New guest scholar 2024: Christos Veskoukis

Christos Veskoukis has been selected as a scholarship recipient from the Institute of Eastern Christian Studies. He is a final-year doctoral candidate in Theology at the University of Exeter, where he is researching the concepts of freedom and sin in the works of John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) and Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948). He holds a BA in Eastern Orthodox Theology from the University of Athens (Greece) and two master’s degrees, one in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics from the University of Birmingham (UK) and one in Systematic Theology from Radboud University (Netherlands).

During his research stay in March 2024 at IvOC, Christos will work on a project tentatively titled “John Chrysostom: An (un-)Orthodox Patristic Supporter of the LGBTQ+ Community.” This project will have the following three aims: first, to present the largely patristic and often disrespectful therapeutic language of sin Orthodox Church officials (mainly in Orthodox-majority countries) use when referring to the LGBTQ+ community and especially to homosexual persons. Second, to explain why Orthodox leaders use such sin-talk and third, to draw from John Chrysostom to show how the Orthodox Church could become more inclusive and respectful towards homosexual persons and the LGBTQ+ community.

In his free time, Christos enjoys running, reading biographies, and creatively experimenting in the kitchen.