Faculty of Theology
Projects & Collaborations
Are Religions Becoming Green
Research Project | 4 Project Members
Religious communities are able to address climate change and other environmental challenges. They can use their public voice to lobby for progressive climate policies, disseminate pro-environmental values among their members, and undertake projects to improve the carbon footprint of their institutions (e.g. energy efficient refurbishments). However, it is unclear to what extent religious communities in Switzerland are undertaking such activities and contribute to solve existing environmental challenges.
Scholarship suggests that religious traditions and communities become more environmentally aware and engaged over time. Although the topic has increasingly received attention in recent years, there is still little expertise about religious environmentalism at the congregational level. Yet, research at the congregational level is particularly important, given that congregations constitute important mediators of environmental engagement between the macro-level leadership of religious communities and the micro-level membership. Congregations can disseminate “green” theologies and environmental programs, which the leadership initiated, among the local membership. At the same time, they can promote religious grass-roots initiatives, which started at the local level, towards the leadership or expand them towards other local congregations.
This project will identify (a) to what extent congregations in Switzerland are environmentally engaged, (b) what types of environmental engagement they undertake, and (c) under what circumstances they are most likely to be environmentally engaged. To this end, the research team conducts a survey about the environmental engagement of congregations. The project will contribute to the increasing international debates about religious environmental engagement by exploring the mechanisms of this engagement.
The project is being conducted under the direction of Prof. Dr. Jens Köhrsen at the Center for Religion, Economics and Politics (ZRWP) at the University of Basel. The team consists of Adam Hearn, Fabian Huber, Ann-Lea Buzzi and Julius Malin.
The study is being conducted in collaboration with the project "Switzerland's changing religious diversity. The National Congregations Study Switzerland II", which is being conducted at the University of Lausanne under the direction of Prof. Dr. Jörg Stolz.
Forschungsnetzwerk Recht und Religion
Research Networks of the University of Basel | 10 Project Members
Das Forschungsnetzwerk Recht und Religion (FNRR) befasst sich mit Fragestellungen, die an der Schnittstelle zwischen Recht und Religion liegen. Das Netzwerk legt Wert auf die wissenschaftliche Begleitung aktueller Problemstellungen in der Gesellschaft wie etwa religiöse Symbole in der Öffentlichkeit und in Unternehmen, der rechtlichen Status von Religionsgemeinschaften und ihr Verhältnis zum Staat sowie die soziologische Dynamik der multireligiösen Topographie und deren Folgen.
Am FNRR sind Forschende der Juristischen Fakultät und des Fachbereichs Religionswissenschaft der Theologischen und der Philosophisch-Historischen Fakultät der Universität Basel beteiligt. Ferner sind Angehörige der Rechtswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Zürich, des Religionswissenschaftlichen Seminars der Universität Luzern sowie der Juristischen Fakultät der Universität Fribourg involviert.
The Research Network Law and Religion (FNRR) deals with issues at the interface between law and religion. The network attaches great importance to the academic monitoring of current problems in society, such as religious symbols in the public and in companies, the legal status of religious communities and their relationship to the state, and the sociological dynamics of the multi-religious topography and its consequences.
The FNRR involves researchers from the Faculty of Law and the Department of Religious Studies of the Faculty of Theology and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Basel. Members of the Faculty of Law of the University of Zurich, the Department for the Study of Religion of the University of Lucerne and the Faculty of Law of the University of Fribourg are also involved.