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80335 München
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- Religion
Responsibilities and Aims of the Eugen Biser Foundation Founded in Munich in 2002, the Eugen Biser Foundation (EBF) numbers many distinguished figures among its members, serving on its board of trustees, executive committee or council, and who support its aims in a multitude of other ways. The Foundation, which engages with a wide spectrum of human existence from a Christian perspective and with Christian values, above all promotes dialogue and understanding with other faiths, ideologies and cultures, and the interests of freedom, tolerance and peace. I. Principal interests From a Christian source, intensifying inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue with the other monotheistic religions (e.g. Judaism and Islam), ideologies and cultures. Contributing to the development of a common basis for the tolerant, peaceful co-existence of all religions and nations, both at national and supra-national levels. Preserving, developing, perpetuating and disseminating Eugen Biser’s theological and philosophical works and related themes, by means of scholarly studies, such as dissertations and doctoral theses, lectures, seminars and publications. Disseminating Christianity’s core values and impulses. Encouraging inter-Christian reconciliation and ecumenism. Analysing spiritual and religious developments in all aspects of the human experience, in all its forms, from that of the individual to family life, to society as a whole. Organising lectures, symposia and seminars on themes relating to the Foundation, in co-operation with high-schools, academies and other educational and cultural organisations, as well as in industry. Granting the € 5000 Eugen Biser Award. Increasing access to the library of philosophical, theological and scholarly religious sources and reference-works assembled by Biser, alongside his archive of scholarly works. The Foundation funds the Library’s expansion.
The Eugen Biser Foundation is dedicated to promoting dialogue among cultures and religions, in keeping with the motto of Professor Eugen Biser: ‘We are living in an hour of dialogue,and will survive only if growing confrontations are overcome by a culture of understanding..’ Dialogue between Christians and Muslims, conducted in this spirit and characterised by a high level of mutual respect, is a central task for our scholarly work: Since 2005, we have conducted annual symposia, usually alternating between Munich and Ankara, on basic questions in Christian and Islamic theology, with the participation of German and Turkish scholars. The theology faculty of the university of Ankara is the entity in charge on behalf of Turkish participants. These events serve to deepen our awareness of one another. Some of the documentation of these meetings is already available in book form. Each original article is printed in both Turkish and German and includes an abstract, a summary, and an index of names and topics. Based on our experience from symposia already conducted that to date there are no comprehensive, scientifically well-founded Turkish-German/German-Turkish specialised dictionaries for the areas of theology/philosophy, and that it is consequently occasionally difficult to translate text from one language to the other, we have also decided to begin compiling just such a dictionary of all of the main basic concepts, together with explanatory articles. This dictionary is currently in progress, also in close collaboration with the aforementioned Turkish partners – with the assistance of numerous additional scholars in Turkey and in Germany. The dictionary is a pioneering work in the annals of research. It is due for publication no later than late 2012/early 2013, in a German and a Turkish edition. Also the Eugen Biser Foundation organises Christian-Islamic forums to provide experts an opportunity to discuss the basic socio- and religio-political principles of Christianity and Islam.
The Eugen Biser Foundation would like to deepen his relationship to partners in the Middle East since the Foundation has already partners in Turkey and Jordan and made good experiences in interreligious dialogue. Also the interreligious dialogue with partners of the ALF Network should have a political and social outlook, to ask e.g. how religious ethics can help for a common good.