The five-hundredth anniversary of Bullinger’s birth (18 July 2004) offers a chance to strengthen scholarly engagement with this great personality and to broaden discussion on his thought and influence.

Heinrich Bullinger is an outstanding example of posthumous neglect by historical scholarship. Within the more narrow field of specialists, it is indeed recognised that we have him chiefly to thank for the consolidation of the Zurich Reformation, and likewise to a considerable extent of the whole Swiss Reformation, and that he was an important teacher and adviser for all the Reformed Churches of Europe. Nevertheless Bullinger has been to a large extent relegated to a subordinate role, not least indeed in university curricula and in current textbooks. Certainly research on Bullinger has provided basic outlines in the last decades - one thinks of the Edition of his correspondence - but this does still not signify a general change of attitude. Experts from Europe, USA and South Africa will present their latest studies. The official congress languages are German, English and French.