The key research area "religion and transformation in contemporary society" considers core research questions of the Faculty of Catholic Theology. It analyses to which extent religions shape narratives, horizons of meaning, values and institutions of society and are equally changed by them.

In addition, it is examined how religions, especially the Catholic Church, react to global challenges of our time: loss of tradition and identity, debates on diversity and especially gender, climate change, limited ecological resources, dialectics of enlightenment processes, migration and multiculturalism, religious pluralism, religious fundamentalism, urbanization, digitization, inequality and injustice, etc. Exit strategies in regard to global crisis phenomena and crises of meaning and their impact on ethics, politics, education, law and aesthetics are thematized.

The research centre "Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society" mainly contributes to research on this key area.