Overview

Dr. Kreinath received training in theory and methodology related to the study of religion, ritual, and culture. Besides holding degrees in Theology and History of Religion as well as in Philosophy鈥攁ll received from the University of Heidelberg鈥攈e received in 2006 his doctoral degree in social/cultural anthropology form the same university. As a member of a research group on ritual theory and the history of religions, he carried out research in 2000 on the Yasna, a daily performed ritual of Zoroastrian high-priests. Together with Refika Sari枚nder, he conducted fieldwork in 2002 in Istanbul among the Alevi on the reflexive dynamics of the cem, a weekly observed community ritual. Since 2010, he studies the coexistence of religious minorities in Turkey and more specifically on the local and global dynamics of inter-religious relations in Hatay, the southernmost province of Turkey. His current research is primarily on Christian and Muslim communities in Antakya (formerly Antioch). He is member of an international research collaboration, 鈥淩eassembling Democracy: Ritual as Cultural Resource,鈥 funded by the Norwegian Research Council. The aim of his research is to inquire the impact of the interreligious Antakya Choir of Civilizations on transforming the interaction of the local religious communities and to analyze the internal dynamic of this interreligious choir. Besides, he was in 2014-2015 visiting scholar in the research group 鈥淟ocal Dynamics of Globalization in the Premodern Levant,鈥 funded by the Centre of Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, which allowed him to further his studies of local infrastructure of pilgrimage sites in the northern Levant in a more historical perspective.

Information

Academic Interests and Expertise

Religious Minorities and Cultural Dynamics in Turkey and the Middle East; Syncretism, Hybridity, and the Dynamics of Interreligious Contact; Aesthetics of Religion and Semiotics of Ritual; Method and Theory in the Study of Religion; Concept Formation in Study Ritual; Reflexivity in Ethnographic Fieldwork; Ritual Theory; Anthropology of Islam; Visual Anthropology

Areas of Research Interest

Publications

Selected Publications

Jens Kreinath

 Books and Edited Volumes 

  1. Johannsen, Dirk, Anja Kirsch, and Jens Kreinath, eds. 2020. Narrative Cultures and the Aesthetics of Religion. (Supplements to Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, Vol. 14). Leiden and Boston: Brill. 369 pp. .
  2. Kreinath, Jens, ed. 2012. The Anthropology of Islam Reader. London and New York: Routledge 鈥 Taylor & Francis Group. 426 pp. .
  3. Kreinath, Jens, Jan Snoek, and Michael Stausberg. Theorizing Rituals: Vol. II: Annotated Bibliography of Ritual Theory, 1966鈥2005. (Numen Book Series: Studies in the History of Religion Vol. 114-2). Leiden and Boston: Brill. xx, 576 pp. .
  4. Kreinath, Jens, Jan Snoek, and Michael Stausberg, eds. 2006. Theorizing Rituals: Vol I: Issues, Topics, Approaches, Concepts. (Numen Book Series: Studies in the History of Religion 114-1). Leiden and Boston: Brill. xxvi, 778 pp. .
  5. Kreinath, Jens. 2005. Semiose des Rituals: Eine Kritik ritualtheoretischer Begriffsbildung [Semiosis of Ritual: A Critique of Ritual Theoretical Concept Formation]. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Heidelberg. 211 pp. .
  6. Kreinath, Jens, Constance Hartung, and Annette Deschner, eds. 2004. The Dynamics of Changing Rituals: The Transformation of Religious Rituals within Their Social and Cultural Context. (Toronto Studies in Religion 29). New York: Peter Lang. 287 pp. .

Journal Articles (Peer-Reviewed) 

