Reconciliation: Empowering Grace
The board of Concilium – International Journal of Theology, organises an international colloquium that brings together its members but is also open to other theologians. The colloquium will be held from May 20-22 in Leuven (Louvain), Belgium. The host university will be the Catholic University of Louvain. This colloquium will be dedicated to an interdisciplinary theological investigation of the theme of reconciliation. The title of our colloquium will be
Reconciliation: Empowering Grace.
Register for the Colloquium here.
Find the Colloquium Programme here.
Practical information concering travel and lodging can be found here.
Reconciliation is part of a process that moves people who suffer the disabling consequences of (violent) conflict, harm or injustice, towards a situation of enabling and sustainable life together. This is a process that unfolds at personal, societal and planet wide (e.g. ecology) levels, and that takes on concrete historical features. When approaching processes of reconciliation, therefore, I suggest to work at these various levels and to take into account the concrete realities of people (the so-called "field") by paying attention to their experiences of suffering, their wounds, their desires and their efforts at changing the disabling living conditions under which they pain. In the course of the colloquium we will attempt to have these levels and the field present.
During the colloquium, we aim to discuss the theme from four angles which will structure our meetings: justice, wounds, creativity and diversities.
Justice. Conflicts create situations in which rights are not respected and dignity is violated, a situation that creates spirals of violence and hatred out of which it is difficult to move. How can justice and equity be restored and what are the ideas and processes that we enact to do so? Political, legal, military and economical strategies provide structures of retribution and punishment, but is this enough to restore a just society? What can be the role of reconciliation and what is its relationship to punishment? Are there possibilities for restorative justice? -- From a Christian theological point of view, the idea of the Justice of God's Kingdom, and its not-yet in practice, the Church, can be developed.
Wounds. Conflicts of all kinds create wounds in people and strengthen the experience of being a victim, which may even lead to mechanisms of victimisation and diabolisation that represent conflict perpetuating power games. Personal hurt can be structurally and institutionally abused or even provoked. Effects of violence may be transgenerational and become engrained in cultures and religions – it is, therefore, important to look at the wounds suffered by children (paedophilia in the context of the Church may provide a noteworthy focus of interest). How does reconciliation open up processes of healing, mourning and forgiveness that move beyond entrapment in perpetratorship or victimhood and allow for creative and strong (while emerging out of conflicts) new approaches to life together? – From a Christian theological point of view, I suggest to emphasize the ideas of healing and forgiveness, but also the fact that in Christ's reconciliation process, the cross also and paradoxically, represents a moment of grace.
Creativity, artistic and spiritual. Conflicts represent destruction of artistic embodiments of life together, as well as of common spiritual and ritual practices. The diversity of the social, imaginative and visionary glue of communities is removed or reshaped in monolithic patterns. Collective and discerning leadership is turned into the dictatorship of one idea, one attitude, one person. How can the symbolic and visionary capital of people in conflict be reframed at the service of sustainable peaceful and dignified life together? How can art, spirituality and rituals be rediscovered or reinvented? What kind of religious images or ideas can be used to restore the communal glue of peace? – From a Christian theological perspective it is possible to emphasize grace, spirituality, the sacrament of reconciliation.
Diversities of religions and cultures are often used to provoke or sustain conflicts and the tensions between religions and/or cultures are heightened in the opposition of totalitarian and antagonizing claims of destructive uniqueness. Diversity becomes a source of fear for dangerous identities that are provoked into violence and exclusion. Can diversity only be imposed by control mechanisms or do processes of reconciliation (as set out in various traditions) lead to enriching accounts of diversity? – From a Christian theological perspective the incarnation into otherness and diversity, as well as the Trinitarian interplay can be emphasized.
This colloquium is organized by the board of Concilium, the Centre of Liberation Theologies KULeuven and the Research Group Anthropos.
