“We are honored that Father Maximos has agreed to serve HCHC as the interim dean of the School of Theology,” said HCHC President George M. Cantonis. “Fr. Maximos’s strong theological grounding, expertise in the Church Fathers and international reputation for academic excellence coupled with a deep humility, integrity, and authenticity have been invaluable to HCHC over his years of service, and we look forward to his gifts of vision-casting and leadership as he helms one of the most vital positions at our School.”
As interim dean for the School of Theology, Fr. Maximos will oversee the Master of Divinity Program, Master of Theological Studies, Master of Theology (ThM), the diaconate program as well as the Pappas Institute for Patristic Studies, and the Missions Institute. He will also be heavily involved with shaping the undergraduate religious studies program, clergy formation and development, and a new vision for the School of Theology.
In his new position, Fr. Maximos looks forward to building on the strengths of Holy Cross as it contributes to the mission of HCHC.
“One of my goals is to help foster a unified mission for the School of Theology, while honoring and supporting the unique ways individual faculty members pursue their academic vocations in the service of the School, the wider academic world, and the mission of the Church,” Fr. Maximos said. “I hope to help cultivate the conditions in which faculty members can thrive as scholars, teachers, and mentors, as we serve seminarians and students through our unique curriculum, and as we provide excellent and distinctive graduate theological education, through our programs and institutes.”
Joining HCHC as a senior research scholar in 2011, Fr. Maximos has served as a committed classroom teacher for nearly a decade, during which time his students have described him as dynamic, genuine, kind, caring, wise and brilliant. Fr. Maximos’ courses range from the Church Fathers, especially on St Maximos the Confessor, on whom he is a leading specialist, to courses on Orthodox Christian spirituality, the Byzantine theological, tradition and the patristic interpretation of Scripture.
Fr Maximos has twice held fellowships at Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard University’s Center for Byzantine Studies in Washington, D.C. (1992-1993, 2000-2002); he was the Inaugural James Rubin Visiting Professor of Patristic and Byzantine Studies at Hebrew University, Jerusalem (1991-1992); and a Visiting Professor of Patristics and Byzantine Literature and Consultant to the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (UCLA, Irvine, 2001). In 2005, he was invited to teach Orthodox Theology at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, in Paris; and in 2016, he served as a Visiting Professor of Byzantine Literature at Harvard University’s Department of the Classics (2016). He is a member of numerous international theological societies, and serves on multiple editorial boards, including Analogia: A Journal of Theological Dialogue; Rule of Faith: A Journal of Orthodox Thought; and the Greek editorial board for Harvard University’s prestigious Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library series.
The author of many books and numerous scholarly articles published in peer-reviewed journals, Fr Maximos’ work focuses on the patristic and Byzantine theological tradition, the patristic interpretation of Scripture, the Philokalia and Orthodox spirituality, the study of Byzantine manuscripts, and the theological study of Byzantine art, icons, and iconography.
A summa cum laude graduate of both Hellenic College (1984) and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology (1987), Fr Maximos completed his PhD in Patristics and Historical Theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. (1994). He has taught Patristics and Systematic Theology at Christ the Savior Seminary (1991-1992), and Early Christian and Byzantine Studies at Hellenic College and Holy Cross (1993-1998). He was subsequently invited to join the faculty of Harvard Divinity School, where for many years he served as Associate Professor of Theology (1998-2003). Responding to a life-long call to enter monastic life, Fr Maximos resigned from his position at Harvard and was tonsured a great-schema monk at the Holy Monastery of Simonopetra, Mt Athos, where he lived from 2003-2011. In 2015, Fr Maximos was ordained as a priest to serve in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. He was subsequently elevated to the rank of Archimandrite.
Fr. Maximos succeeds Fr. Thomas Fitzgerald, who has been serving as interim dean since 2018.
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