The last keynote speaker at the International Conference “Pain and Suffering: Evolutionary and Theological Perspective” will be rev. prof. Michal Valčo from Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovakia).
Michal Valčo is a full professor at the Department of Church History, Evangelical Lutheran Theological Faculty of Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. After completing his Master of Divinity Studies (2001) and Postgraduate studies (2005) in Theology at the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Faculty of Comenius University (LTF CU), Bratislava, he started focusing on philosophy and the sociology of religion. He received his habilitation in religious studies (2003) at the Greek Catholic Theological Faculty, University of Prešov, Slovakia, and was inaugurated to a full professorship at the same faculty in December 2018. He spent three semesters as a visiting scholar/professor at Roanoke College, Salem, VA, USA (2010 and 2012/13). Between 2002 and 2019, he taught and researched at the Comenius University in Bratislava (2002-4), the University of Zilina (2002-2017), Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra (2017-18), and the University of Prešov (2018-19). In August 2015, he became a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Salzburg, Austria and in October 2019 he became a senior research fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies, PAN in Warsaw. His research interest focuses on selected topics/authors from the Philosophy of Religion (especially S. Kierkegaard, Ch. Taylor, and D. Bonhoeffer), the theology of Martin Luther and Leonard Stöckel, the situation of the churches