2019 International Conference on Comparative Theology

23–24 July 2019 | ACU, Melbourne Campus

Identities transformed or transgressed? Exploring new frontiers in comparative theology and interreligious learning.

Framed by the concept of religious identities, join us to explore the latest developments within, and challenges to, comparative theology and associated practices of interreligious learning

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About the conference

Professor Francis X Clooney, the leading authority on comparative theology, has described the discipline as deep learning across religious borders. It “marks acts of faith seeking understanding, which are rooted in a particular faith tradition but which, from that foundation, venture into learning from other faith traditions”.

Professor Clooney’s articulation of the central premise and core activity of comparative theology provides an important corrective to the dominant ethos of our times: one marked by a binary opposition of ‘us against them’.

Rather than fuelling modern-day identity politics, comparative theology provides a means of transcending boundaries and occupying hybrid spaces of religious encounter and dialogue. Some may see such an encounter with difference as transgressive, but comparative theology maintains that it is precisely in learning with and from the other that one’s own identity is enriched.

Keynote speakers

Professor Francis X Clooney SJ, Harvard University, Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology
Professor Catherine Cornille, Boston College, Newton College Alumnae Chair of Western Culture and Professor of Comparative Theology
Professor Marianne Moyaert, VU Amsterdam, Professor of Comparative Theology and Hermeneutics of Interreligious Dialogue
Reverend Dr Diego Sarrió Cucarella, Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI), Rector and Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies and editor of the PISAI journal Islamochristiana
Dr Emmanuel Nathan, Australian Catholic University, Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies and Comparative Theology
Dr Makoto Sawai, Oyasato Institute for the Study of Religion, Tenri University, Japan, has a research focus largely on mystical Islam
Fr Yesudasan Remias, KU Leuven, studies the Hebrew Bible alongside the majority Hindu traditions of his native India

In addition, a number of conference participants will present papers.