Dr Clemena Antonova
Dr Clemena Antonova is a Research Associate of IOCS. After defending her DPhil at Oxford University, Clemena held a number of research fellowships: at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Edinburgh, the Royal Academy of Belgium, the Institute for the Human Sciences in Vienna, and the Morphomata International Centre at the University of Cologne. Her book, Space, Time, and Presence in the Icon: Seeing the World with the Eyes of God (Ashgate, UK, 2010) was meant as a contribution to the field of “theology through the arts.” Her articles have been published in established journals, such as Sobornost, Slavonica, Leonardo, Cithara, etc. Clemena’s research deals with aspects of Eastern Orthodox theology and Russian religious philosophy with a focus on the Russian thinker Pavel Florensky (1883-1937) and his critique of the icon.
Revd Dr Demetrios Bathrellos
Revd Dr Demetrios Bathrellos is a Visiting Professor and Distance Learning Tutor for the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies. Father Demetrios received his doctorate in Systematic Theology from Kingís College, London and is the author of The Byzantine Christ: Person, Nature and Will in the Christology of St. Maximus the Confessor (Oxford: OUP, 2004).
Revd Dr John Binns
Revd Dr John Binns is a Visiting Professor of the Institute and Vicar of Great St Mary’s the University Church Cambridge. He is an Anglican priest with a long commitment to building understanding between churches of east and west. He studied at the Serbian Orthodox Theological Faculty at Belgrade (1972); and was awarded a PhD degree by Kings College London for his thesis on Cyril of Scythopolis (1986). He has been Chair of Trustees of the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius, and was a founding director of the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies. His publications include Ascetics and Ambassadors of Christ, the Monasteries of Palestine 314-631 (OUP 1994) and An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches (CUP 2002). As Visiting Professor he is initiating a research programme on Ethiopian Christianity.
Revd Dr Boniface Timothy Carroll
Revd Dr Boniface Timothy Carroll is a Visiting Professor of the Institute and Principal Research Fellow in Anthropology at Unversity College London. His work focuses on the lived practices of Orthodox Christianity, the material culture of the Church, and the interplay between theology, ethics, and the bodily and physical aspects of human experience. He is currently the Principal Investigator of a UKRI-funded project on ‘Orthodox Christian Material Ecology and the Sociopolitics of Religion’, based at UCL Anthropology, and the Founding Director of the Centre for Anthropology and Ethnography of Orthodoxy. His is the author of Orthodox Christian Material Culture: Of People and Things in the Making of Heaven (2018) and A Return to the Object: Alfred Gell, Art and Social Theory (with S.Kuechler 2020). He has published widely on art and aesthetics, the relation of theology to ethnography, and the role of material within the liturgical and ethical practices of Orthodox Christianity.
Revd Dr John Jillions
Revd Dr John Jillions is a Visiting Professor of IOCS. Father John was the first Principal of IOCS (1997-2003) and one of the founders of our Institute, while also being associated, at the time, with Tyndale House, Cambridge for his doctoral research (which he was conducting at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and which he completed in 2002). While in Cambridge, he lectured extensively for IOCS, the Cambridge Theological Federation and the Divinity Faculty. In subsequent years he activated as Associate Professor for the University of Ottawa (at the Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies) and for St Vladimir’s Seminary in New York. Father John also acted as Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America, between 2011-2018. He is currently associated with the Faculty of Theology, at Fordham University. He is also currently Vice-President of the Orthodox Theological Society in America and a Member of the Editorial Board of the Religions journal. His latest book, Divine Guidance: Lessons for Today from the World of Early Christianity appeared this year (2020) at Oxford University Press.
His research interests include: divine guidance, delusion, division and discernment; the intersection of faith and human experience; ecumenical theology; the other as enemy; faith and political life; “nones and dones”; the Orthodox Church in American history.
Dr Katherine Kelaidis
Katherine Kelaidis is a Research Associate of IOCS. She is the Director of Research and Content at the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago, IL and a Senior Editor at Religion Dispatches. She is also on the editorial board of The Wheel. Her work focuses on Orthodox Christian identity in the diaspora and the intersection of religion, culture, and politics. She received her B.A. in Classical Languages from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Classics from Royal Holloway College, University of London.
Revd Dr Christopher Knight
Revd Dr Christopher Knight is an Associate Lecturer of the Institute. Fr. Christopher is the parish priest of the Church of the Holy Transfiguration, Great Walsingham, Norfolk, and works as the Executive Secretary of the International Society for Science and Religion. His main theological interest is in the relationship between theology and the sciences, on which he has written numerous papers and two books in the Fortress Press’s “Theology and the Sciences” series: “Wrestling With the Divine: Religion, Science, and Revelation” (2001) and “The God of Nature: Incarnation and Contemporary Science” (2007, also available in a Romanian translation published by Curtea Veche in 2009). These books were aimed mainly at a Western Christian audience, but his recently published book ‘Science and the Orthodox Christian: A Guide for the Perplexed’ is addressed to a predominantly Orthodox audience.
