Religion and Pluralism, Ancient & Modern

Throughout history, individuals, communities, and societies have drawn the distinction between 'us' and 'them'. What role did in- and exclusion play in antiquity? What are the boundaries of tolerance?
In Europe, the distinction between ‘us' and ‘them' is particularly evident in the relationships between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Partly due to ongoing migration from the Arab world, questions of identity and belonging remain closely connected to religious identity. This Master's track focuses on the diversity within and between the three major monotheistic religions, and on how their interactions have shaped our contemporary societies.The programme trains you to analyse textual sources that reflect encounters between these religious traditions, using a wide range of methods and perspectives, including archaeology, codicology, paleography, epigraphy, and philology.

You explore the impact of religious diversity on the formation of social identities across the Graeco-Roman world, Late Antiquity, the medieval era, and the modern period. Particular attention is paid to the tension between tolerance and acceptance on the one hand, and rejection and exclusion on the other, across the past two thousand years.