INSTITUTE FOR STUDIES IN EASTERN CHRISTIANITY

AT UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK

ENGAGING ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

WITH TODAY'S WORLD

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Peace, tranquility, and calm, both physical and mental, are necessary is centered on eirenic topics. We constantly pray and supplicate for peace. Yet, the real life of human beings is often deprived of peace. Ongoing military clashes, revolutions, rebellions, and civil unrest are common phenomena of our civilization. Hence, peace is not to be easily found on earth.

Once this exterior peace is found, we rejoice. Yet, the exterior calm is only part of the whole blessed life. The enemy can also approach us from within, bypassing the body and infesting the soul through corrupted logoi.

Even the most distinguished spiritual athletes, i.e., the ascetic monks, thus engage in a continuous contest with the corrupted logoi, induced by malignant spiritual powers, to obtain peace. Hence, a dispassionate state, a tranquil and blessed contemplative repose, is the eschatological expectation and hope for us.

Even more to this: as soon as we give up our spiritual contest, as soon as we lose ground, we face spiritual death. The questions of this conference are about the meaning of peace, calm, and tranquility; about the legitimacy of violent response to corrupted societal structures from the Orthodox perspective; about violence in general; about our theological and metaphysical apprehension of peace and war; and about our spiritual contest to achieve true peace and harmony with the neighbor in and through God.

The Rev. Dr. Conrad Fischer
Chair, Institute for Studies in Eastern Christianity (ISEC)