3rd Annual Symposium in Honor of Fr Georges Florovsky

Princeton University & Princeton Theological Seminary are organizing the Third Annual Symposium in Honor of Father Georges Florovsky, “What is the Bible? The Patristic Doctrine of Scripture”.

Now in its third year, the “Florovsky Symposium” is known for combining churchly piety with high-level scholarly inquiry. It attracts a large and diverse cohort of established scholars, clergy, graduate students, seminarians, and Christian believers from around the country and the world.

The purpose of this year’s symposium is to re-open a consideration of the doctrine of Scripture for contemporary theology, rooted in the tradition of the Church Fathers (Greek, Latin, and Oriental), an endeavor inspired by the theological vision of the 20th century’s foremost Orthodox Christian theologian, Fr. Georges Florovsky. That is: our interest is not in mere description of historical uses of Scripture or interpretive methods, but rather in the very nature of Scripture itself and its place within the whole economy of creation, revelation, and salvation. The symposium is organized by the Fr. Georges Florovsky Orthodox Christian Theological Society at Princeton University and the School of Christian Vocation and Mission at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Featured Speakers

Archbishop Demetrios (Ph.D., Harvard), Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America. He has had a long and distinguished career in ministry and academia. He is the recipient of numerous degrees, earned and honorary, and the author of 7 books and 100s of articles. His lecture will focus on St. John Chrysostom.

Fr. John McGuckin (Ph.D., Durham), Professor in Late Antique and Byzantine Christian History at Union Theological Seminary, as well as a Professor of Byzantine Christian Studies at Columbia University. Some of Fr. John’s 23 books and many articles examine the thought of Origen, about whom he will be speaking.

Dr. Kathleen McVey (Ph.D., Harvard), Joseph Ross Stevenson Professor of Church History at Princeton Theological Seminary. The author of many publications and a noted scholar of Syriac Christianity, she will lecture on the doctrine of Scripture in St. Ephrem the Syrian.

Dr. Michael Legaspi (Ph.D., Harvard), Instructor in Philosophy & Religious Studies at Phillips Academy. He received the 2011 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise for his book, The Death of Scripture and the Rise of Biblical Studies. He will lecture on related matters.

Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon,pastor of All Saints Orthodox Church in Chicago and holds graduate degrees from St. Anselm’s College and the Pontifical Biblical Institute, both in Rome. Fr. Pat is an engaging speaker and prolific author, having published 7 books and well over 1000 articles. He will offer the public lecture on Friday night.

Dr. Paul M. Blowers (Ph.D., Notre Dame), Dean E. Walker Professor of Church History at Emmanuel Christian Seminary. He is the author and editor of many publications, especially in the field of patristic hermeneutics and St. Maximus the Confessor, about which he will be speaking.

Dr. George L. Parsenios (Ph.D., Yale), Associate Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. His teaching and publications include work on the interpretation of the New Testament in the early church. He will moderate the closing panel discussion.

Sessions will be as follows:

“It is Time for the Lord to Act”: Timefulness (not Timelessness) as an Orthodox Approach to the Scriptures
Edith Mary Humphrey, Ph.D., William F. Orr Professor of Scripture, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Eriugena on Scripture
Alfred K. Siewers, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English, Bucknell University

Spiritual Limitations of the Written Word: Contextualizing Scriptural Hermeneutics
Peter Schadler, D.Phil. (Oxon.)

Why Reading Joel 3 in Light of Acts 2 Doubles Theodore’s Focus and Halves Jerome’s
Josephine Dru, Ph.D. Candidate, Theology, Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity, University of Notre Dame

Reality and Biblical Interpretation: T. F. Torrance’s Retrieval of Patristic Hermeneutics
John Taylor Carr, Ph.D. Student, Theology, Boston College

Room 1: Ante-Nicene
Clement of Alexandria and the Canon of Tradition
Daniel L. Worden, Ph.D. Candidate, Theology, University of St Andrews, Scotland

Early Patristic Reception of Acts
Justin A. Mihoc, Ph.D. Candidate, Theology, Durham University, England

Room 2: Origen
Reading Origen Allegorically
David Newheiser, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Chicago; Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theology, Bucknell University

The Glory of God and the Face of Scripture: Understanding Origen’s Esteem of the ‘Literal’
Cara Jean Aspesi, Ph.D. Student, Theology, University of Notre Dame

Room 3: Liturgical
Iconic and Sacramental Features of Ancient Christian Readings of Scripture
Bruce Beck, Th.D., Director, Pappas Patristics Institute, Brookline, MA

The Interpretation of the Old Testament in St. Justin Martyr and Orthodox Liturgical Worship
K. Andrew Temple, M.Div.

Room 4: St. Gregory Nazianzus and St. Anastasius the Sinaite
The Word of God as Inspiration & Guide for Religious Life: St. Gregory Nazianzus and a Doctrine of Scripture
Nicholas Groves, Ph.D., Director, Joe Buley Memorial Library, New Gracanica (Serbian) Diocese

Paradigm of Ecstatic Experience: Sacred Text and Its Performative Exegesis in Anastasius the Sinaite’s Homily On the Transfiguration
Bogdan Bucur, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Theology, Duquesne University

Room 5: St. John Chrysostom
The Old Testament in St. John Chrysostom’s Thought
V. Rev. Fr. Harry Pappas, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Theology, St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary

The Scriptural Basis for the Church’s Existence in the Old Testament according to St. John Chrysostom
V. Rev. Fr. Gus George Christo, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Patristics, St. Sophia Ukrainian Orthodox Seminary

Room 6: St. Augustine of Hippo
Augustine’s Views on the Authority of the Bible and the Church
Gavril Andreicut, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Theology and Church History, Elmhurst College

Augustine’s Tractatus 1 In Evangelium Ioannis and the Confection of Scripture
Rev. Clifton Stringer, M.Div., Pastor of Lakehills United Methodist Church, Lakehills, Texas

Room 7: St. Maximus the Confessor
The Pedagogy of the Sensible: The Place of the ‘Written Law’ in the Thought of St. Maximus the Confessor
Fr. Demetrios Harper, Ph.D. Candidate, Theology, University of Winchester

Maximus Confessor on the Incarnation and Christ’s Surrogate Moms
Jeremy David Wallace, Ph.D. Candidate, Historical Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary

Room 8: Florovsky & Staniloae
The Bible as Heilsgeschichte: The Basic Axis and Scope of Georges Florovsky’s Neo-Patristic Synthesis
Nikolaos Asproulis, Ph.D. Candidate, Hellenic Open University, Volos Academy for Theological Studies

The Biblical Nature of the Church and the Ecclesial Nature of the Bible: An Analysis of Dumitru Staniloae’s Ecclesiology
Fr. Radu Bordeianu, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Theology, Duquesne University

For more details, see: http://www.princeton.edu/~florov/patristic_symposium.html