The Faculty of Theology at the University of Malta in collaboration with the Theology Students’ Association is organising its annual academic evening in honour of St Thomas Aquinas on Tuesday, March 16, at 6pm. The lecture will take place online due to current restrictions in place to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The speaker invited to give this year’s talk is Prof. Karlheinz Ruhstorfer from the University of Freiburg who will deliver a lecture entitled ‘Identity reloaded: Philosophy, religion and politics facing new challenges’.

The annual academic evening is organised in honour of St Thomas Aquinas. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The lecture will tackle aspects related to our present age in human history and will delve into some of the challenges we face as a result of this. The abstract for the lecture describes humanity as currently standing “at a certain epochal threshold [where] the old is coming to an end and the new is beginning at a dramatic rate. It is therefore crucial to rethink the identities that unite us and that determine who we are.”

Ruhstorfer will go on to note in his lecture that the only possible way to rethink these unifying identities is “if we do not fall behind the achievements and insights of our history.

“The theological, philosophical, cultural and political identities, which have grown out of our past, must not become a criterion of exclusion for the others,” Ruhstorfer says.

“We owe each other recognition and respect. The greater the differences between ‘us’ and ‘the others’ seem to be, the greater the identity that precedes all differences must be thought of. We need a global identity that allows us to preserve and live our specificities.”

In order for us to conceive of this “identity that precedes all difference” with respect to ourselves and others, Ruhstorfer considers that it is a proper concept of God that can spur humanity into achieving this recognition.

“We need a concept of God that challenges us to fight for the dignity of all people. And we need an identity that knows where we come from, an identity that can therefore lead us confidently into the future.”

Ruhstorfer was born on May 9, 1963 in Simbach am Inn, Bavaria. Between 2006 and 2013, he was professor of systematic theology at the University of Landau. From 2013 to 2017, he was professor at the University of Dresden.

Since 2017, Ruhstorfer has held the chair of dogmatics at the University of Freiburg. He is chairman of the German Section of the European Society for Catholic Theology and since 2019, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Theology in Freiburg. He is also married and is a father to three children.

Anyone who wishes to attend the Aquinas lecture for 2021 may do so by accessing the link available from www.um.edu.mt/newspoint/events/um/aquinas-lecture. The event is free of charge.