Courant Research Centre "Education and Religion"

Education and Religion From Early Imperial Roman Times To the Classical Period of Islam (EDRIS):
Religious Traditions, Intellectual Discourse,
and Practical Knowledge

The Courant Research Centre "Education and Religion" EDRIS is one of seven Courant Research Centres at the University of Göttingen funded by resources from the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments.


The CRC EDRIS is devoted to the comprehensive study of educational concepts and their interaction with different religious beliefs in Greco-Roman, Christian, Jewish, and Islamic culture from the first to the thirteenth centuries CE.
The EDRIS Research Centre provides the basis for the interdisciplinary collaborative work of three junior research groups. Their research focus will lie on the early Roman Empire, Late Antiquity, and Classical Islamic times, respectively.



The Acronym

The acronym EDRIS alludes to the person Edris or Idris, a figure known in the Muslim tradition as both a prophet mentioned in the Quran and also as the first human being to know how to read and write. Furthermore, he is seen as a great inventor and “the prophet of the philosophers”.