7th International Colloquium on St. Maximus the Confessor
“Maximus the Confessor: The Salvation of Nature”
Faculty of Philosophy & Speculum Byzantinum, University of Warsaw
Dobra Street 72 & Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28, Warsaw

PROGRAM

Monday, April 27, 2026 – Faculty of “Artes Liberales” Dobra Street 72

14.00 – 15:00 Registration

15.00 Opening of the conference (bp prof. Michał Janocha and to be confirmed)

  • Claudio Moreschini (Pisa, Italy), Human nature before and after the fall

16:30 – 17:00 coffee break

17:00 – 18:40 Session 1 (Chair: Torstein Theodor Tollefsen)

  • Georgios Siskos (Thessaloniki, Greece), Simultaneous creation and fall in St Maximus the Confessor? The antecedent interpretation in Theodore of Mopsuestia
  • Sebastian Mateiescu (Bern, Switzerland), Two trees in Paradise – St Maximus the Confessor on the primordial state of human being
  • Aleksandar Djakovac (Belgrade, Serbia), Universalism and Particularity Revisited: A Maximian Ontological Perspective
  • Daniel Heide (Belgrade, Serbia), The Transformation of Monē: St Maximus’ Christian Doctrine of Procession and Return
  • Nikolaos Loudovikos (Ioannina, Greece), Maximus’ Dialogical nature, Intermeaningfulness, and D.B.Hart’s Monistic Christology
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 – Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, Dobra Street 72

9:00 – 10:40 Session 2 (Chair: Ivan Christov )

  • Lyuba Stefanova (Sofia, Bulgaria), Maximus the Confessor: On the salvation and the favorable holiday of the human souls
  • Panagiotis G. Pavlos (Oslo, Norway), On Essential and Gnomic Aptitude:Opposition or Synergy in the Movement Toward Deification?
  • Nikolai Liapunov (Cambridge, UK), Aspects of Theosis in Maximus the Confessor
  • Alex Leonas (Budapest, Hungary), The early history of natural contemplation
  • Tomasz Stępień (Warsaw, Poland), The Living Cosmos Transformed: Pseudo-Dionysius and the Christian Reception of Neoplatonic Cosmology

10:40 – 11:10 coffee break

11:10 – 12:30 Session 3 (Chair: Aleksandar Djakovac)

  • Sotiris Mitralexis (Athens, Greece), Notes on Mystagogia chapter 5: From νοῦς to λόγος and beyond
  • Sea Yun Joung (Cambridge, UK), Logoi in the Epistolary Salutations and Valedictions of St Maximus the Confessor
  • Vladimir Cvetković (Belgrade, Serbia), Circles of Salvation: Geometrical Analogy and the Redemption of Nature in Maximus the Confessor
  • Karolina Kochańczyk-Bonińska (Warsaw, Poland), Four elements in Nemesius of Emesa and Maximus the Confessor

12:40 – 14.45 lunch break

14:45 – 16:25 Session 4 (Chair: Daniel Heide)
Old University Library, Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28 room 107

  • Torstein Theodor Tollefsen (Olso, Norway), St Maximus on the Natural and the Written Law?
  • Oskari Juurikkala (Rome, Italy), Maximus the Confessor on the Natural Law in Amb. 10
  • Paul M. Blowers (Milligan, TN, USA), Exploring the Dialectics of Nature and “Graced” Nature in Maximus
  • Thomas Cattoi (Rome, Italy), Intermediary or obstacle? The ambiguous character of natural contemplation in Maximos the Confessor’s Epistle 9 and Quaestiones ad Thalassium 61
  • Andrew Jackson (Cambridge, UK), Towards a Maximian philosophy of nature and evolutionary theodicy

16:25 – 16:50 coffee break

16:50 – 18:30 Session 5 (Chair: Sebastian Mateiescu)
Old University Library, Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28 room 107

  • Paul L. Gavrilyuk (St Paul, MN, USA), Ambigua 7 and a ‘natural desire for the supernatural end’: Maximus the Confessor and Henri de Lubac in Dialogue
  • Dionysios Skliris (Athens, Greece), The eschatological cosmology of Saint Maximus the Confessor
  • Thomas S. Drobena (Worcester, MA, USA), Pivotal Priesthood: The Human as Animal-lover and Mediator in Maximus the Confessor
  • Bogna Kosmulska (Warsaw, Poland), Garments as Metaphors of Natures in Maximus the Confessor’s Ad Thalassium 4, Ad Thalassium 12, and Ambiguum 10
  • Marta Przyszychowska (Pego, Spain), Maximus the Confessor’s interpretation of the Gregory of Nyssa’s concept of apokatastasis

19:00 Dinner at the Casimir Palace
(Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28)

20:30 Coffee and wine at the residence of Bishop Michał Janocha
(Miodowa St. 17/19, Warszawa)

Wednesday, April 29, 2026 – Faculty of “Artes Liberales”Dobra Street 72

9:00 – 10:40 Session 6 (Chair: Alex Leonas)

  • Katherine Painter (Oxford, UK) Remembrance and Restoration: Purifying Memory in SS Maximus the Confessor and Isaac of Nineveh
  • Milan Đorđević (Skopje, North Macedonia), The Reception of Maximus the Confessor in Nicholas Cabasilas’ De Vita in Christo’
  • Antoni Źrebiec (Warsaw, Poland), Christ and Nature as Symbols. The Similarities in Approaches of Maximus the Confessor and Hugh of Saint Victor
  • Vitali Michalczuk (Warsaw, Poland), The Entelechy of the Cosmos. The Altar in the Mystagogy of Maximus the Confessor and Byzantine Rites of Temple Consecration
  • Marius Portaru (Rome, Italy), Disability and Biblical Exegesis in Maximus the Confessor

11:15 – 11:45 coffee break

11:45 – 12:45 Session 7 (Chair: Vladimir Cvetković)

  • Ambrose Inlow (Syracuse, NY, USA), Mental Health According to St. Maximos the Confessor. The Deification of the Natural Rational and Noetic Powers of the Soul
  • Ivan Christov (Sofia, Bułgaria), Maximus the Confessor on the Dualism of Manichaeans and Massalians as a Challenge for the Orthodox Theology of Revelation
  • Jan Wojciechowski (Warsaw, Poland); Rorik Hrothgar (Toronto, Canada), Salvation of nature as healing the desire. Maximus’ and Buddhist account of salvation seen in context of active and passive principles of creation

12:45 – 13:15 Conference Closing lecture: Pascal Mueller-Jourdan (Angers, France), Geometrical Words and Schemes of the Cosmology of Maximus the Confessor

13:15-13:30 Conference Closing

14:15 – 15:30 Visiting the Faras Gallery at the National Museum with prof. Aleksandra Sulikowska-Bełczowska (Aleje Jerozolimskie 3, Warsaw)

16:00 – Museum of Icons in Warsaw
(Chapel of St. Gregory Peradze, Lelechowska St. 3, Warsaw)

Diner

18:00
Doxology: Father Henryk Paprocki (Lelechowska Orthodox Parish Priest)
Concert: Men’s Orthodox Church Music Ensemble “Katapetasma” (conductor: Łukasz Hajduczenia)

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