On May 21-25, on the magnificent shores of Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan, an international scientific conference "Philosophy of Religion in the East and West" took place.

The conference was held thanks to the fruitful cooperation of the local Jesuit Community with the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow, and the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University named after Boris Yeltsin in Bishkek. 39 papers were read during the conference. Speakers at the conference - in addition to those from Kyrgyzstan - came from Australia, Poland, Russia, Kazakhstan, Germany and the Netherlands. A lot of panel discussions, as well as a variety of topics – that was the atmosphere and the spirit of the academic dialogue on the philosophy of religion. In this way, the conference theme united academics of different nationalities, cultures and religions.

In addition to the philosophical discussions on the historical area of the ancient Silk Road, the participants of the conference had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the southern shore of Lake Issyk-kul: visiting the city of Karakol, an ancient Orthodox church, a Dungan mosque, a local ethnographic museum. Other participants, meanwhile, chose the beauty of the mountains and the warm springs.

On the part of the Society of Jesus, the conference was solemnly opened by Fr. Boguslaw Steczek, Superior of the Russian Region from Moscow, and Fr. Prof. Marek Inglot from the Gregorian University in Rome. The substantial part of the program was supervised by Sr. Prof. Teresa Obolevich, an outstanding specialist in Russian philosophy. Two local Jesuits, Fr. Remigiusz Kalski and Fr. Rafał Bulowski, also presented their papers at the conference.

Rafał Bulowski SJ