Undergrad joins the ranks of academics and graduates at Prague conference

By Janice Lee

Illana Huckell, a fourth-year student in the Department of Religious Studies, is one of a handful of undergraduate students invited to Prague from July 22 – 27 to take part in the Tenth International Bonhoeffer Congress.

The conference, organized by the International Bonhoeffer Society, preserves the memory and enhances the knowledge of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945), a German theologian and one of the central figures in the struggle against Nazism. Bonhoeffer was executed by Nazis in 1945 due to his opposition to the Nazi state.

“Participants of this conference are normally academics, professors and graduate students,” says Doug Shantz, chair of christian thought and a professor in the Department of Religious Studies. “It is exceptional for an undergrad student to be invited to participate. The invitation speaks to the originality of Illana’s topic and her ability to put together a good paper proposal.”

Huckell’s paper, entitled "Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Simone Weil: Perspectives on Suffering," focuses on the theme of suffering that runs throughout the writings of Bonhoeffer and Weil (a French philosopher), and how their views originated from a combination of their theology and personal experience.

“I was just introduced to Bonhoeffer’s work this year and I really enjoyed reading it,” says Huckell. “Bonhoeffer also had a really interesting life. During WWII he was active in Nazi resistance and he always seemed to stay conscious of social and political problems going on around him. His actions and writings reflect the concern he had for the well-being of all people.”

Imprisoned by the Nazis during WWII, Bonhoeffer was eventually transferred to a concentration camp and killed by the Nazis days before liberation. Weil, alive during occupied France, was very outspoken in social and political issues and aligned herself with the oppressed and marginalized members of society. She lived a great deal of her life in a state of affliction and died in 1943 of tuberculosis while refusing medical treatment.

“For both Bonhoeffer and Weil, I focused on their theological response to the suffering that they experienced themselves and the suffering endured by those around them,” says Huckell. “Their experiences were very different, but there are similarities in the way they responded to the world.”