religion in early modern Europe.
