Decolonizing Churches

In this conference we dealt with the decolonization of churches and theology in the Caribbean, Latin America and their diaspora, but also with the global context. Also closely related to the decolonization of theologies are the issues dealing with discrimination and oppression based on gender, ethnicity, class, nationality, sexuality, etc. Economic inequality, social vulnerabilities, climate change and global challenges such as pandemics, neoliberalsm and the role of information technology in modern society which were also discussed.

Place: San Juan (Puerto Rico)

Date: 22.-25. June 2022

Quo vadis Orthodox Theology? Orthodoxy Between Tradition and Renewal in German-speaking Countries (1st Annual Conference of the Working Group of Orthodox Theologians)

The working group of orthodox theologians in German-speaking countries was founded in Vienna in 2019. This meeting was the first annual meeting of this circle. The topic was orthodoxy in the field of tension between tradition and renewal in the German-speaking area. We discussed the current status of orthodox theology in Germany and tried to define tasks for the coming period. Above all, orthodox theologians took part, but also academics and ecumenists from other churches.

Place: Stuttgart (Online)

Date: 10-12. June 2021

Paths of Hope and Peace: Conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh as Reflected in the Literary Work of Akram Aylisli

The war in Nagorno-Karabakh may have ended, but the people there now have to live with the consequences. That evening we spoke to our guests about how they assess this conflict and how they think paths to reconciliation could look like. We also talked about dual identities, literature that can set the world free, and ways to conquer hatred. We also looked at the answers that the Azerbaijani writer Akram Aylisli found.

Place: Stuttgart (Online)

Date: 07. May 2021

Confession and Martyrdom: Religious Freedom of Middle Eastern Christians

Where the right to free exercise of religion is disregarded, the realization of other human rights is not good either. Freedom of religion is particularly at risk in countries in the Middle East and North Africa. In 2017, the Catholic and Protestant bishops of Germany jointly warned that Christianity was dying out in the Middle East. Many Christians emigrate or flee. They also form significant communities in Baden-Württemberg. At the conference we want to raise awareness of the importance of the right to freedom of religion, thought and conscience for the human rights situation in a country.

Place: Stuttgart (Online)

Date: 29.-30. March 2021

Stolen Churches or Bridges to Orthodoxy? Impulses for Theological Dialogue Between Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches

The intention behind this conference was to encourage and promote much needed theological engagement with regard to the furtherance of dialogue between Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. During their history these Churches have endured a very complex and at times tense relationship with one another (and this not just theologically but also politically, e. g. the example of the Ukrainian context). We gathered together official representatives of both Christian traditions, as well as theologians and politicians from the differing contexts where the tensions are greatest to see if we can help move dialogue and so relations forward in this area.

Place: Stuttgart

Date: 19.-21. July 2019

“Treasure of the Orient” – Encounter With the Faith, Culture and Life of Oriental and Orthodox Christians

Almost two million orthodox and ancient oriental Christians live in Germany. Although they come largely from Middle Eastern countries, also known as the “cradle of Christianity”, there is widespread ignorance about their faith, culture and customs in German society. In order to increase the visibility of these Christians, I organized this conference on July 1-2, 2017 together with the representatives of the Eastern Churches. This focused strongly on the personal and biographical experiences and stories of orthodox and ancient oriental Christians.

Place: Stuttgart

Date: 1.-2. July 2017

Christianity and Religions in China: Past-Present-Future

The conference addressed the multi-faceted theme of “Christianity and Religions in China: Past, Present, Future” and explored interdenominational issues, intra-ecclesial issues, and issues of interaction and dialogue between the world in which the faith communities are located and society. The primary focus was on the Chinese context, but the presentations also dealt with Christianity and religion in Asia in general.

Place: Hong Kong (China)

Date: 20.-24. July 2016

Vatican II – Remembering the Future

The aim of this event was to commemorate the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), 50 years after its conclusion, both through the eyes of non-Roman Catholic scholars and from the perspective of prominent Catholic theologians see. The event was thematically structured on a daily basis according to the most important documents of the Council. The conference was attended by leaders of the church leadership, such as Cardinal Walter Kasper, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle.

Place: Georgetown (Washington DC, USA)

Date: 21.-24. May 2015

Hope in the Ecumenical Future

This conference focused on questions about the concept and the role of hope in the ecumenical movement, about the methods of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and about the future of inner-church, inter-church and interreligious dialogue. Signs that the ecumenical winter may soon be over were also examined, mainly due to the election of Pope Francis.

