Fr Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture

Renowned Orthodox scholar and author the Very Rev. Dr. Andrew Louth will deliver the 43rd Annual Father Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture at St. Vladimir’s Seminary on Friday, January 30, 2026, on the Feast of the Three Hierarchs.

The lecture is free and open to the public to attend in person or online. It begins at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST.

Register to Attend in Person or Online
 

Fr. Andrew’s lecture is titled, “Shadows and Darkness in Patristic Theology.”

“Orthodox Theology is often regarded, by ourselves and others, as essentially ‘apophatic,’” writes Fr. Andrew. “Even though the language of apophatic/cataphatic was only introduced into Greek Patristic theology by Dionysios the Areopagite, a negative theology of an unknowable God already had a long history. There has, however, been a tendency to see Greek Patristic theology from the perspective of Neoplatonic apophaticism, and overlook the various ways in which shadows and darkness feature in the Fathers. This lecture is an attempt to redress this.”

The Schmemann Lecture is part of St. Vladimir’s Seminary’s yearly celebration of the feast of our chapel patrons, the Three Hierarchs: Holy and Ecumenical Teachers Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom. His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon will preside over Divine Liturgy at 9 a.m. that morning at Three Hierarchs Chapel. A light reception will follow the lecture. 

About Fr. Andrew Louth

The Very Rev. Dr. Andrew Louth is Professor Emeritus, University of Durham; Honorary Fellow of the St. Irenaeus Orthodox Theological Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands; Fellow of the British Academy; and Archpriest Emeritus of the Diocese of Sourozh (Moscow Patriarchate). Author of several books, including The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: from Plato to Denys (1981; revised ed., 2007); Denys the Areopagite (1989); St John Damascene: Tradition and Originality in Byzantine Theology (2002); SVS Press’s Greek East and Latin West: the Church ad 681–1071, The Church in History, vol. III (2007); Modern Orthodox Thinkers: from the Philokalia to the present (2015); and numerous articles, a selection of which can be found in Selected Essays, in two volumes: I. Studies in Patristics; II. Studies in Theology, edited by Lewis Ayres and John Behr (2023).