Dr Sotiris Mitralexis – St. Chrysostom Orthodox Research Group

Research interests

Dr Sotiris Mitralexis is a Visiting Professor at IOCS Cambridge, as well as a Research Fellow at the University of Winchester’s Department of Theology, Religion, and Philosophy. Dr Mitralexis holds a doctorate in philosophy from the Freie Universität Berlin, a doctorate in theology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, a doctorate in political science and international relations from the University of the Peloponnese, and a degree in classics from the University of Athens. He has been Seeger Fellow at Princeton University, Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge, Visiting Senior Research Associate at Peterhouse, Cambridge, Visiting Fellow at the University of Erfurt, Teaching Fellow at the University of Athens and Bogazici University, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Istanbul Sehir University, and the recipient of the 2021 IOCS Sabbatical Fellowship. His publications include the monographs Ever-Moving Repose: A Contemporary Reading of Maximus the Confessor’s Theory of Time (Cascade, 2017 and James Clarke & Co, 2018) and Church-State Relations (in Greek, Armos 2019) and, inter alia, the edited volumes Maximus the Confessor as a European Philosopher (Cascade, 2017), Polis, Ontology, Ecclesial Event (James Clarke & Co, 2018), Between Being and Time (Fortress, 2019, co-edited with Andrew Kaethler) and Slavoj Žižek and Christianity (Routledge, 2019), while his forthcoming publications include Mapping the Una Sancta: Eastern and Western Ecclesiology in the 21st Century (Winchester University Press, co-edited with Andrew Kaethler) and Subversive Orthodoxies, a monograph on 20th-century Orthodox political theology and political philosophy of religion in Greece.

Publications

Monographs

• Subversive Orthodoxies (in preparation, forthcoming in 2022)

• Σχέσεις Εκκλησίας–Κράτους [Church-State Relations, in Greek]. Athens: Armos, 2019.
Parts of which circulated as:
Church-State Relations in Greece and Europe. A 35.000 words long scholarly special issue published by and included in the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, Sunday 11 November 2018 (including a chapter by Dr Angelos Chryssogelos).

• Ever-Moving Repose: A Contemporary Reading of Maximus the Confessor’s Theory of Time. Foreword by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Veritas 24. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade/Wipf & Stock, 2017.
British edition (2018): Ever-Moving Repose: A Contemporary Reading of Maximus the Confessor’s Theory of Time. Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2018.

Edited Volumes

• Sotiris Mitralexis & Andrew Kaethler (eds): Mapping the Una Sancta (in preparation, forthcoming in 2021).
• Sotiris Mitralexis, Paul Tyson & Peter Harrison (eds.): Πέρα από την Επιστήμη και τη Θρησκεία: νέες φιλοσοφικές και ιστορικές προσεγγίσεις [After Science and Religion: New Philosophical and Historical Perspectives, in Greek]. Thessaloniki: Ropi, 2021.
• Sotiris Mitralexis & Dionysios Skliris (eds): Slavoj Žižek and Christianity. With an afterword by Slavoj Žižek. London and New York: Routledge, 2019.
• Andrew Kaethler, Sotiris Mitralexis (ed.): Between Being and Time: From Ontology to Eschatology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2019.
• Sotiris Mitralexis (ed.): Polis, Ontology, Ecclesial Event: Engaging with Christos Yannaras’ Thought. Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2018.
• Greek translation: Sotiris Mitralexis (ed.): Πόλις, Οντολογία, Εκκλησιαστικό Γεγονός: Αναμέτρηση με τη Σκέψη του Χρήστου Γιανναρά. Athens: Porphyra, 2019.
• Sotiris Mitralexis & Marcin Podbielski (eds): Christian and Islamic Philosophies of Time. Wilmington, Delaware: Vernon Press, 2018
• Sotiris Mitralexis, Georgios Steiris, Marcin Podbielski & Sebastian Lalla (eds): Maximus the Confessor as a European Philosopher. Veritas 25. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade/Wipf & Stock, 2017.
• Markus Vinzent & Sotiris Mitralexis (ed.): The Fountain and the Flood. Studia Patristica 89. Leuven: Peeters, 2017.
• Sotiris Mitralexis (ed.): Mustard Seeds in the Public Square: Between and Beyond Theology, Philosophy, and Society. Wilmington, Delaware: Vernon Press, 2017.
• Georgios Steiris, Sotiris Mitralexis & Georgios Arabatzis (eds): The Problem of Modern Greek Identity: From the Ecumene to the Nation-State. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016.
• Sotiris Mitralexis (ed.): Ludwig Wittgenstein between Analytic Philosophy and Apophaticism. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015.

Guest Editor Of Peer-Reviewed Journal Issues

• Sotiris Mitralexis, Paul Tyson & Peter Harrison (eds.): Πέρα από την Επιστήμη και τη Θρησκεία: νέες φιλοσοφικές και ιστορικές προσεγγίσεις [After Science and Religion: New Philosophical and Historical Perspectives, in Greek]. Thessaloniki: Ropi, 2021.
• Sotiris Mitralexis & Dionysios Skliris (eds): Slavoj Žižek and Christianity. With an afterword by Slavoj Žižek. London and New York: Routledge, 2019.
• Andrew Kaethler, Sotiris Mitralexis (ed.): Between Being and Time: From Ontology to Eschatology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2019.
• Sotiris Mitralexis (ed.): Polis, Ontology, Ecclesial Event: Engaging with Christos Yannaras’ Thought. Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2018.
• Greek translation: Sotiris Mitralexis (ed.): Πόλις, Οντολογία, Εκκλησιαστικό Γεγονός: Αναμέτρηση με τη Σκέψη του Χρήστου Γιανναρά. Athens: Porphyra, 2019.
• Sotiris Mitralexis & Marcin Podbielski (eds): Christian and Islamic Philosophies of Time. Wilmington, Delaware: Vernon Press, 2018
• Sotiris Mitralexis, Georgios Steiris, Marcin Podbielski & Sebastian Lalla (eds): Maximus the Confessor as a European Philosopher. Veritas 25. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade/Wipf & Stock, 2017.
• Markus Vinzent & Sotiris Mitralexis (ed.): The Fountain and the Flood. Studia Patristica 89. Leuven: Peeters, 2017.
• Sotiris Mitralexis (ed.): Mustard Seeds in the Public Square: Between and Beyond Theology, Philosophy, and Society. Wilmington, Delaware: Vernon Press, 2017.
• Georgios Steiris, Sotiris Mitralexis & Georgios Arabatzis (eds): The Problem of Modern Greek Identity: From the Ecumene to the Nation-State. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016.
• Sotiris Mitralexis (ed.): Ludwig Wittgenstein between Analytic Philosophy and Apophaticism. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015.

Guest Editor Of Peer-Reviewed Journal Issues

• Analogia 10 (2020), co-edited with Andrew Kaethler: “Ecclesial Dialogues: East and West II.”
• Analogia 9 (2020), co-edited with Andrew Kaethler: “Ecclesial Dialogues: East and West I.”
• Forum Philosophicum 21:1 (2016), co-edited with Andrew Kaethler: “Faith in the Web of Evanescent Meaning” (Forum Philosophicum, International Journal for Philosophy, Editor-in-Chief: Marcin Podbielski, published by the Ignatianum Academy, the Jesuit University of Cracow.)
• Forum Philosophicum 20:2 (2015), co-edited with Georgios Steiris: “Sharing in the Logos: Philosophical Readings of Maximus the Confessor.”