Place: Oxford (UK)

Date: 09.-11. April 2014

Religion, Authority & State

In 2013, the 1700th anniversary of the proclamation of the so-called “Edict of Milan” was celebrated with several conferences around the world. Because Emperor Constantine was born in the Roman city of Naissus (now Nis – Serbia), we organized this conference in Serbia. A wide range of topics were discussed at the conference, including historically relevant issues of religion, authority and the state, East-West relations, as well as interreligious and ecumenical issues, issues of secularization and reflections on post- and neo-secular society.

Place: Belgrade (Serbia)

Date: 19-22. June 2013

Where We Dwell in Common

This conference tried to find constructive ways for dialogue in today’s world and to put them into practice. The aim was to promote ecumenical and interfaith thinking outside the box, bringing together a diversity of people with different opinions to create a platform for dialogue. We wanted to learn from them about their experience in (secular) peacebuilding and conflict resolution and what methods, strategies and initiatives they use that could also be helpful for ecumenical and interreligious dialogue.

Place: Assisi (Italy)

Date: 17.-20. April 2012

Die Rolle der Laien in der Orthodoxen Kirche: Die ungelernten Lektionen des Landeskonzils der ROK von 1917/18

This lecture was devoted to the new draft of the Constitution of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which was being discussed at the Holy Synod of that Church at that time. I analyzed this document specifically in terms of lay participation in the Church and tried to show that the old constitution, which is over seven decades old, was actually more emancipatory for the laity than the new one. I have tried to warn that such developments will lead to problems based on the experience of the Russian Orthodox Church in the period just before the revolution. The 1917-18 Moscow Council attempted to resolve these problems by involving lay people in the administration of the Church. Unfortunately, this solution came too late. So I tried to warn that such a constitution, if adopted, will have serious consequences for lay participation in the life of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Conference: Die Serbische Orthodoxe Kirche in den Herausforderungen des beginnenden 21. Jahrhundert

Place: Regensburg

Date: 5.5.2018

Welches Konzil sollen wir rezipieren? Landeskonzil der ROK von 1917/18 und die Synode der Orthodoxen Kirche auf Kreta im Vergleich

In this article I compared the Council of Crete (2016) with the national council of the Russian Church of 1917/18 and showed that we have not learned any valuable lessons in the last 100 years and that the state of synodality and democracy in our Orthodox Church has developed negatively. The Moscow Council had tried to emphasize the role of the laity in the Church, to democratize conciliar processes, and all this with complete transparency, which is particularly visible in the minutes of this Council. For the lecture I analyzed these minutes (all twelve volumes) and gave examples from them that point out what we did wrong with the Council of Crete. I have also tried to show that this Council and its decisions are the right way forward for Orthodoxy and that we should try to build on that.

Conference: Russische Revolution, Orthodoxe Kirche und Landeskonzil – Was bleibt?

Place: Stuttgart

Date: 17.11.2017

Are Orthodox Pelagian? Correspondence Between Jeremiah II, Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Lutheran Scholars in Tübingen

Are there similarities between Orthodoxy and Pelagianism? This question seems absurd, since this heresy was condemned by them in the Council of Ephesus (431). But Pelagius was also rehabilitated by the Synod of Diospolis (415), also held in the East, and his teachings on grace were regarded by them as fully orthodox at the time. The greatest resemblance to Pelagianism is that to this day orthodox theology cannot accept that in the act of salvation grace comes before the free choice one makes. One must first freely choose Christ and grace follows. In this article I would like to illustrate this with the correspondence between Jeremiah II, Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Lutheran scholars in Tübingen, which also discusses this question.

Conference: Reformation and Global Reconciliation

Place: Jena

Date: 28.5.2017

Socialisms in the Late Antiquity? Pelagius’ Views of Human Poverty and Need

This lecture offers a brief sketch of Pelagius’ views on human poverty and offers a comparison (and possibly an alternative) to Augustine’s views on the same subject. The main focus is on Pelagius’ letter “On Riches”, but also on some of his other works, in which he makes (also for our modern times) some quite radical statements like “We must get rid of the rich and the will to be poor”, for which (among other things ) Pelagius was rejected by the Church. This talk will also examine why the church(es) in our time have rejected movements similar to communism and feel much closer to non-specifically Christian concepts like capitalism.

