Theological Radicalism in a Time of Political Revolution

2024 Saints Cyril and Methodius Lecture given by The Very Rev. Professor John Anthony McGuckin.

Introduction by Academic Dean Fr. Christiaan Kappes 00:00:00
Lecture Begins 00:05:13
Question and Answer Period 00:49:46

This lecture looks at one of the most dramatic and important of all mystical theologians of the Eastern Christian tradition; but one who remains still barely known today. While serving as an abbot in a turbulent era of Constantinople, Symeon offers his rhapsodic descriptions of his direct encounters with the light of Christ’s presence as a teaching that mysticism is not for an élite few but is the grace of the Resurrection offered to all believers.

The Very Rev. Professor John Anthony McGuckin is an Archpriest of the Orthodox Church in the Patriarchate of Romania’s Archdiocese in Western Europe, Rector of St Gregory’s chapel in St. Anne’s on Sea, in North West England; Professor in the Theological Faculty of Oxford University; Senior Professorial Research Fellow at Emory University’s School of Law, and at the St. Irenaeus Orthodox Institute at Radboud University Nijmegen. He received his Bachelor of Divinity from Heythrop College, a PhD in Patristic Theology from Durham University, a Postgrad. Certificate in Education from Newcastle University, a MA (Ed) in Curriculum Design & Educational Management from Southampton University, and an honorary Doctor of Divinity from St. Vladimir Orthodox Seminary and an honorary Doctor of Letters from the Lucian Blaga University in Romania. He founded and directed the New York Sophia Institute as an advanced research forum for Eastern Orthodox thought and culture.