Today’s pluralistic world, despite widespread secularization, finds itself with ongoing, and sometimes polarizing, interest towards faith, religion and spirituality.
At Regina Apostolorumwe are passionate about fostering dialogue between the Church and contemporary currents of thought. We seek to properly understand and interpret the religious phenomenon, from a Christian philosophical and interdisciplinary framework, to aid in the fields of interreligious and intercultural dialogue, ecumenism and the New Evangelization.
In our project, awareness, understanding, critical reflection and education are key words. The current project stems from the need to do field research in religious experiences outside of our religion of reference (Christianity) and to network internationally with other scholars, who are dedicated to similar types of research. It also hopes to translate this research into enriched lectures and formative activities for the students of Regina Apostolorum. The end goal is to form a more integrated and solid science of religion, faith and spirituality, integrated with Christian philosophy and theology.
Our research aim focuses on foundational questions: What is religion? What is faith? What is spirituality? Through a rigorous interdisciplinary approach, involving history, empirical studies, philosophy and theology, we have developed a three-year project with annual field study of specific religions (three weeks each) in their local cultural settings, and annual participation in leading international conferences on religion. The fruit of this research will not only be the papers presented at these peer conferences, but also an enrichment of the courses on phenomenology and philosophy of religion, and hands-on pedagogy through two guided student trips per year.
Benefactors, contributing to the realization of this project, will help also to enrich the Faculty with greater expertise in inter-faith, inter-religious, and inter-spirituality phenomenology and philosophical reflection. Furthermore, it will facilitate the formation of students (future pastoral agents) in appreciating and entering into inter-faith, inter-religious, and inter-spirituality dialogue situations from a solid Catholic and humanistic perspective.
Duration: 3 years
Total cost: € 80,400
Â