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News from the Centre for Public Theology, Huron University College, London, Ontario, Canada

Dear Friends

We have celebrated our first year at the Centre for Public Theology, having held our first conference in May and presently preparing our first publication – War, Dignity and Nation Building: Theological Reflections on Canada’s Role in Afghanistan with Cambridge Scholar’s Press.
Our conference in May, same title as the book, saw Christian, Jewish and Muslim as well as secular scholars, from various disciplines, gather to present some 14 papers and we had three panels that were made up from the NGO and faith communities to talk about their work and perspectives in addition to the usual academic style papers.  Our goal of dialogue across academic and faith boundaries and between non-traditional stakeholders went well.  The conference was decently attended but we have learnt much on the timing and promotion side of things.  The conference also launched our fellows program, with more to come in the next months.
In May and June the Centre was active in reaching out to policy makers in Canada and the United States in Ottawa and Washington, DC.  Both trips brought the work to the attention of individual policy makers in areas of concern to our research areas and were profitable to that end.  One hoped for area to develop will be to take policy makers to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s ‘Conscience’ dialogue program which attenuates policy makers to the broad role religion and theology has in facilitating inhumane treatment and possible genocides.   
This year marks our new research area in which we will begin work on Africa, HIV-AIDS and Canada.  I am pleased that our international development agency, CIDA, is interested in our work and that a partnership here is being discussed in this area.
Areas in which we need to develop include the webpage – publictheology.org – which needs a deft hand in terms of technology.  We have found it nearly impossible to administer the page from our internal resources and need badly expertise here.

Please watch for a research brief on this upcoming year’s research portfolio in the next days.

I thank each of you for your time,

Dr Darren C Marks
Director, Centre for Public Theology

06/07/2009

News from the Lutheran School of Theology at São Leopoldo (Escola Superior de Teologia, EST) to the GNPT

The Brazilian Research Council (CNPq) has conceded a grant for "exploratory visits" to and from South Africa, in view of the upcoming South-South cooperation with the Stellenbosch Beyers Naudé Institute for Public Theology. This seed funding will be crucial in establishing a research project for the next few years.

GNPT executive member prof. Rudolf von Sinner has also been awarded a personal three year scholarship from CNPq for his research on Public Theology, which shows that the relevance of this subject and theology's contribution in the public space is being recognized.

A publication is planned for later this year on "Public Theology in Latin America", and there are currently three students doing Master's and Doctoral degrees in this line. One of them plans to spend one year of his doctoral studies at Stellenbosch, within the cooperation programme. Another focuses on a pentecostal public theology, and the third on abortion and public theology. All of them have scored very high on their entry exam and thus been eligible for scholarships, which means they can dedicate themselves full time to the research. Although there is no specific Master's or doctoral program on Public Theology at EST, the areas of emphasis (Bible, Theology and History, Practical Theology, and Religion and Education) are all open for subjects related to Public Theology. Till now, they have concentrated on Systematic Theology, namely Ethics, within the Theology and History area.

Finally, a Brazilian student has started his doctoral program at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, where he is guided by profs. Martien Brinkmann and Hans de Wit. At the same time, GNPT relations are being strengthened through the invitation to Rudolf von Sinner to be an external co-supervisor.

News from the Centre for Public Theology, Huron University College, London, Ontario, Canada

 We are well into the planning for our inaugural conference ‘War, Human Dignity and Nation Building: Theological Perspectives on Canada’s Role in Afghanistan’ to be held May 8-9th, 2009.  Our keynote speakers include Prof J D Hall, W Dorn, Afghan Ambassador Omar Samad and we hope Hon John Manley.  We wait on a few others.  The call for papers was crafted by our working group, and can be viewed here.  If you are aware of interested scholars, pass the call forward. 

I know that for many it would be impossible to attend, but we would welcome each of you if you should find it possible.

We have had good response from the academic community on the Centre’s work, and are pleased that we seem to be scratching an itch from many different scholars from different disciplines and traditions (including none at all).

Perhaps the most daunting task has been in the area of the website (publictheology.org) which is about to undergo a massive revamp in order to make it more interactive and less static.  We are working, sometimes far out of comfort areas, on the site with the hopes that it will fit our ‘web2’ vision.  I would point out, in particular, the blog as I will be tapping shoulders in the near future for contributions to the blog.

