Current Project
The unique opportunity of INSeCT to convene its general assembly at the same time as the Holy See’s Dicastery of Culture and Education conference on “The Future of Theology” provided members of the network a rich experience. They were able to learn more about the Dicastery as well as to converse with a broader contingent of scholars from around the world. A highlight of the conference was a special meeting with the late Pope Francis, who invited theologians to continue the task of theology, which is to “help us rethink how we think.” His gentle nudging and encouraging words provide our varied societies with support in the pursuit of “doing” theology.
In that vein, INSeCT encourages our member societies to continue to build on past research themes with the current one. Even though the theme is new, the spirit of how it materialized resonates with the last theme of decolonizing theology. The future of theology relies on the past and the present in order to make sound and thoughtful reflection on theology. Moreover, the future of theology relies on the fact that scholars are building on ideas, conversations, debates, and histories that are essential to how people express their experiences of God. Such an endeavor would require us to reflect on what needs to be disrupted from the past, where theology may have been used as a tool for oppression and injustice. At the same time, we are asked to challenge our imagination to generate alternative visions of society, including how theology is done and its effects in various communities all over the world–an alternative vision of the world and how we can get there. The ways in which we think and how we develop in our contexts affect how we can imagine the world can be, and so how we do theology should contribute to building instead of hampering our imagination. Thus, the new theme very much builds on the last theme as well as the past 30 years of INSeCT’s engagement, collaboration, and hope for the livelihood of theology around the globe.
To that end, we ask our societies to encourage their members to take up the research theme. This can be done by making it part of an annual meeting, inviting speakers either in person or via Zoom, collecting essays, and publishing findings on your websites. These are but a few ideas of the multiple possibilities in researching the theme of The Future of Theology.
Past Projects
A People of All Nations: Decolonizing Theologies-Decolonizing the World
Decolonization is an unfinished project. Even after former colonies gained political independence, colonial structures continue to persist globally in economic systems, in social, cultural and epistemic relations, and also in the church. The triple violence of colonialism (political violence through oppression; economic violence through exploitation; and cultural violence through negation) reverberates in multiple forms in the overlapping crises we face today: environmental degradation, damaged health, racial oppression and gender injustice. Reckoning with the colonial mentalities that permeate institutions today, social movements calling for decolonization gain in momentum globally. Responding to local colonial histories, these initiatives are regionally diverse and focus on a range of issues that arise in the wake of colonial trauma (e.g., ‘Rhodes must fall’, Black lives matter, an increasing call in Northern Atlantic educational institutions to ‘Decolonize the Curriculum’). These ongoing decolonization initiatives are accompanied by an increasing academic interest in questions of decolonization – a growing body of research develops rewritten histories, conceptual frameworks and alternative epistemologies aimed at contending the political, cultural and epistemological hegemony of the ‘West’ / the ‘North’.
These are urgent questions also for the Church. Not least the ‘Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region’ (2019) has highlighted that a Eurocentric paradigm continues to inform the pastoral practices, liturgical forms, institutional structures and theological knowledge production in the Global Church. The persistence of such a colonal mentality and its exclusionary power structures, however, prevents the Church to be truly catholic and apostolic, a people gathered from “disciples of all nations” (cf. Mt 28:19). There is thus an urgent need to reckon with the colonial past of the Church, to confront its ongoing legacies in the present, and to develop alternative ecclesial visions that challenge and transform the deeply entrenched heritage of colonialism in the Church. Theologians are called to contribute to this process towards ecclesial decolonization by (1) critically reviewing how theological and ecclesial discourses have served to buttress colonial power/knowledge regimes in the past and present, and by (2) constructively developing theological frameworks that can foster the decolonization of the church.
Building on work already done in this field, the research project of INSeCT 2021-2024 takes up these challenges by initiating and synthesizing global theological contributions to “Decolonizing Theologies / Decolonizing the World”
European Society for Catholic Theology: Call for Research Projects
A Kairos for Catholic Theology: Serving the Church, Serving the World
This project was originally spearheaded by the late Professor Gerard Mannion. After his passing in 2019, organization of this project was taken over by the INSeCT board.
At the latest General Assembly held in 2017 in Bangalore (India) INSeCT decided to base its upcoming research on Pope Francis' invitation in the Apostolic letter Evangelii Gaudium to be a servant Church for the people. Therefore, the current INSeCT Research Triennium 2017-2020 is entitled A Kairos for Catholic Theology: In Service of the Church – in Service of the World. The theological collaboration of member societies is focused on the current social, political, economical, and ecological challenges in the world and the Church. Some of these challenges have already reached crisis point:
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The crisis of democracy fuelled by increasing populist movements and polarisation of our societies along religious, ethnic, and cultural lines;
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Economic, political, and social crises, including conflicts and wars;
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The destabilisation of families, fostered by said crises;
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The global ecological crisis and its consequences, such as natural disasters, displaced peoples, areas of famine, and the phenomenon of increasing mass migration from affected areas in search of survival.
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The destabilisation of families, fostered by said crises;The loss of credibility of Church leadership in light of the sexual abuse, its effect on Christian faith and practice and analysing underlying causes and possible ways forward.
INSeCT is seeking ways to discuss how theology can serve the church as well as the wider society to face these challenges and find solutions. The outcome of the global research, undertaken in the different regions and in mutual collaboration, will be discussed in the upcoming General Assembly in Rome (Jan/Feb 2021), with representatives of relevant Roman Dicasteries, Pontifical and Catholic Universities, and published in a variety of forms to encourage implementation and application. The Kairos Project’s aims therefore, are:–To use INSeCT’s global network to link the different challenges and theological answers so that mutual collaboration in the field of church praxis can be improved.–To bring these localized global challenges into the focus of local and worldwide church leadership so that they can develop the necessary means to be of true service for the people, especially to those that are affected most.–To strengthen the dialogue between theologians and their respective local church leadership, especially in regions where the mutual understanding asks for improvement.–To establish a forum of mutual dialogue within the worldwide community of theological scholars and between academic theology and the universal Church leadership.
A Question of Gender Justice: The role of women in decision-making in different areas of church and society
Today’s global challenges – poverty, violence, war, ecological disasters, and human rights violations resulting from ethnic, religious, and gender discrimination – all especially affect women. Gender issues, therefore, require the special attention of the church and all disciplines of theology. INSeCT wants to take up the call of Pope Francis who, in Evangelii Gaudium (nos. 103-104), urged theologians to contribute to an up-to-date theology of women.
ESCT- Call for Papers, Research Summary of Findings
Redeeming Power: Overcoming Abuse in Church and Society
The nature, function and location of theology, with particular attention to the power of theology to overcome power abuse in Church and Society’.
We are exploring, in a constructive manner, ways in which abuses of power – whether individual or collective – may be overcome and prevented in the future. While the scope of the project is intentionally broad (eg including abuse in families, the media, and politics), the sexual abuse crisis in the Church naturally forms a major focus.