SPECIAL Wed. Oct. 27th NO VESPERS-- TWU event Fr. John Behr

PLEASE NOTE: for this date only, Oct. 27th, our Wednesday daily vespers will be CANCELLED to enable us to attend this free event with St. Vlad's professor Fr. John Behr at Trinity Western University.  Fr. John has agreed to spend a little time with us afterward, likely at the Dublin Crossing-- details to be confirmed on the day. 

Map & Directions to TWU

The Very Rev. John Behr, Professor of Patristics, St. Vladimir’s Seminary in New York 

WED. OCT. 27^TH AT 7:30 P.M. 

IN THE NW AUDITORIUM AT TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY

 SPONSORED BY THE CANADA RESEARCH CHAIR IN INTERPRETATION, RELIGION AND CULTURE

AND BY THE RELIGIOUS STUDIES DEPARTMENT AT TWU.

“Orthodox Christianity as Paideia: Faith, Reason, and Culture in the Early Church.”

Fr. John Behr is the Dean of St Vladimir’s Seminary and Professor of Patristics, teaching courses in patristics, dogmatics and scriptural exegesis at the seminary, and also at Fordham University, where he is the Distinguished Lecturer in Patristics. Fr. John hails from England, though his family background is Russian and German - and clerical on both sides.

After completing his first degree in Philosophy in London in 1987, Fr. John spent a year studying in Greece. He finished an M.Phil. in Eastern Christian Studies at Oxford University, under Bishop Kallistos (Ware), who subsequently supervised his doctoral work, which was examined by Fr. Andrew Louth and Rowan Williams, now Archbishop of Canterbury. While working on his doctorate, he was invited to be a Visiting Lecturer at St Vladimir’s Seminary in 1993, where he has been a permanent faculty member since 1995, tenured in 2000, and ordained in 2001. Before becoming Dean in 2007, he served as the editor of St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, and he still edits the Popular Patristics Series for SVS Press.

His early work was on issues of asceticism and anthropology, focusing on St. Irenaeus of Lyons and Clement of Alexandria. After spending almost a decade in the second century, Fr John began the publication of a series on the Formation of Christian Theology, and has now reached the fifth and sixth centuries. He has recently completed an edition and translation of, and introduction to, the remaining texts of Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia. He has also published a synthetic presentation of the theology of the early centuries, focused on the mystery of Christ.

Fr. Behr is the author of the following books which will be available for purchase at the lecture:

• The Mystery of Christ: Life in Death (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 2006). 186 pp.
• The Nicene Faith, vol. 2 of The Formation of Christian Theology (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 2004). 2 vols in paper; single hardcover volume 580 pp.
• The Way to Nicaea, vol. 1 of The Formation of Christian Theology (Crestwood: SVS Press, 2001). 261 pp