Revd Fr Demetrios Bathrellos

Fr Demetrios Bathrellos is a Lecturer in Theology (Patristic Studies) at St Andrew's. After taking two undergraduate degrees, in Classics and Theology from the University of Athens, Fr Demetrios studied Systematic Theology at King’s College London, from which he received his PhD in 2001. He has published widely in Patristics and Systematic Theology, mostly in English and Greek, and has taught at several academic institutions around the world, including King’s College London, UK, Emory University, Atlanta, USA and The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge, UK.  

He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge, UK and of the Volos Academy of Theological Studies, Greece, as well as a Member of the Bioethics Committee of the Church of Greece.

Subject Area: Systematic Theology and Patristics

Current Research:The Sinlessness of Christ

Website:https://cambridge.academia.edu/DemetriosBathrellos

Books

The Byzantine Christ: Person, Nature, and Will in the Christology of Saint Maximus the Confessor(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. xii + 225. Serbian translation: Vizantijski Hristos: Iicnost, priroda i volja u  hristologiji svetog Maksima Ispovednika (Kragujevac, 2008). Greek translation in progress.

 An Outline of Orthodox Dogmatics Based on the Works of Saint Symeon of Thessalonica (Athens: En Plo, 2008), pp. 467 (in Greek).

Christians and Post-Secularization: Reflections and Suggestions on the Role and the Witness of the Church in the Public Square(Athens: En plo, 2016), pp. 281 (in Greek).

Behold the Man: The Dogma of the Sinlessness of Christ(Athens: En Plo, 2017), pp. 356 (in Greek); under contract for publication by Oxford University Press. 

Articles

‘Submission: Comments on a Dystopian “Prophesy” for the Future of Post-Secular Europe’, Synaxi 162 (2022), pp. 19-25 (in Greek).

‘The Patmos and Rhodes (1980), Munich (1982), Bari (1987), New Valamo (1988), Ravenna (2007), and Chieti (2016) Documents: An Inadequate Approach to the Question of Conciliarity and Primacy’, Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies 4:2 (2022), pp. 239-63;

‘The Concepts of Sin and Sinlessness in St Maximus the Confessor’, StudiaPatristica CXXI. 18, ed. by Markus Vinzent and Sotiris Mitralexis (Leuven: Peeters, 2021), pp. 51-58.

‘Gunton and the Cappadocians’, in Andrew Picard, Myk Habets, and Murray Rae (eds.), T&T Clark Handbook of Colin Gunton (London: T&T Clark, 2021), pp. 253-68.

‘The Sinlessness of Christ: An Ancient Dogma and its Contemporary Significance’, Phronema 35:2 (2020), pp. 1-25.

‘True God and True Man: St Maximus the Confessor on the Sinless Humanity of Christ’, Sobornost 41:1 (2019), pp. 9-17.

‘The Theology of the Will in St Maximus the Confessor’, in Stavros Zouboulakis and Pierre Salembier (eds.), Sources Chrétiennes: Apport grec et latin à la culture européenne (Athens: Artos Zoes, 2019), pp. 291-326 (in Greek).

‘Jesus Christ, Holy Scripture, and Orthodox Theology: Towards an Orthodox Hermeneutics’, The Greek Orthodox Theological Review 63:1-2 (2018), pp. 21-59.

‘Ascesis as Love in St Maximus the Confessor’, in Stavros Zouboulakis (ed.), On Love (Athens: Artos Zoes, 2017), pp. 151-65 (in Greek).

‘Sola gratia? Sola fide? Law, Grace, Faith, and Works in John Chrysostom’s Commentary on Romans’, Studia PatristicaXCVI. 22, ed. by Markus Vinzent (Leuven: Peeters, 2017),pp. 133-46.

‘The Bishop, the Presbyters, and the Community in the Ecclesiology of the Metropolitan of Pergamon John Zizioulas’, in Pantelis Kalaitzides and Nikolaos Asproulis (eds.), Person, Eucharist, and the Kingdom of God in Orthodox and Ecumenical Perspective: Festschrift for the Metropolitan of Pergamon John D. Zizioulas (Volos: Demetrias Press, 2016), pp. 109-37 (in Greek).

‘The Holy and Great Council: Observations and Comments’, Synaxi 140 (2016), pp. 67-72 (in Greek).

‘Le Saint et Grand Concile: présentation et appréciation’, Contacts 255 (2016), pp. 352-8.

‘Paul, Barth, Theology, and Culture: Notes on the Relation between Theology and Culture with Special Reference to Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans’, Deltio Biblikōn Meletōn 31:1 (2016), pp. 71-95 (in Greek).

‘The Holy Spirit and the New Testament in St. Symeon of Thessalonica (+1429)’, in Predrag Dragutinovic, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, and James Buchanan Wallace, in co-operation with Christos Karakolis (eds.), The Holy Spirit and the Church according to the New Testament (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016), pp. 221-30.

‘The Dogmatics of P. N. Trebelas’, in Nikolaos Asproulis (ed.), Panayiotes N. Trebelas: Between Tradition and Innovation, Scholarship and Mission (Bolos: Demetrias Press, 2016), pp. 239-60 (in Greek).

‘The Will of God and the Freedom of Man’, in Ecumenical Councils and Church Unity (Athens: Archontariki, 2016), pp. 199-212 (in Greek).

‘The Question of Justice in the Old Testament’, in Stavros Zouboulakis (ed.), Justice and Law (Athens: Artos Zoes, 2015), pp. 129-49 (in Greek).