Articles Published in Peer-Reviewed Journals or Volumes

• “An Attempt at Clarifying Maximus the Confessor’s Remarks on (the Fate of) Sexual Difference in Ambiguum 41”, Philosophy and Society 32.2 (2021): 194–203 (revised version of Analogia 2m 2017, 107–112).
• “Μια μάλλον ατυχής αντίδοση ιδιωμάτων: όταν δύο νεωτερικά εφευρήματα ανταλλάσσουν θέσεις στη δημόσια σφαίρα, [An Unfortunate Communicatio Idiomatum: On the Curious Spectacle of two Modern Inventions Morphing into one Another in the Public Square, in Greek]” in Πέρα από την Επιστήμη και τη Θρησκεία: νέες φιλοσοφικές και ιστορικές προσεγγίσεις [After Science and Religion: New Philosophical and Historical Perspectives, in Greek], edited by Sotiris Mitralexis, Paul Tyson & Peter Harrison Thessaloniki: Ropi, 2021, 79-101.
• “A Spectre is Haunting Intercommunion,” in: Analogia 9 (2020), pp. 9–20.
• Sotiris Mitralexis, “The Reception of the Theology of the Russian Diaspora by the Greek Theology of the ‘60s: a Case Study,” in Analogia 8 (2020), pp. 123-129.
• “Η Ψυχή Γεννιέται Στον Τόπο Του Άλλου: αυτογνωσία, επιμέλεια ψυχής και η απουσία τους σε μια μαξιμολογική οπτική (παραλλάσσοντας στοιχεία του λεξιλογίου της λακανικής θεωρίας),” in Αυτογνωσία και επιμέλεια ψυχής/εαυτού: Αρχαία, ελληνιστική, βυζαντινή, νεοελληνική φιλοσοφία, edited by Melina G. Mouzala. Athens: Papazisis, 2020, pp. 257-272.
• “‘A Luscious Anarchism in All of This’: Revisiting the ‘80s and ‘90s Greek ‘Neo-Orthodox’ Current of Ideas,” in Journal of Modern Greek Studies 37, no 2 (October 2019), pp. 295-326. 10.1353/mgs.2019.0019.
• “Rethinking Secularism: P. Harrison, É. Balibar, T. Asad” (Review Article), in ID: International Dialogue, A Multidisciplinary Journal of World Affairs 9 (2019), pp. 56–63.
• “Χωρισμὸς Ἐκκλησίας-Κράτους, Ἄρα Κληρικοί-Βουλευτές; [Does a Separation of Church and State in Greece Entail the Possibility of Clerics Serving as MPs?].” Synaxi 149 (2019): 21–29.
• “Why there Can Be No ‘Orthodox Spirituality’: A Short Comment,” in Understanding Orthodox Christian Spirituality Today, edited by Olga Sevastyanova & Nikolaos Asproulis. Volos: Volos Academy Publications, 2019, pp. 145-150.
• “Making Sense of Maximus the Confessor’s Understanding of Temporality,” in Ancient Philosophy 38:2 (2018), 435-449.
• “Parallel, Additional, or Alternative Histories of Philosophy? Questions on the Theory and Methodology of the History of Philosophy,” British Journal for the History of Philosophy (2018), https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2018.1458281.
• Dionysios Skliris & Sotiris Mitralexis, “The Slovenian and the Cross: Transcending Christianity’s Perverse Core with Slavoj Žižek,” in Slavoj Žižek and Christianity, London and New York: Routledge, 2019, 1–45.
• “Relation, Activity and Otherness in Christos Yannaras’ Propositions for a Critical Ontology,” in Polis, Ontology, Ecclesial Event: Engaging with Christos Yannaras’ Thought. Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2018, 120–132.
• “Studying Contemporary Greek Neo-orientalism: the Case of the ‘Underdog Culture’ Narrative,” in Horizons of Politics/ Horyzonty Polityki 8:25 (2017): 125–149. DOI: 10.17399/HP.2017.082508.
• “Rethinking the Problem of Sexual Difference in Maximus the Confessor’s Ambiguum 41,” in: Analogia 2 (2017): 107–112.
• “On recent developments in scholarly engagement with (the possibility of an) Orthodox political theology,” in Political Theology 19:3 (2018): 247-260, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1462317X.2017.1402551
• “The Eucharistic Community is Our Social Program: On the Early Development of Christos Yannaras’ Political Theology,” in Political Theology 20:4 (2019): 331-330. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1462317X.2017.1402550
Republished as “On the early development of Christos Yannaras’ political thought” in: Christos Yannaras: Polis, Philosophy, Theology, edited by Andreas Andreopoulos & Demetrios Harper, London: Routledge 2019, 105–124.
• “Clergy Wages in Greece – and their Correlation to Church Assets: Overview, Facts, and Prospects for Future Developments,” Jean Monnet Papers on Political Economy 17/2017.
• “The Liberation of Church and State in Greece and the Administrative Fragmentation of Ecclesial Jurisdictions,” in: Ex Oriente Lux: Relacje Wschodu i Zachodu na przestrzeni wieków, edited by Magdaleny Małeckiej-Kuzak, Library of Forum Philosophicum 1. Cracow: Ignatianum Academy Press, 2017, 159–170.
• “Liturgical Originality in the Orthodox Church: A Case Study,” in Sobornost 39/1 (2017): 73–88.
• “An Ontology of the Historico-social: Christos Yannaras’ Reading of European history” in: Mustard Seeds in the Public Square, 93–112.
• “Maximus’ theory of motion: Motion κατὰ φύσιν, Returning Motion, Motion παρὰ φύσιν,” in Maximus the Confessor as a European Philosopher (Eugene, Oregon: Cascade/Wipf & Stock, 2017, 73-91.
• “A Coherent Maximian Spatiotemporality: Attempting a Close Reading of Sections Thirty-Six to Thirty-Nine from the Tenth Ambiguum”, in The Fountain and the Flood (Studia Patristica Series. Leuven: Peeters, 2017), 95–115.
• “Maximus the Confessor’s ‘Aeon’ as a Distinct Mode of Temporality,” in: The Heythrop Journal 57:2 (2016), Wiley-Blackwell EarlyView. DOI: 10.1111/heyj.12319
• “The Historical Presence of Maximus the Confessor: Overview of Current Research” [in Greek: Ἡ ἱστορικὴ παρουσία Μαξίμου τοῦ Ὁμολογητοῦ: συγκομιδὴ τῆς ἔρευνας], in: Domus Byzantinus (Βυζαντινὸς Δόμος) 22–23–24/2016: 447–459.
• “Elements of Political Philosophy in Odysseas Elytis’ essay ‘The Public and the Private’.” In The Problem of Modern Greek Identity: from the Ecumene to the Nation-State (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016), 265–273.
• “A Return to Tradition: The Marriage of Bishops in the (Greek) Orthodox Church,” in: International Journal of Orthodox Theology 7:4 (2016), 205–218

