Panel number 001

Panel name Modern Philosophy of Religion: Topics-Methods-Concepts

Date/ Time Monday August 30th 8.30am-1.15pm
Tuesday August 31st 8.30am-1.15pm
Wednesday September 1st 8.30 am-10.45am
Format Hybrid
Room Monday: F2 /Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Tuesday: F5 /Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Wednesday: F5 /Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract The panel unites papers on topics, methods and concepts, which are
discussed nowadays in Philosophy of Religion. The panel cooperates with
the European Society for the Philosophy of Religion (ESPR).
Chair Hans-Peter Großhans (University of Münster, Germany)
Brandon Watson (University of Heidelberg/KiHo Wuppertal, Germany)
Speaker Monday August 30th
Session 1&2:
Sung Kim (Department of Intercultural Mission, Evangelical Lutheran Church
Bayern, Germany): Identity, secularism, theodicy. Or: How do we relate to
Hume, Kant and Luther?

Smilen Markov (Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria/Oxford, UK): The Hierarchy of Love

- Martin d'Arcy' philosophy of the Eros

Piotr Sawczyński (Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland): Back to the

Future: Religious Thinking between Progress and Return

Session 3&4
Brandon Watson (University of Heidelberg/KiHo Wuppertal, Germany):
Recognition, Knowledge and Faith: Assessing Divine-Subjectivity

Deborah Casewell (University of Bonn, Germany): Philosophy of Religion as

Ethics

Elizaveta Bruk (Saint Petersburg State University, Russia): Metaphor in

Religious Consciousness: Methodological Aspects

Tuesday August 31st

Session 1&2
Rafal K. Stepien (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore):
Reconceptualizing ‘Philosophy’ of/and/as ‘Religion’ from Buddhist Sources

Victoria S. Harrison (University of Macau, China): How can we come to know

theological truths?

Andrea Vestrucci (Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, USA/University of

Geneva, Switzerland): Artificial Intelligence and God's Existence: An
Assessment

Session 3&4
 Sybille Fritsch Oppermann (Technische Universität Clausthal, Germany):
Signs, Metaphors and Symbols: Metaphorical Language/s in Religion, Art and
Science

Svetlana Konacheva (Russian State University for the Humanities RSUH,

Moscow, Russia): Metaphysics without metaphysics: the weak thought in
contemporary Philosophy of Religion

Aleksei Rakhmanin (Helsinki University, Finland): Thinking with Literature:

Narrative Fiction in the Wittgensteinian Philosophy of Religion

Wednesday September 1st

Session 1&2
Hartmut von Sass (Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany/University of
Zürich, Switzerland): The Prospects of Theological Fictionalism

Sławomir Sztajer (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland): Religious

fictionalism and its conditions of possibility

Iryna Rozhdestvenskaya (Moscow State University, Russia): Intuitive and

Counter-Intuitive Beliefs: In What Way Cognitive Studies of Religion May
Contribute to Philosophy of Religion
Additional
information

Panel number 002

Panel name Saints, Widows and Prophets: Women and Power in Early Modern Italy
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 2.15pm-5.45pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract In fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Italian saints, prophetesses and widows
are at the center of religious networks, often acting as a bridge with secular
ones. Sacred images and hagiographies portray women as objects of
devotion, but women also appear as authors: Francesca Romana’s visions or
Domenica Narducci’s Dialogo, all express female authorship and authority,
which often imply a concrete exercise of power in the city and beyond. The
revival of the Revelations of Birgitta of Sweden, the circulation of her
apocryphal prophecies and the reappraisal of her figure as holy widow are
part of a process of recovery of her prophetic model which was also
perceived as a model of political and religious authority by such female
saints, prophetesses and widows. The fracture of the Protestant
Reformation and Counter-Reformation transform their mode of expression
but do not silence their voice.
Chair Eleonora Cappuccilli (University of Oslo, Norway)
Speaker Unn Falkeid (University of Oslo, Norway): “The most illustrious and divine of
all the sibyls”. The role of Saint Birgitta in Tommaso Campanella’s prophetic
sense of history

Anna Wainwright (University of New Hampshire, USA): Saint Birgitta and

Widowhood in the Renaissance Italian City
 Eleonora Cappuccilli (University of Oslo, Norway): In the Steps of Birgitta of
Sweden: Power and Reform in Paola Antonia Negri’s Prophecies

Isabella Gagliardi (University of Florence, Italy): Prophetic status and gender

dynamics between Middle Ages and Early Modern Era

Clara Stella (University of Oslo, Norway): Early Prophetic Voices: the story of
Fantina Gambara and The Sack of Brescia (1512)

Francesca Canepuccia (University of Oslo, Norway): Political itineraries of a

visionary woman. Francesca Romana’s journey from pia domina to Advocata
Urbis
Additional
information

Panel number 003

Panel name Gnosticism and New Religions: The Case of L. Ron Hubbard
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 9.45am-10.45am
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Scholars of new religious movements such as Wouter Hanegraaff and
Giovanni Filoramo have long investigated whether it may be appropriate to
describe some of these movements as “neo-Gnostic”. A case in point is
Scientology. While Hugh Urban and others have argued that there is a
“hidden” Gnosticism in the ideas of Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard,
the three presenters in this session have all defended, in different ways, the
idea that Hubbard’s Gnosticism is open and explicit.
Chair Rosita Soryte (European Federation for Freedom of Belief)
Speaker Aldo Natale Terrin (Istituto Pontificio Santa Giustina): Gnosticism and
Scientology

Massimo Introvigne (CESNUR): The Gnostic Hubbard

Eric Roux (European Interreligious Forum for Religious Freedom):

Scientology as a Rational Gnosis
Additional
information

Panel number 004

Panel name Tommaso Palamidessi and the Archeosofia
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 4.00pm-6.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The session is dedicated to the Italian esotericist Tommaso Palamidessi
(1915-1983) and to the doctrine and school he founded, Archeosofia. The
presenters retrace his history and doctrine, up to recent controversies and
journalistic attacks, underlining the characteristics of "experimental
metaphysics" of Archeosofia in a context of renewed interest in esotericism.
Chair Massimo Introvigne (CESNUR)
Speaker Pierluigi Zoccatelli (Università Pontificia Salesiana, Italy): Tommaso
Palamidessi, the Archeosophical Society, and the Esoteric Paradigm

Daniele Corradetti (Universidade do Algarve, Portugal): Archeosophy and

Palamidessi’s Experimental Metaphysics: The Spiritual Practice

Raffaella Di Marzio (Centro Studi sulla Libertà di Religione, Credo e

Coscienza, Italy): Experiences of Affiliation to the Archeosophical Society: An
Analysis According to the Rambo et al. Integrated Model

Francesco Cresti (Attorney, Rome): Archeosophy, Archeosofica School,

Associazione Archeosofica: Religious Liberty and Unity of Religions
Additional
information

Panel number 005

Panel name Galicia as a Multireligious Province of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 2:15pm-3.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL 23.206 /Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract Galicia is a phenomenon, which unites Catholics, Orthodoxes, Uniats
(Ukrainian Catholics) and Jews under the notion of the ex-Habsburg’s
province Galicia (1772-1918). This territory is divided now between
independent Poland and Ukraine. After 1989 for Poland and 1991 for
Ukraine, when the Soviet Block collapsed, writers and people from both
sides of Galicia started to write openly about the forgotten and forbidden
during the soviet time “good old grandmother Austria” and the national
religious uprising took place on the territory. The phenomenon of cultural
nostalgia and the myth of Galicia, which is born on the ex-Galician territory,
build a bridge of cooperation and mutual cultural heritage as between
Ukrainians and Poles, as Austrians and Jews. The role of the Ukrainian
Catholic church, which as an institution was established under the rules of
the Empress Maria Theresa, is still strong nowadays in modern East Galicia.
Priests of the Ukrainian Catholic church built a national movement in Galicia
and played a crucial role on the national consciousness.
Chair Victoria Legkikh (University of Vienna, Austria)
Speaker Olha Voznyuk (Technical University of Munich, Germany): Ukrainian Greek-
Catholical St. Barbara Church in Vienna and Its Role at the Development of
the Ukrainian Identity and Culture

Victoria Legkikh (University of Vienna, Austria): Galician saint Iov of

Pochaev: a peculiarity of the veneration and hymnography"

Ivan Hryvnak (College Benedict XVI. Heiligenkreuz, Austria): The

development of the Byzantine rite and economic structures in the Ukrainian
Greek-Catholical Church in the early 20th century under the leadership of
Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky in Galicia

Alessandro Milani (EPHE ,Paris, France): Ecumenism before the Second

Vatican Council. The impact of the congresses of Velehrad on the dialogue
 among Ukrainian believers in the interwar period (1918-1945): changes and
perspective
Additional
information

Panel number 006

Panel name The power of religion in the consolidation of Europe: the roots of the
European Construction
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 8.30am-9.30am
Format Hybrid
Room F2/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract Religion has a responsibility in shaping the future of Europe. The European
foundations are rooted in the spiritual and material heritage of the member
states of the Union and of the Union itself. The core values of Europe -
Freedom, Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law - are European
Union institutional heritage, and find solid guarantees both in the political
institutions and in the legal control exercised on the one hand by the Court
of Justice of the European Communities and, on the other - in its broader
Council of Europe context - by the European Court of Human Rights. A
Europe inspired by its historical foundations and its cultural heritage is the
only one capable of creating a true European Union, solid and lasting,
because it is rooted in its past: in a past that underpins the future. European
culture plunges its roots into Greco-Roman civilization, benefited from the
contributions of Judaism and Islam, but for two millennia was mainly
marked by the seal of Christianity, a seal that represents its’ specificity. This
heritage cannot be denied and continues to be an important contribution
for the future of the European construction. We think that the Christian
roots of the European construction continue to be a fact of historical
importance, which deserves to be recovered.
Chair Isabel Baltazar (Nova University Lisbon, Portugal)
Speaker Isabel Baltazar (Nova University Lisbon, Portugal): The power of religion in
the consolidation of Europe: the roots of the European Construction

Ioan Dura (Ovidius University of Constanta, Romania): Rethinking the value

of European identity: Christian heritage and the contemporary religious
morphology

Smilen Markov (University of Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria/University of Oxford,

GB): Christian humanism and the crisis of European identity
Additional
information

Panel number 007

Panel name Posthumanism, mythology and religion in contemporary society
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 11.00am-5.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room F5/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract In our “NBIC” era, we are witnessing a paradox regarding the role of
humans. On the one hand, one of the strengths of the posthuman vision
 consists of a constant reduction of the hierarchical position of humans in
nature. On the other hand, this downsizing leads to a more “democratic”
view of the relationship between humans and all the other living beings.
Posthumanism proposes itself as a decisive overcoming of the traditional
“supremacist” vision and of the hierarchies of the past. However, the hyper-
sophisticated technologies with which it is possible to alter the surrounding
world and human nature are unequivocally an exclusive competence of
humans, which therefore surreptitiously affirms their primacy overnature.
This leads to tangible consequences, not only in the field of economics and
politics, but also in the field of religion. Humans have never felt so
omnipotent, almost god-like. If it seems that traditional religion cannot find
a space in the posthuman vision, all this is denied by the reality of the facts.
Religious discourse is rich in simple dualisms and proliferates in an
unsuspected way through new myths and new religions. The category of
“new Gnosticism” seems to adequately describe this paradoxical situation.
The philosophy of religion is called more urgently than ever to promote
criticism and dialogue.
Chair Mattia Geretto (University of Venice – Ca’ Foscari, Italy)
Speaker Gualtiero Lorini (Catholic University of Milan, Italy): Hermeneutics of the
Anthropological Experience. Technology and Human Standpoint

Ioannis Xidakis (Indepedent scholar): Neomythology: A New (Religious)

Mythology

Barbara Lorenz (University of Graz, Austria): “The New Man” in the light of
gnosis

Mattia Geretto (University of Venice – Ca’ Foscari, Italy): Mythology and

Religion in Trans-/Posthuman philosophies

Stefano Santasilia (Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Mexico):

Mistery and human condition. A brief reflection on religion and
Posthumanism

Joanna Sarbiewska (University of Gdansk, Poland): Kenosis/deconstruction

of Anthropocene. The post-humanist ‘Other’ in a new mystical, apophatic
approach

Riccando Pozzo (University of Rome – Tor Vergata, Italy): Kant’s Notion of

Dignity and Current Debates on Human Enhancement

Antonio Allegra (University for Foreigners Perugia, Italy): Man, Superman

and Nature. Notes on the Religion of Posthumanism

Luigi Perissinotto (University of Venice – Ca’ Foscari. Italy): On the very idea
of human nature
Additional
information

Panel number 008

Panel name (Inter-)Religious Education within and outside Europe
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 8.30am-1.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract
Chair Michael Kramer ((Karl-Franzens-Universität, Graz, Austria)
Antje Roggenkamp (University of Münster, Germany)
Speaker 8.30am-9.00am
Zilola Khalilova (Beruni Institute of Oriental Studies/Academy of Sciences,
Tashkent, Uzbekistan): Interreligious Education in Textbooks and Questions
of Religiosity: An Uzbek Perspective

9.00am-9.30am
Rebecca Meier (University of Paderborn, Germany): “Inter”religious
Education Behind Bars? Implications and Questions based on Empirical
Research in a German Juvenile Prison.

9.45am-10.15am
Eszter Kodácsy-Simon (Lutheran Theological University, Budapest,
Hungary)/Etelka Seres-Busi (Lutheran Theological University, Budapest,
Hungary: Interreligious Education - Challenges, Necessities and Prospects for
Institutionalizing

10.15-10.45
Michael Kramer (Karl-Franzens-Universität, Graz, Austria): New
developments in Austria around the Islamic RU

11.00-11.30
Elena Miroshnikova (Pushkin State Leningrad University, Russia):
Perspectives of the Interreligious education in the transformation of the
global-confessional landscape: the Russian case [The reported study was
funded by RFBR according to the research project n° 21-011-44106/21)

11.30-12.00
Georgeta Nazarska (State University of Library Studies and IT, Sofia,
Bulgaria)/Svetla Shapkalova, (State University of Library Studies and IT,
Sofia, Bulgaria): Religious education in present-day Bulgarian secondary
schools: teachers training issues

12.15-12.45
Signild Risenfors (University West, Trollhättan, Sweden)/Kerstin von
Brömsen (University West, Trollhättan, Sweden): Religious literacy in the
Curriculum in Compulsory Education in Sweden. Interreligious education –
Challenges, necessities, and prospects for institutionalizing

12.45-13.15
Antje Roggenkamp (University of Münster, Germany): Positionality in
interreligious space in Germany: Exemplary insights into religious
cooperative practice

Additional
information
Panel number 010
Panel name Christianity and Fluid Gender Identities
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 8.30am-10.45am
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Fluid Gender identities do not only present contemporary Christianity with
practical and theological challenges. Such fluidity also presents the
opportunities for other and creative imaginaries that, from a historical point
of view have been seen as a resource for expressing religious convictions
and, and still may be considered thus. This panel will address challenges and
opportunities from the point of view of biblical scholarship, history of
religious art, and contemporary theology.
Chair Jan-Olav Henriksen (MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society,
Oslo, Norway)
Speaker Kristin Joachimsen (MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society,
Olso, Norway): Gender- Trouble for Whom? Queen Athaliah of Judah
challenging definitions of hegemonic gender performances

Kristin Bliksrud Aavitsland (Director, Norwegian Institute in Rome, Italy):

The sex of the body and the gender of the spirit: virtues and vices in
medieval visual culture

Jan-Olav Henriksen (MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society,

Oslo, Norway): The Transgender Challenge to Christian Doctrine: How not to
deal with it – and why
Additional
information

Panel number 012

Panel name Scripture and Theology 2021
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 9.45am-5.45pm
Wednesday September 1st 11.00am-5.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room F3/ Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract Christianity relates to the Bible. Yet here the questions begin: How have the
Christian Scriptures been received theologically throughout the Christian
tradition? How can biblical studies and systematic theology fruitfully interact
and produce tenable arguments for the Christian faith in the context of the
21st century? What is the theological status of the Bible? How does the
Bible function as a norm for theological reflection and within theological
construction?
The 2021 panel of the study group, “Scripture & Theology,” aims to address
questions like these with a particular focus on the relevance of science (or:
the sciences). While there is a long-standing tradition of exploring the
relationship between theology and science, there has been a lack of
attention to the role of science in the triad of scripture, theology and science
in general. In the 2021 panel, the Scripture and Theology study group will
bring together scholars from a wide range of countries to focus on questions
pertaining to the unique relationship of theology and science.
Chair Tomas Bokedal (University of Aberdeen, Scotland)
Ludger Jansen (University of Rostock, Germany)
Michael Borowski (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Brandon Watson (University of Heidelberg, Germany)
Arnold Huijgen (TU Apeldoorn, Netherlands)
Mark Elliot (University of Glasgow, UK)

Speaker Tuesday August 31st

9.45am-10.45am
Chair: Thomas Bokedal (University of Aberdeen, Scotland)

Benedikt Göcke (University of Bochum, Germany): Analytic Theology and

the Philosophy of Science: Toward an All-Encompassing Theory of God,
World, and Human Life

Ludger Jansen (University of Rostock, Germany): Scripture, Science, and

Theology: Three Perspectives from Aquinas

11.00am-12.00pm
Chair: Ludger Jansen (University of Rostock, Germany)

Damiano Migliorini (Università Degli Studi Di Verona, Italy): Scientific

Understanding of Homosexuality and its Challenge to Biblical Anthropology

Jan Levin Propach (University of Munich; Germany): The “Bible” of Japan’s

Underground Christians as an Example of religious Syncretism

12.15pm-1.15pm
Chair: Thomas Bokedal (University of Aberdeen, Scotland)

Michael Borowski (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands): Being

human” in the life sciences: A critical assessment

Jeanine Mukaminega (Faculté Universitaire de Théologie Protestante,

Belgium : Do natural sciences edify Scriptures studies? A case of the
preservation and restoration theologies

2.15pm-3.15pm
Chair: Mark Elliott (University of Glasgow, UK)

Christian Pelz (University of Münster, Germany): Have courage to ignite the

light of knowledge: Bible and reason as foundation of Christian theology as
science in Origen and Kant

Benjamin Pietrenka (University of Heidelberg, Germany): (Re-)Translating

Scripture in Early American Protestantism: The Ephrata Cloister and Radical
German Pietists in Early America
3.30pm-4.30pm
Charles Taylor Virtual Q&A Panel, Moderators: Ludger Jansen, Brandon
Watson

4.45pm-5.45pm
Chair: Arnold Huijgen (TU Apeldoorn, Netherlands)

Braden Molhoek (Graduate Theological Union, USA): Integrating Theology

and Science: Theology of Nature, Evolution, and Theological Anthropology

Enrico Beltramini (Notre Dame de Namur University, USA): The Darkness

that Comes Before: Semantic Apocalypse through Christian Eyes

Wednesday September 1st

11.00am-12.00pm
Chair: Mark Elliott (University of Glasgow, UK)

Elisabeth Maikranz (University of Heidelberg, Germany): Systematic

Theology between Science and Scripture

Brandon Watson (University of Heidelberg, Germany): Metaphor, Advent,

and Truth: Eberhard Jüngel on the Nature of Theology

12.15pm-1.15pm
Chair: Ludger Jansen (University of Rostock, Germany)

Molly Manyonganise (Zimbabwe Open University. Zimbabwe/University of

Bamberg, Germany)/Kudzai Biri (Zimbabwe Open University.
Zimbabwe/University of Bamberg, Germany): Heading towards the Mark of
the Beast? Of Religion, Covid-19 and Vaccinations in Africa

Stefanie Beck (University of Bamberg, Germany): The Bible and the Maasai
in Tanzania

2.15pm-3.15pm
Chair: Michael Borowski (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Torsten Löfstedt (Linnæus University, Sweden): Spiritual Warfare: A

Constructive Approach

Tomas Bokedal (University of Aberdeen, Scotland): The Early Rule-of-Faith

Pattern and Its Links to the NT Canon Formation Process

3.30pm-4.30pm
Chair: Brandon Watson (University of Heidelberg, Germany)

Veli-Matti Kärkkhäinen (Fuller Seminary, USA): Original Sin and Fall in Light
of Evolutionary Sciences

Aaron Goldman (Lund University, Sweden): Ancient Animals, the "Lottery"

of Evolution, and the Destiny of Homo sapiens: Implications for
 (Evolutionary) Natural Theology from Two Paleontologists' Encounters with
Burgess Shale Fossils

4.45pm-5.45pm
Chair: Brandon Watson (University of Heidelberg, Germany)

Roger Revell (University of Cambridge; GB): Christ in the Old Testament:

Reading With and Against Barth

Michael Borowski, Tomas Bokedal, Ludger Jansen, Brandon Watson

Moving on – Making Plans for S&T 2022
Additional
information

Panel number 013

Panel name Reconstructing History: Emerging Perspectives in Islamic Textual Traditions
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 2.15pm-3.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.208/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract Hadith, the legacy of Prophet Muhammad, is not just the second scriptural
authority to that of the Quran in Islam, but it is also the lens through which
the holy book is interpreted and understood. For Islamic civilization, Hadith
is the ‘backbone’, as it records the words, deeds, tacit approvals and habits
of Prophet Muhammad. Thus, the great bulk of the Islamic legal, theological,
religious traditions and moral guidance come not from the Quran, but rather
from the heritage left by the Prophet. The genre of Hadith basically built on
a huge corpus of reports. Each individual report consists of two main
elements: the sanad, i.e. a chain of transmitters through which the report is
traced back to an eyewitness or at least an earlier authority; the matn, i.e.
the actual text of the report. This report, with its two components, forms
the core unit through which the Islamic history was preserved, transmitted
and understood. Hence Muslim historians reason that by studying,
examining and evaluating this corpus of reports, one can reconstruct the
past. This panel, therefore, aims to explore the dynamics of textual
transmissions in early Islam, both from a sunni and shia perspective, and
uncover the strengths and limitations in dealing with such accounts. It
contributes new and emerging perspectives in reconstructing Islamic history
for a contemporary context. It will consider issues such as content criticism,
capital crimes and warfare.
Chair Hanan Fara (University of Birmingham, UK)
Speaker Amna Nazir (Birmingham City University, UK): The Dynamics of Textual
Transmissions in Early Islam: A Consideration of Hudud Crimes

Omama Hamasha (University of Jordan, Jordan): It’s Not so Hard to Find, It’s
Crystal: Methods of Content Criticism of Islamic Historical Narratives

Mostafa Movahedifer (University of Birmingham, UK): The Position of

Content Criticism within Early Shīʿī Hadith Scholarship: The discussion
between al-Ṣadūq (d. 389/991) and al-Ṭūsī (d. 460/1067)
Additional
information

Panel number 015

Panel name Sensing Things Divine: Philosophical, Theological, and Comparative Aspects
of Spiritual Perception
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 2.15pm-5.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL 23.206/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract This session will focus on the constructive phase of the “Spiritual Perception
Research Project” (SPRP). SPRP has three phases. The first surveyed the
theme of spiritual perception throughout Christian history, beginning with
Origen of Alexandria and ending with twentieth-century theologians, such as
Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and William Alston (see The Spiritual
Senses: Perceiving God in Western Christianity, ed. Sarah Coakley and Paul
Gavrilyuk, CUP, 2012). The volume focused primarily on the Christian
authors who gave a theoretical articulation of the notion of spiritual
perception. The second phase, which is the primary focus of the proposed
session, will offer an interdisciplinary approach to the study of spiritual
perception (a volume will be published by OUP in 2021). Accordingly, John
Greco’s paper will argue for the possibility of spiritual perception from the
standpoint of analytic philosophy and empirical psychology; Frederick
Aquino’s paper will connect spiritual perception and moral discernment by
engaging ascetical theology and analytic philosophy of religion; Mark
McInroy’s and Paul Gavrilyuk’s papers will connect spiritual perception and
aesthetics by drawing on the work of Balthasar (McInroy) and Monet and
Kandinsky (Gavrilyuk). Thomas Cattoi’s paper will explore the third phase of
SPRP; it will draw attention to the comparative aspects of the project by
putting insights from Byzantine Christian theology in conversation with
Tibetan Buddhism
Chair Paul L. Gavrilyuk (University of St. Thomas, USA)
Speaker John Greco (Georgetown University, USA): The possibility of spiritual
perception: Some considerations from cognitive science

Frederick D. Aquino (Abilene Christian University, USA): Training Spiritual

Perception: A Constructive Look at John Cassian

Mark McInroy (University of St. Thomas, USA): Beauty’s Promise: Aesthetics

and Spiritual Perception

Paul L. Gavrilyuk (University of St. Thomas, USA): On Developing Aesthetic

and Spiritual Perception: Lessons from Claude Monet and Wassily Kandinsky

Thomas Cattoi (Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University, USA):

Hearing Flesh, Seeing the Word: Theodore the Studite and Jamgon Kondrul
on the Transformative Dimension of Spiritual Perception
Additional
information

Panel number 017

Panel name From Dignitatis Humanae to the 2019 Document of the International
Theological Commission. Religious Freedom and Global Catholicism
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 3.30pm-5.45pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract On 26 April 2019, the International Theological Commission published an
eighty-seven-paragraph document, “Religious Freedom for the Good of All”.
This document was published more than fifty years after Vatican II’s
declaration “Dignitatis Humanae”. The 2019 document of the International
Theological Commission cast a light on the fact that religious liberty has
been a key issue for contemporary global Catholicism. The context has
changed significantly from the times of Vatican II.
Relations between religions, between secularism and religious identities,
between church and state, between members of all religious groups
(including the Catholic Church) and their hierarchical leaders—all these have
changed since 1965. Other elements of context have changed: the
“revanche de Dieu” since the end of the 1970s, the so-called thesis of the
“clash of civilizations” that reappeared after 9/11, and the impacts of mass
migrations on the religious map. This session will explore the development
of different framings of religious liberty and the impact of these new
contexts and challenges to them from the comparative perspective of global
Catholicism.
Chair Massimo Faggioli (Villanova University, USA)
Bryan Froehle (Palm Beach University, USA)
Speaker Giacomo Ghedini (Università di Bologna, Italy): Giuseppina Bakhita (1869-
1947) and the rise of a black African Church: children mobility between
Africa and Europe

Leonardo de Chirico (Istituto di Formazione Evangelica e Documentazione,

Padova, Italy): “Such an evident contrast”: Vittorio Subilia’s Analysis of
Dignitatis Humanae’s shift in the traditional Roman Catholic understanding
of religious freedom

Mary Catherine O’Reilly Gindhart (University of Glasgow, UK): Religious

Freedom and Interreligious Dialogue in the United Kingdom Today

Michel Chambon (National University of Singapore, Asia Research Institute):

Chinese Catholic Nuns and Their Theology of Ministry
Additional
information

Panel number 018

Panel name Religion, Literature and Film in South Asia
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 4.00pm-6:15 pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract We invited papers that discuss the interaction between religion and
literature or film in South Asia and the countries of the South Asian
Diaspora. The main focus is on the representation of ‘otherness,’ marginality
and the subaltern in literature and film. Questions related to the analysis of
 the representation of othering and marginalizing based one’s religious,
cultural or gender identity are of great importance to the panel. The papers
explore the role religion and myth play in the construction and legitimization
of ‘otherness.’ The essays deal with literary texts or films (from the medieval
or modern period) that have their origin in the subcontinent or the countries
of the South Asian Diaspora. The Discussions is based on methodological
analysis of the texts and consider the ideological implications of the
representation of religion. The papers discuss a single text or film, or
compare different texts and films, or compare films with the literary texts
they are based on.
Chair Diana Dimitrova (Institute of Religious Studies, University of Montreal,
Canada )
Speaker Nandi Bhatia (University of Western Ontario, Canada): Re-imagining
Communities: Courtesans and the 1947 Partition

Diana Dimitrova (Institute of Religious Studies, University of Montreal,

Canada): Human Gurus and Divine “Others” in the Radhasoami Traditions

Amanda Lucia (University of California, USA): The Guru and his “Invading
Army”: Nativist constructions of Osho’s Rajneeshpuram in “Wild Wild
Country”

Tracy Pintchman (Loyola University Chicago, USA): Recasting Shakti: Female

“Otherness” and Sita as the “Warrior of Mithila”

Additional
information

Panel number 020

Panel name Holy Land: An Ecumenical Inquiry
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 11.00am-1.15am
Format Hybrid
Room DPL.23.206/ Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract The Holy (or Promised) Land constitutes such a controversial topos that
many theologians tend to eschew it altogether, thus leaving the topic to the
most contentious claimants pro and contra. In this ecumenical panel, we
explore and assess the meanings of “land” with a primary focus on the
ongoing dialogues between Judaism and Christianity. The growing
awareness of the ecological crisis now facing humankind adds yet another
increment of urgency to the indispensable critical and constructive grappling
with the problem of holy, promised and sacred land
Chair William Krisel (Institut Catholique de Paris, France)
Speaker Thérèse Andrevon-Gottstein (Institut Catholique de Paris, France / Ben Zvi
Institute, Israel): Toward a 3-Dimensional Christian Theology of Israel