  1. Kreinath, Jens, and Matan Shapiro. 2020. 鈥淚ntroductory Note on Play and Ritual: Rhythm, Pulsation, and Fractal Dynamics.鈥 Anthropological Theory 20 (2):190鈥192. .
  2. Kreinath, Jens. 2020. 鈥淧laying with Frames of Reference in Veneration Rituals: Fractal Dynamics in Encounters with a Muslim Saint.鈥 Anthropological Theory 20 (2):221鈥250. .
  3. Kreinath, Jens. 2019. 鈥溾楩inding鈥 the Eucharist in Central Australia: Intichiuma Ceremonies and the Study of Ritual Sacrifice as a Sacrament of Communion.鈥 History of Religion 58 (3):277鈥318. .
  4. Kreinath, Jens. 2019. 鈥淚ntroduction to Tracing Ritual Associations in Pilgrimage and Festival: Applications of Bruno Latour鈥檚 Actor-Network Theory to Ritual Studies.鈥 Journal of Ritual Studies 33 (1):1鈥11.
  5. Kreinath, Jens. 2019. 鈥淭ombs and Trees as Indexes of Agency in Saint Veneration Rituals: Bruno Latour鈥檚 Actor-Network Theory and the H谋d谋rellez Festival in Hatay, Turkey.鈥 Journal of Ritual Studies 33 (1):52鈥73.
  6. Kreinath, Jens. 2018. 鈥淚mplications of Micro-Scale Comparisons for the Study of Entangled Religious Traditions: Reflecting on the Comparative Method in the Study of the Dynamics of Christian-Muslim Relations at a Shared Sacred Site.鈥 Religions 9 (2):45. .
  7. Kreinath, Jens, and Refika Sar谋枚nder. 鈥淒ynamics of Ritual Reflexivity in the Alevi Cem, Istanbul.鈥 Society and Religion 9 (1):145鈥159. .
  8. Kreinath, Jens. 2017. 鈥淚nterrituality as a New Approach for Studying Interreligious Relations and Ritual Dynamics at Shared Pilgrimage Sites in Hatay.鈥 Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology 1 (2):257鈥284. .
  9. Kreinath, Jens. 2016. 鈥淚ntertextualit盲t und Interritualit盲t als Mimesis: Zur 脛sthetik interreligi枚ser Beziehungen unter Juden, Christen und Muslimen in Hatay.鈥 Zeitschrift f眉r Religionswissenschaft 24 (2):153鈥185. .
  10. Kreinath, Jens. 2014. 鈥淚nterrituality as a Framework of Analysis: A New Approach to the Study of Interreligious Encounters and the Economies of Ritual.鈥 PluRel 鈥 En Blogg om Religion og Samfunn. .
  11. Kreinath, Jens. 2014. 鈥淰irtual Encounters with H谋z谋r and Other Muslim Saints: Dreaming and Healing at Local Pilgrimage Sites in Hatay, Turkey.鈥 Anthropology of the Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia 2 (1):25鈥66. .
  12. Kreinath, Jens, and William Silcott. 2013. 鈥淚ntroduction: Politics of Faith in Asia: Local and Global Perspectives of Christianity in Asia.鈥 Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal 14 (2):180鈥184.
  13. Silcott, William, and Jens Kreinath. 鈥淭ransformations of a 鈥楻eligious鈥 Nation in a Global World: Politics, Protestantism and Ethnic Identity in South Korea.鈥 Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal 14 (2):223鈥240. .
  14. Kreinath, Jens. 2012. 鈥淒iscursive Formation, Ethnographic Encounter, Photographic Evidence: The Centenary of Durkheim's Basic Forms of Religious Life and the Anthropological Study of Australian Aboriginal Religion in his Time.鈥 Visual Anthropology 25 (5):367鈥420. .
  15. Kreinath, Jens. 2012. 鈥淣aven, Moebius Strip, and Random Fractal Dynamics: Reframing Bateson鈥檚 Play Frame and the Use of Mathematical Models for the Study of Ritual.鈥 Journal of Ritual Studies 26 (2):39鈥64.
  16. Kreinath, Jens. 2009. 鈥淗eadscarf Discourses and the Contestation of Secularism in Turkey.鈥 The Council of Societies for the Study of Religion Bulletin 38 (4):77鈥84.
  17. Kreinath, Jens. 2005. 鈥淩itual: Theoretical Issues in the Study of Religion.鈥 Rever: Revista de Estudos da Religi茫o 5:100鈥107. . 

Book Chapters (Peer-Reviewed) 

