Global Perspectives on the Reformation launches the three-year Reformation anniversary core period. It offers a forum for global discernment on the impact of the Reformation on church and society, and will be a platform for discussing the interaction between theological thinking, economics and politics in the twenty-first century. We discuss the role of theology in addressing crucial questions related to political and economic realities in different contexts today.

Some 70 participants will be invited, with extra space for self-funded participants. LWF General Secretary Martin Junge will give an opening presentation on the first evening, followed by three conference days and an excursion in Windhoek. The conference days will be made up of plenary sessions with contextual Bible studies, keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops and group discussions.

Click playlist to watch the following video clips:

• Martin Junge and Kaisamari Hintikka - conference goals
• Anne Burghardt and Kenneth Mtata - relevance of theological education
• Lesmore Gibson Ezekiel - inter-religious relations and public space
• Lilana Kasper - gender justice
• Barbara Rossing - overarching issues for the Lutheran communion
• Tomas Sedlacek - economics
• Johannes Zeiler - religion and development
• Samuel Liu - theological education

Conference objectives:

1. To encourage LWF member churches and partner organisations to increasingly reflect on and study the LWF themes of the Reformation anniversary
2. To ensure practical processes and actions grow out of both the anniversary themes and from the triangular "theology-politics-economics" relationship
3. To continue to articulate what it means to be Lutheran today
4. To welcome the understanding, contextual insight and knowledge of LWF member churches from all parts of the world, to see them as gifts and to bring them into conversation in order to shape and deepen the theology, spiritual life and joint work of the communion
5. To contribute to the LWF as a reliable and effective voice for justice, peace and human rights
6. To define common theological agenda for the communion

The LWF is one of the partners of the Association of Protestant Churches and Missions in Germany, EMW, in the project Reformation – Education – Transformation.

Windhoek speakers

A number of eminent theologians are among a body of scholars examining the impact of the Reformation on church and society, in late October. This major conference takes place in Windhoek, host city of the 2017 Reformation anniversary.

Dr Nancy Cardoso is a Methodist Pastor working with the pastoral land commission/CPT, southern Bahia team, Brazil. Cardoso is specialized in religious studies.

Dr Samuel Dawai is director of the theological seminary at Kaélé, North Cameroon. Dawai is a New Testament scholar.

Dr Antje Jackelén is Archbishop of the Church of Sweden. Jackelén is a systematic theologian, specialized in the area of religion and science.

Rev. Dr Petri Merenlahti is the Special Adviser on Theology to the Archbishop of Turku and Finland. Merenlahti is a New Testament scholar.

Prof. Dr Dr Nils Ole Oermann is professor for ethics at Leuphana University and Vice-president of the university.

Prof. Dr Mary (Joy) Philip is Assistant Professor of Lutheran Global Theology and Mission at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary/Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada. Philip is a systematic theologian.

Prof. Dr John Roth is professor of history at Goshen College where he also serves as director of the Mennonite Historical Library and editor of The Mennonite Quarterly Review.

Prof. Dr Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar is professor of theology in the Department of Women's Studies, United Theological College, Bangalore, India, and currently visiting scholar, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia, USA.

Prof. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda is currently Professor of Theological and Social Ethics at Seattle University. From August, she takes up position as Professor of Christian Ethics at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. Prof. Moe-Lobeda has carried out research in the field of ecological ethics, economic globalization and public theology and has written on the intersection of theology, economics, and politics.

Gerald West is a senior professor at the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. His main area of academic work is African biblical hermeneutics with a special focus on the use of the Bible in African liberation struggles, the role of ordinary readers of the Bible in liberation hermeneutics, the history of the Bible’s reception by indigenous Africans, and the various ways in which the Bible is present in the African public realm.

Tomáš Sedláček is a Czech economist and university lecturer. He is the Chief Macroeconomic Strategist at ČSOB (Czech national bank), a member of a group Narrative of Europe commissioned by Manuel Barroso, and Council Member of the World Economic Forum focused on New Economic Thinking. He is a former member of the National Economic Council of the Czech Republic and an economic advisor to former President Václav Havel. His book, Economics of Good and Evil, a bestseller in the Czech Republic, was translated into English and published by Oxford University Press in June, 2011.

Prof. Dr Bernd Oberdorfer is professor of systematic theology at the Institute for Evangelical Theology, University of Augsburg, Germany.

Prof Dr Jaana Hallamaa is professor of social ethics at the theological faculty at the University of Helsinki. Hallamaa is also an ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and a member of the church synod.

Dr Guillermo Hansen is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and teaches theology and global Christianity at Luther Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA.