Launch of the European Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality
Michael O’Sullivan and Bernadette Flanagan were part of the launch of the European Society
for the Study of Christian Spirituality having been very influential over a number of years in
bringing it to birth. The international-launch conference, entitled Sacrality and Materiality:
Locating Intersections, took place in Zurich in January 2014 and both Michael and
Bernadette gave keynote presentations.
The new Society will be hosted at the University of Zurich and both Bernadette and Michael
were chosen at the end of the conference to be founder Board of Directors of the Society
along with Prof. Dr. Ralph Kunz, Professor of Liturgy, Counseling, and Religion and
Gerontology and Chair of the Dept. of Practical Theo logy at the University of Zurich, Prof.
Dr. John Swinton, Professor and Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies at the University of
Aberdeen School of Divinity, History & Philosophy, Rebecca Giselbrecht, PhD Cand and
Lecturer and Research Assistant at the University of Zurich, Dr. Brigitte Enzner-Probst,
University of Berne, and Prof. Dr. Christiane Tietz, Professor for Systematic Theology at the
University of Zurich.
Rebecca Giselbrecht visited Bernadette and Michael at All Hallows College on behalf of the
University of Zurich from January 31-February 2, 2014, to, as she put it, “glean some of your
wisdom as pioneers of the study of Christian spirituality in Europe. We are meeting so that
our European Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality can be up and running as soon as
possible”.
The photo above shows the five former Governing Board members of the international
Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality who gave keynote papers at the launch
conference.
L-R: Bernadette Flanagan, Michael O’Sullivan, John Swinton, Philip Sheldrake, and Claire
Wolfteich