Paideia Conference at Antiochian Village in May

We are pleased to announce the inaugural meeting of a new community of Orthodox Christian academics, clergy, monastics, and interested laity. We are calling it “Paideia,” after the Ancient Greek word meaning “education” or “learning,” but also more broadly signifying “culture” as a whole. In choosing this term, we recall the derivation of “culture” from the Latin “cultus,” meaning worship, while agreeing with Fr Pavel Florensky that culture in this broadest sense—which shapes our experience of space, time, meaning, and reality itself—derives from (and must be grounded in) worship or the practice of religion, as was the case in the Ancient Greek Paideia, in the Christian Culture of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and indeed in traditional cultures everywhere. Yet today the weaknesses of modernized and secularized forms of Christianity have become glaring and inescapable, not only through decreasing numbers of observant believers, but in the reign of commercialized mass culture and the pseudo-cultures of political ideology that now serve as simulacra for religion. 

Moreover, we believe that Orthodox Christianity stands in a unique position to lead in the retrieval and revitalization of Christian culture through remaining steadfast in the ancient liturgies and ascetic practices of the Church. Thus, we believe that the path through and beyond the problems of modernity leads not backward through a nostalgic retreat into an often fancied past, but forward by drawing upon the illumination and witness proper to living Orthodox worship, prayer, and ascesis to articulate elements for a Christian culture of the future. 

Accordingly, the theme for our first meeting will be “Orthodoxy and Contemporary Life,”

addressing the resources that Orthodox tradition can bring to contemporary problems perhaps perennial in nature, but often unprecedented in the forms they now assume, ranging from the rise of the internet and social media, unrelenting social changes inspiring the term “liquid modernity,” novel beliefs and behaviors involving sexual identity and practice, growing political polarization, and increasing alienation from traditional modes of religion, to name only a few. 

The meeting will also feature a plenary text-seminar devoted to a chapter (in English) from the previously untranslated masterpiece of Florensky’s later thought, Философия культа: “The Philosophy of Worship.”

Our meeting will take place May 18-21, 2023 on the beautiful grounds of Antiochian Village in the Laurel Mountains of Pennsylvania. We are structuring the conference to unfold at a less hectic pace than is usual, with papers of roughly thirty minutes followed by discussion and then generous break-time after each paper for refreshment and informal discussion. And if response is robust, there will be multiple concurrent sessions. Room and board at Antiochian Village are relatively modest: $416.25 for a single and $318.36 for a double room, for three days and including meals from dinner on Thursday to brunch on Sunday, or pro-rated for shorter stays. 

The cities of Ligonier and Latrobe are nearby for those wishing to procure their own

accommodations. The conference registration fee will be $100.00 for the gainfully employed, and $50.00 for seminarians, students, monastics, and others with limited funds.

Since this is a new organization, many possibilities beyond an annual meeting will be open for exploration during our organizational meeting.

THE LAST DATE FOR REGISTRATION IS MAY 5, 2023. Registration may be completed at the Antiochian Village web site: 

https://www.antiochianvillage.org/antiochian-archdiocese-meetings-events/

Keynote Addresses

• Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen), “The Spiritual Dimension of Friendship”
• Fr. Hans Jacobse, “Strengthening the Church for the Next Generation”

Friday Papers

Papers One and Two (Presented Concurrently)

• Paper One: John (Amir) Azarvan, “Promoting Faith in Secular Schools (Without Getting Fired)”
• Paper Two: Fr Ignatius Green, “Is the Sexual Revolution a Gnostic Heresy?”

Papers Three and Four (Presented Concurrently)

• Paper Three: Daniel Buxhoeveden, “God in the Secular Academy and Beyond”
• Paper Four: Chris Humphrey, “Abortion and the Moral Imagination” 

Papers Five and Six (Presented Concurrently)

• Paper Five: David Ford, “An Initial Response to the Foreword and Introduction in Orthodox Tradition and Human Sexuality (Fordham University Press, November 2022)” Oh to be a fly on the wall and listen to this talk.
• Paper Six: Father Nathaniel Trembley, “Veneration as First Philosophy: Fr Pavel Florensky, Emmanuel Levinas, and the Path Beyond Secularism.”

Papers Seven and Eight (Presented Concurrently)

• Paper Seven: Joel Iliff, “Orthodoxy and Anti-Natalism” A lot to mine here.
• Paper Eight: Deacon Sampson (Ryan) Nash, “Is Sophia a Casualty of the Culture Wars?”

Papers Nine and Ten (Presented Concurrently)

• Paper Nine: Kelly Jolley, “On Socratic Ignorance”
• Paper Ten: Deacon Paul (Alfred) Siewers, “‘The spirit of AntiChrist’ and Gnostic Monotheletism in Technocracy, Racialism, and Pansexualism of the Global West: Approaches from Orthodox Apologetic Theology”

Papers Seven and Eight (Presented Concurrently)

• Paper Eleven: Matthew Long, “Therapies of the Soul: Asceticism, Monasticism, and Early Christianity”
• Paper Twelve: Edith M. Humphrey, “When Fairy-Tales Say It Best: Art and the Articulation of Orthodoxy” Looking forward to what Nicholas Kotar has to say about this one.

Saturday Papers 

Papers One and Two (Presented Concurrently)

• Paper One: Brian Patrick Mitchell, “Gay Christians? The Grave Danger Coming Out Poses to Christian Churches”
• Paper Two: Sister Sidonia, “Being Present to God: Worship, Prayer, and Divine Cooperation in Everyday Life”

Papers Three and Four (Presented Concurrently)

• Paper Three: David Wilmington, “Maximus’ Commentary on the Our Father: Deifying Forgiveness and Reconciling Ascetic Practice”
• Paper Four: Seraphim (Bruce) Foltz, “‘The World is a Symbol and Full of Symbols’: Why the Restoration of a Christian Worldview Is Important.”

Papers Five and Six (Presented Concurrently)

• Paper Five: Jordan Henderson, “Reclaiming the Spirit of Early Christian Martyrdom: Reflections on Candida Moss’ The Myth of Persecution Ten Years Later”
• Paper Six:Fr Liviu Barbu, “Spiritual Guidance in Today’s World”

Papers Seven and Eight (Presented Concurrently)

• Paper Seven: Mary Ford, "Continuing the Pattern: Orthodox Church Architecture in Light of the Old Covenant Temples--Implications for a Controversial Contemporary Issue"
• Paper Eight: Rico Vitz, “Sobornost and ‘Sympathetic Comprehension’: Reflections on St Maria of Paris and Anna Julia Cooper”

Paper Nine

• David Bradshaw, "Homosexuality and the Contrary to Nature."