The conference will explore how different forms of resilience underpin human development and what spiritual and theological sources they draw on. Aware of the ambivalence of the concept of resilience, we will focus more on its positive capacity in the following ways:

1. As long‐term care for what holds human personal and collective life together and gives it meaning and direction;
2. As a gift and an ability to recover after having encountered situations that are in radical discord with human faith, desire for truth and justice, and human well‐being;
3. As mechanisms that help in negotiating conflicts and crises, and thus contribute to healing processes;
4. As a gift and a task to adapt into new circumstances, to integrate insights from the dark times and whatever is left and/or rediscovered from spiritual practices and their theological interpretations.

In all these aspects of resilience the focus will be on personal as well as communal life in its different dimensions, relationship with nature, culture, engagement in social and political life. We will be exploring differences in cultural forms of resilience, and while most of the contributions will present Christian theological.

You may find the full programme of the conference here.