Michel Stavrou

This article examines the reception of the first ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325) on the occasion of its seventeenth centenary. Through a theological and historical study, Michel Stavrou identifies three dimensions of the council that retain contemporary relevance. He first analyzes the synodal significance of Nicaea as a model of collegial ecclesial governance. He then focuses on the notion of homoousion, offering a reading grounded in biblical and patristic categories in order to restore its original meaning beyond reductive philosophical interpretations. Finally, he addresses the question of a common date for Easter, which Nicaea had sought to unify and which remains a major ecumenical issue. The contribution of the article lies in the articulation of these three themes to show how the Nicene heritage remains structurally formative for the theology and unity of Christian churches today.

Michel Stavrou's article focuses on the Union of Lyon (1274-1281), an episode in the history of relations between the Byzantine and Latin Churches that has remained largely unknown. Through a historical and theological study, the author analyzes the conditions under which this agreement was reached, primarily under the political impetus of the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, who was concerned with protecting his empire against Western threats. The article examines the weakness of the doctrinal preparation for this union, the brutality of its partial implementation in Constantinople, and the resistance it provoked among the defenders of Orthodoxy. It also retraces the circumstances of its abandonment in 1281, as a result of the combined opposition of Orthodox confessors and the disengagement of Pope Martin IV. The contribution of the article lies in shedding light on the distortions that any political instrumentalization of ecumenical dialogue can generate.

This article examines the pneumatology of Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022), a major figure of Byzantine mysticism, focusing on the most singular aspects of his doctrine on the Holy Spirit. Michel Stavrou conducts a theological and historical study that identifies the distinctive, even unusual, traits of Symeon's pneumatological thought in relation to the patristic tradition. The central idea is that Symeon develops a theology of the Holy Spirit marked by a particular insistence on the conscious and perceptible experience of his presence, which distinguishes him from his predecessors and sometimes causes him to be misunderstood. The contribution of the article lies in shedding light on the tensions and doctrinal originalities of Symeon, thus contributing to a better understanding of the evolution of pneumatology in the Byzantine Orthodox theological tradition.

This article examines the inter-Orthodox ecclesiological debate concerning the question of the "diaspora," that is, the presence of Orthodox communities organized according to ethnic and national criteria outside their historical territories of origin. Michel Stavrou offers an analytical and comparative study of the main ecclesiological theses advanced within the Orthodox world to resolve this structural problem. The article identifies and confronts the various theological orientations at play, shedding light on their respective doctrinal foundations and their implications for the canonical organization of the Church. The main contribution of this work lies in the systematic clarification of the positions under debate, thereby offering a useful frame of reference for understanding the contemporary ecclesiological issues related to overcoming ethnocentrism in the territorial and institutional organization of the Orthodox Church.

This article by Michel Stavrou examines the attitude of the Orthodox Church toward war and violence, from its apostolic origins to the end of Byzantine civilization. Drawing on historical and theological study, it offers a critical reexamination of several notions commonly associated with Eastern Christianity. The author demonstrates that the military saints of the Byzantine calendar were primarily martyrs who had refused to fight, rather than sanctified warriors. He also reexamines the concept of "symphony" between the Church and the Empire to show that the Eastern Fathers, in many cases, condemned homicide unconditionally, without endorsing the ideology of holy war. The contribution of this article lies in restoring a fundamentally peaceful Eastern patristic tradition, one that has often been obscured by political or apologetic readings of Byzantine ecclesiastical history.

This article examines the pneumatology of Saint John of Damascus, an eighth-century theologian, situating it within the continuity of the Cappadocian patristic tradition. Michel Stavrou offers a doctrinal study that analyzes the way in which Damascene articulates the place of the Holy Spirit within the Trinity, particularly the question of his procession. The central idea is that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, a formulation that is distinct from the Latin Filioque while maintaining the mediating role of the Son in the Trinitarian relationship. The contribution of the article is twofold: it illuminates the internal coherence of the Damascene synthesis and underscores its relevance for contemporary theological debates, particularly in the context of the ecumenical dialogue between East and West on the procession of the Holy Spirit.

This article traces the life and influence of Father Boris Bobrinskoy, a major figure in contemporary Orthodox theology and professor of dogmatics at the Saint-Sergius Institute in Paris. The study adopts a biographical and theological approach, reconstructing the intellectual and pastoral journey of a thinker whose work stands at the intersection of dogmatic reflection and spiritual experience. The central idea is that in Bobrinskoy, theology and interior life form an inseparable unity: thought is nourished by prayer and prayer is illuminated by the patristic tradition. The contribution of the article lies in highlighting Bobrinskoy's contribution to the renewal of Orthodox theology in the West, particularly through his teaching of dogmatics and his living transmission of the heritage of the Church Fathers.

