Archbishop Demetrios

The 33rd Bampton Lecture in America will be delivered by Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, on Thurs., March 8, at 6 p.m., in the Faculty Room of Columbia's Low Library.

The topic will be "Saint John Chrysostom: Anthropological Insights for our Times." The lecture is free and open to the public.

A native of Thessaloniki, Greece, Demetrios received his licentiate in theology from the School of Theology of the National and Cappodistrian University in Athens, and after ordination and serving in the church, he also received a doctorate in philosophy from Harvard, and a doctorate in theology from the National and Cappodistrian University.

From 1983 to 1993 he taught at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Mass., where in 1984 he was named Distinguished Professor of Biblical Studies and Christian Origins.

In 1991 Archbishop Demetrios was elected Titular Metropolitan of Vresthena. In 1995 he was appointed a member of the Patriarchal Exarchy to the Greek Orthodox Diocese of North and South America, and in September 1999, he was enthroned as primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America and Exarch of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Demetrios is the author of many scholarly publications, including The Pre-Existence of Christ in the Writings of Justin Martyr (1976), Authority and Passion: Christological Aspects of the Gospel According to Mark (1987) and The Transcendent God of Eugnostos (1991).

The Bampton Lectures in America were established at Columbia through a bequest of Ada Byron Bampton Tremaine and were modeled after a similar series at Oxford.

The series has included such distinguished speakers as Arnold Toynbee, Paul Tillich, Jacob Bronowski, Peter Brown and Annemarie Schimmel.