In Paris, on October 17, 2025, the Theological Faculty of the Loyola University organized the International Conference “Identities in Question: Issues for Human Existence and the Life of the Churches”, bringing together theologians, sociologists and historians from France and Europe. The Conference was organized under the supervision of Professors Michel Fédou and Anne-Cathy Graber, and it focused on the way the Churches can progress toward “relational identities,” not losing sight of their respective heritages, but benefiting from their encounters with other traditions. It explored the resources the Churches bring through their history, practices, and theologies, as well as the perspectives now opened up by the Ecumenical movement. The language of the Conference was French.

In the context of the Conference, the previous evening, Oct. 16, there was an introductory round table on the topic “Culture Wars and Global Disorder: Toward an Ecumenical Ethics of Identity.” The speaker was Marc Boss (Protestant Institute of Theology, Paris), who focused on the case of the American Lutheran Theologian George Lindbeck, while the respondents were Brigitte Cholvy (Catholic Institute of Paris) and Julija Naett-Vidovic (Saint Serge Orthodox Institute of Theology, Paris). This discussion, at the crossroads of moral and political philosophy and ecumenical theology, showed how Churches can exercise moral discernment in the current situation, and what the Ecumenical Movement itself can learn from an ethics of identity.

Representing the Volos Academy for Theological Studies, Pantelis Kalaitzidis presented the topic “Modern Orthodoxy between Relational Ontology and Identity Folding.” After a brief reference to the contribution of modern Orthodox theology to the elaboration and formulation of the theology of the person and of relational ontology (Vladimir Solovyov, Fr. Sergius Bulgakov, Nikolai Berdyaev, Vladimir Losky, Nikos Nissiotis, Christos Yannaras, Metropolitan John D. Zizioulas), the Director of the Volos Academy raised the question whether the Orthodox Church and theology are “relational” in their encounter with otherness, and indeed in the context of the ongoing theological dialogue. Demonstrating with specific examples the introvert tendencies of Orthodox theology, he pointed out the ignorance that prevails in the Western Christian world regarding Orthodoxy or even the silence about the contribution of Orthodoxy to the Ecumenical movement and the encounter of East and West.

See the Conference programme here: https://www.loyolaparis.fr/agenda/les-identites-en-question-enjeux-pour-lexistence-humaine-et-la-vie-des-eglises-2/

Photography by Julija Naett-Vidovic.