This article examines the eucharistic theology of Olivier Clément, a French Orthodox theologian of the twentieth century, through an analytical study of his work. Michel Stavrou offers a systematic reading of Clément's writings in order to identify the central place he assigns to the Eucharist in his conception of ecclesial existence. The main idea is that the Eucharist constitutes, for Clément, the focal point from which the identity of the Church is structured and its mission in the contemporary world articulated, particularly the proclamation of the resurrection of Christ. On the theological level, the article highlights the internal coherence of a thought that connects sacramentology, ecclesiology, and missionary witness. It thus contributes to a better understanding of the French-speaking Orthodox reception of eucharistic theology at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

This article by Michel Stavrou examines the place of eschatology in contemporary Orthodox theology, questioning the conditions for a renewal of this perspective within ecclesiology. The author adopts a systematic theological approach, articulating ecclesiology, Eucharist, and deification around the notion of the Kingdom. The central idea is that the Church can only be fully understood from its eschatological dimension: its members are called to anticipate the resurrected life here and now, making the Eucharist the starting point of a transfiguration that encompasses the entire cosmos. The contribution of the article lies in connecting this traditional theological vision with the challenges specific to late modernity — globalization, ecological crisis, multiculturalism — thereby demonstrating the current relevance of a renewed Orthodox eschatology for thinking about the mission of the Church in the world.

This article is devoted to the figure of Father Nicolas Lossky, an Orthodox priest and theologian whose work and personality left their mark on ecumenical dialogue in the twentieth century. It takes the form of a composite testimony, bringing together contributions from eight people from varied confessional and family backgrounds, including members of his family, Orthodox theologians, an Anglican theologian and a Protestant community. The central idea that emerges from the whole is that of an exemplary coherence between lived faith and intellectual commitment, characterising a man whose multiple talents were exercised in the service of the Church and of Christian unity. On the theological and historical level, the article offers a plural perspective on Nicolas Lossky's contribution to ecumenism, restoring the human and spiritual dimension of an important figure in contemporary inter-confessional dialogue.

This article by Michel Stavrou examines the memory and Orthodox reception of the Moscow Council of 1917-1918, one hundred years after it took place. Adopting both a theological and ecclesiological approach, the author structures his reflection in two stages. He first diagnoses the crisis of conciliarity affecting the contemporary Orthodox Church at all its levels — parochial, diocesan and inter-ecclesial — drawing on the eucharistic ecclesiology of Afanassieff and Zizioulas. He then shows how the Moscow Council, through its desire to restore sobornost and to involve clergy and laity in ecclesial life, offers concrete avenues for overcoming these dysfunctions. The main contribution of the article is to demonstrate that this territorial council transcends its Russian national context to constitute a model of universal conciliarity, whose legacy directly nourished the theological renewal of the Orthodox School of Paris.

This article introduces a double issue of the journal *Contacts* devoted to the renewal of contemporary Greek theology from the 1960s to the present day. Drawing on a panoramic and analytical approach, it maps the major theological debates that have run through the Church of Greece over more than half a century and examines their influence within the Orthodox communion as a whole. The central idea is that Neo-Hellenic theology constitutes a privileged laboratory for observing how a local Church responds to the doctrinal, ecclesial, and cultural challenges of modernity while maintaining its fidelity to the Apostolic and Patristic Tradition. On the theological level, the article highlights the productive tension between rootedness in the Patristic heritage and critical engagement with contemporary questions, thereby offering a significant contribution to the history of Orthodox thought in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

This article examines the relationship between liturgical practices observed in French-speaking Orthodox communities and the ecclesial consciousness they generate or reflect among the faithful. Michel Stavrou conducts a theological and pastoral study that questions the coherence between liturgical celebration as it concretely unfolds in parishes and the ecclesiological requirements it is meant to embody. The central idea is that the quality of participation of the entire people of God in the liturgy constitutes a determining indicator of the ecclesial vitality of a community. On the theological level, the article offers a reflection on the articulation between lex orandi and the consciousness of the Church, highlighting the existing tensions between traditional liturgical heritages and the realities specific to Orthodox communities evolving within a contemporary French-speaking context.

This article focuses on the General Council of Constantinople of 1872, convened in the context of the Bulgarian ecclesiastical crisis of the nineteenth century. Michel Stavrou offers an introductory study accompanied by a translation of the conciliar text. The author traces the historical circumstances that led to this council: the unilateral proclamation of the autocephaly of the Bulgarian Church and its claim to its own bishopric in Constantinople, removed from local patriarchal jurisdiction. The central idea is that this ecclesiological dispute led the assembled Orthodox Churches to condemn the principle of organizing the Church on an ethnic or national basis, referred to by the term phyletism. The contribution of the article lies in making available the conciliar definitional text, a foundational document for understanding the Orthodox position on the relationship between national belonging and ecclesial belonging.

