Much has been said and written about the reconfiguration of Orthodox theological thought in the mid-twentieth century and the fundamental change in methodological approaches. The so-called ‘generation of the 1960s’ indeed brought about a real paradigm shift in the understanding of the nature of theology and the rethinking of the theological language used by the Church to communicate with the modern world. However, much less attention has been paid to reviewing the subsequent phases of the evolution of Orthodox thought from the 1970s to the first two decades of the 21st century. In fact, these fifty years have been marked by no less significant achievements on the part of the younger generation of theologians than those achieved by their academic mentors.
In 2014, Scottish Journal of Theology published Pantelis Kalaitzidis’ article entitled “New trends in Greek Orthodox theology: challenges in the movement towards a genuine renewal and Christian unity”. Beginning with a survey of the theological achievements of the 1960s, Kalaitzidis briefly outlines the essence of the ‘neo-orthodox movement’ of the 1980s, and then focuses in detail on the figure of Savvas Agouridis. It is well known that Prof. Agouridis was an outstanding biblical scholar who did not allow himself to be influenced by anti-Western, Hellenocentric ideologies that had prevailed in the theological departments of Greek universities for decades.
Kalaitzidis’ restrained assessment of the ‘patristic turn’ at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in the second half of the 20th century is rather interesting, especially against the backdrop of Western achievements in the field of patristics. But most noteworthy are his finely formulated and conceptualised thirteen turning points in theological thought and Church life, which distinguish the younger generation of Greek theologians from the ‘generation of the 1960s’.
Review #11 by Archpriest Andrii Shymanovych on Pantelis Kalaitzidis’ article “New Trends in Greek Orthodox Theology” can be found at this link:
