Biography
Isidoros Katsos has joined the VHI in 2019, after completing his PhD thesis at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Professor Rowan Williams. He is a Fellow at the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism (CCSP) and Associated Researcher at the EU ITN/ETN project ‘The History of Human Freedom and Dignity in Western Civilization.’ He is also Fellow of the Forum of Advanced Studies (FSA) in Rome and invited scholar at the Orthodox Christian Studies Centre (OCSC), University of Fordham.
Isidoros studied theology in Athens (BTh Hons) and philosophy of religion in Cambridge (MPhil), both with awards and highest distinction. Prior to that, he studied law in Athens (BA Hons), Paris (D.E.A.) and Berlin (Freie Universität), from where he acquired a PhD with highest distinction. He worked as a lawyer (Athens) and legal expert on EU projects.
Isidoros is an ordained priest of the Orthodox Church of Greece, bearing the title of Archimandrite and serving at the Greek-Orthodox Parish of St Athanasios for the duration of my stay in Cambridge. IN 2018 he served as Chaplain to the Mayor of Cambridge, the first Orthodox to hold the post in the history of the city of Cambridge.
Research
- Philosophy of religion & ethics (historical & contemporary)
- Patristic hermeneutics (Jewish-Christian relations)
- Theology (historical & contemporary)
- Ancient philosophy (hellenistic & late antiquity)
- Reception of ancient philosophy in Christianity (esp. the Timaeus tradition)
- Ancient theories of light
- The hexaemeral tradition
- Human dignity and freedom
- Allegorical readings of Scripture
- Religious language (apophatic/cataphatic; analogy/metaphor)
Trajectories of Research:
- Natural philosophy & theology
- Natural Law, Christian theology & human rights
- Biblical exegesis
- Greek patristics & contemporary Orthodox theology
- Philo, Origen & 4th century reception of the Alexandrian tradition
Publications
- Chasing the Light: What happened to the Ancient Theories?, ISIS 110 (2019), 270-82
- Why Study Philo Today? A Hundred Years of Philonic Scholarship in Retrospect and Prospect, Reviews in Religion & Theology, 24:1 (2016), 1-10
- The Problem of Evil in the Light of Christ: A Further Response to N.N. Trakakis, posted in ABC Religion and Ethics, 21 July 2016, http://www.abc.net.au/religion/ articles/2016/07/21/4504498.htm
- Wounded by Love: Sketch of an Orthodox Response to N.N. Trakakis, posted in ABC Religion and Ethics, 9 June 2016, http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/ 2016/06/09/4479015.htm
- An Orthodox Perspective on Distributive Justice, Proceedings of the IVème Colloque International (9-11 June 2015), Université Toulouse 1, Montauban (in print)
- Charalampos Katsos, Nachhaltiger Schutz des Kulturellen Erbes - Zur ökologischen Dimension des Kulturgüterschutzes, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2011
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