Fr. Peter Baekelmans was appointed the Director of SEDOS in January 2016. He was born in Belgium (07.08.1960) and is a member of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, CICM. He has been a missionary to Japan (1990-2010), and to Belgium (2011-2015). He teaches Buddhism, Hinduism, and Eastern Religions at the Theological Faculty of the Catholic University of Louvain (KU Leuven), Belgium.
Studies:
- Comparative Religion (MA, Int. Univ. of Lugano, Switzerland);
- Theology (BA, KU Leuven, Belgium)
- Buddhist Studies (MA, Koyasan Univ., Japan);
- Theology of Religions (PhD/STD, Nanzan Univ., Japan).
Publications:
- Shingon Mysticism, Koyasan Publications, 2006, 172 pp.
- イエスと空海、不二の世界, Nakanishiya Publ., Kyoto, 2012, 451 pp.
- Wereldwijd, Verhalen van overal, Uitgeverij Pelckmans, 2012, 207 pp.
- Anders Denken, Halewijn, 2015, 167 pp.
- Jesus and Kukai, A World of Non-Duality, Franz Schmitt Verlag, 2018, 256 pp.
Recent activities:
- Article: Need for Structural Changes in Mission, Ordenskorrespondenz, n.60, pp. 90-99, Germany 2018 (taken up in SEDOS Bulletin, vol. 51, 3-4).
- Talk: Interreligious Dialogue, an Asian Perspective, to Asian Ambassadors to the Holy See at the Pontifical Urban University, Rome, July 2019.
- Talk: How can we cultivate an interior missionary spirit and zeal?, to members of the Society of Christian Doctrine at M.U.S.E.U.M., Valletta, Malta, October 2019.
- Talk: Characteristics of the Japanese Church, at the Belgian Embassy to the Holy See, Rome, November 2019.
Member of the Editorial Board of SPIRITUS and of CURRENT DIALOGUE.
