• Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities (POLY)

  • We are a research group housed at Goethe University in Frankfurt

  • We are interested in premodern Christianities around the globe

  • We investigate dynamic plurality as a driving force of change across and within communities of belief

  • Our primary goal is to decentralise religious history before 1800

  • Together, we hope to understand the formation of religious communities

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Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities (POLY)

The purpose of the POLY Research Group Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities (circa 700–1800 CE), housed at Goethe University Frankfurt and funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), is twofold. First, we aim to facilitate and support comparative interdisciplinary research into preindustrial or premodern Christianities around the globe. Second, we will investigate the ways in which dynamic plurality works as a driving force of change across and within communities of belief.

 

Our primary goal is to decentralise religious history before 1800. We will also historicise and question the unitary and universalist self-images nurtured by institutional churches, as well as the corresponding models of religious culture or transformation found in modern scholarship. This ambitious intellectual agenda is supported by an international and interdisciplinary team of scholars. Together, we hope to more deeply understand the formation of religious communities by local and global forces, as well as the myriad connections among them.

Upcoming Events

Conference “Christian Kabbalah: On Air and in Politics” (organised by Níels P. Eggerz, Birgit Emich, and Elke Morlok)

Start
01.09.2025
Location
Frankfurter Diakonissenhaus, Cronstetterstrasse 57–61, 60322 Frankfurt am Main
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Latest News

Confession, Conflict – and Peaceful Coexistence

Following the Reformation, religious affiliation certainly played a major role in the Holy Roman Empire. Adherents of different Christian denomination...

Communication in the Contact Zone

In an attempt to Christianise the indigenous population, French missionaries travelled to the American South. There, communication was difficult and s...

Conference Report “Bauernkrieg polyzentrisch?”

Under the title “Bauernkrieg polyzentrisch? Dezentrierung und Entgrenzung in den Aufstandsbewegungen 1524–1526”, early modern historians explored the ...

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