The Fondazione per le scienze religiose Giovanni XXIII promots
an international research program on the history of ecumenism
in the 19th and 20th centuries. Its main goal is to realize a
collective work translated into several languages. Nearly a
hundred contributors from different countries and disciplinary
fields joined this editorial enterprise. Such a comprehensive
and ambitious work requires an effort of synthesis and
coordination: for this reason we invited all the scholars who
have been involved in this project to gather in Bologna to
compare and harmonise their researches, and to discuss on the
common threads of this editorial work under the guidance of
six prominent scholars.