In view of the growing societal interest in interreligious exchange, conflict processes, and intercultural osmoses, scholarly efforts to "liquefy" the study of religions have intensified, conceiving of them as dynamic phenomena that constituted, configured, and evolved in permanent processes of interaction with other religions. This perspective on interreligious interaction is the thematic focus of the newly founded journal Historical Interactions of Religious Cultures (HIReC), with reference to the three major monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the pre-modern period, from the seventh to the eighteenth century.
Interaction is understood as any relationship between at least two of the religions mentioned or with a third religious tradition. The religions are treated not as closed, fixed entities, but as a context of traditions and practices whose interactions with, among, and against each other formed a multifaceted spectrum ranging from ideational transfer to physical conflict. The term "religious cultures", which is not intended to be sharply demarcated, recognizes that while the religions themselves might have sought clear distinctions, "open margins" and hybrid forms are a central moment in the history of interreligious interaction.
The journal project is based on the premise that the study of interreligious interaction frequently transcends the competencies of the disciplines concerned, for example, the history of the church and Christianity, the history of religion, Jewish Studies, Islamic Studies, and Arabic Studies. The time frame chosen cuts across common periodisations and spans the millennium between the emergence of Islam and the rise of modern colonialism. The envisaged geographical framework corresponds to the spread and expansion of the three monotheistic religions, creating a global perspective.
HIReC provides an international forum for research in the field of the history of relations and conflicts between the major monotheistic religions in the pre-modern period, with the interdisciplinary nature of the journal fundamental to the enterprise. The contributions should therefore be interdisciplinary, that is, aim not only to reconstruct single-disciplinary internal perspectives, but also to trace the repercussions of interreligious interactions on the cultures involved.
The interdisciplinary and international editorial board will ensure the quality of the contributions and also bring expertise to broadening disciplinary perspectives. The editors are supported by an advisory board that is likewise international and interdisciplinary. All contributions will be subject to double-blind review and will be published Open Access under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license, at no costs for authors and readers. This is funded by the Subscribe to Open (S2O) model and relies on the willingness of libraries to subscribe to the journal.
