The European Network of Buddhist Christian Studies was established 1996 in Hamburg at the Academy of Mission, University of Hamburg. At this time its title was “European Network for Christian Studies of Buddhism”. At the conference of 1997, which was held at the Benedictine Archabbey of St. Ottilien near Munich, the name was changed to the “European Network of Buddhist Christian Studies” so that both Buddhists and Christians could be involved on an equal footing. The administrative home of the Network also changed to the Archabbey of St. Ottilien. The Network is an association of scholars in Europe involved in Buddhist-Christian Studies. Its main activity is to hold a bi-annual international conference on a theme important to Buddhist-Christian Studies. Since 1997, the following conferences have been held:

1999 Buddhist Perceptions of Jesus (St. Ottilien)

2001 Christian Perceptions of the Buddha (Lund, Sweden)

2003 Buddhism, Christianity and the Question of Creation (Scotland)

2005 Conversion and Belonging in Buddhism and Christianity (St. Ottilien)

2007 Buddhist Attitudes to Other Religions (Salzburg)

2009 Sources of Authority in Buddhism and Christianity (St. Ottilien)

High profile academics have been invited from around the world to contribute to these conferences. The conference papers of each have been published, either as a book or in a special edition of an academic journal (See publications section of the website).

The first President of the Network was Professor Aasulv Lande, ( University of Lund, Sweden). The second was  Professor John D’Arcy May, (Irish School of Ecumenics, Dublin, Ireland). The current President is Dr. Elizabeth Harris (Liverpool Hope University, United Kingdom) and the current Secretary is Dr. Martin Rötting (Freising, Germany).

To get regularly information about our work, see “Newsletter“.