Head of the Ecumenical Institute

Ivana Noble is Professor of Ecumenical Theology at the Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague, where she is currently Director of the Ecumenical Institute. She is a priest in the Czechoslovak Hussite Church and a former president of Societas Oecumenica. For five years, she was in charge of a research project investigating Orthodox Theology in the West, and currently she leads Charles University Centre of Excellence on Theological Anthropology in Ecumenical Perspective. She has the following research interest: Ecumenical Theology, Orthodox Theology and Spirituality, Theological Anthropology, Christian Spirituality, Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, Poststructuralism, Theology and Culture, Theology and the Arts.

• Head of the Ecumenical Institute

• Head of the Commission for the Doctoral Studies Practical Theology, Ecumenical Theology and Theological Ethics

• Member of the faculty and of the university Scientific Councils

Studies and Qualifications

• 2014 - Professor in Ecumenical Theology: Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University.

• 2005 - Habilitation in Systematic Theology: Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague. (Habilitation work: Theology as an Interpretation of Religious Experience).

• 1992–99 - PhD in Systematic Theology: Heythrop College, University of London. (Thesis: Accounts of Hope: a Problem of Method in Postmodern Apologia. Supervisor: Dr. F.J. Laishley SJ).

• 1989–91 - Master’s in Theology (with distinction): Hussite Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague. (Master’s dissertation: The Relationship between Natural and Revealed Theology in Paul Tillich – in Czech).

• 1988–89 - Certificate in Ecumenical Theology: The Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches in Bossey, Switzerland

• 1986–88 - Bachelor’s in Theology: Jan Hus Czechoslovak Theological Faculty in Prague. (Bachelor’s dissertation: Christian Church Relations with the Jews during World War II – in Czech).

Employment in Academic Institutions

• Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague, 1999-present, currently Professor, Director of the Ecumenical Institute.

• International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague (Senior Research Fellow, part-time, 2004–14).

• Institute of Ecumenical Studies in Prague, director, 1995–2001.

• Hussite Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague, lecturer, 1993–94.

Awards and Fellowships

• Selected among winners of The Competition of High Quality Monographs of Charles University, Prague, 2016 with a book NOBLE, Ivana, NOBLE, Tim, BAUEROVÁ, Kateřina, and PARUSHEV, Parush. Wrestling with the Mind of the Fathers. (Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2015).

• Selected among winners of The Competition of High Quality Monographs of Charles University, Prague, 2012 with a book: Noble, Ivana. Theological Interpretation of Culture in Post-Communist Context: Central and East European Search for Roots. (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010).

• Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Visiting Research Fellow, 2008, three months.

• International Baptist Theological Study Centre Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Senior Research Fellow, 2014-present.

Main Research Projects and Grants

• Charles University Centre of Excellency: Theological Anthropology in Ecumenical Perspective (UNCE n. 204052, a joined project of the Protestant and the Catholic faculties, 2018-2023), principal investigator.

• Charles University Grant: Theology as a Way of Interpreting History, Traditions and Contemporary Society (PROGRES Q01], 2017-, researcher

• EEA and Norway Grants: „The Churches’ Response of Welcome to the Migrant Other“ (NF-CZ07-ICP-4-334-2016), 2016, researcher.

• Charles University Grant: Theology as a way of Interpreting History and Culture (PRVOUK P01], 2012-2016, researcher.

• Grant Agency of the Czech Republic: “Symbolic Mediation of Wholeness in Western Orthodoxy” (GAČR P401/11/1688), 2011 – 2015, principal investigator.

• Czech Ministry of Education: “The Hermeneutics of the Christian Tradition, in Particular its Czech and Protestant Forms, in the Cultural History of Europe” (MSM0021620802), 2005-2011.

• Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, “Relationship between Hermeneutics of Suspicion and the Apophatic Way” (GAČR 401/01/D118), 2000-2002, principal investigator.

• Fond of Development of Czech Universities, “Liturgy” (FRVŠ 1702/01, F5), 2000-2001, project director.

Postdoctoral Fellows, Supervision of PhD Students and Other Teaching Activities

• Garant of the International post-doctoral fellowship in Charles University in Prague: “Specific Forms of Theological Epistemology in Christian History”, Nevena Dimitrova, PhD., 2012 – 2014.

• 7 successful PhDs (supervised under Charles University, University of Wales and and the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam). One of my former students works as a Director of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies in Prague, three others teach in the field in the universities in Britain and Czech Republic.

• Currently I am the main supervisor of 7 PhDs and a co-supervisor of 2, from USA, Canada, Romania, Russia, Spain, Lithuania, Slovakia and Czech Republic

• List of courses recently taught at Charles University: Introduction to Theology; Hermeneutics of Scripture and Tradition; Theological Anthropology; Eschatology; Theological Interpretation of Culture; Symbol and Sacrament; Orthodox Theology of the 20th Century, Theology as an Interpretation of Religious Experience.

