International Conference

INDIVIDUAL AND COMMUNITY
IN THE WAKE OF THE PUBLIC DISCOURSE OF THE CHURCH
IN ORTHODOX THEOLOGY

May 11–14, 2023

“Thessalia” Conference Center

Melissatika, Volos, Greece

An international Conference on the topic “Individual and Community in the Wake of the Public Discourse of the Church in Orthodox Theology” will be held in the “Thessalia” Conference Center, Melissatika, Volos, Greece, between May 11 and 14, 2023. The Conference is organized by the Volos Academy for Theological Studies and the Protestant Faculty of Theology, Münster University, in cooperation with the Cluster of Excellence “Politics and Religion” of Münster University. It is a follow-up of the Conference organized by the same institutions in Volos, February 6-9, 2020, on the topic “Politics, Society and Culture in Orthodox Theology in a Global Age,” whose proceedings have been published as a book by Brill/Schüoningh, and are accessible at https://brill.com/edcollbook-oa/title/62117/ (Open Access).

The May 2023 conference intends to shed new light on the place of the individual in the Orthodox tradition and theology, its relationship to the community, the communal understanding of the Church and the theology of personhood, as well as issues related to this problématique, such as the weak position of civil society in predominantly Orthodox countries, the questions of pluralism and human rights.

The list of confirmed speakers is as follows:

Dr. José Casanova (Professor Emeritus, Georgetown University), The Dialectics of Individual and Community and the Shaping of Christian Traditions

Dr. Christos Karakolis (Professor of New Testament, Athens University, Member of the Board of Directors of Volos Academy), Of Shepherds and Sheep: Leadership, Individuality, and Togetherness according to the Fourth Gospel’s Imagery

Dr. Aikaterini Tsalampouni (Professor of New Testament, Thessaloniki University, Member of the Board of Directors of Volos Academy), The Marginal Impact of Biblical Studies in Contemporary Greek Orthodox Theology and why it Matters the Discussion on Individual and Community

Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis (Director, Volos Academy for Theological Studies), Individual and Community in Trinitarian Theology and Eucharistic Ecclesiology

Dr. Hans-Peter Grosshans (Professor of the Systematic Theology, Director of the Institute of Ecumenical Theology, Faculty of Protestant Theology, Münster University), The individual person and the church in Protestant perspective

Dr. Nikolaos Asproulis (Deputy Director of Volos Academy, Lecturer at the Hellenic Open University), Western Self and Eastern Personhood: Foes, Strangers or Companions? With Reference to the Church Fathers and Contemporary Theologians

Dr. Dimitrios Moschos (Professor of Church History, Head of the Department of Theology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), The Place of the Religious “Other” in the Byzantine Zelotic Thinking and the Modern Greek Fundamentalist Groups: A “Self-made” Tradition

Dr. Katharina Kunter (Professor of Church History, University of Helsinki), Individual and Community in Lutheran Tradition

Dr. Elisabeth Gräb-Schmidt (Professor at the Institute for Ethics, Protestant Faculty of Theology, Tübingen University), Individual and Community in Ecumenical Perspective with a Special Reference to Orthodox Theology

Dr. Lidiya Lozova (Post-Doctoral Researcher, Exeter University), Individual and Community in the Document “For the Life of the World,” and its Contribution to the Democratic Process in Ukraine

Dr. Regina Elsner (Center for East European and International Studies ZOiS), Community and Individual in Russian Orthodox Tradition

Dr. Assaad Elias Kattan (Professor of Orthodox Theology, Münster University), Individual and Community in the Christian Communities of Middle East

Georgios Vlantis, MTh (Director of the Council of Christian Churches in Bavaria, Research Associate of Volos Academy), Synod vs. Community? Reconciliation Processes and Receptive Ecumenism in Current Orthodoxy

Rev. Dr. Vassileios Thermos (Professor at the University Ecclesiastical Academy of Athens, Psychiatrist of Children and Adolescents), Dialectics between person and church community in the context of contemporary civil society

Admission to the Conference is free upon communication with the Volos Academy Secretariat (Mrs. Valila Giannoutaki, MTh, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

The language of the Conference will be English; there will be no interpretation into Greek.

Poster artwork by Kateryna Kosianenko.