Sotiris Mitralexis | University College London (original) (raw)
Books by Sotiris Mitralexis
WInchester University Press, 2023
Mapping the Una Sancta: Eastern and Western Ecclesiology in the Twenty-First Century (Complete bo... more Mapping the Una Sancta: Eastern and Western Ecclesiology in the Twenty-First Century (Complete book, Open Access)
Edited by Sotiris Mitralexis and Andrew T. J. Kaethler,
WInchester University Press 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-906113-32-2
Complete book: https://bit.ly/unasancta
Contributors: Dimitrios Bathrellos, John Behr, Johannes Börjesson, George E. Demacopoulos, Adam A. J. DeVille, David W. Fagerberg, Jonathan Goodall, David Bentley Hart, Andrew TJ Kaethler, Christos Karakolis, Norm Klassen, Marcello La Matina, Nikolaos Loudovikos, Andrew Louth, Giulio Maspero, John Milbank, Sotiris Mitralexis, Thomas O’Loughlin, Jared Schumacher, Edward Siecienski, Manuel Gonçalves Sumares, Vincent Twomey, and Anna Zhyrkova
manifesto, 2023
Θρησκεία, Επιστήμη και Ορθοδοξία στο Δημόσιο Χώρο κατά την πανδημία του COVID-19 οι περιπτώσεις τ... more Θρησκεία, Επιστήμη και Ορθοδοξία στο Δημόσιο Χώρο κατά την πανδημία του COVID-19 οι περιπτώσεις της Ελλάδας, της Σερβίας, της Ρουμανίας και της Βουλγαρίας
Ροπή, 2021
https://www.ropipublications.com/after-science-religion/ Συγκρούεται η «επιστήμη» με τη «θρησκεί... more https://www.ropipublications.com/after-science-religion/
Συγκρούεται η «επιστήμη» με τη «θρησκεία»; Συγκρουόταν ανέκαθεν; Και τι είναι, εν τέλει, η «επιστήμη» και η «θρησκεία»;
Η συζήτηση περί επιστήμης και θρησκείας, των ορίων μεταξύ τους, της δυνατότητας συνύπαρξής τους ή μιας ανέκαθεν μάχης τους, βρίσκεται με τον έναν ή τον άλλον τρόπο πάντοτε παρούσα στη δημόσια συζήτηση — στην Ελλάδα και διεθνώς. Συνήθως αυτοί οι δύο όροι, επιστήμη και θρησκεία, εκλαμβάνονται ως αυτονόητοι και περίπου προαιώνιοι, δηλαδή ως έννοιες των οποίων η προβολή σε ιστορικές φάσεις άλλες από τη δική μας δεν είναι αναχρονιστική. Όμως, η ιστορία των ιδεών και η ιστορία της επιστήμης και της θρησκείας, ως ακαδημαϊκός κλάδος,έχει κατά τις τελευταίες τρεις δεκαετίες σημειώσει σημαντικές προόδους, σύμφωνα με τις οποίες καταδεικνύεται ως ανακριβής και αναχρονιστική αυτή η χρήση των όρων. Η «επιστήμη» και η «θρησκεία»,με τον τρόπο που χρησιμοποιούνται σήμερα ως έννοιες, αποτελούν νεωτερικά κατασκευάσματα — με ιδιαιτέρως πιο πολύπλοκη την πρότερη διαδρομή τους απ’ ό,τι συνήθως πιστεύεται, και απολύτως αναχρονιστική την προβολή του νεωτερικού περιεχομένου τους σε αυτήν την παλαιότερη ιστορική διαδρομή. Το βιβλίο “Πέρα από την Επιστήμη και τη Θρησκεία: νέες φιλοσοφικές και ιστορικές προσεγγίσεις” συγκεντρώνει συνεισφορές από ιστορικούς της επιστήμης, φιλοσόφους της θρησκείας και θεολόγους, προκύπτει από το διεθνές ερευνητικό εγχείρημα After Science and Religion: Rethinking the Foundations of Science-Religion Discourse και ρίχνει φως στην ιστορική εξέλιξη των όρων και των πεδίων γνώσης, αναλογιζόμενο σχετικά με την μελλοντική προοπτική τους. Με κεφάλαια των Peter Harrison, Bernard Lightman, D. C. Schindler, Michael Hanby, Paul Tyson, John Milbank, David Bentley Hart, Σωτήρη Μητραλέξη και επίμετρο του Αθανασίου Σ. Φωκά, πρόκειται για ένα εγχείρημα ριζικής επαναπλαισίωσης της συζήτησης πέρα από όσα συνηθίζουμε να θεωρούμε ως αυτονόητα, το οποίο φέρνει τον Έλληνα αναγνώστη για πρώτη φορά σε επαφή επαφή με σημαντικούς στοχαστές του αγγλόφωνου ακαδημαϊκού χώρου.
Sotiris Mitralexis, Ever-Moving Repose: A Contemporary Reading of Maximus the Confessor's Theory ... more Sotiris Mitralexis, Ever-Moving Repose: A Contemporary Reading of Maximus the Confessor's Theory of Time. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2017.
http://wipfandstock.com/ever-moving-repose.html
Sotiris Mitralexis offers a contemporary look at Maximus the Confessor’s (580–662 CE) understanding of temporality, logoi , and deification, through the perspective of contemporary philosopher and theologian Christos Yannaras, as well as John Zizioulas and Nicholas Loudovikos. Mitralexis argues that Maxi-mus possesses both a unique theological ontology and a unique threefold theory of temporality: time, the Aeon, and the radical transformation of temporality and motion in an ever-moving repose. With these three distinct modes of temporality, a Maximian theory of time can be reconstructed, which can be approached via his teaching on the logoi and deification. In this theory, time is not merely measuring ontological motion, but is more particularly measuring a relationship , the consummation of which effects the transformation of time into a dimensionless present devoid of temporal, spatial, and generally ontological distance —thereby manifesting a perfect communion-in-otherness. In examining Maximian temporality, the book is not focusing on only one aspect of Maximus’ comprehensive Weltanschauung, but looks at the Maximian vision as a whole through the lens of temporality and motion.
"In this remarkable book, Dr. Mitralexis seeks more than an exposition of a central notion in St. Maximus the Confessor's metaphysical vision, but rather a genuine fusion of the horizons, in a Gadamerian sense, so that his understanding of Maximus is informed by the development of a relational ontology by the likes of Zizioulas and Yannaras, whose own thought has been inspired by their reading of Maximus. The result is a bold and original contribution to ontology and metaphysics."
--ANDREW LOUTH, FBA, Professor Emeritus of Patristic and Byzantine Studies, Durham University
"This book, written by a young and promising Maximus scholar, is an interesting study of a central set of notions in Maximus' writings, namely, the notions of time, the Aeon, and eternity. These notions have been studied by others as well, but never as extensively as by Mitralexis. He finds the roots of Maximus' notion of time in Aristotle, but has a quite original hermeneutical approach since he tries to unravel the Confessor's philosophy from the vantage point of the Greek modern philosopher Christos Yannaras, thus seeking to make Maximus' thought relevant for our own age. The depth of Mitralexis' knowledge of the sources and his grasp of modern scholarship on Maximus is impressive. I highly recommend this book."
--TORSTEIN T. TOLLEFSEN, Professor of Philosophy, University of Oslo
"This is a really welcome addition to the fast-growing literature on Maximus the Confessor. It is a first-class study of the original texts, but is distinctive in its willingness to bring Maximus' thought into fruitful conversation with contemporary philosophical discussions, so that the implications of this study will be of interest to many more than Byzantine specialists."
--ROWAN WILLIAMS, Master of Magdalene College, University of Cambridge
https://www.routledge.com/Slavoj-Zizek-and-Christianity/Mitralexis-Skliris/p/book/9781138103269 ... more https://www.routledge.com/Slavoj-Zizek-and-Christianity/Mitralexis-Skliris/p/book/9781138103269
Edited by Sotiris Mitralexis & Dionysios Skliris,
with an afterword by Slavoj Žižek
Routledge 2018, Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology
Slavoj Žižek’s critical engagement with Christian theology goes much further than his seminal The Fragile Absolute (2000), or his The Puppet and the Dwarf (2003),or even his discussion with noted theologian John Milbank in The Monstrosity of Christ (2009). His reading of Christianity, utilising his signature elements of Lacanian psychoanalysis and Hegelian philosophy with modern philosophical currents, can be seen as a genuinely original contribution to the philosophy of religion. This book focuses on these aspects of Žižek’s thought with either philosophy and cultural theory, or Christian theology, serving as starting points of enquiry.
Written by a panel of international contributors, each chapter teases out various strands of Žižek’s thought concerning Christianity and religion and brings them into a wider conversation about the nature of faith. These essays show that far from being an outright rejection of Christian thought and intellectual heritage, Žižek’s work could be seen as a perverse affirmation thereof. Thus, what he has to say should be of direct interest to Christian theology itself.
Touching on thinkers such as Badiou, Lacan, Chesterton and Schelling, this collection is a dynamic reading and re-reading of Žižek’s relationship to Christianity. As such, scholars of theology, the philosophy of religion and Žižek more generally will all find this book to be of great interest.
Analogia, 2020
ACCESS ISSUE: bit.ly/analogia9 Table of contents A Spectre Is Haunting Intercommunion Soti... more ACCESS ISSUE: bit.ly/analogia9
Table of contents
A Spectre Is Haunting Intercommunion
Sotiris Mitralexis 9
‘Unity of the Churches—An Actual Possibility: The Rahner-Fries Theses
and Contemporary Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue’
Edward A. Siecienski 21
The origins of an ecumenical church: links, borrowings,
and inter-dependencies
Thomas O’Loughlin 39
Crusades, Colonialism, and the Future Possibility Christian Unity
George E. Demacopoulos 61
Eucharistic Doctrine and Eucharistic Devotion
Andrew Louth 71
Schmemann’s Approach to the Sacramental Life of the Church:
its Orthodox Positioning, its Catholic Intent
Manuel Sumares 79
Approaching the Future as a Friend Without a Wardrobe of Excuses
Adam A.J. DeVille 99
Anglicans and the Una Sancta
Jonathan Goodall 107
Analogia, 2020
ACCESS ISSUE: bit.ly/analogia10 table of contents Manifesting Persons: A Church in Tension / An... more ACCESS ISSUE: bit.ly/analogia10
table of contents
Manifesting Persons: A Church in Tension / Andrew T.J. Kaethler 9
Ab astris ad castra: An Ignatian-MacIntyrean Proposal for Overcoming Historical and Political-Theological Difficulties in Ecumenical Dialogue / Jared Schumacher 23
Simon Peter in the Gospel according to John: His Historical Significance according to the Johannine Community’s Narrative / Christos Karakolis 35
The Scythian Monks’ Latin-cum-Eastern Approach to Tradition: A Paradigm for Reunifying Doctrines and Overcoming Schism / Anna Zhyrkova 47
Beauty is the Church’s Unity: Supernatural Finality, Aesthetics, and Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue / Norm Klassen 63
Ecumenism and Trust: A Pope on Mount Athos / Andreas Andreopoulos 77
God’s Silence and Its Icons: A Catholic’s Experiences at Mount Athos and Mount Jamna / Marcin Podbielski 93
Councils and Canons: A Lutheran Perspective on the Great Schism and the So-Called Eighth Ecumenical Council / Johannes Börjesson 107
Christological Or Analogical Primacy. Ecclesial Unity And Universal Primacy In The Orthodox Church / Nikolaos Loudovikos 127
Ecumenism, Geopolitics, and Crisis / John Milbank 143
Concluding Reflections on Mapping the Una Sancta. An Orthodox-Catholic Ecclesiology Today / Marcello La Matina 153
Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2019
This book explores the relationship between being and time —between ontology and history— in the ... more This book explores the relationship between being and time —between ontology and history— in the context of both Christian theology and philosophical inquiry. Each chapter tests the limits of this multifaceted thematic vis-à-vis a wide variety of sources: from patristics (Maximus the Confessor, Gregory of Nyssa) to philosophy (Kant, Kierkegaard, Heidegger) to modern theology (Berdyaev, Ratzinger, Fagerberg, Zizioulas, Yannaras, Loudovikos); from incarnation to eschatology; and from liturgy and ecclesiology to political theology. Among other topics, time and eternity, protology and eschatology, personhood and relation, and ontology and responsibility within history form core areas of inquiry. Between Being and Time facilitates an auspicious dialogue between philosophy and theology and, within the latter, between Catholic and Orthodox thought. It will be of considerable interest to scholars of Christian theology and philosophy of religion.
The study of Maximus the Confessor’s thought has flourished in recent years: annual international... more The study of Maximus the Confessor’s thought has flourished in recent years: annual international conferences, publications and articles, new critical editions and translations mark a torrent of interest in the work and influence of the most sublime of the Byzantine Fathers. It has been repeatedly stated that the Confessor’s thought is of eminently philosophical interest, and his work has been approached from a philosophical point of view in a number of monographs. However, no dedicated collective scholarly engagement with Maximus the Confessor as a Philosopher has taken place – and this volume will attempt to start such a discussion. Apart from Maximus’ relevance and importance for philosophy in general, a second question arises: should towering figures of Byzantine philosophy like Maximus the Confessor be included in an overview of the European continent’s history of philosophy, or rather excluded from it – as happens today with most histories of European philosophy? Maximus’ historical presence challenges our understanding of what European philosophy is. In this volume, we begin to address these issues and to examine numerous aspects of Maximus’ philosophical ‘system’: the logoi doctrine, Maximus’ anthropology and the human will’s freedom, the theory of motion, his understanding of time and space etc. – thereby also stressing the interdisciplinary character of Maximian studies.
Armos, 2019
Τι συμβαίνει στην Ευρώπη. Τι συμβαίνει στην Ελλάδα. •μισθοδοσία •περιουσία •φορολογία •θρησκευτικ... more Τι συμβαίνει στην Ευρώπη.
Τι συμβαίνει στην Ελλάδα.
•μισθοδοσία
•περιουσία
•φορολογία
•θρησκευτικά
Mε σκοπό να καλύψει ένα εμφανές κενό στη φερέγγυα αποτύπωση των ισχυόντων στοιχείων σε Ελλάδα και Ευρώπη ως προς τις σχέσεις εκκλησίας-κράτους, η μελέτη αυτή εξετάζει ζητήματα όπως το μάθημα των θρησκευτικών, η χρηματοδότηση και φορολόγηση των θρησκευτικών κοινοτήτων σε Ελλάδα και Ευρώπη, η μισθοδοσία του κλήρου και οι δυνατότητες μετεξέλιξής της, η ιστορία των σχέσεων εκκλησίας και κράτους στην Ελλάδα, ο διοικητικός κατακερματισμός της εκκλησίας στην Ελλάδα και η πολιτική χρήση των πολώσεων γύρω από το θέμα των σχέσεων εκκλησίας-κράτους (και του ενδεχομένου χωρισμού τους) στον ελληνικό δημόσιο λόγο. Αντί να στοχεύει στην κατάθεση μιας συνεισφοράς στο δημόσιο διάλογο για το θέμα, η παρούσα μελέτη εγείρει μια ακόμα πιο φιλόδοξη αξίωση: να συγκροτήσει την προϋπόθεση που θα καταστήσει έναν τέτοιο διάλογο εφικτό, καθ’ ότι σήμερα κάθε σχετική συζήτηση μάλλον εξαντλείται σε μια εκατέρωθεν μάχη συμβόλων, σημαιών και αξιών αντί για να αφορά το ζήτημα που υποτίθεται πως εξετάζει. Στην εδώ μελέτη τον πρώτο λόγο έχουν τα στοιχεία.
![Research paper thumbnail of On the Methodology and Theory of the History of Philosophy [Μεθοδολογία και Θεωρία της Ιστορίας της Φιλοσοφίας, in Greek]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/56166175/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Ινστιτούτο του Βιβλίου – Καρδαμίτσα, Αθήνα 2017 Περίληψη Η Ιστορία της Φιλοσοφίας είναι πεδίο κα... more Ινστιτούτο του Βιβλίου – Καρδαμίτσα, Αθήνα 2017
Περίληψη
Η Ιστορία της Φιλοσοφίας είναι πεδίο κατ’εξοχήν δυναμικό και ουδόλως στατικό, καθ’ότι η απάντηση στο ερώτημα για τη φύση του συμπορεύεται με το ερώτημα για τη φύση της ίδιας της φιλοσοφίας: βρίσκεται υπό διαρκή διαπραγμάτευση. Κατά πόσον πρόκειται απλώς για ιστορία, κατά πόσον αποδεικνύεται φιλοσοφία; Ποια σχέση μπορεί να έχει με τη δυνατότητα σημερινής απάντησης στα φιλοσοφικά ερωτήματα; Πως επηρεάζει τον εν εξελίξει φιλοσοφικό στοχασμό; Με ποιον τρόπο οδηγούν οι διαφορετικές μεθοδολογίες για τη σύνθεση ιστοριών της φιλοσοφίας σε ριζικά διαφορετικές αφηγήσεις και αποτιμήσεις του παρελθόντος; Τέλος, πώς μπορεί να συντελέσει στην αναβάθμιση της ίδιας της φιλοσοφίας; Το βιβλίο αυτό φιλοδοξεί να δώσει στον αναγνώστη μια μικρής κλίμακας εισαγωγή, εποπτεία και αντιπρόταση ως προς τα παραπάνω ερωτήματα.
Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2015 (in contract, forthcoming). This volume is an attempt to thor... more Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2015 (in contract, forthcoming).
This volume is an attempt to thoroughly inquire into a subject that has been hinted at, but hitherto never thoroughly researched: namely, the relationship between Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ‘analytic stance’ towards philosophy and the inherently apophatic nature of his epistemology. In using the term ‘apophaticism’ we are not referring to the theological ‘via negativa’ or to tendencies towards mysticism, but rather to a comprehensive epistemological stance that “refuses to identify truth with its formulation and to identify the understanding of the signifier with the knowledge of its signified reality”, to use Christos Yannaras’ definition. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s work can be approached as a particularly efflorescent case of the implementation of an implicitly apophatic epistemology: one of the questions that arise is which ontological proposal could be seen as corresponding to such an epistemology, and what would be the contribution of Wittgenstein’s thought to this ontological proposal. The present volume’s contribution is the attempt to systematically shed more light on this aspect of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy.
Cambridge: James Clarke & Co, 2018
Christos Yannaras (born 1935 in Athens, Greece) has been proclaimed 'without doubt the most impor... more Christos Yannaras (born 1935 in Athens, Greece) has been proclaimed 'without doubt the most important living Greek Orthodox theologian' (Andrew Louth), 'contemporary Greece's greatest thinker' (Olivier Cl ment), 'one of the most significant Christian philosophers in Europe' (Rowan Williams). However, until recently the English-speaking scholar did not have first-hand access to the main bulk of his work: in spite of the relatively early English translation of his The Freedom of Morality (1984), most of his books appeared in English fairly recently - such as Person and Eros (2007), Orthodoxy and the West (2006), Relational Ontology (2011) or The Schism in Philosophy (2015). In this volume, chapters shall examine numerous aspects of Yannaras' contributions to Orthodox theology, philosophy and political thought, based on his relational ontology of the person, later popularised in the Anglophone sphere by John Zizioulas. From political theology to Heidegger and the philosophy of language, from Yannaras' critique of religion to the patristic grounding of the theology of the person and from Orthodoxy to the West, this volume comprises a panorama of Christos Yannaras' transdisciplinary contributions.
Endorsements
Long before Jean-Luc Marion's God without Being, Christos Yannaras was arguing for a retrieval of Dionysian apophaticism as a corrective to the onto-theological trajectory of philosophical thought. For this reason and more, Yannaras is one of the most important Orthodox thinkers of the twentieth century, and perhaps the most understudied, in spite of the fact that his work is now available in Norman Russell's excellent English translations. This collection of essays offers critically appreciative engagement with Yannaras's unique insights into contemporary discussions on political, theological, and philosophical questions. For students and scholars looking for a perspective on a variety of themes that disrupts the status quo, this is a must-read book.
--Aristotle Papanikolaou, Professor of Theology, Fordham University, Archbishop Demetrios Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture, Co-founding Director, Orthodox Christian Studies Center
Although Christos Yannaras has been one of the most important contemporary Orthodox thinkers for many decades, systematic engagement with his work outside Greece has only recently begun through the increasing availability of his books in translation. The publication of this brilliant collection of essays analysing his thinking in the fields of political theory, philosophy and theology is most opportune – a landmark in the reception of Yannaras' thinking.
--Norman Russell, Honorary Research Fellow, St Stephen's House, Oxford
This symposium, put together by Sotiris Mitralexis, is the first comprehensive attempt to discuss the wide-ranging work of Christos Yannaras, embracing the philosophical, epistemological, ethical, and political aspects of his work, all undergirded by his relational ontology of persons. It is by no means uncritical, but in a positive vein, and should lead to a wider engagement with Yannaras' thought in the English-speaking world.
--Andrew Louth FBA, Emeritus Professor of Patristic and Byzantine Studies, Durham University
Greek translation of Polis, Ontology, Ecclesial Event: Engaging with Christos Yannaras’ Thought... more Greek translation of
Polis, Ontology, Ecclesial Event:
Engaging with Christos Yannaras’ Thought
ed. Sotiris Mitralexis
Cambridge: James Clarke & Co, 2018
Ακαδημαϊκή επιμέλεια: Σωτήρης Μητραλέξης
Μετάφραση: Γιάννης Πεδιώτης και οι συγγραφείς
Επίκουροι επιμελητές:
π. Ανδρέας Ανδρεόπουλος
Pui Him Ip
π. Ισίδωρος Κάτσος
Διονύσιος Σκλήρης
Συγγραφείς:
π. Ανδρέας Ανδρεόπουλος
Deborah Casewell
Jonathan Cole
Brandon Gallaher
Άγγελος Γουνόπουλος
π. Daniel Isai
Νικόλαος Κορωναίος
Marcello La Matina
John Milbank
Σωτήρης Μητραλέξης
Διονύσιος Σκλήρης
Paul Tyson
Rowan Williams
Available: April 2017 This volume seeks to explore the intersection of theology, philosophy and ... more Available: April 2017
This volume seeks to explore the intersection of theology, philosophy and the public sphere not by referring the social and political to ethics and deontology as is often the case, but rather to ontology itself, to the very nature of beings. The meaning of history and historicity is most pertinent to this enquiry and is approached here both from the perspective of social reality and from the perspective of ontology. Joining together contributions focusing on theory of the public sphere and metaphysics, chapters explore subjects as diverse as the political implications of the Incarnation, the paradox between ontology and history, politically left and right appropriations of Christianity, the fecundity of Maximus the Confessor’s insights for a contemporary political philosophy, modern Orthodox political theology focusing on Christos Yannaras and numerous thematic areas that together form the mosaic of the enquiry in question.
https://vernonpress.com/title?id=246
This volume constitutes an attempt at bringing together philosophies of time—or more precisely, p... more This volume constitutes an attempt at bringing together philosophies of time—or more precisely, philosophies on time and, in a concomitant way, history—emerging from Christianity’s and Islam’s intellectual histories. Starting from the Neoplatonic heritage and the voice of classical philosophy, the volume enters the Byzantine and Arabic intellectual worlds up to Ibn Al-Arabi’s times. A conscious choice in this volume is not to engage with, perhaps, the most prominent figures of Christian and Arabic philosophy, i.e., Augustine on the one hand and Avicenna/Ibn Sina on the other, precisely because these have attracted so much attention due to their prominence in their respective traditions—and beyond. In a certain way, Maximus the Confessor and Ibn Al-Arabi—together with Al-Fārābi—emerge as alternative representatives of their two traditions in this volume, offering two axes for this endeavor. The synthesis of those approaches on time and history, their comparison rather than their mere co-existence, is left to the reader’s critical inquiry and philosophical investigation.
Doctoral Thesis in Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Freie Universität Berlin. Awarded on 24 ... more Doctoral Thesis in Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Freie Universität Berlin. Awarded on 24 September 2014.
1. Assessor: Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann (Freie Universität Berlin)
2. Assessor: Dr. Rowan Williams (University of Cambridge)
Dissertation: magna cum laude,
Disputation: summa cum laude
The question of Modern Greek identity is certainly timely. The political events of the previous y... more The question of Modern Greek identity is certainly timely. The political events of the previous years have once more brought up such questions as: What does it actually mean to be a Greek today? What is Modern Greece, apart from and beyond the bulk of information that one would find in an encyclopaedia and the established stereotypes? This volume delves into the timely nature of these questions and provides answers not by referring to often-cited classical Antiquity, nor by treating Greece as merely and exclusively a modern nation-state. Rather, it approaches the subject in a kaleidoscopic way, by tracing the line from the Byzantine Empire to Modern Greek culture, society, philosophy, literature and politics. In presenting the diverse and certainly non-dominant approaches of a multitude of Greek scholars, it provides new insights into a diachronic problem, and will encourage new arguments and counterarguments. Despite commonly held views among Greek intelligentsia or the worldwide community, Modern Greek identity remains an open question – and wound.
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016
Guest Edited Journal Issue http://forumphilosophicum.ignatianum.edu.pl/index.php?id=2953 Faith... more Guest Edited Journal Issue
http://forumphilosophicum.ignatianum.edu.pl/index.php?id=2953
Faith in the Web of Evanescent Meaning / Forum Philosophicum 21/1 - Spring 2016
Editors: Andrew T. J. Kaethler & Sotiris Mitralexis
In 2015 Andrew T. J. Kaethler and Sotiris Mitralexis organized a conference in Delphi Greece that engaged with the theological and philosophical questions surrounding the relationship between history and ontology. The theme of this volume of Forum Philosophicum––“Faith in the Web of Evanescent Meaning”––grew out of the conference; four of the five papers were presented in Delphi. All of the papers seek to make sense of truth and meaning in relation to the human world of flux and change. Heidegger, Hegel, Derrida, Jüngel, and Przywara are the most recognizable figures explicated herein with perspectives dramatically ranging from a welcoming embrace of Transhumanism to a critical explication of the entelechy of postmodern thought in light of the Cross.
Articles
*Ragnar M. Bergem
Transgressions: Erich Przywara, G. W. F. Hegel, and the Principle of Non-Contradiction
*Anna Jani
Historicity and Christian Life-Experience in the Early Philosophy of Martin Heidegger
*Hanoch Ben-Pazi
The Immense House of Postcards
The Idea of Tradition following Lévinas and Derrida
*Anthony L. Smyrnaios
From Ontology to Ontologies to Trans-Ontology
The Postmodern Narrative of History and Trans-Theological Ludic Transhumanism
*Deborah Casewell
Reading Heidegger through the Cross
On Eberhard Jüngel’s Heideggerian Ontology
Book Reviews
Krzysztof Śnieżyński
Norbert Fischer and Jakub Sirovátka, eds.: Vernunftreligion und Offenbarungsglaube. Zur Erörterung einer seit Kant verschärften Problematik
Łukasz Bartkowicz
Marcin Dolecki: Philosopher’s Crystal: The Treacherous Terrain of Tassatarius.
WInchester University Press, 2023
Mapping the Una Sancta: Eastern and Western Ecclesiology in the Twenty-First Century (Complete bo... more Mapping the Una Sancta: Eastern and Western Ecclesiology in the Twenty-First Century (Complete book, Open Access)
Edited by Sotiris Mitralexis and Andrew T. J. Kaethler,
WInchester University Press 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-906113-32-2
Complete book: https://bit.ly/unasancta
Contributors: Dimitrios Bathrellos, John Behr, Johannes Börjesson, George E. Demacopoulos, Adam A. J. DeVille, David W. Fagerberg, Jonathan Goodall, David Bentley Hart, Andrew TJ Kaethler, Christos Karakolis, Norm Klassen, Marcello La Matina, Nikolaos Loudovikos, Andrew Louth, Giulio Maspero, John Milbank, Sotiris Mitralexis, Thomas O’Loughlin, Jared Schumacher, Edward Siecienski, Manuel Gonçalves Sumares, Vincent Twomey, and Anna Zhyrkova
manifesto, 2023
Θρησκεία, Επιστήμη και Ορθοδοξία στο Δημόσιο Χώρο κατά την πανδημία του COVID-19 οι περιπτώσεις τ... more Θρησκεία, Επιστήμη και Ορθοδοξία στο Δημόσιο Χώρο κατά την πανδημία του COVID-19 οι περιπτώσεις της Ελλάδας, της Σερβίας, της Ρουμανίας και της Βουλγαρίας
Ροπή, 2021
https://www.ropipublications.com/after-science-religion/ Συγκρούεται η «επιστήμη» με τη «θρησκεί... more https://www.ropipublications.com/after-science-religion/
Συγκρούεται η «επιστήμη» με τη «θρησκεία»; Συγκρουόταν ανέκαθεν; Και τι είναι, εν τέλει, η «επιστήμη» και η «θρησκεία»;
Η συζήτηση περί επιστήμης και θρησκείας, των ορίων μεταξύ τους, της δυνατότητας συνύπαρξής τους ή μιας ανέκαθεν μάχης τους, βρίσκεται με τον έναν ή τον άλλον τρόπο πάντοτε παρούσα στη δημόσια συζήτηση — στην Ελλάδα και διεθνώς. Συνήθως αυτοί οι δύο όροι, επιστήμη και θρησκεία, εκλαμβάνονται ως αυτονόητοι και περίπου προαιώνιοι, δηλαδή ως έννοιες των οποίων η προβολή σε ιστορικές φάσεις άλλες από τη δική μας δεν είναι αναχρονιστική. Όμως, η ιστορία των ιδεών και η ιστορία της επιστήμης και της θρησκείας, ως ακαδημαϊκός κλάδος,έχει κατά τις τελευταίες τρεις δεκαετίες σημειώσει σημαντικές προόδους, σύμφωνα με τις οποίες καταδεικνύεται ως ανακριβής και αναχρονιστική αυτή η χρήση των όρων. Η «επιστήμη» και η «θρησκεία»,με τον τρόπο που χρησιμοποιούνται σήμερα ως έννοιες, αποτελούν νεωτερικά κατασκευάσματα — με ιδιαιτέρως πιο πολύπλοκη την πρότερη διαδρομή τους απ’ ό,τι συνήθως πιστεύεται, και απολύτως αναχρονιστική την προβολή του νεωτερικού περιεχομένου τους σε αυτήν την παλαιότερη ιστορική διαδρομή. Το βιβλίο “Πέρα από την Επιστήμη και τη Θρησκεία: νέες φιλοσοφικές και ιστορικές προσεγγίσεις” συγκεντρώνει συνεισφορές από ιστορικούς της επιστήμης, φιλοσόφους της θρησκείας και θεολόγους, προκύπτει από το διεθνές ερευνητικό εγχείρημα After Science and Religion: Rethinking the Foundations of Science-Religion Discourse και ρίχνει φως στην ιστορική εξέλιξη των όρων και των πεδίων γνώσης, αναλογιζόμενο σχετικά με την μελλοντική προοπτική τους. Με κεφάλαια των Peter Harrison, Bernard Lightman, D. C. Schindler, Michael Hanby, Paul Tyson, John Milbank, David Bentley Hart, Σωτήρη Μητραλέξη και επίμετρο του Αθανασίου Σ. Φωκά, πρόκειται για ένα εγχείρημα ριζικής επαναπλαισίωσης της συζήτησης πέρα από όσα συνηθίζουμε να θεωρούμε ως αυτονόητα, το οποίο φέρνει τον Έλληνα αναγνώστη για πρώτη φορά σε επαφή επαφή με σημαντικούς στοχαστές του αγγλόφωνου ακαδημαϊκού χώρου.
Sotiris Mitralexis, Ever-Moving Repose: A Contemporary Reading of Maximus the Confessor's Theory ... more Sotiris Mitralexis, Ever-Moving Repose: A Contemporary Reading of Maximus the Confessor's Theory of Time. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2017.
http://wipfandstock.com/ever-moving-repose.html
Sotiris Mitralexis offers a contemporary look at Maximus the Confessor’s (580–662 CE) understanding of temporality, logoi , and deification, through the perspective of contemporary philosopher and theologian Christos Yannaras, as well as John Zizioulas and Nicholas Loudovikos. Mitralexis argues that Maxi-mus possesses both a unique theological ontology and a unique threefold theory of temporality: time, the Aeon, and the radical transformation of temporality and motion in an ever-moving repose. With these three distinct modes of temporality, a Maximian theory of time can be reconstructed, which can be approached via his teaching on the logoi and deification. In this theory, time is not merely measuring ontological motion, but is more particularly measuring a relationship , the consummation of which effects the transformation of time into a dimensionless present devoid of temporal, spatial, and generally ontological distance —thereby manifesting a perfect communion-in-otherness. In examining Maximian temporality, the book is not focusing on only one aspect of Maximus’ comprehensive Weltanschauung, but looks at the Maximian vision as a whole through the lens of temporality and motion.
"In this remarkable book, Dr. Mitralexis seeks more than an exposition of a central notion in St. Maximus the Confessor's metaphysical vision, but rather a genuine fusion of the horizons, in a Gadamerian sense, so that his understanding of Maximus is informed by the development of a relational ontology by the likes of Zizioulas and Yannaras, whose own thought has been inspired by their reading of Maximus. The result is a bold and original contribution to ontology and metaphysics."
--ANDREW LOUTH, FBA, Professor Emeritus of Patristic and Byzantine Studies, Durham University
"This book, written by a young and promising Maximus scholar, is an interesting study of a central set of notions in Maximus' writings, namely, the notions of time, the Aeon, and eternity. These notions have been studied by others as well, but never as extensively as by Mitralexis. He finds the roots of Maximus' notion of time in Aristotle, but has a quite original hermeneutical approach since he tries to unravel the Confessor's philosophy from the vantage point of the Greek modern philosopher Christos Yannaras, thus seeking to make Maximus' thought relevant for our own age. The depth of Mitralexis' knowledge of the sources and his grasp of modern scholarship on Maximus is impressive. I highly recommend this book."
--TORSTEIN T. TOLLEFSEN, Professor of Philosophy, University of Oslo
"This is a really welcome addition to the fast-growing literature on Maximus the Confessor. It is a first-class study of the original texts, but is distinctive in its willingness to bring Maximus' thought into fruitful conversation with contemporary philosophical discussions, so that the implications of this study will be of interest to many more than Byzantine specialists."
--ROWAN WILLIAMS, Master of Magdalene College, University of Cambridge
https://www.routledge.com/Slavoj-Zizek-and-Christianity/Mitralexis-Skliris/p/book/9781138103269 ... more https://www.routledge.com/Slavoj-Zizek-and-Christianity/Mitralexis-Skliris/p/book/9781138103269
Edited by Sotiris Mitralexis & Dionysios Skliris,
with an afterword by Slavoj Žižek
Routledge 2018, Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology
Slavoj Žižek’s critical engagement with Christian theology goes much further than his seminal The Fragile Absolute (2000), or his The Puppet and the Dwarf (2003),or even his discussion with noted theologian John Milbank in The Monstrosity of Christ (2009). His reading of Christianity, utilising his signature elements of Lacanian psychoanalysis and Hegelian philosophy with modern philosophical currents, can be seen as a genuinely original contribution to the philosophy of religion. This book focuses on these aspects of Žižek’s thought with either philosophy and cultural theory, or Christian theology, serving as starting points of enquiry.
Written by a panel of international contributors, each chapter teases out various strands of Žižek’s thought concerning Christianity and religion and brings them into a wider conversation about the nature of faith. These essays show that far from being an outright rejection of Christian thought and intellectual heritage, Žižek’s work could be seen as a perverse affirmation thereof. Thus, what he has to say should be of direct interest to Christian theology itself.
Touching on thinkers such as Badiou, Lacan, Chesterton and Schelling, this collection is a dynamic reading and re-reading of Žižek’s relationship to Christianity. As such, scholars of theology, the philosophy of religion and Žižek more generally will all find this book to be of great interest.
Analogia, 2020
ACCESS ISSUE: bit.ly/analogia9 Table of contents A Spectre Is Haunting Intercommunion Soti... more ACCESS ISSUE: bit.ly/analogia9
Table of contents
A Spectre Is Haunting Intercommunion
Sotiris Mitralexis 9
‘Unity of the Churches—An Actual Possibility: The Rahner-Fries Theses
and Contemporary Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue’
Edward A. Siecienski 21
The origins of an ecumenical church: links, borrowings,
and inter-dependencies
Thomas O’Loughlin 39
Crusades, Colonialism, and the Future Possibility Christian Unity
George E. Demacopoulos 61
Eucharistic Doctrine and Eucharistic Devotion
Andrew Louth 71
Schmemann’s Approach to the Sacramental Life of the Church:
its Orthodox Positioning, its Catholic Intent
Manuel Sumares 79
Approaching the Future as a Friend Without a Wardrobe of Excuses
Adam A.J. DeVille 99
Anglicans and the Una Sancta
Jonathan Goodall 107
Analogia, 2020
ACCESS ISSUE: bit.ly/analogia10 table of contents Manifesting Persons: A Church in Tension / An... more ACCESS ISSUE: bit.ly/analogia10
table of contents
Manifesting Persons: A Church in Tension / Andrew T.J. Kaethler 9
Ab astris ad castra: An Ignatian-MacIntyrean Proposal for Overcoming Historical and Political-Theological Difficulties in Ecumenical Dialogue / Jared Schumacher 23
Simon Peter in the Gospel according to John: His Historical Significance according to the Johannine Community’s Narrative / Christos Karakolis 35
The Scythian Monks’ Latin-cum-Eastern Approach to Tradition: A Paradigm for Reunifying Doctrines and Overcoming Schism / Anna Zhyrkova 47
Beauty is the Church’s Unity: Supernatural Finality, Aesthetics, and Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue / Norm Klassen 63
Ecumenism and Trust: A Pope on Mount Athos / Andreas Andreopoulos 77
God’s Silence and Its Icons: A Catholic’s Experiences at Mount Athos and Mount Jamna / Marcin Podbielski 93
Councils and Canons: A Lutheran Perspective on the Great Schism and the So-Called Eighth Ecumenical Council / Johannes Börjesson 107
Christological Or Analogical Primacy. Ecclesial Unity And Universal Primacy In The Orthodox Church / Nikolaos Loudovikos 127
Ecumenism, Geopolitics, and Crisis / John Milbank 143
Concluding Reflections on Mapping the Una Sancta. An Orthodox-Catholic Ecclesiology Today / Marcello La Matina 153
Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2019
This book explores the relationship between being and time —between ontology and history— in the ... more This book explores the relationship between being and time —between ontology and history— in the context of both Christian theology and philosophical inquiry. Each chapter tests the limits of this multifaceted thematic vis-à-vis a wide variety of sources: from patristics (Maximus the Confessor, Gregory of Nyssa) to philosophy (Kant, Kierkegaard, Heidegger) to modern theology (Berdyaev, Ratzinger, Fagerberg, Zizioulas, Yannaras, Loudovikos); from incarnation to eschatology; and from liturgy and ecclesiology to political theology. Among other topics, time and eternity, protology and eschatology, personhood and relation, and ontology and responsibility within history form core areas of inquiry. Between Being and Time facilitates an auspicious dialogue between philosophy and theology and, within the latter, between Catholic and Orthodox thought. It will be of considerable interest to scholars of Christian theology and philosophy of religion.
The study of Maximus the Confessor’s thought has flourished in recent years: annual international... more The study of Maximus the Confessor’s thought has flourished in recent years: annual international conferences, publications and articles, new critical editions and translations mark a torrent of interest in the work and influence of the most sublime of the Byzantine Fathers. It has been repeatedly stated that the Confessor’s thought is of eminently philosophical interest, and his work has been approached from a philosophical point of view in a number of monographs. However, no dedicated collective scholarly engagement with Maximus the Confessor as a Philosopher has taken place – and this volume will attempt to start such a discussion. Apart from Maximus’ relevance and importance for philosophy in general, a second question arises: should towering figures of Byzantine philosophy like Maximus the Confessor be included in an overview of the European continent’s history of philosophy, or rather excluded from it – as happens today with most histories of European philosophy? Maximus’ historical presence challenges our understanding of what European philosophy is. In this volume, we begin to address these issues and to examine numerous aspects of Maximus’ philosophical ‘system’: the logoi doctrine, Maximus’ anthropology and the human will’s freedom, the theory of motion, his understanding of time and space etc. – thereby also stressing the interdisciplinary character of Maximian studies.
Armos, 2019
Τι συμβαίνει στην Ευρώπη. Τι συμβαίνει στην Ελλάδα. •μισθοδοσία •περιουσία •φορολογία •θρησκευτικ... more Τι συμβαίνει στην Ευρώπη.
Τι συμβαίνει στην Ελλάδα.
•μισθοδοσία
•περιουσία
•φορολογία
•θρησκευτικά
Mε σκοπό να καλύψει ένα εμφανές κενό στη φερέγγυα αποτύπωση των ισχυόντων στοιχείων σε Ελλάδα και Ευρώπη ως προς τις σχέσεις εκκλησίας-κράτους, η μελέτη αυτή εξετάζει ζητήματα όπως το μάθημα των θρησκευτικών, η χρηματοδότηση και φορολόγηση των θρησκευτικών κοινοτήτων σε Ελλάδα και Ευρώπη, η μισθοδοσία του κλήρου και οι δυνατότητες μετεξέλιξής της, η ιστορία των σχέσεων εκκλησίας και κράτους στην Ελλάδα, ο διοικητικός κατακερματισμός της εκκλησίας στην Ελλάδα και η πολιτική χρήση των πολώσεων γύρω από το θέμα των σχέσεων εκκλησίας-κράτους (και του ενδεχομένου χωρισμού τους) στον ελληνικό δημόσιο λόγο. Αντί να στοχεύει στην κατάθεση μιας συνεισφοράς στο δημόσιο διάλογο για το θέμα, η παρούσα μελέτη εγείρει μια ακόμα πιο φιλόδοξη αξίωση: να συγκροτήσει την προϋπόθεση που θα καταστήσει έναν τέτοιο διάλογο εφικτό, καθ’ ότι σήμερα κάθε σχετική συζήτηση μάλλον εξαντλείται σε μια εκατέρωθεν μάχη συμβόλων, σημαιών και αξιών αντί για να αφορά το ζήτημα που υποτίθεται πως εξετάζει. Στην εδώ μελέτη τον πρώτο λόγο έχουν τα στοιχεία.
Ινστιτούτο του Βιβλίου – Καρδαμίτσα, Αθήνα 2017 Περίληψη Η Ιστορία της Φιλοσοφίας είναι πεδίο κα... more Ινστιτούτο του Βιβλίου – Καρδαμίτσα, Αθήνα 2017
Περίληψη
Η Ιστορία της Φιλοσοφίας είναι πεδίο κατ’εξοχήν δυναμικό και ουδόλως στατικό, καθ’ότι η απάντηση στο ερώτημα για τη φύση του συμπορεύεται με το ερώτημα για τη φύση της ίδιας της φιλοσοφίας: βρίσκεται υπό διαρκή διαπραγμάτευση. Κατά πόσον πρόκειται απλώς για ιστορία, κατά πόσον αποδεικνύεται φιλοσοφία; Ποια σχέση μπορεί να έχει με τη δυνατότητα σημερινής απάντησης στα φιλοσοφικά ερωτήματα; Πως επηρεάζει τον εν εξελίξει φιλοσοφικό στοχασμό; Με ποιον τρόπο οδηγούν οι διαφορετικές μεθοδολογίες για τη σύνθεση ιστοριών της φιλοσοφίας σε ριζικά διαφορετικές αφηγήσεις και αποτιμήσεις του παρελθόντος; Τέλος, πώς μπορεί να συντελέσει στην αναβάθμιση της ίδιας της φιλοσοφίας; Το βιβλίο αυτό φιλοδοξεί να δώσει στον αναγνώστη μια μικρής κλίμακας εισαγωγή, εποπτεία και αντιπρόταση ως προς τα παραπάνω ερωτήματα.
Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2015 (in contract, forthcoming). This volume is an attempt to thor... more Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2015 (in contract, forthcoming).
This volume is an attempt to thoroughly inquire into a subject that has been hinted at, but hitherto never thoroughly researched: namely, the relationship between Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ‘analytic stance’ towards philosophy and the inherently apophatic nature of his epistemology. In using the term ‘apophaticism’ we are not referring to the theological ‘via negativa’ or to tendencies towards mysticism, but rather to a comprehensive epistemological stance that “refuses to identify truth with its formulation and to identify the understanding of the signifier with the knowledge of its signified reality”, to use Christos Yannaras’ definition. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s work can be approached as a particularly efflorescent case of the implementation of an implicitly apophatic epistemology: one of the questions that arise is which ontological proposal could be seen as corresponding to such an epistemology, and what would be the contribution of Wittgenstein’s thought to this ontological proposal. The present volume’s contribution is the attempt to systematically shed more light on this aspect of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy.
Cambridge: James Clarke & Co, 2018
Christos Yannaras (born 1935 in Athens, Greece) has been proclaimed 'without doubt the most impor... more Christos Yannaras (born 1935 in Athens, Greece) has been proclaimed 'without doubt the most important living Greek Orthodox theologian' (Andrew Louth), 'contemporary Greece's greatest thinker' (Olivier Cl ment), 'one of the most significant Christian philosophers in Europe' (Rowan Williams). However, until recently the English-speaking scholar did not have first-hand access to the main bulk of his work: in spite of the relatively early English translation of his The Freedom of Morality (1984), most of his books appeared in English fairly recently - such as Person and Eros (2007), Orthodoxy and the West (2006), Relational Ontology (2011) or The Schism in Philosophy (2015). In this volume, chapters shall examine numerous aspects of Yannaras' contributions to Orthodox theology, philosophy and political thought, based on his relational ontology of the person, later popularised in the Anglophone sphere by John Zizioulas. From political theology to Heidegger and the philosophy of language, from Yannaras' critique of religion to the patristic grounding of the theology of the person and from Orthodoxy to the West, this volume comprises a panorama of Christos Yannaras' transdisciplinary contributions.
Endorsements
Long before Jean-Luc Marion's God without Being, Christos Yannaras was arguing for a retrieval of Dionysian apophaticism as a corrective to the onto-theological trajectory of philosophical thought. For this reason and more, Yannaras is one of the most important Orthodox thinkers of the twentieth century, and perhaps the most understudied, in spite of the fact that his work is now available in Norman Russell's excellent English translations. This collection of essays offers critically appreciative engagement with Yannaras's unique insights into contemporary discussions on political, theological, and philosophical questions. For students and scholars looking for a perspective on a variety of themes that disrupts the status quo, this is a must-read book.
--Aristotle Papanikolaou, Professor of Theology, Fordham University, Archbishop Demetrios Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture, Co-founding Director, Orthodox Christian Studies Center
Although Christos Yannaras has been one of the most important contemporary Orthodox thinkers for many decades, systematic engagement with his work outside Greece has only recently begun through the increasing availability of his books in translation. The publication of this brilliant collection of essays analysing his thinking in the fields of political theory, philosophy and theology is most opportune – a landmark in the reception of Yannaras' thinking.
--Norman Russell, Honorary Research Fellow, St Stephen's House, Oxford
This symposium, put together by Sotiris Mitralexis, is the first comprehensive attempt to discuss the wide-ranging work of Christos Yannaras, embracing the philosophical, epistemological, ethical, and political aspects of his work, all undergirded by his relational ontology of persons. It is by no means uncritical, but in a positive vein, and should lead to a wider engagement with Yannaras' thought in the English-speaking world.
--Andrew Louth FBA, Emeritus Professor of Patristic and Byzantine Studies, Durham University
Greek translation of Polis, Ontology, Ecclesial Event: Engaging with Christos Yannaras’ Thought... more Greek translation of
Polis, Ontology, Ecclesial Event:
Engaging with Christos Yannaras’ Thought
ed. Sotiris Mitralexis
Cambridge: James Clarke & Co, 2018
Ακαδημαϊκή επιμέλεια: Σωτήρης Μητραλέξης
Μετάφραση: Γιάννης Πεδιώτης και οι συγγραφείς
Επίκουροι επιμελητές:
π. Ανδρέας Ανδρεόπουλος
Pui Him Ip
π. Ισίδωρος Κάτσος
Διονύσιος Σκλήρης
Συγγραφείς:
π. Ανδρέας Ανδρεόπουλος
Deborah Casewell
Jonathan Cole
Brandon Gallaher
Άγγελος Γουνόπουλος
π. Daniel Isai
Νικόλαος Κορωναίος
Marcello La Matina
John Milbank
Σωτήρης Μητραλέξης
Διονύσιος Σκλήρης
Paul Tyson
Rowan Williams
Available: April 2017 This volume seeks to explore the intersection of theology, philosophy and ... more Available: April 2017
This volume seeks to explore the intersection of theology, philosophy and the public sphere not by referring the social and political to ethics and deontology as is often the case, but rather to ontology itself, to the very nature of beings. The meaning of history and historicity is most pertinent to this enquiry and is approached here both from the perspective of social reality and from the perspective of ontology. Joining together contributions focusing on theory of the public sphere and metaphysics, chapters explore subjects as diverse as the political implications of the Incarnation, the paradox between ontology and history, politically left and right appropriations of Christianity, the fecundity of Maximus the Confessor’s insights for a contemporary political philosophy, modern Orthodox political theology focusing on Christos Yannaras and numerous thematic areas that together form the mosaic of the enquiry in question.
https://vernonpress.com/title?id=246
This volume constitutes an attempt at bringing together philosophies of time—or more precisely, p... more This volume constitutes an attempt at bringing together philosophies of time—or more precisely, philosophies on time and, in a concomitant way, history—emerging from Christianity’s and Islam’s intellectual histories. Starting from the Neoplatonic heritage and the voice of classical philosophy, the volume enters the Byzantine and Arabic intellectual worlds up to Ibn Al-Arabi’s times. A conscious choice in this volume is not to engage with, perhaps, the most prominent figures of Christian and Arabic philosophy, i.e., Augustine on the one hand and Avicenna/Ibn Sina on the other, precisely because these have attracted so much attention due to their prominence in their respective traditions—and beyond. In a certain way, Maximus the Confessor and Ibn Al-Arabi—together with Al-Fārābi—emerge as alternative representatives of their two traditions in this volume, offering two axes for this endeavor. The synthesis of those approaches on time and history, their comparison rather than their mere co-existence, is left to the reader’s critical inquiry and philosophical investigation.
Doctoral Thesis in Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Freie Universität Berlin. Awarded on 24 ... more Doctoral Thesis in Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Freie Universität Berlin. Awarded on 24 September 2014.
1. Assessor: Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann (Freie Universität Berlin)
2. Assessor: Dr. Rowan Williams (University of Cambridge)
Dissertation: magna cum laude,
Disputation: summa cum laude
The question of Modern Greek identity is certainly timely. The political events of the previous y... more The question of Modern Greek identity is certainly timely. The political events of the previous years have once more brought up such questions as: What does it actually mean to be a Greek today? What is Modern Greece, apart from and beyond the bulk of information that one would find in an encyclopaedia and the established stereotypes? This volume delves into the timely nature of these questions and provides answers not by referring to often-cited classical Antiquity, nor by treating Greece as merely and exclusively a modern nation-state. Rather, it approaches the subject in a kaleidoscopic way, by tracing the line from the Byzantine Empire to Modern Greek culture, society, philosophy, literature and politics. In presenting the diverse and certainly non-dominant approaches of a multitude of Greek scholars, it provides new insights into a diachronic problem, and will encourage new arguments and counterarguments. Despite commonly held views among Greek intelligentsia or the worldwide community, Modern Greek identity remains an open question – and wound.
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016
Guest Edited Journal Issue http://forumphilosophicum.ignatianum.edu.pl/index.php?id=2953 Faith... more Guest Edited Journal Issue
http://forumphilosophicum.ignatianum.edu.pl/index.php?id=2953
Faith in the Web of Evanescent Meaning / Forum Philosophicum 21/1 - Spring 2016
Editors: Andrew T. J. Kaethler & Sotiris Mitralexis
In 2015 Andrew T. J. Kaethler and Sotiris Mitralexis organized a conference in Delphi Greece that engaged with the theological and philosophical questions surrounding the relationship between history and ontology. The theme of this volume of Forum Philosophicum––“Faith in the Web of Evanescent Meaning”––grew out of the conference; four of the five papers were presented in Delphi. All of the papers seek to make sense of truth and meaning in relation to the human world of flux and change. Heidegger, Hegel, Derrida, Jüngel, and Przywara are the most recognizable figures explicated herein with perspectives dramatically ranging from a welcoming embrace of Transhumanism to a critical explication of the entelechy of postmodern thought in light of the Cross.
Articles
*Ragnar M. Bergem
Transgressions: Erich Przywara, G. W. F. Hegel, and the Principle of Non-Contradiction
*Anna Jani
Historicity and Christian Life-Experience in the Early Philosophy of Martin Heidegger
*Hanoch Ben-Pazi
The Immense House of Postcards
The Idea of Tradition following Lévinas and Derrida
*Anthony L. Smyrnaios
From Ontology to Ontologies to Trans-Ontology
The Postmodern Narrative of History and Trans-Theological Ludic Transhumanism
*Deborah Casewell
Reading Heidegger through the Cross
On Eberhard Jüngel’s Heideggerian Ontology
Book Reviews
Krzysztof Śnieżyński
Norbert Fischer and Jakub Sirovátka, eds.: Vernunftreligion und Offenbarungsglaube. Zur Erörterung einer seit Kant verschärften Problematik
Łukasz Bartkowicz
Marcin Dolecki: Philosopher’s Crystal: The Treacherous Terrain of Tassatarius.
Reviews in Religion & Theology, 2024
Reviews in Religion & Theology 31, no. 1–2 (2024): 3–11 This review article examines and summari... more Reviews in Religion & Theology 31, no. 1–2 (2024): 3–11
This review article examines and summarizes the key ideas and contributions of Nikolaos Loudovikos' book Analogical Identities: The Creation of the Christian Self-Beyond Spirituality and Mysticism in the Patristic Era. The book offers a reimagining of Christian anthropology and the understanding of the self by critiquing what the author sees as lingering Neoplatonic influences and dualistic notions of 'spirituality' or 'mysticism'. Loudovikos traces the development of problematic conceptions of the will, introspection and power in influential thinkers like Augustine, Origen and Descartes. He then provides an alternative trajectory drawing on Greek patristic authors like Maximus the Confessor, Symeon the New Theologian and Gregory Palamas. Loudovikos argues that their thinking provides resources for overcoming problematic past legacies by articulating a view of the self, grounded not in an immaterial soul, but in dialogical, embodied fulfilment through grace and participation in Christ. Central is Maximus' theology of the will, which reframes it not as something to be transcended but as expressing the universal human desire for God. Loudovikos synthesizes these currents in proposing the concept of 'analogical identity' to describe the transformed Christian self. The book represents a groundbreaking contribution that creatively retrieves the diverse patristic tradition(s) to overcome lingering problems in theological anthropology and provides a holistic model of human personhood.
Religions, 2023
Abstract The debate on Christian East–West relations usually centres on the “usual suspects”: pap... more Abstract
The debate on Christian East–West relations usually centres on the “usual suspects”: papal primacy, the filioque and core doctrine in general, the interpretation of Scripture, ecclesiology, and so on. This review article of Edward Siecienski’s Beards, Azymes, and Purgatory explores other issues that divide East and West, particularly those that may be approached via material ecologies: Fire, Beards, and Bread. “Bread” as in the debate on the Azymes, following Siecienski’s 2023 book; “Beards” as in the beardfullness or beardlessness of clerics; and “Fire” as in ignis purgatorius, yet at an even wider scale, the very fire of Gehenna: the question of the hereafter and the location of the dividing line between doctrine and theologoumena. Thus, a wider spectrum of the debate emerges, with which the present review article aspires to familiarize its readers.
Filozofija i drustvo
Maximus the Confessor?s Ambiguum 41 contains some rather atypical observations concerning the dis... more Maximus the Confessor?s Ambiguum 41 contains some rather atypical observations concerning the distinction of sexes in the human person. There is a certain ambiguity as to whether the distinction of the sexes was intended by God and is ?by nature? (as found in Genesis and asserted by most Church Fathers) or a product of the Fall. Namely, Christ is described three times as ?shaking out of nature the distinctive characteristics of male and female?, ?driving out of nature the difference and division of male and female? and ?removing the difference between male and female?. Different readings of those passages engender important implications that can be drawn out from the Confessor?s thought, both eschatological implications and otherwise. The subject has been picked up by Cameron Partridge, Doru Costache and Karolina Kochanczyk-Boninska, among others, but is by no means settled, as they draw quite different conclusions. The noteworthy and far-reaching implications of Maximus? theologica...
Philosophy and Society 32 (2): 194–203, 2021
Maximus the Confessor's Ambiguum 41 contains some rather atypical observations concerning the dis... more Maximus the Confessor's Ambiguum 41 contains some rather atypical observations concerning the distinction of sexes in the human person. There is a certain ambiguity as to whether the distinction of the sexes was intended by God and is 'by nature' (as found in Genesis and asserted by most Church Fathers) or a product of the Fall. Namely, Christ is described three times as "shaking out of nature the distinctive characteristics of male and female", "driving out of nature the difference and division of male and female" and "removing the difference between male and female". Different readings of those passages engender important implications that can be drawn out from the Confessor's thought, both eschatological implications and otherwise. The subject has been picked up by Cameron Partridge, Doru Costache and Karolina Kochanczyk-Boninska, among others, but is by no means settled, as they draw quite different conclusions. The noteworthy and far-reaching implications of Maximus' theological stance and problems are not the object of this paper. In a 2017 paper I attempted to demonstrate what Maximus exactly says in these peculiar and oft-commented passages through a close reading, in order to avoid a two-edged Maximian misunderstanding: to either draw overly radical implications from those passages, projecting decidedly non-Maximian visions on the historical Maximus, or none at all, as if those passages represented standard Patristic positions. Here, I am revisiting this argument, given that the interest in what the Confessor has to say on the subject seems to be increasing.
Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 2019
Greece saw during the 1980s and 1990s what has been described as a "Neo-Orthodox movement," i.e. ... more Greece saw during the 1980s and 1990s what has been described as a "Neo-Orthodox movement," i.e. a significantly popular yet uncoordinated synthesis of Orthodox theology, traditionalism, and left-wing politics. Is it, however, indeed the case that Neo-Orthodoxy is a terminologically viable category? In this essay, Neo-Orthodoxy is examined and re-evaluated from a perspective that narrates its story and presents the ideas of its protagonists. Analyzing its premises as well as the social and historical context of the term while providing a sketch of important figures of the "movement," the commonly held assertion that the phenomenon under scrutiny can indeed be labelled a "movement" is challenged. The discussion identifies problems that such a label would entail and presents the core identifying characteristics of Neo-Orthodoxy, both in relation to and in contrast with the Communist-Orthodox Christian dialogue. This work sees itself as a corrective to earlier attempts at examining Greek Neo-Orthodoxy.
British Journal for the History of Philosophy (BJHP), forthcoming. This is a DRAFT. The DOI of t... more British Journal for the History of Philosophy (BJHP), forthcoming.
This is a DRAFT. The DOI of the published paper will be: 10.1080/09608788.2018.1458281. Once the article has published online, it will be available at the following permanent link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2018.1458281
Methodologies and theories for writing histories of philosophy are particularly relevant today due to the abounding challenges to the discipline that have emerged: e.g., the problem concerning the precise mode of the inclusion of non-Western philosophies in the history of philosophy, the response to postcolonial considerations at large, the transformative impact of new media, and the question whether the history of philosophy is primarily a philosophical, rather than merely historical, enterprise. À propos the relative scarcity that is to be witnessed in explicit articulations of methodologies and theories for writing histories of philosophy, in this note I focus on certain spontaneous, rather than theoretically planned, responses that have emerged to the above challenges — in particular Peter Adamson's History of Philosophy without any gaps — and in conclusion, as an example of methodological development, I touch on some of the problems we encounter in the case of the inclusion of Byzantine philosophy in the history of philosophy.
In this paper, I shall focus on the semantic content of αἰὼν in Maximus the Confessor’s works, pa... more In this paper, I shall focus on the semantic content of αἰὼν in Maximus the Confessor’s works, particularly in the instances in which he employs it as a distinct form of temporality, i.e. not as simply meaning ‘eternity’. I focus on αἰὼν as a Maximian terminus technicus in spite of the diverse meanings that he himself ascribes to the word in certain cases. I will also engage with the status of time as humanity’s slavery, as humanity’s enemy in Maximus’ thought, for this is integrally connected with the notion of the Aeon and especially with the need to transcend both time as χρόνος and temporality in the form of the Aeon in striving for ever well-being. The greater context of this investigation is the understanding of Maximus’ conception of temporality as a threefold one, consisting of (a) time as χρόνος, the temporality of the sensible realm and the numbering of motion, (b) αἰὼν i.e. the Aeon, a ‘time without movement’ and the temporality of the intelligible creation, and (c) the transformed temporality of the ever-moving repose (στάσις ἀεικίνητος).
Horizons of Politics, 8(25), 125‑149. DOI: 10.17399/HP.2017.082508. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: This pap... more Horizons of Politics, 8(25), 125‑149.
DOI: 10.17399/HP.2017.082508.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: This paper studies the prevalence, pre-eminence, premises and political usage of the “cultural dualism” narrative in contemporary Greece, which is predominantly attributed to Nikiforos Diamandouros.
THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The “cultural dualism” (“underdog culture”) reading of Modern Greece divides Greek society and political life into an “underdog” Orthodox conservative culture and a “reformist” Western secular culture, thus forming a Neo-orientalist schematization. The paper traces and analyses instances of this dichotomy (particularly instances in which it is presented as self-evident, a given) in Greek academia, journalism and political discourse.
THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: This “underdog culture” narrative, broadly understood, is here identified as the implicit hermeneutic approach almost universally employed when studying non-standard political and cultural thought in Greece: other forms thereof comprise the dichotomies of “normal/ non-biased” versus “anti-Western,” “European” versus “national-populist,” “secular” versus “religious/Byzantine/Orthodox” etc. I proceed to analyse those and propose the term “Greek Neo-orientalism” for their categorization.
RESEARCH RESULTS: In the paper, the prevalence of Diamandourean “underdog culture” reading in the Greek public sphere – academic as well as political and journalistic – is demonstrated, concluding that a non-Neo-orientalist reading of contemporary Greek political thought and theory is yet to appear.
CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The paper underscores the need for an alternative research agenda that would for the first time examine non-standard Greek political thought that affirms Greece’s Byzantine past and Orthodox culture not via the Neo-orientalist approach, but through a methodology suitable to that end.
DRAFT of a paper published in Forum Philosophicum 19 (2014) no. 2, 241–249. St Maximus the Confe... more DRAFT of a paper published in Forum Philosophicum 19 (2014) no. 2, 241–249.
St Maximus the Confessor’s voluminous corpus constitutes a coherent and lucid philosophical and theological system, notwithstanding the existence of obscure, difficult, and at times even contradictory passages. A question stemming from Maximus’ work is whether the “intelligible creation” (noēte ktisis) is imperishable or corruptible, which would have important implications for a number of other issues like the created / uncreated distinction, Maximus’ relationship to Neoplatonism, etc. However, Maximus provides us with contradictory passages concerning this subject, characterizing the noēte ktisis as both corruptible and imperishable. While in certain passages of the Ambigua ad Ioannem (e.g. MPG91, 1177B–80A) he states that created intelligible beings move “according to corruption,” excluding the possibility of natural incorruptibility for them, in other passages (e.g. MPG91, 1165A) he states that the noēte ktisis possesses imperishability by nature, and not merely by grace. In this paper I will attempt to examine this apparent inconsistency on the basis of these two examples and to discuss which of both positions should be considered as Maximus’ “primary” position.
Sotiris Mitralexis: “Can we trace a comprehensive theory of time in Maximus the Confessor’s work?... more Sotiris Mitralexis: “Can we trace a comprehensive theory of time in Maximus the Confessor’s work?” [in Greek: Μποροῦμε νὰ μιλήσουμε γιὰ μιὰ συνολικὴ θεωρία γιὰ τὸν χρόνο στὸ ἔργο Μαξίμου τοῦ Ὁμολογητοῦ;],
in: Philosophia, the Philosophy Journal of the Academy of Athens/
Φιλοσοφία - Επετηρίς του Κέντρου Ερεύνης της Ελληνικής Φιλοσοφίας, Ακαδημία Αθηνών, 45 (2015): 252-267.
Μπορούμε να μιλήσουμε για μια θεωρία για τον χρόνο στο έργο Μαξίμου του Ομολογητού, η έστω για μιάν ερμηνευτική πρόταση για τον χρόνο, η οποία θα μπορούσε να οδηγήσει στην ανασύνθεση μιάς συστηματικής θεωρίας, χωρίς αυτή να έχει αποτυπωθεί; Σε αυτό το σύντομο σημείωμα θα προσπαθήσουμε να σκιαγραφήσουμε συνοπτικά (i) τις αριστοτελικές προϋποθέσεις του μαξιμιανού ορισμού του χρόνου και του αιώνος (ii) τις αφετηριακές συνεπαγωγές του ορισμού του Μαξίμου και (iii) να διατυπώσουμε νύξεις για την σχέση του χρόνου και του αιώνος με την στάσιν αεικίνητον και στάσιμον ταυτοκινησίαν του Μαξίμου ως προς τον άνθρωπο.
in: Analogia 2 (2017): 107-12. Maximus the Confessor’s Ambiguum 41 contains some rather untypica... more in: Analogia 2 (2017): 107-12.
Maximus the Confessor’s Ambiguum 41 contains some rather untypical observations concerning the distinction of sexes in the human person: there is a certain ambiguity as to whether the distinction of the sexes was intended by God and is ‘by nature’ (as the Book of Genesis and most Church Fathers assert) or whether it is a product of the Fall, while Christ is described thrice as ‘shaking out of nature the distinctive characteristics of male and female’, ‘driving out of nature the difference and division of male and female’, and ‘removing the difference between male and female’. Different readings of these passages engender important implications that can be drawn out from the Confessor’s thought, both eschatological implications and otherwise. The subject has been picked up by Cameron Partridge, Doru Costache and Karolina Kochanczyk–Boninska, amongst others, but is by no means settled, as quite different conclusions have been formulated. The noteworthy and far-reaching implications of Maximus’ theological stance, as well as its problems, are not the object of this paper. Here, I am merely trying to demonstrate what exactly Maximus says in these peculiar and much discussed passages through a close reading, in order to avoid a double-edged Maximian misunderstanding—which would either draw overly radical implications from those passages, projecting definitely non-Maximian visions on to the historical Maximus, or none at all, as if those passages represented standard Patristic positions.
The published form of this paper appears in the journal Political Theology (DOI 10.1080/1462317X.... more The published form of this paper appears in the journal Political Theology (DOI 10.1080/1462317X.2017.1402551), available at the following link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1462317X.2017.1402551.
Exotic as the very notion of an Eastern Orthodox political theology at times seems to be, a fair share of attention has been recently directed to the possibility of it through a number of conferences, workshops and publications. In this review article, I am discussing three recent edited volumes on Orthodox political theology, broadly conceived. These exhibit a certain continuity between them and, as edited volumes should, are characterised by a hermeneutic framework, in the context of which particular contributions/chapters appear. Apart from presenting the books and their content, I will be discussing their framework and rationale. Focusing on the books’ treatment of contemporary Greek political theology, I argue that an observable trend in these recent attempts consists in forcing valuable individual contributions into a grand, yet narrow, narrative that is limiting the project’s scope rather than the other way around—and this, in spite of the important contribution that these volumes without question constitute. Liberated from such objectives and frameworks, as well as of certain by now obsolete schematizations of intellectual currents in mainly Orthodox countries by taking more recent research into account, the quest for exploring the possibilities of an Orthodox political theology could prove to be considerably more fecund.
The published form of this paper will appear (November 28, 2017) in the journal "Political Theolo... more The published form of this paper will appear (November 28, 2017) in the journal "Political Theology" (DOI 10.1080/1462317X.2017.1402550). Once this article has been published online, it will be available at the following permanent link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1462317X.2017.1402550 .
Usually focusing on Roman Catholic and Protestant trajectories of thought, political theology seldom takes note of Orthodox Christianity and the politically informed theology and/or theologically informed politics it engenders. In this paper, I will engage certain aspects of Christos Yannaras' contemporary political theology. Yannaras, an academic philosopher, influential Christian Orthodox theologian and public intellectual intervening regularly in Greece's public sphere with his political commentary, does not consider his contribution as being a political theology; in fact, he criticizes the concept as such. However, a consistent, coherent and critical political theology, i.e. a theologically-informed political theory, is clearly visible in many of his works. In this paper, I will focus (a) on his understanding of both the political and the ecclesial element of life and society as emerging from the same mode of existence, (b) on the way in which a political community, when primarily aiming at truth rather than usefulness and efficacy, strives to iconize the Trinity, and (c) on his critique of ideology, while (d) discerning the social and political context in which these ideas first appeared. This will by no means be a comprehensive, even an introductory one, overview of Yannaras' political theology, as some core aspects thereof remain beyond the scope of my paper.
The Jean Monnet Papers on Political Economy 17/2017 The issue of church-state relations in Greec... more The Jean Monnet Papers on Political Economy 17/2017
The issue of church-state relations in Greece and of an eventual fuller separation of church and state resurfaces regularly in Greece’s public discourse; every time this is the case, the issue of clergy wages, which are currently provided by the state i.e. the public sector, is raised as a focal point in this discussion. In spite of the subject’s eminent position in the public sphere, concrete facts concerning its details and their complexity emerge rather rarely, if at all. This working paper attempts to remedy this by providing the existing framework, its history and development, as well as an overview of the legal archipelago on which it stands and of its correlation with the equally issue of church assets. Finally, two different proposals concerning possible future developments on the subject are provided.
The notion of the λόγοι is of primary importance in understanding Maximus the Confessor’s thought... more The notion of the λόγοι is of primary importance in understanding Maximus the Confessor’s thought and his ontology in particular and, quite naturally, there is ample bibliography on the subject. However, it is quite often the case that the relevant secondary literature can be misleading in some points.
In this article, I will attempt to provide the reader with a brief introduction to understanding Maximus’ λόγοι doctrine from a philosophical and at times contemporary (i.e. deliberately anachronistic) perspective, within my limited means of doing so. My aim will be to address (or rather merely hint at) the numerous aspects that together comprise Maximus’ vision of the λόγοι: (a) the uncreated λόγοι as links between creation and the uncreated, (b) the relationship between the λόγοι and the Λόγος as well as the recapitulation of the many in the one Λόγος, (c) the importance of the λόγος of nature for the “according to nature”-“contrary to nature” distinction, (d) the λόγοι as the basis for a dialogical reciprocity between Creator and creatures/humanity, (e) the accomplishment of the contemplation of the λόγοι within asceticism, of the ability to clearly see God’s uncreated wills, utterances and intentions behind and within created beings, (f) the λόγοι as signifying a divine creative act of freedom, not of necessity or predetermination.
This paper explores the possibility of allowing married priests—and not exclusively celibate prie... more This paper explores the possibility of allowing married priests—and not exclusively celibate priests, as is the case today—to be ordained bishops in the (Greek) Orthodox Church, especially in light of future councils of the Orthodox Church, in which such subjects could perhaps be discussed. The paper, approaches the theological , canonical, and historical aspects of this possibility, engaging with the subject not from the perspective of a need for reform, but rather from the viewpoint of a need to return to the Orthodox Church's theological and canonical tradition, which clearly allows for married priests to be candidates for ordination as bishops.
Σύναξη 134 (2015), σσ. 50–60
https://unasancta2019.blogspot.com/ International conference, Syros 10-14 June 2019 This confere... more https://unasancta2019.blogspot.com/
International conference, Syros 10-14 June 2019
This conference will take place in English on the island of Syros in Greece, an island inhabited by a population of roughly 50% Roman Catholics and 50% Eastern Orthodox believers, and is thus unique for the purposes of our inquiry.
This conference will look at the details of the current state of Orthodox–Catholic dialogue, particularly at ecclesiological issues concerning the aftermath of a hypothetical future union or its implementation or/and problems barring us from such a union, particularly in light of Edward Siecienski’s two important contributions: The Papacy and the Orthodox: Sources and History of a Debate (Oxford University Press, 2017) and The Filioque: History of a Doctrinal Controversy (Oxford University Press, 2010). Familiarity with these books, particularly The Papacy and the Orthodox, would be desirable in view of the conference, since our inquiry will strive to build upon the scholarship found therein.
The driving force of the conference is to be able to tackle head-on a number of issues in Orthodox and Catholic relations in a direct and scholarly way that cannot always be the case within the formal and informal context of the official dialogue between the Churches. The core question of the conference is, which Church is the “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church” that we confess to during each liturgy and mass? Is it one of two divided Churches, or the one Church in schism? The conference is convened on the basis of such thoughts, in order to inquire on the state of all relevant questions.
SPEAKERS
Orthodox Perspectives
1. Revd Reader Andreas Andreopoulos (University of Winchester)
2. Revd Dr Dimitrios Bathrellos (Hellenic Open University, IOCS Cambridge & Emory Univ.)
3. Professor George Demacopoulos (Fordham University)
4. Revd Dr Cyril Hovorun (Loyola Marymount University)
5. Professor Christos Karakolis (University of Athens)
6. Revd Professor Nicholas Loudovikos (UEATh, Winchester, IOCS Cambridge,
Orthodox Secretary of the ‘St Irenaeus’ Joint Catholic-Orthodox International Working Group)
7. Revd Professor Andrew Louth (Durham University)
8. Dr Sotiris Mitralexis (University of Athens & University of Winchester)
9. Professor Aristotle Papanikolaou (Fordham University)
10. Professor Edward Siecienski (Stockton University)
11. Dr Dionysios Skliris (University of Athens)
12. Revd Dr Manuel Gonçalves Sumares (Catholic University of Portugal, Braga)
Catholic Perspectives
1. Professor Gerald P Boersma (Ave Maria University)
2. Dr Daniel DeHaan (University of Oxford)
3. Dr Tomasz Dekert (Akademia Ignatianum, Krakow)
4. Revd Professor Adam AJ DeVille (University of Saint Francis, in absentia)
5. Professor Andrew TJ Kaethler (Catholic Pacific College)
6. Professor Norm Klassen (University of Waterloo)
7. Professor Marcello La Matina (University of Macerata)
8. Dr Vika Lebzyak (KU Leuven)
9. Professor Thomas O’Loughlin (University of Nottingham)
10. Dr Marcin Podbielski (Akademia Ignatianum, Krakow)
11. Professor Jared Schumacher (University of Mary)
12. Professor Anna Zhyrkova (Akademia Ignatianum, Krakow)
An Anglican Perspective
The Rt Revd Jonathan Goodall
Bishop of Ebbsfleet and Archbishop of Canterbury’s Representative to the Orthodox Church
A Lutheran Perspective
Revd Dr Johannes Börjesson (University of Cambridge)
A Radical Orthodox Perspective
Professor John Milbank (University of Nottingham)
Organising Committee:
Dr Andreas Andreopoulos — Dr Andrew TJ Kaethler — Dr Sotiris Mitralexis
Polis, Ontology, Ecclesial Event: Engaging with Christos Yannaras' Thought, 27 & 28 March 2017 A... more Polis, Ontology, Ecclesial Event: Engaging with Christos Yannaras' Thought, 27 & 28 March 2017
A Conference on Modern Orthodox Theology
27-28 March 2017
Eastwood Room
(Office of Post-Doctoral Affairs, Univ. of Cambridge, 16 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1RX)
Organising Committee:
Dr Andreas Andreopoulos, Mr Pui Him Ip, Dr Isidoros Katsos, Dr Sotiris Mitralexis, Dr Dionysios Skliris
More information: tinyurl.com/yann17
About the conference:
Professor Christos Yannaras (born 1935 in Athens, Greece) has been proclaimed “one of the most significant Christian philosophers in Europe” (Rowan Williams), “without doubt the most important living Greek Orthodox theologian” (Andrew Louth), “contemporary Greece’s greatest thinker” (Olivier Clément). However, until recently the English-speaking scholar did not have first-hand access to the main bulk of his work: in spite of the relatively early English translation of his The Freedom of Morality (1984), most of his books appeared in English fairly recently—such as Person and Eros (2007), Orthodoxy and the West (2006), Relational Ontology (2011) or The Schism in Philosophy (2015). In this conference, the papers that will be presented shall examine numerous aspects of Yannaras’ contributions to Orthodox theology, philosophy and political science, based on his relational ontology of the person (later popularised in the Anglophone sphere by John Zizioulas). Topics that shall be covered include apophaticism and Yannaras’ appropriation thereof, the patristic grounding of the theology of the person, eros in theology, theological engagements with Martin Heidegger and Ludwig Wittgenstein, the possibility of an Orthodox political theology and contemporary problems in Orthodox theology, the formation and content of a critical and relational ontology, communo-centricism, and many others.
CALL FOR PAPERS
We welcome paper proposals (20mins) on Christos Yannaras’ thought, work and relevance to areas of philosophy, theology, political science and related disciplines. All papers must be presented in English. Please send us the title and a short abstract of your presentation (200-400 words) in English, along with a short CV, until Friday 24 February 2017 via e-mail to sm2267@cam.ac.uk. You will be informed concerning the acceptance of your paper on Sunday 26 February 2017, and you will be asked to submit the registration fee (£30, covering registration, the conference banquet on Monday 27 March, as well as coffee & refreshments) via bank transfer/paypal/Transferwise. Participants must make their own arrangements concerning travel and accommodation in Cambridge (but can book accommodation through the conference at Peterhouse, Cambridge; £52.00 for a Single standard per head, per night and £74.50 per head, per night for an en-suite room).
For all enquiries please contact Dr Sotiris Mitralexis: sm2267@cam.ac.uk
Byzantine Philosophy and Maximus the Confessor / workshop during the 23rd International Congress ... more Byzantine Philosophy and Maximus the Confessor / workshop during the 23rd International Congress of Byzantine Studies
Session 1, Monday
22/8, 15.30
Convener: Sotiris Mitralexis
Emma Brown Dewhurst, How Can We Be Nothing? The Concept of Nonbeing in Athanasius and Maximus the Confessor
Rev. Demetrios Harper, Moral Judgment in Maximus the Confessor
Rev. Nikolaos Loudovikos, Maximus and the Unconscious
Sotiris Mitralexis, Rethinking the Problem of Sexual Difference in Ambiguum 41
Dionysios Skliris, The notions of ἐπικράτεια and ἐγκράτεια in Maximus the Confessor
Fr. Maximos Constas, Translating Quaestiones ad Thalassium: Exegetical, Theological, and Philosophical Aspects
Byzantine Philosophy and Maximus the Confessor, Session 2, Monday 22/8, 18.30
Convener: Sotiris Mitralexis
Nevena Dimitrova, Desire and Practical Part of the Soul according to Maximus the Confessor
Vladimir Cvetković, Ἐπιστρεπτικὴ ἀναφορά and ἀντιστροφή in the Thought of St Maximus the Confessor
Christophe Erismann, Theodore of Raithu and Maximus the Confessor on substance
Zaharia-Sebastian Mateiescu, Δύναμις in Maximus the Confessor. A medical term?
Smilen Markov, The Deconstructive Reception of Origen in Byzantine Philosophy – the strategies of Maximus and Photius
Torstein Theodor Tollefsen, The Unity of Divine Activity according to St Maximus the Confessor
The Fountain and the Flood: Maximos the Confessor and Philosophical Enquiry Workshop at the XVII... more The Fountain and the Flood:
Maximos the Confessor and Philosophical Enquiry
Workshop at the XVII. International Conference on Patristic Studies, University of Oxford
Session 1: Eschatological Ontology and Anthropology
Tuesday 11th August, 16:00 - 18:30
The Philosophical Implications of Maximus the Confessor’s Eschatology
Dionysios Skliris
Personal Threeness, Intra-divine Relationships, or Personal
Consubstantiality? Augustin, Thomas Aquinas and Maximus the
Confessor on the Trinity
Revd Prof Nicholas Loudovikos
The Ontological Ethics of St. Maximus the Confessor
and the Concept of Shame
Revd Dr Demetrios Harper
Session 2: Temporality
Wednesday 12th August, 16:00 - 18:30
On the Origin of Time:
Phenomenology and St. Maximus the Confessor
Revd Prof John Panteleimon Manoussakis
Maximian Spatiotemporality and modern Philosophy of Physics
Dr Sotiris Mitralexis
St. Maximus on Time, Eternity, and Divine Knowledge
Prof David Bradshaw
Session 3: Further ontological implications
Thursday 13th August, 16:00 - 18:30
Maximian Holomerism:
Maximus the Confessor's Philosophy of Whole and Part
Prof Torstein Theodor Tollefsen
The Concept of Delimitation of Creatures in
Maximus the Confessor
Dr Vladimir Cvetkovic
Counting ‘natures':
St Maximus the Confessor on the concept of number
Dr Sebastian Mateiescu
Maximus’ Concept of Will
through the Interpretation of Damascene and Photius
Prof Smilen Markov
Workshop organisation: Dr Sotiris Mitralexis — s.mitralexis@fu-berlin.de
International Conference at the European Cultural Centre of Delphi 29-31 May 2015 in Delphi, Gree... more International Conference at the European Cultural Centre of Delphi
29-31 May 2015 in Delphi, Greece
Ontology and History:
A Challenging and Auspicious Dialogue for Philosophy and Theology
http://ontologyandhistory.wix.com/delphi
This conference will attempt to explore the relationship between ontology and history in the context of both philosophical enquiry and Christian theology. Ontology is the study of being qua being, a field that is typically viewed as distinguishable from––if not also antithetical to––history. However, while the study of being (insofar as it exists) and history may seem unrelated, there is either an explicit or implicit interaction between the two in a number of philosophical traditions; when not explicitly articulated, this implicit interaction emerges as a philosophical problem. And while this is particularly true for various forms of philosophical idealism (e.g. German idealism) and the historicisation of idealism, it emerges as a core problem in the context of Christian theology and its eschatological promise. If the true state of being and beings resides in an eschatological future, not in the present or a distant past (as masterfully expounded by Maximus the Confessor), and if this true state of being and beings is yet to be witnessed, then temporality in general and history in particular become a vital part of ontology proper. This bears immense implications for the philosophical enquiry into ecclesial witness.
Apart from this, a reoccurring challenge within Christianity concerns how we are to make past events present. Rudolf Bultmann tried to make sense of this by elevating word over event. In so doing he formulated an ‘existentialised’ eschatology in which the focus is on the immediate. In current biblical studies there is strong emphasis on making sense of the Resurrection through history, and history is given priority over confession. As a result the ecumenical creeds are denigrated and metaphysical clarification risks being perceived as anti-biblical. In both Catholicism and Orthodoxy there are various construals of anamnesis in which the historical event is made present as a kingdom event through the liturgical experience of the Eucharist. In line with the desire to understand the relationship of the ‘once’ and the ‘always’, there is the challenge of making sense of the particular and the universal. Karl Rahner conflates them: the particular is the universal. Or stepping back in time with Origen, there is the temptation to universalise the particular with salvation. How best can one reconcile the continuity of salvation history and the radical (interruptive) newness of Christ? Political theology, which grew out of a particular account of eschatology, raises the joint concern of how our social histories are legitimated by moral and theological insights about the nature and destiny of the human person. Clearly, the relationship between ontology and history has immense wide-ranging philosophical and theological implications.
Featured Speakers:
John Panteleimon Manoussakis
(Associate Professor of Philosophy – College of the Holy Cross, Boston MA)
Alan J. Torrance
(Professor of Systematic Theology – University of St Andrews)
Christos Yannaras
(Emeritus Professor of Philosophy – Panteion University, Athens)
Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon
(Academy of Athens)
Organised by:
Dr Sotiris Mitralexis (Freie Universität Berlin)
Andrew TJ Kaethler (University of St Andrews)
http://ontologyandhistory.wix.com/delphi
CALL FOR PAPERS
We welcome short paper proposals (presentation duration: 20 minutes) on all areas addressed in the conference's general description and/or in the thematic workshops' abstracts. Prospective participants can EITHER submit an abstract for a short paper addressing a subject pertaining to the general theme of the conference for a non-thematic session OR submit an abstract for a short paper to be included in one of the following thematic workshops/panels. If your paper is aimed at a specific workshop, please do indicate the workshop's title after your abstract. Each participant can present only one short paper, be it in a workshop panel or in a non-thematic panel.
All papers must be presented in English. Please send us the title and a short abstract of your paper (200-400 words) in English, along with a short CV, via e-mail to ontologyandhistory [.at.] gmail.com. The deadline for abstract submissions is Sunday, 15 February 2015. You will be informed concerning the acceptance of your paper on Wednesday, February 18 2015, and you will be asked to submit the registration fee via bank transfer or PayPal.
The full registration fee is 200€ and the student registration fee is 120€. Upon registering, please send us your (1) full name with title, (2) institutional affiliation, (3) e-mail, (4) cellphone number and (5) postal address to ontologyandhistory [.at.] gmail.com with the subject “Registration” by no later than Sunday, 22 February 2015. Subsequently, you will be provided with information concerning the bank transfer of the registration fee.
The registration fee covers registration, hotel accommodation in Delphi for two nights (29-31 May 2015), one dinner (29 May) and one lunch (30 May), bus transport to and from Athens, the coffee breaks throughout the conference, as well as conference material.
VENUE
The conference's venue is the European Cultural Centre of Delphi in Delphi, Greece. Accommodation for 29-31 May 2015 is provided through the registration fee for participants, while a bus transfer from and to Athens will be made available.
maximus2014.eu About: The study of Maximus the Confessor’s thought has flourished in recen... more maximus2014.eu
About: The study of Maximus the Confessor’s thought has flourished in recent years: annual international conferences, publications and articles, new critical editions and translations mark a torrent of interest in the work and influence of the most sublime of the Byzantine Fathers. It has been repeatedly stated that the Confessor’s thought is of eminently philosophical interest, and his work has been approached from a philosophical point of view in a number of monographs. However, no dedicated collective scholarly engagement with Maximus the Confessor as a Philosopher has taken place – and this colloquium will attempt to start such a discussion. Apart from Maximus’ relevance and importance for philosophy in general, a second question arises: should towering figures of Byzantine philosophy like Maximus the Confessor be included in an overview of the European continent’s history of philosophy, or rather excluded from it – as happens today with most histories of European philosophy? Maximus’ historical presence challenges our understanding of what European philosophy is. In this colloquium, we will begin to address these issues and examine numerous aspects of Maximus’ philosophical ‘system’: the logoidoctrine, Maximus’ anthropology and the human will’s freedom, the theory of motion, his understanding of time and space etc. – thereby also stressing the interdisciplinary character of Maximian studies.
