on the topic: “Beginning and Evolution of Creation and Human being according to the Hexaemeron of St. Basil”
Greeting of the Director of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies
On October 17-18, 2017 and in the framework of the celebrations for the 180 th anniversary of the establishment of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, an interdisciplinary conference took place at the main hall of the University, on the general theme “Beginning and Evolution of Creation and Human Being according to the Hexaemeron of St. Basil”. The conference was attended by the Rector and the Dean of the Theological School and it was organized by the Dean’s Office of the School of Theology of Athens University with the support of the Association of the People’s Friends.
The conference presented and analyzed, in the light of the Bible and the theological argumentation of the St. Basil’s work “Hexaemeron,” that the beginning and evolution of both the creation and humankind have been always a matter of human inquiry. In addition, it was stressed that this understanding, interpreted and updated by distinguished theologians, comes into terms with the views of scholars from the fields of Philosophy, Geology, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Genetics, Medicine and Bioethics aiming at a interdisciplinary approach of this and other key issues for the human existence.
At the opening of the conference, the message of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was read (by the Assistant Professor of the Theological School Dr. Nikolaos Xionis), while greetings were also received by His Beatitude Archbishop Hieronymos II of Athens and All Greece (read by Archimandrite Chrysostomos Papathanassiou), as well as by the Rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Professor Meletios-Athanasios Dimopoulos, the Dean of the School of Theology of the University of Athens, Professor Apostolos Nikolaidis, the former Rector and Emeritus Professor of the Theological School Dr. Evangelos Theodorou (read in abstentia by the Associate Professor of the Theological School Dr. Athanasios Glaros), and Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis, the Director of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies.
The theme of the conference was discussed by diverse specialists, faculty members of the University of Athens included: biblical, patristic and systematic theologians, philosophers, religious studies scholars, geologists, astronomers, physiologists, astrophysicists, anthropologists, biologists, anatomists, psychologists and geneticists. A constructive academic dialogue was formally or informally conducted during the limited time of the conference, which helped to clarify the boundaries and method of each discipline and to overcome various misconceptions that in the past created problems, with regards especially to the relationship between theology and science.
The present press release is partly based on the one issued by the Dean’s Office of the School of Theology of Athens University.
To read the Program of the Conference (in greek) click here
To read the greeting of the Director of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies (in greek) click here
Photos courtesy by the Dean’s Office of the School of Theology of Athens University.
