The meeting aims to determine which elements can be considered certain, probable, or surpassed within the history of the Church.
Newsroom (October 29, 2021, 1:35 PM, Gaudium Press) From October 27 to 29, the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences is holding, in collaboration with the Catholic University of Lyon, an International Study Conference at the Maria Santissima Bambina Institute, Vatican, entitled ‘Research on the history of the first centuries of the Church.’
Promoting the study of Church history
According to the president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, Father Bernard Ardura, this institution “is charged with promoting the study of the history of the Church, that is, of the twenty centuries that separate us from the earthly life of Jesus and His apostles.”
“In recent years, Pope Francis has insisted on the need for the Committee to promote fruitful collaboration in the scientific sphere not only with Catholic academic institutions but also with all historians and experts in the auxiliary sciences of history, willing to work together in the search for truth, taking into account only their scientific competence,” he added.
A response to the Holy Father’s call
Father Ardura stressed that in organizing the program for this conference, he wanted to respond to the Holy Father’s call to “work with scholars from all scientific backgrounds, from the most varied cultural sensibilities, and from the most diverse historiographical approaches.”
Because of this, the committee consulted with experts in geography and history of the first centuries, of trade routes and the economy in the Roman world and Asia, with special attention to the movements of the Jewish diaspora and the itineraries of the first missionaries. (EPC)
Compiled by Sarah Gangl