The Eugen Biser Award 2008

The Award was presented at a ceremony in Munich, Germany, on November 22, 2008.

The Council of the Foundation unanimously agreed to grant the Award on those here named. The foundation is conscious of the honour and recognition reflected on it by their willingness to receive the Eugen Biser Award.

Eugen Biser developed his life’s work in dialogue and argument with the original texts of Christianity, with Christianity’s history and not least with the spiritual situation of our own times, which are marked by secularism and atheism. At the core of his thinking is the understanding of God which Jesus transmitted to us – that God is the father of unconditional love. The love of God, which finds concrete expression as the love of one’s neighbour, is the indispensable basis for a Christian existence.

It is difficult to imagine a closer agreement in origin and aim, than that contained in the epochal Open Letter of Muslim Scholars "A Common Word Between Us and You". Inter-religious dialogue - without abandoning one’s own identity - is the duty of both responsible Christians and Muslims, above all since there can and will be no peace among people if there is not peace among the religions.

Programme

Speeches held during the Award Ceremony

• Professor Dr. Paul Kirchhof
  Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Eugen Biser Foundation
  Welcome and Introduction
  (German Version)
  
  
• Siegfried Schneider
  Minister of State
  Opening remarks
  (German version)
  
  
• Christian Ude
  Lord Mayor of the City of Munich
  Opening remarks
  (German and English version)
  
  
• Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble
  Federal Minister of the Interior
  Religious diversity und social cohesion in Germany
  (German, English and Arabic version)
  
  
• Professor Dr. Richard Heinzmann
  Chair of the Council of the Eugen Biser Foundation
  The Eugen Biser Award and the motivation
  for honouring H. R. H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal
  (German version)
  
  
• Bishop Dr. Johannes Friedrich
  Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, Chair of the Middle East
  Commission for the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany
  Learning together to discover Love: "A Common Word"
  and the reaction of Ecumenism – the motivation
  for honouring H. E. Shaykh Al-Habib Ali Zain Al-Abidin Al-Jifri
  (German and English version)
  
  
• Bishop Dr. Hans-Jochen Jaschke
  Auxiliary Bishop of Hamburg, Chair of the Commission for Inter-religious Dialogue of the German Bishops’ Conference
  The unity of God's Love and Charity: the first steps towards
  a Catholic-Muslim dialogue – the motivation
  for honouring H. E. Reisu-l-Ulema Dr. Mustafa Cerić
  (German and English version)
  
  
• Dr. Heiner Köster
  Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Eugen Biser Foundation
  Award Ceremony
  (German and English version)
  
  
• The Laureates respond:
  
  H. R. H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal
  Eugen Biser Award Ceremony Speech
  "A Common Word Between Us and You": Theological Motives and Expectations
  (English version)
  
  H. E. Shaykh Al-Habib Ali Zain Al-Abidin Al-Jifri
  Best wishes and greetings conveyed by H. E. Reisu-l-Ulema Dr. Mustafa Cerić
  
  H. E. Reisu-l-Ulema Dr. Mustafa Cerić
  "A Common Word Between Us and You": Theological Motives and Expectations
  (English version)
  
  
• Music
  The "Cellopassionato" Ensemble – Professor Julius Berger and his Master Class

The ceremony has been broadcast live on television by Bayerisches Fernsehen (BR) on 22nd November 2008 at 11:00 a.m. and in a reduced version by PHOENIX on 24nd November 2008 at 11:00 a.m.

Admission to this event was strictly by invitation only.

Former Recipients of the Eugen Biser Award

In paragraph 2 of its constitution The Eugen Biser Foundation sets out that the Eugen Biser Award, currently worth € 5000, is to be awarded for:

• Outstanding scholarship in theological or philosophical publications which embrace Eugen Biser's theology or address related problems.
  
  
• Publicly identifying with Christian values as represented by Eugen Biser, and/or
  
  
• Undertaking dialogue and encounters with other religions, philosophies and cultures in the furtherance of freedom, tolerance and peace.

The first recipient of the Eugen Biser Award was

Professor Dr. Ferdinand Hahn
Professor emeritus at the Evangelical Theological Faculty
of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich

on 16 July 2003, for his outstanding work in the field of New Testament theology, and particularly for his 2-volume book: "The theology of the New Testament" and his contribution to Ecumenism.

Second recipient, on 11 December 2005, was

Cardinal Professor Dr. Karl Lehmann
Bishop of Mainz and Chair of the German Bishops' Conference.

The award honoured the scholarship of his philosophical and theological work, which promotes ecumenical understanding and dialogue with all religions and philosophies, as well as his endeavours to give the Christian church a profile worthy of its origins.