Marina Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Religion is an initiative of Marina Initiatives for Transformation, a non-profit religious education trust registered in India. MCISR aims to create a network of scholars, students, practitioners, in partnership with universities and like-minded institutions, to facilitate better understanding of the role of religion in society, culture, economics, politics, and in the lives of individual through research, colloquia, symposiums, seminars, conferences, and publications to foster peaceful coexistence and community transformation.

MCISR is committed to the study of religion from an interdisciplinary approach by using varied perspectives, not confined to study of texts, to understand the complexity of the role of religion in various aspects of human life and society. The centre will facilitate interplay of humanities and social sciences in understanding religion in general and Christianity in particular and is mainly interested in adopting social scientific methods that use people as the primary source to study religion.

Vision

Marina Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Religion is committed to facilitate interdisciplinary studies and research in understanding the role of religion, particularly Christianity, in the lives of individuals and in society leading to peaceful coexistence and community transformation

Mission

MCISR aims at equipping scholars and networking with institutions/universities to facilitate interdisciplinary research, organize interdisciplinary seminars/conferences, offer academic programmes and publish academic resources in the field of religious studies with a special focus on Christianity to foster communal harmony and community transformation.

Particular interests

• Religion and Individual
• Religion and society
• Religion and Culture
• Religion and Politics
• Religion and Economics

Key Activities of MCISR

The centre is interested in organizing interdisciplinary seminars, conferences, symposiums, and lectures to develop a community of scholars and activists for critical reflection on the role of religion in human life and society.

MCISR conducts interdisciplinary research on various aspects of the role of religion in human life and society

Marina Academic Press publishes books and monographs in the field of humanities and social sciences that touches upon religion

MCISR envisages to offer academic programmes in the field of Christian Studies in future.

Values

• Interdisciplinary orientation
• Collaborative research
• World-class research
• Sensitive to pluralistic context
• Envisioning transformation (personal and community)

MCISR facilitates interdisciplinary research to have better understanding of social realities and realities associated with religion. Thus MCISR envisages that the results of interdisciplinary researches would enable stakeholders to effectively address the needs of poor, religious and ethnic minorities, and the marginalized leading to community transformation.

Transformative Religious Experience

Joshua Iyadurai has completed a major interdisciplinary research on transformative religious experience and was published by Pickwick Publications in the USA.

Religious Conversion and Personal Transformation

This article argued from a psycho-spiritual perspective that Christian conversion leads to personal transformation.

Politics of Religious Conversion

This project analysed the role of Gandhi in politicizing the issue of religious conversion in India and delineates how the Dalit conversion was labelled as anit-national act for political reasons.

Dalit Converts and Lived Religion

Currently, Joshua is working on understanding of the lived religion of the Dalit converts in India. The main aim of this project is to highlight the ways and means adopted by Dalit converts in practicing the newfound faith in a hostile atmosphere.

MCISR organizes interdisciplinary conferences, seminars, symposiums, colloquia, and lectures on various issues in which religion plays a role in the lives of individuals and other aspects of community life like social, cultural, economic, and political.