On Thursday afternoon, Bishop Maxim and I headed down to Volos for the four-day International Theological Conference entitled "Neo-Patristic Synthesis or Post-Patristic Theology: Can Orthodox Theology Be Contextual?" For brief reports in English, check out the Volos Academy's website here.
The conference focused a great deal on the person of Fr. Georges Florovsky and his ideas of both a "Neo-Patristic Synthesis" and "Christian Hellenism." Essentially, the question was whether Christianity can be conceived outside of a Hellenistic matrix and be reformulated to a different context today.
We, and several Serbian students from the University of Belgrade, were privileged to stay at the home of Metropolitan Ignatios (of Volos). On Friday morning, the Metropolitan gave us a brief tour after breakfast and before heading over to the conference center. Here we are with a view down on the city and the bay.
Bishop Maxim was asked to serve as the moderator for one of the sessions on Friday -- the session, in fact, in which Metropolitan John Zizioulas first arrived. In the photo above, you can see the Metropolitan with Metropolitan Ignatios on the left, and Bishop Maxim on the dais on the right.
One of the highlights of the conference was Metropolitan John's talk on Saturday morning.
Bishop Maxim with Metropolitan John, Pantelis Kalaitzidis (the director of the Volos Academy), Fr. John Behr of St. Vladimir's, and others at lunch on Saturday. Here, they were all asking Metropolitan John to recount stories about his experiences with Fr. Florovsky (he was a student of Florovsky at Harvard).
Above and below, more photos from Metropolitan Ignatios' house.
A group photo at the end of the conference.
A photo of the audience, that includes me in the forefront, that appeared on a Greek website which covered the conference in detail.
7 comments:
Hey, Father, in the group photo, who is the priest with the long beard & plain pectoral cross wearing the skoufi with the design around it?
Looks like it was a lot of fun. I get so envious seeing you at all these Orthodox conferences!
It's Fr. Andrew Louth, who delivered a paper in the same session with Zizioulas.
Father,
Thanks for your posting. Do you know if the sessions were recorded and how one could get them if they were (audio or video)?
Elias -
All the sessions were streamed live over the internet and recorded. There's a desire to publish a DVD at some point, but the staff is very limited, so I wouldn't expect it any time soon (perhaps 1 year?).
Thank you Father.
Elias-
Father,
Have you had any new information as to the conference of last year at Volos? Thanks for letting me know.
Elias -
Hi Elias,
Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything yet. I'll ask around and see what's happening with that.
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