Archive

 

“Solutions to violence”

 

On 14 November 2009, the Working Group of Christian Churches (ACK) and the IThF organised a convention around the work of René Girard. Read the complete convention report here!

 

Convention papers
Johannes Beutler SJ		Wolfgang Palaver		Ralf Miggelbrink

 

Lecture on the Rum Orthodox Christians

 

On 8 October 2009, the State Central Office for Political Development in Hamburg invited Mr. Exarchos Alexius Chehadeh to the German Central Library of Economic Studies to hold a lecture on the subject of the Rum Orthodox Christians of Antioch. The lecture was entitled: ”Antioch: the cradle of Christianity. The Rum Orthodox between home and diaspora“. The following themes were covered:

 

1. Antioch (Antakya)

2. Biblical evidence of Christians in Antioch

3. A short summary of the historical development of the Antioch Orthodox Christians

• Under Roman/Byzantine rule

• Under the Umayyades and Abbasids

• During the Crusades

• Under the Ottomans

• During colonialism

• In modern times

4. Theological characteristics of the Antioch Orthodox Christians

• General information

• The seven Ecumenical Councils (between 325-787)

• The schism between the Western and Eastern Church in 1054 and its aftermath

• The schism of 1724 in Syria and its aftermath

 

By way of conclusion, Fr. Chehadeh provided a summary of the rich 2000 year history of the Rum Orthodox Church. The audience was pleasantly surprised to learn that Christians reside in Arabic and Turkish-speaking regions and that it was in Antioch that the disciples of Christ were first called Christians. Dr. Bamberger-Stemmann, Head of Department W2 at the State Central Office for Political Development in Hamburg, thanked the speaker for a most informative lecture.

 

Photos of the evening of the lecture

 

 

Introduction to the ethics of peace

 

The Institute of Theology and Peace (Hamburg) and the Catholic Episcopal Office (Berlin) together offer courses in the Christian ethics of peace. Annually in rotation, we invite military pastors based both at home and abroad, ministers serving police and the Federal Police forces, personnel from church-run aid organisations and peace initiatives, students and anyone with a general interest in the ethics of peace to Hamburg to pray, to work, to contemplate and to engage in discussion together for a week. Participants are offered a rotating program incorporating both introductory and consolidation courses.

 

The last course “An Introduction to the Ethics of Peace” took place in Hamburg from 30 March to 3 April 2009. Click here to view the programme.

 

The next consolidation course will take place in Hamburg from 22 March until 26 March 2010.

 

 

 

Convention reports

 

CCADD Conference 2009 in Bratislava

CCADD-Konferenz 2009 in Bratislava

 

Hermeneutics of the just war tradition

IThF, Hamburg, 4 - 6.1.2009

Hermeneutics of the just war tradition

 

Recent publications

Heinz-Gerhard Justenhoven/Hans-Georg Ehrhart (Hrsg.)

Intervention im Kongo: eine kritische Analyse der Befriedungspolitik von UN und EU.

Stuttgart 2008. 217 pp.

(Series Contributions to Peace Ethics, 42)

EUR 24,00

ISBN 978-3-17-020781-3

 

Within the framework of a UN mission, the EU sent soldiers to the DR of Congo to provide security for democratic elections. If it is true that "no country intervenes without its own interests in mind" (Joschka Fischer), then one must ask what the interests of those involved in this intervention were. What is about peace for the Congolese people, or about a democratic legal order with a freely elected parliament and president? Or were national interests of the intervening states or interests of the EU as global players in the foreground? Are these players in Congo really striving for stable political order which is based on political participation? What do the Congo interventions teach us for future military missions of the UN and the EU in Africa and elsewhere?

 

 

Thomas R. Elßner

Josua und seine Kriege in jüdischer und christlicher Rezeptionsgeschichte.

Stuttgart 2008. 336 pp.

Series Theology and Peace, 37)

EUR 39,00

ISBN 978-3-17-020520-8

 

There is agreement in Old Testament research today the land possession and sanctification of genocide described in the Book of Joshua (I, 1-12) is a theological construct. This was not recognised in earlier centuries. Elssner discusses the question of how Jewish and Christian theologians have reacted to Joshua's battles and the killing of the previous inhabitants of the Promised Land which was ordered. Therefore texts by Origen, Augustine and Maimonides and also Hugo Grotius, as well as the writings of Jesus Sirach and early Christian writers have been examined to find out how, when looking at the Book of Joshua, the prickly topic of the sanctification of genocide has been interpreted.

 

 

Markus Kremer

Den Frieden verantworten: Politische Ethik bei Francisco Suárez (1548-1617).

Stuttgart 2008. 291 pp.

(Series Theology and Peace, 35)

EUR 38,00

ISBN 978-3-17-020165-1

 

Francisco Suárez (1548-1617) stands on the threshold between medieval Scholasticism and modern legal philosophy. This makes it possible to see in him a theologian who, while maintaining what has been tried and tested, anticipates important achievements of modern thought, without giving up the Christian perspective (in contrast to the Enlightenment). His synthesis between the ethics of law and virtue becomes most clear in the idea of peace, towards which the demands for justice and the love of God (caritas) are directed, even where political practice appears obviously to contradict that goal: in war. Kremer uses the example of the inter-state power struggle to show how Suárez develops his theory of political action from the perspective of salvation based on the concept of just peace.

 

 

Tania Wettach-Zeitz

Ethnopolitische Konflikte und interreligiöser Dialog: die Effektivität interreligiöser Konfliktmediationsprojekte analysiert am Beispiel der World Conference on Religion and Peace-Initiative in Bosnien-Herzegowina.

Stuttgart 2008. 284 pp.

(Series Theology and Peace, 33)

EUR 34,00

ISBN 978-3-17-019969-9

 

In the dialogue between the religions many see a potential for promoting peace. But does inter-religious dialogue fulfil what it promises to achieve? Does it really channel the ambivalent potential of religions as destroyers or builders of peace in a positive sense? Wettach-Zeitz examines the effectiveness of inter-religious conflict mediation projects and analyses the role of the traditional religious communities of Bosnia and Herzegovina - Islam, Judaism, Serbian Orthodoxy and Catholicism - in the process of reconciliation, both theoretically and empirically. The research results make clear the importance, particularly of religious actors who are be taken seriously as political powers in ethno-political conflicts.

 

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