  1. Kreinath, Jens. [forthcoming]. 鈥淎lawite Politics of Religious Secrecy: Dynamics of Dissimulation and Concealment among a Religious Minority in Hatay, Turkey.鈥 In Religious Secrecy as Contact: Secrets as Promoters of Religious Dynamics, edited by Anna Akasoy, Licia Di Giacinto, Georgios Halkias, Andreas M眉ller-Lee and Philipp Reichling. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
  2. Kreinath, Jens. [forthcoming]. 鈥淓thnographic Research, Photographic Evidence, and the Formations of an Anthropological Theory of Ritual: Durkheim鈥檚 Elementary Forms of Religious Life and the Study of Central Australian Aborigines in His Time.鈥 In Visual Anthropology鈥揌istorical Perspectives, edited by Paul Stockings and Paul Henle. London and New York: Routledge 鈥 Taylor & Francis Group.
  3. Kreinath, Jens. [forthcoming]. 鈥淚nfrastructures of Interrituality and the Aesthetics of Interreligious Relations at Shared Sacred Sites in the Eastern Mediterranean.鈥 In Palgrave Studies in Ritual, edited by Pamela Stewart and Andrew Strathern. London and New York: Palgrave.
  4. Kreinath, Jens. [forthcoming]. 鈥淭he Infrastructure of Shared Pilgrimage Sites in Hatay, Turkey: Interreligious Dynamics of Saint Veneration in the Northern Levant.鈥 In Levantine Entanglements Local Dynamics of Globalization in a Contested Region, edited by Terje Stordalen. London and New York: Equinox. .
  5. Kreinath, Jens. [forthcoming]. 鈥淩itual: Review of Current Trends.鈥 In The Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion, edited by Robert Segal. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  6. Kreinath, Jens. 2020. 鈥淭he Interreligious Choir of Civilizations: Representations of Democracy and the Ritual Assembly of Multiculturalism in Antakya (Antioch), Turkey.鈥 In Reassembling Democracy: Ritual as a Cultural Resource, edited by Jone Salomonsen, Michael Houseman, Sarah M. Pike and Graham Harvey, 125鈥140. London and New York: Bloomsbury. .
  7. Kreinath, Jens. 2020. 鈥淲ater Sanctuaries of Hatay, Turkey.鈥 In Holy Wells and Sacred Springs, edited by Celeste Ray, 225鈥234. London and New York: Routledge 鈥 Taylor & Francis Group. .
  8. Kreinath, Jens. 2020. 鈥淲hat Happens when the Story is Told? Afterthoughts on Narrative Culture and the Aesthetics of Religion: The Case of Armenian Christians from Musa Da臒谋.鈥 In Narrative Cultures and the Aesthetics of Religion, edited by Dirk Johannsen, Anja Kirsch and Jens Kreinath. Leiden and Boston: Brill. .
  9. Kreinath, Jens. 2019. 鈥淎esthetic Sensations of Mary: The Miraculous Icon of Meryem Ana and the Dynamics of Interreligious Relations in Antakya.鈥 In Figurations and Sensations of the Unseen in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Contested Desires, edited by Birgit Meyer and Terje Stordalen, 155鈥171, 288鈥290, 311鈥314. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic. .
  10. Kreinath, Jens. 2019. 鈥淢ethodology.鈥 In The Bloomsbury Handbook of Cultural and Cognitive Aesthetics of Religion, edited by Anne Koch and Katharina Wilkens, 47鈥57. London: Bloomsbury Academic. .
  11. Kreinath, Jens. 2017. 鈥淎esthetic Dimensions and Transformative Dynamics of Mimetic Acts: The Veneration of Habib-i Neccar among Muslims and Christians in Antakya, Turkey.鈥 In Aesthetics of Religion: A Connective Concept, edited by Alexandra Grieser and Jay Johnston, 271鈥299. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter. .
  12. Kreinath, Jens. 2015. 鈥淚magination 鈥 Visualit盲t 鈥 Repr盲sentation: Religions盲sthetische Konstruktion der Kategorie der zentralaustralischen Aborigines und das Paradigma der Fotografie.鈥 In Religion-Imagination-脛sthetik: Vorstellungs-und Sinneswelten in Religion und Kultur, edited by Lucia Traut and Annette Wilke, 407鈥450. G枚ttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. .
  13. Kreinath, Jens. 2015. 鈥淭he Seductiveness of Saints: Interreligious Pilgrimage Sites in Hatay and the Ritual Transformations of Agency.鈥 In The Seductions of Pilgrimage: Sacred Journeys Afar and Astray in the Western Religious Tradition, edited by Michael A. Di Giovine and David Picard, 121鈥143. Farnham: Ashgate.
  14. Kreinath, Jens. 2012. 鈥淭oward the Anthropology of Islam: An Introductory Essay.鈥 In The Anthropology of Islam Reader, edited by Jens Kreinath, 1鈥42. London and New York: Routledge 鈥 Taylor & Francis Group.
  15. Kreinath, Jens. 2009. 鈥淰irtuality and Mimesis: Toward an Aesthetics of Ritual Performances as Embodied Forms of Religious Practice.鈥 In Religion, Ritual, Theatre, edited by Bent Holm, Bent Flemming Nielsen and Karen Vedel, 219鈥249. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. .
  16. Kreinath, Jens, and Refika Sar谋枚nder. 2008. 鈥淩eflexive Ritualdynamik am Beispiel des alevitischen Cem.鈥 In Im Rausch des Rituals: Gestaltung und Transformation der Wirklichkeit in k枚rperlicher Performanz, 2nd edited by Klaus-Peter K枚pping and Ursula Rao, 93鈥108. Hamburg: Lit.
  17. Kreinath, Jens, Jan Snoek, and Michael Stausberg. 鈥淩itual Studies, Ritual Theory, Theorizing Ritual: An Introductory Essay.鈥 In Theorizing Rituals: Vol I: Issues, Topics, Approaches, Concepts, edited by Jens Kreinath, Jan Snoek and Michael Stausberg, xiii鈥搙xv. Leiden and Boston: Brill. .
  18. Kreinath, Jens. 2006. 鈥淪emiotics.鈥 In Theorizing Rituals: Vol I: Issues, Topics, Approaches, Concepts, edited by Jens Kreinath, Jan Snoek and Michael Stausberg, 429鈥470. Leiden: Brill. .
  19. Kreinath, Jens. 2004. 鈥淢eta-Theoretical Parameters for the Analysis and Comparison of two Recent Approaches to the Study of the Yasna.鈥 In Zoroastrian Rituals in Context, edited by Michael Stausberg, 99鈥136. Leiden, Boston: Brill. .
  20. Kreinath, Jens. 2004. 鈥淭heoretical Afterthoughts.鈥 In The Dynamics of Changing Rituals: The Transformation of Religious Rituals within their Social and Cultural Context, edited by Jens Kreinath, Constance Hartung and Annette Deschner, 267鈥282. New York: Peter Lang. 

Encyclopedia Entries 

  1. Kreinath, Jens. 2020. 鈥淎esthetics.鈥 In The SAGE Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion, edited by Adam Possamai and Anthony J. Blasi, 8鈥9. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. .
  2. Kreinath, Jens. 2020. 鈥淚nterrituality.鈥 In The SAGE Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion, edited by Adam Possamai and Anthony Joseph Blasi, 398鈥399. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. .
  3. Kreinath, Jens. 2020. 鈥淭he Elementary Forms of Religious Life, by 脡mile Durkheim.鈥 In The SAGE Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion, edited by Adam Possamai and Anthony Joseph Blasi, 254鈥256. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. .
  4. Kreinath, Jens. 2018. 鈥淚slam.鈥 In The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by Hilary Callan. New York and Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. .
  5. Kreinath, Jens. 2018. 鈥淩itual.鈥 In The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by Hilary Callan. New York and Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. .
  6. Kreinath, Jens. 2015. 鈥淔raming.鈥 In Vocabulary for the Study of Religion, edited by Kocku von Stuckrad and Robert Segal, 44鈥47. Leiden and Boston: Brill. .
  7. Kreinath, Jens. 2015. 鈥淢useality.鈥 In Vocabulary for the Study of Religion, edited by Kocku von Stuckrad and Robert Segal, 481鈥486. Leiden and Boston: Brill. .
  8. Kreinath, Jens. 2015. 鈥淪emiotics.鈥 In Vocabulary for the Study of Religion, edited by Kocku von Stuckrad and Robert Segal, 322鈥325. Leiden and Boston: Brill. .
  9. Kreinath, Jens. 2015. 鈥淰irtuality.鈥 In Vocabulary for the Study of Religion, edited by Kocku von Stuckrad and Robert Segal, 574鈥578. Leiden and Boston: Brill. .
  10. Kreinath, Jens. 2013. 鈥淏ateson, Gregory.鈥 In Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology, edited by R. Jon McGee and Richard L. Warms, 57鈥62. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc.
  11. Kreinath, Jens. 2013. 鈥淏astian, Adolf.鈥 In Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology, edited by R. Jon McGee and Richard L. Warms, 52鈥56. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc. 

