Reformation and modern world discussed in Odessa
Odessa National University hosted the International scientific conference “Reformation and the modern world (philosophy, theology, science)” on September 28-29. The event was held in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
The conference was initiated by the Resource and Research Center of the Euro-Asian Accreditation Association, together with the ONU, Odesa Theological Seminary of the ECH, with the support of the regional authorities and religious-centered centers of the country.
At the plenary meeting with the participation of leading religious scholars, discussions were held on inter-confessional dialogue, tolerance and ecumenism, contradictions and inextricable links between science and religion, and the active participation of religious organizations in dramatic socio-political transformations in modern Ukraine.
On the second day of the conference a round table entitled “Reformation and Interfaith Dialogue” was held with the participation of Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant theologians and historians. In their reports, participants presented the common and special theological approaches of various Christian traditions, in particular, in the field of sacramentology.
One of the central events of the conference was the presentation of the translation of the book by the prominent Protestant theologian Paul Tillich “History of Christian Thought”. The peculiarity of this translation is that it was completed in Odessa in the 1970s by a well-known Orthodox theologian and translator, Mykola Poltoratsky, whereas the book has been published just recently. Odessa scientists managed to reconstruct the little-known pages of the history of fruitful inter-confessional dialogue. In response, the conference participants offered to continue such a dialogue, and to make the conference itself a permanent forum to be held annually in Odessa.
