The ENBCS is an international, European based, academic network that is organized by a Board, which is chaired by a president. For administrative work, there is a secretary, a treasurer and a web-master.
Prof. Dr. Perry Schmidt-Leukel
ENBCS President
Dr. Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Professor of Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology, University of Muenster, is one of the founding members of the ENBCS. He has more than 300 publications in the fields of religious pluralism, interreligious encounter, Buddhist Christian dialogue and Buddhist Studies. His Gifford-Lectures (2015) have been published as Religious Pluralism and Interreligious Theology (Orbis Books 2017). Most recently he published Buddha Mind – Christ Mind. A Christian Commetary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra (Peeters 2019).
perrysl@uni-muenster.de
Dr. John O’Grady
ENBCS Vice President
John O’Grady took his PhD in the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin, in 2010. He is a teacher and part-time lecturer and is a member of European Network of Buddhist-Christian Studies. With Cathy Higgins and Jude Lal Fernando he is editor of Mining Truths: Festschrift in honour of Geraldine Smyth OP – ecumenical theologian and peacebuilder (EOS, 2015).
jogrady.201@gmail.com
Prof Dr. Andreas Nehring (*1957)
Treasurer
Professor for Religious Studies and Mission Studies at the Friedrich Alexander Universität Erlangen. His fields of research are: Theories of Religious and Cultural Studies, Postcolonial Theologies, Transcultural Processes of Exchange and Communication between Europe and India, History of Missions, Mindfulness and the reception of Buddhist concepts in the West. Selected Publications: Orientalismus und Mission – Die Repräsentation südindischer Religion durch deutsche Missionare, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (2003); Religious Turns – Turning Religions. Veränderte kulturelle Diskurse – neue religiöse Wissensformen, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer (ed. together with Joachim Valentin 2008); Fundamentalism and Secularism. The Indian Predicament, Chennai: Navashakti (ed. 1994), Postkoloniale Theologie, (ed. with Simon Tielesch, Stuttgart 2011); Postkoloniale Theologie II, (ed. With Simon Wiesgickl, Stuttgart 2018). nehring.andreas@t-online.de
Dr. Carola Roloff
Dr Carola Roloff (Bhikṣuṇī Jampa Tsedroen) has been a Visiting Professor for Buddhism at the Academy of World Religions, University of Hamburg, since 2018. She holds a PhD in Philosophy focusing on Tibetan and Buddhist Studies. From 2013 to 2018, she was part of the European Research project “Religion and Dialogue in Modern Societies.” From 2010‒2017 she led a DFG research project on Buddhist nuns’ ordination. Current focal points include Dialogic theology and practice, intra-Buddhist dialogue, and impulses and processes of recognition of Buddhist minorities in Europe. Website: http://www.carolaroloff.de/ Email:
carola.roloff@uni-hamburg.de
Assoz.-Prof. Dr. Martin Rötting
ENBCS Secretary
“I am interested in spiritual pratices, structures, identities and processes of interreligious learning in Buddhist Christian dialogue.”
Martin Rötting is the Director of Religious Studies in the University of Salzburg and Chair of OCCURSO Institute for interreligious and intercultural encounter e.V. He is a former Chaplain at the Catholic University Chaplaincy of the University of Munich for international and interreligious affairs. He taught at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and now teaches as Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Salzburg. Recent publications include: Praxisbuch Interreligiöser Dialog (with Simone Sinn and Aykan Inan, eds.) (St. Ottilien 2012); Interreligiöses Lernen im buddhistisch-christlichen Dialog: lerntheoretischer Zugang und qualitativ-empirische Untersuchung in Deutschland und Südkorea (St. Ottilien, 2007); Religion in Bewegung (Münster, 2012); Navigation: Spirituelle Identität in einer interreligiösen Welt (St. Ottilien 2019).
martin.roetting@sbg.ac.at Homepage: http://www.martin-roetting.de/
Prof. Dr. André van der Braak
André van der Braak is professor of Buddhist Philosophy in Dialogue with other World Views at the faculty of Religion and Theology of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His publications include Nietzsche and Zen: Self-overcoming without a Self (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2011). Since 2013 he has been project leader of the research project “Multiple Religious Belonging: Hermeneutical and Empirical Explorations of Hybrid Religiosity”.
