Bridging the Ecclesial, the Academic, and the Political
Orthodox Christian Studies Center and Public Orthodoxy host numerous virtual and in-person events annually. Our new calendar provides insights about all of them in one place.
september 2023
The Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University is delighted to present the next episode of its webinar series highlighting the scholarly insights and academic careers of female scholars
The Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University is delighted to present the next episode of its webinar series highlighting the scholarly insights and academic careers of female scholars whose research and writing explore some facet of the history, thought, or culture of Orthodox Christianity. The broadcast will be livestreamed and open to all who have pre-registered. The event will include some time for live audience questions. For those who miss the live event, the Center will archive each episode on its website and YouTube channel.
This episode features a conversation with Katherine Karam McCray and Ashley Purpura whose bio can be found below.
“My research investigates how a variety of global Christian movements have represented disability, as symbol of divine ability or as a representation of global fallenness. Most moral philosophies shape human nature around perfection: how odd that we are both naturally perfect and striving to achieve perfection. Is perfection human nature or the ultimate goal— is it packaged with our humanity or a result of our lifelong efforts? If the human being is oriented toward perfection as the aim of our abilities, then disability correspondingly comes to represent failure, a lack of ability, and imperfection. Disability has historically represented punishment for sin or, conversely, represented supreme ability, what critical disability scholars refer to as the super-crip stereotype.
Theological anthropologies which amplify perfection as the goal of the good life correspondingly denigrate disability as its inverse, that disability is a sign of a poor or lessened quality of life or at the most extreme a sign of sin or fallenness. Where human nature is framed as independent or autonomous, disability is castigated as dependent and diminished. I present alternative options from global Christianities for understanding disability as a core aspect of human nature, searching for positive representations of disability in ordinary life.
If Christ embodies every element of humanity the way St Athanasius explains, in what way is Christ disabled? I turn to Christ’s passibility, or the ability to be acted upon, as a location for embodying disability outside of representations of sin. If Christ represents sinless human nature, then Christ’s own contingency and dependence on environmental and social factors opens an important alternative space for discussions of disability and human nature. If the only sinless One was contingent, dependent, and able to be acted upon by exterior forces, then disability framed through these attributes cannot be associated with sin. Such representation positions disability at the core of theological anthropology instead of on the periphery. Extended states of dependency, then, are not inversions of human nature but instead represent an aspect of human ontology, revealing that in an Orthodox iconographic representation, dependency on one another prefigures dependency on Christ. In this reframed anthropology, interdependency, not autonomy, defines human nature.”
Doctoral candidate in religious ethics at the University of Toronto
Katherine Karam McCray is a doctoral candidate in religious ethics at the University of Toronto focusing on disability ethics and Eastern Orthodox theological anthropology. Her research investigates Christian representations of disability and reconstructs an Eastern moral philosophy around dependenc…
Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Purdue University
Ashley Purpura is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, a Faculty fellow of the Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts Program, and the Director of the Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program at Purdue University. She received her Ph.D. at Ford…
Orthodox Christian Studies Center events are free and open to the public
october 2023
The main thesis in this lecture is that we ought to (re)affirm human freedom, rights and democracy, and that this (re)affirmation needs to be done beyond, above, and against
The main thesis in this lecture is that we ought to (re)affirm human freedom, rights and democracy, and that this (re)affirmation needs to be done beyond, above, and against the predominant ideological systems that are usually called “Liberal-Democracy,” (Neo)Conservatism, various types of Authoritarianism or Techno-Totalitarianism (acknowledging the existence of many overlaps between them). Despite all the differences, these political-ideological systems also share some similarities: the embrace of capitalism as a broader ideological setup, and their hostility (to various degrees) toward more authentic freedom, democracy and human rights (except for rhetorical/propaganda purposes). A change needs to begin within the existing systems, by trying to pierce the solid fabric of the existing ideological bubble(s), in order to create a situation in which today’s opressive madness (often called “normality,” even “freedom” and “democracy”) will be seen, by a bigger number of people, as an oppressive madness, that needs to be dismantled in order to expand the horizons of human freedom.
Professor of Religion, Art, and Democracy at University College Stockholm, Sweden
Dr. Davor Džalto is Professor of Religion, Art, and Democracy at University College Stockholm. He is also President of The Institute for the Study of Culture and Christianity. Among his most recently published books are Anarchy and the Kingdom of God: From Eschatology to Orthodox Christian Political…
Orthodox Christian Studies Center events are free and open to the public
Flom Auditorium, Walsh Family Library, Rose Hill Campus, Fordham University
441 E Fordham Rd, Bronx, NY 10458
The Ukrainian Society E-Board in consultation with the OCF President have chosen four major topics for presentation and discussion: How the Russian Orthodox Church implements and propagates its relationship
The Ukrainian Society E-Board in consultation with the OCF President have chosen four major topics for presentation and discussion:
Director of Communications at the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University and chief editor of The Gifts (Дары), an almanac on contemporary Christian culture
Sergei Chapnin is a former Moscow Patriarchate employee with over 15 years of experience. He has deep knowledge of Russian Orthodox traditions, Church administration, and Church-state relations in modern Russia.