Call for Papers
We welcome paper proposals (presentation duration: 20 minutes) on Maximus the Confessor’s thought, work and relevance to any area of Philosophy by scholars in Philosophy, Byzantine Studies, Theology and related disciplines. Papers may examine the relationship of Maximus’ thought to that of other thinkers, but the paper must focus on Maximus the Confessor’s contribution. All papers must be presented in English. Please send us the title and a short abstract of your presentation (200-400 words) in English, along with a short CV, until Sunday, May 11, 2014 via e-mail to maximus2014berlin [ at ] gmail.com. You will be informed concerning your possible acceptance on Monday, May 12, 2014, and you will be asked to submit the registration fee via bank transfer.
Organizing Committee: PD Dr. Sebastian Lalla (Freie Universität Berlin), Sotiris Mitralexis (Freie Universität Berlin), Prof. Dr. Georgios Arabatzis (University of Athens), Prof. Dr. Georgios Steiris (University of Athens). Poster image: detail from George Kordis’ icon “St Maximus the Confessor contemplating the λόγοι of beings“.
This conference will attempt to explore the relationship between ontology and history in the cont... more This conference will attempt to explore the relationship between ontology and history in the context of both philosophical enquiry and Christian theology. Ontology is the study of being qua being, a field that is typically viewed as distinguishable from––if not also antithetical to––history. However, while the study of being (insofar as it exists) and history may seem unrelated, there is either an explicit or implicit interaction between the two in a number of philosophical traditions; when not explicitly articulated, this implicit interaction emerges as a philosophical problem. And while this is particularly true for various forms of philosophical idealism (e.g. German idealism) and the historicisation of idealism, it emerges as a core problem in the context of Christian theology and its eschatological promise. If the true state of being and beings resides in an eschatological future, not in the present or a distant past (as masterfully expounded by Maximus the Confessor), and if this true state of being and beings is yet to be witnessed, then temporality in general and history in particular become a vital part of ontology proper. This bears immense implications for the philosophical enquiry into ecclesial witness.
Apart from this, a reoccurring challenge within Christianity concerns how we are to make past events present. Rudolf Bultmann tried to make sense of this by elevating word over event. In so doing he formulated an ‘existentialised’ eschatology in which the focus is on the immediate. In current biblical studies there is strong emphasis on making sense of the Resurrection through history, and history is given priority over confession. As a result the ecumenical creeds are denigrated and metaphysical clarification risks being perceived as anti-biblical. In both Catholicism and Orthodoxy there are various construals of anamnesis in which the historical event is made present as a kingdom event through the liturgical experience of the Eucharist. In line with the desire to understand the relationship of the ‘once’ and the ‘always’, there is the challenge of making sense of the particular and the universal. Karl Rahner conflates them: the particular is the universal. Or stepping back in time with Origen, there is the temptation to universalise the particular with salvation. How best can one reconcile the continuity of salvation history and the radical (interruptive) newness of Christ? Political theology, which grew out of a particular account of eschatology, raises the joint concern of how our social histories are legitimated by moral and theological insights about the nature and destiny of the human person. Clearly, the relationship between ontology and history has immense wide-ranging philosophical and theological implications.
Forum Philosophicum, 2015
Reviews in Religion & Theology, 2014
Reviews in Religion & Theology, 2014
Reviews in Religion & Theology, 2014
Reviews in Religion & Theology, 2016
Reviews in Religion & Theology
Reviews in Religion & Theology
Review of Ecumenical Studies Sibiu
Vigiliae Christianae, 2019
Review of Maximos the Confessor, On Difficulties in Sacred Scripture; The Responses to Thalassios... more Review of
Maximos the Confessor, On Difficulties in Sacred Scripture; The Responses to Thalassios, intr. & transl. by Maximos Constas (Fathers of the Church Patristic Series 136), Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press 2018, 592 pp., ISBN 978-0813230313, $39.95 (hb).
Vigiliae Christianae 73, no.1 (2019): 109-112
Review, to be published in 'Reviews in Religion and Theology' (RIRT), of: A. Edward Siecienski’s ... more Review, to be published in 'Reviews in Religion and Theology' (RIRT), of:
A. Edward Siecienski’s The Papacy and the Orthodox: Sources and History of a Debate. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
Review in Vigiliae Christianae: Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil The Oxford Handbook of Maximus the... more Review in Vigiliae Christianae: Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil The Oxford Handbook of Maximus the Confessor, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2015, xxviii + 611 pp., ISBN 978-0-19-967383-4, £ 95.00 (hardback with jacket).
Review in The Heythrop Journal, Against Religion: The Alienation of the Ecclesial Event. By Chris... more Review in The Heythrop Journal,
Against Religion: The Alienation of the Ecclesial Event. By Christos Yannaras, translation by Norman Russell. Pp. 217, Brookline MA, Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2013, $19.95.
"Reviews in Religion and Theology", Volume 21, Issue 3, pp. 394-298, Jul 2014
Reviews In Religion & Theology, Vol 21, Issue 1 (January 2014), pp. 156-158
Philosophy and Society , 2021
This collection of thematically organized original studies presents and discusses the notion of g... more This collection of thematically organized original studies presents and discusses the notion of gender in patristics, that is, in the early Christian authors, usually referred to as Fathers of the Church. The Fathers of the Church have not dealt with the notion of gender as different from the notion of sex and for them these two notions were synonymous. Moreover, the patristic authors shared the Christian late antique worldview on gender as a combination of ancient philosophical views on the sexes, of the wisdom of the Old Testament as well as of the new Christian message.
The Greek ancient world has dealt with the one-sex model developed in the history of medicine, beginning with Aristotle and Galen. In the one-sex model the differentiation between the sexes was drawn based on the position of their genitals. It was perceived that men have their genitals outside the body, while women have their genitals inside the body. Thus, female and male were homologues. The difference in the position of genitals of male and female inspired Aristotle to define the difference between men and women in terms of deprivation or lack. Thus, according to Aristotle due to lacking the possibility for rational and active action, that was allegedly man’s attribute, the woman was considered to be a lesser man. The differentiation between men and women led to their separation and it served for the denial or restriction of women’s rights in society.
The Old Testament’s message was quite different. The account of the creation of the human being from the Book of Genesis stated that God created humankind ‘in his own image’ (Gen. 1: 26-27), and that God created them as ‘male and female’ (Gen. 1: 27), and as ‘man and woman’ (Gen. 2: 23). This ac- count indicates the natural equality of men and women, and the consequence of this natural equality of men and women is their reliance to each other, ex- pressed through marriage and family.
The New Testament not only repeats the message of the Old Testament with regards to equality and interdependence, but it affirms it as an historical fact. By interpreting the Old Testament message, Jesus Christ reminded Pharisees that God created humanity from the beginning as male and female in order for two to become one (Matt. 19: 4-6). Jesus’ message was not confined to marital life, but to the broader strata of the Jewish society. The biblical fables of the Samaritan woman, whom Jesus Christ asks for drink (John 4: 1-26) and of the Canaanite woman, who begged Jesus to heal her daughter (Matt. 15:21–28), point to the multi-faceted oppression of women in ancient Israel, as well as to the liberating capacity of the new Christian religion. However, these stories reveal the traditional hierarchal order of Jewish society and Jesus’ role as emancipator of women discriminated on gender and ethnic grounds, but also that these acts of liberation of discriminated women led to the trans- formation of both the privileged and discriminated. The new religion brings a transformative impact to the relationship between Jews and Gentiles or be- tween apostles and neophytes as oppositions confined to these times, as well as to the general oppositions between chastity and adultery, lord and servant, man and woman and finally, God and human being.
These two authorities that are behind the writing of the Church Fathers, namely the ancient philosophical tradition and the Judeo-Christian religious belief, were often contrasted, as it is in regard to the question of the status of women in the ancient society. Although it is very common to describe early Christian authors in patriarchal terms, they were quite critical of the autocrat- ic authority exercised by patres familias in the Greco-Roman world. However, this does not mean that the Church Fathers were always free from the stereo- types that existed in the world of late antiquity.
The four articles gathered here together within the topic ‘Patristics and Gender’ go beyond the time of Jesus Christ and his apostles and they cover the period from the second to the the seventh century. The articles also go beyond the topic of Christian marriage, dealing either with strategies for the symbol- ic construction of women or with the question of the status of the sexual and gender differences in the human primordial state as well as in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The article of Vladimir Cvetković is an overview of how the patristic authors in three different periods addressed the issue of gender. Cvetković argues that in the first pre-Constantinian period of Christian Church characterized by frequent persecutions of Christians, the imperative for both male and female martyrs was to behave ‘manly’ at the moment of their violent death, as it is described in the accounts of these prosecutions known as martyrologies. The second period, which Cvetković analyzes, pertains to the fourth century when the Christian Church gained freedom and the way to witness Christian faith is displayed no longer through martyrdom but through ascetic life. By relying on the account of Macrina the Younger, Cvetković demonstrates how virginity as the highest Christian norm proliferated new gender roles for women. Finally, Cvetković maintains that authors such as Dionysius the Areopagate and Maximus the Confessor developed the model of erotic attraction between loving persons by which one person learns how to die for himself and to live for another person.
The point of departure of Maria Munkholt Christensen’s article is the Socratic ideal of practicing death already in this life. Munkholt Christensen applies the Socratic ideal to Christian women from the fourth and the fifth centuries, who reconciled in their philosophy the Platonic body-soul dichotomy and longing for transcendence with the Christian message of sacrifice. The author points to three different strategies of associating classical with Christian philosophy: replacing ancient philosophy with Christian, or particularly biblical tradition, like in the Life of Macrina; integrating elements of Platonic wisdom into the overall biblical world-view, like in the Life of Marcella; and inserting the Platonic heritage into Christian literature without pointing to Platonic sources, like in the Life of Syncletica. Finally, Munkholt Christensen argues that three Christian women – Macrina, Marcella and Syncletica – are united in their attitude towards gender and death. They freed their own souls from a life defined by their female sex and they were passionless and fearless on the brink of death.
The articles of Sotiris Mitralexis and Emma Brown Dewhurst are complementary, because their readings of the seventh-century Byzantine author Maximus the Confessor go into the same direction of interpreting sexual and gender differences as nonessential human properties.
Sotiris Mitralexis points to an ambiguity in Maximus the Confessor’s Ambiguum 41 as to whether the distinction of the sexes was intended by God or whether it is a product of the Fall. Mitralexis argues that according to Maximus’ own exposition the properties of being male or female are not included in the human logos, meaning that they were not originally properties of hu- man nature. As the sexual differences were not included in the original plan they will be also according to Mitralexis omitted in the eschatological state. Mitralexis points that Maximus’ stance about the genderless logos of humanity is interpreted nowadays in several directions: as unusual but fully compatible with the patristic mainstream, as advocating marriage between a man and a woman, and as endorsing gender fluidity, transgenderism and same-sex relationships. Although for Mitralexis the looking for a solution for the nowadays gender issues at a seventh-century author is anachronistic, also the literal readings of Maximus’ text that overlooks its potential implications for today’s world would be erroneous.
The final article of Emma Brown Dewhurst is also focused on Maximus the Confessor’s Ambiguum 41. Similarly to Mitralexis, Brown Dewhurst characterizes properties of being a male or a female as not intrinsic to original human nature, but rather being the modes of existence, introduced to human nature after the Fall, as means of reproduction. Brown Dewhurst further argues that in spite of the usefulness of this mode of existence in the present age, it will be removed in the eschaton, because the physical reproduction would not occur in the future age. However, Brown Dewhurst went further than other Maximian scholars in claiming that the differences between sexes will not only be removed in a metaphorical manner, but that this removal will also include the elimination of bodily sexual characteristics. Brown Dewhurst identifies the sexual differences and division with human gnomic and proairetic wills, as well as with the passions, that were introduced into human life as the consequence of the Fall, but also as instruments to bring people into line with a holy way of living.