A variety of teams and statuses
Institutional typologies reveal a variety of modalities in cooperation and research collectives, sometimes linked to their history, always to their projects. In this case, the visitor might be surprised by the diversity of collectives and the variety of their statuses (centers, groups, chairs, groups, affected, affiliated, etc.). The field of research on religion is immense, due to its multidisciplinary, pluri-religious aspects, and its geographical and historical scope. The groups of the RSCS Institute obviously do not intend to exhaust such a field, but rather mark it out with specific points of interest for research cooperation.
Each researcher develops specific expertise in which he is internationally recognized. Beyond this strong individual expertise, each researcher at the RSCS Institute devotes part of their research time to developing interdisciplinary synergies. These synergies are neither exclusive — regarding the fields of research which they do not exhaust — nor exhaustive — in the sense that they cannot "exhaust" the researcher himself either by diverting him from his personal field of research which remains first.
The diversity of the groups and multiple affiliations of each researcher reflects this desire to balance personal research and collective focus on cross-cutting themes, which makes it possible to establish varied and mobile synergies as well as very broad international cooperation.
Three clusters
Beyond this effect of diversity, the organization chart of these teams shows a convergence in three "clusters" which testifies to the transversal methodological challenge of the Institute: a first cluster refines theological approaches (understood as rationalities internal to religions), a second cluster brings together external approaches of the human and social sciences of the religious fact. The third cluster more explicitly adopts the role of instigator of the interaction of the first two approaches, both from a theoretical and practical point of view. (To enlarge the diagram below, click on the medallion in the right column or below the page).
Six statutes
The centers
The centers bring together researchers (professors, scientific staff, doctoral students) based on long-term projects; these materialize in various conferences or meetings, which lead to exhaustive publications. Some Centers, called affected, (in bold) have their main anchorage in RSCS. Others have their main affiliation in another institute but are associated with RSCS ("associated centers" in italics) for the significant part that their research devotes to religion.
Center for the History of Religions (CHIR)
Center for Research on the Imaginary (CRI) (INCAL)
Interdisciplinary Center for Studies of Islam in the Contemporary World (CISMOC) (IACCHOS)
Lumen Gentium Center (CLG)
Vincent Lebbe Center (CVL)
Early Modern Cultural Analysis Group (GEMCA) (INCAL)
Prospective Anthropology Laboratory (LAAP) (IACCHOS)
Center for Research on Education and Religions (CRER)
Center for Research in Practical Theology (CRTP)
Research groups
Research groups bring together researchers based on short-term projects, materializing in conferences or other activities, leading to partial publications.
Cinespi research group
Research Group in Buddhist and Hindu Studies (GREBH)
Septuagint and textual criticism research group (SSTC)
Song of Songs Research Group
Internal Democracy Research Group (GRDI) (ISPOLE-RSCS-ISP)
Research group on “Figures and forms of spirituality in literature and artistic expressions” (INCAL)
FNRS contact group "Thinking religion in Europe" (ISP)
Disciplinary groups
The disciplinary groupings allow a synthetic presentation of the work carried out by several researchers of the same specialization.
Disciplinary group in History
Disciplinary group in Exegesis
Comparative Ethics Research Group