The study of religion has been established in Hanover since 1973, and over the course of more than 40 years, many developments have taken place that have had a lasting impact on the university’s profile. The Institute for the Study of Religion is a relatively young institution; however, during its formative years up to the present day, it has supervised over 30 doctorates and eight habilitations.
A professorship in Religious Studies and the Didactics of Religious Education, established in the winter semester of 1973/74, was initially part of the Lower Saxony University of Education and was only transferred to the University of Hanover in 1978. The first holder of the professorship was Peter Antes, who remained in the post until 2012. Whilst the study of religion was originally situated within the Department of Educational Sciences I, Peter Antes succeeded in securing its reorganisation into the Faculty of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences in 1992. However, the link to teacher training remained a defining feature of the study of religion in Hanover.
When a degree programme was launched for this purpose, the aim of the state government at the time was to establish a chair dedicated to teacher training. The fact that a revision of the Education Act was taking place at the same time as the programme was being designed made the situation more difficult. In 1980, the study of religion was finally successfully confirmed, alongside Philosophy and the Social Sciences, as a reference discipline for the newly created teaching subject Values and Norms.
Peter Antes’ research interests were diverse, yet the critique of phenomenological religious studies, which he espoused, had a particularly lasting impact in Hanover. A reorientation of the discipline was also called for by Hubert Seiwert, who worked in Hanover as a research assistant from 1976 and as a professor from 1983 to 1994. With his call for an empirical study of religion, he contributed to the subject’s current self-image. A visible distinction from older trends in the study of religion was countered by the merger of the disciplines of theology and the study of religion into a single institute, which had existed since 2009 as a result of internal university restructuring. Consequently, an independent Institute for the Study of Religion was established in 2019.
In 2012, Wanda Alberts took over the professorship from Peter Antes, now known as Study of Religion (Values and Norms). As one of the first researchers to explore the possibilities of subject-specific didactics in religious studies, she initiated the restructuring of the degree programme in line with current academic debates. In 2019, the Institute for the Study of Religion at Leibniz University Hannover was particularly at the forefront of academic developments, as the annual conference of the German Association for Religious Studies and, at the same time, the special conference of the International Association for the History of Religions were hosted in Hannover for many national and international participants.
Since 2005, students in Hanover have been able to study the interdisciplinary Bachelor’s programme in Study of Religion / Values and Norms, as well as a Master’s teacher training programme in Values and Norms. Until 2019, the Master’s programme in Religion(s), Society and Culture offered an interdisciplinary programme featuring international guests. From 2021 onwards, the range of courses is expected to be expanded to include the Master’s programme Religion in the Public Sphere for students who wish to deepen their knowledge of religion in society, culture and politics whilst studying in Hanover and at a partner university abroad.
