Petros Vassiliadis

During the last decade (since 2006, as a member of the WCC program on Poverty-Wealth-Ecology [PWE]) he is specialized and practically engaged in the alternative (to the neo-liberal economic globalization) Christian proposal. His engagement with the interfaith dialogue, and his position for an encounter between Christianity and modernity (and post-modernity) made him aware of the need of a legally established and internationally binding Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities, along with the Human Rights. He suggested that the interfaith dialogue and cooperation are necessary in the areas, where the “modern paradigm” failed to succeed, i.e. in the spiritual and material welfare of the people, the degradation in social and moral values, in the inability of our world order to enforce a lasting just peace on earth, and especially in its unwillingness to preserve the natural environment, and its surrender to the rules of the dominant world economic system.

In 2002, after more than a decade in WOCATI, having also served as member of the executive committee, he was elected WOCATI's president (2002–2008), and for his contribution he was awarded for life the title of its honorary president. His scholarly contribution on the world ecumenical theological education is specified in combining the new challenges with the traditional Christian presuppositions. On the basis of his international experience and the nearly 40 years academic service in Greece he is one of the contributors to the revision of the religious course in the public secondary education (Lyceum) of his country, and a fervent supporter of the constitutional changes in Greek public higher education, and a member of the Association of Professors of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

He also served as an Orthodox commissioner of CWME of the WCC (1998-2006), and chief organizer of the 14th World Mission Conference, officially hosted on his recommendation by the Church of Greece in Athens (2005), for the first time in an Orthodox setting. He was coordinator of the Biblical Studies in the 12th World Mission Conference in San Antonio, Texas of USA (1989), and the 8th General Assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe (1998). In addition, he served in various Synodical Committees of the Church of Greece (of Liturgical Renewal, and of Inter-Orthodox and Inter-Christian Relations), consultant of the United Bible Societies for the improvement of the relations with the Orthodox Churches and the presentation of the Orthodox understanding of the Bible to the global family of the Bible Societies, institutional coordinator of the Forum Mediterraneum, dealing with issues pertinent to faith, history of religions, and cultural anthropological research on the three monotheistic religions of the Mediterranean sea, and member of the editorial committee of the Orthodox biblical journal Δελτίο Βιβλικών Μελετών (Bulletin of Biblical Studies) of the “Artos Zoes” foundation, and of the Regnum Edinburgh 2010 Mission Series of the Oxford Center of Mission Studies.

Professor Vassiliadis has been member of the translation committee of the Modern Greek Bible Η Αγία Γραφή, Μετάφραση από τα Πρωτότυπα Κείμενα, 1989. He also published collections of studies:

He was for many years the departmental coordinator of the Erasmus/Socrates program of inter-university cooperation of the European Union. From 1986 he is co-editor of the Greek biblical series “Hermeneia of the New Testament” (ΕΚΔ) and “Bibliotheca Biblica” (ΒΒ), editor of the ecumenical series “Ecclesia-Koinonia-Oecumene” (ΕΚΟ), and of the CEMES series, editor-in-chief for East and South Europe of the “International Studies in Formative Christianity and Judaism” of the University of South Florida, and editor of the Great Orthodox Christian Encyclopedia (Μεγάλη Ορθόδοξη Χριστιανική Εγκυκλοπαίδεια, MOXE) in its early stages.

He then moved to his home town, Thessaloniki, where he was elected lecturer in 1982, assistant professor in 1983, associate professor in 1985, and full professor in 1989, at the Department of Theology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. There he taught for almost 35 years New Testament and Interfaith dialogue, being also assigned for some time the courses of Missiology, Liturgics and Ecumenical Dialogue. He also taught as a visiting professor at various institutions, universities and colleges of USA (St. Vladimir's, St. Athanasius, Smith College, Lynchburg), of Europe (Bossey, Bologna Bari, Ravenna, Copenhagen, Lund, Oslo, Joensuu, Reykiavik), and Asia (South Korea).

Vassiliadis pursued undergraduate studies in Theology and Mathematics in AUTh, and post-graduate studies in Biblical Criticism and Biblical Theology at British (King's College London) and German (Heidelberg) universities. Vassiliadis studied at the University of Athens, where he submitted his doctoral dissertation entitled On the Hypothesis of the Q-Document. A Critical Consideration of Current Literary and Theological Problems of the Q-Document (1977).

Together with his colleagues, professors S. Agouridis, G. Galitis, J. Karavidopoulos, B. Stoyannos and J. Galanis, he translated the New Testament into Modern Greek (1977-1989). He published, edited in Greek and English nearly 20 books, and 300 articles in scientific journals, conference proceedings, and collective volumes, as well as in the conventional and electronic press. He also participated in radio and television discussions, and gave numerous interviews on a variety of themes. He participated in more than 100 international conferences.

Petros Vassiliadis started his academic career by serving as an assistant to the late professor Savvas Agouridis (1974-1977) at the Theological School of the University of Athens.

Petros Vassiliadis (Greek: Πέτρος Βασιλειάδης; born 1945) is a Greek biblical scholar and Professor Emeritus of the Department of Theology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), honorary president of the Center of Ecumenical, Missiological and Environmental Studies “Metropolitan Panteleimon Papageorgiou” (CEMES) and the World Conference of Associations and Theological Institutions and Educators (WOCATI).

Vassiliadis was born in Thessaloniki on August 6, 1945.

Κατηγορίες: • Έλληνες θεολόγοι • Καθηγητές Αριστοτελείου Πανεπιστημίου Θεσσαλονίκης • Γεννήσεις το 1945