Jena Center for Reconciliation Studies

Das Jena Center for Reconciliation Studies (JCRS) / Zentrum für Versöhnungsforschung beschäftigt sich mit Konflikten und untersucht, wie es zu Versöhnungsprozessen kommt.
2014_InternationalSummerSchool 2014_InternationalSummerSchool

Recent studies have emphasized that particular factors like culture, religion, collective memory, and local traditions play an important role for the evolution of conflict and peace. Besides the focus on particular factors and traditions, universal aspects can be found in all conflicts and peace-building processes, by means of a comparison between different countries or regions. Moreover, cultures are no closed entities.   Colonialism, migration, and various forms of economic commerce have created a reality in which different cultures live together and new trans-cultural identities have emerged. The complexity of conflicts calls for new methods of interdisciplinary Research, which is seen not as mere addition of results from different fields of study but as a productive effort to reformulate one's own approach in the light of other approaches, in order to find a common ground.   There is a growing need in Reconciliation Studies for:

  • a comparative perspective,
  • a trans-cultural and not merely multicultural perspective, and
  • a trans-disciplinary perspective.

These three perspectives determine the approach of the JCRS.   More information is found at www.jcrs.uni-jena.de      

Contact

Director
Prof. Dr. Martin LeinerExternal link
Faculty of Theology
Systematic Theology and Ethics
Fürstengraben 6, Room 202
07743 Jena  

Phone: +49 (0)3641 - 941 180
Mail: martin.leiner@uni-jena.de    

Associate Director
Prof. Dr. Dr. Bertram SchmitzExternal link
Faculty of Theology
History of Religions
Fürstengraben 6, Room 105
07743 Jena  

Phone: +49 (0)3641 - 9 41 160
Mail: bertram.schmitz@uni-jena.de