Speakers

International Conference on St. Maximus the Confessor

The Architecture of the Cosmos

Helsinki, September 2nd - 4th 2013

Speakers at the Conference

On this page, you will find a short biographical note on each of the speakers at the St. Maximus Conference in alphabetical order.

For information about the programme,
please go to our Programme page.

Pauli Annala

Dr. Pauli Annala is University Lecturer in Systematic Theology (Dogmatics) at the Theological Faculty of Helsinki University, where his teaching focuses particularly on Patristic and Medieval theology. Annala is an expert in Timaios tradition and he was the co-director of the Finnish Academy Project “Symbol, Metaphor and Apophasis in Judaism, Christianity and Islam” (2005-2007).

Grigory Benevich

Dr. Grigory Benevich is Asssociate Professor of Church History and Doctrine at the Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities, St. Petersburg. In 2011 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at Princeton University in the Program in Hellenic Studies, working on the theme “Maximus the Confessor at the crossroads of philosophical and theological thought in Late Antiquity”.

Benevich is an editor and author of an introduction and commentaries of the Russian translation of Maximus the Confessor's Quaestiones et Dubia (Moscow-Athos 2010) as well as an editor and the author of the introduction of the Anthology of Eastern Christian Theological Thought: Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy (St. Petersburg 2009).

Christian Boudignon

Dr Christian Boudignon is Lecturer of classics at Aix-Marseille University and Paul-Albert Février Research Center (CNRS).

He has published the critical edition of Maximus the Confessor's Mystagogia (Corpus Christianorum Series Graeca 69, Turnhout-Leuven, 2011). He has written several papers on the history of Christianity in late Antiquity, especially on Maximus the Confessor's biography and thought, Sophronius, Abu Qurra, e Doctrina Jacobi...

Vladimir Cvetković

Dr Vladimir Cvetković is Adjunct Lecturer in Orthodox theology at the Department of Systematic Theology, University of Aarhus. After studies at the Universities of St. Andrews and Oslo, in 2007 he defended his thesis on The teaching of time in the works of St. Gregory of Nyssa and St Maximus the Confessor at the University of Belgrade.

His research interests are in Patristics, especially Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor, and in modern Orthodox theology. He has published articles on Patristic and Orthodox tradition in English, Serbian, Bulgarian, Greek, Romanian and French, and is preparing a book on Maximus’ usage of Neoplatonic philosophical concepts.

Peter Van Deun

Prof. Peter Van Deun is Full Professor (Ordinarius) of Byzantine Studies at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and President of the Sub-Faculty "Language and Region Studies" (Formerly Oriental and Greek Studies). He is also chief editor of the Corpus Christianorum Series Graeca and of the Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, and a member of the editorial board of several international journals such as Byzantion, Sacris Erudiri, The Journal of Eastern Christian Studies and Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique. Currently he is working on critical text editions of Greek Fathers and Byzantine authors including Maximus the Confessor.

Christophe Erismann

Prof. Christophe Erismann is SNSF Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the University of Lausanne, where he leads a research project devoted to the Aristotelian category of relative, with emphasis on the early medieval inquiry about relations.

After a PhD thesis on The genesis and constitution of early medieval realism about universals, he has held research positions at the Warburg Institute (University of London), at the University of Cambridge and at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. His publications include L’homme commun. La genèse du réalisme ontologique durant le haut Moyen âge (Paris, Vrin, 2011) and several articles on the problems of essence, universals and individuation during Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

Simo Knuuttila

Prof. Simo Knuuttila is Academy Professor in the Academy of Finland (1994-) and Professor of Theological Ethics and the Philosophy of Religion at the Department of Systematic Theology, University of Helsinki. He has published several works on the history of logic, semantics and the philosophy of mind. He is the managing editor of the New Synthese Historical Library, member of the editorial boards of many series and journals and chair of the committee for the Finnish translation of Aristotle's works.'

Antoine Lévy

Prof. Antoine Lévy OP is Professor at the University of Eastern Finland (School of Theology). He completed his theological studies in 2002 at Fribourg with a PhD on the roots of the Palamite controversy. His monograph Le créé et l'incréé: Maxime le Confesseur et Thomas d'Aquin: aux sources de la querelle palamienne was published in 2006 (Bibliothèque Thomiste 59, Paris).

In 2004 Levy was appointed Director of the Helsinki Studium Catholicum, and since 2007 he has also taught theology as a docent at Helsinki University. He has published articles in French, English and Finnish on a variety of subjects including Patristics, Medieval theology, Orthodox spirituality, Russian political philosophy, and Messianic Judaism.

Nikolaos Loudovikos

V. Rev. Nicholas Loudovikos is Professor of Dogmatics and President of the University Ecclesiastical Academy of Thessaloniki, Greece, Ηonorary Research Fellow at the Univ. of Winchester, Visiting Prof. at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge.

His recent books include: A Eucharistic Gnosiology, Armos, Athens, forthcoming; Striving for Participation: Being and Methexis in Gregory Palamas and Thomas Aquinas, Armos, Athens 2010; The Terrors of the Person and the Ordeals of Love: Critical Meditations for a Postmodern Theological Ontology, Armos, Athens 2009; Theopoiia: Postmodern theological Aporia, Armos, Athens 2007; Orthodoxy and Modernization: Byzantine Individualization, State and History in the Perspective of the European Future, Armos, Athens 2006; Psychoanalysis and Orthodox Theology: on Desire, Catholicity and Eschatology, Armos Athens 2004; A Theological History of Ancient Greek Philosophy, Pournaras, Thessaloniki 2003; An Apophatic Ecclesiology of Consubstantiality, Armos, Athens 2002; Closed Spirituality and the Meaning of the Self: Christian Mysticism of Power and the Truth of Personhood and Nature, Ellinika Grammata, Athens 1999. (in Greek). In English: A Eucharistic Ontology: Maximus the Confessor’s Eschatological Ontology of Being as Dialogical Reciprocity, Holy Cross Press, Brookline Mass., 2010

Pascal Mueller-Jourdan

Pascal Mueller-Jourdan holds Doctoral degree in Theology Fribourg, Switzerland, 2003) and obtained the Habilitation in the Philosophy of the Antiquity (Fribourg, 2010). He is currently Professor in Ancient Philosophy at the Catholic University of the West (Angers, France). He has published extensively on the Philosophy and the Theology of Late Antiquity and Byzantium : (2005) Typologie spatio-temporelle de l’ecclesia byzantine. La Mystagogie de Maxime le Confesseur dans la culture philosophique de l’Antiquité tardive, Leiden-Boston, Brill ; (2007) Une initiation à la philosophie de l’Antiquité tardive. Les leçons du Pseudo-Elias, Paris, Cerf, Vestigia ; (2011) Gloses et commentaire du livre XI du Contra Proclum de Jean Philopon. Autour de la Matière première du monde, Leiden-Boston, Brill.

Alexei Nesteruk

Prof. Alexei Nesteruk received a Ph.D. in theoretical and mathematical physics from St. Petersburg State Technical University in 1983. Dr. Nesteruk has been teaching as a senior lecturer in mathematics at the University of Portsmouth since 1994. He was also a visiting lecturer at the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge. He is a Visiting Professor at St Andrew's Theological Institute in Moscow. Nesteruk has published numerous articles in mathematical physics, osmology, philosophy of science and theology, including: Light from the East: Theology, Science, and the Eastern Orthodox Tradition (Minneapolis, 2003), The Universe as Communion: Towards a Neo-Patristic Synthesis of Theology and Science (T&T Clark, 2012).

Ana Palanciuc

After Masters degrees in History of Art and in Philosophy, Ana Palanciuc finished a doctoral thesis on Natural Philosophy and Cosmology in Maximus Confessor’s Ambigua. Her research and teaching at the University Paris-VII focus on Late Antiquity philosophy and cosmological representations in Byzantine Art. She has published The Cosmographia of Bernardus Silvestris (Iassi 2010), articles on Patristic, Medieval Philosophy and Byzantine Art, and she is currently preparing for publication two monographs: Maximus Confessor’s Ambigua reconsidered and The Reversed Perspective in Byzantine Art.

István Perczel

István Perczel is Professor in the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest. He studies the Christian East from many angles, that of the history of philosophy and theology, of social and political history, and of Greek and Syriac literacy and of manuscript studies. He has extensively worked on the Pseudo-Dionysian Corpus, on Sergius of Reshayna’s Syriac translation thereof, pagan and Christian Neoplatonism, Byzantine heresy, Symeon the New Theologian and Syriac Christianity in India. He has also worked on archives preservation, both digital and material, in India.

Perczel is co-editor of The Eucharist in Theology and Philosophy: Issues of Doctrinal History in East And West from the Patristic Age to the Reformation (Leuven 2005) and is just in the process of completing a monograph entitled «Origénistes» ou «théosophes»? Histoire doctrinale et politique d’un mouvement des Ve-VIe siècles.

Valery V. Petroff

Dr. Valery Petroff is head of the Department for Ancient and Mediaeval Philosophy and Science at the Institute of Philosophy (Moscow). He was a visiting professor in Boston College (1999) and associate professor at Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (2010). His research focuses on the reception and transformation of ancient philosophical tradition in Christian theology. He published essays and translations pertaining to Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus, Origen, Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor, John Scottus Eriugena and others (about 130 in total). He is the author of two books (in Russian):
— John Scottus Eriugena. Homily on the Prologue to St John’s Gospel. Introduction, Russian translation and notes by Valery V. Petroff (Moscow: Museum Graeco-Latinum, 1995);
— Maximus the Confessor: Ontology and Method in the 7th Century Byzantine Philosophy (Moscow: Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2007).

Torstein T. Tollefsen

Prof. Torstein T. Tollefsen is Professor in Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas at the University of Oslo. His area of specialization is late antique and early Byzantine Christian philosophy, especially doctrines of creation, cosmology, Trinitarian theology, and icon-theology. He is the author of the books The Christocentric Cosmology of St. Maximus the
Confessor (Oxford 2008), and Activity and Participation in Late Antiquity and Early Christian Thought (Oxford 2012).