This article by Michel Stavrou examines the role of the bishop in the local Church according to the Orthodox tradition. Drawing on theological and ecclesiological study, it analyzes the various dimensions of the episcopal function based on its historical and doctrinal foundations. The central idea is that the role of the bishop is above all sacramental, ordered toward the local eucharistic gathering, and cannot be reduced to a simple function of community leadership. Attested as early as the second century, this office also encompasses pastoral, administrative, and doctrinal dimensions. The contribution of the article lies in highlighting the necessary articulation between the episcopal figure and an organic vision of the ecclesial body: the bishop is a member of the body of the Church, and not an authority external to it, which conditions the Orthodox understanding of ecclesial unity.

This article is devoted to the figure of Metropolitan Meliton of Chalcedon (1913-1989), one of the great bishops of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in the twentieth century. Michel Stavrou offers a documented biographical and theological study, tracing the journey of a prelate committed to promoting pan-Orthodox unity and ecumenical dialogue. The central idea is that Meliton of Chalcedon embodied, in a context of Turkish political pressures and Greek ecclesiastical hostilities, an open ecclesiological vision grounded in the Gospel rather than in institutional conformism. The article makes a twofold contribution: it restores the decisive historical role of this metropolitan in the rapprochement between Rome and Constantinople, particularly during the symbolic meeting with Paul VI in 1975, and it sheds light on the structural tensions that ran through Orthodoxy in the face of the ecumenical challenges of the last century.

This article by Michel Stavrou examines the question of recognizing the baptism of non-Orthodox Christian Churches within the framework of ecumenical relations. Drawing on theological and canonical reflection, it questions the doctrinal and historical foundations of such recognition within Orthodoxy. The author argues that the explicit recognition of the baptism of the main Christian confessions is not only compatible with the Orthodox tradition, but actually constitutes one of its requirements. Drawing on the 95th canon of the Quinisext Council, on the variable history of the reception of non-Orthodox Christians, and on the sacramental theology of Florovsky and Lossky, he shows that the Orthodox Church has always implicitly acknowledged degrees of ecclesiality beyond its canonical boundaries. The contribution of the article lies in demonstrating that this recognition does not compromise the confession of ecclesial unity, but constitutes a decisive step toward the restoration of full communion among Christians.

This article examines the relationship between faith and reason in thirteenth-century Byzantine theology, with particular attention to the thought of Nikephoros Blemmydes. The study adopts a historical and doctrinal approach, situating this reflection within the broader context of Western medieval scholasticism and its Byzantine parallels. The central idea is that Byzantine theology does not conceive of reason as an autonomous faculty placed at the service of faith, but as a human reality called to be transfigured and illuminated by the action of the Holy Spirit. The contribution of the article is to identify a specificity of Orthodox theological epistemology in relation to the Latin model, by showing that the distinction between the two traditions bears not only on specific dogmatic questions, but on a fundamentally different conception of knowledge and rationality in theology.

This article by Michel Stavrou, professor at the Saint-Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris, focuses on the figure and work of the Orthodox theologian Vladimir Lossky. The study traces Lossky's intellectual and ecclesial journey in the context of his exile in France, examining in particular his involvement in the Saint-Photius brotherhood. The author analyzes the internal coherence of a theological thought entirely oriented by the conviction that the Orthodox faith possesses an irreducible universal dimension. The central idea is that the neo-patristic synthesis developed by Lossky rests on a conception of catholicity understood as the mysterious unity of the one and the many, inseparable from a requirement of ecclesial mission. The article thus contributes to shedding light on the reception of Orthodox theology in the West in the twentieth century and the universal scope that Lossky intended to confer upon it.

This article by Michel Stavrou, professor at the Saint-Serge Institute in Paris, offers a bio-bibliographical note devoted to the Orthodox theologian Paul Evdokimov (1901-1970). Belonging to the genre of introductory presentation, it traces the major stages of Evdokimov's life, from his childhood in Saint Petersburg, his exile in France following the Russian Revolution, to his teaching at Saint-Serge and his participation in the Second Vatican Council. The article highlights the determining influences — Bulgakov, Berdyaev, Dostoevsky — that shaped a theological thought encompassing spirituality, anthropology, ecclesiology, the theology of the icon, and ecumenism. The systematic bibliography of Evdokimov's books and articles, whose work has been translated into fifteen languages, constitutes a valuable reference tool for approaching an author whose major contribution lies in the dialogue between Orthodoxy and Western culture.

