Lecture by Prof. Paschalis Kitromilides on The Enlightenment and the Orthodox World

[Calliope Dourou]

Dear friends and colleagues,

We are thrilled to invite you to our upcoming lecture on The Enlightenment and the Orthodox World on Saturday, October 11, 2025, at 4:00 pm (CDT).

We are truly delighted to welcome Professor Paschalis Kitromilides, a scholar who needs no introduction. Renowned internationally for his pioneering work on the European Enlightenment, Professor Kitromilides stands among the most influential historians of political thought of our time, a scholar whose work has redefined the field and inspired generations.

About the Speaker:

A graduate of Harvard University and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Professor Kitromilides has also served as Director of the Centre for Asia Minor Studies and the Institute of Neohellenic Research at the National Hellenic Research Foundation. He has held visiting appointments at Harvard, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and numerous other institutions worldwide.

The author or editor of over fifty books and nearly three hundred scholarly articles, Professor Kitromilides has been honored with many Awards of Excellence, including the prestigious first Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the European Society for the History of Political Thought and the Award of Excellence in Historical and Social Sciences of the Academy of Athens. His extraordinary body of scholarship has been translated into no fewer than six languages, including French, Russian, Romanian, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Turkish. In recognition of his profound contributions to the study of the history of political thought, Professor Kitromilides was elected a full member of the Academy of Athens in 2020.

About the Lecture:

The lecture discusses the encounter of the Orthodox cultures of Eastern and Southeastern Europe with the challenges of modernity and secularism emanating from the West in the form of the intellectual outlook of the Enlightenment. The main argument put forward suggests that the conventional understanding of an unconditional opposition between Orthodoxy and the Enlightenment is in fact untenable. On the evidence of the works of major exponents of the Enlightenment writing in Greek it is pointed out that Orthodox culture and the Orthodox Church were much more receptive to the Enlightenment than conventionally assumed.

For those unable to attend in person, the lecture will also be available via livestream. We will share the access link with you soon. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

We hope you will join us for what promises to be an intellectually fascinating and memorable lecture.

With warm regards,

Calliope

Calliope Dourou

Associate Professor (Instructional) of Modern Greek Literature and Culture

Department of Linguistics

The University of Chicago

Rosenwald Hall 205C

dou...@uchicago.edu