Subproject A01 investigates metaphors of space, movement, and bodily experience in the Qur’an and the tradition of Tafsir (Qur’anic exegesis). It is based on the idea that these images do not appear in isolation but form a network of interconnected metaphors that together shape distinctive religious worlds of meaning. Roads and journeys, proximity and distance, ascent and descent, as well as experiences of openness and constriction all contribute to the ways in which the Qur’an communicates religious ideas.
Supported Projects
Which subprojects does Project S currently support?
Subproject A03 investigates the role of metaphors in Tibetan tantric Buddhism, with a particular focus on yoga, visualization, and ritual practice. While metaphors are often understood as linguistic expressions, the project explores how they also operate through images, bodily techniques, gestures, and ritual objects. In this context, metaphors are not merely descriptive but performative: they shape perception, experience, and processes of spiritual transformation.
Subproject A06 investigates how religious metaphors travel across cultures and acquire new meanings in processes of artistic and intellectual exchange. Focusing on Christian Passion Plays and the Shiʿite ritual theatre tradition of Taʿziyeh, the project explores how ideas of suffering, sacrifice, and the sacred are expressed through movement, space, and performance.
Subproject B02 investigates the religious dimensions of Korean Confucianism during the Chosŏn period (16th–18th centuries). While the first funding phase focused on experiences of transcendence and processes of self-transformation, the project now turns to the ways Confucian literati related to ghosts, spirits, ancestors, and other superhuman beings.