Conference: Christianity and Religions in China: Past-Present-Future

Place: Hong Kong

Date: 22.6.2016

Pan-Orthodox Synod and the Experiences of Other Churches With the Sinodality

In this paper I have tried to examine what the Orthodox Church can learn about synodality from the experiences of other churches, particularly the Catholics, who in the last century managed to organize a great council with great success (Vatican II). I was interested in experiences that might be useful for the upcoming Pan-Orthodox Council announced for next year. In the lecture I gave a brief overview of the preparations for the Pan-Orthodox Council in general. What can be expected from this event? Will it go ahead as planned? Will it bring unity or further division? These (and other) questions were discussed.

Conference: American Academy of Religion Annual Conference

Place: Atlanta

Date: 21.11.2015

Arius Conservativus? The Question of Positioning of Arius Theology

With this paper I presented a chapter from my dissertation “Christology and Communion”. I gave a brief survey of the scholarship on whether Arius belonged to the so-called Alexandrian or Antiochian “school,” and briefly discussed other philosophical and religious influences. The intention to place Arius’s theology in a broader context is very important because we can partly compensate for the lack of Arius’ original writings with answers and reactions. In the paper I postulated that Arius himself was more of a conservative theologian (traditionalist) and as such belonged to the older Alexandrian theological tradition, which would explain why he had a dispute with Alexander and Athanasius, who as representatives of the modern (progressive) Alexandrian school of thought (party).

Conference: XVII International Conference on Patristic Studies

Place: Oxford

Date: 11.9.2015

Between Aggiornamento and Return to the Fathers – Vatican II Opening Speech and Orthodox Patristic Renewal

In his opening address to the Second Vatican Council, John XXIII. set out the path that the Roman Catholic Church will follow in the next century, and that path can be summed up in the two words “aggiornamento” and “resourcement”. In his speech, the Pope gave both terms the same meaning. At the First Congress of Orthodox Theology in Athens in 1936, the representatives of the various local Orthodox Churches asked the same question. Two of the main Patrist scholars at the conference, Georges Florovsky and Anton Kartashev, both had different views on how this path should be for the Orthodox Church. The first suggested that orthodox theology must first of all go “ad fontes” and the second that the Church needs “aggiornamento” to survive in our modern times. Unfortunately, Florovsky’s vision was the one to which most orthodox theologians have been, and are, inclined. In this lecture I have focused on the negative impact this has had on the Orthodox Church but also on ecumenical dialogue as a whole.

Conference: Vatican II – Remembering the Future

Place: Georgetown

Date: 23.5.2015

Luther aus Sicht der Orthodoxen Theologie

For orthodox theology, Martin Luther’s personality is and remains ambivalent. On the one hand she feels very close to Luther, since he criticizes the “common enemy” Rome, but on the other hand she feels very distant because he carries the “heresy” of the West even further than the Roman Catholic Church. In this paper I have the correspondence between the ecumenical patriarch Jeremiah II with the then orthodox theologians around him and a number of Württemberg theologians of the Reformation such as the classical philologist Martin Crusius and the chancellor of the University of Tübingen Jakobus Andrea at their head in the years 1573 -1581 watched. Much can be learned from this correspondence for today’s relations between the Orthodox and Evangelical churches.

Conference: Reformationsjubiläum Uni Tübingen

Place: Tübingen

Date: 13.4.2015

Konservativer als damals? – Beteiligung der Orthodoxen am ökumenischen Dialog

If one takes a look at the situation of Orthodox participation in ecumenical dialogue since its inception, it seems as if only backward steps are taking place in this area today. Several Orthodox churches have left the World Council of Churches (WCC) over the past two decades, and those who have stayed continue to express their dissatisfaction with the current state of ecumenism at the joint meeting. In this paper I have attempted to provide a historical overview of Orthodox involvement in ecumenical dialogue. In addition, in the second part of the paper, this participation was also analyzed in terms of content in order to bring the reasons for the current situation closer to the listener. The main question that was asked is: What exactly happened between 1900 and 2014 that made the Orthodox less interested in ecumenism or more and more skeptical about the dialogue between the churches? What can be done to revive this participation?

