The ENBCS is an international, European-based academic network that is organized by a Board, which is chaired by a President and a Vice President. For administrative work, there is also a Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Webmaster.
Thomas Cattoi, Ph. D.
ENBCS President
holds a PhD from Boston College and is the William and Barbara Moran Chair in Early Christian Theology and Interreligious Relations at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, Italy. His last work is the monograph Seeking Wisdom, Embracing Compassion: A Philokalic Commentary on Tsong kha pa’s ‘Great Treatise’ (Brill, 2026). He has edited multiple books, including the Handbook of Buddhist-Christian Studies (with Carol Anderson, Routledge, 2022), and has co-edited the Journal Buddhist-Christian Studies since 2015. His work focuses on the intersection between early Christian theology and spirituality and Tibetan Buddhism. In the area of Eastern Christian theology, he has published Theodore the Studite: Writings on Iconoclasm (Paulist Press, 2014), as well as Maximos the Confessor and the Latin West (with Kevin Clarke, Brill, 2026) and the forthcoming Eastern Orthodox Theology and World Religions (with Brandon Gallaher, Brill).
tcattoi@pust.it
Dr. Carola Roloff
ENBCS Vice President
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
Prof. Dr. Perry Schmidt-Leukel
Dr. Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Senior 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 religiouspluralism, interreligious encounter, Buddhist Christian dialogue and Buddhist Studies. His Gifford-Lectures (2015) have been published as Religious Pluralism and Interreligious Theology (Orbis Books 2017). His main works in Buddhist-Christian relations are Buddha Mind – Christ Mind. A Christian Commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra (Peeters 2019) and The Celestial Web. Buddhism and Christianity – A Different Comparison (Orbis 2024), which both won the Frederick J. Streng Award for Excellence in Buddhist-Christian Studies.
perrysl@uni-muenster.de
Prof Dr. Andreas Nehring (*1957)
Treasurer
Professor em. 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
Assoz.-Prof. Dr. Martin Rötting
ENBCS Secretary
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: Euro-Buddhism and the Role of Christianity : Papers from the 13th Conference of the European Network of Buddhist-Christian Studies in Cooperation with the University of Salzburg, 2022. John O Grady, Krammer, Kurt; Martin Rötting (Hrsg.), EOS-Verlag: St. Ottilien 2024.Religionen in der Zukunft!? Krisen, Herausforderungen, Spiritualitäten und interreligiöse Optionen. Eos-Verlag: St. Ottilien, 2024. Buddhismus in Europa, Hg. mit Kurt Krammer, Wien 2022.
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”.
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 Buddhist Studies, 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 is currently President of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies and also 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); co-written with John L. Crow, Allan Bennett/ Bhikkhu Ananda Metteya: Biography and Collected Writings (2 Volumes, 2025-2026).
E.harris.2@bham.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
lives in Germany as a free writer (lyrics, prose and philosophical essays) and as cultural mediator. As an independent scholar of intercultural philosophy, religious studies, Buddhist-Christian studies and the encounter between religion and natural sciences she teaches part time at Technical University Clausthal and serves as member of the editorial board of HdR (Handbuch der Religionen).
She covered the professorship for Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology during a vacancy at The University of Applied Sciences for Intercultural Theology (FIT) Hermannsburg and has been teaching Philosophy of Religion and Interreligious Dialogue as Junior Professor at Hamburg University. Guest lectureships brought her to various European and Asian Countries and the US.
Fritsch-Oppermann held positions as director and director of studies at Protestant Academies in Germany and as general secretary of ICCJ. Alumna of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, Episcopal Divinity School Boston (MS) and ICU Tokyo.
For her work as writer and author in dealing with questions of Human Rights and her lyrics and prose she has been recently elected as a member of PEN Germany.
Email: 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 currently vicar in the Protestant Church in the Rhineland, Germany. Previously, he taught Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology at the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Muenster. His research interests include Buddhist-Christian relations, Christology, Eschatology, and interreligious theology. His publications include the monograph Buddhist Interpretations of Jesus (2023) and the co-edited volumes Beyond Boundaries: Essays on Theology, Dialogue and Religion (2024) and Das Wort vom Geheimnis der Welt (2025).
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. Anissa Strommer, BA BA MA MA MA
Anissa Strommer has backgrounds in Linguistics, Religious Studies, and South Asian Studies, and practices Buddhism in the Theravada tradition. She heads the Department of Buddhist Religion at the University College of Teacher Education of Christian Churches Vienna/Lower Austria (Institut buddhistische Religion, Kirchliche Pädagogische Hochschule Wien/Niederösterreich) and her research interests include Diaspora and Mobility Studies, Buddhist education, Sustainability, and Missionary Linguistics.
anissa.strommer@kphvie.ac.at
Prof. Peter Tyler
Peter Tyler is Professor of Pastoral Theology and Spirituality at St Mary’s University, London. A Catholic Christian himself he has had a long association with Buddhist-Christian dialogue having participated in the ground-breaking events of ‘The Way of Peace’ initiative held in India, Great Britain, Ireland and Italy with H.H. The 14th Dalai Lama between 1994 – 1999. He has had a long academic career having taught, amongst others, at Christ University, Bengaluru, India; Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, Texas; Sarum College, Salisbury and University of Wales, Lampeter. His particular academic specialism is the interaction between psychology and spirituality with particular reference to the work of the Spanish Mystics. In this context he has edited and authored numerous books on these subjects, most recently John of the Cross: Carmel, Desire and Transformation (Routledge, 2024) and Dialogues, Disputes and Dreams among Jews, Christians and Muslims (St Mary’s University Press, 2024). He has a private psychotherapy practice in London and his current work involves the integration of psychotherapy with the mystical tradition, Buddhist and Christian.
peter.tyler@stmarys.ac.uk
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