Review of Ecumenical Studies

18/06/2025

Review by Pekka Metso of ”Listening to the East: Synodality in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Church Traditions”, Collana ut unum sint 4, Vatican: Liberia Editrice Vaticana 2023, 667 p.
”The book is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the Orthodox Church, the second with the Oriental Church. The section on the Orthodox Church is structured around three themes that open up the perspective of synodality: communion, participation and mission. The section on the Oriental Church, on the other hand, is organised according to ecclesiastical structures, so that synodality is dealt with separately in the context of each member of the church family.”

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24/05/2025

Daemones Boni et Mali: The Locus of Evil in Renaissance Hermetic Neoplatonism, by Noel Putnik

This article deals with the ways evil was conceptualized in the works of Cornelius Agrippa, the most important German representative of the Hermetic Neoplatonism. In a heterodox fashion of blending various Christian and non-Christian concepts developed by Marsilio Ficino, Agrippa attempted to further Christianize some aspects of Hermetic and Neoplatonic theology, cosmology and anthropology.

This article deals with the ways evil was conceptualized in the works of Cornelius Agrippa, the most important German representative of the...

15/05/2025

State Church or Church within the State? (of Oliver Jens Schmitt) is one of the few books that triggered various reactions from academic reviewers, being even attacked under the guise of academic approaches. Very few of these reactions convinced that their authors really understood what Oliver Jens Schmitt intended in this book. Instead of focusing on details, methodological discussions are of utmost importance.

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07/05/2025

Partnership between Joensuu and Sibiu: hybrid working meeting of our RES editorial team. After more than a year working only online we have now the chance to meet physically the co-editor of our journal: Dr. Maria Takala, who came to Sibiu this week with a group of seven students from the University of Eastern Finland. We are looking forward to welcoming in Sibiu also the other members of the team!

23/04/2025

CFP: Συμ-πάθεια
Vatican II Legacy: Churches as Feeling Bodies in Relation with the World

Sixty years after the end of the Second Vatican Council, it would be instructive to reread what Pope Paul VI, the first hermeneut of an event that would have constituted a watershed in the history of churches and humanity, stated:
And what happened? Was there a clash, a battle, a condemnation? There could have been, but there was none. The
old story of the Samaritan has been the model of the spirituality of the council. A feeling of boundless sympathy
has permeated the whole of it.

This expression could raise today a fundamental
question: with all the painful and problematic things that have happened in the meantime, is it still possible to speak of
“sympathy” as that essential attitude that all churches could embody in their relationship with each other and with the world?
And towards religions, in a time so marked by fratricidal struggles in the name of God?

Guest Editors: Martino Mortola and Pietro Lorenzo Maggioni
Deadline: February 1, 2026

16/04/2025

CFP:

Sacralization of War

The War in Ukraine and its Religious Legitimisation

Some see the Moscow Patriarchate as the driving force behind the war, while others see the church actors solely as compliant henchmen of the state. The questionis therefore which strategies of religious legitimization are used in detail: Where do the concepts come from? What do they look like on closer inspection? Who are the key players here? Who are the actual addressees? These and other related questions will be explored in this issue.
Guest Editor: Jennifer Wasmuth
Deadline: June 15, 2025

01/04/2025

The fact that citizenship education is considered a task of democratic states is nothing new. Since the end of the Second World War, it has developed and professionalised considerably in many countries. It takes place mainly, but not only, in the education system. In recent years, new questions have arisen in the face of a global crisis of democracy. One of these is the task of democracy education, in promoting the inclusion of people who are disadvantaged for various reasons. In this article, various facets of this task are discussed and conceptually structured.

Check more of Markus Pausch's article, "Demokratiebildung für mehr Inklusion mit Fokus auf soziale Benachteiligung", in the special issue coordonated by Tereza Leonhard and Helmut P. Gaisbauer.

The fact that citizenship education is considered a task of democratic states is nothing new. Since the end of the Second World War, it has...

29/03/2025

Walter Rothholz: Existenz-Analysen im modernen Liberalismus Zu Ursachen von Armut und Ungleichheit in Rumänien

Ausgehend von der Suche nach gesellschaftlichen Ursachen von Armut und Ungleichheit in Rumänien öffnet sich ein weites
Feld zwischen Historie, Kultur und Religion und gegenwärtigen globalen Herausforderungen.

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25/03/2025

Available for review:

Apocryphal and Esoteric Sources in the Development of Christianity and Judaism

18/03/2025

Vera Uppenkamp:
Keine Gerechtigkeit ohne religiöse Bildung?! Religionspädagogik als Beitrag zu Bildungsgerechtigkeit

Is educational justice conceivable without religious education? This question is the focus of this article. In order to answer this question, we will first provide an insight into selected problems in the education system and then explain why children have a right to religious education based on children’s rights.https://sciendo.com/de/article/10.2478/ress-2024-0031

03/03/2025

We are delighted with our new issue "Freedom, Responsibility, Meaning of Life: Existential Perspectives on Poverty and Education" - an exciting mix of academic articles, essays, reports and reviews on this relevant topic & an international collaboration between our guest editors Tereza Leonhard from the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu and Helmut P. Gaisbauer from the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg. Find it print or on https://sciendo.com/de/article/10.2478/ress-2024-0029

04/02/2025

Philosophy and the Dark Side of Humanity:

Kanterian’s "The Burden of Philosophy: Evil and the Human Condition" identifies a disconnect between the darker aspects of the human condition and philosophers’ inability to fully engage with them.

Can philosophy truly confront evil, or does it fall short in the face of humanity’s worst realities? Check out Kanterian's answer!

This article attempts to identify certain shortcomings in analytic philosophy as practised today. First, it identifies a disconnect between the...