Conference: 50 Jahre Ökumene und Religionsdialog – Ein Rückblick im Interesse der Zukunft (Studium Generale)

Place: Tübingen

Date: 18.6.2014

Ecumenism on the Rocks: What Couples Therapy Can Teach Ecumenical Dialogue

Couples therapy was developed in the 1920’s and this was around the time the ecumenical movement was emerging. Not only are these two developments of similar age, but they also share a common goal: to unite what has been separated (or is on the way to being separated). It is therefore somewhat surprising that there is no research examining how both approaches could actually learn from each other. This article explores the potential of applying couples therapy ideas and methods to ecumenical dialogue. Although dialogue between two people cannot be fully compared to dialogue between churches, there are some striking similarities between them. Finally, the Church as an organism is made up of human individuals and as such exhibits elements of human behavior and is often susceptible to the same mistakes that humans can make in their own relationships.

Conference: Hope in the Ecumenical Future

Place: Oxford

Date: 11.4.2014

Confessional Belonging and National Identity in Serbia and Germany

This lecture deals with the difficult relationship between Croats and Serbs and tries to show that this relationship cannot be reduced to their religious affiliation only. We often identify the connection between nation and ecclesiology as the main cause of problems in the Orthodox Church, and to a large extent this is the case, but we have some examples of other churches that do not have national ecclesiology and have similar problems. In this case, the example of Croatia is cited, where the majority of the population belongs to the Catholic Church. This example is intended to show that there are other problem factors besides ecclesiology when it comes to nationalism.

Conference: Religion, Authority & State

Place: Belgrade

Date: 21.6.2013

The Franciscan Disputes – Lessons for Divided Christianity Today

There is a certain similarity between the Franciscan order and global Christianity: both are divided. Is that a coincidence? Is division necessarily always a bad thing, and what kind of unity do we want to achieve? What is the relationship between diversity and division? This article has compared the Franciscan division with that within Christianity, while attempting to answer how ecumenical dialogue can benefit from the Franciscan model and its rich spiritual experience. The main focus of the lecture was to reflect on how we understand division and to offer a new perspective on understanding the unity we seek to achieve through ecumenical dialogue. The lecture argued that the ecumenical winter we are currently experiencing is the result of trying to achieve a wrong kind of unity between churches.

Conference: Where We Dwell in Common

Place: Assisi

Date: 20.4.2012

Women, Ministry, and Exclusion – Orthodox View

This paper talks about the current position of women in the Orthodox Church, which is far from satisfactory. Not only do women not have the opportunity to become priestess, but there are very few positions of power that they can hold. The teaching posts in the theological faculties are almost entirely occupied by men. But in this serious situation there is still light at the end of the tunnel. Some of the most respected orthodox theologians, such as John Zizioulas, recognize that there is no doctrinal reason not to ordain women and that it is just a matter of tradition. In the paper I examined what needs to be done to move things forward and create new traditions.

Conference: Ecclesiology and Exclusion

Place: Dayton

Date: 20.5.2011

Ecclesiology and National Identity

In the 1990s, a number of campaigns on the territory of Croatia between Serbs and Croats were carried out in the former SFRY. During World War II, Croats killed at least 600,000 Serbs, Roma and Jews in Nazi concentration camps. Of course, such animosities existed and exist between other nations as well, except that Serbia and Croatia are not two different nations, but one: they have the same language, are both of Slavic origin, have a lot of history in common, etc. The only thing that separates them is belonging to another Christian denomination. So in this article I have tried to show how ecclesiology influenced the formation of such animosities, and then compared Serbo-Croatian relations with those of the German nation, which is similarly composed of two different denominations but lacks any animosity.

Conference: Ecclesiologia e interculturalità

Place: Rome

Date: 10.1.2011

Orthodoxe Theologie und Vätertradition (Orthodox Theology and Patristic Tradition)

This lecture took place within the lecture series “Textautoritäten – Textual Authorities,” held at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Tübingen. During the presentation, I addressed the challenges posed by the orthodox “ad fontes” movement (a return to the fathers of the church) and its impact on Orthodoxy’s resistance to adapting to the modern world. In the lecture, I highlighted the existence of two distinct paths that the Orthodox Church could have taken at the beginning of the twentieth century: a modernist path and a conservative path. Exploring the 1936 Orthodox conference in Athens, I emphasized the presence of representatives from both paths. Anton Vladimirovich Kartashev, a church historian, advocated for the modernist path, opposing the strengthening of the patristic orientation. On the other hand, Georges Florovsky represented the conservative path, which ultimately emerged victorious.

Date:6.6.2023