In today’s world religious diversity, both between (interreligious) and within (intra-religious; oecumenical) religions is an increasing phenomenon with many implications.

The Bern Interreligious and Oecumenical Studies (bios) series – a series which was begun within the Bern publication Internationale Kirchliche Zeitschrift (IKZ) – provides a forum for contemporary investigations and discussions at the interface of oecumenical and interreligious discourse. Many academic disciplines may be represented, including theology, religious studies, philosophy and history to sociology, psychology and other social and human sciences.
Questions and issues of communal identity, inter-communal relations, cultural plurality and religious diversity, are among the many that are being investigated today, and they may be found analysed and critically considered in IKZ-bios. Also, reactions to cultural plurality ranging from positive affirmation, as with the burgeoning interfaith movement, to negative, even violent responses of reactive extremism, are among topics being addressed. Such endeavours and developments engage European and wider, global, contexts. They require on-going investigation as well as critical theoretical and theological reflection.

The IKZ-bios series primarily includes edited and peer reviewed collections of selected papers. Each issue has a distinctive theme – the first five volumes derive from the International Conferences on “Interreligious Relations and Ecumenical Issues” (IREI), held in Bern 2011-2018. As appropriate, suitable sole-authored monographs and doctoral dissertations may also be published. The series reflects wide ecumenical as well as, where appropriate, distinctive Old Catholic perspectives, contexts, and approaches, and gives particular reference to the interplay between ecumenical and interreligious questions and issues. 

The following Bern Interreligious and Oecumenical Studies volumes have been published:

• Vol 1: Interreligious Engagement and Theological Reflection: Ecumenical Explorations, edited by Douglas Pratt. Published 2014.
• Vol. 2: From Encounter to Commitment: Interreligious Experience and Theological Engagement, edited by Angela Berlis and Douglas Pratt. Published 2015.
• Vol. 3: Religious Minorities and Interreligious Relations: Social and Theological Challenges, edited by Douglas Pratt, Angela Berlis and Andreas Krebs (as a themed issue of Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 26/2, Leuven 2016, 129-254 [ISSN 0926-2326]
• Vol. 4: Belief Diversity and Lived Experience of Religion, edited by Douglas Pratt and Angela Berlis (as a themed issue of Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 27 (2017) 2, 169 p. [ISSN 0926-2326])
  
• Vol 5: Secular Society and Religious Presence: Religion-State Relations, edited by Angela Berlis and Douglas Pratt (as a themed issue of Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 30 [2020] 2, 86 p. [ISSN 0926-2326])
• Further contributions from this conference were published as: Säkulare Gesellschaft und religiöse Präsenz, 5. IREI-Konferenz, Bern 2018, in: Internationale Kirchliche Zeitschrift 111 (2021) issue 3-4, pp. 97-157 [ ISSN 0020-9252]

 

The Series Editors are
Prof Dr Angela Berlis (Bern CH)
Prof PhD DTheol Douglas Pratt (Auckland NZ / Bern CH)
Prof. Dr Andreas Krebs (Bonn DE)

ISSN: 2297-1726