Dr Ralph Lee
Ralph Lee is a Research Associate of the Institute. He grew up in the UK, and originally trained in Chemical Engineering at Cambridge. He has spent most of his working life in Ethiopia, initially teaching Chemical Engineering, he returned to the UK to study for an MA in African and Asian Christianity at SOAS University of London, followed by doctoral studies on Symbolic Interpretations in Ethiopic and Ephremic Literature, which examined parallels between the symbolic interpretations of the Ark of the Covenant and the Cross in these two traditions. Following this he taught for 6 years at the Holy Trinity Theological College of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Addis Ababa, returning to the UK in 2014, he now teaches Eastern and Orthodox Christianity courses at SOAS, and is involved in research on the book of 1Enoch at the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich. Recent and pending publications include translations of commentaries on 1Enoch, and Ethiopian homilies that refer to 1Enoch. He chairs the Ethiopic Bible and Literature Program Unit of the Society of Biblical Literature, through which he is involved on research on the textual history of the Ethiopic Old Testament, and which has had a very fruitful partnership with the Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts Program unit, particularly focussing on ascetic texts. He lives in Cambridge with his wife Sarah, and two children.
Research interests:
Classical Ethiopic (Ge’ez) Literature, particularly bible commentary and homilies; and Ethiopic biblical traditions, in particular the textual history of the Ethiopic Old Testament.
Amharic Bible commentary, and the Ethiopian Andemta commentary tradition.
The Syriac Christian tradition, and Syriac literature, in particular the works of Ephrem and Jacob of Serugh.
More broadly ancient Bible commentary, and its use in particular traditions.
1Enoch and related literature and its interpretation within Christian traditions
Christianity in the contemporary world, in particular: the relationship between Orthodox and other Christian expressions, in particular Protestant/Evangelical traditions; and Orthodox Christianity in post-Communist countries.
Language instruction: Classical Ethiopic (Ge’ez), Syriac.
Prof Alexander Lingas
Alexander Lingas is a Professor of Music at City, University of London and founding Musical Director of the vocal ensemble Cappella Romana. He received his Ph.D. in Historical Musicology from the University of British Columbia and has studied theology and patristics at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary and, as the recipient of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship, at the University of Oxford. A Fellow of the University of Oxford’s European Humanities Research Centre for over two decades (1997–2021), his awards include Fulbright and Onassis grants for musical studies with cantor Lycourgos Angelopoulos, the British Academy’s Thank-Offering to Britain Fellowship, research leave supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the St. Romanos the Melodist medallion of the National Forum for Greek Orthodox Church Musicians (USA), and the Cross of Moldavia (Metropolis of Moldavia and Bucovina). His present work embraces historical study, ethnography, and performance. In 2018 His All-Holiness, Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, bestowed on him the title of Archon Mousikodidaskalos.
Revd Prof Nikolaos Loudovikos
Revd Prof Nikolaos Loudovikos is a Visiting Professor of the Institute. Father Nikolaos is President of the University Ecclesiastical Academy of Thessaloniki, for which he also teaches Systematic Theology, and a Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Winchester. In addition to his numerous scholarly publications, he is known through frequent contributions in newspapers and appearances in radio and television programmes. His most recent publications include ‘The strive for participation: Thomas Aquinas and Gregory Palamas’ (forthcoming); ‘A eucharistic ontology: Maximus The Confessor’s eschatological ontology of being as dialogical reciprocity’ (2010); ‘The terrors of the person and the ordeals of love: critical thoughts for a postmodern theological ontology’ (2009); ‘Theopoiia: postmodern theological aporia’ (2006); ‘Orthodoxy and modernization: Byzantine individualization, state and history in the perspective of the European future’ (2006).
Revd Prof Andrew Louth
Revd Prof Andrew Louth is a Visiting Professor of IOCS. He is an Emeritus Professor of Patristic and Byzantine Studies with the Durham University. Father Andrew has also taught in Oxford University (patristics, and early Christian theology) and in Goldsmiths College in the University of London (Byzantine and early Medieval history). Father Andrew studied at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh and taught courses on the history and theology of the Christian Church.