Luc Forestier (Institut Catholique de Paris, France): The Holy See and the
State of Israel: Ecumenical Consequences of the 1993 Fundamental
Agreement
 Alexandru Ionitá (Institute for Ecumenical Research, Lucian Blaga University
of Sibiu, Romania): Orthodox Theology and the Holy Land: between
Spirituality and Politics

William Krisel (Institut Catholique de Paris, France): Recent Iterations of

Protestant and Jewish Theologies of the Holy Land: the Resurgence of
Apocalyptic Millenarianism in the 21st Century

Anne Marie Reijnen (Institut Catholique de Paris, France): ‘How My Mind

Has Changed’: Reflections on the Dialogue Between Paul Tillich and Martin
Buber Regarding Zionism
Additional
information

Panel number 024

Panel name Law, Religions and Animals
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 11.00am-1.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL 23.208/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract The 20th century was about the promotion of human rights. Will the 21st
century be about the enhancement of animal rights? This could be thought
of in view of the development of antispeciesist cause, the criticisms made of
the suffering imposed on animals in slaughterhouses, especially with regard
to the perpetuation of rites imposed for the slaughter of animals in some
religions. Elsewhere, in time (ancient Egypt) or in space (India) the animal is
venerated, held sacred. But even in the religions of the Book the situation of
the animal is not unambiguous. The Old Testament contains many passages
dedicated to the welfare of animals, especially domestic animals, and the
Quran recognizes the similarity of human and animal communities. If
Christianity has banished all sacrificial rites, this is not the case of the Jewish
and Muslim religions. The proliferation of protective standards of animal
welfare thus conflicts with these manifestations of religious freedom. With
the enhancement of measures to ensure animal welfare, in particular by
European law, sacrificial rites, without being abolished, are increasingly
regulated.
Chair Gérard Gonzalez (University of Strasbourg, France / University of
Montpellier, France)
Speaker Martin M. Lintner (Philosophical-Theological College Brixen, Italy): Respect
for the proper value of each creature. An animal-ethical rethinking of the
Encyclical Laudato si’

Vincente Fortier (University of Strasbourg/CNRS, France): The sacralised

animal

Françoise Curtit (University of Strasbourg/CNRS, France): The sacrificed

animal: European legal framework

Gérard Gonzalez (University of Strasbourg and University of Montpellier,

France): The sacrificed animal, States’ comparative law on slaughter:
minimalist and abolitionist States
Additional
information

Panel number 025

Panel name Author meets Critique - Alberto Melloni (ed.), A History of the Desire for
Christian Unity. Ecumenism in the Churches (19th-21st Century), Vol. I (Brill,
2021)
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 8.30am-10.45am
Format Online
Room /
Abstract
Chair Luca Ferracci (FSCIRE, Bologna, Italy)
Speaker Discussants:
Katharina Kunter (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Katerina Pekridou (Council of European Churches)

Respondent:
Alberto Melloni (University of Modena and Reggio Emilio/ FSCIRE, Bologna.
Italy)

Additional
information

Panel number 026

Panel name Religious experiences of contemporary pilgrims
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 8.30am-10.45am
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The panel aims to discuss relations between cultural and religious heritage
and the religious experiences of modern pilgrims. Who is a modern ‘real’
pilgrim? How is the religious heritage perceived and experienced during its
journey? How is the religious heritage interpreted in literary and visual
representations? The panel is mainly focused on networks called European
Cultural Route
Chair Pawel Plichta (Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland)
Speaker Anna Duda (Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland): The Tourist/Pilgrim
Gaze on the Polish Papal Routes. Semiotic Analysis of Photos on Instagram

Traugott Roser (University of Münster): Motives and Effects of Pilgrimage on

the Way of St. James: Outline of an Empirical Study

Alexander Behrendt: The Pomeranian Way of St. James as an Example of

Cultural Routes in the South Baltic Area

Pawel Plichta (Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland): Camino de

Santiago as Rite of Passage Experiences
Additional
information
Panel number 027
Panel name The reception of Georges Florovsky's legacy in the 20th century Orthodox
theology
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 11.00am-1.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room F234/ Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract Georges Florovsky (1893-1979) is considered as the influential Orthodox
theologian in the 20th century. His call for a return to the patristic tradition
as a creative method of doing theology beyond any sterile repetition of the
past wording or adoption of the continously contemporary mindset, has
triggered a great deal of discussion within the modern Orthodox theology. A
number of his contemporaries as well as his students welcomed this call,
although the latter has been interpreted in various ways, either uncritically
received or boldly questioned in the various Orthodox settings. This panel
intends to critically explore the reception of Florovsky’s work by the
contemporary Orthodox scholarship and pave the ways for future syntheses.
Chair Nikolaos Asproulis (Volos Academy for Theological Studies, Greece)
Speaker Dionysios Skliris (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece):
Creation and Freedom in the thought of George Florovsky

Viorel Coman (KU Leuven, Belgium): A Critical Assessment of Georges

Florovsky’s Concept of Perennial Hellenism

Paul Gavrilyuk (University of St. Thomas, USA): Florovsky’s Legacy in Russian

Emigre Theology: Vladimir Lossky, Leonid Ouspensky, and Alexander
Schmemann

Seraphim Danckaert (Princeton Theological Seminary, USA): Florovsky’s Real

“Theological Will” -- in a Serbian publication

Additional
information

Panel number 028

Panel name Author meets Critique - Leonard Taylor, Catholic Cosmopolitanism and
Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 4.00pm-5:00 pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract
Chair Hans-Martien ten Napel (Universiteit Leiden, Belgium)
Speaker Disscusants:
Massimo Faggioli (Villanova University, USA)
Bryan Froehle (St. Thomas University, USA)
Marietta D.C. van der Tol (University of Cambridge, GB)

Respondent:
Leonard Taylor (Institute of Technology, Sligo, Ireland)
Additional
information

Panel number 032

Panel name The Performance of the Theo-political: Asian and African perspectives
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 8.30am-10.45am
Format Hybrid
Room F234/ Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract In the last decades, political theologies have been confronted with the
question which discourse should be considered primary, the theological or
the political. Furthermore, the more plausible its arguments are deemed to
be, the more political theology seems to have lost its theological content.
Therefore, the relationship between theology and politics must be
fundamentally thematized and critically redefined. This is not only true from
the perspective of the political; it is equally true from the perspective of
Church and theology. When pursuing to relativize and criticize any
universalizing idea of liberal democracy, or any political movement claiming
to have realized utopia in the here and now, theology simultaneously seeks
an understanding of the ongoing and constitutive tension between Church
and world. This tension is heightened with the new challenge of synodality:
How do theologies in local contexts relate to the universal Church?
In these panel sessions, young scholars from Asian and African countries will
present different perspectives on the political role of the Church. They will
especially focus on the performative tasks of the Christian life, the liturgy
and ministry in particular. How does the Church’s performances relate to
the political situation in different contexts, and how do these different
relations shape the universal Church? How can the Church’s performances
themselves be regarded political, and what are the theological doctrines
undergirding them.

Chair Stephan van Erp (KU Leuven, Belgium)

Speaker Danilo Agustin (KU Leuven, Belgium): Christian Life as a Commitment to
Democracy: A Perspective from the Philippines

Wilibaldus Gaut (KU Leuven, Belgium): Catholicity as an Alternative Way of

Envisioning Globalization

Thomas Aquinas Quaicoe (KU Leuven, Belgium): Should Theology Address

Finance-Dominated Capitalism?

Praveen Joy Saldanha (KU Leuven, Belgium): Revisiting the Royal Priesthood
of Christian People: Henri de Lubac in Dialogue with Nicholas Afanasiev

Discussant:
Radoslaw Malinowski (Tangaza University College, Kenia)
Additional
information

Panel number 033

Panel name The Political Power of Religious Life
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 12.15pm-1.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room F5/ Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract The Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has placed the relation between
the political and religious life back on the theological agenda. This
development raises questions into the politics of religious life. One set of
questions focus on what the religious do in society (e.g. Metz). Are the
religious political because of the works they undertake, in particular in care
for people at the margins? Does it belong to the charism of the religious to
offer political theologies and conceptual frameworks for social action?
Another set of questions, following Agamben, looks at religious life itself. In
what way is it by its very nature linked to the political life of the polis? In this
panel, two scholars of the Research Group Fundamental and Political
Theology (KU Leuven), who both do research on religious life, will discuss
the political nature of religious life in past and present. They focus on two
respective figures who are relevant to the interaction of religious life and
politics. The first is Léon de Foere, a protagonist in Belgium’s independence,
whose work can be seen as an antecedent of the Catholic Social Tradition.
He responded to economic inequalities in early 19th century by, among
others, founding a religious congregation fostering the empowerment of the
people. The other figure to be discussed is contemporary philosopher
Agamben, whose ideas on the political performativity of religious life will be
brought into dialogue with political thought in the Dominican order.
Chair Stephan van Erp (KU Leuven, Belgium)
Speaker Anton Lingier (KU Leuven, Belgium): The Political Significance of 19th
Century Active Congregations: A Case Study of Léon De Foere

Richard Steenvoorde OP (KU Leuven, Belgium): What Messianic Vocation?

The Political Theologies of Religious Life of Agamben and Chenu

Discussant:
Guido Vergauwen OP (Université de Fribourg, Switzerland)
Additional
information

Panel number 035

Panel name The Theological, Ecumenical, and Interreligious Legacy of André Scrima
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 8.30am-1.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room F043/ Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract The Romanian theologian André Scrima (1925-2000) was one of the most
significant figures of 20th-century Orthodox Christianity and a leading voice
in the movement for ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue. Despite his
importance, Scrima is a routinely- neglected theologian and the exploration
of his theology finds itself at this very moment in an embryonic stage. That
being so, this panel – which intends to commemorate the twentieth
anniversary of Scrima’s death-invites speakers to present papers that (i)
explore the historical context and the main events that shaped Scrima’s
theology; (ii) shed light upon the theological contribution of the Romanian
thinker; (iii) investigate Scrima’s role in the ecumenical and interfaith
 dialogue; and (iv) highlight the relevance of his thought for contemporary
theology and church life.
Chair Viorel Coman (KU Leuven, Belgium)
Mihai-Iulian Grobnicu (University of Bucharest, Romania)
Speaker Sessions 1&2
Chair: Dr. Mihai-Iulian Grobnicu (University of Bucharest, Romania)

Ioan Alexandru Tofan (Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania):André

Scrima’s Ecumenism: Experience and Ecclesiology”

Viorel Coman (KU Leuven, Belgium): The Relevance of André Scrima's

Ecumenical Theology for the Post-Crete Orthodox Christian Context

Mihai-Iulian Grobnicu (University of Bucharest, Romania): Repentance and

Its Role in the Ecumenical Dialogue According to André Scrima

Bogdan Hulea (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic):

The Contribution of André Scrima to the Relationship Between Christianity
and Islam

Session 3&4
Chair: Viorel Coman (KU Leuven, Belgium)

Daniela Dumbravă (Institute for the History of Religions, Bucharest,

Romania): Χειροθεσία as a Harismatic Blessing within the Burning Bush
Movement (Antim Monastery in Bucharest, 1943-1948)

Irina Paert (University of Tartu, Estonia): John the Stranger (Ioann Kuligin)
before the Burning Bush

Cătălin Petrea (University of Bucharest, Romania): André Scrima, Between

the Confessed Orthodox Mysticism and the Accusing Mysticism

Ana-Magdalena Petraru (University of Iași, Romania): The Legacy of André

Scrima in the Theological English Classroom
Additional
information

Panel number 038

Panel name Multiple modernities. Men’s and women’s Catholicism in XIX and XX Europe
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 11.00am-5.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room F234/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz20-22)
Abstract In the last few decades researchers have questioned the understanding of
modernity as a uniform, linear and inevitable process. The theory of
secularization -with its specific outlook on the role of religion- is a central
element for all conceptualizations of modernity. Considering modernity as a
constant and multiform process of disenchantment and re-enchantment,
gender as a fluid category central to the (re)definitions of modernity, and
religion as ambivalent source of social and cultural change, will allow us to
 examine the often paradoxical roles Catholic men and women have played
in “doing modernity” from innovative perspectives. This approach stresses
the need to suitably define and contextualize -culturally, geographically,
historically- our subjects of study, and their practices. Our panel encourages
presentations that take into account -for the particular context of XIX and XX
Europe- the complex relation between secular and religious spheres,
between private and public ones, and between concepts, discourses, norms
and practices of gender and religion. Furthermore, we welcome
presentations that pay attention to divisions within (between different
contending Catholic masculinities and femininities intersected with class,
age, race; between urban and rural religiosity; different national
catholicisms etc.), as well as critical reflections regarding the possible
tensions or compromises existing without (with other religious traditions, or
with other secular models).

Chair Dominika Gruziel (European University Institute, Italy)

Marta Margotti (Università di Torino. Italy)
Natalia Núñez Bargueño (Sorbonne Université, France/ Asociación Española
de Historia Religiosa Contemporánea, Spain)

Speaker Session 1:
Chair: Natalia Núñez Bargueño (Sorbonne Université, France/ Asociación
Española de Historia Religiosa Contemporánea, Spain)

Yvonne Maria Werner (University of Lund, Sweden): Alternative modernity –

gender constructions among Catholic missionaries in Scandinavia in the era
of Ultramontanism

Simone Anna Rees (University of Fribourg, Switzerland): White Gender

Architectures and its ‘Other’. Negotiations of Catholic Missions during the
Period of nascent Decolonization and Sexual Revolution

Tine Van Osselaer (University of Antwerp, Ruusbroec Institute, Belgium):

On the intersection of media and mysticism: stigmatics in Europe, c.1800-
1950

Session 2:
Chair: Dominika Gruziel (European University Institute, Italy)

Marta Margotti (Università degli studi di Torino, Italy): Neither angel nor
witch. Italian catholic women between social changes, political protests, and
religious reforms in the 1970s

Carlo Nardella (University of Milan, Italy): Gender, Masculinity-Femininity,

and Religion: A Case Study of a Migrant Catholic Community in Italy

Carmen M. Mangion (Birkbeck, University of London, GB): Becoming

Modern: The Nun in the World, 1940-1970"

Ángela Pérez del Puerto (University of Madrid, Spain): Those, the modern
ones. Contrasting Spanish Postwar Femininities in Catholic Literary
Censorship
 Session 3:
Chair: Marta Margotti (Università di Torino. Italy)

Olaf Blaschke (University of Münster, Germany): Feminization and

masculinization: Building hierarchies of modernities and religions through
gender

Dominika Gruziel (European University Institute, Italy): The early twentieth

century reform of the Catholic female piety: the attempt of modernization?
secularization? masculinization?

Natalia Núñez Bargueño (Sorbonne Université, France/ Asociación Española

de Historia Religiosa Contemporánea, Spain): Men, piety and public-urban
spheres: gender -religion and modernity- trouble.

Session 4:
Round table: New perspectives in the study of men's and women's
Catholicism in XIX and XX century Europe.

Additional This panel is supported by the Asociación Española de Historia Religiosa

information Contemporánea (AEHRC, Spain) as well as the research project “Modernidad
y religión en la España del siglo XX: entre el consenso y la ruptura”
(PGC2018-099909-B-I00) (MCIU, AEI, FEDER/UE)

Panel number 039

Panel name Determination of Life
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 8.30am-12.00pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.206/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract Referring directly to “Determination of Death” (i.e. “Controversies in the
Determination of Death”. A White Paper of the President’s Council on
Bioethics, Washington DC, December 2008), the reformulation
“Determination of Life” hints at a basic issue which is fundamental for all the
definitions we find in the classical universitarian disciplines – theology, law
and medicine: The fact, that life actually cannot be termined in any way
objectively or neutrally. Vivere viventibus est esse, says Aristotle (De anima,
II, 4, 415 b 13). Conceptions of life including all definitions of its beginning
and end such as the neurological determination of death in the United
States in 1968 (“brain deathˮ) may be considered as normative
constructions embedded in their respective cultural, historical and
contemporary contexts, i.e. as expressions of societies how they currently
realize themselves as human beings living in a spatio-temporal continuum.
The aim of the panel is to create spaces for an open, interdisciplinary
dialogue and for the fundamental-ethical debate that is actually needed
considering exemplarily the definition of brain death – underlying moral,
ethical and cultural dimensions
Chair Valerie Fickert (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany)
Speaker Rainer Beckmann (Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany): Our
Image of the Human Being and ”Brain Death”
 Valerie Fickert (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany): Human
dignity, medical practice and the need for a new philosophy of medicine
within the medical discipline

John Warwick Montgomery (University of Bedfordshire, UK): Human Dignity

in Birth and Death: A Question of Values

Friedrich Toepel (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn,

Germany): The political process of defining life: avoiding pitfalls

Additional
information

Panel number 040

Panel name European Islam and the emergence of new religious and political authorities
between the local dimension and transnationalities
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 8.30am-12.00pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The concept of authority, like all other human constructions, is not given
once and for all but is constantly redefined in space and time. Authorities do
not emerge in vacuum, but through interaction with different contexts and
political actors; consequently their role is reformulated according to the
exigencies of the context. In Europe wherein Muslims’ presence is
constantly growing, the Islamic authority has undergone a significant change
since it should reckon with different voices of Islam, which is the salient
character of this religion in Europe. The present panel, in a multidisciplinary
perspective, aims to explore new paradigms of authority among Muslims
living in Europe. The lecturers, with sociological, anthropological, theological
and historical approaches, discuss how these new forms of authority
undermine the traditional ones and redefine the transnational ties between
Islamic communities in Europe and Islamic countries that through various
mechanisms influence the construction of European Islam. Intergenerational
conflicts, sectarian identities and international terrorism are some catalysts
for this change. In our panel we have tried to give space to a plurality of
experiences that develop both among Sunnis and Shi’as, to display, even
partially, the plurality of Islam in Europe and its different practices and
currents of thought.
Chair Minoo Mirshahvalad (FSCIRE, Bologna, Italy)
Speaker Carlo De Angelo (L’Orientale-University of Naples, Italy): Muslims in the
West and the Contemporary Islamic Juridical debate on Muslim Minorities

Chiara Anna Cascino (L’Orientale-University of Naples, Italy): On

coexistence. The relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims according
to the European Council for Fatwa and Research (CEFR)

Minoo Mirshahvalad (FSCIRE, Bologna, Italy): Quest for New Paradigms of

Shi'a Leadership in Italy
 Jonas Kolb (University of Innsbruck, Austria): Religious organizational
structures and authorities. Practical theoretical insights into the diversity of
ties to religious organizations and authorities among Muslims in Austria

Ebru Akcasu (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic): British Islam in the
Age of High Imperialism

Fabian Spengler (Tel Aviv University, Israel): Shari‘a and Life: Religious
Authority and Lived Religious Practice of Muslims in Europe

Bochra Kammarti (Cespra-EHESS, France): Plasticity of Islamic normativity in

European context

Özgür Olgun Erden (Usak University, Turkey): Some Turkish Organizations

and Their Political Activities in Germany: Explaining the Potential Effects of
Transnational-Political Activism Rising among Turks on European Islam
Additional
information

Panel number 041

Panel name Daʻwa and Muslim minorities
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 4.00pm-6.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Generally the term da‘wa is used most often to refer to “invitation” or “call
to Islam”. Da‘wa aimed primarily to call Muslims to be better Muslims or to
adhere a particular version of Islam (intra-ummaic), and secondarily to call
non-Muslims to embrace or convert to Islam (extra-ummaic).
Firstly, the panel aims to shed light on the da‘wa directed at Muslims that
was undertaken by the Ismailis in the early centuries of Islam. Actually, the
Ismaili daʻwa was a system of “propaganda”, which was structured
according to a hierarchical order of religious ranks (ḥudūd). In the Ismaili
context, the daʻwa was conceived as: 1) the necessary mean to mediate
between God, who was considered totally transcendence, and man, 2) an
expedient to spread the Ismaili teaching with cautiousness, and 3) the “call”
to support the cause of the imamate. With reference to the contemporary
age, the activities addressed by Makhzen (Moroccan government) and
Moroccan Islamist groups to Moroccans Muslims abroad, especially those
residing in Italy, represent an example of intra-ummaic daʿwa.
Secondly, the panel aims to shed light on the opportunities for da‘wa
towards non-Muslims opened by the Muslim settlement in Western
countries during the contemporary age. In fact, many Muslim scholars
realized that West’s free and open democracies provided a more fertile
environment for da‘wa than Arab-Islamic countries and asserted that da‘wa
was an important justification for migration.
Chair Antonella Straface (Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”, Italy)
Speaker Antonella Straface (Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”, Italy): Proselytism and
caution: the daʻwa in the Ismaili context

Chiara Cascino (Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”, Italy): When the minority

is responsible for the majority: the duty of daʿwa in Europe
 Carlo De Angelo (Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”, Italy): To Emigrate in the
Cause of Allah: Muslim Emigration to the West and Da‘wa in Salafi Fatwas

Nicola Di Mauro (Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”, Italy): Transnazionale

space as dār al-daʿwa. The Islamic Invitation among the Moroccans Abroad
Additional
information

Panel number 042

Panel name Transnational networks and Iberian Catholicisms in Late Modern and
Contemporary history
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 8.30am-12.00pm
Format Hybrid
Room F2/ Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract In the Early Modern Period, both the Portuguese and the Spanish crowns
looked after the interests of Catholics in their vast colonial empires, which
were governed by means of the various royal patronage systems established
in agreement with the pope. The expansion of other empires and the
creation of Nation-States in the Late Modern Period represented the twilight
of their supremacy regarding Christianity. Moreover, the relations between
the above-mentioned crowns and their rivals, their former colonies and the
different pontiffs changed as well. The transnational networks created
between Portuguese and Spanish Catholics, or those between both and the
Catholic communities of their former territories in America, Asia or Africa
can be appreciated among the secular clergy, religious congregations, and
secular organizations. Nowadays, almost 50% of the total number of
Catholics in the world are still Spanish or Portuguese native speakers, and
they are the heirs to those Iberian Catholicisms. This panel’s main objective
is to analyze the evolution of these Iberian transnational networks of
Catholicism over the last two centuries, to highlight their significance for
local and global histories and to raise a debate which would enable us to
reconsider those historiographical challenges that still have not been
sufficiently addressed by historians or researchers of Religious Studies.
Chair José Ramón Rodríguez Lago (Universidad de Vigo, Spain)
João Miguel Almeida (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
Natalia Núñez Bargueño (Sorbonne Université, France/ Asociación Española
de Historia Religiosa Contemporánea, Spain)
Speaker João Miguel Almeida (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal): Portuguese
Catholic missionaries in Africa from a colonial to a post-colonial context. The
missionary work of Serves of our Lady of Fatima

Gonçalo Brito Graça (Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Portugal): From

aversion to the conversion. Acceptance of Baden-Powell’s method in
colonial diocese of Angola and Congo (1923-1939)

Hugo Gonçalves Dores (Centro de Estudos Sociais - Universidade de

Coimbra, Portugal): The Royal Patronage in question: The clash between
Portugal’s historical legacies and the Holy See’s missionary
 Joan Josep Matas Pastor (CESAG-UP Comillas de Palma de Mallorca, Spain):
The contribution of Eduardo Bonín Aguiló in the configuration of the
International Network of Christianity Courses

Natalia Núñez Bargueño (Sorbonne Université, France/ Asociación Española

de Historia Religiosa Contemporánea, Spain): New perspectives on the study
of catholic transnationals: Spain and the International Eucharistic Congress,
1952

Francisco Javier Ramón Soláns (Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain):

Provincializing European Catholicism. Gabriel García Moreno’s Ecuador as a
Catholic Global Utopia

José Ramón Rodríguez Lago (Universidad de Vigo, Spain): The Iberian axis.
The Catholic factor and the role played by the Vatican and the United States
in Spain and Portugal between 1939 and 1958.

Chiaki Watanabe (Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan): Missions, Missionaries

and Japanese Society after the World War II: the case of Jesuits

Yuquing Qiu (Center of History of Sciences Po Paris, France): The Reception

of Refugees by Jesuit Missionaries in Macau during the Great Famine
in China 1959-1963

Additional The panel is organised with the Spanish Association of Contemporary

information Religious History, Asociación Española de Historia Religiosa Contemporánea
(AEHRC).

Panel number 043

Panel name Representations and Memories of Religious Diversity in Europe: the
Presence of the Past
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 11.00am-1.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract When regarding the news about religion, it seems that religion is always
framed as something dangerous, even weird: the source of conflict or
backwards ideas against science or emancipation. At closer look though, this
general impression turns out not true. In this panel we discuss some of
today’s contexts where religion is narrated and represented in different
ways. Often their representations relate to the past, but even so the way
religion(s) in the past is represented, is highly relevant for today’s
understanding. Apart from representations and narratives, we are also
interested in contemporary perceptions of these representations.
Chair Patrick Pasture (KU Leuven, Belgium)
Speaker Patrick Pasture (KU Leuven, Belgium): Representations and Memories of
Religious Diversity: the Presence of the Past

Antje Roggenkamp (University of Münster, Germany): Secularization in the

mirror of artifacts
 Mikko Ketola (University of Helsinki, Finland): Citizen Khan, Comedy, and
Islam

Hanan Fara (University of Birmingham, UK): Can the secular and the sacred
coexist on campus? Exploring how the perception and representation of
Islam on British university campuses influences Muslim students

Eszter Kodácsy-Simon (Evangelical-Lutheran Theological University

Budapest, Hungary)/Etelka Seres-Busi (Evangelical-Lutheran Theological
University Budapest, Hungary): Representations of religious texts in young
people’s mind-findings of an empirical research

Päivi Salmesvuori (University of Helsinki, Finland): Preliminary Reflections

on the Views of the Young toward Religious Diversity

Nadia Hindi (Universidad de Granada, Spain)/Merve Reyhan Kayikci

(Universidad de Granada, Spain): A diachronic study on the semantic field of
religious pluralism in Islamic tradition
Additional
information

Panel number 044

Panel name Politics and Religion: Field Perspectives and Reverse Angles
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 11.00am-1.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Religion and politics are intertwined at micro, meso, and macro levels, and
their relationship may vary strongly, both geographically and over time. The
objective of this panel is to bring fieldwork evidence on religion and politics
from a multi-disciplinary perspective, engaging sociologists, anthropologists,
philosophers and political scientists in analyzing this topic starting from the
variety of socio-cultural contexts.
Addressing empirical, analytical, and normative questions, the panel focuses
on case studies from European and non-European states, including Moldova,
Ukraine, and Indonesia and compares the differences and commonalities
between the diverse configurations of politics and religion across the
continents. Exploring the challenges and possibilities, this panel is also
looking to identify possible and desirable trajectories that go beyond
existing configurations of politics and religion.
Therefore, the panel is open to contributions from different disciplines,
offering sociological, administrative, organizational, political science, legal,
economic and other insights on religion and politics in the contemporary
era.
Chair Rodica Ciobanu (Moldova State University, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova)
Speaker Rodica Cioban (Moldova State University, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova:
Assessment of Governance based on human rights approach from the
perspective of redefinition of church and state relations - the case of the
Republic of Moldova
 Alexey Andreev (Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox University & Information-
Consulting Company “Religion Today”, Moscow, Russia): Religion as a
weapon of Cold War: past and present

Mariana Rosca (Univerity of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain): Politics and Islam in

Spain: field perspectives from Valencia

Burhan Ali (Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Germany): Salafi Politics in

Contemporary Indonesia
Additional
information

Panel number 045

Panel name Secular/Religious Rift, Polarization and the Growth of Populism
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 11.00am-1.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Over the last decade one of the most frequently used words to describe the
political situation has been “polarization”. The growing notion, that our
societies are internally growing apart, which fuels the growth of populism,
has been under the increased scrutiny of journalist, researchers and
politicians alike. And yet, one aspect of this situation has received relatively
low levels of attention. As Daniel Steinmetz Jenkins and Anton Jäger wrote
in a recent opinion piece in The Guardian (2019), “Clearly there is a key link
between populism and religion. But there seems to have been relatively
little academic interest in the connection.” And yet, religious/secular
division constitutes a significant stumbling block for the politico-legal
systems. As Ran Hirschl (2012) pointed out in “Constitutional Theocracy”,
the “secular/religious” rift has a much bigger potential to divide societies,
and thereby poses a significant stumbling block for the “new
constitutionalism”. While constitutions, with their power-sharing
mechanisms, were successfully deployed to mitigate the problems along the
national, ethnic and linguistic lines, due to the special character of the
secular/religious rift, which cuts through otherwise unified boundaries. In
this panel we invited researchers from different disciplines, such as
theology, law, political science and sociology, to turn their attention towards
the link between the secular/religious division, polarization, and the growth
of populism.
Chair Ryszard Bobrowicz (Lunds Universitet, Sweden
Johanna Gustafsson Lundberg (Lunds Universitet, Sweden)
Speaker Ryszard Bobrowicz (Lunds Universitet, Sweden/Johanna Gustafsson
Lundberg (Lunds Universitet, Sweden): Populism as a Political Theology

Tobias Kölner (University of Witten-Herdecke. Germany): Everyday

Nationalism, Populism, Orthodoxy and Politics in contemporary Russia

Carlo Nardella (Università di Milano, Italy): From the Religious to the

Secular: The Changing Nature of Religious Symbols in Advertising
Additional
information
Panel number 047
Panel name Author meets Critique - Magdalena Dziaczkowska and Adele Valeria
Messina, Jews in Dialogue: Jewish Responses to the Challenges of
Multicultural Contemporaneity (Brill, 2020)
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 2.45pm-5.00pm
Format Hybrid
Room F5/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract Recent decades were abundant in political and military conflicts based on
the lack of tolerance, acceptance and responsibility for the other. In many
cases, both the otherness and the violence against the other were tied to
religion. The publication of
the volume Jews in Dialogue: Jewish Responses to the Challenges of
Multicultural Contemporaneity is an occasion to discuss the potential of
religion to catalyze and prevent conflicts. Through the example of Jewish
involvement in interreligious and intercultural dialogue, it analyzes
processes leading to and preventing from the conflicts based on othering.
The articles included in the volume cover fields such as history, sociology,
and literature, and reveal how Jews have positioned themselves in
the ongoing dialogue and cooperation with non-Jews after the Holocaust.
Their efforts present how the dialogue can be a bridge to negotiate distance
and difference without eliminating it. While the first part of the book is
centered around the capability of dialogue, the second presents specific
examples of successful interreligious cooperation, with an appendix
designed as a device of contextualization for the material presented in the
first part, especially with regard to the relations between the State of Israel
and the Catholic Church. One actual novum is the inclusion of not only
academic essays but also more literary papers and interviews, a combination
intended for the further broadening of the multiplicity of views within.
Chair Magdalena Dziaczkowska (Lunds Universitet, Sweden)
Adele Valeria Messina (Independent Researcher/Università della Calabria,
Italy)
Speaker Discussants:
Yaron Catane (Bar-Ilan University, Israel)
Mathijs Lamberigts ( KU Leuven, Belgium)
Leora Tec
Eugene Korn
Alberto Melloni (University of Modena and Reggio Emilio/ FSCIRE, Bologna,
Italy).

