Hubert Seiwert

Hubert Seiwert (born June 16, 1949 in Saarbrücken ) is a German religious scholar and religious historian .

career

Education and professorships

Seiwert studied religious studies in Bonn until his doctorate in 1978 on the subject of oracles and the interpretation of the future in ancient Chinese . 1979 to 1994 he worked at the University of Hanover ; initially as a university assistant, after his habilitation in 1983 from 1985 with his own chair for religious studies. Since 1994, Seiwert was Professor of General and Comparative Religious Studies at the Religious Studies Institute of the University of Leipzig . In 2014 he retired , but remains associated with teaching and research at the university.

Work areas

Seiwert mainly researches and teaches in the areas of religions in China , theory and method of religious studies, new religious movements and the role of religion in processes of cultural dynamics.

Sectarian debate

Seiwert had an exposed position in the debate about so-called sects in the mid-1990s. As an expert member of the Enquête Commission of so -called sects and psychogroups and in numerous publications, he advocated objectification of the discussion and advocated a scientific evaluation of new religious movements .

Together with the MP Angelika Köster-Loßack ( Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen ), Seiwert wrote a much-cited seventy-page special opinion on the final report of the Enquête Commission. Above all, it criticizes the fact that the Commission's extensive recommendations for action are out of proportion to the underlying scientific knowledge about the dangerousness of such groups that cannot be proven.

Others

In addition to academic research and teaching, Seiwert is also the co-editor of two specialist journals ( Journal for Religious Studies , Religion – State – Society ). Until 2009, he was first chairman of the German Association for Religious Studies and a representative for religious studies in the German Research Foundation .

Fonts

• Religious Freedom and Conformism. About minorities and the power of the majority . With articles and essays by Gerhard Besier , Hermann Lübbe , Johannes Neumann , Hubert Seiwert and others, LIT Verlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7654-3 .
• Popular religious movements and heterodox sects in Chinese history. Hubert Seiwert, Brill, Leiden 2003, ISBN 90-04-13146-9 .
• Popular religion and national tradition in Taiwan. Studies on the regional religious history of a Chinese province. Hubert Seiwert, Steiner, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-515-04247-4 .
• Oracle and the Interpretation of the Future in Ancient Chinese. A study of the history of religion on the development of the world and human image during the Zhou dynasty. Hubert Seiwert, Bonn 1979.

Festschrift

• Christoph Kleine , Edith Franke and Heinz Mürmel (eds.): Deviance and dynamism: Festschrift for Hubert Seiwert on his 65th birthday , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2014. ISBN 978-3-647-54037-5 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Hubert Seiwert in the catalog of the German National Library
• Hubert Seiwert on the website of the University of Leipzig