Prof. Sarojini Nadar

Sarojini Nadar is a Senior Professor and holds the Desmond Tutu South African Research Chair in Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape. The Chair is a dynamic intellectual hub that facilitates the dissemination of cutting-edge research exploring the complex connections between religion and social justice. As a transdisciplinary researcher, she publishes in a wide range of areas including Black feminist theory, sexuality, masculinities and HIV. Her most important work has been in the field of gender-based violence – physical, sexual and epistemic. Prior to her appointment at UWC, she headed up the Gender and Religion programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, for over a decade. She is an academic-activist, and one of her key aims is to shift the traditional study of theology and religion beyond cultivating individual faith and piety, or the study of doctrine and dogma, towards the flourishing of socially responsive and engaged citizens. She believes that developing capacity for critical reflection and analysis, particularly amongst faith leaders, justice practitioners and the scholarly community, can and does lead to social change.

Keynote on Friday 24 May at 10.45-12.00 

Zoom: https://aboakademi.zoom.us/j/69699360793 (Meeting ID: 696 9936 0793)

Abstract:

Faith and Feminism: Autobiographical reflections on navigating the ’f’ words in the South African religion and theology academy

The South African academy of religion and theology marks traditions, and embodies transitions in ways that stir a myriad of (often) emotionally charged contestations. South Africa’s racialised and gendered history reaches into the present, and are the long lenses through which we view our social and scholarly locations. Power, privilege and positionality commonly determine the reverence with which we hold the past, and the risks we are willing to take to boldly embrace new insights and perspectives. Framed within autobiographical reflections, this lecture traces my scholarly journey navigating the study of faith and feminism within a patriarchal and racially fraught South African academy. Drawing on the notion of a ”trans” agenda for the study of religion and theology put forward by Jodamus et al, I trace my journey within these three ’trans’ markers – trans-disciplinary, transgressive and transformative. The lecture concludes that, while traditions provide stable platforms for intellectual endeavours, it is important to work within ”trans” paradigms and to destabilise such platforms particularly in a context like South Africa, where a symbiotic relationship between religious beliefs and social injustice exists. Critical theories in the Black, liberation and feminist paradigms provide important signposts for the task of this ’trans’ agenda.

Prof. Kati Tervo-Niemelä

Prof. Kati Tervo-Niemelä is a professor in practical theology at the University of Eastern Finland. Her main research interests have been (1) the clergy career and ministry formation; the work orientation and well-being; (2) religion and the lifespan; (3) religious affiliation and disaffiliation, (4) the youth and religion, (5) religious rituals and (6) religion and the media.

Keynote on Wednesday 22 May at 13.15-14.30

Zoom: https://aboakademi.zoom.us/j/61349256692 (Meeting ID: 613 4925 6692)

Abstract:

Young people religion and wellbeing – Tradition, continuity and transition

How does the religiosity of young people change? What is the connection between changes in religiosity and well-being? What builds continuity in religiosity? Religion has been found in several studies to support well-being. However, this view is increasingly being challenged in new studies. The presentation examines the changes in the religiosity and well-being of young people and their connection to each other. The results show that the development trajectories of young people’s religiosity and well-being are different and show interesting connections about the importance of different factors for the continuity of religion in families and in young people’s lives. The phenomenon is examined in the light of several extensive research materials.

Prof. Giulio Maspero

Prof. Giulio Maspero (1970) first worked as a physicist, dealing with quantum chaos and contributing to the discovery of quantum fractals, before moving on to theology. He is currently full professor of dogmatic theology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome). His interests span the relationship between philosophy and Christian thought from the first centuries to post-modernity. In this context he also worked on television series, literature, Girard’s mimetic theory and the fundamentals of coaching. He is member of the International Association of Patristic Studies (IAPS) and of the Pontifical Academy of Theology (PATH). He has published mainly on Gregory of Nyssa, Trinitarian theology and the relationship between philosophy and theology. In particular, he has published Trinity and Man (Brill, Leuven 2007) and has directed, together with L.F. Mateo-Seco, The Brill Dictionary of Gregory of Nyssa (Brill, Leuven, 2009) and, together with R. Wozniak, Re-thinking Trinitarian Theology (T&T Clark, London 2012). He also edited with Pierpaolo Donati and Antonio Malo the volume Social Science, Philosophy and Theology in Dialogue (Routledge, London 2019) and with Martin Schlag After Liberalism? A Christian Confrontation on Politics and Economics (Springer, Cham 2021). His most recent monographs are The Mystery of Communion. Encountering the Trinity (St. Augustine’s Press: South Bend (IN) 2021); After Pandemic, After Modernity: The Relational Revolution (St. Augustine’s Press: South Bend (IN) 2022); Rethinking the Filioque With the Greek Fathers (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, MI, 2023) and The Cappadocian Reshaping of Metaphysics: Relational Being (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2024)

Keynote on Thursday 23 May at 13.30-14.45

Zoom: https://aboakademi.zoom.us/j/62223391028 (Meeting ID: 622 2339 1028)

Abstract:

From Semantics to Syntax: the Challenge of Tradition from the Perspective of the First Council of Nicea

After the Edict of Milan in 313 by which Constantine granted freedom in the empire, the different local traditions could confront each other, and the need emerged to develop a conception of a properly Christian tradition. In fact, two elements of the Trinitarian faith rendered insufficient the semantic approach that characterized classical metaphysics, according to which being was translatable into concepts and ideas, hence into signs. Instead, the excess of the Creator, already highlighted in the tradition of Jewish thought, and the relationality of God’s intimate life required a shift to a new conception of tradition, which can be called syntactic. This corresponded to the very way in which the Bible was written, which can be considered a hypertext and not just a text, since it was written and rewritten syntactically, precisely. Thus, the Council of Nicaea in 325, which is a consequence of the Constantinian turning point, at the same time made it clear with the whole history of reception along sec IV and then in the succession of subsequent ecumenical councils up to Nicaea II, that tradition is founded essentially on relation, which pairs identity and difference. Preserving does not mean merely repeating by semantically preserving a form, but it means changing by abiding in the relationship that constitutes identity. In fact, the meaning of a text is always given by the relationship with the context. Given that the latter is dynamic and changes throughout history, preserving meaning implies the need to change the text ”to the rhythm” of the context. The proposed narrative shows how this occurred in the 4th century in the confrontation with the interpretation of the Symbol of Nicaea. The teaching of the Church Fathers, from this perspective, can help confront post-modernity and the challenges it poses to people today.