Respondents:
Magdalena Dziaczkowska (Lunds Universitet, Sweden)
Adele Valeria Messina (Independent Researcher/Università della Calabria,
Italy)
Additional
information

Panel number 048

Panel name Postsecularity Pro and Contra
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 3.30pm-5.45pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The increasing irrelevance of the secularization paradigm has led to the
search for alternative concepts to explain the current state of the social and
political influence of religion. Post secularity is the most prevailing of these
alternatives and dominates the academic discourse on religion and politics.
This panel intends to assess the relevance of this concept to explain current
interactions of religion and politics in Europe, the USA, Russia and the
Middle East. Panelists will address the following questions: What are the
main dimensions of postsecularity that can be operationalized to survey
empirical reality? Are post secularity and desecularization synonymous or
contradictory? Is the religious/political divide still relevant in a postsecular
world?
Chair Jocelyne Cesari (University of Birmingham, UK/ Georgetown University, USA)
Speaker Mariano Barbato (University of Münster, Germany/University of Passau,
Germany): A Postsecular Middle East? Expanding the Postsecular Approach
to Non-Linear processes of Secularization and Desecularization

Gregorio Bettiza (University of Exeter, UK): The Postsecular as an Analytical

and Explanatory Concept

Jocelyne Cesari (University of Birmingham, UK/ Georgetown University,

USA): Beyond the hierarchical divide of politics and religion

Kristina Stoeckl (University of Innsbruck, Austria): Postsecularity: conflict,

not consensus

Fabio Petito (University of Sussex, UK): Engagement in International

Relations or building a postsecular sensitivity in foreign policy

Jonathan Agensky (Ohio University, USA): Who governs? Religion and order
in postcolonial Africa

Additional
information

Panel number 049

Panel name New Trinitarian Ontologies
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 8.30am-5.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room F2/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract The study of the structure of being or ontology in metaphysics was once
regarded as a seminal preparation for the study of God as the creative cause
of all being in theology. Yet ontology has, largely due to the influence of
late-medieval theology
since come to be separated from trinitarian theology, before God came to
be conceived in early-modern philosophy as the supreme being of all beings
in general metaphysics, natural theology, and modern ontology. Modern
ontology has since dirempted the ontological from the theological,
suspended theology, and simulated ontology. The Analytic and Continental
philosophical traditions have tended to treat the Trinity as, at best,
superfluous, and, at worst, redundant to modern ontology. Yet with the
 postmodern collapse of all such formal ontologies, we may once more work
to renew trinitarian theology. New Trinitarian Ontologies names a creative
response to this collapse of modern formal ontologies. If ontology cannot
contain but rather and more radically points to God, and if all nature thus
tends towards the supernatural, the angelic, and the metaphysical, then we
may begin to renew this central investigation into the metaphysics or
ontology of the Trinity. We
have previously hosted an international conference on trinitarian ontologies
titled “New Trinitarian Ontologies” at the University of Cambridge. We
propose to continue this project as we convene a panel on metaphysics or
ontology in imitation of the Trinity.

Chair Markus Enders (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany)

Speaker 08.30am-08.45am
Markus Enders (Freiburg University, Germany): Opening Remarks

08.45am-09.30am
John Milbank (University of Nottingham, UK): The Trinitarian Rethinking of
the Categories of Being in the Thought of Antonio Rosmini

09.45am-10.05am
Ryan Haecker (University of Cambridge, UK): Traces of the Trinity in Plato’s
Parmenides: Alain Badiou, Theological Mathematics, and Trinitarian
Ontology

10.05am-10.25am
Paweł Rojek (Jagiellonian University, Krakaw, Poland): Trinitarian Ontology
as the Metaphysics of Relations

11.00am-11.20am
Eduard Fiedler (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic): Children of the
Trinity: Trinitarian Ontology and Metaphysics of Childhood

11.20am-11.40am
David Bennett (University of Oxford, UK): Retrieving Augustine’s ‘way in’:
Knowing Trinitarian Ontology Through the Beauty of God in the Deformed
Christ

12.15pm-12.35pm
Jonas Narchi (Heidelberg University, Germany): Can there be a Philosophy of
the Trinity? Victorine Answers Reconsidered

12.35pm-12.55pm
Ryan Hurd (Theological University Kampen, Netherlands): Analogia Entis and
Trinity among the Neoscholastics: Ressourcement from the University of
Salamanca for Trinitarian Ontology

2.45pm-3.05pm
Dritero Demjaha (University of Oxford,UK): The Trinity and the Fall into
Time: Franz von Baader and G.W.F. Hegel’s Supratemporal Ontologies
 3.05pm-3.25pm
Bernhard Stalla (University of Munich, Germany): The Trinitarian Ontology
of Heinrich Beck and The Relationship Of Absolute Necessity, Ordering
Wisdom and Personal Partnership

4.00pm-4.20pm
Petr Macek (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic): Trinitarian
Ontology as a Protection against Ideology and Idolatry: Contribution of
Ctirad V. Pospíšil to the Trinitarian Ontology of Persons in Society

4.20pm-4.40pm
Matt Williams (Durham University, UK): Rahner’s Symbol and Johannine
Trinitarian Ontology

5.05pm-5.25pm
Valentina Gaudiano (Sophia University, Loppiano, Italy): Love as the Core of
a Trinitarian Ontology

5.35pm-5.50pm
Markus Enders (University of Freiburg, Germany): Closing Remarks

Additional
information

Panel number 050

Panel name New Aspects on Suffering in Buddhism and Christianity
Date/ Time Wednesday August 31st 3.30pm-5.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL 23.206/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract In the West, Buddhism is often regarded as a religion with an entirely
negative view on suffering. Yet this perception is not entirely accurate.
Especially in the context of the Bodhisattva ideal, Buddhism has also
developed an understanding of suffering that sees some genuine spiritual
value in it. This opens up new horizons for Buddhist-Christian dialogue.
Chair Achim Riggert (President of INTRoA, Germany)
Speaker Sybille Fritsch-Oppermann (independent Researcher/Technical University of
Clausthal, Germany): Suffering - unsatisfactoryness (dukkha) and melancholy
(incurvatio in se) in Buddhism, Christianity and Art

Mathias Schneider (University of Münster, Germany): Suffering Saviours:

Jesus and the Bodhisattva

Perry Schmidt-Leukel (University of Münster, Germany): Shantideva’s Praise

of Suffering

Thomas Cattoi (Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University, Berkeley,

USA): The spirituality of victim souls in counterreformation Catholicism and
the Tibetan practice of chod
Additional This panel is organized by the European Network of Buddhist Christian
information Studies (ENBCS)
Panel number 051
Panel name A Panel responding to Francis Tiso’s Rainbow Body and Resurrection
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 3.30pm-5.45pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Francis Tiso’s 2016 study Rainbow Body and Resurrection: Spiritual
Attainment, the Dissolution of the Material Body, and the Case of Khenpo A
Chö (North Atlantic Books, 2016) is a seminal work that explores the points
of contact, as well as the tensions between certain strands of Tibetan and
Eastern Christian mystical practice. The work charts the distinctive
understanding of embodied spiritual practice characterizing these two
traditions, focusing on the ontological transformation of the body through
sustained spiritual practice and the significance of light in this process. This
panel will discuss Tiso’s work and use it as a starting point to address the
way in which the two traditions articulate their understanding of
embodiment and subjectivity, as well as soteriology and the nature of
ultimate reality.

Chair Perry Schmidt-Leukel (University of Münster, Germany)

Speaker Francis Tiso (Independent scholar, Diocese of Isernia, Italy)

Thomas Cattoi (Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University, Berkeley,

USA)

Brandon Gallaher (University of Exeter, UK)

Fabian Voelker (University of Münster, Germany)

Additional This panel is organized by the European Network of Buddhist Christian
information Studies (ENBCS)

Panel number 052

Panel name Lynn de Sylva’s Visionary Approach to Buddhist-Christian Dialogue – A Book-
Launch Panel
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 9.45am-12.00pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.102/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract The Sri Lankan theologian Lynn A. de Silva (1919-1982) has been one of the
pioneers of Buddhist-Christian dialogue. His work did not merely influence
interreligious dialogue locally and globally. De Silva had also a formative
impact on the gradual opening of the World Council of Churches to dialogue
with people of other faiths. The panel will discuss the lasting and still
pathbreaking heritage of de Silva’s thoughts. At the same time it will launch
the publication of A Visionary Approach. Lynn A. de Silva and the Prospects
for Buddhist-Christian Encounter, edited by Elizabeth J. Harris and Perry
Schmidt-Leukel (St. Ottilien: EOS-Editions 2021).
Chair Perry Schmidt-Leukel (University of Münster, Germany
Speaker Elizabeth Harris (Birmingham University, UK): De Silva’s search for Meaning
through Buddhist-Christian Dialogue
 Andreas Nehring (University of Erlangen/Nuremberg, Germany):
Interreligious Dialogue and Practice of Lived Religion

Peniel Rajkumar (World Council of Churches, Geneva/ Ripon College

Cuddesdon, UK): The WCC’s Ongoing Commitment to Interreligious Dialogue
Additional This panel is organized by the European Network of Buddhist Christian
information Studies (ENBCS)

Panel number 054

Panel name Historical and Theological Lexicon of the Septuagint: A New Approach to
Biblical Greek Lexicography
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 8:30am-10:45am
Format Hybrid
Room DPL 23.205/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract The Historical and Theological Lexicon of the Septuagint (HTLS) is a collective
and interdisciplinary project of the Fondazione per le scienze religiose of
Bologna. It is a multi-volume dictionary on the terms or groups of the most
significant words of the Septuagint. Each term is analyzed within Classical
and Hellenistic Greek literature, in papyri and inscriptions, in the Septuagint
and in its Hebrew equivalents, in the Jewish literature in Greek, in the New
Testament and in early Christian writings. The aim is to investigate
meanings, use, and eventual semantic evolutions of these terms. HTLS fills
an important gap in the fields of ancient philology, historical and religious
studies. The project is directed by Prof. Eberhard Bons and coordinated by
Anna Mambelli and Daniela Scialabba. It foresees the release of four print
volumes and an electronic version of these for the Mohr Siebeck publishing
house of Tübingen. The first volume is now available (2020
Chair Eberhard Bons (University of Strasbourg, France)
Speaker Daniela Scialabba (Pontifical Biblical Institute /FSCIRE, Italy): HTLS:
Approach, Methodology, Results

Anna Mambelli (FSCIRE, Italy/ University of Strasbourg, France): An Outline

of HTLS Vol. II

Laura Bigoni (University of Strasbourg, France): HTLS Methods: The Case

Study of ἐντρέπω

Eberhard Bons (University of Strasbourg, France): HTLS Vol. II: A Sample

Entry

Katharina Lentz (Centre de Formation Diocésain Centre Jean XXIII,

Luxembourg.): The Poor in the Book of Ben Sira: Terminology and Theology
Additional
information

Panel number 056

Panel name On Qur’ān and Philosophy
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 09.45am-12.00pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The aim of this panel is to examine the relationship between Qurʾān and
philosophy in classical and modern Islamic thought. Eggen examines Taha ̣
ʿAbd al-Rahmān’ ̣ s engagement with the Qurʾān and other possible
resources of Islamic thinking guiding this engagement. She examines how
Qurʾānic ideas inform the philosopher’s project of al-iʾtmāniyya
(trusteeship), and how he engages the Qurʾānic ethos in his theory. Hashas
reflects on some projects from contemporary Islamic thought and how they
approach the Qurʾān, philosophy, and moral and ethical issues for change.
Mårtensson looks into natural Law Theory and the Qurʾānic concepts of God
and haqq. ̣ Following John Finnis' argument that natural law theory requires
a claim to absolute Truth, she argues that Qurʾānic concepts of divine One-
ness and haqq ̣ reflect natural law theory, and she uses mainly Muhammad ̣
b. Jarīr al-Tabarī's ̣ “human rights”-oriented exegesis for her argument.
Panzeca deals with the hermeneutics of the Qurʾānic verse of light and its
spiritual exegesis as a source of philosophical reflection in the Avicennian
tradition and in the post-Avicennian reception. Recently, a new movement
has emerged that aims at renewing the Islamic fundamental

Chair Francesca Badini (FSCIRE - “La Pira” Researcher Center, Palermo, Italy)
Speaker Ivana Panzeca (FSCIRE - “La Pira” Researcher Center, Palermo, Italy):
The Qurʾān as a source of philosophical inspiration in the Avicennian
tradition

Jasser Auda (International Peace College South Africa/ President of the

Maqasid Institute Global, Canada): Renewing the Islamic Methodology via
Qurʾānic Studies

Carmela Baffioni (University of Naples “L’Orientale” – Institute of Ismaili

Studies, London, GB): Use and interpretation of Qurʾānic verses in Risāla al-
ǧāmiʿa

Nora S. Eggen (University of Oslo, Norway): The Qurʾān and Tāhā ʿAbd al-
Raḥmān’s trusteeship paradigm (al-iʾtmāniyya)

Mohammed Hashas (LUISS University of Rome, Italy):Qurʾān, Philosophy,

and Change: Reflections from Contemporary Islamic Thought

Ulrika Mårtensson (NTNU – The Norwegian University of Science and

Technology, Norway): The Qurʾān as Theory of Natural Law and Natural
Rights: Viewed Through the Lens of al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) and Some Other
Medieval Exegetes
Additional
information

Panel number 059

Panel name The Church and The Holocaust: Then and Now
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 3.30pm-6.00pm
Thursday September 2nd 3.30pm-6.00pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The post-war question of how the Holocaust could have occurred in
Christian Europe prompted two main lines of research: Church attitudes
prior to the Holocaust, and how the Church responded during the Holocaust.
As literature developed, cumulative studies gave rise to indictments of the
Church. While scholars agree there was no sufficient cause of the Holocaust,
one often-stated necessary cause has been negative Church teachings on
Jews embedded in western culture. It is also the case that one of the largest
categories of Holocaust bystanders was the Church, which means that the
agency of a claimed necessary cause was also a predominant bystander,
appearing in every geographical schemata, overlapping in time and place in
all axis, occupied, neutral, and allied countries, in both local and distant
populations. The picture becomes all the more salient when viewed with the
fact that scholarship has indicted the Church with a general silence during
the 12 years of Nazi persecution of Jews. Yet there is imbalance between the
indictments and the research. 'The Church' is often indicted as a single entity
but the whole entity has not yet been researched in all of its aspects.
Proposals are welcome on any aspect of 'the Church' in axis, occupied,
neutral, and allied countries between 1933-1945, or on changes in post-
Holocaust Church attitudes and Christian-Jewish relations, including
historiographic perspectives on changing distinctions between anti-Judaism
and antisemitism.
Chair Carolyn Sanzenbacher (University of Southampton Parkes Institute for the
Study of Jewish/Non-Jewish Relations and International Network for
Interreligious Research and Education, UK)
Speaker September 1st

Carolyn Sanzenbacher (University of Southampton Parkes Institute for the

Study of Jewish/Non-Jewish Relations and International Network for
Interreligious Research and Education, UK): Introduction: Historiographic
Challenges

Alberto Melloni (University of Modena and Reggio Emilio/ FSCIRE, Bologna,

Italy): Training Israeli Diplomacy: The Preparation of Vatican II Between
Shoah and State

Olaf Blaschke (University of Münster, Germany): From Anti-Judaism to

Modern Antisemitism: German Catholic Mentalities Between 1870 and 1945

Bruce Thompson (Chair, Lincolnshire Methodist District, UK): Echoes of

Contempt: Judeophobia and the Christian Church

Markus Thurau (Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the
Bundeswehr, Germany): The Mercilessness of Christian Anti-Judaism: The
Case of Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber

September 2nd

Rob Thompson (University College London, UK): 'The True Physicians Here
are the Padres':British Christian Army Chaplains and the Liberation of
Bergen-Belsen
 Peter Howson (Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History, UK): After
it was over: British Attempts to Understand the Attitudes of the German
Churches to the Holocaust

Sara Han (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany): After the Shoa: The Beginning
of a Jewish-Christian Encounter Despite Absence of Church Solidarity

Carina Brankovic (University of Oldenburg, Germany): Rolf Hochhuth's 'The

Deputy': Catalyst for A Roman Catholic Debate on the Church and the
Holocaust

Panel Discussion: International Historiographic Challenges: Where We Are

and Where We Need to Be (international database discussion)
Additional
information

Panel number 060

Panel name Religion and the Politics of Art
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 8.30am-12.00pm
Format Hybrid
Room F5/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract Artworks mirror, express, and often challenge the socio-economic power
relations of the surrounding society. Religious practices are implicated in
social structures in these same ways. The intersection of religion and art,
then, is an especially potent
site for reflection on the complicated and various ways in which political
power is upheld, strengthened, and undermined. This can occur when
religious themes are present in artworks as their subject matter, but also
when viewers approach artworks,
whatever their thematic content, with religious sensibilities, that is, habits of
looking or thinking that have been shaped by or owe something to religious
contexts. This panel explores these issues by inquiring into issues of gender,
nationality, race,
and democratic politics, addressing such topics as: the possibilities for art to
shape political agency; the political theology of encounter in artistic
representations of Mexican saints; a feminist analysis of the representation
of Lucretia in art and Augustine’s thought; and the political implications of
the aesthetics of surprise.
Chair Stephen Bush (Brown University, USA):
Speaker Stephen Bush (Brown University, USA): Beauty, Politics, and Agency

Natalie Carnes (Baylor University, USA): Lord, when did we see you?: Mercy,
Art, and Christian Visuality”

Sarah Stewart-Kroeker (University of Geneva, Switzerland): Representations

of Lucretia in Art and Augustine”

David Newheiser (Australian Catholic University, Australia): The Power of

Amazement: Contemplation and Community in Contemporary Art”
 Lexi Eikelboom (Australian Catholic University, Australia): With and Against
Powers of Deformation: A Theological Reading of Cindy Sherman

Additional
information

Panel number 061

Panel name The poetic-exegetical rewritings of the Bible in Late Antiquity: the case of
the Heptateuchos of the Ps.-Cyprian
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 4.00pm-6:15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract This panel intends to take stock of the Heptateuchos of Ps. Cyprian, who,
among all the biblical poems of late Antiquity is still the least studied and
therefore the most mysterious. The EA 4377 of Strasbourg has organized a
team of researchers for the
purpose of a new critical edition with commentary on this. Four speeches by
the researchers of the team present some aspects of their work, being
preceded by two introductory reports on the literary genre of biblical poetry
in general and on its
cultural background.
Chair Michele Cutino (Université de Strasbourg, France)
Speaker Donato De Gianni (Université de Catane, France): "High" and "Low" Genres
in Heptateuch Poem: Imitation, Allusivity and Narrative Strategies

Renaud Lestrade (Université de Strasbourg, France): Omnia tum iuuenis

signanter clausa reuelat : the figure of Joseph (Gen.37-47 ) in
the Heptateuch poem (Lib. geneseos 1115-1463)

Francesco Lubian (Università di Padova, Italy): Voices from the Book of

Numbers: the Episode of Balaam’s Donkey

Luciana Furbetta (Università “La Sapienza” Rome, Italy): Bible and Intertext:
an inquiry into the narrative strategies in the Heptateuchos poem: the
example of Metrum super Deuteronomium

Additional
information

Panel number 062

Panel name Human Dignity and the Human Future: Legal and Ethical Implications of
Emerging Biotechnologies
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 2.15pm-5.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room F5/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract This panel will address the theological, ethical, legal, and anthropological
implications of emerging biotechnologies. Technological developments are
rapidly altering the experience of being and becoming human from the
origins of life, to the end of life, to the nature of life itself. How should law
 respond, not only with respect to regulating scientific practice, but with
respect to shaping emergent notions of the human? How does law give
shape and measure to such inherited concepts as human flourishing, human
rights, and human dignity in light of new biotechnologies? How do emerging
biotechnologies impact our understanding of personhood? Human nature?
Human dignity? Human rights?
Chair Zachary Calo (Hamad bin Khalifa University, Qatar)
Speaker Zachary Calo (Hamad bin Khalifa University, Qatar): Human Dignity after the
Human

Michael Moreland (Villanova University, USA): Liberalism, Technology, and

Justice

Jessica Giles (The Open University, UK): Claiming intellectual property rights
on behalf of God

Rodrigo Vitorino Souza Alves (Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Brazil):

Towards a Rights-Based Approach to Artificial Intelligence: An Exploration of
the OECD and G20 Principles

Valerie Fickert (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany): Human

dignity, medical practice and the need for a new philosophy of medicine
within the medical discipline
Additional
information

Panel number 063

Panel name The Power of Religion in the Laws on Interpersonal Relationships
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 8.30am-5.45pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Interpersonal relationships are at the crossroads of law, culture and religion.
The law is influenced by religion even in secularized States, especially
connected to the regulation of family, association and fraternity. Many
differences depend precisely on religious diversities: as demonstrated by
monogamous or polygamous marriage, divorce or repudiation, adoption or
kafala, ability to inherit, forms of association. Therefore, some problems of
coexistence arise in multicultural societies since religious models sometimes
conflict with human rights standards or gender issues, etc. The aim of this
panel is to investigate, also in a comparative perspective, the different
solutions provided in various European legal systems and at the European
level (Eu and Coe), as well as in non-European countries, in order to balance
religious accommodation claims with public policy issues in matters of
interpersonal relationships. The panel will examine the topic from different
point of view: (1) Family and education; (2) Marriage; (3) Empowerment and
emancipation from religion; (4) The challenges of multireligious and
multicultural societies.

Chair Pierluigi Consorti (Università di Pisa, Italy)

Maria Luisa Lo Giacco (Università di Bari “Aldo Moro”, Italy)
Rossella Bottoni (Università di Trento, Italy)
 Maria d’Arienzo (Università di Napoli Federico II, Italy)

Speaker Topic 1: Family and education

Chair: Pierluigi Consorti (Università di Pisa, Italy)

Mario Ferrante (Università di Palermo, Italy ): The formation of religious

identity in family relationships

Maria Cristina Ivaldi (Università della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy): The
place of religion in the French education system between private schools
and the secular teaching of the religious fact in public schools

Maria Luisa Lo Giacco (Università di Bari “Aldo Moro”, Italy): The Power of
religion in the parental relationships laws

Adelaide Madera (Independet Researcher/Università della Calabria, Italy):

Muslim family relationships and claim for accommodation in Western
countries. A comparative survey between common law and civil law legal
systems

Stefano Testa Bappenheim (Università di Camerino, Italy): The places of

religions in the German education system: Art. 4 and 7 GG, there are more
things in heaven and earth, then are dreamt of in our philosophy

Topic 2: Marriage
Chair: Maria Luisa Lo Giacco (Università di Bari “Aldo Moro”, Italy

Rossella Bottoni (Università di Trento, Italy): Religious marriages in the

ECtHR case law

Michelle Flynn (Université Chatolique de Louvain, Belgium): Marriage and

Divorce in Ireland: What will the State permit?

Cristina Dalla Villa (Università di Teramo, Italy): Wojtyla’s teaching on

family: the liturgical reform of marriage

Luigi Mariano Guzzo (Università Magna Graecia di Catanzaro, Italy): Being a

married priest or being married with a priest? Holy orders and family
institution in Christian law

Laura Kallatsa (University of Eastern Finland, Finland): Homosexuality,

Same-Sex Marriage and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

Enrica Martinelli (Università di Ferrara, Italy): “Omnia vincit amor”?

Interreligious marriages in the law of monotheistic religions

Daniela Tarantino (Università di Genova, Italy): The introduction of civil

marriage in Italy, France and Spain. An historical and juridical overview
between the reactions of the Roman Church and the civil society responses

Topic 3: Empowerment and emancipation from religion

Chair: Rossella Bottoni (Università di Trento, Italy)
 Antonello De Oto (Alma Mater-Università di Bologna, Italy): Spiritual
assistance, State power and personal identity: the complex Italian puzzle

Fabio Franceschi (Sapienza-Università di Roma. Italy): The influence of

religions’ points of view on the legal discipline of end-of-life issues. The
Italian case

Vasco Fronzoni (Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”, Italy): Law, power and

religion in the intra-family relations of Islamic communities. Some cases in
the UK and Italy

Caterina Gagliardi (Università della Calabria, Italy): Religious women's

organisations in the European integration processes

Francesca Oliosi (Università di Trento, Italy): The curious case of conflict

between sharia and human rights

Topic 4: The challenges of multireligious and multicultural societies

Chair: Maria d’Arienzo (Università di Napoli Federico II, Italy )

Fabio Balsamo (Università di Napoli Federico II, Italy): Old and new
jurisdictionalisms: the property regime of religious associations in State legal
systems

Federica Botti (Alma Mater-Università di Bologna, Italy): Religious freedom,

cultural heritage and identity in Eastern Europe. The cases of Montenegro
and Kosovo

Rosa Geraci (Università di Palermo, Italy): Cultural crimes and cultural

defences within family

Chiara Lapi (Università di Pisa, Italy): Hindutva in multireligious India.

