Starting with this issue, we have the honor of being the new editors of the Journal of Religion in Europe. We would like to introduce ourselves in this new role, and thank the publisher, authors, and readers of the journal, as well as the scientific committee.
We are committed to continuing and expanding the excellent work of previous editors, who made the Journal of Religion in Europe a highly respected resource and a prestigious platform for scholars working in the field.
Our challenges and aims in the near future are strictly interconnected. First, we aim to promote interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity: the Journal of Religion in Europe welcomes contributions from all areas of the social sciences, understood in the broad sense, including sociology, anthropology, history, biblical studies, philosophy, legal studies, or psychology, but also feminist studies, digital studies, political sciences, social movement studies, etc. We are committed to keeping the balance between different disciplines and expanding the disciplinary range of the contributions. We would also like to encourage the community to tackle the challenging issues that surround the study of religion in contemporary Europe, including, for example, nonreligion and the role of religion in politics.
Second, we want to foster inclusion and solidarity: the Journal of Religion in Europe welcomes contributions by scholars at all stages of their careers and from all parts of the world. We would like for the Journal of Religion in Europe to be an illustration of the diversity of voices and approaches of our community, a venue for debates and discussions. In the same vein, we would also like to strengthen the connections between the journal and scholarly associations. Our journal is the result of a community effort: we are committed to maintaining the highest quality, but this can be done only with the support of the entire community—in the processes of writing, reviewing, sharing, and circulating knowledge about religion.
Finally, the journal’s scope is on religion and Europe: both terms are challenged, transformed, and changed, in a constant work of boundaries, negotiations, and social construction. Hence, we are seeking contributions that address religion in any of its multiple manifestations, be they traditional forms or less obvious ones. Geographically, the focus is on Europe. Therefore, we welcome manuscripts that focus on this region, those that study influences and interconnections between Europe and other regions of the world, and those that reflect upon the boundaries and meanings of Europe.
A last note: religion is often at the center of controversies and attacks. We would like to take a stance by making it explicit that no form of hate, discrimination, or stereotype will be allowed.
We hope to receive many new contributions in the next few years, be they individual articles or special issue proposals. If you have questions or would like to discuss a potential submission with us, please feel free to email us (see contact details on the website). We also aim to broaden the reach of the journal by publicizing it on the journal’s newly created Twitter account (@ReligionEurope). Finally, if you are interested in reviewing a book, please feel free to contact book review editor Rosa Martínez-Cuadros (contact details on the website).