Did you know...

  • that Religious Studies is not a theological discipline, but a non-denominational, cultural studies subject?
  • that Religious Studies can also be studied without basic studies (Bachelor/Master/Doctorate) within the framework of the Bachelor Religious Education (Religious Studies Education)?
  • that condition-free admission to the MA Religious Studies is possible after completing the two extension curricula in any undergraduate program?
  • that almost any undergraduate degree (Bachelor, Master, Doctorate) can be used for admission to the MA Religious Studies?
  • that required courses (usually consisting of the two extension curricula) can be completed not only before the start of the study program but also during the study programme?
  • that you can learn more about the self-image of the subject Religious Studies, the cultural studies discipline on the topic of "religion", here?
  • that EU/EEA/CH citizens do not pay tuition for their B.A./M.A./Ph.D. studies? Non-EU/EEA citizens are required to pay tuition fees of 749.42 Euro/semester.This includes all degree programmes (B.A./M.A./Ph.D.).

News

  • We warmly welcome Ivan Praštalo (University of Belgrade) to the Department. During his stay, he will be teaching a course on "Folklore and Belief."
  • The next workshop of the Religious Studies Workshop Series entitled "Einblicke in die Organisation wissenschaftlicher Fachtagungen [Insights into the organization of scientific conferences]" will take place on 8 May in Seminar Room 1 and will be led by Marleen Thaler. Further information on the workshop can be found here.
  • Congratulations to Madgalena Kraler on the publication of her dissertation entitled “Yoga Breath: Prāṇa and Prāṇāyāma in Early Modern Yoga” in the series Wiener Forum für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft [Vienna Forum for Theology and Religious Studies]. Further information can be found here.
  • From 25 to 26 April, a workshop organised by Moritz Maurer on the Berlin scholar of Religious Studies Klaus Heinrich (1927-2020) took place at the Goethe University Frankfurt, in which new perspectives on this important figure were be examined. Further information on the workshop can be found here.
  • The religion department of the ORF has published an article entitled "Being a woman in religions" on its website. The article is based on the publication "Religion und Geschlecht [Religion and Gender]" by Birgit Heller and Edith Franke, which analyses gender roles, stereotypical attributions and religious ideals of femininity in different religious traditions. You can read the article here and download the entire publication here.
  • The new Master's curriculum “The Study of Religions” will come into effect on 1 October 2025 and can be found here.
  • Congratulations to Magdalena Kraler on being awarded the Roland-Atefie-Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences for her dissertation "Yoga Breath: The Reinvention of Prāṇa and Prāṇāyāma in Early Modern Yoga" under the supervision of Karl Baier. Further information can be found here.
  • The ORF published an article on its website entitled "Concepts of time from cyclical to 'timeless'", in which Birgit Heller and Dirk Schuster share their expertise on the topic. The article can be read here.
  • For students of Religious Studies, we are offering our mentoring program for questions and difficulties during their studies. You can find more information here.
  • In the new QS World University Ranking by Subject 2024, the University of Vienna's Theology and Religious Studies Cluster ranks 21st worldwide.

New Publications

  • Lukas K. Pokorny:
    1. "Millenarismus: Definition, Theorie, Systematik." In Michael Stausberg and Katharina Wilkens, eds. Religionswissenschaft. Aktuelle Annäherungen. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 185–195.
    2. and Leona Mörth-Nicola, and Kerstin Tretina, eds. 2025. Blicklichter und Grenzgänge: Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf Religion, Gender und das Lebensende [Illuminations and Border Walks/Crossings: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Religion, Gender, and the End of Life]. Paderborn: Brill Schöningh.
    3. and Rossella Ferrari, Rudiger Frank, and Ina Hein, eds. 2025. Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies, Volume 16. Paderborn: Brill Schöningh.
    4. and Franz Winter, eds. 2025. Euro-American Esoteric Perspectives on East Asia. Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies, Volume 16 (Special Issue).
    5. "'The Way, the Truth, and the Light': Franz Hartmann's Daodejing." Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies, Volume 16: 25–49.
    6. and Franz Winter. 2025. "Preface to the Special Issue 'Euro-American Esoteric Perspectives on East Asia'." Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies, Volume 16: 1–3.
    7. and Leona Mörth-Nicola, and Kerstin Tretina. 2025. "Einleitung: Blicklichter und Grenzgänge [Introduction: Illuminations and Border Walks/Crossings]." In Lukas K. Pokorny, Leona Mörth-Nicola and Kerstin Tretina, eds. Blicklichter und Grenzgänge: Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf Religion, Gender und das Lebensende [Illuminations and Border Walks/Crossings: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Religion, Gender, and the End of Life]. Paderborn: Brill Schöningh, IX–XXIX.
    8. "Kōfuku no Kagaku and the Boiling Cauldron." In Lukas K. Pokorny, Leona Mörth-Nicola and Kerstin Tretina, eds. 2025. Blicklichter und Grenzgänge. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf Religion, Gender und das Lebensende [Illuminations and Border Walks/Crossings: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Religion, Gender, and the End of Life]. Paderborn: Brill Schöningh, 287–301.
    Dirk Schuster:
    1. "Les Allemands, peuple élu de Dieu: Une théologie du 'Troisième Reich' [The Germans, God's Chosen People: A Theology of the 'Third Reich']." In ReLRace - Religions, lignages et «race».
  • Karl Baier:
    1. "Katholische Seherinnen der frühen Moderne [Catholic female seers of the early modern
    era]." In Lukas K. Pokorny, Leona Mörth-Nicola and Kerstin Tretina, eds. 2025. Blicklichter und Grenzgänge. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf Religion, Gender und das Lebensende [Illuminations and Border Walks/Crossings: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Religion, Gender, and the End of Life]. Paderborn: Brill Schöningh, 111–137.
    2. "Ariosophie – Walther Paapes Buch über Adolf Josef Lanz und das Neutempler-Priorat Staufen in Dietfurt im Spiegel der Forschungsgeschichte [Ariosophy – Walther Paape's book about Adolf Josef Lanz and the Priory of the New Templars at Staufen in Dietfurt as reflected in the history of research]." In Zeitschrift für Hohenzollerische Geschichte 2025, 189–208.
    3. "Friedrich Schlegels esoterischer Katholizismus im Kontext seines Werks [Friedrich Schlegel's esoteric Catholicism in the context of his work]." In Viktoria Vitanova-Kerber and Helmut Zander, eds. 2025. Esoteric Catholicism / Esoterischer Katholizismus. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 135–188.
  • Hüseyin Çiçek:
    1. "Der lange Atem der Autokratie [The long breath of autocracy]." In Internationale Politik Special 1/2025, 14–19.
  • Johann Figl:
    1.     "Säkulares Todesverständnis als Alternative zur religiösen Jenseitsorientierung. Motive der Kritik Nietzsches und Irvin D. Yaloms Rezeption [A Secular Understanding of Death as an Alternative to a Religious Orientation Towards the Afterlife. Motives of Criticism of Nietzsche and Irvin D. Yalom's Reception]." In Lukas K. Pokorny, Leona Mörth-Nicola and Kerstin Tretina, eds. 2025 Blicklichter und Grenzgänge. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf Religion, Gender und das Lebensende [Illuminations and Border Walks/Crossings: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Religion, Gender, and the End of Life]. Paderborn: Brill Schöningh, 349–367.
  • Hans Gerald Hödl:
    1. "Queens and Mothers. Knappe Bemerkungen zur Rolle von Frauen in New Orleans Voodoo und Spiritual Churches [Queens and Mothers: Some brief remarks on the role of women in New Orleans Voodoo and Spiritual Churches]." In Lukas K. Pokorny, Leona Mörth-Nicola und Kerstin Tretina, Hg. Blicklichter und Grenzgänge. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf Religion, Gender und das Lebensende [Illuminations and Border Walks/Crossings: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Religion, Gender, and the End of Life]. Paderborn: Brill Schöningh, 157–176.
  • Tao Thykier Makeeff:
    1. "Dantians and Dragons: Paracorporeality and the Euro-American Reception of Chinese Martial Arts Spiritualities." In Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies, Volume 16: 223–254.
    2. and Jane Haug Skjoldli, and Fredrik Gregorius, eds. 2025. Forum: Back to Blood: Pursuing a Future from the Norse Past. Journal of for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Volume 19(2).
    3. and Fredrik Gregorious, and Jane Haug Skjoldli. 2025. "Introduction to the Special Issue Forum: Back to Blood: Pursuing a Future from the Norse Past." In Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 19(2): 147–150.
    4. "Warriors, Weather, and Wolves oh My! Environmental Determinism and Transspecies Roleplaying in Modern Viking Identity." In Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Volume 19(2): 151–175.
  • Davide Marino:
    1. "The Path to Gnosis: a Microhistory." In Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies, Volume 16: 83–110.
    2. "The Tao of Julius Evola." In Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies, Volume 16: 111–141.
  • Human-Friedrich Unterrainer:
    1. and Sabine Sammer-Schreckenthaler, Gloria Lagetto, and Omar C. G. Gelo. 2025. "Specific and common therapeutic factors in psychodynamic psychotherapy for children and adolescents: an overview." In Frontiers in Psychology, Volume 16: 1525849.
    2. and Elisa Renner, Raphael Wimmer, Zoe Zipper, Hannah Brössler, Jasmin Brouschek, Jürgen Fuchshuber, and Wolfgang Beiglböck. 2025. "Affects, dissociative symptoms and addictive behaviours: Insights from clinical and non-clinical samples." In Journal of Affective Disorders, Volume 370: 481–488.
    3. and Michaela Hiebler, Hannah Brössler, Raphael Wimmer, Zoe Zipper, Elisa Renner, Jasmin Brouschek, Jürgen Fuchshuber, and Aljoscha Neubauer. 2025. "The German version of the Bergen Yale Sex Addiction Scale (BYSAS): psychometric properties and initial steps of validation." In BMC Psychology Volume 13, 109.
    4. and Jürgen Fuchshuber, Karl Koschutnig, Andreas Fink, Johanna Alexopoulos, and Henriette Löffler-Stastka. 2025. "Effects of insecure attachment on fMRI resting state functional connectivity in poly drug use disorder." In PLoS ONE 20(2): e0318505.
    5. and Jürgen Fuchshuber, Marina Zeldovich, Gabor Aranyi, Lisa Winter, Martin Kuska, Dominique Dumont, and Elke Humer. 2025. "Uncovering the Internal Structure of the German Version of the CORE-OM: A Network Analysis." In Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy 32(2): e70063.
    6. "On the wings of Icarus – the need for transcendence in addictive diseases. In Frontiers in Psychiatry, Volume 16: 1563871.
    7. and Elke Humer, Johanna Thea Büttner, and Thomas Probst. 2025. "Religious/Spiritual Well-Being across psychotherapeutic orientations: A comparative study among Austrian psychotherapists." In Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health: 1–20.
    8. and Gabor Aranyi, Elke Humer, Martina Kuska, Lisa Winter, and Marina Zeldovich. 2025. "The German version of the Clinical Outcome in Routine Evaluation – Outcome Measure (CORE-OM): Factorial validity, internal consistency, and gender differences in a large outpatient sample." In: Psychotherapy Research: 1–19.