Religious pluralism in discourse - Buddhists and Christians in Myanmar coping with religious plurality

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Hans-Peter Großhans; Professor Dr. Perry Schmidt-Leukel
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: from 2014 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 253680713

The aims of the Project are still the same as in the first application. But because of the anti-muslim discourse in Myanmar these aims will be extended to the Muslim community in its reciprocal relation to Buddhism and Christianity, but as well to the consequences of the anti-muslim discourse to the situation of religions generally in Myanmar. The recent research has shown, that as well the ethnic and regional dimensions of religion in Myanmar has to be given stronger awareness in the project. Ongoing the research project aims generally at a critical reconstruction of the interpretive patterns and the discourses on religious pluralism among Buddhists, Christians and Muslim in today’s Myanmar. The central question is: Which discourses influence the way, Buddhists, Christians and Muslim in Myanmar cope with religious plurality and religious diversity and which specific patterns of interpretation and justification are effective in Buddhist, Christian and Muslim perspectives? It is therefore necessary to identify and analyse the central theological-religious strategies in legitimising or questioning religious diversity among various faith communities in Myanmar. Starting from researching current discourses along those lines the project examines their actual or potential impact on the coexistence of various religions in the public space and their relation to further socio-cultural factors. In particular, the interconnection of ethnic and religious affiliation is considered in its complexity and contemporary debates are examined on the basis of their historical continuities and discontinuities. The central element of the project is the analyses of perspectives on religious pluralism (that is, on the specific ways in which the fact of religious diversity is conceived religiously/theologically) as found among Buddhist, Christian and Muslim teachers and religious leaders in Myanmar. The focus is on academics and religious leaders, because of their key role within the society in questions of Religion. By means of its intercultural and interreligious design, the project in addition intends to make an innovative contribution to the systematic-theological discourse on religious pluralism in general. The project will give new impulses in focusing on the interreligious communication within a concrete local context which is very different from the Western situation. Hence the project focusses on the positions of the major religious communities in Myanmar as these can be derived (by means of discourse theory) from their discursive interaction within a specific socio-political context and in relation to their respective self-understandings.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Myanmar
• International Co-Applicant: Professor Dr. Samuel Ling