Between August 30^th and September 3^rd 2018, the Faculty of Philosophy and Religious Science of the Society of Jesus in Zagreb, Croatia, was host to the biennial meeting of the European Jesuit Philosophers (JESPHIL). Twenty Jesuits from nine countries gathered together to share their experiences and to work in depth on one particular topic. This year’s topic was ‘the crisis of democracy’, with several major contributions and two workshops, exploring the sources of the loss of trust in representative democracy and the rule of law, the rise of populisms (from the left and from the right), the role of (social) media, the impact of the tight labor market for the young, xenophobia, digitalization, and the challenge of measuring democracy. The conference included a guided tour through the old city of Zagreb (Kaptol, Gradec) and a meeting with a politician from the ruling Christian Democratic party, Mr Davor Ivo Stier.

The provincial of the Croatian Province, Fr Dalibor Renić, celebrated the final Eucharist. Fr Franck Janin, the president of the conference of European provincials, honored our meeting with his attendance.

The main papers will be published in Obnovljeni Život, the journal related to the Faculty at Zagreb. The next JESPHIL meeting shall take place during the last week of August 2020 in Innsbruck, Austria, on the topic ‘Who Is God?’.