European evangelicals reflect on the theology of hope
Sixty theologians participated in the biennial conference of the Fellowship of European Evangelical Theologians held in Prague.
FEET · PRAGUE · 21 SEPTEMBER 2022 · 09:18 CET
The Fellowship of European Evangelical Theologians (FEET) held its biennial conference in Prague (Czech Republic) from 26 to 30 August 2022 with the theme ‘Hope for the World: Eschatology as a Source of Life for the Mission of the Church’.
Sixty theologians of several disciplines involved in theological research and training from all over Europe, gathered to respond “what does evangelical theology have to say about hope to a world that experiences hopelessness and to a church that tries to minister in such circumstances”.
Participants discussed academic papers, participated in workshops, held disciplinary groups in Old Testament, New Testament, systematic theology, church history, practical theology and apologetics. There was also time to meet in regional groups.
Biblical hope
“Evangelical theology speaks not of a generic hope, but of the hope that is rooted in the biblical story. It is foreshadowed in the expectations of Israel in the Old Testament, accomplished in the life and work of Jesus Christ, and proclaimed and lived out in the life of the Church empowered by the Holy Spirit”, said the organisers about the conference theme.
The papers discussed at the conference “provided food for thought by giving an overview” of that topic from different perspectives, such as hope in the Old and New Testament (Prof. Dr Julius Steinberg, Germany); the implications of the Christian hope for apologetics and mission (Dr Yannick Imbert, France); the resurrection of Jesus as the ground of our hope (Prof. Dr Christian Stettler, Switzerland), the relationship between hope and God’s judgement (Dr Jiří Bukovský, Czech Republic); and hope and the pursuit of social justice (Dr Alexander Geychenko, Ukraine).
The Bible plenaries were also around the topic oh hope and were given by Dr Myrtho Theocharous (Greece) on the book of Habakkuk, Dr Külli Tõniste (Estonia) about the book of Revelation, and Dr Stephen Dray (UK) on biblical hope according to Hebrews 10.
Furthermore, Dr Roman Soloviy from Lviv, Ukraine, presented “a moving report of how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought death and despair and how Christian hope can energise Christians and society at large not to give up even in the midst of such evil”.
The FEET
It was founded by Dr John Stott and others. The current chair is Prof. Dr Gert Kwakkel .
The members’ meeting during the conference paid tribute to members of the Executive Committee who had served the Fellowship for many years and elected as new members Drs Jiří Bukovský, David Kramer and McTair Wall.
The FEET, along with the European Evangelical Alliance plans to hold a joint conference in 2024 on the topic of evangelical identity.
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