Thomas Cattoi, Ph. D.
holds a PhD from Boston College and is Associate Professor of Christology and Cultures at the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University, which is part of the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, California. He is the author of numerous essays on early Christian thought and on Buddhist-Christian dialogue, as well as of Divine Contingency: Theologies of Divine Embodiment in Maximos the Confessor and Tsong kha pa (Gorgias Press, 2009), and Theodore the Studite: Writings on Iconoclasm (Paulist press, 2014). He has edited multiple books, including the Handbook of Buddhist-Christian Studies (with Carol Anderson, Routledge, 2022), and the forthcoming Eastern Orthodox Theology and World Religions (with Brandon Gallaher, Brill). Since 2015, he co-edits the journal Buddhist-Christian studies. His main current project is a commentary for Brill on Tsong kha pa’s Great Treatise from an Eastern Christian perspective.
tcattoi@scu.edu
Prof. Dr.Elizabeth Harris
Dr Elizabeth Harris is currently an Honorary Senior Research Fellow within the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion of the University of Birmingham, UK. Prior to this, before her retirement, she was an Associate Professor in Religious Studies, with a specialism in Buddhism, at Liverpool Hope University, UK. She was a founder member of the European Network of Buddhist-Christian Studies and was President between 2009 and 2019. She remains an international adviser to the US-based Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies and co-convenes a Buddhist-Christian Dialogue Forum in the UK. Her research interests include Theravada Buddhism, Buddhist-Christian Studies, and religion and conflict. Her publications include: What Buddhists Believe (1998), Theravada Buddhism and the British Encounter: Religious, missionary and colonial experience in nineteenth century Sri Lanka (2006), Buddhism for a Violent World: A Christian Reflection (2010), Religion, Space and Conflict in Sri Lanka: colonial and postcolonial contexts (2018).
harrise@hope.ac.uk
Dr. Jude Lal Fernando
Jude Lal Fernando is Assistant Professor in Trinity College Dublin where he coordinates the postgraduate program on Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies in the Irish School of Ecumenics, School of Religion. He is the Director of the Trinity Centre for Post-Conflict Justice and the coordinator of the Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka. His main areas of expertise are in the role of religion in Conflict and Peace in Asia with a specific focus on Korea, Japan and Sri Lanka. Some of his works have been published in Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Interreligious Studies, Oxford Hand Book on Christianity in Asia, Uppsala University Series on Buddhism among Tamils and Routledge Series on Communalism and Globalisation. He was also the visiting professor in Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Sophia University, Tokyo, Tampere University in Finland and Uppsala University in Sweden.
Dr. Sybille C. Fritsch-Oppermann, Pn. em
Currently:is an independent scholar of intercultural philosophy, encounter between religion and natural science and Buddhist-Christian studies. She is now living and working in Hanover and Petershagen (Germany) as a writer (lyrics and prose) and teaches part time at Technical University Clausthal
Former: studied Protestant Theology, Social Science, Musicology in Göttingen, Frankfurt/M and Munich, Postgraduate Studies at International Christian University, Tokyo in Comparative Culture (Cultural Studies), Special Internship at the Ecumenical Institute Bossey, Switzerland, reverend of the Church of Southern Hesse, PhD (Religious Studies/Mission Studies) at the University of Heidelberg: Christian Existence in a Buddhist Context/Katsumi Takizawa and Seiichi Yagi. Junior professor at Hamburg University and guest lectureships and classes in Germany and various European and Asian Countries, Northern Africa and the US. Positions as director and director of studies at Protestant Academies in Germany, general secretary of ICCJ, head of the House of Church and Cultures, Rüsselsheim, scientific and artistic director of a Regional Culture Church Project in the Upper Harz Region, head management of the contribution of all churches and religious communities to the Day of Lower Saxony 2022, 2022-2023 also part time teaching at The University of Applied Sciences for Intercultural Theology (FIT) Hermannsburg
Research Topics and Special Fields of Interest: Philosophy (of Religion), Religious Studies, Intercultural Hermeneutics, Art and Religion, Science and Theology, Buddhist-Christian Studies, Jewish-German Relations, Islam in Germany, Foreign Policy and Human Rights, Church and State, Immigration Policy
Affiliations: enbcs (european network for buddhist christian studies/member of the board), ESITIS (European Society for Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies), ESSSAT (European Society for the Study of Science and Theology), EUARE (European Academy of Religion), Society for Buddhist Christian Studies, GiP (Gesellschaft für Interkulturelle Philosophie), Europahaus Burgenland/Akademie Pannonien (Beirat), member of the editorial board of HdR (Handbuch der Religionen), Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes. Various writers associations (national and international)
sybillefritschoppermann@web.de
Br. Josef Götz, OSB
Benedictine Abbey D-86 941 St. Ottilien Germany
email: josef@erzabtei.de phone: 08193-71206 fax: – 71332
Prof. Dr. Raquel Bouso Garcia
“I teach Ancient and Medieval philosophy, Religious traditions, and East Asian religions and thought. I am interested in issues of Intercultural philosophy, aesthetics, hermeneutics, and mysticism. My principal research area is Japanese Spiritual and Intellectual traditions, mainly Zen Buddhism and the Kyoto School. “
ENBCS Board member
Associate professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain)
raquel.bouso@upf.edu
Kurt Gakuro Krammer
Kurt Gakuro Krammer is a Buddhist pracitioner and has been active in Interreligious Dialogue for over 30 years. Currently he heads the “Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Dialogue of Religions” in Salzburg, Austria, offering lectures and meditation classes. He has been an active member of European Buddhist Union since 1993, served as its vice president for a term and is currently a member of the board of convenors for the network “Buddhist Teachers in Europe”.
