Scholar in Byzantine Studies to Lecture at Seminary

Dr. Leonidas Pittos, Senior Lecturer in Modern Greek Studies at the Department of Classical and Modern Languages at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, will be lecturing this Thursday, October 25, 2018, at 7:00 p.m., in the auditorium of the Saint Photios Orthodox Theological Seminary at 510 Collier Way in Etna. He is the second speaker during the Nativity Term to speak in the Seminary’s public lecture series, which sponsors outside scholars and intellectuals to present their scholarship and research. Thursday’s lecture is free of charge and will be followed by a wine and cheese reception, during which those in attendance will have an opportunity to meet the speaker personally.

Dr. Pittos will speak on the person, theology, and teachings of Saint Gregory Palamas, a major fourteenth-century Archbishop from Thessalonica and a prominent figure in the intellectual and theological traditions of the Eastern Orthodox Christian world. The Saint’s mystical theology is focused on Hesychasm, a method of silent meditation and concentration by which a spiritual aspirant seeks to enter into communion and union with the Energies of God.

Dr. Pittos received his doctoral degree at the University of Chicago and has taught at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. His major areas of expertise and study are early and Eastern Christian history, Byzantine and modern Greek history, and the Modern Greek language.

He will be teaching a seminar at the Seminary on Friday, October 26, for the twelve undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at the Seminary. Those non-enrolled auditors who have been attending various Seminary classes are also welcome to attend the seminar if they wish. Details regarding the seminar hours will be announced at the public lecture on Thursday.