Hans Joas is Ernst Troeltsch Professor[1] for the Sociology of Religion at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

Joas emphasizes that his consideration of the contingency of the emergence of values should in no way be understood "as a plea against the claims of a universalistic morality."

In a three-volume work, Joas attempts to develop the outline of a global history of moral universalism from these premises.

Religionstheorie nach Hegel and Nietzsche", published in 2020  (English translation forthcoming), is concerned in parallel with overcoming the historical image of a history of religion culminating in Protestant Christianity and its constitutive significance for the constitution of modern political freedom, which goes back to Hegel.

In portraits of important philosophical, sociological and theological thinkers on religion, the approaches to an alternative are further substantiated.