Introduction
On behalf of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), the Research Council for the Humanities (GW), the Research Council for Social Sciences (MaGW) and the Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research (WOTRO) started in 2002 with a research programme entitled: 'The Future of the Religious Past: Elements and Forms for the 21st Century'. The programme has been developed within the framework of the strategic plan 'Themes plus Talent. Strategic plan 2002-2005' (NWO September 2001). The aim of this call for proposals is to offer a short introduction to this programme. It includes information about the design of the programme, the conditions which have to be met in order to apply for a research grant, the assessment of research proposals, and the administrative organization of the programme. Copies of the full description of the programme can be downloaded from the website of the Research Council for the Humanities or ordered from its office (see below).
The Future of the Religious Past
In the early 21st century we are confronted with continued or renewed participation in religion as we know it, no less than with the even more remarkable invention of seemingly new and unprecedented elements and forms of 'religion', many of which defy traditional and modern tools for interpretation. These novel experiences and experiments require a radical rethinking of the central themes, disciplinary fields and diverse methods that make up the comparative study of contemporary religion. More importantly, they challenge us to answer the question of whether (the very term ) 'religion' may not one day come to be seen as a mere historical category, referring to a well documented and identifiable past, or whether there may still be unanticipated futures for this particular religious past. Both alternatives, which represent complex socio-historical tendencies in their own right, merit further intensive interdisciplinary inquiry.
The present programme outlines some avenues for innovative research projects along these two axes in the coming years. It does so by highlighting systematic foci – powers, words, things, and gestures (including experiences) - that will enable researchers to propose innovative programmes and projects that combine a broad theoretical sweep, including the formulation of generalisable hypotheses and observations at the macro-level, with an indefatigable scholarly attention to minute detail and complexity at the micro-level of the phenomena in question. Abstraction and formalisation should go hand in hand with a study of particulars. Neither a linear socio- or psycho-historical narrative nor a synchronic-structural (for example, philosophical) analysis could suffice here or stand on its own. Hence the proposed focus is on selected elements and forms of religion for the 21st century which will represent nodal points in which genealogical and systematic problems intersect and thus require a variety of disciplina ry and interdisciplinary approaches in the comparative study of religion and related fields of inquiry.
The central concern of these combined efforts will be to determine to what extent – and how exactly – people invent unprecedented forms of ‘religious’ life in the early 21st century and, conversely, how traditional elements of representation and forms of participation continue to punctuate and limit the variety of existential options on offer.