In terms of stutter-steps, we have made significant inroads into the political scene here in Canada, with visits planned for May to visit parliamentarians and to garner support for our academic work.  This has been a long time coming, and I am hopeful that relationships in that area will be developed and nourished so that our goal of ‘intelligence not advocacy’ will inform the corridors of power in Ottawa.  Likewise we have begun to make inroads in terms of the Muslim community and Christian community. The Jewish community remains largely uninvolved so far, but I am hopeful that inroads can be made soon.

We are planning following the conference a one day series of meetings to discuss the next conferences while still fresh.  Our second year is HIV-AIDS in the African and global context and Canada’s role therein.  Following that in 2011 is climate change. We will welcome all those able to attend these conferences. 

Dr Darren Marks
Director, Centre for Public Theology.

04/02/2009

News from the Lutheran School of Theology at São Leopoldo (Escola Superior de Teologia, EST) to the GNPT

Professor Leonardo Boff was awarded an honorary doctorate by EST on 15 May, 2008, within a full week of discussions with Lutheran researchers on Leonardo Boff and Protestant Theology. Seven researchers (Claus Schwambach, Euler Westphal, Enio Mueller, Hermann Brandt, Rudolf von Sinner, Silfredo Dalferth and Valério Schaper) and 50 students participated. The main topics were the doctrine of the Trinity, Grace, Christology, Eschatology and Cosmology. The presentations and Boff’s response will be published in the second issue (2008) of our periodical Estudos Teológicos.

A Brazilian doctoral student is currently in Amsterdam at the Vrije Universiteit and being accompanied by Professors Martien Brinkman and Eddy Van der Borght. This might work out as a joint doctoral project between the two institutions under the GNPT’s umbrella.

From 16 to 22 June, 2008, Professor Roberto Zwetsch (EST) visited Stellenbosch’s Beyers Naudé Center for Public Theology and participated in the Theological Society of South Africa’s Annual Meeting in Grahamstown, giving a paper on Place and Space: the Struggle of the Poor for Citizenship and Dignity in Brazil from a Theological Perspective. This was the first visit to construct a future South-South cooperation between the Beyers Naudé Center and EST.

Professor Max Stackhouse served as visiting professor from 14 June to 9 July, 2008, giving lectures and courses at the Jesuit University Unisinos in São Leopoldo, the Federal University of Pelotas, and the EST in São Leopoldo, mainly on Religion and Globalization.

Professor Stackhouse also gave the keynote address on Civil Society, Public Theology and the Ethical Shape of Polity in a Global Era during the International Symposium on Public Theology in Latin America, held from 4 to 7 July at EST, in cooperation with the Humanitas Institute of the Jesuit University Unisinos, which has a program on Public Theology. Professor Nico Koopman (on Theology and Society) and Dr Clint Le Bruyns (on Theology and Culture) from Stellenbosch University also participated with papers and discussion in the conference. There were philosophical, anthropological and theological contributions in lectures and panels, as well as a lively discussion from the floor and student research paper presentations. The latter have already been published in a CD-ROM, while the former are to be published by next year in a book.

On July 7, 2008, the EST’s new Institute for Ethics and Public Theology was launched. Professors Oneide Bobsin (EST’s principal), Max Stackhouse, Nico Koopman and Rudolf von Sinner spoke at the event and clearly stated the link between the GNPT umbrella and this Institute. “Launching” means that the Institute is still a project. It does not yet physically exist nor is it ready to function, but the presence of representatives from the GNPT and the Symposium made this a very special and encouraging event. EST hopes that the Institute will be effectively working by the end of 2009. A house is available but needs refurbishing and adaptation, for which funds have to be sought. Among others, the Institute plans to host researchers who want to stay in Brazil for some time, providing a fully equipped office and work infrastructure. EST library boasts 85’000 volumes in Portuguese, Spanish, German, and (increasingly) English, among minor collections in other languages, and over 300 running periodicals, national and international, as well as a considerable number of online journals. It is well located at 30km from Salgado Filho International Airport of Porto Alegre (see www.est.edu.br).

Finally, the Beyers Naudé Center and EST agreed to pursue further their common South-South research project on public theology. Funds will be sought and a proper project is to be elaborated from the suggestions that came from the floor in two special sessions dedicated to research partnership during the above mentioned Symposium.

14/07/2008 – rvs

 

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