Notes on Contributors

Paul Avis is Honorary Professor in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, UK, and previously held honorary chairs in the Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, and in the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Exeter, UK. He is Editor-in-Chief of Ecclesiology. His recent publications include Jesus and the Church (2020); Reconciling Theology (2022); Theology and the Enlightenment (2022); and Revelation and the Word of God (2024).

Demetrios Bathrellos is an Orthodox Priest and teaches theology at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology (Boston, USA), St. Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College (Sydney, Australia), and the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (Cambridge, UK). His publications include The Byzantine Christ: Person, Nature, and Will in the Christology of St. Maximus the Confessor (Oxford University Press, 2004) and numerous articles on Metropolitan John Zizioulas, and on the question of primacy and conciliarity.

Alexey Beglov is a doctor of historical science, a lead researcher at the Institute of World History?of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and?head of its Religious and Church History Research Group. He is on the editorial boards of the journals Russian History and State, Religion and Church in Russia and Abroad, and?is involved in a project to scientifically publish the documents of the Moscow Church Council of 1917-1918. He has authored the monographs In Search of "Ideal Church Catacombs." The Church Underground in the USSR (Moscow, 2008; 2ed., 2018) and The Orthodox Parish during the Decline of the Russian Empire: State, Discussions, Reforms (Moscow, 2021), both in Russian.

Nadezhda Beliakova is a research fellow and lecturer at the Faculty of History, Philosophy and Theology at Bielefeld University. Her research interests include gender and religion in the history of Eastern Europe, religion and women's health, and the entangled history of religion during the Cold War. She is the co-author of books?Woman in Orthodoxy: Church Law and Russian Practice (Moscow, 2011) and?Women in the Evangelical Communities of the Post-War USSR (1940s-1980s): Research and Sources (Moscow, 2015), both published in Russian. She is also the co-editor of?Religious Life in the Late Soviet Union: From Survival to Revival (1960s-1980s) (Routledge, 2023) and?The Lives of Soviet Secret Agents: Religion and Police Surveillance in the USSR (Lexington Books, 2025).

Ionu? Biliu?a is a researcher at the Gheorghe ?incai Institute/Romanian Academy in Târgu Mure?. His academic interests are the history of the Orthodox churches in the Balkans from the nineteenth century onwards, West-to-East theological transfers, and Orthodox theology's convoluted relationship to anti-semitism and ultra-nationalism. His latest publications focus on underground religiosity during totalitarianism, the canonization of saints in the Romanian Orthodox Church, and the contemporary thriving of neo-fascist ideas in Orthodox milieus.

Dmitry Biriukov is a Research Fellow at the Osteuropa-Institut, Freie Universität, Berlin. From 2018 to 2022 he was a Research Fellow at the Poletayev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). As a scholar of Byzantine and Slavic studies, he has held visiting research fellowships at Radboud University, Ruhr University Bochum, the University of Notre Dame, Durham University, Georg-August Universität Göttingen, and the Collège de France. His research interests encompass Russian religious philosophy, theology, literature, philosophy of history, and political philosophy, Byzantine theology, philosophy, science, and philosophy of religion. He authored the monograph Participation and Universals in Eastern Christian Thought (2016, in Russian).

Anna Briskina-Müller studied Orthodox theology in St. Petersburg. She later studied Protestant theology in Heidelberg where she gained her doctorate (Dr. Theol.) with a thesis on the history of the Reformation (2005). From 2004 she held researcher positions at the University of Halle (Saale) and Humboldt University Berlin, and since 2018 at the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Her publications deal with the history of Eastern monasticism as well as modern Orthodoxy.

Paul Brusanowski is Professor of Church History at the Theological Faculty of the University "Lucian Blaga" in Sibiu, Romania. His research topics include the evolution of inter-ethnic and inter-religious realities in Southeast Europe and the relations between church and state in this area.

Christine Chaillot is Swiss and author of numerous articles and books about the history, theology and spirituality of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Churches. Her books have been translated into eleven languages and among them are: Vie et spiritualité des Églises orthodoxes orientales des traditions syriaque, arménienne, copte et éthiopienne (Le Cerf, Paris, 2010), Les Coptes d'Égypte. Discriminations et persécutions (1970-2011) (L'Harmattan, Paris, 2014), The Theological Dialogue Between the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches (Volos, 2016), The Assyrian Church of the East. History and Geography (Peter Lang, Oxford, 2021), The Traditional Teaching of the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwahedo Church (Lit Verlag, 2023).

Viorel Coman is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Bucharest, and coordinating patriarchal counsellor within the Department for Church Relations, Interfaith Dialogue, and External Church Communities of the Romanian Patriarchate. He is also a free research associate at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven. His most recent book is Bridge-Builder between East and West: André Scrima and the Ecumenical Turn in Orthodox-Catholic Relationships, East West Ecumenism - Ost West Ökumene 4 (Brill, 2024).

Vladimir Cvetkovic is a research professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade. His research spans patristics, ancient and Byzantine philosophy, and Orthodox theology. He co-edits the Brepols series Subsidia Maximiana, focused on Maximus the Confessor. His recent works include the monograph Justin Popovic: A Synthesis of Tradition and Innovation (2021, in Serbian) and three edited volumes, Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic: Old Controversies (2022), Studies in St. Maximus the Confessor's Opuscula Theologica et Polemica (2023), and St. Justin the New of Celije and the Orthodox World (2024).

Nicholas Denysenko is Emil and Elfriede Jochum University Professor and Chair and Professor of Theology at Valparaiso University in Indiana, USA. He is the author of numerous books and articles on liturgical theology and religion in Ukraine, including The Church's Unholy War: Russia's Invasion of Ukraine and Orthodoxy (Cascade Books, 2023). He is a priest of the Diocese of the Midwest in the Orthodox Church in America.

Davor Dzalto is Professor of Religion and Democracy at University College Stockholm. He is also President of The Institute for the Study of Culture and Christianity. His research focuses primarily on the exploration of human freedom and creativity, as metaphysical, political, as well as aesthetic concepts. As an author and editor, he has published more than twenty books and over one hundred scholarly studies, essays, and op-eds.

Metropolitan Job of Pisidia (Ecumenical Patriarchate) is an Orthodox hierarch and theologian and Dean of the Institute of Graduate Studies of Orthodox Theology in Chambésy. He is co-president of the Joint International Commission for the theological dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. In 2016, he was a member of the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church in Crete at which he served as the spokesman of the Council to the press. In 2015, he was appointed permanent representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the World Council of Churches in Geneva. He is the author of many academic and popular books on liturgical theology, ecumenism, and Orthodox spirituality.

Ulyana Gutner is a PhD in Biological Sciences and researcher at the Institute of Biochemical Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow). She is a graduate of the St. Philaret Orthodox Theological Institute (Moscow) where she currently teaches. She has authored the monograph The Russian Student Christian Movement: Origins, Emergence and Activities in 1923-1939 (in Russian), a number of articles on the history of the RSCM, and the lecture course "The History of the Russian Student Christian Movement."

Elias El Halabi is an associate professor, chairperson of the Christian Muslim Studies Center, and Director of the Sheikh Nahyan Center for Arabic Studies and Intercultural Dialogue at the University of Balamand, Lebanon. He is an expert on dialogue with King Abdullah International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogues (KAICIID) and co-chair of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Reference Group on...