We are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the 8th International Symposium and Summer School – Beyond Secular Faith:

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are offering the Symposium virtually. It will take place from 28-30 June 2021.

While we know a virtual event can never replace being together here in beautiful Granada, we are hopeful that it will keep the spirit of our beloved event alive until we are able to see each other in person, God willing, in 2022.

All of the information about the 2021 International Symposium can be found below and by visiting https://internationalsymposium.rsvpify.com/. 

We can offer scholarships for students, and American and European ECTS credits may be available for those who pursue them (additional, reduced fees may apply).

"The Gift of Creation: Theological Reflections on Ecology, Metaphysics and Poetry”

June 28–30, 2021 — WebEx Virtual Conference Platform

Organizing Institutions:

The Edith Stein Institute of Philosophy (Granada, Spain)

The Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow (Poland)

With the Collaboration of:

The Laudato Si' Institute (Granada, Spain)

Saint Joseph's College of Maine (Standish, ME, USA)

International Symposium and Summer School

When we chose “The Gift of Creation: Theological Reflections on Ecology, Metaphysics and Poetry” as the theme for the 8th International Symposium and Summer School – Beyond Secular Faith, we intended that the event should occur during the same year as the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’. However, given the challenging situation of the pandemic, we feel that it is more necessary than ever to heed the pope’s call for a universal solidarity.

Therefore, in honor of the fifth anniversary of the promulgation of Laudato Si', IFES proposes a profound reexamination of the Christian doctrine of the Gift-character of being and creation. The Gift-character of being invites us to recover and deepen our study of the unity of the sciences, philosophy and the arts within the fundamental dimension of the human person as created for the Gift (to be received and given). The hope of this International Symposium and Summer School is to provide a privileged forum to deepen the theological nexus of this unity and its implications to be illuminated by the light of the gift of Christ.

Lectures

·  John Milbank: “Theology, Ecology and the Question of Nature”

·  Ildefonso Fernández-Fígares Vicioso: “Land as Gift: Rethinking Economics According to Wendell Berry”

·  Pablo Martínez de Anguita d’Huart: “The Ecology of Human Reproduction and Marriage” 

·  Jeffrey Dirk Wilson: “Re-Homing the Human”

·  Władysław Zuziak: “God's Gift of Nature and Human Responsibility” 

·  Michael Dominic Taylor: “Metaphysics of Gift and the Quest for the Meaning of Creation” 

·  Norman Klassen: “Rhetorical Style as Real Substance: Interpreting the Work of Creation” 

·  Alejandro Serani Merlo: “The Gift of Distinguishing What Is Real from What Is Not” 

·  Rocco Buttiglione: “The Return of the Angels: The Ecological Turn as Conversion to the Theology of Creation and to Natural Law” 

·  Salvador Antuñano Alea: “Ordinatissima Pulchritudo Huius Mundi: St. Augustine’s Image of Creation (and its Ecological Implications)”

·  Rodrigo Guerra López: “Understanding Laudato si'”

·  William Cavanaugh: “The Love of Creation between Sacrament and Idolatry”

This year the International Symposium and Summer School will be held in a virtual format using the WebEx platform. 

·  Dates: June 28–30, 2021

·  Time: 16:30 – 21:00 CET / 10:30 – 15:00 EST

·  Registration Fee: 100€

·  To register, please visit this link: https://internationalsymposium.rsvpify.com/ . Limited places available.