‘Passions, Ascesis, and the Virtues’ in Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Maximus the Confessor (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 287-306.

‘The Christology of Otfried Hofius’, Deltio Biblikōn Meletōn 30 (2015), pp. 48-59 (in Greek).

‘Le Saint et Grand Concile: attentes et inquiétudes’, Contacts 251 (2015), pp. 296-9.

‘The Great and Holy Synod’, Synaxi 133 (2015), pp. 74-6 (in Greek).

‘Love and Forgiveness versus Justice and Punishment?: Purgatory and the Question of the Forgiveness of Sins at the Council of Ferrara-Florence’, in Theresia Hainthaler and Franz Mali (eds.), Für uns und für unser Heil: Soteriologie in Ost und West, Wiener Patristische Tagungen VI (Wien: Pro Oriente, 2014), pp. 31-51.

‘Love, Purification, and Forgiveness versus Justice, Punishment, and Satisfaction: The Debates on Purgatory and the Forgiveness of Sins at the Council of Ferrara – Florence’, The Journal of Theological Studies 65:1 (2014), pp. 78-121.

‘Neoplatonism and Maximus the Confessor on the Knowledge of God’, Studia Patristica LVIII. 6, ed. by Markus Vinzent (Leuven: Peeters, 2013), pp. 117-26.

‘The Patristic Tradition on the Sinlessness of Jesus’, Studia Patristica LVIII. 11, ed. by Markus Vinzent (Leuven: Peeters, 2013), pp. 235-41.

‘St Maximus the Confessor’s Contribution(s) to the Notion of Freedom’, in Bishop Maxim (Vasiljevitć) (ed.), Knowing the Purpose of Creation through the Resurrection: Proceedings of the Symposium on St. Maximus the Confessor (Alhambra, California: Sebastian Press, 2013), pp. 129-42.

‘The Hierarchical Liturgy and the Demand for Synodality’, Synaxi 127 (2013), pp. 8-28 (in Greek).

‘St. John of Damascus and the Future of Orthodox Theology’, in Porphyrios Georgi (ed.), St John Damascene: Theology, Image & Melody, Balamand Theological Conferences 3 (Tripoli, Lebanon: St John of Damascus Institute of Theology, 2012), pp. 203-223. 

‘The God of the Bible and the God of the Philosophers in the Patristic Tradition’, in Stavros Zouboulakis (ed.), The God of the Bible and the God of the Philosophers (Athens: Artos Zoes, 2012), pp. 219-48 (in Greek).

‘John Henry Newman: Theology and Preaching’, in Stavros Zouboulakis (ed.), Let us Talk about Preaching (Athens: Artos Zoes, 2012), pp. 89-111 (in Greek).

‘The Church and the Challenges of Multicultural Society’, in The Orthodox Church in Modern Multicultural Society (Nicosia: Archdiocese of Cyprus, 2012), pp. 11-56 (in Greek).

‘St Nicholas Cabasilas’ Understanding of the Life in Christ and its Contemporary Significance’, Yearbook of the Hellenic Open University 2 (2011), pp. 377-90.

 ‘Typologie des rapports entre Christianisme et culture selon H. Richard Niebuhr et la théologie Orthodoxe contemporaine’, Istina 45:1 (2010), pp. 97-107.

 ‘Conciliarity in the Context of the Diocese’, Theologia 80:2 (2009), pp. 173-200 (in Greek).

‘St Symeon of Thessalonica and the Question of the Primacy of the Pope’, Sobornost 30:1 (2008), pp. 54-71. 

‘Church, Eucharist, Bishop: The Early Church in the Ecclesiology of John Zizioulas’, in Douglas Knight (ed.), The Theology of John Zizioulas: Personhood and the Church (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), pp. 133-45. Greek translation in John Gr. Plexidas (ed.), ΗθεολογίατουΙωάννηΖηζιούλα: ΠρόσωποκαιΕκκλησία(Trikala: Degiorgio, 2009), pp. 207-226.

‘The Temptations of Jesus Christ according to Saint Maximus the Confessor’, Studia Patristica XLII, ed. by F. Young, M. Edwards, and P. Parvis (Leuven: Peeters, 2006), pp. 45-49.

‘The Sinlessness of Jesus: A Theological Exploration in the Light of Trinitarian Theology’, in Paul Louis Metzger (ed.), Trinitarian Soundings in Systematic Theology (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2005), pp. 113-126.

‘The Eastern Orthodox Tradition for Today’, in Paul Ballard and Stephen R. Holmes (eds.), The Bible in Pastoral Practice: Readings in the Place and Function of Scripture in the Church (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 2005), pp. 42-58.

‘Jesus Christ in the anti-Apollinarian Treatises of Saint Gregory of Nyssa’, in Elias D. Moutsoulas (ed.), Jesus Christ in the Theology of St Gregory of Nyssa, Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on St Gregory of Nyssa (Athens: s.n., 2005), pp. 355 – 367.

 ‘The Relationship between the Divine Will and the Human Will of Jesus Christ according to Saint Maximus the Confessor’, Studia Patristica, XXXVII, ed. by M. F. Wiles and E. J. Yarnold with the assistance of P. M. Parvis (Leuven: Peeters, 2001), pp. 346-352.

 ‘Seven Sins of Contemporary Ecclesial Apollinarism’, Synaxi 74 (2000), pp. 10-18 (in Greek).