6th International Colloquium on St. Maximus the Confessor
Theme: “Maximus the Confessor and the Mystery of Divine Revelation”
Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade
Karoli Gaspar University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Budapest
International Centre for Orthodox Studies, Niš
PROGRAM
Sunday, 27 April, 2025.
16.30 Guided Tour of the Memorial Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Krušedolska 2a
18.00 Opening of the conference: Gazela Pudar Draško, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Alex Leonas, Karoli Gaspar University and Dragiša Bojović, International Centre for Orthodox Studies, Vladimir Cvetković, University of Belgrade
18.15 Opening lectures: Paul Blowers (Emmanuel Christian Seminary, Milligan University), Maximus and the Much-Debated Sensus Litteralis of Scripture in Patristic Exegetical Usage
19.00 Torstein T. Tollefsen (University of Oslo), St Maximus on how to ‘read’ the created world properly
20.00 Dinner
Monday, 28 April, 2025, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Kraljice Natalije 45, 4th floor
9.00 – 10.40: Session 1: (Chair: Vladimir Cvetković)
- Alex Leonas (Karoli Gaspar University), Maximus and Philo on Revelation: Influence or Inspiration?
- Katherine Painter (University of Oxford), Maximus the Confessor on the Lord’s Prayer as Divine Self-Revelation
- Daniel Heide (University of Belgrade), The Mystery Hidden From the Ages: Paul, Proclus and the Ecclesial Cosmology of St Maximus Confessor.
- Dionysios Skliris (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), The world as text in the thought of Saint Maximus the Confessor
10.40 – 11.10 Coffee break
11.10 – 13.15 Session 2 (Chair: Daniel Heide)
- Thomas Cattoi (Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Rome), Using images against their nature: conceptual imagination and inner vigilance Maximos the Confessor’s Centuries on Charity
- Paraskevi Zacharia (Radboud University, Nijmegen), The triadic model of praxis [πρᾶξις], contemplation of nature, and mystical theology in Maximus’ Capita de Caritate and Ambiguum 41
- Paul L. Gavrilyuk (University of St. Thomas, St Paul), Maximus the Confessor and the Logic of the Exchange Formula
- Sea Yun Pius Joung (University of Cambridge), Incarnational Desire in Maximus the Confessor’s Epistle 8
- Georgi Kapriev (Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski), Kataphasis, Apophasis, Apophaticism, and Theology in St. Maximus the Confessor
13.15 – 15.00 Lunch break
15.00 – 17.05: Session 3 (Chair: Alex Leonas)
- Claudio Morseschini (University of Pisa), Gregory of Nazianzus as the Theologian of the Will
- Sotiris Mitralexis (University College London), From Practice to Theory: Nous and Passions in Motion through Maximus the Confessor’ Chapters on Love
- Marius Portaru (Patristic Institute Augustinianum, Rome), Will Bodily or Neurological Impairments Be Preserved After the General Resurrection? Maximus the Confessor and Divine Self-Revelation within the Disabled
- Kevin M. Clarke (Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit), Patristics as Scripture: Divinely Inspired Speech of Gregory, Dionysius, and other Approved Fathers
17.05 – 17.35 Coffee break
17.35 – 19.15 Session 4 (Chair: Fr Aleksandar Djakovac)
- Márk Besztercei (ELTE BTK, Budapest), Divine revelation in action – The traces of Maximian exegesis and interpretation of patristic texts in the Acts of the Lateran Council (649)
- Lyubomira Stefanova (Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski), Memory in the teachings of St. Maximus the Confessor as a means of perfecting the mind on the path of its spiritual ascent to God.
- Fr Milan Djordjević (University of Skopje), Speaking of the Inexpressible: St. Maximus the Confessor and the Problem of Discursive Articulation of Mystical Knowledge
- Fr Michael Bakker (Radboud University, Nijmegen), The polemics of the passions: Ascetic psychology in Q.Thal
20.00 Dinner
Tuesday, 29 April, 2025, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Kraljice Natalije 45, 4th floor
9.00 – 11.05: Session 5 (Chair: Panagiotis Pavlos)
- Fr Ivan Bodrožić and Maja Rončević (University of Split), The Virgin Mary as the Foundation of Virginity According to Saint Maximus Confessor
- Thomas S. Drobena (Assumption University, Worcester, Massachusetts), Abraham’s Philanthropia and the Vision of God in Maximus the Confessor
- Sebastian Mateiescu (TU Delft),The male-female distinction in Maximus the Confessor: what type of difference is this?
- Fr Oskari Juurikkala (Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome), Maximus the Confessor on Revealing by Concealing: Adapting to Our Thick Minds
11.05-11.30 Coffee break
11.30 – 13.30 Session 6 (Chair: Milesa Stefanović Banović)
- Panagiotis Pavlos (University of Oslo), Beyond Affirmations and Negations: The Liturgical Foundation of Divine Revelation in St. Maximus’s Mystagogia
- Luis Sales (Scripps College, CA, USA), It Signifies the Finite Specifics of Infinite Difference Infinitely Deferred: Hypostasis as Kataphatic and Apophatic Theophanic Medium in Maximos the Confessor
- Fr. Jan Wojciechowski (Warsaw) The theological thought of Maximus the Confessor as an aid in assessing the plausibility of adapting the practice of mindfulness to Christian spirituality
- Karolina Kochańczyk-Bonińska (Nicolaus Copernicus Superior School, College of Philosophy and Theology in Cracow), The Role of Images and Symbols in Maximus’s Mystagogy
- Fr Alexandru Atanase Barna (University of Bucharest), The Gnoseological Function of σύμβολον in St. Maximus the Confessor’s Mystagogy
13.30 – 15.00 Lunch break
15.00 – 16.40: Session 7 (Chair: Fr Milan Djordjević)
- Mikonja Knežević (The Institute of Ethnography of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts), The Usage of Maximus the Confessor in the Filioque Controversy of the 14th Century
- Mihailo Milenković (University of Belgrade) St. Maximus the Confessor’s Legacy: Diverging Interpretations by Gregory Palamas and Gregory Akindynos
- Justin Smith (University of Notre Dame), St. Maximos the Mediator? A Closer Examination into His Role at the Council of Ferrara-Florence
- Milesa Stefanović Banović (The Institute of Ethnography of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts), Pseudo-Maximus the Confessor’s orations on the Feast of the Annunciation, as Translated and Adapted by Gavril Stefanović Venclović
16.40 – 17.00 Coffee break
17.00 – 18.40 Session 8 (Chair: Mikonja Knežević)
- Miguel Gallés Magri, (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Maximus in Orthodox iconography. Men’s will in an antique icon of the Circumcision of our Lord in a Barcelona private collection.
- Bogna Kosmulska (University of Warsaw), Realized Eschatology in Maximus the Confessor and Jerzy Klinger
- Petros N. Toulis (University of Thessaloniki), “The Logos extended through the centuries” Maximian terminology in the Ecclesiology of St. Justin Popović
Wednesday, 30 April, 2025
8.00 – 18.00 Excursion (Optional)