Founded two years ago, the Institute has recently launched its own website, providing information about its research, academic activities and upcoming initiatives. In this article, we take a closer look at its growing work, including its international conferences and the upcoming fifth edition of the “Philosophy of Religion in the East and West” conference, which will take place in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in May 2027.

Kyrgyzstan is part of the Province of Northern Poland (PMA), one of the 16 provinces and region which constitute the Jesuit Conference of European Provincials (JCEP). Among the Jesuit initiatives in the region, the Central Asia Research Institute “Faith and Reason” has been working to promote Christian scholarship, encourage academic dialogue and strengthen the intellectual engagement of Catholics in Central Asia.

The Central Asia Research Institute “Faith and Reason”, founded two years ago, has started a website – cari.education. The Institute’s efforts to popularize Christian scholarship and its academic initiatives continue to grow.

Only this year, the Institute co-organized an international conference in Rome dedicated to issues of ontologism and sophology in Italian and Russian religious thought; its representatives participated in an international conference in Almaty (Kazakhstan). Meanwhile, during the summer, the 6th edition of the Summer Theological School was held, offering a three-year intellectual formation program for Catholics from Central Asia countries.

Registration has also opened for a major academic initiative planned for next year. In May 2027, the 5th conference in the series “Philosophy of Religion in the East and West” will take place in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan). This small anniversary will be an opportunity to return to the place where the conference was conceived and where its first edition took place. It was in 2022 that Sister Professor Teresa Obolevitch, together with Father Remigiusz Kalski, S.J., and Father Rafał Bulowski, S.J., proposed the creation of a new space for the exchange of ideas.

From the very beginning, the initiative has brought together scholars of the philosophy of religion from many countries in Europe, Asia, and Australia. In subsequent years, the conference was hosted twice by the Orthodox Church in Almaty (Kazakhstan) (2024, 2026) and in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) (2025). After five years, the conference will come full circle, and once again the main organizers will be Catholics in Kyrgyzstan – more specifically, the Jesuit Central Asia Research Institute “Faith and Reason”.

We invite anyone interested in participating in the conference to visit the Institute’s website, where you can find the necessary information (available in English and Russian).

The deadline for submitting abstracts is December 31