Konferenz: Politics, Society and Culture in Orthodox Theology in a Global Age

The Conference is organized by the Faculty of Evangelical Theology of Münster University, and the Volos Academy for Theological Studies, in cooperation with the Huffington Ecumenical Institute (California)

February 6-9, 2020 Thessalia Conference Center, Volos, Greece

Free entrance, please send mail to


THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2010
18.00-18.30 Registration

Session I
18.30-18.45 Opening – Greetings
18.45-19.00 Dr. Hans-Peter Grosshans, Dean, Faculty of Evangelical Theology, Münster University, Opening Remarks
19.00-19.30 Dr. Vasilios N. Makrides, Professor, Erfurt University, Orthodox Christianity in the Context of Postcolonial Studies
19.30-20.00 Dr. Atanas Slavov, Professor of Constitutional Law, Sofia University, Parliamentary/Constitutional Tradition and Orthodox Spirit
20.00-20.30 Discussion 20.30 Dinner

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2020
Session II
09.00-09.30 Rev. Dr. Filotheos-Fotios Maroudas, Advisory Board Member at Applied Philosophy Research Laboratory, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Priest of the St. Apostles Greek Orthodox Parish, Dortmund (Germany), The Theologico-political Model of Byzantine “Symphonia”
09.30-10.00 Dr. Alfons Brüning, Institute for Eastern Christian Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, Chair of “Orthodoxy and Peace Studies,” Free University and the Protestant Theological University in Amsterdam, The Czarist model in Imperial Russia
10.00-10.30 Dr. Ina Merdjanova, Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College, Dublin, Orthodoxy under Pressure: Ottoman, Communist and Post-Communist Contexts
10.30-11.30 Discussion
11.30-12.00 Coffee-break

Session III
12.00-12.30 Dr. Nathan Wood, Deputy Director, Orthodox Christian Studies Center, Fordham University, New York, Orthodoxy and Democracy in Russian Religious Philosophy
12.30-13.00 Branko Seculic, PhD (ABD), Faculty of Evangelical Theology, Münich University, Orthodoxy and Democracy in Serbian Theology and Thought
13.00-13.30 Dr. Lucian Turcescu, Professor, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, Orthodoxy and Democracy in Romanian Theology
13.30-14.30 Discussion
14.30-16.00 Lunch

Session IV
16.00-16.30 Dr. Dimitrios Moschos, Associate Professor, Faculty of Theology, Athens University, Orthodoxy and Democracy in Contemporary Greek Theology
16.30-17.00 Fadi Nasr, Secretary General, Orthodox Youth Movement of the Patriarchate of Antioch (MJO), Beirut, Lebanon Orthodoxy and Democracy in Antiochean Theology and Thought
17.00-17.30 Rev. Dr. K. M. George, Director of the Sopana Orthodox Academy in Kottayam, Kerala, India, Orthodoxy and Democracy in Oriental Orthodox Thought
17.30-18.30 Discussion
18.30-19.00 Coffee-break

Session V
19.00-19.30 Dr. Svetoslav Riboloff, Professor, Faculty of Theology, Sofia University, Church and State in the Orthodox World: Accommodation model, Established Church model, Separation model, and the Challenges of the Global Age
19.30-20.00 Rev. Dr. Cyril Hovorun, Assistant Professor, Marymount Loyola University, and Director, Huffington Ecumenical Institute, California, Political Orthodoxy
20.00-20.30 Discussion
20.30 Dinner

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2020
Session VI
09.30-10.00 Georgios Vlantis, MTh, Director, Council of Christian Churches in Bavaria, and Research Associate, Volos Academy for Theological Studies Orthodox Theology and Modernity/Postmodernity, Secularization/Post-Secularization
10.00-10.30 Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis, Director, Volos Academy for Theological Studies; Lecturer, Hellenic Open University and the University of Thessaly; Research Fellow; KU Leuven; Member of the Executive Committee, European Academy of Religion, Balkan and Eastern European Ethno-theology: Historical and Theological Approach
10.30-11.00 Discussion
11.00-11.30 Coffee-break

Session VII
11.30-12.00 Dr. Haralambos Ventis, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Theology, Athens University, Orthodoxy and liberalism
12.00-12.30 Dr. Effie Fokas, Senior Research Fellow, Hellenic Foundation for Hellenic and European Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and Research Associate, Hellenic Observatory, London School of Economics, Orthodoxy and Human Rights
12.30-13.00 Dr. Irena Zeltner Pavlovic, Research Fellow, Erlangen-Nürnberg University, Civil Society and Orthodoxy
13.00-13.30 Discussion
13.30-15.00 Lunch

Session VIII
15.00-15.30 Dr. Nikolaos Asproulis, Deputy Director, Volos Academy for Theological Studies, and Lecturer, Hellenic Open University, Primacy, Synodality and Liberal Democracy in Orthodoxy: An Uneasy Relationship?
15.30-16.00 Dr. Katerina Bauer, Researcher, Protestant Faculty of Theology, Charles University, Prague, Orthodox Spirituality in Pluralistic Democracies
16.00-16.30 Discussion
16.30-17.00 Coffee-break

Session IX
17.00-17.30 Dr. Athanasios N. Papathanasiou, Editor-in-Chief, journal Synaxi, and Lecturer, Higher Ecclesiastical Academy of Athens, Orthodox Mission and Politics
17.30-18.00 Dr. Chris Durante, Assistant Professor of Theology, Saint Peter’s University, NJ, and Fellow of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics & Human Rights in Rome, Orthodoxy and Multiculturalism
18.00-19.00 Discussion and Plenary
19.30 Dinner

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2020
Divine Liturgy at the Church of St. Constantine and Helene Breakfast, and End of the Conference