This article by Michel Stavrou (Institut Saint-Serge) offers a systematic study of Paul Evdokimov's pneumatology through three axes: the place of the Holy Spirit in the Church, in the economy of salvation, and in the Trinitarian mystery. The approach is analytical and critical, drawing on the entirety of Evdokimov's work as well as his sources — Bulgakov, Lossky, Afanassieff, Philaret of Moscow. The central idea is that kenosis constitutes the guiding thread of this pneumatology: the Holy Spirit voluntarily effaces himself to reveal the Son, silently participates in the mystery of the Cross, and acts as the active principle of the entire salvific economy. The theological contribution of the article is twofold: it situates Evdokimov within the Russian neo-patristic tradition while formulating precise reservations about the neologism "Spirituque," deemed theologically problematic and without scriptural or patristic foundation.

This article by Michel Stavrou examines the attitude of the Church Fathers toward migration, drawing on a historical and theological study covering the patristic period from the second to the ninth century. The author adopts an approach combining scriptural exegesis, analysis of patristic sources, and historical contextualization. He shows that the Fathers, themselves often migrants, did not develop a systematic theory of migration, but did develop a theology of hospitality built on two pillars: the condition of foreignness as a constitutive dimension of Christian identity, and the identification of Christ with the welcomed stranger. The article makes a twofold contribution: it reconstructs the concrete practices of institutional welcome — xenodocheia, the Basiliad — and demonstrates that ancient Christian hospitality, far from being a mere moral prescription, constitutes a central ecclesiological act, thereby offering solid theological foundations for contemporary reflection on the reception of migrants.

This article by Michel Stavrou examines the doctrine of original sin at Port-Royal in the light of the Eastern patristic tradition. Taking the form of a comparative historical and dogmatic study, it analyzes the extent to which the Jansenist authors — Jansenius, Saint-Cyran, Arnauld, Pascal, Quesnel — may have been influenced by the Greek Fathers in their approach to the Adamic fault. The central idea is that, despite genuine engagement with Greek patristic sources, Port-Royal remained indebted to a radical Augustinianism, ignoring the fundamental distinction between the inheritance of mortality and the transmission of guilt, a distinction that is nonetheless central to the Eastern Fathers. The article makes a twofold contribution: it highlights the structural gap between Eastern and Western anthropologies on this point, and shows that this dogmatic discernment was only achieved in the Catholic Church in the twentieth century, thanks to the patristic renewal.

This article by Michel Stavrou examines the mystery of God the Father in the theology of Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 295-373), based on a systematic study of the Alexandrian doctor's principal treatises. The approach is that of rigorous patristic analysis, articulating Trinitarian theology and soteriology. The central idea is that Athanasius effects, in the fourth century, a decisive turning point in the understanding of divine fatherhood, considered along two inseparable axes: the eternal fatherhood of the Father within the Trinity, grounded in the monarchy of the Father and the eternal generation of the Son in the Spirit, and the gracious fatherhood exercised toward humanity through filial adoption and deification. The theological contribution of the article lies in its demonstration that Athanasius establishes a necessary correlation between intratrinitarian communion and the very possibility of God's communication to humanity, thus anticipating the Cappadocian developments on divine personhood and freedom.

This article by Michel Stavrou traces the history of the inventions and translations of the head of Saint John the Baptist in the East, from the earliest patristic mentions to the Crusaders' capture of Constantinople in 1204. Adopting an approach of critical source history, the author successively examines three accounts of the invention of the relic: that of Sozomen in the fourth century, that of the monk Marcellus at Emesa in the fifth century, and that linked to Patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople in the ninth century. The study analyses the reliability of each account in light of Byzantine, Syriac and Latin sources, comparing chronicles, synaxaria and hagiographic narratives. The principal contribution lies in demonstrating that no scholarly certainty allows for the establishment of a continuous identity of the relic between Emesa and Amiens, while showing that this hypothesis is in no way contradicted by the available texts.

This article by Michel Stavrou examines the theological meaning of the veneration of relics in the Orthodox tradition. Drawing on doctrinal and patristic study, it seeks to move beyond psychological or devotional explanations in order to propose a properly theological foundation. The central idea is that the veneration of the bodily relics of saints rests on three interdependent pillars: the conception of Christ as a corporate being recapitulating humanity in the Holy Spirit, the holiness of martyrs and saints as living images of Christ, and the progressive pneumatization of the human body through divine grace, a process of deification of which relics remain the testimony after death. The contribution of the article is to show, drawing on the Fathers — John of Damascus, Basil of Caesarea, Nicholas Cabasilas, Gregory Palamas — that relics possess a sacramental and eschatological function, complementary to that of icons, inscribed within the eucharistic and ecclesial dynamic of the Orthodox Church.