Is it possible to love this way?

3rd International Conference on the Theology of the Body

Person | Family | Society

November 10-12, 2017 | Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany

A conference by the Chair of Social Pedagogy at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt and Knotenpunkt – Begegnung verbindet e.V..

Is it possible to love this way? This might come across as a surprising question. And a second one immediately follows: What does "this way" mean? Quite obviously a love that is especially beautiful and fitting for me as a human being. Otherwise I would not desire to love "this way"!

We find in ourselves the deep desire to be affirmed in our uniqueness, to be faithfully and unconditionally accepted and to build through love a fruitful life. But we experience that our attempts to love and to be loved in such a way are affected by our human weakness. On our own we are too weak to love unconditionally but when we encounter such a love it transforms our person, our families, and our society.

Our conference considers this fundamental experience from the perspective of different scientific disciplines and personal life experiences. Already during our first conferences in 2011 and 2014 our speakers from diverse cultural backgrounds confirmed that they shared this fundamental experience. For this conference we have also invited Muslim speakers in order to enter with them into a dialogue about love, marriage, and the family. We regard such a dialogue as especially important in our present-day social context, in which it becomes always more important to encourage mutual understanding end opportunities for encounter between Christians and Muslims .

Our starting point remains John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, because this work has proven itself to be for us a veritable journey of discovery.