[adapted from S.M.’s ‘Ἐπιστροφὴ στὴν παράδοση’]

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• “Transcending the Body/Soul Distinction through the Perspective of Maximus the Confessor’s Anthropology” in: Eric Austin Lee & Samuel Kimbriel (eds): The Resounding Soul: Reflections on the Metaphysics and Vivacity of the Human Person, Eugene: Cascade/Wipf & Stock, 2015, 135–148.
• “Μaximus’ ‘Logical’ Ontology: An introduction and interpretative approach to Maximus the Confessor’ notion of the λόγοι,” in: Sobornost 37:1 (2015), 65–82.
• “Μποροῦμε νὰ μιλήσουμε γιὰ μιὰ συνολικὴ θεωρία γιὰ τὸν χρόνο στὸ ἔργο Μαξίμου τοῦ Ὁμολογητοῦ;” in: Philosophia, the Philosophy Journal of the Academy of Athens [Φιλοσοφία – Ἐπετηρὶς τοῦ Κέντρου Ἐρεύνης τῆς Ἑλληνικής Φιλοσοφίας] 45 (2015), pp 252–267.
• “Temporality in Aristotle’s Philosophy: Motion, Time and Decay,” in: Φιλοσοφεῖν 11/2015, 149–174.
• “The Administrative Fragmentation of Ecclesial Jurisdictions—and the Liberation of the Church from the State in Greece” [in Greek: «Ο διοικητικός κατακερματισμός της εκκλησίας στην Ελλάδα και η απελευθέρωση της εκκλησίας από το κράτος»] In Απελευθέρωση της Εκκλησίας από το Κράτος, 109–134.
• “Ἐπιστροφὴ στὴν παράδοση: τὸ ἔγγαμον τῶν Ἐπισκόπων,” Synaxi 134 (2015), 50–60.
• “Aspekte der Philosophischen Anthropologie Maximus’ des Bekenners: Seele und Hypostase als ontologische Voraussetzungen,” in: Vasileios E. Pantazis & Michael Stork (eds): Ommasin allois. Festschrift für Professor Ioannis E. Theodoropoulos zum 65. Geburtstag, Essen: Oldib, 2014, 283–293.
• “Maximus the Confessor’s “Intelligible Creation”: Solving Contradictions on Imperishability and Corruptibility,” in: Forum Philosophicum 19:2 (2014), 241–249.
• “Introduction—An Apophatic Wittgenstein, or a Wittgensteinian Apophaticism,” in Sotiris Mitralexis (ed.): Ludwig Wittgenstein between Analytic Philosophy and Apophaticism, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015, vii-xiii.
• “A Note on the Definition of χρόνος and αἰὼν in St. Maximus the Confessor through Aristotle,” in: Vasiljević, Maxim (ed.): Knowing the Purpose of Creation through the Resurrection – Proceedings of the Symposium on St Maximus the Confessor, October 18–21 2012, California: Sebastian Press, 2013, 419–426.
• “Напомена о дефиницији χρόνος и αἰὼν код Светог Максима Исповедника уз помоћ Аристотела,” in Vasiljević, Maxim (Епископ Максим Васиљевић) (ed.): Познање Циља Стварања Силом Васкрсења: Радови Симпосиона о Светом Максиму Исповеднику Београд, 18–21. октобра 2012, Belgrade, Los Angeles: Sebastian Press, 2013, 447–54. (Serbian translation of the above.)
• “Person, Eros, Critical Ontology: An Attempt to Recapitulate Christos Yannaras’ Philosophy,” in: Sobornost 34:1 (2012), 33–40.
• “Relational Ontologies in Dialogue: Christos Yannaras’ and Joseph Kaipayil’s Distinct Relational Ontologies,” in: Philosophia – E-journal for Philosophy & Culture 8/2014, 88–100.