Book and Film Reviews 

  1. Kreinath, Jens. 2016. 鈥淏audouin Dupret, Thomas Pierret, Paulo G. Pinto, and Kathryn Spellman-Poots (eds.): Ethnographies of Islam: Ritual Performances and Everyday Practices. (Exploring Muslim Contexts). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press in Association with the Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations, 2012. 202 pp.鈥 Numen 63 (1):126鈥130. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341414.
  2. Kreinath, Jens. 2015. 鈥淒ionigi Albera and Maria Couroucli (eds): Sharing Sacred Spaces in the Mediterranean: Christians, Muslims, and Jews at Shrines and Sanctuaries. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012.鈥 Zeitschrift f眉r Religions- und Geistesgeschichte 67 (1):90鈥94. .
  3. Kreinath, Jens. 2015. 鈥淕isela Proch谩zka-Eisl and Stephan Prochzka, The Plain of Saints and Prophets: The Nusayri-Alawi Community of Cilicia (Southern Turkey) and its Sacred Places. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010, 404 pp.鈥 Contemporary Islam 9 (3):427鈥431. .
  4. Kreinath, Jens. 2015. 鈥淭he Nus蹋ayri虅-驶Alawi虅s: An Introduction to the Religion, History, and Identity of the Leading Minority in Syria. By Yaron Friedman. Islamic History and Civilization, vol. 77. Leiden: Brill, 2010. Pp. xxii+325.鈥 History of Religion 55 (2):225鈥229. .
  5. Kreinath, Jens. 2015. 鈥淪ociological Misconceptions in the Study of Oriental Societies: Lutfi Sunar, Marx and Weber on Oriental Societies: In the Shadow of Western Modernity, Classical and Contemporary Social Theory Series, Ashgate, 2014.鈥 SCTIW Review: Journal of the Society for Contemporary Thought and the Islamic World. .
  6. Kreinath, Jens. 2014. 鈥淢arriage, Kinship, and Religious Identity: The 鈥淐ommunity of the House鈥 of the Turkish Alawis/Nusairis in Germany: Die 鈥淕emeinschaft des Hauses鈥: Religion, Heiratsstrategien und transnationale Identita虉t tu虉rkischer Alawi-/Nusairi-Migranten in Deutschland. By Laila Prager. Berlin: Lit, 2010.鈥 Current Anthropology 55 (6):837鈥839. .
  7. Kreinath, Jens. 2014. 鈥淩onald L. Grimes, Ute H眉sken, Udo Simon, and Eric Venbrux [eds.]: Ritual, Media, and Conflict. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. 352 pp.鈥 Numen 61 (2鈥3):306鈥310. .
  8. Kreinath, Jens. 2011. 鈥淭he Anthropology of Islam, by Gabrielle Marranci, Berg: Oxford and New York, 2008, ix + 182 pp.鈥 Religion 41 (1):115鈥118. .
  9. Kreinath, Jens. 2011. 鈥淚deologues of Martyrdom in Post-War Iran and the Culture of Mourning the Dead: Plastic Flowers Never Die. Film. Directed by Roxanne Varzi, 35 min. Documentary Educational Resources, Watertown, MA, 2008.鈥 Current Anthropology 52 (4):614鈥615. .
  10. Kreinath, Jens. 2011. 鈥淥f Death and Birth: Schuler, Barbara. Of Death and Birth: Icakkiyamman, a Tamil Goddess, in Ritual and Story. With a Film on DVD by the Author. (Ethno-Indology: Heidelberg Studies in South Asian Rituals 8). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2009.鈥 Visual Anthropology 24 (3):281鈥283. .
  11. Kreinath, Jens. 2010. 鈥淢ecca and Eden: Ritual, Relics, and Territory in Islam. By Brannon Wheeler. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Pp. xi+333.鈥 History of Religions 49 (3):329鈥332. .
  12. Kreinath, Jens. 2010. 鈥(un)veiled: Muslim Women Talk about Hijab. Ines Hofmann Kanna, dir. 36 min. Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources, 2007.鈥 American Anthropologist 112 (4):654鈥655. .
  13. Kreinath, Jens. 2009. 鈥淐ommemorating Adolf Bastian and the Foundation of the Royal Museum of Ethnology in Berlin: Adolf Bastian and his Universal Archive of Humanity: The Origins of German Anthropology. Edited by Manuela Fischer, Peter Bolz, and Susan Kamel. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2007.鈥 Current Anthropology 50 (5):747鈥748. .
  14. Kreinath, Jens. 2006. 鈥淚magining Religious Weeping: Holy Tears: Weeping in the Religious Imagination. Edited by Kimberley Christine Patton and John Stratton Hawley. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2005. 317 pp.鈥 Current Anthropology 47 (5):879鈥880. .
Professional Experience

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Additional Information

Dr. Phil. in Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Heidelberg, summa cum laude