Persons in front of bans, symbols and dangers

Alessandro Tira (Università di Bergamo. Italy): Anti-conversion laws in India:

a different legal model of interpersonal relationships

Conclusive Remarks:
Pierluigi Consorti (Università di Pisa, Italy): The Power of Religion in
Interpersonal Relations Laws. Final Remarks
Additional The Panel is organized by the research group DiReSoM (Diritto e Religioni
information nelle Società multiculturali) under the patronage of ADEC (Associazione dei
docenti universitari della disciplina giuridica del fenomeno religioso)

Panel number 064

Panel name Prophets, Prognosticators and the Theo-Logics of Protest
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 8.30am-6.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room F3/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz20-22)
Abstract Papers in these panels will examine "theologics” of protest and/or
the prophetic that are focused on particular regions or events and that are
methodologically and confessionally/religiously diverse.
Prophets. The figure and discourse of "the prophet" came to great
prominence in relation to protest in the twentieth century, and this
association remains strong today. But although prophets figure prominently
in the Jewish and Christian Biblical canons, prophets and theological
discussion of the prophetic is a comparatively minor theme in the history of
Christianity until the 20th century, when it becomes tightly associated with
social justice on the one hand and pentecostal theologies on the
other. Protest. Social uprisings instigated by protests have catalyzed major
social reformation and even revolution, and 2019-2020 witnessed a surge in
popular protest movements around the world. Often protests are conducted
by means of relating identity, values, and social structures to claims about
what is fundamentally real, right and thus good. And this is theological
territory. Of course, religious and theological messages are also quite often
explicitly present in protest movements and prominently associated with
one another, with protest alternately seen as intrinsic or antithetical to
religious faithfulness. Yet, despite this, little direct attention has been given
to a theological assessment of protest.
Chair Matthew Ryan Robinson (RFW Universität Bonn, Germany)
Speaker Elorm Nick Ahialey-Mawusi (RFW Universität Bonn, Germany): The Prophet
William Harris Wade and African Pentecostalism: Contested Identities and
the Quest for Particularity in African Christianity

Lani Anaya Jimenez (RFW Universität Bonn, Germany): Set an example to

the believers: the intersections of youth-led activism and faith

David B. Smith (RFW Universität Bonn, Germany): Woven Confessions:

Religious Symbology & the Intra-Ecclesial Struggle for LGBTQ+ Inclusion in
the PCUSA

Yusuke Okada (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany):

Kanzo Uchimura: Protesting Prophet in Modern Japan

Che wai Chan (RFW Universität Bonn, Germany):

Free Men on Captured Land: “Be Water” and the Protests in Hong Kong

Matthias Ehmann (Theologische Hochschule Ewersbach, Germany):

Theologies in context of migration as theologies of resistance: Free Church
perspectives on asylum, deportation and protest in the solidarity crisis

Lisanne Teuchert (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany):

Anger, Indignation, Resentment: The Emotional Side of Protest and its
Way into Protestant Theo-logics in Germany

Hadje C. Sadje (Hamburg University, Germany): Occupy Till I Come: Doing

the Threefold Mission of Jesus Christ as Prophet, Priest, King in the Age of
Duterte's Populism

Sam Sunny Anand Sigamani (RFW Universität Bonn, Germany): Prophets

Outside the Camp: Journey of the Theology of Untouchables
 Christian Kern (KU Leuven, Belgium): Kenotic Embodiments: A Theology of
Provocative Political Performances

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke ( RFW Universität Bonn, Germany): The legitimacy

of dissent? Democracy and ecclesiology in dialogue

Matthew Ryan Robinson (RFW Universität Bonn): Papers Response and

Closing Remarks
Additional
information

Panel number 065

Panel name Author meets Critique - Mary Magdalene: A Reception History
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 04.00pm-6.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room F5/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract Presentation and discussion of E. Lupieri (Ed.), Una sposa per Gesù. Maria
Maddalena tra antichità e postmoderno, Roma, Carocci, 2017; Id. (Ed.),
Mary Magdalene from the New Testament to the New Age and Beyond (TBN
24), Leiden, Brill 2020; and Id. (Ed.), I mille volti della Maddalena. Saggi e
studi (Biblioteca di testi e studi), Roma, Carocci 2020. The three volumes will
be discussed as examples of recent international studies in the field of the
so-called “Reception History” of biblical themes.
Chair
Speaker Discussants:
Luca Arcari (Università di Napoli "Federico II", Italy)
Laura Carnevale (Università di Bari "Aldo Moro", Italy)
Arianna Rotondo (Università di Catania, Italy)

Respondent:
Edmondo Lupieri (Loyola University Chicago, USA)
Additional
information

Panel number 066

Panel name Religious Reform and Anti-Ottoman Crusade: The Correspondence of John of
Capestrano in Hungary
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 08.30am-12.00pm
Format Hybrid
Room F43/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract John of Capestrano, one of the leading figures of the Franciscan Observance
in the fifteenth century, has left behind a correspondence of almost 700
items. In the last few years, a number of small teams of researchers have
been working on the edition of these letters, region by region, as part of an
international cooperation initiated by Prof. Letizia Pellegrini. A Polish team
has already published one portion: Paweł Kras et al., eds., The
Correspondence of John of Capistrano, vol. 1: Letters Related to the History
of Poland and Silesia, 1451-1456 (Warsaw and Lublin: Tadeusz Manteuffel
 Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences, and Wydawnictwo KUL,
2018). Our research group financed by the National Research, Development
and Innovation Office of Hungary
(http://nyilvanos.otkapalyazat.hu/index.php?menuid=930&num=125463&k
eyword=125463&lang=EN) is working – in close cooperation with Iulian
Mihai Damian and Carmen Florea from Cluj-Napoca – on the edition of
John’s correspondence during his stay in the Kingdom of Hungary (1455-
1456). The relevance of this source material lies, first of all, in allowing us to
have an insight into a wide network of personal contacts of a European scale
in contemporary ecclesiastical and secular politics, with particular reference
to religious reform, mission (particularly among Christians of the Eastern
Rite), and the anti-Ottoman crusade. The aim of the proposed panel is to
present the results of our research project and to discuss them in a broader
international context.

Chair Gábor Klaniczay (Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

Speaker Iulian Mihai Damian (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania):
Relations with the Greek Church as Reflected in John of Capestrano’s
Correspondence

Carmen Florea (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania): Mission to

the Periphery of Latin Christendom: John of Capestrano and the Local Power
Relations

György Galamb (University of Szeged. Hungary): Exchange of Information in

the Correspondence of John of Capestrano during his Mission in Hungary

Ottó Gecser (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary): Digital Research

Tools and the Correspondence Network of John of Capestrano, 1455-1456

Gábor Klaniczay (Central European University, Budapest, Hungary): John of

Capestrano as a Preacher and Living Saint in Hungary, 1456

Letizia Pelligrini (University of Macerata, Italy): Christianity and Europe: The

Middle Ages on the Frontier
Additional
information

Panel number 067

Panel name Christian Theology as Comparative Theology
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 2.45pm-05.00pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.201/ Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract This panel explores the possibility and conditions of Christian theology as
comparative theology for the sake of the religiously pluralistic and secular
world of the third millennium. It means that what is nowadays called
comparative theology, a detailed and focused comparison between two or
more faith traditions with regard to a specific topic or theme, is being
adopted as an integral part of “normal” theological inquiry and research. In
other words, rather than considering comparative theology merely as a
separate – or perhaps: an auxiliary – task, the comparative aspect belongs to
 the standard procedures and tasks of theology. To give an example: the
theologian researching Christian doctrines – equipped with a basic
knowledge of other faiths – would not only engage scriptural, historical,
systematic, and philosophical materials in Christian tradition but also in
Islamic or Buddhist or other traditions.
Chair Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen (Fuller Theological Seminary, USA/University of
Helsinki, Finland)
Speaker Perry Schmidt-Leukel (University of Münster, Germany): Christian Theology
as Comparative Theology: A Buddhist-Christian Perspective

Klaus von Stosch (University of Paderborn, Germany): Christian Theology as

Comparative Theology: A Muslim-Christian Perspective

Karin Kallas-Põder (University of Helsinki, Finland): Christian Theology as

Comparative Theology: A Jewish-Christian Perspective
Additional
information

Panel number 068

Panel name Author meets Critique- Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, A Constructive Christian
Theology for the Pluralistic World, 5 vols. (Eerdmans, 2013-17)
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 05.15pm-06.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.201/ Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract The five-volume comprehensive presentation of Christian dogmatics -- Christ
and Reconciliation (vol. 1), Trinity and Revelation (vol. 2), Creation and
Humanity (vol. 3), Spirit and Salvation (vol.4 ), Hope and Community (vol. 5) -
- engages not only the breath of Christian tradition but also the current
global diversity, as well as, four other living faiths, namely Judaism, Islam,
Buddhism, and Hinduism. Where relevant, it also engages natural sciences
and brain study. This session focuses on but is not limited to the last volume,
Community and Hope.
This is the first time in the history of religions that a representative of a
particular religious tradition seeks to construct a full-scale presentation of its
religious beliefs and teachings in a dialogue with a number of other living
faith traditions.

Chair Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen (Fuller Theological Seminary, USA/University of

Helsinki, Finland
Speaker Discussants:
Peter de Mey (Catholic University of Leuven): Christian Theology as
Comparative Theology: A Catholic Theologian’s Perspective

Sanna Urvas (University of Helsinki, Finland): Christian Theology as

Comparative Theology: A Pentecostal Theologian’s Perspective

Karin Kallas-Põder (University of Helsinki, Finland): Christian Theology as

Comparative Theology: From a Lutheran Perspective”
Additional
information
Panel number 069
Panel name The Nuncio’s Secret Archives’: Papal Diplomacy and European Multi-
denominational Societies Before the Thirty Years War’
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 11.00am-01.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The panel will present an Italian national-funded on-going project on the
political archives of two great papal diplomats: the cardinal Giovan
Francesco Commendone (1524-1584) – twice legate to the Empire in 1560-
63, 1566-68, then papal nuncio and legate in Poland (1563-15, 1571-73) –
and his secretary Antonio Maria Graziani (1537-1611).
In the aftermath of the peace of Augusta (1555) and before the foundation
of Propaganda Fide (1622), the papal knowledge of a vaste and strategical
area in the heart of Europe passed through the mediation of these two
prominent diplomats who dominated with their networks the first phase of
the confrontation between Rome and countries where catholics and
heretics shared the same public space, the coexistence between different
faiths being regulated by a series of ‘religious peaces’.
In this geography of jurisdictions, powers and practices built from above and
below, Commendone and Graziani confronted themselves in a free and
proactive manner with societies within which “heresy” was legalized, and
had to autonomously go deeper into the matter, trying to ensure the
survival of Catholicism. Their political archives, conserved between Vada
(Livorno) and University of Kansas, provide us with brand new insights into
Counter-reformation policies, thus overcoming traditional paradigms that
tend to simplify the relations between Rome and multi-denominational
Europe on inquisitorial, missionary and conversionistic schemes.

Chair Alain Tallon (Sorbonne Université, Paris, France)

Speaker Elena Bonora (University of Parma, Italy): Papal Diplomacy and European
Multi-denominational Societies Before the Thirty Years War

Antonella Barazi (University of Padua, Italy): Papal diplomats and their

networks: the Padua crossroads

Matteo Al Kalak (University of Modena, Italy):Another Counterreforation:

the heritage of Commendone and Graziani in 18th century Catholic Church

Dorit Raines (University of Venice, Italy): The Nuncio’s Secret Archives: the
archival turn and the digital revolution
Additional
information

Panel number 070

Panel name Populism, Sovranism, Post-Secularism: the role of Religions in the Public
Space
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 9.45am-12.30pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The panel is focusing on the macro-theme “Religions and Public Space”, and
on sociological, political, theological approaches to it.
Chair Claudio Paravati (Study Center and Magazine Confronti)
Speaker Session 1:
The Theological Political Legacy in Modern Democracy

Balaganapathi Devarakonda (University of Delhi, India), Michele Nicoletti

(University of Trento, Italy), Debora Spini (New York University in Florence,
Italy)

Session 2:
Interconfessional Theology in the Shade of St. Peter's Cupola

Lothar Vogel (Waldensian Faculty of Theology in Rome, Italy), Marco

Staffolani (Lateranenses University, Rome, Italy), Monica Rimoldi (San Paolo
Publisher, Italy)

Moderator: Fulvio Ferrario (Waldensian Faculty of Theology in Rome, Italy)

Additional This panel is organized by Centro Studi Confronti

information

Panel number 072

Panel name Transnational Dynamics of Politics and Religion
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 8.30am-1.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Human dynamics in all its facets have been increasingly transcending local
and national boundaries due to technological innovations, financial capital
flows and their interrelations with natural processes such as climate change.
Among others, the already complex interplay between politics, law and
religion finds itself spread across various geographical and ontological
dimensions. Accordingly, religion in its dimensions such as identity, practice,
doctrine or spirituality intermingles with local, national, and transnational
political processes, actors or issues: state politics is affected by political
processes or wars beyond its borders involving religion and vice versa,
transnational religious movements, organizations, networks and
communities challenge not only states’ sovereignty claims or existing
existing models of diversity governance, but also concern public security and
societal cohesion. These dynamics question traditionally established
hierarchies and negotiated leadership structures alike. This panel is
interested in the various manifestations of transnational dynamics of
religion and politics. Contributions might focus on political processes
involving minority or migrant communities, transnational practices,
narratives, movements, organizations, transnationally influential individuals
or international organizations.

Chair Maximilian Lakitsch (University of Graz, Austria

Kerstin Wonisch (Eurac Research Bolzano, Italy)
Speaker Ediz Hazir (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic): Resilience and
Religious Belonging of Multicultural and Multinational Encounters in the
“Infidel Izmir”

Kristina Stöckl (University of Innsbruck, Austria): The formation of a

European Christian Right through the transnational networks of moral
conservative actors

Oula Kadhum (University of Birmingham, UK): Iraqi Shia Transnational

Charities in the Age of ISIS and Counter-terrorism

Maximilian Lakitsch (University of Graz, Austria): The Posthuman Dynamics

of Religion and Politics

Haian Dukhan (CES Budapest, Hungary): Between the Devil and Blue Deep
Water: How the Security Dilemma Shapes the Position of Christian
Community in north eastern Syria

Enrica Fei (Bundeswehr University Munich, Germany): Shiʾa Iraq & Shiʾa Iran:
Transnational Shiʾa Identity & Iraqi Issue-Politics

Michaela Quast-Neulinger (University of Innsbruck, Austria): Burke’s Legacy:

Critical Perspectives on the Return of Theo-political Authoritarianism at the
example of R.R. Reno and Yoram Hazony

Additional
information

Panel number 074

Panel name Contemporary Protestant Moral Theology: Topics and Trajectories
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 2.15pm-5.45pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The aim of this panel is to provide a forum for philosophically attuned and
historically informed work in Protestant moral theology. Papers will consider
what the Protestant moral traditions provides for ethical reflection in our
rapidly changing, increasingly pluralistic societies. The panel will also address
important changes in the academic guild of Christian ethics and in the wider
religious landscape of Western culture. In recent years, some scholars—
ethicists, historians, and social critics—have expressed doubts about the
viability of distinctively Protestant moral theology. Characteristic Protestant
commitments, they fear, hinder rather than help moral reflection and
practice. Others worry that those same commitments are inhospitable to
philosophy’s essential contribution to a religious ethics that is attentive to
the challenges of our increasingly pluralistic social contexts. In the past
decade, however, several scholars have challenged both these concerns by
offering historically attentive and philosophically rich interpretations of key
Protestant figures and themes. This panel will build on these developments.
It will consider a wide range of topics in Protestant moral theology and
approaches to ethical inquiry. The hope is to present aspects of a vital and
 self-conscious Protestant moral theology, one that can make important
contributions to both the academic study of religion and to the wider public.

Chair Charles Guth (Princeton Theological Seminary, USA)

Joseph Lim (University of Notre Dame, USA)
Speaker Sarah Stewart-Kroeker (Université de Genève, Switzerland): Protestant
Imagination and Bodily Vulnerability

Joseph Lim (University of Notre Dame, USA): Peoples and Friendships: An

Analysis of Deformed Race-Relations

Emily Dumler-Winckler (Saint Louis University, USA): Protestant Virtue

Charles Guth (Princeton Theological Seminary, USA): Friendship with God

Patrick Haley (Princeton Theological Seminary, USA): ‘Heretics,’ ‘Heathens,’

‘Apostates’: Problems of Authority and Accountability in Contemporary
American Protestantism

Neil Arner (University of Notre Dame, USA): Unity through Repentance:

Ecumenism of
Additional
information

Panel number 075

Panel name Theologies of Disability: A Driving Force for Change
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 2.15pm-5.45pm
Wednesday September 1st 2.15pm-5.45 pm
Format Hybrid
Room Tuesday: F043/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Wednesday: DPL23.201/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract Ever since the publication of Nancy Eiesland’s book The Disabled God,
theologians of disability have challenged mainstream representations of
God, interpretations of Scripture, and what it means to live a dignified live
before God. Still, when
disability and other critical perspectives are not taken into account,
questions about the nature of God, church, and humanness are being asked
from a narrow “ablebodied” perspective, often implying that impairment is
considered “abnormal” and “unwanted”. Religious perspectives inform
people’s worldviews and determine their attitudes and actions in society.
Hence, promoting a more inclusive society where all are welcome regardless
of one’s (dis)abilities may need the transformation of religious beliefs
concerning disability. This interdisciplinary panel seeks to question how
critical reflection on the practices and holy texts of faith communities from a
disability perspective can lead to a more complete comprehension of God
and humanity. Can a renewed hermeneutics bring about changes in the
practices of faith communities, e.g. in their liturgical celebrations, in the way
people bear witness to their faith, or build community? Can a renewed
theological perspective on disability be a driving force in the transformation
of our societies towards more inclusiveness and belonging? Equally, how can
the study of theology and religion be transformed from disability
 perspectives? We invite papers that address this panel’s topic along these
lines.
Chair Léon van Ommen (University of Aberdeen, Scotland)
Talitha Cooreman-Guittin (Université catholique de Louvain, France)

Speaker Tuesday August 31st

Session 1:
Chair: Léon van Ommen (University of Aberdeen,UK)
Topher Endress (University of Aberdeen,UK): Disability and the Spatial
Imagination in Theology: A Critical Hermeneutic for the Built Environment

Hans Schaeffer (Theologische Universiteit Kampen, Netherlands)/Koos

Tamminga (Theologische Universiteit Kampen, Netherlands): Does inclusion
save us all? Pitfalls and perspectives for inclusive hermeneutics

Martine Vuk (Université de Fribourg, Switzerland): Disability studies and

Disability theology perspective on disability

Session 2:
Chair : Talitha Cooreman-Guittin (Université catholique de Louvain,
Belgium)

Sophie Izoard (Université catholique de Lille, France): From Weak Theology

to Weak Leadership: Bringing about a Change in Management Studies

Axel Liegeois (KU Leuven, Belgium): Intimacy and sexuality in persons with
intellectual disabilities: a challenge to church morality

Wednesday September 1st

Session 1:
Chair: Léon van Ommen (University of Aberdeen, UK)

Justin Glyn, SJ (University of Divinity, Australia): Et Homo Factus Est:

Incarnation, Disability and Interdependence

Daniel Rempel (University of Aberdeen, UK): Intellectual Disability and the

Christian Life: A New Perspective at the Intersection of Barth and Disability

Tony Stiff (Western Theological Seminary, USA): Disabling the Table,

Enabling Presence: A Disability Theology Approach to the Eucharist

Session2:
Chair: Talitha Cooreman-Guittin (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium)

Cynthia Tam (National Coordinator for Disability Ministries at The Christian

and Missionary Alliance, Canada): Oneness in Christ with People
Experiencing Profound Autism

Anne Masters (Director of Office for Pastoral Ministry with Persons with
Disabilities, Newark, USA): Considering a Case for Rights AND Charity
Additional
information

Panel number 076

Panel name The Lutheran Reformation between Lived Religion and Theology:
Methodological approaches and case studies
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 9:45am-10.45am
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Recent contemporary and historical research on religion has paid increasing
attention to religious practices, asking how religious ideas and beliefs are
experienced and lived out in different intellectual, social and cultural
contexts. In Reformation studies such approaches, coined e.g. as ‘lived
religion’ or ‘mode of living’, promise fruitful insights into the multifaceted
changes of religion, society and everyday life. As a contribution to ongoing
discussions, the panel combines methodological, theological and historical
reflections with concrete case studies, focusing on transformations within
16th century Lutheran thought and practice.
The opening paper by Risto Saarinen and Karin Kallas-Põder discusses
methodological issues of interpreting Reformation theology as a mode of
living and applies the concept to Martin Luther’s De servo arbitrio (1525). In
the second paper, TapioLeinonen explores how Luther used Moses as an
embodiment of leadership in Lectures on Deuteronomy (1525) to provide
faith- and love-based mode(l)s of living and leadership for different
audiences. Finally, Sini Mikkola analyses lay reformer
Katharina Schütz Zell’s (1498–1562) self-understanding as a chosen servant
of God from the viewpoint of biblical reception history, proposing that the
use of these (masculine) biblical images formed a central basis of Schütz Zell;
argumentation concerning the living out of her religion in public
Chair Päivi Räisänen-Schröder (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Speaker Karin Kallas-Põder University of Helsinki, Finland)/ Risto Saarinen (University
of Helsinki, Finland): Reformation theology as mode of living?
Methodological issues and a case study

Tapio Leinonen (University of Helsinki, Finland): Luther and Lived Leadership

in Moses

Sini Mikkola (University of Eastern Finland,Kuopio, Finland): Between

biblical reading and lived religion: A reception historical view on Katharina
Schütz Zell’s self-understanding as the chosen servant of God
Additional
information

Panel number 077

Panel name The Study of Religions in/about the Spanish-Speaking Context (and Beyond)
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 8.30m-12.00pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.201/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract The study of religions in the Spanish speaking context has on many occasions
been subordinated to the theological, as a result of work carried out behind
the back of both the University and the Catholic Church. However, different
platforms in the last decades of the 20th century have tried to generate
academic spaces for research on religions, from a comparable perspective to
the disciplinary field of Religious Studies or History of Religions, which have a
long trajectory in other academic contexts. The figure of Álvarez de Miranda,
in whom the Institute of Religious Sciences (IUCCRR) of the Complutense
University has its roots, and of Feliciano Montero, master of historians of
religions in Spain, the Spanish Association of Contemporary Religious History
(AEHRC), the Project God in Contemporary Literature (PDLC) and the
Association of Young Researchers in Sciences of Religions (AJICR) have
constituted vanguards in this respect.
The aim of this panel is to continue this effort through the presentation of
research on religions in or about the Spanish speaking context, with the aim
of debating the methodological, disciplinary and thematic challenges of this
study from the various works that are being carried out in this regard. The
objective of the discussion is that, on the basis of the diversity of disciplines
and themes from which we face our work, we approach and share a broader
view of the challenges of the study of religions.

Chair Francisco Javier Fernández Vallina (Universidad Complutense de Madrid,

Spain)
Speaker Cristina Expósito de Vicente (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain):
The artistic diagnosis as a tool for the Study of Religions: advances in the
Spanish panorama

Belén Cuenca Abellán (Universidad de Sevilla / Universidad Complutense de

Madrid, Spain): The Islamic past in Spain through the present: rethinking the
art of al-Andalus

Margot Leblanc (KU Leuven, Belgium): The role of prejudice in debate: the
(early) 14 th century case of Ramon Llull and Hamar

Antonio Barnés Vázquez (Complutense University of Madrid): Dream and God

in Antonio Machado.

Santiago Sevilla Vallejo (Universidad de Salamanca, Spain): Psychoanalysis,

religion and literature in Erich Fromm

Francisco Javier Fernández Vallina (Universidad Complutense de Madrid,

Spain): The Study of Religions in the Spanish Context (and Beyond)

Additional
information

Panel number 078

Panel name Challenges and paradoxes of post-secularity in Europe: religious, social and
cultural transformations in a secular frame
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 12.15pm-5.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room F043/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract After decades of an intense process of secularization in Europe, a process
which has ended in a deep symbolic-religious crisis, the loss of confidence in
religious institutions, etc., Europe is now confronted with challenges and
paradoxes on which this panel wishes to reflect. Faced with a strongly
secularised majority population, European identities –among them religious
ones– return to the forefront of the political scene or the cultural creation in
a Europe in which 71% of its citizens still continue to declare themselves
Christians (Pew Research 2018). For European society to date, religious faith
may have been progressively emptied, but a broader understanding of
religions has proved to be more resilient (Habermas 2009). In the midst of
this ambiguous situation, a process of change and another of questioning of
religious institutions are being experienced in parallel, especially noticeable
in the Catholic Church and the papacy of Francis.
We live in the paradoxes of the assumed decadence of a religious belief that
does neither withdraw from the public sphere nor disappear from cultural
reflection and sociological reality; of a Church in change that does not finish
confronting the reforms in a definitive way. The objective of this panel is the
presentation of different communications that are able to shed light on the
most controversial and paradoxical points of the described reality and with a
view to understanding the traces that make up post-secularity.
Chair Francisco Javier Fernández Vallina (Complutense University of
Madrid,Spain)
Speaker Luis Santamaría del Río (Red Iberoamericana de Estudio de las Sectas-RIES):
The cult controversy in Spain between 1980 and 2000

Ewelina Berdowicz (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland): Post-

secular Europe and the demons. The Neo-Pentecostal teachings and their
influence on the number of exorcists in the Catholic Church

Ariadna Álvarez Gavela (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain): A

conservative revolution: The transformation of theological motives in post-
judaism French literature

Salma Kalil El Aazzaoui (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain): Religious

identity: Governing Moroccan Islam abroad

Hannes Vorhofer (Postsecular Conflicts –POSEC– Research Group, University

of Innsbruck, Austria): Israel as a postsecular laboratory: The European
pathway to secularism is (can be) universal

Javier Recio Huetos (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain): Identities

under construction. Plurality and democracy

Martín Tami (Horizonte de Máxima Foundation): Walking towards the field

of stars. Names, questions and paradoxes of European post-secularity
around the Way of St. James

Additional
information
Panel number 079
Panel name Churches and Moral Discernment. Ecumenical Dialogue on Change in Moral
Teaching
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 9.45am-10.45am
Format Online
Room /
Abstract From 2015 to 2021, representatives from Orthodox, Roman Catholic and
diverse Protestant churches have debated the tension between continuity
and discontinuity in moral teaching in an international study process of the
Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches. As
perspectives from different church traditions and denominations entered
into dialogue on moral discernment in the churches significant
disagreements and contestations came to the fore. The dialogue uncovered
the complexity with regard to the relation between ecclesial authority,
discernment procedures and change in normative teaching. At the same
time, the comparative study revealed some general patterns across different
traditions. Moreover, this study was refined by analysing historical examples
of change in moral teaching, e.g. with regard to usury, suicide, marriage,
Christian participation in war. This showed in which ways churches have
over time de facto changed their teaching, from local to church-wide levels.
This panel will discuss the main findings emerging from the study process,
not least discussing the role of “the conscience of the church” in negotiating
continuity and change. Furthermore, the panel will explore the impact for
ecumenical relations and deepen the reflection on the nexus between
ecclesiology and ethics
Chair Simone Sinn (Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Switzerland)
Speaker Myriam Wijlens (University of Erfurt, Germany): Churches and Moral
Discernment: Introducing the Document "Facilitating Dialogue to Build
Koinonia"

David Kirchhoffer (Queensland Bioethics Centre, Australia): A Tool for

Dialogue on Processes of Moral Discernment

Vladimir Shmaliy (National Research Nuclear University MEPhI Moscow,

Russia): Moral Discernment in the Context of the Social Ethics of the
Orthodox Church
Additional
information

Panel number 080

Panel name The Reform as a Paradigm for Liturgy.
Historical Sources and Experiences of Liturgical Adaptation
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 8.30am-1.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.201/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract Over the centuries, christian rituals adapted to different geographical and
cultural contexts. Many studies have highlighted the importance of the
concept of “reform” as a fundamental category for the history of
liturgy. The panel aims to analyse the process of reform and adaptation of
the liturgy, taking into consideration different kinds of sources (i.e., archival
 documents, liturgical texts, Canon Law) and through a diachronic
perspective.
Chair Costanza Bianchi (FSCIRE, Bologna, Italy)
Speaker Session 1:

Lucia De Lorenzo (FSCIRE, Bologna ,Italy): Marriage as Sacrament. Canonical

and liturgical reflections of the Hostiensis (Henry of Susa)

Davide Dainese (University of Bologna, Italy): The Sources of the Liturgical

Thought of Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro

Session 2:

Goffredo Boselli: The Liturgy of Vatican II. Ritual Developments and

Theological Implications of the Conciliar Reform

Massimiliano Proietti (FSCIRE, Bologna, Italy): The Adaptation of Liturgy. The

Consilum and the Early Implementation of the Liturgical Constitution
Additional
information

Panel number 081

Panel name Engaging Visual Arts as Religious Ritual
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 9.45am-12.00pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract This panel draws on the panelists’ ongoing project, “Spiritual Understanding
in a Secular Age.” With funding from the Templeton Religion Trust, the
project explores possible analogies between religious rituals and the
practices that creators and consumers adopt in relation to art. This panel
describes the theoretical foundations of the project, focusing on the
category of “ritual” and its relation to visual art.
The panel includes a team of artists, scholars of religious studies, and
experimental psychologists. Our aim is to situate theoretical reflection on
the category of ritual in the context of both intangible and tangible art
practices, with particular attention to those processes that are undertaken
in ritualised ways. The panelists will explore the way religious impulses in a
secular society may seek expression in domains such as the arts, and
thereby to foster dialogue and understanding between religion
and the arts.
In addressing the theme of Religion and Change, the panelists will explore
how ritualised art practices manifest and mobilize change. We will ask how
art practices change the artist, and we will investigate how these changes
compare to those resulting from religious practices. Likewise, we will
investigate how spiritual and religious impulses have changed in and
through art practices. In this way, we will explore the possibility that art may
be a source of spiritual significance both for those who are religious and for
those who are not.
Chair David Newheiser (Australian Catholic University)
Speaker David Newheiser (Australian Catholic University): Atheism and the Arts: A
Window into Lived Nonreligion

Lexi Eikelboom (Australian Catholic University): Forms that Change: What

Ritual Theory might Illuminate about Art Practice

Sarah Tomasetti (RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia): Material

repetition at the threshold of the unknown; an interior approach to
practice"

Miguel Farias (University of Coventry, UK)/Valerie van Mulukom (University

of Coventry, UK): Art as Ritual: A Psychological Exploration

Additional
information

Panel number 082

Panel name The Global Qur’an: Muslim scriptural translation in the modern world
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 4pm-6.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room F2/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract The processes of colonisation, migration, and globalisation as well as the
transnational activities of religious institutions and missionary movements
have all contributed to shaping the production and reception of Qur’an
translations among Muslims in the period since the mid-19th century.
Qur’an translations are distributed in languages predominantly spoken by
Muslims and in the languages of former colonial empires. Some of the same
questions are negotiated from Sumatra to Russia and from Bengal to the
United States: Should a Salafi literalist approach be preferred to the
mainstream of traditional theology? Is it appropriate to use the style and
vocabulary of biblical translations? Can the message of the Qur’an be a
vehicle of social reform?
Based on the ERC-funded project “The Global Qur’an,” this panel proposes
to address these questions from a comparative angle and through several
case studies that shed light on the trends, contestations, political interests,
and exegetical struggles which characterise the field of Qur’an translation
today. It will take the audience from early 20th-century India, where the
Qur’an was debated between Muslim reformers and Christian missionaries,
to contemporary Russia where Salafis contest the authority of established
religious institutions. It will also discuss the situation of diaspora
communities, the role of the Saudi King Fahd Qur’an Printing Complex, and
the relationship between translation and the exegetical tradition.
Chair Johanna Pink (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany)
Speaker Kamran Khan (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany):
Translating the Qur’an in British India: The first Qur’an translations of the
Ahmadiyya movement