• Teaching abroad: VU Amsterdam, research doctoral seminar (annually – ten days); Erasmus exchanges (Belgium, Britain, Romania, Bulgaria)

Responsibilities, Commissions of Trust

• Evaluator of National accreditation commission in Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies, 2017-present.

• Academy of Finland: Research Council for Culture and Society, Member of a Commission for Theology and Religious Studies, 2017-present.

• Analogia: The Pemtousia Journal for Theological Studies, member of the advisory board, 2017-present.

• Charles University, member of the evaluation commisssion for scientific programmes PRIMUS, PROGRES, UNCE, 2016-present.

• The Louvain Centre for Eastern and Oriental Christianity, Leuven, International Advisory Board member, 2015-present.

• Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), Bruxelles, panel member of CULT 4: Theology and Religion Sciences, 2015-2020.

• French Institute for Research in Social Sciences (CEFRES), Prague, member of the Executive Committee, 2015-present.

• Member of University Scientific Councils, Charles University, Prague, 2006-present, University of South Bohemia, 2012-2016; Protestant Theological Faculty Scientific Council, 2006-present.

• Commission for the Development of Scientific Fields at Charles University, head of the section Philosophy – Theology – Law, 2012-present;

• Grant Agency of the Charles University, member of the evaluating commission for Philosophy – Theology – Law, 2002-08.

• Editorial Boards: Communio Viatorum, co-editor, 2001-present; Acta Universitatis Carolinae Theologica, 2011-present; Církevní dějiny [Church History], 2009-present; Teologie a Společnost [Theology and Society], 2003-06; Getsemany, 1991–99.

• External Examiner, Irish School of Ecumenics, 2006-08.

• Founding member and the first Vice-President of the Academic Senate of the Charles University, 1990-91.

• Founding member of the Academic Senate of the Hussite Theological Faculty of Charles University, 1990-91.

Membership of Scientific Societies

• Societas Oecumenica: European Academic Association for Ecumenical Theology 2001-present, President, 2006–2008: Member of Executive Committee and Main Organiser of the biennial meeting held in Prague in 2006, 2004–2006: Secretary 2002–2004.

• European Academy of Religion, 2017, 2019.

• Spiritual Directors Europe, 2006-2017.

• American Academy of Religion, 2003-04, 2016.

• “Stolní společnost” (“Table Society”), a European-funded interdisciplinary group of academics, diplomats, politicians, etc., meeting monthly to discuss European issues, a founding member,2013-present.

Select Bibliography

Publishing and other professional activities registered in databaze OBD.

Complete updated bibliography here.

Books:

• NOBLE, Ivana, ŠIRKA, Zdenko et al. Кто есть человек? Богословская антропология. (Серия «Современное богословие»). Москва: Издательство ББИ, 2022. ISBN: 978-5-89647-419-7.

• NOBLE, Ivana. Essays in Ecumenical Theology II: Conversations with Orthodoxy.. Leiden: Brill, 2022, pp. 438. ISBN: 978-90-04-51799-8

• NOBLE, Ivana, ŠIRKA, Zdenko et al., Kdo je člověk? Teologická antropologie ekumenicky. {Who are People? Theological Anthropology Ecumenically} Praha: Karolinum, 2021, p. 344 [ISBN: 978-80-246-4779-1 (print)

• NOBLE, Ivana. Essays in Ecumenical Theology I: Aims, Methods, Themes, and Contexts. Leiden – Boston: BRILL, 2019, viii + 286 pp. [ISBN: 978–90–04-38108-7]

• NOBLE, Ivana, NOBLE, Tim, BAUEROVÁ, Kateřina a PARUSHEV, Parush. Голоса православного богословия на Западe в ХХ веке, (Серия «Современное богословие»). – Москва: Издательство ББИ, 2019. – хii + 320 с. [ISBN 978-5-89647-389-3]

• NOBLE, Ivana, NOBLE, Tim, BAUEROVÁ, Kateřina a PARUSHEV, Parush. Mnohohlas pravoslavné teologie ve 20. století na Západě {The Many Voices of the the Century Orthodox Theology in the West}. Brno: CDK, 2015, p. 295. [ISBN: 978–80–7325-403-2].

• NOBLE, Ivana, NOBLE, Tim, BAUEROVÁ, Kateřina a PARUSHEV, Parush. Wrestling with the Mind of the Fathers. Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2015, p. 283.. [ISBN: 978–0–88141–514–8].

