GENERAL PRESENTATION

The International Congress of Faculdades EST happens in its third edition, promoted by the acting Research Groups of the institution and with its partners. It will occur on September 12 to 16 and its general theme will be “Reform: tradition and transformation”. It wishes to foment the analysis and reflection on transformation – religious, cultural, social – and the retake of religious and cultural tradition and memory by means of reform processes.

Of course that the title makes allusion to the beginning of the Reform movement on October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther (1483-1546) nailed the 95 thesis against the indulgences on the door of the church from the castle in Wittenberg. There were other reformation movements – starting with the mendicant orders of Saint Francis of Assis (1182-1226), the movements of Peter Valdez (1140-1218), John Wycliffe (1320-1384) and John Hus (1369-1415), before Luther and Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531), John Calvin (1509-1564), John Wesley (1703-1791) and others together and after Luther.

It is also necessary to remember the Renascence and Humanism that strongly influenced the reforms in the XVI^th century. Therefore, as much in the religious sphere as in the secular one – even though the distinction itself still had not acquired, at the time, such clarity and evidence as it would in the wake of European enlightenment – there were and there is, still today, reform movements that are noted for pointing ahead, demonstrating innovation and originality, at the same time that they intend to go back “to the source”, in a recuperation of religious, philosophical and theological tradition under a new view.

Therefore, even with historical reference, it is not only about facts, reflections and historical movements. Also today we are in times of accelerated political, social, cultural and religious changes. It comes to mind, first, the political tribulations surrounding a possible impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. Facing the political instability, which would be the sources, the historical values remembered, and which courses do we glimpse for the future? What is the citizen participation of religions in this process? Let us also remember the huge religious mobility that took upon our country, with new churches being founded daily and assertion of 25% of Brazilians having changed religion at least one time in their life. This similarly occurs in Africa and Asia.

Likewise, the number of the non-religious is growing, even if with much slower steps than in other contexts, such as western and central Europe. The migratory fluxes of millions of people throughout the world bring with them changes in the cultural and religious configuration and demand a welcome and adequate intercultural “negotiation”. Nevertheless, such processes of change need a pause for reflection, analyzing the form and pertinence of confluence or divergence between old and new. In this analysis, interdisciplinary approaches will be needed, from theology, science of religion, history, political science, sociology, among others.

Worldly, the year 2017 and the preceding are dedicated to the reflection on the process of reform, tradition and transformation, in the proximity to the commemoration of the 500 years of the protestant Reform. Faculdades EST was historically born on March 26, 1946, amidst communities of protestant tradition (United, Lutheran and Reformed), being founded by the then “Riograndense” Synod of what today is the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB). It celebrates, therefore, 70 years of its existence. Faculdades EST is today an academic and ecumenical institution that values the foment of inter-religious relations and with secularism in favor of the common well-being, of tolerance, of respect, of comprehension, of cooperation communication. It develops academic work in an interdisciplinary form with people and local, national and international institutions.

The main speakers are already confirmed. They are Prof. Dr. Elsa Tamez (Mexico/Colombia), Prof. Dr. Monica Melanchthon (India/Australia), Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Wachholz (EST/Brasil), Prof. Dr. Bonnie McLemore (EUA) and Prof. Dr. Joanildo Burity (Fundação Palmares/Recife, Brasil). Other speakers will come from South Africa, Germany, Great Britain and Norway, among other countries. For a real and profound dialogue, it is indispensable to count with simultaneous translation at least in some spaces, which will be provided by our already known well competent team.

The Congress will be composed of many Thematic Symposiums, promoted by the Research Group of Faculdades EST, offering spaces for paper sharing, workshops, mini-courses, round tables, among other formats. The news this year is that all registration management will be by the Open Conference System.

We will be pleased with your presence. We await your registration and we will remain at your disposal for whatever is necessary.

Prof. Dr. Rudolf von Sinner
Congress Coordinator

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