From May 13th to 15th, 2016 “Academic Forum on Philosophia Patristica”, hosted by Department of Philosophy was held in Zhejiang University. With the theme of “Philosophia Patristica”, the Forum attracted 18 papers from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University, Sun Yat-sen University, Shandong University, Tongji University, Anhui University, University of British Columbia of Canada, Huaqiao University and Zhejiang University, etc. Professor ZHANG Xuefu, Dean of Department of Philosophy addressed the opening ceremony; Professor XIE Wenyu, Director of the Center for Studies in Ancient Greek Philosophy and Late Antiquity, Shandong University addressed the closing ceremony.

The “patristics” we generally refer to are the mainstream thinkers on Western medieval culture, and the studies on their texts and core ideas mean a lot for cross-cultural understanding and communication as well as for promoting Classicism, philosophy and religious studies in China. The Forum explored the possible ways of deepening academic communication and cultivating academic communities, and how the major contents of Philosophia Patristica, as one of the roots of western civilizations of Greece and Hebrew contribute to the depth and breadth of domestic academic thinking.