We are happy to announce that Leuven 16th Encounters in Systematic Theology will have the topic “60 years Vatican II: The End of the Western Church?”
The Second Vatican Council may have been held in Western Europe and may in the end still present a Eurocentric perspective, but it was nevertheless the first council with a global presence and scope. Influenced by the general social developments of the 1960s, decolonization and inculturation played a major role in the background of the conciliar debates, which would increase even more in the later reception of its results in local contexts worldwide. Whereas the council had great ecclesial and social effects in Latin America with its influence on liberation theology, in Africa with its social justice struggles against poverty, and in Asia with its focus on interfaith and ecumenical dialogue, conciliar research was strongly influenced by voices from the Global North. The celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Council was the start of a more international approach in conciliar studies. Now, ten years later, on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary, we want to make up a first balance of this ‘global’ perspective from a historical and systematic-theological perspective.
A Call for Papers has been announced and papers need to be submitted by March.
More informations can be found here:
