Classics, Ancient History, Religion and Theology

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Professor Brandon Gallaher

Associate Professor of Systematic Theology.

B.Gallaher@exeter.ac.uk

3349

01392 723349

Overview

Unlike some scholars, I did not study theology and religion as an undergraduate. My BA was in Honours English and a Majors in Philosophy at the University British Columbia in Vancouver with a year (of mostly German philosophy) at McGill University in Montreal. My BA dissertation (under Dennis Danielson) was on literary theodicy in Paradise Lost and the Master and Margarita. After a Graduate Qualifying Year in the study of religion, I did a two year research MA in Religious Studies focussing on Patristics and Systematic Theology at McGill. My MA thesis, supervised by Douglas Farrow and John Behr, was on theodicy looking at the role of doxology and the theology of the cross in Irenaeus of Lyons. I then trained to be a priest in the MDiv programme at St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (Yonkers, NY just outside Manhattan) studying everything thing from canon law and Old and New Testaments to pastoral theology and liturgics. My MDiv thesis, supervised by Paul Meyendorff, was on Sergii Bulgakov's ecclesiology through an investigation of his proposals in the 1930's for limited episcopally blessed intercommunion between the Anglicans and the Orthodox in the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius. After finishing my seminary studies, I entered the doctoral programme in theology at the University of Oxford where I completed successively, under the direction of Paul Fiddes, an MSt by Research in Modern Doctrine and then a DPhil looking at Trinitarian theologies in modern East and West (Orthodox (Sergii Bulgakov), Protestant (Karl Barth) and Roman Catholic (Hans Urs von Balthasar)). I then was a Stipendiary Lecturer at Keble College, Oxford followed by a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at Oxford and a Guest Fellowship at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Notre Dame (IN, USA). During this time, I worked on the issues of secularisation and nationalism in the episcopate in Christian East and West. I was a Visiting Scholar from 2014 to 2019 at the Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Monotheistic Religions (CISMOR), The School of Theology, Doshisha University. I've been at the University of Exeter since 2015. 

I teach and conduct research in all areas of systematic/dogmatic theology in Christian East and West (especially, Trinitarian theology, Christology, pneumatology, ecclesiology and eschatology); modern Protestant and Roman Catholic theologies (especially, Karl Barth and Hans Urs von Balthasar); the history and contemporary theology of Eastern Orthodoxy (particularly, the writers Vladimir Solov'ev, Sergii Bulgakov, Georges Florovsky, Vladimir Lossky, John Zizioulas and Christos Yannaras); politics and religion (especially, nationalism and secularism) in Orthodoxy and the West (especially, Western Europe); modernity and Orthodoxy; and Christian ecumenism, inter-religious dialogue, theology of religions and comparative theology (especially, dialogue with Islam and Zen Buddhism and comparative spirituality).  

My D.Phil. thesis explored the tension between Christocentrism and the affirmation of divine freedom in the Trinitarian theologies of Sergii Bulgakov, Karl Barth, and Hans Urs von Balthasar. This work was published, with a foreword by Rowan Williams, as Freedom and Necessity in Modern Trinitarian Theology (Oxford University Press, 2016) (https://global.oup.com/academic/product/freedom-and-necessity-in-modern-trinitarian-theology-9780198744603?cc=gb&lang=en&). I have published historical articles, archival material, and translations on modern Orthodox theology—especially on Sergii Bulgakov, Georges Florovsky, Vladimir Lossky, Vladimir Solov’ev, John Zizioulas, and Christos Yannaras—in numerous book collections and academic journals. Most recently, I coedited with Paul Ladouceur a Georges Florovsky reader, The Patristic Witness of Georges Florovsky: Essential Theological Writings (Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2019). (https://www.amazon.com/Patristic-Witness-Georges-Florovsky-Theological/dp/0567540189/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507117649&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=florovsky+patriatic+witness).

My academic research moves freely across academic, ecclesial and religious borders. I am now working on book projects on Orthodoxy and modernity, Bulgakov's ecclesiology, a critical anthology of writings on Florovsky and Orthodoxy and world religions. My most recent grant was with the British Council working with Fordham University on Orthodoxy and sexual diversity (https://www.fordham.edu/orthodoxy/bridgingvoices). 

I am the Orthodox Associate Chaplain in the University of Exeter's Multi-Faith Chaplaincy and an Eastern Orthodox priest. I served as a Theological Subject Expert in the Press Office of the Ecumenical Patriarchate during the Holy and Great Council of Crete in June 2016. Since 2012, I have been engaged in interreligious dialogue, especially with Islam and Zen Buddhism, and I am currently co-editing a volume for Brill on Orthodoxy and World Religions. 

I welcome enquiries from students wishing to conduct research in any of the above areas.

I regularly teach an introductory module on Christian doctrine and have taught specialised modules on modern theology, inter-religious dialogue and comparative theology and spirituality.

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Publications

Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.

| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |

2023

  • Gallaher B. (2023) Sergii Bulgakov’s Chalcedonian Ontology and the Problem of Human Freedom, Building the House of Wisdom. Sergii Bulgakov and Contemporary Theology: New Approaches and Interpretations, Aschendorff, 383-410.
  • Gallaher B. (2023) “Psychological truth leads to theological truth”: Recent Works on Theology and Psychoanalysis, Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies, volume 5, no. 2, pages 273-282, DOI:10.1353/joc.2022.a904740. [PDF]
  • Button R. (2023) Envisioning the sign of God: the rhetorical figuration of the cross in the Epistle of Barnabas and the writings of Clement of Alexandria - semiosis, performance, and incarnation.

2022

  • Gallaher B. (2022) L’action eucharistique catholique: l’ecclésiologie du père Serge Boulgakov, Contacts: Revue Française de L’Orthodoxie, volume LXXIV, 279-280, pages 323-340.
  • Gallaher B. (2022) Sergii Bulgakov’s Theology of Beauty, The Wheel, volume 26/27, pages 42-42.
  • Gallaher B. (2022) Spiritualities separated at birth or accidentally related?: The “spiritual senses” traditions in Eastern Orthodox Hesychasm and Chan and Zen Buddhism, The Routledge Handbook of Buddhist-Christian Studies, Routledge, 148-161.
  • Gallaher B. (2022) Foreword: Reinventing the Wheel?: The Continuous Re-envisioning of Modern Orthodox Theology in the 20th and 21st Centuries, The Eastern Christian Tradition in Modern Russian Thought and Beyond, ix-xxi.
  • Gallaher B. (2022) ‘Fundamentalism and Conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy in the West: Reflections on the Myth of Orthodoxy’, Orthodoxy and Fundamentalism Contemporary Perspectives, Fortress Academic, 105-126.
  • Gallaher B. (2022) Technological Theosis?: An Eastern Orthodox Critique of Religious Transhumanism’, Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics, Rowman & Littlefield, 161-181.
  • Gallaher B, Kalaitzidis P. (2022) A Declaration on the “Russian World” (Russkii Mir) Teaching, Mission Studies, volume 39, no. 2, pages 269-276, DOI:10.1163/15733831-12341850.
  • Gallaher B. (2022) Christ as the Watermark of Divine Love: Expanding the Boundaries of Eastern Orthodox Ecumenism and Interreligious Encounter, Theology Today, volume 78, no. 4, pages 396-407, DOI:10.1177/00405736211049567.

2021

2020

  • Noon S. (2020) ON GILLIAN ROSE’S CRITICAL PROJECT,
AND HOW IT CAN BE READ CONSTRUCTIVELY IN CONJUNCTION WITH MICHEL FOUCAULT’S METHOD OF GENEALOGICAL PROBLEMATISATION.
  • Gallaher BDF. (2020) Chapter 24: Pneumatology, The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology, Oxford University Press.

2019

2018

  • Gallaher BDF. (2018) ‘Orthodoxy and the West—The Problem of Orthodox Self-Criticism in Christos Yannaras’, Polis, Ontology, Ecclesial Event: Engaging with Christos Yannaras' Thought, James Clarke & Co, 206-225.
  • Gallaher BDF. (2018) 'Tangling with Orthodox Tradition in the Modern West: Natural Law, Homosexuality, and Living Tradition', The Wheel, volume 13/14, pages 50-63.
  • Gallaher BDF. (2018) ‘灵性感知传统的延续和转变/靈性感知傳統的延續和轉變 [The Continuity and Transformation of the "Spiritual Senses" Tradition]’, 感同身受 - 中西文化交流背景下 的感官与感觉/感同身受 - 中西文化交流背景下的感官與感覺 [Feeling the Same Way: Senses and Feelings in the context of Chinese-Western Cultural Exchanges], 复旦大学出版社/ University of Fudan, 75-97.
  • Gallaher BDF. (2018) 'A Helper of Providence: "Justified Providential War" in Vladimir Solov'ev ', Orthodox Christian Perspectives on War, University of Notre Dame Press, 277-314.

2017

  • Gallaher BDF. (2017) 'Painting Time: A Meditation on Fr Martin Lam Nguyen C.S.C.’s "Moments"', Martin Lam Nguyen C.S.C.’s Moments, Beatrice M. Haggerty Gallery, University of Dallas, 10-13.
  • Gallaher BDF. (2017) ‘The Orthodox Moment: The Holy and Great Council in Crete and Orthodoxy's Encounter with the West: On Learning to Love the Church’, Sobornost, volume 39.2, pages 26-71.
  • Gallaher BDF. (2017) ‘Creativity, Covenant and Christ’, Human Action within Divine Creation: Christian and Muslim Perspectives, Georgetown University Press.
  • Gallaher BDF. (2017) ‘Eschatological Anarchism: Eschatology and Politics in Contemporary Greek Theology’, Political Theologies in Orthodox Christianity, Bloomsbury--T & T Clark, 135-149. [PDF]

2016

  • Gallaher B, Konstantinovsky JS. (2016) Divine possibilities: The condescension of god and the restriction of divine freedom, When the Son of Man Didn't Come: A Constructive Proposal on the Delay of the Parousia, 147-173.
  • Gallaher B, Konstantinovsky JS. (2016) Divine action in Christ: The Christocentric and Trinitarian nature of human cooperation with god, When the Son of Man Didn't Come: A Constructive Proposal on the Delay of the Parousia, 175-209.
  • Strine CA, Ounsworth RJ, Gallaher B. (2016) Liturgy: Partial fulfillments and the sustaining of god's people, When the Son of Man Didn't Come: A Constructive Proposal on the Delay of the Parousia, 211-240.
  • Gallaher BDF. (2016) Review of Pantelis Kalaitzidis, Orthodoxy and Political Theology (Geneva: WCC Pub., 2012), Scottish Journal of Theology, volume 69.2, pages 227-229.
  • Gallaher BDF. (2016) George Florovsky, Sourozh, volume 111, pages 86-97.
  • Gallaher BDF. (2016) '"A Supertemporal Continuum": Christocentric Trinity and the Dialectical Reenvisioning of Divine Freedom in Bulgakov and Barth', Correlating Sobornost Conversations between Karl Barth and the Russian Orthodox Tradition, Fortress Press, 95-133. [PDF]
  • Hays CM, Gallaher B, Strine CA, Konstantinovsky J, Ounsworth R. (2016) When the Son of Man Didn't Come A Constructive Proposal on the Delay of the Parousia, Fortress Press. [PDF]
  • Gallaher BDF. (2016) ‘A Tale of Two Speeches: Secularism and Primacy in Contemporary Roman Catholicism and Russian Orthodoxy’, Primacy in the Church The Office of Primate and the Authority of Councils, St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 807-837.

2015

  • Gallaher BDF. (2015) 'The Christian Church Facing Itself and Facing the World: An Ecumenical Overview of Modern Christian Ecclesiology', The Community of Believers: Christian and Muslim Perspectives, Georgetown University Press, 97-146. [PDF]

2014

  • Gallaher BDF. (2014) Fr Sergius Bulgakov, Orthodox Handbook on Ecumenism: Resources for Theological Education: “That they all may be one” (John 17,21), Regnum Books Intl, 201-206.

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