Elvira Kulieva (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany):

Understanding prophetic nature: The concept of ʿiṣma in modern Qur’an
translation into Russian
 Mykhaylo Yakubovych (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany):
Dynamics of meaning: Recent trends in Salafi translations of the Qur’an

Yulia Riswan (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany): Searching for

the meaning of hijrah in Dutch Qur’an translations from the Muslim diaspora

Sohaib Saeed (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg, Germany): “Freeman for

freeman”: How translators handled a verse that “challenged” Qur’anic
exegetes
Additional
information

Panel number 083

Panel name The concept of “Transformation” in the study of Religious Chang
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 2.15pm-4.30pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.208/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract The panel asks about the capacity of the concept of transformation in the
analysis of religious change. Based on concrete examples, transformation is
understood as a comprehensive change through which reality or a part of it
is experienced and interpreted in a new way. Thereby, transformation is
both suffered and shaped. Two exemplary historical transformation
processes will be examined: The polemical framing of the upheavals
associated with the Reformation in Catholic historiography on the one hand,
the programme of transformation through education in the Catholic
Enlightenment on the other. Then two religious transformation processes in
present post-secular context will be discussed: the transformation of
“Holiness” in contemporary German fiction in a cultural studies perspective;
a sociological analysis of Catholic Trump supporters shows strategies of a
"transformative humiliation" as a reaction to the frictions of neoliberal
capitalism, which reverse the logic of incarnation as an exposure to the
other and an opening to vulnerability. Finally, from a systematic-theological
perspective, the historical, cultural and sociological dimensions of the
concept of transformation are related to core contents of Christian theology
as the salvific work of Christ and the Spirit in a messianic transformation of
history. The presentations reflect the transdisciplinary research at the KU
Center for Religion, Church and Society in Transformation (ZRKG).
Chair Martin Kirschner (Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany)
Speaker Bernward Schmidt (Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany):
Digesting transformation by invectivity? Remarks on 16th century catholic
historiography

Christian Handschuh (Universität Passau, Germany): Transformation by

education. Catholic Enlightenment and Ultramontanism 1800-1880

Isabelle Stauffer (Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany):

The Transformation of Holiness in Contemporary German Fiction

Joost van Loon (Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany):

Transformative Humiliation: A Sociological Analysis of “Catholics for Trump”
 Martin Kirschner (Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany):
Systematic-theological Reflections on the Concept of Transformation
Additional
information

Panel number 084

Panel name Eastern Orthodoxy and Disability
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 11.00pm-1.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The past couple of decades saw an increased interest in disability theology.
The main task of this subfield has been to rethink traditional Christian
assumptions about suffering, sin, illness and vulnerability in dialogue with
disability studies and/or medical ethics. Nonetheless, from the many
Christian traditions engaged in this reflection, Eastern Orthodox voices are
almost absent. With the exception of a monograph and several articles one
cannot find anything substantial. This panel aims to do three things: 1) to
understand the causes of this timid engagement with disability inside
Eastern Orthodoxy; 2) to encourage theological reflection on the topic; 3) to
uncover research done by social sciences on disability in Eastern Orthodox
communities.
Chair Petre Maican (UCLouvain, Belgium)
Speaker Sarah Riccardi-Swartz (Arizona State University, USA): Reckoning with
Exclusion and Ableism in Eastern Orthodox Theology: An Anthropological
Approach

Konstantinos Papanikolaou (University of Winchester, GB): Exploring health

and mortality of wheelchair users from a medical, social, and Orthodox-
spiritual viewpoint

Emil Marginean (Independent Researcher): Transforming loneliness: an

Orthodox Christian answer to an increasing loneliness in disabled
populations

Petre Maican (UCLouvain, Belgium): Learning to Perceive: Grace and the

Emotional Conundrum of Disability
Additional
information

Panel number 085

Panel name Religions and Conspiracy Theories
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 8.30am-12.00pm
Format Hybrid
Room F5/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract The panel investigates the manifold relationship between religions and
conspiracy theories in past and present contexts of sociopolitical change,
tension and conflict. In this sense, it is aimed not only at illustrating samples
of the ways in which religious minorities have been targeted by suspicion,
but also at exploring the ways in which religions have been influencing or
 shaping, even in secular discourses, conspiracy theories by inspiring specific
configurations of the relationships, for instance, between: power and
secrecy; revelation and transparency; belief and trust; heresy and truth;
skepticism and authority. In this regard, the papers will address these kinds
of influence: as forms of the explanatory power of religion or/and the
inspirational power of religion for political action for marginal groups as well
as for hegemonic powers; and by paying peculiar attention to their historical
change and dynamics.
Chair Silvia Cristofori (Link Campus University, Rome, Italy)
Speaker Session 1:
Chair: Silvia Cristofori (Link Campus University, Rome, Italy)

Marco Castagnetto (Link Campus University, Rome, Italy): The Pandemic as

a Metaphysical Struggle. Italian Anthroposophy and the Challenge to
Political and Therapeutic Authority

Aaron James Goldman (Lund University, Sweden): QAnon, Donald Trump,

and the Kayfabe of U.S. Politics

Luca Ferracci (FSCIRE, Bologna, Italy):

Reinterpreting the “Conspiracy Theory” related to the Advancing of
Conservative Evangelicals in Latin America. The Roman Catholic Church’s
delegitimization of Liberation Theology and the Spiritual Disarmament of the
Continent.

Session 2:
Chair: Marco Castagnetto (Link Campus University, Rome, Italy)

Silvia Cristofori (Link Campus University, Rome, Italy): Nigerian Secret

Societies between Conspiracy and Conspiracy Theories. Christian Readings
and Practices of a Moral Economy of the Occult.

Will Rea (University of Leeds, UK): Conspiracy and the logic of response:
Yoruba attitudes to Pandemic healing with reference to Ekiti state in the
early 20th C.

Additional
information

Panel number 086

Panel name Change! Fresh thinking in the question of church ministry
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 9.45am-12.00pm
Tuesday August 31st 11.00am-1.15pm
Wednesday September 1st 8.30am-10.45am

Format Hybrid
Room Monday: DPL 23.201/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Tuesday DPL 23.206/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Wednesday DPL23.201/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract The discussion about ministry in the Catholic Church is deadlocked. All the
arguments have been said. There are no changes in sight. Many people are
frustrated: Is this church incapable of growing beyond its medieval power
structure?
This panel will present alternative biblical references, forgotten traditions,
innovative systematic designs, ecumenical suggestions and contemporary
contextualisations on ministry in the church. Two topics are at focus: Firstly,
what are the tasks and perspectives of the ministry when it comes to the
church proclaiming the gospel in today's world and making God's grace
concrete? Second, how should the ministry be designed to be able to fulfil
these tasks?
Chair Lisa-Marie Kaiser (TU Dortmund, Germany)
Speaker Thomas Ruster (TU Dortmund, Germany): Prophet, Priest and King. The
participation of all the baptised in the threefold ministry of Jesus Christ as
basis of a new form of church ministry

Isabella Bruckner (KU Linz, Germany): Receptions of the guest. Rethinking

ministry and holiness with the gesture of Melchizedek

Viera Pirker (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany): re-constructing church

ministry in the conditions of a culture of digitality

Ottmar Fuchs (Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany): Church

ministry as a “sacrament”? Conception of a reciprocally empowering
representation of religious transcendence

Agnes Pangyanszki (Lutheran Theological University Budapest, Hungary):

The wide open door of pastoral callings. A Lutheran response to the
challenges of contextual church ministry

Judith Müller (Diocese of Munich, Germany): Priestesses aren't the answer -

neither are priests. Criteria for reformatting ministries in church.

Klaus Vellguth (Philosophical-Theological University of Vallendar, Germany):

Approaches from pastoral care and from the universal Church

Lisa-Marie Kaiser (TU Dortmund, Germany): “Valid?” - If you want to change

the ministry, you first need to change the idea of the sacraments
Additional
information

Panel number 087

Panel name Books and schools for the education of ministers in Early Modern Era
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 8.30am-10.45am
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The panel will focus on the role and the impact that books had in the
education of the ministers, both Catholics and Protestants, showing the
importance of the first mass media – the press – in shaping the model of the
perfect pastor, priest, or missionary from the midst of 15th century to the
end of the 17th century. In effect, a comparative approach to the way
 Christian confessions faced the emergence of unlearned ministers still needs
to be developed. Therefore, the panel aims to move a step forward in this
direction by focusing on the books that were printed, spread, and used to
educate ministers and to evangelize the flock both in Europe and in the
colonies. Moreover, attention will be also paid to the institutions in which
the ministers were educated, with the view to show the (dis)similarities of
the catechetical training in different confessions.
Chair Antonio Gerace (FSCIRE Bologan, Italy/KU Leuven, Belgium)
Speaker Fulvio Ferrario (Facoltà Teologica Valdese, Italy): Luther's Small Catechism

Benito Rial Costas (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain): The

Education of Spanish Parish Priests or 'the Dangers of Ignorance' in
Fifteenth-Century Synodal Constitution

Elisa Frei (Università degli Studi di Macerata, Italy): A Missionary Handbook

No Missionary Read: Misión a las Indias by Girolamo Pallas SJ (1620 ca.)

David Salomoni (Università degli Studi di Roma Tre, Italy): Teaching the
Teachers. Books and Education of the Pious Schools' Piarists from the
Originis to the Reduction of the Order (1617-1646)

Antonio Gerace (FSCIRE Bologna, Italy): Guy de Montrochen and the

Manipulus curatorum. The Education of Priests before the Council of Trent
Additional
information

Panel number 088

Panel name Transformative Leadership in the Interfaith Dialogue Field
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 2.15pm-4.30pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL 23.205/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract Interfaith relations and dialogue are a growing process that, on one hand,
often calls for an internal reconsideration of the way of living one’s own
faith in dialogue with people of other faith traditions and, on the other
hand, calls for transformations in our societies advocating for a culture of
dialogue. In this panel, the John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue
Leaders will explore how interfaith encounters might lead to a change and
transformative processes at different levels. On this account, religious
leadership becomes interfaith leadership and, as a type of transformative
leadership, takes into account the diversity of religions and approaches to
religious plurality. Challenged by the plurality and diversity of faiths and
religious traditions, religious leaders have an important task to safeguard
the collective identity of their communities and at the same time be open to
transformative experiences that interfaith exchanges offer. In this view, our
panelists will offer some theoretical insights into what transformative
leadership is and will provide some concrete examples and study-cases of
the lived interfaith dialogue.

Chair Taras B. Dzyubanskyy (John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue, Rome
,Italy)
Speaker Taras B. Dzyubanskyy (John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue, Rome,
Italy): Lay leadership vs ordained leadership in the field of IRD

Jan Nowotnik (Mission and National Ecumenical Office at the Catholic

Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales): IRD in England and Wales, how
the Catholic Church engages with its interfaith partners

Elena Dini (John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue, Rome, Italy):
Between theology and practice: ‘Being interfaith’ after Abu Dhabi and
Fratelli Tutti”

Andrew James Boyd (Network of JPII Leaders at the John Paul II Center for
Interreligious Dialogue, Rome, Italy): Forming Transformative Leaders:
Dialogue, Synodality, and a different kind of 'conversion
Additional
information

Panel number 089

Panel name Migration of Oriental Catholics to Germany: unchangeable rites in a
changing context
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 9.45am-10.45pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Oriental Catholics are a barely noticed, but increasing group of migrants.
Their current number in Germany is estimated at 200.000. Of the 22 Eastern
Catholic churches, 14 are present in Germany. They are characterised by
their own rites and canon
law. This law, on one hand, aims to protect and preserve their identity, but
on the other hand, it facilitates exchange with the Western Catholics
domiciled in Germany. It regulates, for example, affiliation to Eastern
Catholic churches and the transfer to another Catholic Church, as well as the
administration of sacraments among Catholics belonging to different
churches. For instance, in case of a wedding between a Western and an
Eastern Catholic, the particular sacred rite must be observed. This
encounter between East and West creates dynamics on both sides, while
migrants have the desire to preserve unchangeable elements as well. The
question to be discussed on the panel is: How does canon law protect the
Eastern rites as a stable element even in the context of migration, and how
does it facilitate adapations and changes? In an interdisciplinary approach,
the canonistic contributions will be followed by a response from a
sociological perspective.
Chair Josa Merkel (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany)
Speaker Jiří Dvořáček (Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany): Admissions
to the Church sui iuris with special regard to the conversions according to
can. 35 CCEO in Germany

Tobias Stümpfl (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany): The

Baptism of Faithful from Eastern Catholic Churches in Germany.
Opportunities and challenges
 Burkhard Berkmann (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany):
Oriental Catholics in Germany: Between Identity and Integration

Alexander-Kenneth Nagel (Georg-August-University Göttingen, Germany):

Response from a sociological perspective
Additional
information

Panel number 090

Panel name Religion and Change: Insights from the Periphery
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 2.15pm-4.30pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract This panel discusses the periphery as the privileged place of religious change
and reform. Often defined in opposition to the center, the periphery carries
connotations of lesser importance and secondary value. At the same time,
such a ‘marginal’ position allows for questioning, innovation, and critique.
We understand the periphery both in its geographical and symbolic sense.
We thus encourage submissions that explore religious changes arising from
the ‘subaltern’ places, far from the traditional centers of power and
influence. The papers can focus on phenomena in and between societies, in
and between social institutions. At the same time, we invite works that
discuss reformative and/or creative religious practices among socially and
culturally marginalized groups. The panel encourages interdisciplinary works
that combine insights from Theology and Religious Studies, as well as other
academic fields.

Chair Stipe Odak (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium)

Speaker Slavica Jakelić (Christ College - Valparaiso University, USA): On the
Advantage of Multiple Peripheralities: What the Encounters between
Christianities and Nationalisms in the Balkans Tell us about the Meanings of
Particularism and Universalism

Zoran Grozdanov (University Center for Protestant Theology University in

Zagreb, Croatia): The Margin that marginalizes: Theological exploration into
the roots and ramifications of fundamentalist movements in the Western
Balkans

Marko Barisic (School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent,

UK): Change amidst the time of absence
Additional
information

Panel number 091

Panel name Freedom of expression, fake news, and anti-religious hate speech: how
language can influence the social perception of religion
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 9.45am-12.00pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.208/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract Fake news is on the rise, in a large part due to the increasing role that the
Internet and social networks play in our society. Most fake news has a
notoriously offensive character, explicit or implicit, and often they are
indeed open or covert means to disseminate hate speech. Fake news and
hate speech, like other less serious types of offensive speech, are oftentimes
aimed at attacking religion or specific religions. This interdisciplinary panel
includes the perspective of law as well as that of experts in communication
and language. It will address: the appropriate responses that the law and
civil society can provide to offensive speech so that the expression of
people’s spirituality is not undermined in practice as a result of harassment
or intimidation; how to use a linguistic and communication analysis to
distinguish the potential harm of different types of offensive speech; and
how the law and civil society can contribute to change the tone of public
speech about religion and beliefs.

Chair Javier Martínez-Torrón (Complutense University Madrid, Spain/Royal

Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation of Spain)
Speaker Javier Martínez-Torrón (Complutense University Madrid, Spain/Royal
Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation of Spain)

Rafael Palomino Lozano (Complutense University Madrid, Spain)

Bernd Kortmann (Director of FRIAS (Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies)

at the University of Freiburg, Germany)

Massimo Leone (University of Turin, Italy)

Additional The panel is sponsored by the Project “Conscience, spirituality and religious
information freedom” of the Sección de Derecho Canónico y Eclesiástico del Estado de la
Real Academia de Jurisprudencia y Legislación of Spain in cooperation with
the Fundación para el Desarrollo de la Consciencia (and with the
collaboration of FRIAS—Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, at the
University of Freiburg, and of LIRCE—Instituto para el Análisis de la Libertad
y la Identidad Religiosa, Cultural y Ética).

Panel number 092

Panel name Spirituality, conscience and religion as factors of personal, social and legal
change
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 3.30pm-5.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.205/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract Religion, spirituality, and conscience have always been a factor for personal,
social, cultural, and legal change. They still are in contemporary societies,
although sometimes they do it in a less visible fashion than in the past,
partly because Western secularized societies have grown a certain distrust
for the public influence of organized religions in parallel with an
overwhelming trust in State institutions and action. This interdisciplinary
panel will explore and present some ideas about why and how the
development of the spiritual dimension of human beings is essential not
only for individuals but also for society and for the organization of social life
by State laws—especially when such development includes, at a personal
 level, an active search for the truth and, at a collective level, an open-
minded approach of religious/spiritual institutions to rational arguments and
scientific progress.

Chair Javier Martínez-Torrón (Complutense University Madrid, Spain/Royal

Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation of Spain)
Speaker Javier Martínez-Torrón (Complutense University Madrid, Spain/Royal
Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation of Spain)

Gonzalo Rodríguez-Fraile (Foundation for Consciousness Development)

Rafael Domingo Oslé (Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory
University, USA)
Additional The panel is organized and sponsored by the Project “Conscience,
information spirituality and religious freedom” of the Sección de Derecho Canónico y
Eclesiástico del Estado de la Real Academia de Jurisprudencia y Legislación
of Spain in cooperation with the Fundación para el Desarrollo de la
Consciencia (and with the collaboration of the Emory Center for the Study of
Law and Religion).

Panel number 093

Panel name Conflicts of conscience of health professionals in areas involving respect for
human life
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 2.15pm-4.30pm
Format Hybrid
Room F1/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract In the last decades, public health systems have included among ordinary
health services practices that, not long ago, were considered criminal
offences contrary to human life—such as abortion and euthanasia. Many
health professionals face a serious moral dilemma when, as a result of this
change in the ethical values that inspire the law and public policies, they are
requested to participate in such practices, which their conscience—religious
or not—considers to be in violation of the sanctity of human life. In a
number of countries, such health professionals are pressured under the
threat of demotion or dismissal. This panel will examine this problem from
the perspective of freedom of conscience and in the light of other forms of
conscientious objection related to the protection of human life, such as the
objection to military service and to execute the death penalty. Special
emphasis will be placed on the need to approach these tensions in a non-
confrontational way.
Chair Javier Martínez-Torrón (Complutense University Madrid, Spain/Royal
Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation of Spain)
Speaker Juan Navarro Floria (Catholic University of Argentina)

Santiago Cañamares Arribas (Complutense University Madrid, Spain)

Javier Oliva (University of Manchester, UK)

María J. Valero Estarellas (Villanueva University Madrid, Spain)

Helen Hall (Nottingham Trent University, UK)

Additional The panel is organized and sponsored by the Research Project HUDISOC of
information the Spanish Ministry of Science, in collaboration with the Project
“Conscience, spirituality and religious freedom” of the Sección de Derecho
Canónico y Eclesiástico del Estado de la Real Academia de Jurisprudencia y
Legislación of Spain (developed in cooperation with the Fundación para el
Desarrollo de la Consciencia) and with LIRCE—Instituto para el Análisis de la
Libertad y la Identidad Religiosa, Cultural y Ética.

Panel number 095

Panel name Christianity and Alterity. Towards more Inclusive Theology—Ecumenical and
Interreligious Turn

Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 2.15pm-5.45pm

Format Hybrid
Room F072/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz20-22)
Abstract It will bring together theologians and scholars in the field of humanities to
discuss the change in Christian theological thinking about religious
otherness—within (ecumenical approach) and outside of Christianity
(theology of religions). Apart from
addressing important questions relevant to the European society at large,
the panel will also facilitate academic discussion, exchange and networking
between Sweden (Lund University) and other European academic centres. It
will focus particularly
on the developments aiming at more inclusive and comparative approach
towards otherness such as seeking new models of theology of religions,
highlighting the aspects of relationality and diversity. Such an approach
draws parallels between the
nature of Trinity and relational character of imago Dei in a person, implying
intrinsic value of every individual no matter of what religious belonging, as
well as universal human fraternity, based on the fact that all people are
relational creatures.
Chair Magdalena Dziaczkowska (Lund University, Sweden)
Adele Valeria Messina (Independent Researcher/Università della Calabria,
Italy)
Speaker Dries Bosschaert (KU Leuven, Belgium): Religious Hybridity in the Study of
Twentieth Century Christian Identities: A Case-Study of the Malines
Documents Legitimizing the Catholic Charismatic Renewal

Magdalena Dziaczkowska (Lund University, Sweden): God’s Preferred

Gender Pronoun? Reflections in the Light of Trinitarian and Relational
Theology.

Adele Valeria Messina (Independent Researcher/Università della Calabria,

Italy): Towards a Rethinking of Catholic Identity through the Critical Thinking
of Ulrich Beck.

Alina Gabriela Pătru (Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania): Theological

premises for the valorization of the other from a Christian-Orthodox
perspective. Aspects of Dorin Oancea's model of theology of religions.
 Klaus von Stosch (University of Paderborn, Germany): Building Bridges
between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Insights from Mary in the Qur'an.

André Villeneuve (Sacred Heart Major Seminary Detroit, USA): Between

Godly Unity and Devilish Utopia: Seeking Truth in a Pluralistic World with
Lewis, Huxley, Orwell, and Soloviev.

Jakob Wirén (Church of Sweden/Lund University, Sweden): Making Space

for the Other? Towards a Lutheran Theology of Religions.

Eckhard Zemmrich (Humboldt University Berlin, Germany): Demonic forces

or witness to God - theologies of missionary bodies in tension with
theologies of missionaries 'in the field

Additional
information

Panel number 096

Panel name Dynamics of Religious Change: Panel by the EXC "Religion and Politics",
WWU: The Local Horizon of Religion in Antiquity
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 9.45am-1.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room F072/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract The twin-panel addresses the exercise of religion in antiquity through the
lens of local practice. ‘Local’ is typically understood as a confined space that
is in inferior relation to greater constellations of knowledge and meaning. In
religion, effectively, the local’s role is widely equated with that of
idiosyncrasy and divergence from a universal belief system. Inspired by
conceptual debates on local-global cross-fertilizations, the notion of
‘globalization from below’ in particular, the panel turns the conventional
taxonomy of local on its head. Contributors explore how the local horizon
was both a canvas for the display of divergence, and how it wielded
formative impact on the vectors of universal practice and belief. In section 1,
presenters will disclose the local encoding of deities and practices of
veneration in Egypt and Greece. Papers will flesh out the interplay between
local, regional, and global spheres of religious conduct. Doing so, they also
reassess the weight of local traditions and their grounded expression in
ritual in light of potentially weak religious universalism. In contrast, section 2
turns to the thrust towards exclusive monotheism in Late Antiquity.
Supplemented by a state with a universalistic political agenda, the empire-
wide organization of the church required wide-ranging control over the
local. The papers demonstrate, however, how Christian communities also
strove for local distinction, for instance, by building churches, crafting
liturgies, and establishing holy places.

Chair Hans Beck (WWU Münster, Germany)

Angelika Lohwasser ( WWU Münster, Germany)
Speaker Session 1:
Alexandra von Lieven (WWU Münster, Germany): Local variations of pan-
Egyptian myths
 Marian Helm (WWU Münster, Germany): Tracing Greek religion: ritual rifts
in the Saronic region

Jan Bremmer (University of Groningen, Netherlands): Hera on Samos:

between the local and the global

Sophia Nomicos (WWU Münster, Germany): Burial practice in ancient

Greece: reconstructing mortuary diversity

Session 2:
Patrick Sänger (WWU Münster, Germany): Saint Hermione: Local memorial
figure of Ephesian Christianity with universal claim

Johannes Hahn (WWU Münster, Germany): Strategies of local religious

identity within a universal church in Late Antiquity

Anna Falke (WWU Münster, Germany): Churches in Jerash after the Islamic
conquest

Adam Łajtar (Warsaw University, Poland): Local elements in Nubian

Christianity

Additional
information

Panel number 097

Panel name Dynamics of Religious Change: Panel by the EXC "Religion and Politics",
WWU: Text and Ritual in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 9.45am-1.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The relations between text and ritual in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near
Eastern sources are manyfold and may be approached from different
methodological perspectives. Earlier theories about the relation between
myth and ritual, especially
those assuming that one is the reflection of the other, have largely shown to
be one sided, simplistic and generally invalid. More recent approaches,
including both literary criticism, in particular theories related to
intertextuality, and anthropological theories, have opened new ways in the
perception of the relations between text and ritual. The panel will especially
focus on the discursive and reflexive nature of this relationship: texts may be
ritualized, while rituals may be textualized. Moreover, both processes are
often mutually supportive, thereby generating new relations between text
and ritual. For example, in the case of the Book of Leviticus, a religious
discourse about clean/unclean, in/out etc. was textualized in the form of
ritual. These „ritual“ texts were then again ritualized by being read and used
in different religious contexts, which also led to new forms of rewriting and
textualization. The analysis of the relation between text and ritual offers
important insights into wider
processes of religious, social, and political discourses, and can be used as a
tool in the reconstruction of the respective history of Ancient Near Eastern
 Religions. Furthermore, the issue is all the more important for historians of
ancient religions because written
texts often comprise their main – and sometimes even their sole – sources
for interpreting and reconstructing ancient ritual practices. The panel will
present case studies dealing this complex relation between text and ritual
both from the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Literatures, offering a
comparative view on the phenomenon.
Chair Reinhard Achenbach (WWU Münster, Germany)
Christophe Nihan (WWU Münster, Germany)
Speaker Session 1:
Chair: Reinhard Achenbach (WWU Münster, Germany)

Rüdiger Schmitt (WWU Münster, Germany): The Significance of the

Textualization of Rituals for the History of Ancient
Israelite Religions

Nils P. Heeßel (University of Marburg, Germany): Ancient Near Eastern

Extispicy Texts

Christophe Nihan (WWU Münster, Germany): Textualization of the Cult in

Leviticus and in the Temple Scroll

Session 2:
Chair: Christophe Nihan (WWU Münster, Germany)

Christian Frevel (University of Bochum, Germany): The Book of Numbers and

the Textualization of Rituals

Reinhard Achenbach (WWU Münster, Germany): Rituals and Cultic

Calendars

Klaus Zimmermann (WWU Münster, Germany): Rituals and Inscriptions in

Ancient Greece and Asia Minor
Additional
information

Panel number 098

Panel name Dynamics of Religious Change: Panel by the EXC "Religion and Politics",
WWU: Apocalyptic Images and Human Agency
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 8.30am-10.45am
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.206/Philosophikum (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract The panel approaches Apocalypticism from an interdisciplinary perspective
in order to clarify the relationship between apocalyptic images and human
agency. Apocalyptic discourse, whether ancient or modern, is often
stimulated by a sentiment of crisis. As a reaction to this crisis, it sets forth
images of cosmic catastrophe ushering in the end of this world. This horrific
scenario is contrasted with images of a better world which is yet to come.
We will discuss the question of how such contrasting imagery is combined
with practical instruction as a rationale to make a community act in a certain
way.
Chair Lutz Doering (University of Münster, Germany)
Speaker Florian Neitmann (University of Münster, Germany): Jewish Law as the Way
to Life after the Downfall: The Case of 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch

John Dik (University of Münster, Germany): Images of the Roman Empire

and the Call for Resistance in John’s Apocalypse

Liv Ingeborg Lied (Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo, Norway): “The Time
of my Messiah will Come”: Recontextualizing the Apocalyptic Imagery of 2
Baruch in Thirteenth-century Egypt

Alexander-Kenneth Nagel (University of Göttingen, Germany): Arming for

Day of Doom: “Prepping“ as an Apocalyptic Lifestyle

Additional
information

Panel number 099

Panel name Dynamics of Religious Change: Panel by the EXC "Religion and Politics",
WWU: Shifting Identities of Christians under Islamic Rule. Religious
Affiliation and Cultural Entanglement of ‘Mozarabs’ in Medieval Spain
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 2.45pm-6.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room F3/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract In retrospect, the year 711 marks a watershed in Spanish history. The Islamic
conquest brought Visigothic rule to an end, and from the second half of the
eighth century the Umayyad emirate and later caliphate brought al-Andalus
into the orbit of the Islamicate world. However, it is unclear if Spanish
Christians perceived the religion of the conquerors as being much different
from Christianity. In historiographical works, they continued to refer to
Byzantine emperors for dating purposes; they used Latin for their liturgy and
religious writing, as well as the Romance vernacular for everyday
communication. In theological literature, the works of the Visigothic fathers,
alongside patristic writings, provided the bulk of references. On the other
hand, Spanish Christians were increasingly exposed to, and they contributed
to, professes of hybridization, cultural transfer and transcultural
entanglement. They adopted Arabic as a spoken language, they served as
translators and interpreters for Muslim authorities, and some served as
officials at the Umayyad court, some of whom are even said to have adapted
the Islamic practice of circumcision. Such processes of cultural entanglement
were perceived by other Christians as instances of apostasy.
Conflicts over cultural identification were linked up with issues of religious
affiliation, even with political loyalty. The panellists look at different aspects
of ‘Mozarabic’ religion and culture and at the social situation of Christians
from al-Andalus, using literary, artistic and documentary evidence shedding
new light on the multicultural situation of Islamic Spain.
Chair Wolfram Drews (University of Münster, Germany)
Speaker Session 1:
Wolfram Drews (University of Münster, Germany): History, Religion and
Cultural Identity. Spanish Christians between the Visigothic Past and
Umayyad al-Andalus
 Alexander Schilling (University of Jena, Germany): Šabrīṭ or Sisebert?
Hispano-Gothic Proper Names and the Changing Religious Landscape of al-
Andalus

Kristin Böse (University of Frankfurt, Germany): Creating their Own Identity?