Born in 1968, he graduated from Moscow State University, Journalism faculty in 1992. In…
We invite you to a conversation about ministering to LGBTQ+ Christians. The afternoon includes a panel review of the recently-published books Orthodox Tradition and Human Sexuality and Gender Essentialism
We invite you to a conversation about ministering to LGBTQ+ Christians. The afternoon includes a panel review of the recently-published books Orthodox Tradition and Human Sexuality and Gender Essentialism and Orthodoxy: Beyond Male and Female and a discussion of the opportunities, challenges, and resources for ministry among LGBTQ+ faithful.
Orthodox Christian Studies Center Events are free and open to the public.
McNally Amphitheater, Lincoln Center Campus, Fordham University
140 W 62nd St, New York, NY 10023
Until recently, it was possible to describe Orthodoxy as “unity in plurality.” Although Orthodoxy consisted of over a dozen local churches with a wide variety of local practices and
Until recently, it was possible to describe Orthodoxy as “unity in plurality.” Although Orthodoxy consisted of over a dozen local churches with a wide variety of local practices and without an overarching structure, body, or person, it was still possible to say that Orthodoxy was a relatively well-functioning church—indeed, one Church.
In the last decades, and especially the last decade, however, profound fissures have undermined that unity. The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church in Crete, the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine—all have exposed deeper fault lines in World Orthodoxy. These include issues of church and state (Symphonia), church and nation, how to achieve consensus, authority in the Church, how one approaches history, and the attitude to human rights and modernity in general. How can Orthodoxy face these challenges?
Major support for the 2023 Orthodoxy in America Lecture is provided by Christ and Anastasia Economos with additional support from the Nicholas J. and Anna K. Bouras Foundation, Inc., and the Henry Luce Foundation.
Professor of history at the State University of New York at Albany
Nadieszda Kizenko is professor of history at the State University of New York at Albany, where she researches and teaches on Russian and East European history with a focus on religion and culture.
Her books include A Prodigal Saint: Father John of Kronstadt and the Russian People (Pennsylvania St…
Orthodox Christian Studies Center Events are free and open to the public.
McNally Amphitheater, Lincoln Center Campus, Fordham University
140 W 62nd St, New York, NY 10023
november 2023
The exhibition’s primary focus is Mariypol Iconostasis from the Icons on Ammo Boxes project by Sofia Atlantova and Oleksandr Klymenko, artists from Kyiv. This project would never have seen the light
The exhibition’s primary focus is Mariypol Iconostasis from the Icons on Ammo Boxes project by Sofia Atlantova and Oleksandr Klymenko, artists from Kyiv. This project would never have seen the light of day if war had not broken out in Ukraine in 2014. In the over one thousand-year history of iconography, a canon has taken shape that, among other things, assumes reliability, durability, and solidity. In other words, an icon must be written on a high-quality, properly dried, and adequately prepared board of correct form, without seams and especially without cracks…
At first glance, the icons of Sofia and Oleksandr are a provocation, a bold challenge to tradition. They break with the typical imagery of iconography, not to outrage, but to show that an icon that breaks with tradition can be convincing. Phoniness is not in the substance but in the eye of the beholder. It is precisely a perfect, richly decorated, and finely written icon that might look wrong at a time when a terrible war has violated the daily lives of millions of people. Those who are wounded, are refugees, and have lost their loved ones feel that all beauty has gone from their lives. In its place is horror, suffering, and grief. But even today, God Himself, His All-Holy Mother, and all the Saints are near. Icons on Ammo Boxes speak namely of this.
Hours of Operation: Monday–Friday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, closed weekends and holidays.
In collaboration with InterArt Gallery, NY
Artist, architect
Yurii Khymych (1928–2003) is a Kyivan artist, a classic of Ukrainian fine art of the second half of the 20th century, Honored Artist and Architect of Ukraine, Honorary Member of the Academy of Architecture of Ukraine. For almost 40 years, Khymych was a professor of art at Kyiv universities, includin…
Artist, art critic, and writer
Oleksandr Klymenko (born in 1976, lives and works in Kyiv) is an artist, art critic, and writer. He graduated from the National Academy of Art and Architecture in 1998 and completed a post-graduate course at the Rylskyi Institute of Art History, Folklore, and Ethnography in 2002. He taught at the Ky…
Artist, iconpainter and writer
Sofia Atlantova (born in 1981, lives and works in Kyiv) is an artist and writer. She studied at the Kyiv Shevchenko State Art School and the National Academy of Art and Architecture. Sofia Atlantova works in monumental and easel art, book illustration, and installation art.
Sheen Center NYC
18 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10012
