We are delighted to announce the first European Adventist of Society of Theology and Religious Studies student essay competition. The competition is open to those studying theology or religious studies at university or college.

The winning students will have their essays published in Spes Christiana: the flagship academic journal of European Adventism. Some winners will also have the opportunity to present their work to the members of EASTRS at their meeting in Budapest, Hungary in 2023.

This is an amazing opportunity for a young scholar to take part in the European Adventist academic community, both through publishing and networking.

The essay should relate to the topic of tensions, conflicts and wars in the Bible, church and society. This topic can be broadly interpreted.

The Executive board members will shortlist and judge the entries. The editors of Spes Christiana might require some changes to the essay to make it suitable for publication.

Any questions about this competition can be sent to webmaster@eastrs.org.

Submission requirements

• Essays should be approximately 2500 words (excluding footnotes).
• The essay should be academic in tone and style, suitable for academic publication. Do not submit a blog post, sermon.
• The student must have written the essay themself, and follow accepted academic practice for usage of sources and authorship.
• The paper can be submitted in English, French or German.
• The submission must not be under consideration for publication anywhere else.
• The deadline is 1 February 2023.

Regulations

To qualify for entry, the student must be associated with the Adventist church, must be a student at an Adventist or public university or college (not high school), and they should be studying one of the fields that fall under the purview of EASTRS (e.g. theology, religious studies, biblical studies, archaeology).

The student must live or study in one of the countries in Europe (broadly taken to be any country in the TED, EUD or ESD). If in doubt whether you qualify, contact webmaster@eastrs.org.

Students cannot be doing a doctorate, they should be enrolled in a bachelor’s or master’s degree (or equivalent).

Submission

To participate in this competition, contact webmaster@eastrs.org with the following information:

• Name
• Title of paper
• Short summary/abstract (<100 words)
• Country of residence
• University/College
• Degree and current year of study
• And, of course, the paper!

The upcoming European Theology Teachers Convention will be organised 22–26 March 2023. The Hungarian Adventist Theological College will be hosting the conference in Budapest.

We expect to be able to hold the conference in-person, but the Covid-19 pandemic may necessitate contingency plans that will be developed and communicated as the situation and needs dictate.

The theme for the conference will be:

Tensions, Conflicts, Wars: ‘Storms’ in the Bible, Church & Society

We are living in a world burdened with tensions, conflicts, and wars. Ethnic, cultural and religious ‘storms’ are also found in the Bible. They were part of the experience of the people of God in the Old Testament and in the early church times likewise. Adventism in the 21st century also faces tensions and conflicts on number of horizons, whether theological, ethical, church political, cultural or pastoral – both on local and global levels.

We are inviting papers from the area of biblical studies, theology (including missiology, ecclesiology, eschatology), anthropology, epistemology, pastoral theology, religious history, ecology, ethics, social justice (possibly including gender studies, critical race theory, postcolonial studies), and societal conflict.

Guidelines:

Papers proposals should have a working title and not exceed 200 words in length. The deadline for submission is 30 September 2022. Proposals should be sent to Richard Michelisz (fotitkar@atf.hu) in MS Word format. Notifications regarding proposals will go out in October 2022. Presenters are limited to thirty minutes for presentation (approximately 3,500-words), with additional time for questions and discussion of the paper.