The Toledean Manuscript of Ildefonso’s De virginitate and other Artefacts
from the ‘Mozarabs’ in Muslim Spain

Session 2:
Cyrille Aillet (Université Lumière Lyon 2, France): Between Latinity and
Arabicity: Identifying the 'Mozarabs' in Medieval Spain

Andrew Sorber (Southern Virginia University, USA): Apocalyptic Rhetoric and

the Struggle for Christian Authority and Identity in Ninth-Century al-Andalus

Geoffrey Martin (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid,

Spain): Observations on Writings about the Incarnation among Arabic-
Speaking Christians, 9th-12th Centuries

Teresa Witcombe (Universidad Autónoma, Madrid / CSIC-CCHS

Madrid,Spain): The Slaves of St Clement: Muslim Communities in Twelfth
and Thirteenth-Century Toledo

Additional
information

Panel number 100

Panel name Dynamics of Religious Change: Panel by the EXC "Religion and Politics",
WWU: Author Meets Critique -The Militarization of Saints in Premodern and
Modern Period [Die Militarisierung der Heiligen in Vormoderne und
Moderne] ed. by Liliya Berezhnaya (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2020).
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 2.45pm-5.00pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The book is devoted to the history of military saints from late antiquity to
the mid 20th century. The focus rests upon geographical, typological,
interconfessional, and chronological entanglements, as well as on media of
dissemination, actors, and symbolic languages of militarization. 12
theologians, historians, and art historians from Germany, Hungary, the
Netherlands, and the USA trace major dynamics, differences, and
commonalities in the militarization of saints in the eastern and western
Christian traditions. This book suggests that situations of danger and
instability often result in the “reactivation” of the military saints’ potential,
followed by periods of “demilitarization,” when the imitation of nonviolent
Jesus gets into the foreground.
Chair Alfons Brüning (PThU Amsterdam, Netherlands/Radboud University
Nijmegen, Netherlands)
Speaker Discussants:
André J. Krischer (University of Münster, Germany)
 Eva Haustein-Bartsch (former Director of the Icons-Museum
Recklinghausen/Dortmund, Germany)
Alfons Brüning (PThU Amsterdam, Netherlands/Radboud University
Nijmegen, Netherlands)

Respondent:
Liliya Berezhnaya (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands/KU Leuven,
Belgium)
Additional
information

Panel number 101

Panel name Dynamics of Religious Change: Panel by the EXC "Religion and Politics",
WWU: From Eugenio Pacelli to Pius XII – Research Results and New
Perspectives on a Controversial Pope
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 2.45pm-6.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room F234/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract Eugenio Pacelli, better known as Pope Pius XII. (1939-1958), is one of the
most puzzling and controversial personalities of the 20th century. Was he
the Pope that remained silent on the Holocaust or did he do everything to
help the persecuted? For decades, this question has been hotly debated in
public as well as in historical research on Pope Pacelli. While some consider
him “the greatest benefactor of the Jewish people” (Golda Meir), he simply
is “Hitler’s Pope” (John Cornwell) to others. Ever since 2 March 2020, the
debate can finally be led on the basis of archival sources, as Pope Francis
made the holdings of the Vatican Archives pertaining to the pontificate of
Pius XII accessible to research. This allows previously unanswered questions
to be addressed in a scientifically sound way, questions that could only be
speculated about until now. The twin panel focusses on these questions and
approaches the controversial Pope from different perspectives. The first
part will deal with Eugenio Pacelli’s time as nuncio in Germany. The reports
he sent to Rome on a daily basis during the twelve years from 1917 to 1929
have been published in an online edition by the organizers. On the one hand
they show that Pacelli played a decisive role in determining the Holy See’s
policy concerning Germany; on the other, it is not for nothing that people
continually speak of a “German imprint” on the Pope. The second part will
deal with current research on the newly accessible Vatican holdings from
the pontificate of Pius XII. The question of the Pope’s and the Catholic
Church’s overall stance on the Holocaust will be raised from the perspective
of the victims. Moreover, his conduct of office and inner-Church politics
after 1945 will also be examined.
Chair Hubert Wolf (University of Münster, Germany)
Elisabeth-Marie Richter (University of Münster, Germany)
Sascha Hinkel (University of Münster, Germany)
Speaker Session 1:
The View from Rome on Interwar Germany II – Research results and
perspectives of the critical online edition of Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli (1917-
1929)
Chair: Hubert Wolf (University of Münster, Germany)
 Elisabeth-Marie Richter (University of Münster, Germany): The drafts of the
NUnciature reports and the Munich “Räterepublik” (1919)

Sascha Hinkel (University of Münster, Germany)/Jörg Hoernschemeyer

(German Historical Institute, Rome, Italy): Digital Analysis of the Nunciature

Session 2:
The View from Rome on Interwar Germany II – Research results and
perspectives of the critical online edition of Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli (1917-
1929)
Chair: Sascha Hinkel (University of Münster, Germany)

Michael Pfister (University of Münster, Germany): Pacelli and the Bishops’

Conferences (1924-1926)

Matthias Daufratshofer (University of Münster, Germany): Franz Hürth SJ as

„holy ghostwriter” of Pius XII

Session 3:
“The greatest benefactor of the Jewish people” or “Hitler’s Pope”? –
Controversies and new perspectives on the Pontificate of Pius XII (1939-
1958)
Chair: Dr. Elisabeth-Marie Richter (University of Münster, Germany)

Hubert Wolf (University of Münster, Germany): The Holy See and the victims
of the Nazi Regime during the Second World War

Sascha Hinkel (University of Münster, Germany) /Michael Pfister (University

of Münster): War and Peace in the speeches of Pius

Additional
information

Panel number 102

Panel name Dynamics of Religious Change: Panel by the EXC "Religion and Politics",
WWU: Religion – Emotion – Literature
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 8.30am-10.45am
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.102/Philosophikum (Domplatz23)
Abstract The panel presents research results of the Münster Cluster of Excellence
“Religion and Politics” on the relation of religion and emotion. It specifically
highlights the role of literature as a medium to reflect on this relation, on
the one hand, and to explore the role of language in communicating or even
evoking emotions, on the other hand. Hate, Mourning, and Shame are the
emotions speakers from Theology, Arab and German Literature will focus
on. The presentations will especially look at the rhetorics of emotion and its
intended effects on readers and other audiences. As the topics are rooted in
different historical settings their specific cultural and philosophical contexts
will be taken into consideration. Thus, the question will be discussed in how
 far (religious) emotions are historically and culturally variable. Furthermore,
the question arises whether Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, the religions
this panel focusses on, do share the same ‘politics of emotion’ and, if not, in
how far differences influence interreligious discourses.
Chair Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf (University of Münster, Germany)
Speaker Johannes Schnocks (University of Münster, Germany): Hate in the Old
Testament

Jens Fischer (University of Münster, Germany): A Sunni Poet mourning for a

Shiite Dynasty. Umara al-Yamani's elegies on the end of the Fatimids

Hanna Pulpanek (University of Münster, Germany): Religion – healing or

evoking hatred? On the role of hate speech and feelings in Gotthold Ephraim
Lessing’s Nathan the Wise (1779)

Christian Sieg (University of Münster, Germany): The Ambiguity of Shame in

Penitential Culture and Early Empirical Psychology

Additional
information

Panel number 103

Panel name Dynamics of Religious Change: Panel by the EXC "Religion and Politics",
WWU: Sociological Aspects of Muslim Presence in Germany
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 11.00am-1.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Being located at the intersection of security and integration politics, the
presence and representation of Muslims in Germany has been debated
controversially within social sciences for some time now. The political
attitudes of the “Muslim” population alongside the concern about
radicalization have built a focus of interest just like issues of communal life
and subject formation. The panel addresses these issues from various
sociological perspectives. Guiding questions of the presentations are: How is
“Muslim” presence negotiated within public life and how is this negotiation
framed by the actors involved, especially against the background of the
concepts of secularity and diversity? Which role do aesthetics of violence
play in the recruitment strategy of the “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria”? By
which conceptual means could we make sense of this strategy and its
intended effects in regard of countries like Germany? Ultimately, is there a
significant nexus between the self-identification as Muslim and regressive
attitudinal patterns as it frequently emerges in Anti-Muslim prejudices and
stereotypes? Which statements do recent surveys in Germany allow with
regard to this nexus?
Chair Errol Babacan (University of Münster, Germany)
Speaker Arne Laßen (University of Münster, Germany): Muslim Presence in
Educational Establishments. Social Arrangements

Manuel Pachurka (University of Münster): Men among the ruins – and the
Islamic State
 Cemal Öztürk (Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany)/Gert Pickel
(University of Leipzig, Germany)/Susanne Pickel (University of Duisburg-
Essen, Germany): Homophobic, misogynistic, anti-Semitic and anti-
democratic? An empirical test of popular stereotypes about Muslims in
Germany

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information

Panel number 104

Panel name Dynamics of Religious Change: Panel by the EXC "Religion and Politics",
WWU: Politicization of Religion vs. Political Engagement in Islam

Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 11.00am-1.15pm

Format Online
Room /
Abstract Islamist ideologies that reject violence, but follow an ideology of domination
and want to reshape society according to undemocratic values, are referred
to as “political Islam”. However, this designation raises the question of the
political contribution of Islam, because Islam sees itself as a political religion,
in the sense of a social ethics similar to Christianity. But where should the
line be drawn between political participation in the name of Islam and
political Islam? Why is political Islam seen as a threat to Europe, although its
actors usually reject violence? What strategies do political Islamists use to
establish their ideology in Europe? How can European societies take actions
against these developments? Where are the roots of the politicization of
Islam in history? How did these develop and how can they be overcome
today?

Chair Dina El Omari (University of Münster, Germany)

Speaker Mouhanad Khorchide (University of Münster, Germany): How political can
Islam be?

Dina El Omari (University of Münster): Difference feminism as a strategy of

political Islam?

Yassine Yahyaoui (University of Münster, Germany): The imagined

Byzantium - the idea of the other in early Islam

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information

Panel number 105

Panel name Dynamics of Religious Change: Panel by the EXC "Religion and Politics",
WWU: Political Islam in Europe (Round Table Talk)
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 2.45pm-5.00pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract After the 9/11 attacks, politicians and security agencies focused heavily on
the phenomenon of extremism and Salafism. The question that preoccupied
many was that of the radicalization of young Muslims who were born and
raised here in Europe. Until then, it was assumed that they were well
integrated. After the fall of IS and Saudi Arabia distancing itself from
Salafism in recent years, this form of radicalization seems to be becoming
less and less attractive among young Muslims. However, we are now
confronted with another ideology: that of political Islam. This term describes
an Islamist ideology that rejects violence but follows an ideology of
domination and wants to reshape society according to undemocratic values.
Why is political Islam seen as a threat to Europe, although its actors usually
reject violence? What strategies do political Islamists use to establish their
ideology in Europe? How can European societies take actions against these
developments? Where are the roots of the politicization of Islam in history?
How did these develop and how can they be overcome today? The panel will
be held as a panel discussion.

Chair Mouhanad Khorchide (University of Münster, Germany)

Speaker Mouhanad Khorchide (University of Münster, Germany)

Volker Beck (Die Grünen – The Green Party, Berlin, Germany)

Christoph de Vries (CDU- Christian Democratic Union, Berlin, Germany)

Lorenzo Vidino (George Washington University Center for Cyber and

Homeland Security's Program on Extremism, Washington, USA)

Additional
information

Panel number 106

Panel name Dynamics of Religious Change: Panel by the EXC "Religion and Politics",
WWU: Religion in Contemporary Society
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 8.30am-12.00pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.102/ Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract Religion can be compared to a double-edged sword since it holds the
potential of positive as well as negative inherent aspects and outcomes for
societies, groups, and individuals. This ambiguous character of religion is
often deformed by exclusively emphasizing religions’ negative facets
especially in the media but also in popular science. With the double panel on
‘Religion in Contemporary Society’ we want to pay specific attention to both
sides of the equivocal nature of religion in today’s world from a wide-
ranging multidisciplinary social-scientific view (sociology, psychology,
political sciences). Hence, the first part of the panel focuses on the bridge-
building and inclusive aspects of religion from a micro level (religious
identities) and from a macro level perspective (social cohesion). Moreover,
this panel will present a mediation between both levels in which different
religious identities are analyzed in the context of their contribution to social
cohesion but also to prejudice. The latter aspect already heralds the second
part of this double panel, which is dedicated to religious fundamentalism,
 ethnocentrism, and radicalization as these are central social aspects of the
dark side of religion and religiosity. This second panel will shed light on the
entanglement of religion and politics, influences on the acceptance of
religiously-connoted violence, and co-radicalization.
Chair Sarah Demmrich (University of Münster, Germany)
Alexander Yendell (Leipzig University, Germany)

Speaker Session 1:
Religious Identities & Social Cohesion

Carolin Hillenbrand (University of Münster, Germany): What holds societies

together? An empirical analysis about the role of religion in social cohesion

Stefan Huber (University of Bern, Switzerland): Religious identity and

attachment to God

Gert Pickel (Leipzig University, Germany)/Yvonne Jaeckel (Leipzig University,

Germany): Religious identity, prejudice, and the effects on social cohesion

Session 2:
Religious Fundamentalism, Ethnocentrism & Radicalization

David Herbert (University of Bergen, Norway): Troublesome entanglements:

religion, politics and gender in contemporary Poland

Oliver Hidalgo (University of Regensburg/University of Münster, Germany):

The illiberal tendencies of (political) religions and their possible effects on
processes of radicalization

Sarah Demmrich (University of Münster, Germany)/Detlef Pollack

(University of Münster, Germany)/ Olaf Müller (University of Münster,
Germany): Religious fundamentalism and acceptance of violence: A study
among Muslims of Turkish origin in Germany

Alexander Yendell (Leipzig University, Germany): The intertwining of

religiosity and co-radicalization in the context of ethnocentrism and group-
focused enmity
Additional
information

Panel number 107

Panel name Dynamics of Religious Change: Panel by the EXC "Religion and Politics",
WWU: The Transmission of Religion and Non-Religion Across Generations in
Hungary and Germany
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 4.00pm-6.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.201/Philosophikum (Domplatz23)
Abstract The nature of religious transmission has recently become a topic of
increasing interest among scholars dealing with the issue of religion and
religious change. In many countries, each successive generation has been on
 average less religious, which is explained by the fact that fewer people were
socialized into religion. More and more people are therefore entering
adulthood without strong religious ties or do not belong to any religion. In
the midst of this general trend of decline, some religious groups are growing
and are also successful in transmitting religion to the next generation; or
individuals decide, unlike their parents, to commit themselves religiously. In
the proposed session the focus is on (non-)religious socialization and the
transmission of (non-) religious practices and beliefs within families. We ask
how the passing on or breaking from beliefs, values and world views takes
place within families and across generations. In comparison with
quantitative and qualitative data from Hungary and Germany, we ask about
the main factors for the successful (or unsuccessful) transmission of faith
and reconstruct how religiosity changes in the process of transmission.
Chair Christel Gärtner (University of Münster, Germany)
Speaker Olaf Müller (University of Münster, Germany)/Gergely Rosta (Pázmány
Péter Catholic University of Budapest, Hungary): Familial transmission of
religion in Hungary and Germany in comparison: first quantitative results

Zsuzsanna Szvetelszky (Pázmány Péter Catholic University of Budapest,

Hungary)/Gergely Rosta (Péter Catholic University of Budapest, Hungary):
Transmission of religion among generations in Hungary - Results from three-
generation family interviews

Linda Hennig (University of Münster, Germany): The role of religious

practices such as going to church, singing, and praying in the transmission of
religion across three generations
Additional
information

Panel number 108

Panel name Dynamics of Religious Change: Panel by the EXC "Religion and Politics",
WWU: Religion, Faith, Spirituality, and Sustainability
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 9.45am-1.15m
Format Hybrid
Room F2/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract The expected effects of the anthropogenic climate change clearly show the
urgency of sustainable development, which points to the (need of improved)
living conditions for present and future generations. Therefore, sustainable
lifestyles need to be established. As such, they must consider planetary
boundaries, aspects of justice as well as human’s basic needs. Religious
actors of different faiths are increasingly pursuing ambitious goals in local,
national, and international climate action towards more sustainability: they
engage in local movements and in international political fora. Moreover,
more and more religious references (e.g. quotations from the Bible, the
Qur’an, Vedas, and other religious scriptures) are being used in sustainability
discourses. Nonetheless, it would be over-simplistic to assign this trend to
an overall greening of religions. A well-known example for religious
motivated climatic skepticism is US-evangelicals. Based on these
observations, we aim to discuss how faith-based actors and religious values
promote or hinder sustainability. We want to provide insights and discuss
the nexus of religion, faith, and sustainability in different contexts around
 the globe. The double panel shall offer diverse perspectives (regionally as
well as denomination-wise) and therefore lead to a discussion of
comparative views on that topic.
Chair Doris Fuchs (University of Münster)
Speaker Session 1:

Hannah Klinkenborg (University of Münster, Germany): Religion as a

Resource in European Climate Policy

Christophe Monnot (University of Strasbourg, France)/ Alexandre Grandjean

(University of Lausanne, France): A Christian network of ecospirituality: A
new mode of militancy?

Derk Harmannij (University of Exeter, GB): Accommodating faith-based

ideas in the Green Movement

Gary Slater (University of Münster, Germany):On our common (bordered)

home: sustainability, borders, and the unrealized potential of ‘Laudato si’

Session 2:

Anindita Chakrabarti (University of Kanpur, India)/Mujeebu Rahman

(University of Kanpur, India): Environmental discourse, sectarian dialogue
and the Muslim public sphere of Kerala (India)

Juliane Stork (Humboldt University Berlin, Germany)/Marie-Luise Frost

(Humboldt University Berlin, Germany)/Philipp Öhlmann (Humboldt
University Berlin, Germany): African Initiated Churches and ecological
sustainability in Sub-Sahara Africa – an empirical study

Jens Köhrsen (University of Basel, Switzerland)/Fabian Huber (University of

Basel, Switzerland): Green religion and eco-epirituality - forms of religious
environmentalism

Anica Roßmöller (University of Münster, Germany): Faith-based Resources

in the localization of the SDGs in India
Additional
information

Panel number 109

Panel name Dynamics of Religious Change: Panel by the EXC "Religion and Politics",
WWU: Interrelations between South Asian Religions and the West
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 11.00am-1.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.201/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract The 20th century has seen a shrinkage of distances between continents and
cultures. New means of transport and communication facilitated the
exchange of people and information and fostered the creation of new
religious movements while growing supra-regional economical networks and
political dislocations prompted the settling of entire communities far from
their homeland. The papers in this panel will explore different aspects of
 these interrelations – the reactions to a new Indian religious movement on
the rise by members of a Western society, the challenges of different
religious communities in Germany and Europe in maintaining their identity
while adapting to a new cultural environment and the repercussions of an
extended knowledge of Western notions of religion and nation in the
construction of a major 20th century Hindu temple in the capital of
independent India. By doing so it is expected to delineate some of the
structures underlying these ongoing, mutual exchanges and to inspire more
future research into this area of more recent interreligious contacts
between South Asia and the West.
Chair Ulf Plessentin (Head, Knowledge Transfer, University of Bochum, Germany)
Speaker Martin Papenheim (University of Augsburg, Germany/University of Bochum,
Germany): The Neo-Sannyas movement in Germany (1972-2000) between
provocation and assimilation

Patrick Krüger (University of Bochum, Germany/ University of Münster,

Germany ): Jainism in the West. Jain Diaspora Communities between
internal Self-Insurance and strategic Self-Representation

Anne Hartig (Independent researcher): How to construct a modern, Hindu,

nationalist temple: The Birla Temple in Delhi

Robert Stephanus (University of Münster): Sikh communities in Germany

Additional
information

Panel number 110

Panel name Dynamics of Religious Change: Panel by the EXC "Religion and Politics",
WWU: Mediations of Religious Authority and Belonging in Zones of Conflict:
Case Studies from West Africa
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 8.30am-10.45am
Format Hybrid
Room F3/Fürstenberhaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract Religious conflict has been an important subject of historical and
anthropological research for some time now. In contrast, the exact
processes and materials by which religious authority and belonging are
mediated, established and contested in zones of heightened social and
political instability have received comparatively less attention. As a starting
point for the elaboration of a comparative framework to analyze these
processes, the panel invites empirical and theoretical contributions that
focus on Muslim, Christian, and other religious actors to examine how the
ecology of conflict fosters and molds specific materialities and mediations of
religious authority and of social and religious belonging. We welcome
contributions that discuss religious attitudes, practices and discourses under
and in response to conditions of conflict. We are also interested in papers
that systematically examine similarities and differences in the particular
media and expressive means that inform and circumscribe particular ways of
relating to authority figures and of claiming membership in, or difference
from, particular religious communities.
Chair Dorothea Schulz (University of Münster, Germany)
 Souleymane Diallo (University of Münster, Germany)

Speaker Session 1:
Dorothea Schulz (University of Münster,Germany): Introduction

Katrin Langewiesche (University of Mainz, Germany): The politics of

mediation. Traditional religious leaders in Burkina Faso and conflict
resolution/prevention

Lotte Pelckmans (University of Copenhagen, Denmark): The work of

religious legitimacy in highly inegalitarian conflict situations: the case of
debates over post-slavery in Kayes region, Mali.

Session 2:
Sara Fretheim (University of Münster, Germany): Contested religion and
belonging: exploring aspects of gender and religious authority within the life
and oral praises of Madam Afua Kuma of Ghana (1908?–1987)

Françoise Boudarias (Université de Tours, France): Reconfigurations in the

relations between political and religious power in Mali: new forms of
constructing religious hegemony in a situation of conflict

Souleymane Diallo (University of Münster, Germany): ‘The Saint that

protects’: Constructing and contesting religious authority and belonging in
the militarized border zone of Mali/Niger.

Additional
information

Panel number 112

Panel name Religions and Human Rights: Religious Freedom, Congregations, and
Citizenship
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 8.30am-12.00pm
Format Online
Room
Abstract The aim of this panel is to discuss current theoretical and empirical
approaches to the analysis of religion and human rights from a social
scientific perspective. We encourage contributors to address different ways
religious belonging can be theorized, measured, and interpreted by
sociologists and anthropologists dealing with human rights, with inter-
disciplinary regards toward the research that has been done by scholars in
political science, international relations, and law. The panel welcomes, in
particular, papers focused on three areas in which religious studies intersect
human rights: the right to freedom of religion, the impact of congregations
on religious minority rights, the interaction between citizenship and
religious forms of belonging.
This panel is also looking for papers exploring the emerging agenda on
human rights from a religious perspective, as well as the intersectionality of
religious freedom with policies of human rights application in different
socio-political contexts, the negotiation of human rights principles and
 values within religious groups, the impact of religious experiences on civic
society.
Chair Davide N. Carnevale (University of Padova, Italy)
Ilaria Valenzi (Confronti Study Center-FBK, Italy)
Speaker Monchef Chaibi (University of Padova, Italy): Religious Pluralism through
International Human Rights Law

Asia Leofreddi (University of Padova, Italy): Religious Freedom and Models

of Citizenship: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

Kareem P.A. McDonald (University of Padova, Italy): A human rights

perspective on freedom of religion in asylum centres: challenges and
opportunities

Martina Mignardi (University of Padova, Italy)/Daiana Menti (University of

Padova, Italy): Human Rights and Congregations: Case-Studies on Bologna
and Milano

Teuta Stipišić (University of Padova, Italy): Citizenship and religious freedom

in Croatia: a social analysis

Joan Hernandez-Serret (University of Madrid, Spain): Understanding the

Patterns of changing: Complex Adaptative System and Religions
Additional
information

Panel number 113

Panel name The evolution of Catholic Social Action and Social Thought between the
Americas and Europe from Pius XII to Paul VI
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 1.15pm-5.45pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The end of the 1940s saw the emergence of new and shared models of
social action and social ideas within Catholic lay associations, religious
orders, movements and groups of theologians - partly a fruit of different
national situations, partly of the rediscovery of the universal dimension of
the Catholic Church, which during the Second World War had tended to
withdraw within national borders. This long process, which reached its
height during and after the Second Vatican Council, led at times to the
rediscovery of the traditional thought of the Church's social doctrine, reread
and reused in new ways, and at times to its being questioned in order to
arrive at an innovative "theology of revolution". Over time, a decisive role
was played by the cultural, missionary and institutional networks among
European, North American and Latin American Catholics that seemed
capable of shaping new and shared approaches to Catholic social thought
and action in the different national contexts. The objective of this panel is,
therefore, to analyze the commonalities and differences between the
approaches to social action and social thought on both sides of the Atlantic
from the pontificate of Pius XII to that of Paul VI, focusing on prominent
figures, magazines, networks, associations, groups of theologians,
movements and missionary experiences.
Chair Marta Busani (UCSC, Milan, Italy)
Paolo Valvo (UCSC, Milan, Italy)
Speaker Rafael Escobedo Romero (Universidad de Navarra, Spain): American
Catholics, Spanish Catholics, and freedom of religion (1945-1965)

Paulo Fernando de Oliveira Fontes (CEHR-UCP, Lisbon, Portugal): The

Catholic social movement in Portugal in the 20th century: continuities and
changes in the Estado Novo period (1933-1974)

Susanna De Stradis (University of Notre Dame, USA): The Catholic Debate on

the “Guilds” in Cold War America

Lorena García Mourelle (Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo,

Uruguay): The Latin American networks of the Economy and Humanism
movement: an approach to its study based on the trajectory of Juan Pablo
Terra and the “Equipos del Bien Común” in Uruguay (1947-1957)

Nuno Estêvão Ferreira (CEHR-UCP, Lisbon, Portugal): Caritas Portugal and

the post-war social question: Church, State and international links

Yves Solís Nicot (Prepa Ibero, Lerma, Mexico): Between Civitas and Polis:
Carlos Alberto Siri Neotomist approach for democracy in Latin America

Paolo Valvo (UCSC, Milan, Italy): Jesuit intellectual networks and the Social
question in Latin America: the review “Latinoamérica” (1949-1959)
Laura Alarcón Menchaca (El Colegio de Jalisco, Zapopan, Mexico): Efraín
González Morfín intellectual and promoter of the Social Doctrine of the
Church

Tania Hernández Vicencio (INAH, Mexico-City, Mexico): A voice out of

chorus. Thought and pastoral action of Sergio Méndez Arceo

Marta Busani (UCSC, Milan, Italy): The Brazilian Catholic Youth between the
“revue de vie” and the Liberation Theology in the 1960s

Jaime Pensado (University of Notre Dame, USA): The German Connection:

“Adveniat” and the Radicalization of Students in South America during the
Global Sixties

Massimo De Giuseppe (IULM, Milan, Italy): A case of glocal history. Central

American basic ecclesial communities between the 1970s and 1990s

Additional
information

Panel number 115

Panel name Love in the Abrahamic Religions
Date/ Time Thursday September 1st 9.45am-12.00pm
Format Hybrid
Room F1/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract An interdisciplinary textual study of Love in the three Abrahamic religions
bringing theologians, philosophers and lawyers exploring textual and
conceptual challenges across the religious divide.
Chair Peter Petkoff (The House of St. Gregory and St. Macrina)
Speaker

Additional
information

Panel number 116

Panel name Sacred Places, Law and Sustainable Development - Legal and Religious
Perspectives
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 4.45pm5.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.205/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract A panel focusing on comparative approaches to the protection of religious
sites and their linkages with sustainable development.
Chair Peter Petkoff (Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, BYU ICLARS)
Speaker Cole Durham (J. Reuben Clark Law School)
Rebecca White (Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture)

Additional
information

Panel number 118

Panel name Theologies of Disaster and Hope
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 12.15pm-1.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.102/ Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract The literary critic George Steiner has defined the uniqueness of human
beings in terms of ‘their capacity to hope, and to formulate the future
tense’. This panel will explore the theological implications of this statement.
What does it mean, that we are able to think about the future as an
alternative to the (disastrous) past and present? Who or what underwrites
this hope? And how does hope become ‘political’? We will examine the
answers provided by theologians such as Herbert McCabe, and Latin
American theologians of liberation. However, the panel will pay especial
attention to the legacy of Johann Baptist Metz (1928-2019), who taught at
Münster for many years. Central to Metz’s theological achievement is his
recognition of the need for honesty and courage in diagnosing our
condition. Theology, and the Church generally, needs to refuse strategies of
euphemism and evasion which have buffered and insulated us against the
suffering of victims. The panel will address the relevance of Metz’s theology
for today’s Church, and for thinking through the new crises and challenges
which confront it.
Chair Fáinche Ryan (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland)
Speaker Cornelius Casey (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland): Grounding Political Hope in
a Despairing World
 Michael Kirwan (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland): Against Theological
Euphemism: The Legacy of Johann Baptist Metz

Juan Diego Galaz (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland): Political Deliberation and
Ecclesial Synodality: from Differences to Common Hope

Additional
information

Panel number 119

Panel name Religion, Technology, and Artificial Intelligence

Date/ Time Monday August 30th 9.45am-1.15pm

Format Hybrid
Room F043/ Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract The panel gathers contributions on the affinities, divergences, and
consonances between religion and technology, including the (positive and
negatives) interactions between the religious sphere (in a broad and
multireligious sense) and the advances in Artificial Intelligence. In particular,
the panel aims to create a fruitful debate between scholars interested in the
various ramifications of the main topic, such as:
The impact of technology on religious ideas and beliefs
Religion and the Internet
Augmented reality and religious experience
Religion(s) and Artificial Intelligence
Theology and Computer Science
Religious diffusion and technological advances

Chair Andrea Vestrucci (Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, USA/University of

Geneva, Switzerland)
Speaker Lluis Oviedo (Pontifical University Antonianum, Rome, Italy): What are
religion and theology learning after recent developments in Artificial
Intelligence: A critical assessment

Christoph Benzmüller (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany): Analysis and

exploration of theistic arguments with theorem provers and model finders:
New insights into the Ontological Argument

Zachary R. Calo (Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar): Biotechnology

and the Human Future

Marius Dorobantu (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands): Artificial

Intelligence: A friend in disguise for Christian anthropology

Andrea Vestrucci (Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, USA/University of

Geneva, Switzerland): Computational Theology: An Introduction
Additional
information

Panel number 120

Panel name Competing Christianities?: The „invention of the family” and Christian
national and populist movements
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 4.00pm-6.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.102/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract On the base of various examples and case studies, panelists will address
notions of the "traditional family", which prominently figures on the agenda
of various neo-conservative, populist or fundamentalist movements. Can we
speak of an "invention of the family", in a process similar to the pattern of
an "invention of tradition", well known to historians and social scientists?
Another hypothesis to be further examined is, that such models often
operate within a theological framework that displays particular favour for
notions of "order", with an implicit predilection for "law and order", "order
of creation", or "organic" visions of society. If this is true, how can be looked
at such concepts from a perspective of theology, religious science, and
religious history?
Chair Alfons Brüning (RU Nijmegen, Netherlands/PThU Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Speaker Heleen Zorgdrager (PThU Amsterdam, Netherlands): Nashville in the
Netherlands: Transnational Translations in Reshaping Reformed Identity and
a Theology of Order (An analysis of the group, theology, politics, and
strategies behind the website Bijbels Beraad M/V (Biblical Council on
Manhood and Womanhood), the continuation of the Nashville Statement
(2017/2019) in the Netherlands)

Marten van den Toren (PThU Amsterdam, Netherlands): From the Family to
the Nation: A Political Theology and Practice of Migrant Pentecostal
Communities in Spain

Dorottya Nagy (PThU Amsterdam, Netherlands): ’Migration or family and

the future of Europe’-implicit theology of anti-migration- and of family
policy in present day Hungary

Alexei Bodrov (St. Andrew's Institute, Moscow, Russia/VU Amsterdam,

Netherlands): Fight for traditional values and ‘invention of the family’ in
Russia
Additional
information

Panel number 122

Panel name Scholars at the Peripheries - Interreligious Dialogue
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 12.15pm-4.30pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract This group of researchers is mainly composed of non-Western scholars
located at the peripheries either geographically or by the nature of their
expertise. The research of this group will coincide with a publishing project
on liberation theologies and the intersection with interfaith dialogue as well
as a multi-disciplinary approach in the critique of injustice and a critique of a
colonial centredness on European thought and the Enlightenment.
 The areas of research, thought, action and experience are mainly focussing
on Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and the forgotten peripheries
of enclaves and the forgotten of this world.
Chair Mario I. Aguilar (University of St Andrews, UK)
Porsiana Beatrice (University of St Andrews, UK)
Speaker Arvin Gouw (Cambridge University, UK): Why does Abhimanyu have to die?
Liberationist theodicy as a framework for Christian-Hindu dialogue.

