St. Andrew’s Biblical Theological Institute (Moscow, Russia)
Novi Sad Theological Seminary (Serbia)
DELM - Development of Ecumenical Leadership in Mission Network
with the support of
ICCO - Kerk in Actie (Utrecht, Netherlands)
Invitation and Call for Papers
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
THEOLOGY OF DIALOGUE
7-10 November 2012
Novi Sad, Serbia
THEME OF THE CONFERENCE
The dialogue between Christians of different confessions has become very important in the contemporary world. This dialogue presupposes as its ultimate aim restoration of full communion between separated churches. This aim however is not something that could be easily and quickly achieved and requires a lot of work to be done for its realization. However, even first steps in this direction show that inter-Christian dialogue bears a lot of good fruits for those who are engaged in it.
Communication between representatives of different traditions leads to a better understanding of each other and to mutual enrichment. Furthermore, our awareness of the other brings about a change of our own mind. This leads us from the dialogue for understanding to the dialogue for change. An important part of this dialogue is reassessment of the past, especially of the events that caused disagreements and divisions between churches, which were often accompanied by condemnations and anathemas. Purification of memory thus becomes a very important aspect of any interconfessional dialogue. The same applies to any interreligious dialogue which has also become very important today.
Neither of these however can be made possible without genuine and authentic love towards the other. It is love that lies at the very heart of any true dialogue, which therefore can properly be called the dialogue of love. ‘He who does not love does not know God; for God is love’ (1John 4:8). It is with this point that any theological reflection on the dialogue should begin before it turns to the discussion of different aspects and levels of dialogue, both theoretical and practical.
The concept of dialogue, due to the works of 20th century thinkers such as Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas, Mikhail Bakhtin etc., has taken an important place in the contemporary philosophical and theological discourse. It seems however that this often remains at the level of scholarly talks about ‘dialogue in general’, full of fascinating and exciting ideas but without any significant realization in terms of praxis. In this sense, any theology of dialogue should be ultimately orientated towards concrete work in the field of inter-Christian and inter-religious relations.
The aim of the forthcoming conference is to discuss the ways in which theology of dialogue can be developed and how this can be applied on the practical level, in the dialogue between religious communities and persons in different cultural contexts.
PAPERS
Those who wish to present a paper should send a summary (500 words at most) by e-mail to St. Andrew’s by 15 September 2012.
The Organizing Committee selects papers for the Conference and sends invitations to the speakers. The full text of all selected papers will have to be submitted by 1 November 2012. The working language of the conference will be English.
Upon arrival at the conference every participant will receive summaries of all the papers and the conference programme. Papers are scheduled for 30 minutes each. Summaries and papers should be sent to:
Mikhail Tolstoluzhenko
St. Andrew’s Biblical Theological Institute
Jerusalem St. 3, Moscow, 109316, Russia
Tel/Fax: +7 495 6702200; +7 495 6707644
E-mail:
standrews@yandex.ru,
info@standrews.ru
ORGANIZATION AND ACCOMMODATIONS
The conference will assemble on 7 November 2012 for a reception and opening ceremony in the evening. Participants will depart after breakfast on 10 November. Accommodation and meals will be provided by the organizers.
REGISTRATION
Numbers are limited and early registration is strongly advised. Registration forms can be found on St. Andrew's website
www.standrews.ru and must be sent to the above address.