The Very Rev. Dr Bogdan G. Bucur

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FrBogdan

The Very Rev. Dr Bogdan G. Bucur

Associate Professor of Patristics

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Fr Bogdan Bucur was born in Romania. He is married to Cristina and they are the parents of Irina, Andrei, and Miruna. After studying at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Bucharest (1994-1999), Fr Bogdan left for the USA, where he earned his MA (2002) and PhD (2007) in Religious Studies at Marquette University under the direction of (now Archbishop) Alexander Golitzin. Between 2007 and 2020, he was Assistant and then Associate Professor of Theology at Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh, where he worked in the areas of Early Christian Studies and Reception History of the Bible. In 2010 he was ordained a priest in the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese (AOCANA) and served as the pastor of St Anthony Orthodox Church in Butler, PA (2010-2020). He was elevated to the rank of archpriest on September 28, 2023, by the hand of His Eminence, Metropolitan Saba (AOCANA). Fr Bogdan and his family came to St Vladimir's Seminary in 2020. 

For more information see "Orthodox Identity in My Slice of Today’s America Anecdotal Observations of a Struggling Parent, Priest, and Academic"

Educational Background

Ph.D. in Religious Studies, Marquette University (2007)
M.A. in Theology, Marquette University (2002)
Ph.D. Coursework in Patristics, University of Bucharest (1998–2000)
M.A. in Biblical Studies, University of Bucharest (1998–1999)
Studies in Orthodox Theology, University of Bucharest (1995–1998)

Teaching Interests

Fr Bogdan is a scholar of early Christianity, with a special interest in the link between reception history of the Bible and doctrinal developments in early Christianity and the Byzantine tradition. He views it as important to study how early Christians articulated their religious identity by reworking doctrines, imagery, and practices inherited from the many currents of Second Temple Judaism. His academic interests were shaped significantly by participation in the interdisciplinary Seminar on the Jewish Roots of Christian Mysticism, and the "Theophaneia School", both led by Professor Andrei Orlov and Archbishop Dr Alexander Golitzin at Marquette University.

Current Projects and Research Interests

Jewish Roots of Early Christology and Pneumatology; Biblical Exegesis and Doctrinal Developments in Early Christianity; Byzantine Theology and Hymnography.

Fr Bogdan's first book dealt with the use of angelic imagery in early Christian pneumatology. His second is the first volume of a projected three-part study of the early Christian interpretation of biblical theophanies.

Selected Publications

(For a complete listing, see the c.v.)

Scripture Re-Envisioned: Christophanic Exegesis and the Making of a Christian Bible. The Bible in Ancient Christianity 13. Leiden/ Boston: Brill, 2019.

Angelomorphic Pneumatology: Clement of Alexandria and Other Early Christian Witnesses.  Vigiliae Christianae Supplements 95. Leiden/ Boston: Brill, 2009.

“I am the Image of Your Glory: Exegesis and Theology in a Byzantine Funeral Hymn,” Vigiliae christianae (forthcoming).

“Exegesis, Intertextuality, and the Transformative Gaze: The Vision of Isaiah in Cod. Vatop. 760, fol. 280 v.,” ByzantinoSlavica: Revue Internationale des Études Byzantines (forthcoming).

"Missing the (Theophanic) Point: A Blind Spot in Patristic Scholarship and its Consequences for Understanding Anti-Jewish Texts in Byzantine Festal Hymns,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Byzantine Liturgy and the Jews, Sibiu, 2019. Ed. A. Ioniță (Münster:Aschendorff, forthcoming).

“Ever Reaching for Higher and Higher Places: Clement of Alexandria on Spiritual Ascent,” Patristic Spirituality: Classical Perspectives on Ascent in the Journey to God, ed. Kevin Clarke and Don W. Springer (Leiden: Brill, 2023), 130–51.

“Restoring ‘Jesus’ in Jude 5:  What Can New Testament Textual Criticism Learn from the Fathers?,” in Watering the Garden: Studies in Honor of Deirdre Dempsey, ed. Andrei Orlov (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2023), 5–22.

“Christological Exegesis of Theophanies and the Making of Early Christian Theology,” Concordia Theological Quarterly 86 (2022): 97–124.

“Anti-Semitic Sentiments in Liturgical and Patristic Biblical Interpretations,” ch. 30 in The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Orthodox Christianity, ed. Eugen Pentiuc (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022).

"Now You See Me, Now You Don't: The Case of the Vanishing Theophanies in Patristic Scholarship," in New Narratives for Old: The Historical Method of Reading Early Christian Theology. Essays in Honor of Michel René Barnes, ed. A. Briggman and E. Scully (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2022), 329–46.

"The Lord Himself, One Lord, One Power: Isaiah 63:9 and Daniel 7:13 in Early Christian and Later Byzantine Exegesis," in Jewish Roots of Eastern Christian Mysticism: Studies in Honor of Alexander Golitzin, ed. Andrei A. Orlov (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 240–63.

Recent Conference Presentations and Activities

(For a complete listing, see the c.v.)