We are pleased to announce the launch of an international Reading Group on Eastern Christianity in Interfaith Contexts which will explore this diverse topic, including its interfaith contexts.
Eastern Christianity has always had a wide geographical spread, and today it is represented on all five continents. Its rich spiritual traditions are transmitted in many different languages and take on various forms, in some cases shaped by different cultural backgrounds.
One of the main aims of the Reading Group will be to explore, utilizing selected readings, aspects of the religious thought of Eastern Christianity, infused with mysticism and martyrdom, together with the variety of its ancient church traditions.
The Group will meet once a month via Zoom for an hour to discuss a specific theme related to Eastern Christianity. An invited speaker would introduce and read a short text circulated previously to those who had registered for that session. An open discussion will follow the presentation.
The Reading Group is open to anyone, and we invite you to register your initial interest below.
International Interfaith Advisory Board
Professor Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Director of Program in Early Cultures; the Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence and the Willard Prescott and Annie McClelland Smith Professor of History and Religion, Brown University, USA
Professor Sebastian Brock FBA, University of Oxford, UK
Revd Nevsky Everett, Chaplain of Keble College, University of Oxford, UK
Dr. Christine Mangala Frost, Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, University of Cambridge, UK
Professor Erin Galgay Walsh, Divinity School, University of Chicago, USA
Professor Tamara Grdzelidze, Ilia State University, Georgia
Fr Dragos Herescu, Principal of Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, University of Cambridge, UK
Revd Dr. Robert Kitchen, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
The Very Revd Archpriest Professor Andrew Louth FBA, Emeritus Professor of Patristic and Byzantine studies, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, UK
Professor Aristotle Papanikolaou, Archbishop Demetrios Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture, Orthodox Christian Studies Centre, Fordham University, USA
Professor Theo Maarten van Lint, Calouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies, University of Oxford, UK
Gallery of Events
- Signs of Miraculousness: The Inimitability of Jacob of Serugh’s Teaching according to the Metrical Biography by Saʿīd Bar Sabunī (11th c)
- Enoch and the Fallen Angels in the Ethiopian Tradition
- Narsai on the Virgin Mary
- An Anonymous Syriac Dialogue between Mary and the Angel
- Dadisho of Qatar: Questioning the Desert Fathers
- Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras: an Orthodox Dialogue with Islam
- George the Athonite on matters of Faith and Rite, According to the Life of St George the Hagiorite
- Temple, Shekhinah and Prayer in Isaac of Nineveh’s III.VIII
- St. Ephrem’s Commentary on Genesis Ch.3
- Alexander Schmemann on Theotokos vis-à-vis Kali a Hindu Mother Goddess
- The Opening Prayers of Saint Gregory of Narek’s Book of Lamentations
- Commemorating the saints at Turfan: Mart Shir and Mar Barshabba
- Jacob of Sarug on the Canaanite Woman (Mt 15:21-28, Mk 7:24-30): Biblical Storytelling and Models of Faith
- The Paterik of the Kyivan Caves Monastery: Monk Polikarp in Discourse 14
- Sarah and the Akedah: a Syriac Narrative Poem on Genesis 22
- Matta el-Meskin/Matthew the Poor (1919-2006): a ‘Contemporary Desert Father’ on Christian Unity
- Epistolary Style in Coptic Letters from the Late Third Century to the Early Fifth Century
