Andrea Rota

Universität Bern | UniBe · Institute for the Science of Religion

In this paper, I demonstrate how philosophical insights and empirical research on the use of religious language can be fruitfully combined to tackle issues regarding the ontology of religious collectivities and the agency of group actors. To do so, I introduce a philosophical framework that draws on speech act theory and recent advances in the fiel...

In this article I argue that the shift from a private to a public–social understanding of religion raises new ontological and epistemological questions for the scientific study of religion\s. These questions are deeply related to three central features of the emic–etic debate, namely the problems of intentionality, objectivity, and comparison. Focu...

In Svizzera il sistema federalista ha avuto una forte influenza sulle strutture dell’istruzione pubblica e sull’ordinamento dei rapporti fra Chiese e stato. In questi ambiti, i cantoni hanno storicamente beneficiato di larga autonomia. Di conseguenza, l’organizzazione dell’insegnamento religioso scolastico ha conosciuto sviluppi differenti secondo...

Over the past two decades, the organisation of religious education classes in Switzerland has undergone profound reforms. Amid the increasing secularisation and pluralisation of the religious landscape, many cantons have introduced a compulsory course that falls under the responsibility of the state and is aimed at teaching basic knowledge about a...

Since the Reformation in the sixteenth century, Switzerland has been a bi-confessional country. On the base of qualitative empirical data, we explore the evolution of the country’s confessional boundaries from the end of the Ancien Rgime to the present. Drawing on the example of the religious education classes in public schools in the French-speaki...

This article introduces the emic–etic debate in the scientific study of religion\s and provides a frame for the special issue’s six articles on the topic. Departing from the broader debate’s early history in the 1960s, this article contextualizes the emic–etic debate and locates its point of entry into the scientific study of religion\s in the 1980...

Dans les derniers vingt ans, dans plusieurs cantons suisses les cadres de l’enseignement religieux à l’école publique ont subi de profondes transformations. Les débats qui ont accompagné ces réformes témoignent de la portée symbolique de ces cours qui va bien au-delà des questions didactiques ou organisationnelles. En retraçant minutieusement l’his...

This contribution is dedicated to the history of religious education in the canton of Vaud. It opens a series of articles exploring the evolution of this discipline in Swit- zerland during the 19th and 20th centuries. Introducing a diachronic perspective, it situates the recent reforms of religious education classes and the ensuing debates in a bro...

In spite of its different cantonal jurisdictions and traditions, the development of religious education in Switzerland over the past decade has taken a common direction: the state has assumed a more active role in the field of religious education in public (state‐run) schools. In this article, we ask the question: How do key social actors interpret...

Ces deux dernières décennies, l’enseignement de la religion dans les écoles suisses a fait l’objet de profondes réformes qui ont abouti, dans la majorité des cantons, à l’introduction d’un cours en matière de religions sous la responsabilité de l’État. L’attribution de ces nouvelles compétences à l’État n’a pas manqué de susciter des réactions aupr...