Emilie Grosvenor (University of St. Andrews, UK): Remembering Sister

Dianna Ortiz: Discipleship in the Cultivation of Interfaith Healing
Communities

Marjorie Gourlay (University of St. Andrews, UK): God in the Eyes of a

Refugee

Halil Avci (University of St. Andrews, UK): The Role of the Arts in Inter-
Religious Dialogue

Ángel F. Méndez Montoya (Universidad Iberoamericana, Tijuana, Mexico):

Blessed are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Justice: Overlapping and
Indecenting Eucharistic Desire, Now and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

James Harry Morris (University of Tsukuba, Japan): Non-Christian Religions

and Divine Providence in the Work of Uchimura Kanzō

St. John York (Liberia Council of Churches): Inter-faith Mediation and its
contribution towards Peace and Democracy in Liberia

Victoria Turner ( University of Edinburgh, UK): Enabling Dialogue or Diffusing

Difference: The Adoption of Inclusive “Spirituality” as a Method of Interfaith
Engagement

Patricia Guernelli Palazzo Tsai (Universidade Metodista de São Paulo, Brazil):

From Outcast To Arhat: The Discussion Of Human Dignity In The Buddhist
Jātaka-Mālā

Mariam El Masry (League of Arab States): Islam: Constants and Variables

Carlo Avilio (University of Northampton, UK): “Idols Behind Altars": the
Persistence of pre-Hispanic religious iconographies in the Guise of Christian
Ones in Colonial Latin America

Milton Javier Bravo (St. John’s University, Queens, NY, USA): Un Pueblo en
salida: migration from a borderland theological perspective

Peniel Jesudason Rufus Rajkumar (World Council of Churches): Rethinking

Dialogue from the Margins

Porsiana Beatrice (University of St. Andrews, UK): Dialogue after Pope

Francis’ visit to Iraq

Additional
information
Panel number 123
Panel name Religious Studies today: the role of RESILIENCE
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 4.00pm-6.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room F234/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract RESILIENCE is a unique, interdisciplinary and invigorating research
infrastructure that aims at building a high-performance platform, supplying
and evolving tools and big data to scholars from all the scientific disciplines
across different religions. The
goals of the panel are:
• To provide a general overview of the project;
• To present possible physical and digital tools to be used by scholars,
academics, and all those interested in Religious Studies
• To highlight the special role of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies
in the communication and dissemination of RESILIENCE in Balkans, a region
where diverse religious traditions exist and thrive.
Chair Nikolaos Asproulis (Volos Academy for Theological Studies, Greece)
Speaker Hans-Peter Großhans (University of Münster, Germany): The significance
and use of a European research infrastructure for religious studies and the
theologies

Karla Boersma (Theologische Universiteit Apeldoorn, Netherlands):

RESILIENCE, a Sustainable Research Infrastructure for all Religious Studies:
How to Benefit and How to Join?

Marco Büchler (Institut für Angewandte Informatik (InfAI)): RESILIENCE -

Towards a Pan-European Digital Ecoystem

Paraskevi Arapoglou (Volos Academy for Theological Studies, Greece): The

role of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies in RESILIENCE

Ioannis Kaminis (Volos Academy for Theological Studies, Greece): The

Current Landscape of Religious Studies in Greece and the relevance of
RESILIENCE
Additional
information

Panel number 124

Panel name Challenging the dichotomy between Freedom of Religion and Protection of
Religious Minorities
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 11.00am-1.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The debate on religious minority rights has long been stranded in the
shallows of a sterile juxtaposition between the politics of the same rights,
including freedom of religion and belief, for all and the politics of special
rights for religious minorities
from the perspective of scholars of law and religion and scholars of minority
rights.
 Through the dialogue between scholars of law and religion and scholars of
minority rights, the panel seeks to uncover strengths and weaknesses of
policies aimed, on the one hand, at ensuring freedom of religion or belief for
all on the same footing, and, on the other, at guaranteeing special legal
measures intended to protect the identity of religious minorities and ensure
their participation in decision-making processes. This panel thus aims to
discuss the different aspects of and the relationship(s) between the
protection of minority rights grounded on religious identity, on the one
hand, and religious freedom, on the other.
Chair Kerstin Wonisch (Eurac Research, Institute for Minority Rights, Bozen, Italy
Speaker Marie-Claire Foblets (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle,
Germany): Islam under the rule of law in Europe: how consistent is the
human rights test?

Kristin Henrard (Institute for European Studies, Brussels, Belgium): EU law’s

half-hearted protection of religious minorities: minority specific rights and
freedom of religion for all

Joshua Castellino (Minority Rights Group International): Modelling Equality

in the Midst of Religious Diversity: Lessons from Beyond Europe?

Additional
information

Panel number 125

Panel name Making and unmaking religious experience and community in times of
Covid-19
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 2.15pm-3.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The panel explores the sociocultural dynamics of making and unmaking
religious community and of experiencing the divine in the context of the
persisting Covid 19 pandemic. The panel considers these dynamics against
the backdrop of diverse state regimes of religious governance by which
states across the globe have been (are?) regulating relations among and
within different religious groups. These religious groups are conceived of as
“communities of practice” that, while internally heterogenous, are
constituted and remade through discursive and ritual practices and enable
changing modalities of experiencing the divine.
Contributions to the panel will explore the various historically and socially
embedded, discursive, ritual, and materially and digitally mediated practices
by which religious leaders and ordinary believers invoke and seek to
experience the divine and make it present in their daily lives, sometimes
without conventional physical proximity. Also welcome are contributions
that examine how Covid 19-related containment measures affect the
practices by religious leaders and “ordinary” believers” to draw the
boundaries that delineate inter- as well as intra-religious differences.

Chair Dorothea Schulz (University of Münster, Germany)

Speaker Linda Sauer Bredvik (University of Heidelberg, Germany): Digitally Mediated
Experiences of the Divine: A case study of discursive practices during Covid
19
Heidi A. Campbell (Texas A&M University, College Station, USA): Reflections
on Analyzing Church Engagement with Technology during the COVID-19
Pandemic

Marco Guglielmi (Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy): Eastern

Orthodoxy, COVID-19, and the Virus of Modernity

Alessia Passarelli (FSCIRE, Bologna, Italy): Community, belonging and

technology among Protestant Churches in Italy during the pandemic

Discussant:
Jocelyne Cesari (University of Birmingham, UK/ Harvard University, USA)
Additional
information

Panel number 126

Panel name Changing Gender Roles in the Religious Landscape of East Africa
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 2.15pm-5.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.102/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract Kenya’s well known philosopher John M’biti states that «Africans are
notoriously religious» and that «religion permeates every department of
life». In the African traditional society women had a very important role
being responsible for the transmission of the community’s cultural heritage
and system of beliefs. Other women who came from abroad, missionary
women, played a pivotal role in the spread of the Gospel in Africa and as
John Baur writes, they were «The greatest innovation in the work of
evangelization». Despite all this, the contribution of women to the shaping
of the African religious landscape as well as their influence on the
community’s life has not always been fully acknowledged. In our panel we
want to reverse this and focus on the relation between gender, religion and
change.
Over the years East Africa went through many changes that also redefined
the role of women in the society. How did religion respond to these changes
(and challenges)? Bringing into the discussion different perspectives and
research angles, we will explore how the place and status of women in the
religious panorama of East Africa as well as their potential for spiritual and
religious leadership has changed. We will also address the question of the
influence of missionary schools on women’s education and empowerment.
Finally, starting from the specific case of interreligious dialogue, we will
discuss what space can religion offer for women representation and
participation.

Chair Ilaria Macconi Heckner (Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose Giovanni

XXIII/FSCIRE, Bologna/Palermo, Italy)
Speaker Mary N. Getui (Catholic University of Eastern Africa/ CUEA, Nairobi): The
Contribution of Selected Women in Shaping the Religious Scene in Kenya.
 Ilaria Macconi Heckner (Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose Giovanni
XXIII/FSCIRE, Bologna/Palermo, Italy): Missionary women in East Africa:
Changing Socio-Cultural Patterns and Settings Through Schools.

Matthias Eder/ Susann Gihr/Innocent H. Maganya (Institute for

Interreligious Dialogue and Islamic Studies/IRDIS, Tangaza University
College, Nairobi): Building inclusivity in a fragmented world as a Catholic
institution – IRDIS’ role as safe space for gender topics in religions.

Philomena Njeri Mwaura (Kenyatta University, Nairobi): Women and

Prophetism in Neo-Pentecostal Christianity in Kenya.

Joyce Njeri Thiong’o (Institute for Interreligious Dialogue and Islamic

Studies/IRDIS, Tangaza University College, Nairobi): A Historical perspective
of Gender Roles in the Religious Sphere in East Africa

Additional
information

Panel number 127

Panel name New Direction in the Study of al-Sulami
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 8.30am-12.00pm
Format Hybrid
Room F3/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract 2021 marks the 1000th anniversary of the death of Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-
Sulamī (d. 1021), a foundational figure in the formative period of Ṣūfism. Not
solely due to the publication of new manuscripts, al-Sulamī’s works have
enjoyed increasing
interest by translators and scholars over the last twenty years. The panel
unites a chair who authored a pioneering monograph on al-Sulamī in 1998
with scholars who since then have taken the study of this shaykh in new
directions, through the production of Arabic editions of al-Sulamī’s treatises,
through their ongoing work as translators, and through their
interdisciplinary approaches to this classical literature. Themes addressed in
papers by confirmed panelists include the relevance of the current revival in
virtue ethics for the study of al-Sulamī, al-Sulamī’s use of poetry in light of
new manuscript evidence for a key treatise (Kitāb al-amthāl wa-l-
istishhādāt), al-Sulamī’s notion of the refinement of the soul, the reception
of al-Sulamī’s corpus in the later Shādhilī tradition, the nature and
representation of angels in Muḥammad’s heavenly journey (miʿrāj), tensions
running through the concept of sanctity (walāya) in al-Sulamī’s different
writings, and the nature and role of emotions in al-Sulamī’s understanding
of the spiritual path.
Chair Lutz Berger (Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel, Germany)
Speaker Safaruk Chowdury (Cambridge Muslim College, UK): The Makings and
Markers of Ṣūfī-Saints: Exploring The Concept of Sanctity (walāya) in the
Writings of al-Sulamī

Louise Gallorini (American University of Beirut, Lebanon): The Angelology of

Sulamī through his tafsīr and miʿrāj
 Gavin Picken (Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar): Refinement of the Soul
in the Thought of al-Sulami: A Millennial Concern

Jason Welle (Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Italy): ‘Virtue
Ethics’ in Medieval Ṣūfism: Exploring the Usefulness of a Category

Riccardo Paredi (American University of Beirut, Lebanon): Some Ṣūfī

‘Emotions’ Seen through the Works of al-Sulamī

Giuseppe Cecere (Alma Mater-Università di Bologna, Italy): Al-Sulamī and

the Early Shādhiliyya: Between khumūl and malāmatiyya

Additional
information

Panel number 128

Panel name Reconciliation Studies as a New Perspective in Religion and Change in
Present Times
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 4.00pm-6.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room F2/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract Reconciliation Studies is a transdisciplinary and multiscale scientific field that
focuses on institutional, political, religious, individual and group/tribal
dynamics. In contemporary literature, we can find several definitions of
reconciliation, depending on the discipline that provides it: political science,
religious studies, theology, etc. One of the most innovative and
groundbreaking is the one which is defined as “The Hölderlin Perspective”
(Reconciliation is in the middle of strife and everything apart
finds each other again, Hölderlin, F., Hyperion, 1797). It aims to develop a
scenario, in which reconciliation and conflict are in a constant relationship,
therefore you will never have a condition of full conflict, with no room for
reconciliation. Conflict resolution, which requires a deep change in the life of
people, begins when the conflict is still in full swing. This prepares the
foundation for a long term, non-violent settlement of conflicts, but also for
the overall restoration of social relations. Religion,of course, plays a
prominent role in the process of the deep and sometimes dramatic change
conflict and conflict resolution cause. Therefore, this panel aims at analyzing
different aspects/features of the relationships between religion and
reconciliation in present times, though the lenses of Theology, Refugee
Studies, Philosophy of Religion and Islamic Studies.
Chair Martin Leiner (Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena/Jena Center for
Reconciliation Studies, Germany)
Speaker Martin Leiner (Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena/Jena Center for
Reconciliation Studies), Germany) (INTRODUCTION): Reconciliation as a
factor for change

Nicolas Mumejian (Hartford Seminary, USA): Beginning from the End:

Employing Eschatology and Christological expectancy as a starting point for
Iranian and American Evangelical dialogue

Francesco Ferrari (Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena/Jena Center for

 Reconciliation Studies), Germany): The Irrevocable as Cultural Trauma – and
its Impact on Reconciliation

Davide Tacchini (Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena/Jena Center for

Reconciliation Studies, Germany): Reconciliation in the Qur’an and the
Muslim Tradition, an Underestimated Resource

Additional
information

Panel number 129

Panel name Interreligious Dialogue, Human Fraternity and Diplomacy
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 8.30am-12.00pm
Format Hybrid
Room F234/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract Interreligious dialogue is increasingly perceived as an important
international dynamic which can advance common humanitarian goals, from
containing local conflicts, to tackling climate change, to developing new
political models and ideals. A number of international institutions and
foreign ministries have formalized interreligious engagement strategies as a
result. While some scholars are optimistic about these new forms of
“diplomatic dialogue,” others are more critical. In his encyclical Fratelli Tutti,
for example, Pope Francis wrote that “Dialogue between the followers of
different religions does not take place simply for the sake of diplomacy,
consideration or tolerance.“ Others have observed that interreligious
engagement strategies often serve to consolidate the power of nation-states
as much as they facilitate multi-religious collaboration. How then do we
understand the relationship between interreligious dialogue and
international diplomacy? What conditions might make interreligious
engagement strategies more or less effective at advancing common
interests peacefully? What political ideas and models of development does
the specific practice of interreligious engagement advance? What are the
political and religious risks of interreligious diplomacy? This panel explores
these questions through cases studies and theoretical reflection on new
concepts emphasized by recent interreligious initiatives, such as “inclusive
citizenship” and “human fraternity.”

Chair Michael Driessen (John Cabot University, Rome, Italy)

Speaker Scott Thomas (University of Bath, UK): Pope Francis’ Strategic Vision of
Human Fraternity: A Culture of Encounter at Multiple Levels from Argentina
to Abu Dhabi and Iraq

Melanie Barbato (University of Münster)/Porsiana Beatrice (St. Andrews,

UK): Pope Francis in Iraq & the Document on Human Fraternity

Mario I. Aguilar (St. Andrews, UK): Pope Francis and the Joys of Human
Fraternity: From Abu Dhabi to Fratelli Tutti"

Georges Fahmi (EUI, Italy): Al-Azhar, Interreligious Dialogue and the Path
towards Inclusive Citizenship in Egypt
 Madlen Krüger (University of Heidelberg): Interreligious Dialogue as Soft
Power in Myanmar – Challenges and Political Implications

Pasquale Ferrara (LUISS/Sophia Institute, Italy): Social Friendship and

Universal Fraternity: Twin Moralities and the Environmental and the Covid
Crises

Discussant: Michael Driessen (John Cabot University, Rome, Italy)

Additional
information

Panel number 130

Panel name Religious, unemployed, radical? New ways of interreligious pedagogy as a
contribution to integration in a cross-border labour market

Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 3.30pm-5.45pm

Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.208/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract With the implementation of a cross-border European project entitled
“RELIEN: enterprise and religion”, we wish to contribute to the Upper Rhine
region situated on the borders of France, Germany and Switzerland, as a
regional economic area. By raising awareness of different faith identities and
promoting interreligious and intercultural dialogue, we wish to give young
people a perspective for inclusion in order to gain a foothold in the labour
market. We present our approach of an interreligious pedagogy, which
addresses based on cross-target groups and different aspects – companies
on the one hand and young adults on the other. The latter often define their
identities through a strong attachment to (radical) forms of faith. By
employing the approach of (inter)-religious-sensitive adult education, the
cycle "religious – unemployed – radical" seems necessary to be dissolved.
The development of (inter)-religious-sensitive competencies can have a
positive impact on business management and cooperation in the corporate
world as well as enable access to social and professional participation of
young people.
Chair Francis Messner (Université de Strasbourg, France/RELIEN/CNRS)
Speaker Francis Messner (Université de Strasbourg, France CNRS/RELIEN/): Religious,
unemployed, radical? The RELIEN-Project as a response. General
Presentation of RELIEN

Susanne Schwarz (University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany): Religious –

unemployed – radical? Draft of an (inter-)religious-sensitive pedagogy in the
field of cross-border economy and labour market

Elhadi Essabah (University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany)/Jörg Röder

(University of Basel, Switzerland/RELIEN/ DRES): Religious – unemployed –
radical? (Inter-)Religious-sensitive pedagogy with a special focus on young
Muslims in Europe
Additional
information
Panel number 131
Panel name EDUC8 Project: Religious education against violence, radicalization and
polarization
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 8.30am-10.45am
Format Hybrid
Room F234/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract In the last decades, religion has become an identity marker, working
towards polarization rather than unity and cohesion. In times, it has even
been (mis)used or (ab)used as an excuse, justification or reason for acts of
violence against innocent, or even terrorism. But would a better and deeper
understanding of religion be of help to reduce violence and to eliminate
phenomena of intolerance, polarization and radicalization, as all major
religions include in their core beliefs compassion, reconciliation and
acceptance of the ‘other’? EDUC8 Project, which has received EU funding
and has been actively working towards building resilience against
radicalization and polarization since January 2020, brings together Jews,
Christians of various denominations, Muslims and non-believers in a
common attempt for an intervention in this direction. The intervention is
designed to take place throughout secondary level education, since
perceptions of religion form in a rather early age. The proposed panel aims
to open up the theological discussion on the above topic, to discuss the
methodology and results of the project so far, to outline the emerging
difficulties but also to explore the possible further actions which can
enhance the social resilience against polarization and fragmentation.
Chair Costis Drygianakis (Volos Academy for Theological Studies, Greece)
Speaker Costis Drygianakis (Volos Academy for Theological Studies, Greece): Which
religions, which societies? Religious education and the implementation of
the project Educ8

Onur Sultan (Beyond the Horizon ISSG, Belgium): Educ8 Project: Religious
education against violence, radicalization and polarization

Nikos Tsirevelos (Volos Academy for Theological Studies, Greece): Educ8:

Building resilience against religious fanaticism. The Orthodox theological and
pedagogical view

Christos Fradellos (Volos Academy for Theological Studies, Greece): Aims

and prospects of the european project Educ8 in a tranforming religious
education in Greece

Ekaterini Tsalabouni (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece): In the

Wonderful Garden of Religions/Philosophies: A Short Introduction to the
Shallow Module of Educ8

Elies Van Noten/Leen Deflem (KU Leuven, Belgium): Educ8: How Religious
Education Can Be Cure for Radicalisation and Polarisation

Brahim Buzarif (Centre of Expertise for Intellectual Reformation, Research

and Advice, Belgium): Implementation of the Educ8 project with Muslim
students on Belgium
Additional
information

Panel number 132

Panel name Intercultural perspectives on science and religion
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 9.45am-12.00pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.206/Philosophikum (Domplatz23)
Abstract The science and religion debate is often conducted in quasi-universal terms,
as if science and religion are stable and independent entities that need to be
related to each other, for example in conflict, separation, dialogue or
integration models. In reality, the way the science and religion encounter
unfolds is profoundly shaped by historical, social, cultural and religious
contexts. In the words of David Livingstone (2011), we need to “pluralize,
localize, hybridize, politicize’ in order to understand these debates,
analysing the particular expressions of religion and of science concerned and
the social context that shapes their encounter. In this panel, three
contributions will look how the science and religion debate is shaped in
different contemporary contexts: postcolonial views among students and
academics in French-Speaking Africa, Hindu-Christian conversations in India
concerning the value of the material world and the relationship between
naturalism and the sciences in Western Europe. The intention is, however,
not merely to focus on the particularity of the local, but to explore how local
insights can contribute to constructive intercultural conversations:
intercultural comparisons show the value and limitations of particular
cultural perspectives and ways of framing the issues. A final contribution
proposes the theological concept of ‘catholicity’ as a model for bringing
various cultural perspectives on science and religion in a constructive
conversation.
Chair Dorottya Nagy (Protestant Theological University, Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Speaker Charles Christian (Protestant Theological University, Groningen,

Netherlands): The Nature of Material Reality: Hindu-Christian Conversations
at the Cusp of Modern Science in India

Rick Peels (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands): Opportunities of

the current Western debate on science and religion

Klaas Bom (Protestant Theological University, Groningen, Netherlands):

Towards an intercultural approach of science and religion: Lessons from
French-speaking Africa.

Benno van den Toren (Protestant Theological University, Groningen,

Netherlands): Catholicity as Conceptual Tool for Interculturality in Science
and Religion
Additional
information

Panel number 133

Panel name Religion and Social Cohesion in Europe: How has COVID 19 changed how the
perceptions and practice of different religious identities in influencing the
“belonging” of minorities and refugees in Europe?
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 8.30am-9.30am
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Religious identity is often perceived in a binary light, either as a strongly
negative or an overwhelmingly positive factor when it comes to building
relationships which promote the social inclusion of newly-arrived refugees.
The reality is likely to be more nuanced, and to depend on how it is
perceived and understood both by the newcomer and by the host society.
This panel discusses how religion influences the reception and inclusion of
people seeking refuge, bearing in mind important variables such as age,
prevailing political discourse and media coverage, and drawing comparisons
with the experiences of more established (religious) minority groups in
European society. With COVID lockdowns the challenges have increased
with activities being forced in the digital space yet contending with
increasing misperceptions of religious and ethnic minorities being the cause
of the spread. As part of the analysis, a guiding question for panel members
is what attitudes and perceptions are most helpful or harmful for social
cohesion when it comes to religious identity – and whether there are good
solutions out there for newcomers which enable accurate self-
representation, e.g. through media awareness and online
platforms. The panel will seek to identify current developments and
promising examples, especially during the times of COVID, which appear to
contribute to achieving a just, inclusive society confident in its diversity.
Chair Amjad Mohamed-Saleem (Centre for Humanitarian Diplomacy Sarajevo,
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Speaker Aleksandra Djuric (Network for Dialogue, Austria): Empowering
Interreligious and Intercultural Action for the Social Inclusion of Refugees
and Migrants)

Alba Sabaté Gauxachs and team (Blanquerna Observatory on Media,

Religion and Culture, Spain): The COVID-19 restrictions and Religious
Freedom in Europe. Consequences for Migration

Karl Zarhuber (University of Education, Lower Austria): The role of religion

for social cohesion in a migration society: Some case studies from an
education perspective
Additional
information

Panel number 134

Panel name The Atlas of Religious or Belief Minority Rights in Europe. First results and
analysis
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 11.00am-1.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The Atlas is an interdisciplinary project that aims at mapping and measuring
the rights of religious or belief minorities (RBMs) in 12 EU countries. What is
 the situation of religious or belief minorities in Europe today? Which laws
are in place and for whom? Are there any differences in treatments of
religious or belief minorities across Europe? What is the perception that
RBMs have of their position in the different EU countries? Do RBMs feel
discriminated against compared to other religious or belief groups? These
questions will be addressed taking into consideration 8 policy areas: legal
status, education in public schools, denominational schools, religious or
belief symbols, spiritual assistance, family law, worship and meeting places,
media. Through the results of the ATLAS project, the speakers will analyse:
a) the status of each of the 13 RBMs, taken into consideration for this
research; and, b) trends and possible gaps between the law and its
implementation. The data collected will be presented and discussed through
infographics and indexes located on the dedicated newly designed website
of the Atlas project.
Chair Paolo Naso (University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy)
Speaker Silvio Ferrari (University of Milan, Italy)
Alessia Passarelli (FSCIRE/Confronti Study Center, Italy)
Cristiana Cianitto (University of Milan,Italy)
Ilaria Valenzi (Confronti Study Center/FBK, Italy)
Additional We kindly ask those who would like to attend our panel to send us an email
information at [email protected] in order to receive preparatory materials in advance."

This panel is organised by FSCIRE in partnership with Confronti and FBK.

Panel number 135

Panel name State, Religion, and the Category of Modernity
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 2.15pm-5.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room F2/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract The workshop addresses the topic of modernity from the perspective of
Orthodox Christian and Islamic studies. Continuing the work begun at EuARe
2019, the panel would like to propose a second interdisciplinary, critical and
dialogical discussion on the category of modernity, focusing on how scholars
from different fields and disciplines use modernity as starting point for
critical discussion on the categories of state and religion. Like the first
workshop, this year’s workshop aims at critical examination of the category
of modernity when assessing the relationship between state and religion.
Regarding the relationship between state and religion, we are keen to
examine forms of religious expressions and governance, the impact religious
Institutions and/or organizations’ role on state policy, and subsequent
dynamics between political trends and civil society. Other approaches are
also welcome. This year we would like each presenter to offer their own
working definition of modernity within the context of their work and wider
theoretical debates. As part of their paper, we also ask that each paper
critically address at least one theory or theorist on modernity (or a work that
engages the category of modernity) and address how that theoretical angle
applies or fails to apply
Chair Marianna Napolitano (FSCIRE, Bologna, Italy/Unimore, Modena, Italy)
Taraneh Wilkinson (University of Cincinnati, USA)
Speaker Phil Dorroll (Wofford College, Spartaburg, USA): The Demands of Modernity:
Ethical Possibilities in Orthodox Christian and Sunni Muslim Theology in
Greece and Turkey

Taraneh Wilkinson (University of Cincinnati, USA): Hilmi Ziya on Modernity

and Monopluralism

Abdul Rahman Mustafa (Universität Paderborn, Germany): Islamic

Ecological Ethics in the Anthropocene

Regina Elsner (ZOiS Berlin, Germany: Nailing jelly on the wall: Modernity as a
category for the theological analysis of the Russian Orthodox Church?

