“Law and Religion from a Sociological Perspective”

Joint Conference of the Section for Sociology of Law and the Section for Sociology of Religions of the German Sociological Association (GSA) at the Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities “Law as Culture”

06. & 07.06.2013

It has become almost commonplace to consider the relationship between law and religion a key to understanding cultures and civilizations. The Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities “Law as Culture” dedicated its second research year to this topic. At this conference, two sub-disciplines of sociology will come together to approach this difficult relationship between the spheres of law and religion, represented by the sections of the German Sociological Association for sociology of law and sociology of religion. Two basic perspectives of social analysis are thereby brought into play and related to each other - perspectives that were treated in one breath as a matter of course for the founding generation of Weber, Durkheim et al. Naturally, analytical distinctions and empirical tiers have always been controversial. It is therefore unsurprising that this event developed and organized jointly by both sections will investigate both the influence of religion on modern legal orders, on the one hand, and the influence of legal thought on modern religion, on the other. In so doing, competing normativities in law and religion can be identified.