Attributes and Activities of Religious Communities in Italy: Insights from a City Congregations Study

Ass.-Prof. Olga Breskaya / Prof. Giuseppe Giordan, Professor of Sociology, both University of Padova, Italy

Öffentliche Vorlesung im Rahmen des Allgemeinen Vorlesungswesens

Religions in Transition

International Perspectives
Religion, for many individuals, is practiced not in the abstract, but in concrete, embodied ways—through participation in local religious groups. These groups, often referred to as congregations, are central sites where religious belief, belonging, and behavior are lived out. They provide not only spaces for worship, but also platforms for socialization, community-building, charity, and political engagement.

Local religious groups are remarkably diverse. They vary in size, resources, denominational affiliation, organizational form, leadership structure, activities, and their relationship with their surrounding context. They include parish-based Christian congregations, free churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, and spiritual centers. They can be embedded in religiously diverse urban metropolises or operate in rural, mono-religious settings.

Despite this diversity, and despite their centrality in the religious field, our systematic knowledge of congregations remains limited—especially in the European context. The lecture series presents current congregational studies from various contexts such as Italy, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Croatia, and the USA.

Lectures will be held in English.

The lecture series is funded by the Udo Keller Foundation Forum Humanum.

Registration at: awr@uni-hamburg.de

montags 18:00– 19:30 (CET), digital – Zoom 

Koordination: Dr. Anna Körs, Akademie der Weltreligionen der Universität Hamburg