buddhismus@sbg.at
Br. Dr. Elias König OSB
Webmaster
Before entering the Benedictine monastery of St. Ottilien, Br Elias worked in the field of polar- and climate science in Alaska, Northern Norway and on Svalbard / Spitsbergen. In the early 1990s he discovered through Buddhism and Zen the Christian contemplative way and became interested in the relation between Buddhism and Christianity. Br Elias has a Certificate in Theology from the University of Lampeter (English Benedictine Congregation) and a Certificate in Buddhist Studies from the University of Sunderland (Peter Harvey).
In St Ottilien, Br Elias is responsible for the IT-infrastructure and computer support, as well as being guest master, giving spiritual direction and contemplative retreats.
Mag. Sarah Pieslinger
Mag. Sarah Pieslinger studied Communication Science, Theology, Catholic Religion Education and Religious Studies at the University of Salzburg. Currently she is doing her doctorate in Religious Studies and she is part of the excellence program of the doctoral college at the Faculty of Catholic Theology Salzburg. Her research interests and her research focus include transformation of religion in modernity, contemporary spirituality, interreligious dialogue, biographical research, religion and society, interdisciplinary issues (religion and economics, theology and religious studies) and liturgy. E-Mail: Sarah.Pieslinger@stud.sbg.ac.at
Prof. Dr. Jacques Scheuer
Professor (emer.) of Asian philosophies and religions at the Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Main areas of interest : Hinduism and Buddhism, Comparative religion. Doctoral dissertation published as Siva dans le Mahâbhârata (Presses Universitaires de France, 1982). Among other publications : Un chrétien dans les pas du Bouddha (Lessius, 2010), L’Inde, entre hindouisme et bouddhisme : quinze siècles d’échanges (Académie royale de Belgique, 2013) and Thomas Merton : Un veilleur à l’écoute de l’Orient (Lessius, 2015).
Dr. Mathias Schneider
Dr. Mathias Schneider is a lecturer in Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology at the Faculty of Protestant Theology of the University of Münster. His research interests include Buddhism, Buddhist- Christian relations, Christology, Eschatology, and interreligious dialogue. In his main current research project, he is exploring Eschatology as a topic of intercultural and interreligious theology. His most recent publication is a monograph on Buddhist Interpretations of Jesus (Zürich: 2023). Mail: mathias.schneider@uni-muenster.de Homepages: https://www.uni-muenster.de/EvTheol/personen/schneider_mathias.html; https://uni- muenster.academia.edu/MathiasSchneider
Prof. Mag. Martina Anissa Strommer, BA MA MA MA
Anissa Strommer has backgrounds in Linguistics, Religious Studies, and South Asian Studies, and practices Buddhism in the Theravada tradition. She teaches at the Department of Buddhist Religion at the University College of Teacher Education of Christian Churches Vienna/Krems (Institut buddhistische Religion, Kirchliche Pädagogische Hochschule Wien/Krems) and also works as a publication manager at the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Institut für Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften). Her research interests include Diaspora and Mobility Studies, Buddhist education, and Missionary Linguistics. anissa.strommer@kphvie.ac.at
Dr. Fabian Völker
Dr. Fabian Völker is currently University Assistent at the Department of Intercultural Philosophy of Religion at the University of Vienna (Austria) and a member of the European Network of Buddhist-Christian Studies. Prior to this, he was at the Department of Religious Studies and Inter-Faith Theology at the University of Münster (Germany). His research interests include Buddhism, Hinduism, Transcendental Philosophy and Intercultural Philosophy of Religion. His publications include: Philosophie der Nondualität (2020) and Transzendentalphilosophie und Transkulturalität (2023). Page: https://univie.academia.edu/FabianVölker
Rev. Dr. Janet Williams
Janet Williams is currently Vice-Principal of St Hild College, in Yorkshire, England; she has taught both Buddhism and Christian Theology in a range of colleges and universities in the UK and Japan. Her research interests include Christian spirituality and doctrine, apophatic theologies, and theology of religions.
Janet.Williams@sthild.org