How does religion provide orientation in life, through practice, and in conceptual terms, from the perspective of social actors? How is intellectual culture shaped and cultivated, in religious or non-religious contexts? How does religiosity interrelate with morality and intellectual culture? This research unit examines the fields of ‘religion’ and ‘intellectual culture’, loosely conceived, with particular interest also in the interplay between religion, intellectual culture, and everyday life across diverse societies. Hereby, the focus is largely, but not exclusively, on the ‘Muslim world’, from different disciplinary angles. Religion(s) are studied both as discursive traditions and as dynamic sets of unifying (but often contested) norms and practices in different kinds of lifeworlds. The understanding of intellectual culture encompasses a set of historically grown and regionally specific narratives and knowledge-oriented practices that often reflect a specific sense of how to live a meaningful life. These may also be linked to religious traditions as well as (trans)regional social and intellectual histories. The relations (and tensions) between religious and intellectual world-making are of specific concern. Of particular interest are also the ways in which technological innovations re-shape human experience.
