History of the CASR
The history of the Czech Association for the Study of Religions (CASR) started after the political and social change which took place in the former USSR satellite states in 1989. During the several years preceding this change, in the era of the so-called perestroika, a group of mostly young academics from Brno, who were dissatisfied with the situation in the area of the study and research of religions, formed a group. These academics started to develop methodology and prepare foundations for a fundamentally different, ideologically unbiased research of religions. Shortly after the political turnover in the country, they were able to establish the Society for the Study of Religions (in April 1990) which joined Czech and Slovak academics interested in the study of religions.
The first task of the new society was to define the basic orientation of the new academic discipline in the country, to define its immediate objectives as well as long-term aims, with priority given to institutionalization of the academic study of religions. Czech and Slovak academic study of religions had never been organized before; it had never been represented in universities, no professorships had been awarded in this discipline. It had no tradition to follow, possibilities of continuing research were minimal after the fifty-year break and, with a few exceptions, there were no experts who could spur the development. There was a lack of specialized literature, textbooks, fundamental compendia and dictionaries, as well as international contacts.
The effort to formulate the basic orientation of Czech academic study of religions inspired the first conference in the field held in Czechoslovakia, titled The State and the Perspectives of Religious Studies in Czechoslovakia (19-21 September 1990). The conference participants agreed on the necessity of establishing international contacts on the level of supranational associations and organizations engaged in the academic study of religions. In the same year, Czechoslovak association – with a substantial support from the international association – became a regular member of IAHR (at the XVI IAHR Congress in Rome). Jan Heller, Prague scholar and Old Testament expert, was elected the first president of Czechoslovak Association.
Since then, a close cooperation between Czechoslovak and international academic study of religions has been developing. Mutual cooperation brought several important results, namely two special IAHR conferences held in Brno (the first one being Religions in Contact, 22-26 August 1994, the second was The Academic Study of Religions During the Cold War: Ideological and Theological Constraints, East and West, 9-13 August 1999; proceedings was published from both of the conferences). In 2008, the CASR co-organized the 8th annual conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions.
The dissolution of the Czechoslovak state and the foundation of two independent republics in 1993 made the Association divide as well. The Czech Association for the Study of Religions was established. Jan Heller resigned and Břetislav Horyna was elected president. In 2008, David Václavík was elected the new president. The office of the secretary was first held by Dalibor Papoušek; then by David Václavík; now is the responsibility of David Zbíral.
Czech academic study of religions continued expanding its work. The discipline gained institutional recognition by Czech universities and other higher education institutions, developed international co-operations (after the establishment of EASR it became its member, too) and organized a number of activities in the Czech Republic. One of the most important of these is the publication of the only journal specialized in the academic study of religions in the Czech Republic, Religio: Revue pro religionistiku (Religio: Review of Academic Study of Religions), which has been published since 1993. Editorial, translation and research work is also significant, in particular a book series entitled “Religionistika” (Study of Religions), where a number of books by Czech as well as foreign authors has been published (e.g. Jacques D. J. Waardenburg, Luther M. Martin and William Paden), thanks to support from the Department for the Study of Religions, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University.
At present, the Czech Association for the Study of Religions comprises a range of activities on the international stage, both in the form of individual co-operations and international research projects. Members of different departments for the study of religions in the Czech Republic are involved in the activities of the CASR (Department for the Study of Religions, Masaryk University; Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy, University of Pardubice; Institute of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Charles University; etc.).
