A major international conference on “St Gregory Palamas: The Theological and Philosophical Significance of his work” will take place at the University Ecclesiastical Academy of Thessaloniki from 7-15 March 2012.
The conference is organized by the University Ecclesiastical Academy of Thessaloniki in association with the Patriarchal Institute of Patristic Studies in Thessalonica (at the Holy Monastery of Vlatadon), the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (Cambridge, UK), the Holy Metropolis of Thessaloniki, and the Friends of Mount Athos (UK-USA), as well as other Orthodox Christian Institutions and organizations in the Hellenic Republic.
The Conference will focus on the important contributions of St Gregory Palamas to theological and philosophical debates from the 14th century till the present.
The programme of speakers and their presentations is as follows.
Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia: “The Human Person according to St Gregory Palamas”;
Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos: “St Gregory Palamas as the one who expresses the Life of the Fathers of Holy Mount Athos”;
Hieromonk Melchisedec (Monastery of St John the Baptist, Essex): “The Indisputable Wisdom of the Holy Spirit: St Gregory Palamas and St Silouan the Athonite”;
Fr Theophanes (Kafsokalyvia, Mount Athos): “Remarks on the Evolution of the Hesychastic Method”;
Dr. Clemena Antonova (Vienna): “Hesychast Influences on Russian Religious Philosophy”;
Dr. Constantinos Athanasopoulos (IOCS): “Being Good, Knowing Good, Doing Good: St Gregory Palamas and False Dilemmas in Contemporary Metaphysics, Epistemology and Ethics”;
Professor Roy Clouser (New Jersey, USA): “Ontology Without Substance: A Calvinist Development of Palamas’ Rejection of the Concept of Substance”;
Dr Christine-Mangala Frost (IOCS): “The difference between Yoga and the Hesychastic tradition that St Gregory Palamas defended”;
Dr Stavros Giagkazoglou: “Eucharist and Ascesis: Eucharistic and Therapeutic Ecclesiology in the Theology of St Gregory Palamas”;
Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis (Volos Ecclesiastical Academy): “Fr John Meyendorff and Fr John Romanides: Two Opposite Interpretations of Palamism and their Impact on Contemporary Orthodox Theology”;
Professor Fr Nikolaos Loudovikos (Thessaloniki): “St Gregory Palamas and St Maximos the Confessor”;
Professor Georgios Mantzarides: to be announced;
Professor Georgios Martzelos (Thessaloniki): “Holy Spirit as ‘Eros Aporritos’ between Father and Son in St Gregory Palamas”;
Professor John Milbank (Nottingham): to be announced;
Dr Ezekiel Olagoke (USA): “Gregory Palamas and African Religious Resurgence: A Case for Essential Dialog”;
Dr Norman Russell: “The Christological context of Palamas’s approach to participation in God”;
Dr. Christoph Schneider (IOCS): “The Palamite Roots of Pavel A. Florensky’s Philosophy of Language”;
Professor Richard Swinburne (Oxford): “Gregory Palamas and our knowledge of God”;
Professor Manuel Summares (Braga, Portugal): “The Theotokos as Mystical Theologian: Ontological Issues arising from Palamas’ Sermons on the Mother of God;
Conference participants will be able to visit monasteries associated with St Gregory Palamas in Thessaloniki, Veroia and Mount Athos, with an alternative programme for women. All sessions will be simultaneously translated in English and Greek.