Espaces²: Meeting of a theological Working Group in Fiesole (Italy)

  

[16.11.2014] From 14th to 16th of November 2014 Dominicans from Italy (Pistoia), Belgium (Brussels), Turkey (Istanbul), Germany (Berlin) and South Africa came together in Fiesole (Tuscany) for a theological discussion about the challenges of "Community" for and in Europe. On the part of Institut M.-Dominiquie Chenu Thomas Eggensperger OP, Ulrich Engel OP and Bernhard Kohl OP participated in the convention, which took place in the historical priory of the famous artist of the Order of Preachers, Fra Angelico (1386/1400 - 1455).

In the last meeting of the Espaces² working group in Cologne in July 2014 we decided to start a project about “Communio”, focused in the search of a common “Us”: How to live together in a plural society? How to preach as community in an individualized time? How to act together in perspective of humanity at the different borders – symbols of exclusion – in our world? How to be Christian Community in a European secular context? How to be Catholics in a fragmentized Church? How to come together in the actual world of conflicts, terrorism and war? How to realize solidarity in a world of globalized capitalism? How to live hospitality for and with excluded people? This was the focus of our debates in Fiesole

Espaces² is a platform of Dominicans in Europe, where questions of the mission of the Order in Europe are discussed in a philosophical and theological perspective. The reflection is starting in the social, political, religious, ethical and cultural practices of ‘real life’ of people and takes responsibility to this practices (“Salamanca Process”). The discourse takes place in the relationship between Religion and Public Sphere. In a theological sense of incarnation Espaces² understands Church and the Mission of the Dominican Order as a part of the (post-) secular Civil Society.