Well-known Orthodox theologian Christos Yannaras has passed away

Well-known Greek Orthodox theologian Christos Yannaras passed away on the 24^th of August, 2024, at the age of 89.

Yannaras authored many works in theology and philosophy. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he was a member of the “Zoe” Orthodox brotherhood, and from 1982-2002 he served as Professor of Philosophy at Panteion University of Political Science and International Studies, in Athens. He was a member of the International Academy for Religious Studies and held Honorary Doctorates from Belgrade University and Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. He defended his doctoral thesis on the “Metaphysics of the Body in St. John of the Ladder” at the Sorbonne, in Paris.

In 2006, St. Philaret’s Institute published his work “Truth and the Unity of the Church” (1977) in Russian language. In this work, which looks at the position of the Orthodox Church in the world in the 20^th century, Yannaras applies biblical and patristic theological criteria to the contemporary situation and proposes various means of escaping crisis. These include worship in modern language, returning to the anthropological understanding of the church fathers and an early church understanding of authority, as well as changing the forms for Orthodox participation in the ecumenical movement.

Russian readers may also be familiar with Yannaras’s book entitled “Faith of the Church. An Introduction to Orthodox Theology” (1983).