Franz Winter

Franz Winter is Full 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. In 2010, he completed his Habilitation in religious studies at the University of 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 the spring semester 2025 he was resident visiting fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University.
Major publications include the Handbook of East Asian New Religious Movements (Brill 2018; co-edited with Lukas Pokorny; this volume was awarded an accolade for best edited volume in social sciences at the International Convention of Asia Scholars/ICAS 2019), Occult East Asia (Brill 2026; co-edited with Lukas Pokorny), China and the World. New Approaches to Classical Topics (Brill 2026, co-edited with Ksenia Radchenkova); Appropriating the Dao. The Euro-American Esoteric Reception of China (Bloomsbury 2024, co-edited with Lukas Pokorny), The Occult Nineteenth Century (Palgrave 2022; co-edited with Lukas Pokorny), Religionen und Gewalt (2018), and the monographs Hermes und Buddha. Die neureligiöse Bewegung Kofuku no kagaku in Japan (Hermes and Buddha: The New Religious Movement Kofuku no kagaku in Japan, 2012), Emil Cioran und die Religionen (Emil Cioran and Religions, 2012), or Das frühchristliche Mönchtum und der Buddhismus (Early Christian Monasticism and Buddhism, 2008), as well as various contributions in edited volumes and in international journals such as 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 up-to-date list of publications but also media contributions, such as interviews, etc. see the link below.