TRES

The TRES Network has been selected and approved by the EU Commission for a Socrates thematic network for Teaching Religion in a multicultural European Society. The legal contract has been signed and this means that TRES will launch its project in the coming winter.

The TRES network consists of 57 partner institutions in Europe. The majority of the European countries are participating. The full list of the partner institutions will be presented shortly at the TRES web page (to be launched in 2006). The overall purpose of the TRES network is to highlight and promote the teaching of religion and theology in the multicultural European context. The project starts with making a survey over the already existing teaching procedures in religion and theology at the various partner institutions. The survey will be finalized, analyzed and made known to the partners involved. We will by then, hopefully, have records of different approaches, strategies and ways of thinking when it comes to teaching religion in a multicultural context. Papers, articles and didactic modules will be presented in relation to these topics. The second and third phases of the TRES project will cover the issues of the roles of religions and religious institutions in relation to social welfare and to public conflicts. These two latter concerns are covered in two other existing network projects named Welfare and Religion in a European Perspective (WREP) and Religion in Conflict and Reconciliation (ReCoR).

The starting conference in Uppsala (31st of March to the 2nd of April 2006) will present the TRES network, its purpose, member institutions, activities and possibilities for cooperation in this context. Each member institution will present itself by a poster at a small exhibit. We will also present a set of questions concerning the teaching of religion. This questionnaire will be distributed among students at the cooperating institutions. This will be the first phase of the mapping work of the TRES network in order to survey the education of Theology and Religious studies in Europe.

At present there is a steering committee working as the executive team of the TRES network. The members of the steering committee are: Anders Bäckström (Uppsala), Thomas Bremer (Münster), Thomas Ekstrand, Uppsala Erik Eynikel, Nijmegen Massimo Faggioli (Bologna), Mathijs Lamberigts (Leuven), Robin Scalfani (Bryssels), Korinna Zamfir (Cluj), Hans-Georg Ziebertz (Würzburg) Håkan Bengtsson (Uppsala, coordinator).

For detailed information see: www.student.teol.uu.se/tres