Dr Danut Manastireanu
Danut Manastireanu is a Research Associate of IOCS. He is a Romanian Anglican theologian and holds a PhD in theology from Brunel University London, UK, with a thesis titled A Perichoretic Model of the Church. The Trinitarian Ecclesiology of Dumitru Staniloae, published in 2012 by Lambert, in Saarbrucken, Germany. He taught theology and spirituality at: Eastern University in St. Davids, Penn., US; Emanuel University in Oradea, Cluj University and Oradea University, in Romania; the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek, Croatia; and the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, Czech Republic. He served for sixteen years as Director for Faith & Development for the Middle East and the Eastern Europe Region of World Vision International. He is retired now and lives, with his family, in Glasgow, where he continues to do research, write, and mentor younger theologians. His theological interests include contemporary Orthodox theology, ecclesiology, Trinitarianism, theology of culture, etc. He has been involved for over thirty years in promoting dialogue and cooperation between Evangelicals and the Orthodox in Romania and beyond. He is a member of the Board of Lausanne-Orthodox Initiative.
Dr Sotiris Mitralexis
Dr Sotiris Mitralexis is a Visiting Professor at IOCS Cambridge, as well as a Research Fellow at the University of Winchester’s Department of Theology, Religion, and Philosophy. Dr Mitralexis holds a doctorate in philosophy from the Freie Universität Berlin, a doctorate in theology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, a doctorate in political science and international relations from the University of the Peloponnese, and a degree in classics from the University of Athens. He has been Seeger Fellow at Princeton University, Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge, Visiting Senior Research Associate at Peterhouse, Cambridge, Visiting Fellow at the University of Erfurt, Teaching Fellow at the University of Athens and Bogazici University, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Istanbul Sehir University, and the recipient of the 2021 IOCS Sabbatical Fellowship. His publications include the monographs Ever-Moving Repose: A Contemporary Reading of Maximus the Confessor’s Theory of Time (Cascade, 2017 and James Clarke & Co, 2018) and Church-State Relations (in Greek, Armos 2019) and, inter alia, the edited volumes Maximus the Confessor as a European Philosopher (Cascade, 2017), Polis, Ontology, Ecclesial Event (James Clarke & Co, 2018), Between Being and Time (Fortress, 2019, co-edited with Andrew Kaethler) and Slavoj Žižek and Christianity (Routledge, 2019), while his forthcoming publications include Mapping the Una Sancta: Eastern and Western Ecclesiology in the 21st Century (Winchester University Press, co-edited with Andrew Kaethler) and Subversive Orthodoxies, a monograph on 20th-century Orthodox political theology and political philosophy of religion in Greece. Dr Mitralexis is accepting applications from prospective PhD students.
Dr Marcus Plested
Dr Marcus Plested, MA M.Phil D.Phil (Oxford) is a Visiting Professor of the Institute. He is currently an Associate Professor of Greek Patristic and Byzantine Theology at Marquette University, US. Dr Plested was schooled in London and went on to read Modern History followed by Theology at Merton College, Oxford. He took his doctorate from Oxford in 1999 with a thesis on the Macarian Homilies supervised by Bishop Kallistos (Ware). He has been at the Institute since 2000. Dr Plested has taught, lectured, and published widely in the field of Orthodox Christian studies. His most recent book is The Macarian Legacy: The Place of Macarius-Symeon in the Eastern Christian Tradition (Oxford: OUP 2004). Other research interests include the understanding of wisdom in the Christian tradition and the interaction between western and eastern theological traditions. He was received into the Orthodox Church in 1992.
Dr Elizabeth Theokritoff
Dr Theokritoff is an Associate Lecturer of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies and Chairwoman of the UK branch of Friends of IOCS, now living in Cambridge. She studied at Somerville and Wolfson Colleges, Oxford, and earned a doctorate in liturgical theology under the supervision of Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia. From 1983 to 1990 she served as Associate Secretary and then General Secretary of the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius; since 1990, she has been an independent scholar and theological translator from Modern Greek. She taught liturgical theology for a semester at Holy Cross Orthodox School of Theology (Brookline, MA) and has served several times as a visiting lecturer at IOCS. She has had a particular interest in ‘theological ecology’ since 1988-9, when she served as visiting Orthodox Tutor at the Ecumenical Institute, Bossey, Switzerland, for the Graduate School on ‘Justice, peace and the integrity of creation’. Since then, she has given numerous conference presentations, lectures or workshops on aspects of Orthodoxy and ecology.
Elizabeth Theokritoff is co-editor of the Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology and author of Living in God’s Creation: Orthodox Perspectives on Ecology (St Vladimir’s Seminary Press), as well as numerous articles and book chapters on Orthodoxy and ecology and liturgical theology. Her research interests also include Orthodox theology and science and questions of language and translation.