This lecture looks at one of the most dramatic and important of all mystical theologians of the Eastern Christian tradition; but one who remains still barely known today. While serving as an abbot in a turbulent era of Constantinople, Symeon offers his rhapsodic descriptions of his direct encounters with the light of Christ’s presence as a teaching that mysticism is not for an élite few but is the grace of the Resurrection offered to all believers.

The Very Rev. Professor John Anthony McGuckin is an Archpriest of the Orthodox Church in the Patriarchate of Romania’s Archdiocese in Western Europe, Rector of St Gregory’s chapel in St. Anne’s on Sea, in North West England; Professor in the Theological Faculty of Oxford University; Senior Professorial Research Fellow at Emory University’s School of Law, and at the St. Irenaeus Orthodox Institute at Radboud University Nijmegen. He received his Bachelor of Divinity from Heythrop College, a PhD in Patristic Theology from Durham University, a Postgrad. Certificate in Education from Newcastle University, a MA (Ed) in Curriculum Design & Educational Management from Southampton University, and an honorary Doctor of Divinity from St. Vladimir Orthodox Seminary and an honorary Doctor of Letters from the Lucian Blaga University in Romania. He founded and directed the New York Sophia Institute as an advanced research forum for Eastern Orthodox thought and culture.

Since his first book on St. Symeon, he has published over thirty-three books on religious and historical themes, and two volumes of poetry, becoming internationally recognized as a leading interpreter of the Early Christian and Eastern Orthodox traditions. The central focus of his research has revolved around the thought of the fourth to fifth century Christian Fathers and the Byzantine mystical writers.  He has most recently prepared a new translation with commentary on St. Symeon the New Theologian’s Hymns of Divine Eros, one of the greatest of all medieval Orthodox mystical texts, which is to appear with SVS Press, New York, in 2024.  His works have been translated into many languages: Romanian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Korean and Chinese among them.  He has taught in numerous Universities both in America and in Europe, as Visiting Distinguished Professor or as Visiting Scholar, including Kyiv, Sibiu, Bucharest, Oslo, Iasi, Cambridge, Belfast, Oxford, Yale, Sydney and Moscow.  He was elected a Fellow of the British Royal Society of Arts in 1986, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1996.  He was selected as the prestigious Luce Fellow in Early Christianity in 2006.

In addition to his scholarly books, he has published more than 150 research articles, in scholarly journals.

Professor McGuckin has appeared many times on American, British, and Italian Television programs, as well as on Radio in Europe, America, and Canada, commenting on religious issues. In 2011, his film, co-authored with Emmy-award-winning Director Norris Chumley was released in cinemas, on cable TV and DVD entitled: Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer. It can be seen in large part on YouTube under that title. His 2022 online talk on Orthodoxy in Kiev and Moscow: History of an Ecclesial Union or Subjugation? is also available there.

Fr. McGuckin became an Orthodox Christian in 1989 and was ordained to the Diaconate in Baia Mare (Romania) in 1996, and to the priesthood with a pastoral care for Romanians in England, in 1996; and, is married to Eileen McGuckin, a professional Master-Iconographer in the Byzantine and Slavic styles. Their family consists of three married children, and seven grandchildren: the makings of a small Irish clan.