Aristotle Papanikolau (Fordham University, New York City, USA):

Weathering the Secular: Post-communist Orthodox response to modernity

Elina Kahla (University of Helsinki, Finland): Warmongering, Church and

Binary Structures

Respondents:
Kristina Stoeckl (University of Innsbruck, Austria)
Margherita Picchi (La Pira Research Library, FSCIRE, Bologna, Italy)
Alexander Agadjania (Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow,
Russia)
Ekaterina Grishaeva (Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia)

Additional
information

Panel number 136

Panel name Religious Experience and COVID-19: rituality and praxis in Europe after
pandemic
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 8.30am-10.45am
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Due to COVID-19 religious communities have been affected by physical
distancing. The pandemic had a strong impact on rituality, giving rise to new
forms of participation. An extensive use of digital media has irreversibly
changed religious celebrations and practices. This research panel draws how
the new models of religious communication have influenced praxis and
rituality within the Abrahamic religions. The analysis will start from a
hermeneutical approach to examine the consequences of rethinking
the concept of person and sociability. Experiential, relational and
methodological configurations will be analysed, following the considerations
of the philosopher Italo Mancini. Research will focus on the Abrahamic
religions. It will report the results of consultation of official websites from
different European Jewish communities. It will even report experiences and
reflections offered by interviewed Orthodox and Reform Rabbis. As for
Christianity, we will explore the ritual and eucological changes imposed by
the pandemic; special attention will be given to the exequial dimension of
the liturgy. For Islam, the attention will be focused on an empirical analysis
 on the changes that Muslim communities have had to face to celebrate
funerals. This research aims to understand how religions are approaching
the new forms of communication, and if and how social networks and
platforms for video conferencing can link sacred to sense of,community,
spirituality to sense of solidarity.
Chair Bishara Ebeid (Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia, Italy)
Speaker Leonardo Manna (Faculty of Theology of Lugano, Italy - Joint programme
with Università della Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy): Rethinking the
phenomenological religious experience after the pandemic: faith and trust
inhumanity or in the algorithm?

Muriel A. M. Pusterla (Faculty of Theology of Lugano, Italy): Togetherness

despite isolation. Jewish communities in the COVID-19 pandemic:
experiences and implications for the future

Cristiano Calì (Faculty of Theology of Lugano - Joint programme with

Università della Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy): Human beings and
death. The Christian ritual dimension of living and dying during the COVID-
19 pandemic

Eleonora Pede (Faculty of Theology of Lugano - Joint programme with

Università La Cattolica, Milano, Italy): The European Umma and the Covid-19
pandemic
Additional
information

Panel number 137

Panel name Religion education and system education during post-communist transition
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 8.30am-9.30am
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.201/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract It is the time to solving the paradox of integration religion in education, by
the new balance between religion, philosophy and science, during the post
communism transition. In the field of thinking, the process is the transition
from ideology to integral thinking. It is realized through the re-evaluation of
the topics: Integration of religion, Transitology, integral though, education,
inclusiveness, solidarity, new laicity and new secularity.
Hypothesis:
The decline of totalitarian systems of the 20th cent. enabled the expansion
of space for religion, while the politics and the information technology
continue to limit it. Theoretical and methodological basis: It the time to
rebirth of the new relationship between religious, philosophical and
scientific truth and the new thinking systems.

Chair Agim Leka (Aleksandër Xhuvani University, Elbasan, Albania)

Speaker Zilola Khalilova (The Academy of the Sciences of Uzbekistan, Taschkent,
Uzbekistan)
Agim Leka (Aleksandër Xhuvani University, Elbasan, Albania)
Additional
information
Panel number 138
Panel name Author meets Critique - Rémi Caucanas, Jacques Lanfry. Un lion, l’Eglise et
l’Islam, PISAI, 2021.
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 5.15pm-6.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.206/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract White Fathers since 1933, Jacques Lanfry (1910-2000) has been one of the
missionary figures whose commitment illustrates that of the Catholic Church
in favour of a dialogue with Islam and the Muslims. Passionate about the
Kabyle people and the Kabyle language that he frequented for a long time at
the end of the colonial period in North Africa, and later in France, Jacques
Lanfry participated in the production of a work linguistic which is stilled a
reference today. Assistant General within the Society of Missionaries of
Africa and architect of the Journées Romaines in the 1960s, he was one of
the actors of the conciliar turn in the field of Islamic-Christian relations. And
as the secretary of an “Islam Office” in the post-conciliar years, in search of
African Muslim scholars and future apostles of dialogue, he was one of the
great promoters of a better preparation for the meeting with the Islam.
By giving to read a large number of documents from in particular the
General Archives of the Missionaries of Africa and the Pontifical Institute of
Arab Studies and Islamology, Rémi Caucanas highlights here the trajectory
and commitments of an actor central to Islamic-Christian dialogue in the
twentieth century.
Chair
Speaker Discussant:
Ilaria Macconi-Heckner (Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose Giovanni
XXIII/FSCIRE, Bologna/Palermo, Italy)
Respondent:
Rémi Caucanas (Institut de Recherches et d’Études sur le Monde Arabo-
Musulman (IREMAM), Aix-en-Provence,France/ Pontifical Institute for Arabic
and Islamic Studies (PISAI), Rome, Italy)

Additional
information

Panel number 139

Panel name Religion, Pandemic and Global Governance (1):
Religious Actors and its Moral Responsibility in the COVID-19 Pandemic
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 3.30pm-5.45pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract All religious actors worldwide were surprised by the severity and global
dimension of the Corona crisis in March 2020. Although involved in
humanitarian aid and local pastoral care in many ways, the media and the
public often got the impression that the spiritual potential of the Christian
churches had become invisible in times of the pandemics, and had forgotten
that faith communities in times of pandemics in previous centuries played
an important religious and societal role. Nevertheless, the panel takes up
this criticism about the invisibility of faith communities during the COVID19-
 pandemic. It discusses the moral responsibility of religions in the Corona
crisis, their commitment and their obligation to care for the public health of
people worldwide, by analyzing examples of various theological
contributions.
Chair Katharina Kunter (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Leon van den Broeke (University Kampen, Netherlands/Vrije Universiteit
Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Speaker Jocelyne Cesari (University of Birmingham, UK/Georgetown University,
USA): Religion and Global Governance: Toward a re-foundation of the social
contract?

François Mabille (CNRS, France/Secretary General of IFCU): Catholicism:

expectations and disillusionment with regard to a welfare church

Drew Christiansen (Georgetown University, USA): Churches and Moral

responsibility during the COVID19-pandemic

Mario Fischer (General Secretary of the Communion of Protestant Churches

in Europe, Vienna, Austria): Being Church Together in a Pandemic –
Reflections from a Protestant Perspective"
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Panel number 140

Panel name Religion, Pandemic and Global Governance (2):
Religion, the COVID-19 Pandemic and Global Modes of Action
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 5.15pm-6.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Building on the theological approaches to the moral and societal
responsibility of churches and religions discussed in Panel 1, Panel 2
examines global and humanitarian strategies with which different religious
actors fight past and current pandemics in the 21st century. On the one
hand, different denominational, for example Catholic and Protestant,
initiatives will be compared with one another. On the other hand, the panel
will analyses, how in the 21st century religious development work and
global crisis prevention worked together. Which information channels were
used, which theological and political interpretations on the pandemic were
shared or even exported? Another focus of the discussion will be the
entanglement and connection of the Catholic Church and Global Protestant
humanitarian organizations with the United Nations organizations.
Chair Katharina Kunter (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Leon van den Broeke (University Kampen, Netherlands/Vrije Universiteit
Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Speaker Antti Laine (Finnish Church Aid, Helsinki, Finland): Faith based communities,
gender based violence and the COVID 19-Pandemic

Tobias Cinjee (Utrecht University, Netherlands/Vrije Universiteit

Amsterdam, Netherlands)/Hanneke Schaap-Jonker (Vrije Universiteit
Amsterdam, Netherlands): Narratives, coping and meaning making in the
Dutch reformed pietist community during the COVID19-outbreak
Additional
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Panel number 141

Panel name Author meets Critique - Deborah Casewell, Eberhard Jüngel and Existence:
Being Before the Cross, Routledge, 2021.
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 4.45pm-5.45pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract This book interrogates the contemporary Lutheran theologian Eberhard
Jüngel’s theological anthropology, arguing that Jüngel’s thought can provide
a model for theological engagement with philosophical accounts of
existence. Focusing on Jüngel’s theology of existence, the author explores
the thought of philosophers, including Heidegger and Hegel, their influence
on and application to his theology, and argues that Jüngel’s account of
humanity should be seen as a response to atheistic existentialist accounts of
existence. In showing how Jüngel’s theology is informed by and dependent
on philosophical thought, this book provides a new lens on the interplay
between philosophy, theology, and religion in twentieth-centuryGerman
thought.
Chair King-Ho Leung (University of St. Andrews, UK)
Speaker Discussant:
Johannes Zachhuber (University of Oxford, UK)
Michael Thate (Princeton University, USA)

Respondent:
Deborah Casewell (University of Bonn, Germany)

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Panel number 143

Panel name Critical Ecclesiology: Toward a Renewal of the Episcopacy in the East
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 11.00am-1.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The orthodox churches in the East came out from oppression after more
than five hundred years. Without a doubt this has been detrimental in many
aspects of the life of the church, including the ministry of the bishops. This
session is an exploration of potential aspects in renewing the understanding
and potentiality of the ministry of the bishops. We welcome papers that
deal with the understanding of the ministry of the bishops in Eastern
Christianity, or papers related to contemporary problems with the ministry
of the bishops in Eastern Christianity, either in the East or in the Diaspora.
Chair Michael Hjälm (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology,
Sweden)
Cyril Hovorun (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology,
Sweden)
Speaker Cyril Hovorun (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology,
Sweden): Episcopal office: The Church’s Essence or Accident?

Augustinos Bairactaris (University Ecclesiastical Academy of Heraklion,

Greece): The Ministry of the Ordained Bishop and the Church as People of
God

Michael Hjälm (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology,

Sweden): The Emperor’s New Clothes: Towards a Renewal of the Ministry of
the Bishop”
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Panel number 144

Panel name Bible Reception in the East (Jewish, Christian, Muslim Exegesis)
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 9.45am-12.00pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The development of biblical studies over the past two hundred years
displays how reception history emerges naturally out of the academic
discipline of biblical interpretation. The field of biblical studies is no longer
only concerned with the emergence and development of the biblical text up
to the point of canonization but increasingly also with its post-canonical
interpretation. In this way reception criticism takes up the uncompleted task
of biblical interpretation. This approach has strengthened the ties between
Eastern exegesis (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim) and biblical studies.
Scholars are invited to present papers on the meaning and importance of
contemporary or historical reception criticism, from both Jewish, Christian,
and Muslim perspectives.
Chair Meira Polliack (Tel Aviv University, Israel)
Miriam Lindgren Hjälm (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of
Theology, Sweden)
Speaker Meira Polliack (Tel Aviv University, Israel): The Portrayal of King David in
Mediaeval Exegesis: An Interreligious Context

Robert Turnbull (The University of Melbourne, Australia): Arabic

Lectionaries of the Epistles at Sinai

Miriam Lindgren Hjälm (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of

Theology, Sweden): Not Like Any Other Text: The Origin, Authorship, and
Categorization of the Psalms according to Christian Arabic Ms London, BL;
Arund. Or. 15
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information

Panel number 145

Panel name Liturgical Theology: A Reassessment
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 8.30am-10.45am
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Liturgical Theology, which had its beginnings in the Liturgical Movement,
was one of the genuine paradigm shifts in twentieth-century theology. It
was developed and made prominent by Orthodox theologians, first by
Kiprian Kern as early as the 1920’s, but developed and made known through
his disciple Alexander Schmemann. Even though the paradigm of liturgical
theology developed by Kern and Schmemann stands, there are challenges to
be met today by liturgical theology that will be discussed by the panelists.
Chair Michael Hjälm (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology,
Sweden)
Grant White (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology. Sweden)
Speaker Grant White (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology.
Sweden): Liturgical Theology: A Reassessment

Johannes Pullkkanen (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology.

Sweden): Eucharistic Theology and Liturgical Theology

Michael Hjälm (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology.

Sweden): The Unfulfilled Project of Liturgical Theology
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information

Panel number 146

Panel name Orthodox Unity: Christology in the Making
Date/ Time Monday August 30th 4:00pm-6.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract The Christological divide since 451 has remained the major obstacle
between the non-Chalcedonian and Chalcedonian churches, but could the
council of 553 unite us with the teaching on the en-hypostasis doctrine
Chair Samuel Rubenson (University of Lund, Sweden/Stockholm School of
Theology, Sweden)
Speaker Cyril Hovorun (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology,
Sweden): The Reception of Chalcedon in Byzantine Tradition

Youhanna Nessim Youssef (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of

Theology, Sweden): The Reception of Chalcedon in Coptic and Syriac
Traditions

Haileyesus Alebachew Molaw (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of

Theology, Sweden): The Reception of Chalcedon in Tewahedo Tradition

Samuel Rubenson (University of Lund, Sweden/Stockholm School of

Theology, Sweden): Concluding Remarks. Unity or Division? Prospects for
the Future
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information

Panel number 147

Panel name Orthodox Lay Organizations in Coexistence, Conflict, and Cooperation with
the Hierarchy
Date/ Time August 31st 11.00am-1.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Lay organizations have been instrumental for the orthodox ecclesiastical
development in the twentieth century and beyond in various constellations,
coexisting with the hierarchy, both in cooperation and in conflict. The
ultimate question is whether these organizations are beneficial for the
official church; how they are influencing the church life, and when they
become an obstacle for relations with the official church. The panel consists
of members from Mehebere Kidusan from Ethiopia, and the Institute for the
Study of Culture and Christianity in Belgrade
Chair Bojana Bursać Džalto (Institute for the Study of Culture and Christianity,
Belgrade, Serbia)
Speaker Youhanna Nessim Youssef (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of
Theology, Sweden): Coptic Lay Organizations, Part 1

Joseph Gobran (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology,

Sweden): Coptic Lay Organizations, Part 2

Nataliya Bezborodova (University of Alberta, Canada):’Flying Community’:

Inter-denominational Group in the Turmoil
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information

Panel number 148

Panel name Author meets Critique - Davor Džalto, Anarchy and the Kingdom of God:
From Eschatology to Orthodox Christian Political Theology and Back,
Fordham University Press, 2021
Date/ Time August 30th 4.00pm-5.00pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract Anarchy and the Kingdom of God reclaims the concept of “anarchism” both
as a political philosophy and a way of thinking of the sociopolitical sphere
from a theological perspective. Through a genuinely theological approach to
the issues of power, coercion, and oppression, Davor Džalto advances
human freedom—one of the most prominent forces in human history—as a
foundational theological principle in Christianity. That principle enables a
fresh reexamination of the problems of democracy and justice in the age of
global (neoliberal) capitalism.
Chair Michael Hjälm (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology,
Sweden)
Speaker Discussants:
Davor Džalto (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology,
Sweden)
Michael Hjälm (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology,
Sweden)
Aristotle Papanikolaou (Fordham University, New York City, USA)
Additional
information

Panel number 149

Panel name Universal Authority in Flux: Primacy, Catholicity and World Governance
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 8.30am-10.45am
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.208/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract On March 27, 2020, Pope Francis appeared alone in a completely empty St.
Peter’s Square to pray for the end of the pandemic. The event, described as
Statio Orbis (the gathering of the world), was a moment in which the Pope
appeared to be the only one who could speak on behalf of all humanity,
asserting an authority that aspired to be totally universal. This panel aims to
explore the question of universal authority—ecclesial and political—in the
new context of technological development, ecological crisis, globalisation
and ‘post-truth’. We approach this from a variety of angles. Several
questions arise from the ecclesiological perspective. How this new context
impacts the relationship between primacy and synodality, universality and
particularity, the One and the Many? How does the fading of ecclesial
mediation in the age of the internet reinforce the authority of the highest-
ranking religious leaders? From the perspective of ecumenical theology, the
question is of how the evolution of the universal and regional primacies
affects their reception within and beyond their churches, and what reforms
would enable such a reception? From the perspective of political theology,
the question concerns the analogy between an articulation of universal
leadership: Can primacy serve as a model in the discussion of changes in
world governance, and vice-versa? What are the conditions of truth-telling
in the age of fake news, from the perspective of universal leadership?

Chair Peter De Mey (KU Leuven, Belgium)

Speaker Fáinche Ryan (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland): Prudentia, Parrhesia and
Decision-making

Amphilochios Miltos (Theological Academy of Volos, Greece): Primacy and

Territoriality

Luc Forestier (Catholic Institute of Paris, France): Catholicity or Universality?

Towards an Ecumenical Form of Governance for the Global Church”

Pavlo Smytsnyuk (Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv, Ukrainia): The Uneasy

Business of Universality: Western and Eastern Struggles with Catholicity
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information

Panel number 150

Panel name What Can(not) Be Known? Theology, Quantum Physics and Neuroscience in
Dialogue
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 11.00am-1.15pm
Format Online
Room /
Abstract We are in the “world” but the “world” we are in is also a representation that
our brain creates for us. What is “out there” (outside of our minds/bodies)
and what can we know about it? How do we know what we (think we) know
and how does that knowledge relate to “reality”? This panel will discuss the
question of human knowledge in its relationship to the “world” and “reality”
from a variety of perspectives, bringing neuroscience, information/quantum
physics and religion/theology in dialogue.
Chair Gayle Woloschak (Nothwestern University,Evanston, USA)
Speaker Davor Džalto (Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology,
Sweden): Theology and beyond

Chris Fields (Independent scholar): Physics and beyond

Philip Goff (Durham University, GB): Consciousness, reality, and beyond

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information

Panel number 153

Panel name Ecclesiastical authority and academic freedom: An uneasy relationship
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 2.15pm-5.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.201/ Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract In recent years there is an increasing attempt in many traditional Orthodox
lands to suppress academic freedom. Against eminent scholars and
theologians who express what might be considered by the traditionalists as
controversial opinions on critical issues, the ecclesiastical authorities are
searching for ways to silence academic freedom. The dialectical relationship
between authority and freedom constitutes a timeless theological problem
that has recently been transferred to the field of academia. This situation
calls for vigilance and theological reflection in order to bring to the fore the
causes that lead to this reality, to describe the background of this situation,
as well as to explore possible venues for overcoming the controversy for
the benefit of both the theological research and the further development of
the body of Christ. Over the centuries the great Fathers of the Church have
set the example of a balanced coexistence of ecclesiastical authority and
faith with theological research and reflection, especially in times (see the
encounter of the Church with Hellenism) when critical and necessary
syntheses were required for the effective witness of the Gospel. Any
restriction of academic freedom in the name of fidelity to the ecclesiastical
tradition is a betrayal of the tradition itself but also of the Christian spirit.
Chair Assad Elias Kattan (University of Münster, Germany)
Speaker Pantelis Kalaitzidis (Volos Academy for Theological Studies, Greece)

Aristotle Papanikolaou (Orthodox Christian Studies Center, Fordham

University, New York City, USA)

Sveto Riboloff (Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Bulgaria)

Marco Vilotic (University of Belgrade, Serbia)

 Inga Leonova (Editor in Chief, The Wheel Journal, USA)

Ionut Biliuta ('Gheorghe Sincai' Institute for Social Sciences and the
Humanities Romanian Academy, Romania)
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Panel number 155

Panel name The Legacy of Nikolaj Velimirović
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 2.15pm-5.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.201/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract The panel aims to scrutinize the intellectual legacy of the modern Orthodox
theologian Nikolaj Velimirović (1881-1956). Despite the unanimous
recognition of his intellectual and spiritual calibre, Velimirović remains a
largely under-researched author both in a Serbian national and an
international context. Moreover, apart from being scantily studied, his
writings are usually subject to excessive misinterpretation. This is
particularly the case with one of the constants of Velimirović’s work, namely
his criticism of certain European ideas. Perhaps, more than any other aspect
of his work, Velimirović’s views on Europe have been approached in a biased
way and instrumentalized in highly charged political disputes. By
commemorating the hundred-fortieth anniversary of Velimirović’s birth and
sixty-fifth anniversary of his death, this panel intends to shed light on: i) his
formative period before and during WWI, he spent in Germany, Switzerland,
UK and USA and his ecumenical endeavours; ii) the interwar period, while he
served first as bishop of Žiča and later as bishop of Ohrid, and his
relationship with the Yugoslav government and political parties, Roman-
Catholic Church, Jewish communities, as well as with the ideologies of
fascism and communism; iii) his imprisonment during the WWII in Dachau,
immigration in the USA, and the life in immigration, including his rectorate
at St Tikhon Orthodox Seminary in South Canan (PA) his ecumenical
engagements with American Christians.
Chair Vladimir Cvetković (University of Belgrade, Serbia)
Rastko Lompar (Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia)
Speaker Milan Kostrešević (University of Bern, Switzerland): Nicholai Velimirović's
Scientific Activity in Bern: Doctorates in Theology and Philosophy

Srećko Petrović (University of Belgrade, Serbia): A Review of Early

Ecumenical Engagement of Nicholai Velimirovich: 1908–1921

Phillip Calington (St Sergius Orhodox Academy, Paris, France): St Nikolaj

Velimirović and pre-Christian philosophers

Rastko Lompar (Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia):

Reassessing Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović’s Stances on Fascism and the
Yugoslav National Movement Zbor
 Nemanja Andrijašević (University of Munich, Germany): Instructions of
Bishop Dr Nikolaj Velimirović Addressed to the Archpriest Aleksa Todorović
regarding the Arrangement of Religious-national edition 'Svetachnik'

Vladimir Cvetković (University of Belgrade, Serbia): Bishop Nikolaj

Velimirović’s View on the Relationship between Politics and Religion

Dragan Šljivić (University of Erfurt, Germany): The Orthodox Nevercoming

Land: St. Nikolaj of Ohrid and Žiča on Democracy

Srećko Petrović (University of Belgrade, Serbia): Ecumenical Engagement of

Nicholai Velimirovich after the World War II
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Panel number 156

Panel name Author meets Critique - José Ramón Rodríguez Lago/Natalia Núñez-
Bargueño (Eds.). Beyond National Catholicisms: Transnational Networks Of
Hispanic Catholicisms. Sílex, Universidad, 2021
Date/ Time Thursday September 2nd 2.45pm-3.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room F2/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract
Chair
Speaker Discussant: Francisco Javier Ramon Solans (Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain)

Respondent:
José Ramón Rodríguez Lago (Universidad de Vigo, Spain)
Natalia Núñez-Bargueño (Sorbonne Université, Paris, France/Asociación
Española de Historia Religiosa Contemporánea, Spain)

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information

Panel number 158

Panel name Author meets Critique - Francisco Javier Ramón Solans. Más allá de los
Andes. Los orígenes ultramontanos de la Iglesia latinoamericana (1851-
1910). Universidad del País Vasco, 2020
Date/ Time Wednesday September 1st 8.30am-9.30am
Format Hybrid
Room F1/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22)
Abstract Más allá de los Andes. Los orígenes ultramontanos de una Iglesia
latinoamericana (1851-1910) the result of the research I have been carrying
out for more than three years within the project C2-26 "Der
Ultramontanismus als transnationales und transatlantisches Phänomen
1819-1918" led by Professor Olaf Blaschke at the Exzellenzcluster "Religion
und Politik" of the University of Münster (Germany). Más allá de los Andes is
a transnational history of Latin American Catholicism in the second half of
 the 19th century. This book aims to go beyond the traditional national
approaches to the question of religion and thus contribute to a better
understanding of the dynamics between the centre and the peripheries
within Catholicism. In this sense, Más allá de los Andes helps to explain the
growing role of the Latin American Church in contemporary Catholicism, a
development that has culminated in the appointment of the first American
pope in history, Francis I. The Catholic Church in Latin America went from
being on the brink of schism in the early 19th century to occupying a central
place in Vatican geo-strategy.

Chair
Speaker Discussant:
N.N.

Respondent:
Francisco Javier Ramon Solans (Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain)

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information

Panel number 160

Panel name Spirituality between Religion and the Secular
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 11.00am-1.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.208/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract Today’s literature about spirituality is deeply divided about its relationships
with both religion and the secular. Albeit more typically asserted than
informed by systematic empirical research, spirituality is alternatively
understood as profoundly
different from, or even incompatible with, Christian religion; as a mystical
type of religion in and of itself; as not (‘really’) religious at all; as basically
secular rather than religious; or as neither religious nor secular. This panel
addresses this persistent
source of disagreement, controversy, and confusion by opening up
spirituality’s relationships with religion and the secular for critical empirical
scrutiny.
Chair Dick Houtman (KU Leuven, Belgium)
Speaker Pavlo Smytsnyuk (Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv, Ukrainia): Spirituality
and the Overcoming of the Religious/Secular Divide: Toward a Comparative
Spiritual Theology

Sophie Izoard-Allaux (UCLouvain, Belgium): Spirituality’s Breath in

Organizations: Post-Industrial Gnosis or Sign of the Times?

Polina Vrublevskaya (Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland/ St. Tikhon’s

Orthodox University, Moscow, Russia): Vocabularies of Spiritual Seekers
across Christian Traditions: A Comparative Study of Young Adults from
Finland, Poland, and Russia
 Anneke Pons (KU Leuven, Belgium), Spirituality and Community among
Spiritually Minded Church Members

Francesco Cerchiaro (KU Leuven, Belgium): “Finding Your Own Spiritual

Way”: A Case Study of a French Association of Christian-Muslim Families

Additional
information

Panel number 161

Panel name Spirituality in the West Today
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 2.15pm-5.45pm
Format Hybrid
Room F234/Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz20-22)
Abstract One of the most striking changes in the religious landscapes of the West in
the past half century has been the turn towards spirituality, both within
established religions and as a ‘stand-alone’ mystical type of religion. This
panel brings together young
researchers from Italy, the Netherlands and Canada, who study this spiritual
turn in different national settings and by means of different methodologies.
The panel’s aim is to establish connections between them and trigger a
constructive and mutually
beneficial debate about the vicissitudes of spirituality in the West today.
Chair Dick Houtman (KU Leuven, Belgium)
Speaker Olga Breskaya (Università di Padova, Italy): Religious Freedom between
Religion and Spirituality

Stefania Palmisano (Università di Torino, Italy), Multiple Spiritualities:

Epistemological and Terminological Questions from Italian Fieldwork

Stefano Sbalchiero (Università di Padova, Italy): Spirituality in Words

Paul Tromp (KU Leuven, Belgium): How Does Post-Christian Spirituality
Relate to Traditional Christian Religiosity?

Galen Watts (Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada): The Religion of the

Heart: ‘Spirituality’ in Late Modernity

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information

Panel number 162

Panel name Transformation of Teleologies of History
Date/ Time Tuesday August 31st 11.00am-1.15pm
Format Hybrid
Room DPL23.205/Philosophikum (Domplatz 23)
Abstract Teleologies of history conceive the meaning of history on the basis of a final
point of ultimate meaning, which is able to provide history with inner
cohesion and direction. Religions have an ambivalent position vis-à-vis those
teleologies of history. On the one hand, they envision a goal of history in
 their images and symbols (and their secular derivatives) and can thus be
understood as the driving force for teleological conceptions of history. On
the other hand, they undermine them by overriding symbols of
representation of the totality of history and therefore form a barrier against
attempts to appropriate history. In this sense, the biblical tradition is also an
important reference point for philosophical designs of teleologies of history,
their critique and transformation.
The lectures of this panel, which emerge from the work of the research
centre "Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society" (University of
Vienna), discuss selected questions of the teleology of history: a poetic view
of history, the tension between mysticism and historiography, forms of
anachronistic conception of time and the question of how to deal with
nihilism.

Chair Jakob Helmut Deibl (University of Vienna, Austria)

Speaker Isabella Bruckner (KU Linz, Austria):
Faire de l’histoire. On the Mystical Practice of Writing History between Fact
and Fiction in Michel de Certeau

Isabella Bosoky (University of Vienna, Austria):

Beyond time and allegory: Walter Benjamin's "Denkbilder"

Marian Weingartshofer (University of Vienna, Austria):

Against Nihilism: Gilles Deleuze’s Critique of the "Unhappy Consciousness"

Jakob Helmut Deibl (University of Vienna, Austria): Hölderlin’s poetic view of

history

Katharina Limacher (University of Vienna, Austria): Presentation of the

Research Centre “Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society”
and the “Vienna Doctoral School for Theology and Research on Religion
(VDTR)”
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