From the apocalyptical to the hopeful? Is it possible to unite the forces or making a unified position across disciplines to address the crisis? What could be a meaningful religious response?
This ecumenical and international webinar series will foster critical perspectives on migration in Europe. The series facilitates an ongoing conversation on these issues among theologians and migration scholars, refugees and migrants, activists, and church and civic leaders. The initiative has the potential to enhance the promotion of the human dignity, the protection of migrants’ and refugees’ rights regardless of their origin. And first and last: Can theology and churches represent serious challenges to the present European politics and societies, often dominated by issues of security, immigration restrictions, and populist initiatives?
Program
- General welcome: Kaia Rønsdal
- Keynote speaker: Joshtrom Kureethadam
- Keynote speaker: Arne Johan Vetlesen
- Closing reflections: Gioacchino Campese
Moderator
- Veronica De Sanctis
Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam
Rev. Dr. Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam is Chair of Philosophy of Science and Director of the Institute of Social and Political Sciences at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome. He was the Coordinator of the Sector of “Ecology” at the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development from 2017-2023, where he continues to serve, while attending to numerous academic commitments.
His publications include Creation in Crisis: Science, Ethics and Theology (Orbis Books, 2014), The Philosophical Roots of the Ecological Crisis (Cambridge Scholars, 2017), The Ten Green Commandments of Laudato Si’ (Liturgical Press, 2019); Laudato Si’ Reader (ed.) (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2021), Per Una Conversione Ecologica (Castelvecchi, 2023).
Arne Johan Vetlesen
Arne Johan Vetlesen is professor of Philosophy at the University of Oslo. His research interests are tied to the conditions of moral – individually, culturally and socially, as well as topics related to freedom, market and professional ethics. Lately he has focused on environmental philosophy, particularly the question of the value of nature in light of the debate between the Anthropocene and biocentric perspectives.
Some of his latest publications include Hva skal vi svare våre barn? (How will we answer our children?) (with Rasmus Willig, 2018); Cosmologies of the Anthropocene: Panpsychism, Animism, and the Limits of Posthumanism (2019), Smerte i vår tid (Pain in our time) (2020), Etikk i klimakrisens tid (Ethics in a time of climate crisis) (with Jan-Olav Henriksen, 2022) and Animal Lives and Why they Matter (2023).
Gioacchino Campese
Gioacchino Campese, is a member of the Scalabrinians, a Roman Catholic religious order, currently serving as professor of theology of human mobility at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome (Italy) and working with the Scalabrini International Migration Institute (SIMI). He is also president of the Agenzia Scalabriniana per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo (ASCS), an NGO that operates in the areas of integral welcoming, intercultural engagement and development cooperation in Europe and Africa. He has studied theology in Manila (Philippines), Chicago (USA) and Rome, where he earned a PhD in theology of mission. He has been ministering with migrants and refugees in Mexico, USA and Italy. He has authored and edited several books and articles on the theology of migration and the pastoral care with migrants and refugees.
About the series organisers
The Migration, Ethics and Theology webinar series is developed in a cooperation between the Scalabrini International Migration Institute (SIMI) in Rome and scholars in the research project Nordhost – Migration and Hospitality in a Nordic context. The partners hosted an international conference in Rome in 2019, published in the edited volume Contemporary Christian-Cultural Values (C. Nahnfeldt/K. Rønsdal, ed.) (Routledge 2021), and the volume Contested Hospitalities in the time of Migration (S. Bendixsen/T. Wyller, ed). The SIMI Institute publish ed in 2021: ‘Migrants and Pilgrims as our Ancestors’ (1 Chr 29:15). Theology of Human Mobility in the 21st Century (E. Chaves Dias /A. Skoda/V. De Sanctis, ed.)
Currently, the partners behind the series are Kaia Rønsdal and Trygve Wyller, University of Oslo – Faculty of Theology (Norway). Aldo Skoda and Gioacchino Campese, Scalabrini International Migration Institute; Pontificia Università Urbaniana – Faculty of Theology (Italy), Cecilia Nahnfeldt, Åbo Akademi University – Faculty of Theology (Finland); Uppsala University, Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society (Sweden).
The webinar series will foster networks amongst scholars and Christian based organizations from different countries with the purpose of enhancing how theology can contribute to migration understanding. Concretely, the initiative aims to provide a platform for dialogues and exchange of experiences of good practices and lessons learned among Christian communities.
Upcoming webinars
- October 28, 2024 - Migration and development: a Christian perspective
- March 31, 2025 - TBA
Previous webinars
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April. 24, 2023 - People not numbers... (Un)Welcoming migrants in Europe
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October 30, 2023 - Governing through fear: the populist narrative and human mobility in Europe
