About us


1. Introduction
2. The Instruments of Oasis
3. Board of Promoters
4. Scientific Board
 
 
Introduction
  
Created in 2004 as the International Centre for Study and Research, the outcome of an insight of Cardinal Angelo Scola, (and made into a Foundation in 2009), Oasis is an international network of relationships that promotes mutual knowledge and encounter between Christians and Muslims.

The activities, the reflections and the research of the Foundation are organised around three fundamental poles:

- The mestizaje of civilisations and cultures. This phrase describes the contemporary historical process of an unprecedented mixing of peoples and cultures. Hybridisation refers neither to the theory of cultural integration nor to an overall vision of reality. It simply seeks to register a concrete situation which, whether one wants it or not, calls on everyone, at an individual and social level, although leaving to each person their own specific responsibility to direct this process towards the growth of vita bona (good life). Through this category of hybridisation, Oasis seeks to overcome schemata and concepts – multiculturalism, integration, reciprocity – that have shown themselves to be inadequate in explaining the increasing interaction between peoples. It is clear that this analysis cannot be addressed without taking into consideration the contribution of religions and the way in which they interact. In particular, the Foundation concentrates on the relationship between Christians and Muslims.
 
 - The Eastern Christian Churches. In order to avoid an abstract theorisation of subjects which, above all after 11 September, have shown themselves to be crucial for the peaceful co-existence of peoples, Oasis decided to draw near to the Islamic world through the experience and testimony of Christians who live in countries with Muslim majorities. This method, aiming at superseding the intellectualism which endemically afflicts the West, provokes Eastern Christians to shoulder to the utmost the task of being mediators in the encounter of religions, and in particular with Islam in its various forms.
 
- The cultural interpretation of the forms of Islam. The method of communion with Eastern Christians has the cultural interpretation of Islam as a part of its contents. Religions, indeed, are lived by the individuals who practise them within a specific cultural interpretation. This translates the choice of faith actuated by each believer into concrete cultural and social implications. The work of Oasis, therefore, does not concentrate on specific – albeit fundamental – aspects such as inter-religious dialogue, comparative theology or certain questions of law and politics, but is of a summarising and global character. This work can, and in a certain sense must, pass by way of all these areas, but its intention is to deal with the cultural interpretation of the forms of Islam. In this key, Oasis believes that dialogue with ‘Islams of the people’ is of priority importance. This is a category which, in seeking to go beyond the dichotomy of moderate Islam/radical Islam, aims at dialogue with the concrete religious experience of most Muslim believers.

  
The Instruments of Oasis
 
In order to address the questions and issues described above, the Oasis Foundation has equipped itself with various instruments:

1. The review, which also has the name of ‘Oasis’. It is published twice a year in four editions: Italian; English/Arabic; French/Arabic; and English/Urdu.
 
2. The newsletter, sent by e-mail in five languages according to request: Italian, English, French, Spanish and Arabic.
 
3. The web site, which publishes papers, testimonies and comments on the most topical subjects and debates of the day which reach the Foundation from all over the world thanks to its international network of relationships
 
4. The two series of book of which hitherto five volumes have been published: La promessa (The Promise) by Cardinal Lustiger; Cristiani e musulmani, fratelli davanti a Dio? (Christians and Muslilms: Brothers Before God?) by Christian Van Nispen; Dove guarda l'Indonesia? Cristiani e musulmani nel paese del sorriso (Where is Indonesia looking? Christians and Muslims in the Country of Smile), an in-depth reportage on Islam in the most populous Muslim country in the world by Maria Laura Conte; and L’ultimo dialogo. La mia vita incontro all’Islam by Georges Anawati (The Ultimate Dialogue. My Life: an Encounter with Islam). In 2009 the volume Meticciato: convivenza o confusione? (Mestizaje: Coexistence or confusion?) by Paolo Gomarasca was published in the new scholarly series called Il Calamo. It is the outcome of a research project designed to explore one of the categories at the centre of the analysis engaged in by Oasis.
 

Board of Promoters:

H.Em. Card. Angelo Scola, Archbishop elected of Milan
S.B. Card. Antonios Naguib, Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria
Card. Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyons
Card. Josip Bozanić, Archbishop of Zaghreb
Card. Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Budapest
Card. Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Wien
S.Em. Card. Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue
H.B.Msgr. Fouad Twal, Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins
H.E.Msgr. Jean-Clément Jeanbart, Archbishop of Aleppo of the Melkites
H.E.Msgr. Maroun Lahham, Archbishop of Tunis
H.E.Msgr. Fco. Javier Martínez, Archbishop of Granada
S.E. Mons. John Onayekan, Archbishop of Abuja
H.E.Msgr. Joseph Powathil, Archbishop Emeritus of Changanacherry
H.E.Msgr. Henri Teissier, Archbishop Emeritus of Algiers
H.E.Msgr. Anthony T. Lobo, Bishop Emeritus of Islamabad
H.E.Msgr. Camillo Ballin, Apostolic Vicar of Northern Arabia
H.E.Msgr. Paul Hinder, Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia
P. Joaquín Alliende, President of Aid to the Church in Need
Prof. Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight, Knights of Columbus

 
Scientific Board:
Tewfik Aclimandos
Carl Anderson
Gianni Bernardi
Francesco Botturi
Rémi Brague
Paolo Branca
Michele Brignone
Stratford Caldecott
Maria laura Conte
Salim Daccache
Martino Diez
Jean Duchesne
Jean-Paul Durand
Francesco Follo
Brian E. Ferme
José Andrés Gallego
Paolo Gomarasca
Henri Hude
Samir Khalil Samir
Nikolaus Lobkowicz
Claudio Lurati
Cesare Mirabelli
Ignazio Musu
Andrea Pacini
Jean-Jacques Pérennèss
Andrea Pin
Javier Prades López
Gabriel Richi Alberti
Giovanna Rossi
Olivier Roy
Giovanni Salmeri
Kamil William Samaan
Giuseppe Scattolin
Franz Magnis-Suseno
Milad Sidky Zakhary
Boghos Levon Zekiyan