Book Reviews

• Christianization and Commonwealth in Early Medieval Europe: A Ritual Interpretation, by Nathan J. Ristuccia. Oxford University Press, 2018. Reviews in Religion & Theology 28 (2021), 88–91.
• After Certainty: A History of Our Epistemic Ideals and Illusions, by Robert Pasnau. Oxford University Press, 2017. Reviews in Religion & Theology 28 (2021), 220– 223.
• The Oxford Handbook of Ecclesiology, edited by Paul Avis. Oxford University Press, 2018. Reviews in Religion & Theology 26 (2019), 570– 572.
• The Early Eastern Orthodox Church: A History, AD 60–1453, by Stephen Morris, McFarland & Company, 2018. Reviews in Religion & Theology 26 (2019), 484–486.
• A Saint for East and West. Maximus the Confessor’s Contribution to Eastern and Western Christian Theology, edited by Daniel Haynes with an introduction by Andrew Louth. Eugene, OR, Cascade Books 2019, Review of Ecumenical Studies 11.3 (2019): 518-519.
• Book Note: The Omnibus Homo Sacer, Giorgio Agamben. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2017, What is Philosophy? Giorgio Agamben. Translated by Lorenzo Chiesa. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018, ID: International Dialogue, A Multidisciplinary Journal of World Affairs 9 (2019), 135-137.
• Christos Yannaras: The Apophatic Horizon of Ontology, by Basilio Petrà. Translated by Norman Russell. Cambridge: James Clarke & Co, 2019, Sobornost 41:2 (2019), 95-100.
• The Papacy and the Orthodox: Sources and History of a Debate, by A. Edward Siecienski. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. Reviews in Religion & Theology, 25 (2018): 374–376.
• The Ethics of Time: A Phenomenology and Hermeneutics of Change, by John Panteleimon Manoussakis, Bloomsbury Studies in Continental Philosophy, London, New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies 1.1 (2018), 105-107.
• The Oxford Handbook of Maximus the Confessor, edited by Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil, New York: Oxford University Press, 2015, in: Vigiliae Christianae 70:4 (2016).
• Maximos the Confessor: On Difficulties in the Church Fathers, The Ambigua. Volume I & II, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 28 & 29, edited and translated by Nicholas Constas, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014, in: Reviews in Religion & Theology 23:1 (2016), 29–32.
• Apophasis and Pseudonymity in Dionysius the Areopagite: “No Longer I,” by Charles M. Stang, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, in: Reviews in Religion & Theology 21:3 (2014), 394–398.
• Activity and Participation in Late Antique and Early Christian Thought, by Torstein Theodor Tollefsen, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, in: Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie 61:2 (2014).
• The Christocentric Cosmology of St Maximus the Confessor, by Torstein Theodor Tollefsen, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, in: Theologie und Philosophie – Vierteljahresschrift (1:2014).
• Relational Ontology, by Christos Yannaras, transl. Norman Russell, Brookline Massachusetts: HC Press, 2011, in: Sobornost 36:2 (2014).
• The Enigma of Evil, by Christos Yannaras, transl. Norman Russell, Brookline Massachusetts: HC Press, 2012, in: Reviews in Religion & Theology 21:1 (2014), 156-158.
• Church in the Making: An Apophatic Ecclesiology of Consubstantiality, by Nikolaos Loudovikos, translated by Norman Russell. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2015, in: Sobornost 38:2 (2016).