From September 2 to 5, 2024, an English-language summer course for young scholars in the field of theology and related disciplines was held in Vienna. Several people from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church participated in it, in particular Bohdan Mostovyi, a graduate of the Kyiv Theological Academy, who is currently studying at the Heidelberg University in Germany, as well as young teachers of this academy, hieromonks Nestor (Chaika) and Ioasaf (Myronov).
The theme of this year’s course was “Ecumenism and learning”. Among the speakers of the course there were academic theologians representing the Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Christian traditions. Geographically, they represented Austria, Lebanon, Germany and Sweden. Especially interesting for the Orthodox participants was the lecture of the Belarusian-born theologian Stanislau Paulau, a Junior Professor of Global Christian History and Orthodox Christian Studies who teaches at the German University of Halle-Wittenberg.
Besides the impulses of the speakers there were interesting speeches of the participants who presented their own research and projects. In particular, the topic of Bohdan Mostovyi’s speech was “The concept of ‘holy war’ of the Russian Orthodox Church in justification of the Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine”.
A similar summer course from the “Pro Oriente” foundation has been organized since 2015. Since several years Sergii Bortnyk, the head of the “Academic Initiative” Foundation, has been the official consultant of this foundation, and his foundation itself provides financial support for the participation of young theologians from the UOC in similar inter-Christian events.
One can watch a video about this course on the Youtube channel of the “Pro Oriente” Foundation – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huW5t2z5hAY
