Met. Kallistos of Diokleia – Brief Biography & Bibliography

Metropolitan Kallistos was educated at Westminster School (to which he had won a scholarship) and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a Double First in Classics as well as reading Theology.

In 1958, at the age of 24, he embraced the Orthodox Christian faith (having been raised Anglican), traveling subsequently throughout Greece, spending a great deal of time at the Monastery of St. John the Theologian in Patmos.

In the same year, he became a lecturer at Oxford, teaching Eastern Orthodox Studies, a position which he held for 35 years until his retirement. In 1970, he was appointed to a Fellowship at Pembroke College, Oxford, and in 1982, he was consecrated to the episcopacy as an auxiliary bishop with the title Bishop of Diokleia, appointed to serve as the assistant to the bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain. Despite his elevation, Bp Kallistos remained in Oxford and carried on his duties both as the parish priest of the Oxford Greek Orthodox community and as a lecturer at the University.

Since his retirement in 2001, Met. Kallistos has continued to publish and to give lectures on Orthodox Christianity, travelling widely. Until recently, he was the chairman of the board of directors of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge. He is the chairman of the group Friends of Orthodoxy on Iona. He is the Chairman of the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue. On 31st March 2007 he was elevated to Metropolitan.

Met. Kallistos is perhaps best known as the author of the book The Orthodox Church, published when he was a layman in 1963 and subsequently revised several times. More recently, he produced a companion volume, The Orthodox Way. But his most substantial publications have emerged from his translation work. Together with G. E. Palmer and Philip Sherrard), he has undertaken to translate the Philokalia (four volumes of five published to date); and with Mother Mary he produced the Lenten Triodion and Festal Menaion.

Writings

A partial bibliography:

• Ware, K. (1971a) ‘The Value of the Material Creation’ Sobernost 6 (3): 154-165.
• (1971b) ‘The Mystery of God and Man in St. Symeon the New Theologian’ Sobornost, 6.4 (1971):227-36.
• (1973) ‘Scholasticism and Orthodoxy: Theological Method as a Factor in the Schism.’ Eastern Churches Review 5.1 (1973): 16-27.
• (1977) ‘Separated from All and United to All: The Hermit Life in the Christian East’ in, Allchin, A. M. (Ed.) Solitude and Communion. Oxford: Fairacres Publications, pp. 30-47.
• (1983) ‘Wolves and Monks: Life on the Holy Mountain Today.’ Sobornost 5.2 (1983): 56-68.
• (1986) ‘The Human Person as an Icon of the Trinity’ Sobornost 8.2 (1986): 6-23.
• (1987) ‘Spirit, Church, Eucharist’ The Franciscan, 29.2 (1987): 77-84.
• (1991a) ‘The Spirituality of the Philokalia’ Sobornost 13.1 (1991): 6-24.
• (1991b) ‘Tradition, the Bible and the Holy Spirit’ Epiphany, II.2 (1991): 7-16.
• [1992](1995a) (Rev. Ed.) The Orthodox Way Crestwood, NY: SVSP.
• (1995b) ‘The Way of the Ascetics: Negative of Affirmative?’ in, Wimbush, V. L. & Valantasis, R. (Eds) Asceticism Oxford: OUP, pp. 3-15.
• (1996a)  How Are We Saved? The Understanding of Salvation in the Orthodox Tradition Minneapolis, MN: Light and Life.
• (1996b) ‘In the Image and Likeness: The Uniqueness of the Human Person’ in, Chirban, J. T. (Ed.) Personhood: Orthodox Christianity and the Connection Between Body, Mind, and Soul Westport, CN: Bergin & Garvey, pp. 1-13.
• (1996c) ‘Lent and the Consumer Society’ in, Walker, A. & Carras, C. (Eds) Living Orthodoxy in the Modern World London: SPCK. pp. 64-84.
• (1997a) [1993] The Orthodox Church. London: Penguin.
• (1997b) Through the Creation to the Creator Ecotheology 2. (1997):8-30.
• (1997c) ‘We Must Pray for All: Salvation according to St. Silouan’ Sobornost 19.1 (1997): 34-51.
• (1997d) ‘My Helper and My Enemy: The Body in Greek Christianity’ in, Coakley, S. (Ed.) Religion and the Body. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 90-110.
• (1999a) ‘The Soul in Greek Christianity’ in, James, M. & Crabbe, C. (Eds) From Soul to Self. London & New York: Routledge, pp. 49-69.
• (1999b) ‘Kenosis and Christ-Like Humility according to Saint Silouan’ Sobornost 21.2: 21-31.
• (2000) ‘Go Forth in Peace’ in, Communion (May 2000): I-7.
• (2001a) The Inner Kingdom: The Collected Works, Vol. 1 Crestwood, NY: SVSP.
• (2001b) ‘The Light that Lightens Everyone: The Knowledge of God Among Non-Christians according to the Greek Fathers and St. Innocent’ in, Greek Orthodox Theological Review, 44: 557-64.
• (2001c) ‘It Is Time For The Lord To Act: The Divine Liturgy as Heaven on Earth’ Sobornost 23.1 (2001): 7-22.
• (2005a) Ecological Crisis, Ecological Hope: The Orthodox Vision of Creation. Orthodoxy in America Lecture, Bronx, NY: Fordham University. [Online] Available at: http://www.fordham.edu/downloads/file/2078/kallistos_lecture.
• (2006) ‘The Unity of Scripture and Tradition: An Orthodox Approach’ in, McCosker, P. (Ed.) What is it that Scripture Says? Essays in Biblical Interpretation and Reception in Honour of Henry Wansbrough OSB London: T & T Clarke, pp. 231-246.
• (2008) ‘How To Read The Bible’ in, The Orthodox Study Bible Dallas: Thomas Nelson, pp. 1757-1766.
• (2011) ‘Sobornost and Eucharistic Ecclesiology: Aleksei Khomiakov and his successors’ International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church, 11(2–3): 216–35.
•  (2012) ‘Orthodox theology today: trends and tasks’, International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church, 12:2: 105-121.
• (2014) Compassion for Animals in the Orthodox Church, International Conference on Religion and Animals, St. Stephen’s House, Oxford, UK. 21-23^rd July. Contact Prof. A. Linzey, Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, 91, Iffley Road, Oxford, OX4 1EG,  depdirector@oxfordanimalethics.com. 

He has also co-authored, edited, and translated many other works.