• NOBLE, Ivana, NOBLE, Tim, BAUEROVÁ, Kateřina a PARUSHEV, Parush. Пути православного богословия на Запад в ХХ веке, (Серия «Современное богословие»). – Москва: Издательство ББИ, 2016. – хiv + 438 с. [ISBN 978-5-89647-339-8]

• NOBLE, Ivana, NOBLE, Tim, BAUEROVÁ, Kateřina a PARUSHEV, Parush. Ways of Orthodox Theology in the West, SVS, Yonkers, New York, 2015, p. 384. [ISBN 978-0-88141-505-6]

• NOBLE, Ivana, BAUEROVÁ, Kateřina, NOBLE, Tim a PARUSHEV, Parush. Cesty pravoslavné teologie ve 20. století na Západ. Brno: CDK, 2012. p. 411. [ISBN 978-80-7325-290-8]

• NOBLE, Ivana. Theological Interpretation of Culture in Post-Communist Context: Central and East European Search for Roots. Farnham – Burlington: Ashgate, 2010, s. 220 [ISBN: 9781409400073 (hbk)].

• NOBLE, Ivana. Tracking God: An Ecumenical Fundamental Theology. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2010, s. 261. [ISBN: 13: 978-1-60608-700-8].

• NOBLE, Ivana. Po Božích stopách:Teologie jako interpretace náboženské zkušenosti. Brno: CDK. 2004, s. 328 [ISBN: 80-7325-053-5]; 2019 s. 325 [ISBN: 978-80-7325-481-0]

• DOLEJŠOVÁ (NOBLE), Ivana. Accounts of Hope: A Problem of Method in Postmodern Apologia. Bern – Berlin – Bruxelles: Peter Lang, European University Studies, Ser. XXIII, Theology, Vol. 726, 2001, 338 s. [ISBN: 3-906767-54X].

Main peer-reviewed articles and chapters:

• NOBLE, Ivana. "Created to Be and to Become Human: A Christian Perspective", in Theological Anthropology in Interreligious Perspective, eds. Lejla Demiri, Mujadad Zaman, Tim Winter, Christopher Schwöbel, Alexei Bodrov, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022, 55-66.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “Transfiguration and Freedom in the Theology of Light”, in Irina Yazykova (ed), Богословие свободы. Религиозно-антропологические основания свободы в глобальном контексте [Theology of Freedom. Religious and Anthropological Foundations of Freedom in a Global Context], Мoscow: Издательство ББИ, 2021, 43-61.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “Hospitality: Jacques Derrida Reading Louis Massignon”, in Jelle Creemers and Ulrike Link-Wieczorek (eds), On Nations and the Churches: Ecumenical Responses to Nationalisms and Migration, Leipzig: Evangelische Verlag, 2020, 298-309.

• NOBLE, Ivana, REIJNEN, Anne-Marie, BAUEROVÁ, Kateřina, “Newness in Theology: How to Tell a Fashion from a Paradigm Shift“, Cursor: Zeitschrift für explorative Theologie 1:1 (2020), 143-151. DOI 10.17885/heiup.czeth.2019.24010.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “Jan Hus: Between Reform and Reformation ”, in Peter De Mey and Wim François (eds), Eccelsia Semper Reformada: Renewal and Reform beyond Polemics, Leuven – Paris – Bristol: Peeters, 2020, 397-412.

• NOBLE, Ivana, NOBLE, Tim, “Open Sobornicity and Apophatic Anthropology. Modern Romanian Hesychasm and the Theologies of Fr Dumitru Stăniloae and Fr André Scrima”, in: Alina Pătru (ed.), Meeting God in the Other. Studies in Religious Encounter and Pluralism in Honor of Dorin Oancea on the Occasion of His 70thBirthday (Orientalia-patristica-Oecumenica 16). Berlin-Münster-Wien: LIT 2019, 423-435.

• NOBLE, Ivana, ŠIRKA, Zdenko, "Doctrine of Deification in the Works of Cardinal Tomáš Špidlík and His Pupils", Philotheos: International Journal for Philosophy and Theology 19:1(2019), 125-143.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “Contemporary Religiosity and the Absence of Solidarity with Those in Need“, Journal of Nationalism, Memory & Language Politics 13:2 (2019), 1-15. DOI 10.2478/jnmlp-2019-0010, 1-15.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “Contemporary Images of Holiness: Lessons from Leonardo Boff and Mother Maria (Gysi)“, Communio Viatorum 61:1 (2019), 5–14.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “An Experiential Approach to Deification: Lessons Learned from Hesychasm, Ignatian Spirituality and (Post)Modern Mysticism”, in J. Arblaster and R. Faesen (eds), Theosis/ Deification: Christian Doctrines of Divinization East and West, Leuven – Paris – Bristol: Peeters, 2018, 73-93.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “L’interprétation de l'hésychasme chez le Père Lev Gillet et le Métropolite Kallistos Ware”, Communio Viatorum 60:1 (2018), 62–73.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “Η πρόσληψηη τηςΦιλοκαλίας, το νόημα της προσευχής και η νηπτική παράδοση στο έργο του Μητροπολίτη Κάλλιστου Ware“, in Η μαρτυρία της Ορθοδοξίας στη Δύση: Σύναξις Ευχαριστίας προς τιμήν του Μητροπολίτη Διοκλείας Κάλλιστου Ware. Eds. Pantelis Kalaitzidis and Nikolaos Asproulis. Volos: Ekdotiki Dimitriados, 2018, 147–162 {Reception of Philokalia, the Meaning of Prayer, the Neptic Tradition in the Work of Metropolitan Kallistos Ware}.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “The Authority of Experience in The Hesychast Saints According to St Gregory Palamas: The Relationship Between Ontology and Epistemology Revisited”, Analogia : The Pemptousia Journal for Theological Studies 5:1 (2018), Special Series on St Gregory Palamas, Part 3, 83–96.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “From Non-Recognition to Recognition: Ecclesial Perspectives”, in Just Do It? Recognition and Reception in Ecumenical Relations / Anerkennung und Rezeption im ökumenischen Miteinander, ed. Dagmar Heller and Minna Hietamäki, BÖR 117, Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2018, 177–189.

• NOBLE, Ivana. « Jean Hus: La réforme de l’glise par la conversion de ses membres à l’esprit chrétien », in MALLÈVRE, Michel (ed), Penser les R/réformes aujourd’hui. Paris: Cerf, 2017, 87-99.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “Embodied in the Landscape: How Places We Inhabit Shape Our Theology“, Communio Viatorum 59:2 (2017), 130-147.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “Ре-формируя точкy зрения на христианское единство“, Страницы 21:3 (2017), 427-436 {Re-Forming the Vision of Christian Unity}.

• NOBLE, Ivana. «Le Grand Concile Panorthodoxe: quelques remarques issues du ‹reste du monde chrétien› », Contacts 68:255 (Julliet-Septembre 2016), 348-351.

• NOBLE, Ivana and NOBLE, Tim. "Hospitality as a Key to the Relationship with the Other in Levinas and Derrida", Acta Universitatis Carolinae Theologica 6:2 (2016), 47-65.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “The Tension between an Eschatological and a Utopic Understanding of Tradition: Tillich, Florovsky, and Congar”, Harvard Theological Review, 109 (2016), 400-421.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “Three Orthodox Visions of Ecumenism: Berdyaev, Bulgakov, Lossky”, Communio Viatorum 57:2 (2015), 113–140. ISSN: 0010–3713.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “Words and Music Born out of Silence. Liturgical and Hesychast Influences on lex orandi and lex credendi in Vladimir Lossky and Fr Dumitru Stǎniloae”, Questions Liturgiques/Studies in Liturgy 96:1-2(2015), 82–101.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “L’avenir de la « diaspora » orthodoxe”, Contacts 65:243 (2013), 477-497.

• o Greek translation: “Το μέλλον της ορθόδοξης “διασποράς” υπό το πρίσμα μιας παρατηρήτριας”, in Peter DE MEY and Michel STAVROU (eds), Καιρός συνεσταλμέωος το λοιπόν... Η μέλλουσα Πανορθόδοξη Σύνοδος. Ζητήματα - διλήμματα – προοπτικές, Athens: Enploe, 2015, 273-302.

• o English translation: “The Future of the Orthodox “Diaspora”— An Observer’s Point of View“, St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 60:1-2 (2016), 171–188.

• NOBLE, Ivana. "History Tied Down by the Normativity of Tradition? Inversion of Perspective in the Orthodox Theology: Challenges and Problems“, in DICKINSON, Colby (ed), The Shaping of Tradition: Context and Normativity, Leuven – Paris – Valpole, MA: Peeters, 2013, 283-296.

• Ivana Noble, “Свободата и креативността на човека в духовния живот според св. Симеон Нови Богослов и Св. Игнацио Лойола” [in Bulgarian: The Role of Human Freedom and Creativity in Spiritual Life according to St Symeon the New Theologian and St Ignatius of Loyola], Богословска Мисъл 16: 3–4 (2012), 22–44.

• NOBLE, Ivana a NOBLE, Tim. “A Latin Appropriation of Christian Hellenism: Florovsky’s Marginal Note to Patristics and Modern Theology and Its Possible Addressee”, St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 56:3(2012), 269-288.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “Re-imagining Religious Belonging:Ecumenical Responses to Changing Religiosity in Europe“, in NOBLE, Ivana, LINK-WIECZOREK, Ulrike a DE MEY, Peter (eds). Religiöse Bindungen – neu reflektiert: Ökumenische Antworten auf Veränderungen der Religiosität in Europa. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2011, 19-36.

• NOBLE, Ivana. “The Gift of Redemption: Vladimir Lossky and Raymund Schwager on Anselm of Canterbury”, Communio Viatorum 52:1 (2010), 48-67.