The Review of Ecumenical Studies, founded in 2009, is edited by the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (Romania) and the University of Eastern Finland (Joensuu, Finland). It is a peer reviewed academic journal and is published three times per year as a thematic number in open access. Its main focus is on theology, but it also covers topics in an interdisciplinary perspective.
The attribute “ecumenical” in its title has a multiple meaning.
– Ecumenical in its original sense means a broad horizon: an ecumenical (i.e. diverse, worldwide) perspective on a vast array of issues, connected with the idea of multiple cultural relations and with a global and interdisciplinary approach. It means to be interested in current issues of society and to have an eye on the diversity of human religiosity. RES wants to be open to innovative thinking in humanities.
– In a more specific sense, ecumenism means the dialogue between Christian traditions. In questions of theology and church, the perspective of different denominations should be brought to bear as far as possible. Good theology is always theology in dialogue. In particular, RES wants to be a cultural bridge between Eastern and Western Christianity.
– Finally, the name is also an expression of the circle of editors. In Joensuu and in Sibiu, both Evangelical Lutheran and Orthodox theology is taught at the university. Our collaboration is rooted in a long tradition of dialogue between these two traditions, nationally and globally.
Each RES issue offers a thematic focus, developed often in collaboration with Guest Editors from a particular academic area, contributing in this way to the state of art of research on a specific topic.
The publishing process of RES starts with a call for papers. Articles for RES should be written in English or German languages and are to be sent via e-mail to res@ecum.ro. They are selected depending on the relevance to the given topic and on the observation of the author guidelines, followed by a double blind-reviewing process, which is meant to assure high-quality articles. The final decision of publishing the article belongs to the Editorial Board.
RES is publicly available (open access by Sciendo) and is indexed in a number of international databases. In the evaluation by the National Research Council of Romania (CNCS) 2020, RES has received the highest rating (A).
The publishing process of RES starts with a call for papers session followed by a double blind-reviewing process, which is meant to assure high-quality articles.
The articles for RES should be written in English or German and are to be sent via e-mail to res@ecum.ro and they are selected depending on the relevance to the given topic and on the observation of the author guidelines. The final decision of publishing an article belongs to the Editorial Board.
The editors’ programmatic preface of the first issues of RES (1/2009) specifies the basis and the aims of the journal and you can read it here in German: