The 2013 Giornate Teologiche was held at IFED in Padova (Padua) on September 6-7.
There was a time when the word ‘evangelism’ was spoken by evangelicals alone and its meaning was defined, i.e. the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ to a lost world. These days are gone. Nowadays Roman Catholics are talking about the ‘new’ evangelisation and its meaning has become blurred. Moreover, evangelicals seem to put less emphasis on the verbal communication of the gospel, preferring ‘different’ methods of evangelisation. This generation, therefore, has the responsibility to clarify afresh what evangelism is and how to do it.
This was the central concern of the conference. Nearly 250 people, most of whom were young leaders from various church backgrounds, took part at the 26th annual conference, an impressive record for a theological initiative in a minority situation. The goal of the Giornate is to nurture biblical thinking which is not afraid of dialoguing with other viewpoints. Daily life is confronted with the need to cultivate the Christian faith in an apologetic context and the Giornate model a faithful way of responding to such a task.
