Franz Winter
University professor
Franz Winter is University Professor of Religious Studies (since 2019) and Head and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Graz (since 2022). He studied Classics (Mag. phil. 1994; Dr. phil. 1999) and Religious Studies and Theology (Mag. theol. 1998; Dr. theol. 2005 sub auspiciis praesidentis rei publicae) in Graz, Salzburg and Vienna. Study and research visits have taken him to Rome (postgraduate studies at the Istituto Patristico Augustinianum), Kyoto, Tokyo and via Fulbright to Boston University. In 2010, he completed his habilitation in religious studies at the University of Vienna.
Major publications include the Handbook of East Asian New Religious Movements (Brill 2018; this volume was awarded an accolade for best edited volume in social sciences at the ICAS 2019), Appropriating the Dao. The Euro-American Esoteric Reception of China (Bloomsbury 2024), or The Occult Nineteenth Century (Palgrave 2022, all the aforementioned volumes were co-edited with Lukas Pokorny), Hermes und Buddha. Die neureligiöse Bewegung Kofuku no kagaku in Japan (LIT 2012), or Das frühchristliche Mönchtum und der Buddhismus (Lang 2008), as well as various contributions in NUMEN, Religion, The International Journal for the Study of New Religions, Journal for Religion, Media and Film, Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft and others (for a detailed and updated list of publications see the link below).
Research topics
History of contact between Europe and Asia from antiquity to the present, history of religion in South, East and West Asia, new religious movements in East and West, esoteric research, religion and media.