Profile

The Swiss journal «Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Kirchengeschichte» (ZSKG) / «Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique suisse» was founded in 1907 as a multilingual scholarly platform for the history of culture and religion covering all epochs, with a strong presence at the University of Fribourg. In 2004, the Journal was renamed as «Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Religions- und Kirchengeschichte» (SZRKG) / «Revue suisse d’histoire religieuse et culturelle».

During its first decades, the subjects predominantly treated by the yearly Journal were those related to institutions, regions and persons, religious rites as well as the history of Catholicism. However, from the 1970s onwards, in response to a growing pluralization of historical approaches and historical thinking in general, the SZRKG broadened its perspective to include topics related to political history, social history, the history of mentalities, and later on, cultural history as well. The Journal’s new name «Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Religions- und Kulturgeschichte» reflects this change of approach. The new focus on the history of ideas, world-views and discourses in cultural and religious history emphasized subjects of piety, rites, symbols and everyday life. It also highlights discourses on the construction of identity, processes of inclusion, exclusion and community building, production and dispersion of knowledge and cultural codes. In this way, the SZRKG strives to present in an innovative way a forum of scholarly discussion on any historical epoch and is transnational oriented without losing its particular focus on Switzerland. It encourages interdisciplinary research on religious topics, and the scope of the latter is extended to include interconfessional and interreligious aspects, with contributions on Protestantism, Judaism and Islam.

The SZRKG is a peer-reviewed Journal, appearing in late autumn, with scholarly contributions and abstracts in German, French, Italian and English. In its first section, the Journal contains articles about a selected main topic. In addition to further articles on diverse subjects, it also contains shorter contributions to a particular discussion. The Journal also publishes reviews of books and scholarly articles on Church History and the History of Religion, authored by Swiss as well as international scholars.