Thanassis Papathanassiou

This article examines the discourses of contemporary thinkers on the Covid-19 pandemic in order to interrogate the appropriate theological and ecclesial posture in the face of a global health crisis. Adopting a reflective and critical approach, Thanassis N. Papathanassiou, an Orthodox lay theologian, articulates three structuring observations around the relationship between the pandemic and spiritual and social disorder. The central idea is that the Church cannot respond to such a situation by withdrawal or confusion, but must fully assume its evangelical mission in a spirit of solidarity with society. The theological contribution of the article lies in the highlighting of a contextual ecclesiology: faithfulness to the vocation of the Church requires a keen awareness of what ecclesiality means in each concrete historical circumstance, including the most unprecedented ones.

This article examines the theological and missionary thought developed by the "generation of the sixties" within the Orthodox Church, particularly in the Greek context. The author, Thanassis N. Papathanassiou, offers an analytical study of this intellectual and spiritual current that profoundly renewed Orthodox reflection on mission. The central idea is that this generation, in reaction to a religious activism deemed reductive, refocused theology on the Eucharist, but at the risk of neglecting the social and political dimensions inherent in the missionary vocation of the Church. The contribution of the article lies in shedding light on a structuring theological tension between eucharistic ecclesiology and engagement in the world, a tension that biblical and apostolic sources invite us to transcend by articulating the sacrament of the altar and the service of one's neighbor.

This article is the transcription of a plenary lecture delivered by Greek lay theologian Thanassis N. Papathanassiou. It is a critical theological reflection on the institutional drifts of the Church and their relationship to Christian mission. The author analyzes the risk of an insidious transformation of faith into idolatry when the Church claims to possess the living God rather than to serve him, thereby reducing Christian life to a ritual observance administered by a clerical caste. The central idea is that the lex credendi and the lex orandi must be rooted in the lex sequendi, that is, in the effective following of Christ. The theological contribution of this piece lies in the articulation between ecclesiology, missiology, and anthropology: the human being is called to become the image of God, and the Church can only manifest the Kingdom by refusing to conflate itself with the worldly logics of power.

This article by Thanassis N. Papathanassiou examines the practice of Christian fasting in light of the cultural, anthropological, and social transformations of postmodern society. Drawing on theological and pastoral study, it articulates a critical reflection on Orthodox pre-conciliar discussions concerning fasting, confronting them with contemporary realities. The author argues that the dominant conception of fasting, reduced to a "chemical" logic centered on food categories, betrays the authentic ascetic ideal of the tradition. He proposes rethinking fasting around four axes: the relevance of inherited dietary criteria, the theological dialectic between anticipation and feast, ecological responsibility, and solidarity with the poor. The article's main contribution is to show that fidelity to tradition requires not the immutability of forms, but the living transmission of its fundamental criteria, adapted to the real contexts of the universal Church.

This article, translated from Greek and published in the journal *Synaxi* in 1998, takes the form of a written debate between Stavros Zouboulakis and Thanassis Papathanassiou on the question of antisemitism within the Greek Orthodox Church. Zouboulakis opens the dialogue by denouncing concrete manifestations of ecclesiastical antisemitism, notably the writings of the Metropolitan of Corinth Panteleimon and their laudatory review in the official journal *Theologia*, in order to call for an open critical examination of this phenomenon. Papathanassiou responds by acknowledging the reality of Orthodox antisemitism while refusing to treat it as an exclusive feature of ecclesial consciousness. He draws on significant historical counter-testimonies — synodal encyclicals, the protest of Archbishop Damaskinos in 1943, the actions of clergy and laypeople during the Shoah — to show that the Orthodox tradition has also produced resistance to anti-Jewish hatred. The theological contribution of this exchange lies in the demand for a lucid ecclesial memory, capable of confronting its areas of darkness without abandoning its own resources of repentance and discernment.