Conference on Academic Theology Held at Ukrainian Catholic University

Over twenty European scholars and theologians from Romania, Greece, Poland, Belarus, the Netherlands, Russia and Ukraine participated in an international conference “Academic Theology in the Postsecular Age” organized by the Institute of Ecumenical Studies of UCU. The two-days conference was held on November 10-11 in Lviv.

The first day of the event began with an ecumenical prayer. The participants were greeted byAlexei Bodrov, rector of St. Andrews Biblical Theological Institute (Russia), Taras Dobko, rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University; Roman Fihas, researcher at the Institute of Ecumenical Studies; and Hans Spinder, representative of the Netherlands Organization Kerk in Actie.

In their welcoming remarks, the speakers talked about the development of religious doctrine today: “It is important to renew academic theology in our secular environments because the theological idea should be more methodological than ideological,” said the rector of UCU, Taras Dobko.

The speakers also addressed the issue of theology in Ukraine. In particular, Taras Kurylets, the coordinator of the distance master’s program at the Institute of Ecumenical Studies, told about the problems in renewing academic theology: “Having moved away from the canons of post-Soviet atheism in Ukraine, academic theology is usually tied to a denomination. But in our country the spirit of ecumenism dominates. After all, theology should be not only denominational but also intellectually honest,” said Taras Kurylets.