The Kimmage Mission Institute and the Milltown Institute in Dublin are to sign an alliance on Thursday to offer common theology programmes.
The president of Milltown, Father Brian Grogan SJ, yesterday expressed the hope that the alliance would lead to a deeper understanding of faith and cultures, and the relationship between them.
"The future of Christian belief in the Europe of today and tomorrow is our challenge," he said.
"The Christian Churches must enter into a living dialogue with Islam in Europe, with issues of migration, and with situations where justice and peace are under threat."
He added that the alliance of Kimmage and Milltown was backed by 28 trustee religious congregations.
"Theology in Ireland seems to have lost a sense of its raison d'être and many places which offer theology programmes are on survival regimes," according to Father Thomas Whelan CSSp, outgoing president of the Kimmage Mission Institute.
A difficulty facing theology programmes was "the reluctance of the Church to invest in the professional training of lay theologians, and their just remuneration," he said.
