NOVEMBER 2015 The Greek Australian VEMA
Phronema: Celebrating the 30th Anniversary
When St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological Col-
lege was established in 1986, its founding dean, His Em-
inence Archbishop Stylianos, envisaged it as a haven of
scholarly learning that would be framed by the ethos of
the Orthodox Church. It only seemed natural that such
a place would produce its own research, and that the
outlet for this research would be a scholarly journal.
That the first issue of Phronema - which can mean
‘ethos,’ ‘disposition,’ and ‘mindset’ - was published in
the same year as the College’s founding highlights both
its founder’s vision for St Andrew’s and for the journal;
it would employ all the rigours of scholarship shaped by
a genuine Christian spirit. This is both an apostolic and
traditional approach to research: apostolic, because in
addressing patristics, Church history, theology, biblical
studies, etc., Phronema would give witness to the criti-
cal reflection on such topics to the wider academic mi-
lieus; traditional, because many saints of the Church en-
gaged with the ‘scholarship’ of their day to do just the
same thing.
Thirty years have passed, and Phronema - like St An-
drew’s - has seen many changes. The journal has had
three editors. Its founding editor is Dr Guy Freeland, a
pillar of St Andrew’s who was in charge of the journal
from 1986-1994. Dr Freeland was followed by Assoc.
Prof. James A. Athanasou, who edited the journal from
1995-2012. Its current editor is Professor Angelo Karan-
tonis.Before addressing his editorship of the journal, I
would like to take us back to 2009, when something
wonderful happened for St Andrew’s and, as it would
turn out, for the journal also. With the blessing of the
Dean and at the initiative of Protopresbyter Dr Doru
Costache, Senior Lecturer in Patristic Studies, the first
Patristic Symposium, co-convened by Father Doru and
Dr Philip Kariatlis (Senior Lecturer in Theology) was held
at the College. The symposium was on the life and work
of St Basil the Great, and the 2010 volume of Phronema
was dedicated to papers from the symposium and was,
naturally, edited by its conveners. Afterwards, the an-
nual symposia would provide a great many papers for
the journal, published both in entire special issues and
in regular editions. Back to the edition of 2010, a new
era dawned for the journal in that year that was mani-
fested in many ways. Firstly, up until this point in time
the editors had relied on ad-hoc referees to ‘blindly’
peer review the papers before publication. Whilst this
system remains in place and external referees are of
course still used, in 2010 an editorial board was set up
from which reviewers could be readily chosen. This edi-
torial board was from the outset international, and
would grow to include seventeen members. The num-
ber of external (permanent) peer reviewers has also
jumped in recent years to twenty-two - that’s thirty-
nine expert scholars that leave their mark on the pub-
lished outcomes of this journal.
Secondly, by 2011 it was clear that if the Patristic
Symposia were to continue as yearly events (now oc-
curring biennially in alteration with the Theology Sym-
posia, inaugurated this year), then Phronema would
need to expand to accommodate the influx of papers.
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At the suggestion of Father Doru, a second annual issue
of the journal was launched: the first would be dedicat-
ed to miscellaneous papers sent directly to the editor,
and the second would be dedicated to the symposium
of the previous year. This means, for instance, that the
papers from the 2010 symposium were published in
volume 26:2 in 2011; and this process has continued
ever since.
Thus, from 2011 onwards, Phronema became a bian-
nual peer reviewed journal. Around the same time the
whole catalogue was submitted to the online ATLA Reli-
gion Database that can be accessed through EBSCO
host, one of the world’s largest online library databas-
es. This, along with the fact that contributors often up-
load their papers to their academic profiles on websites
like academia.edu and researchgate.net, has given
Phronema a much wider audience than it had in previ-
ous years.
The next milestone for Phronema occurred in 2013,
when the mantle of editor-in-chief was passed to Pro-
fessor Angelo Karantonis, an alumnus of St Andrew’s.
Professor Karantonis has been energetic in mustering
support for Phronema, and together with Father Doru -
whose international connections have been indispensa-
ble in providing contributions to the journal - the num-
ber of articles increased in 2015 to seven per volume;
that’s fourteen articles this year alone! Phronema has
also constituted the font for many of the chapters that
were published - with revisions - in two collective vol-
umes by members of College faculty. Cappadocian
Legacy: A Critical Appraisal, edited by Father Doru and
Dr Kariatlis and published by St Andrew’s Press in 2013,
mostly contains papers that were published in Phrone-
ma from 2010-12, along with brand new chapters con-
tributed by renowned friends of the College like the
Very Revd Professor John A. McGuckin and Professor
David Bradshaw. More recently, Alexandrian Legacy: A
Critical Appraisal (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, 2015), edited by Father Doru,
Philip, and myself, similarly contains chapters that con-
stitute revised versions of thirteen articles published in
Phronema between 2013-15 (it also includes an entire-
ly new chapter).
OCTOBER 2015
THE ELDER PAISIOS
There was a time Greeks
sought refuge in Syria
As thousands of refugees from Near East
are arriving in Greece in order to progress to
the rest of Europe and while the immigra-
tion problem is exacerbating, it is time to
travel back to the period when Greek refu-
Tiles
gees were seeking shelter in Syria in their ef-
fort to reach their homeland.
PAGE 10/28
Cleaning
Hephastion’s monogram
found at Amphipolis tomb
Katerina Peristeri, the archaeologist in
charge of the excavation of the Amphipolis
tomb, presented a new finding that may re-
veal the identity of the individual initially
buried in the tomb.
PAGE 2/20
Asterousia
Routes to the rough coast on the Libyan
Sea lead the visitor through some phenome-
nal landscape.
PAGE 20/38
TO BHMA 7 /25
All of these achievements point to the fact that
Phronema continues to grow from strength to strength.
It would be remiss of me not to mention at this point
the whole team behind Phronema. There are certain
key members in the ‘production line’ (so to speak) of
the journal, without whom the whole publication pro-
cess would be impossible. Of course, we have men-
tioned the editor-in-chief, Professor Karantonis, and the
guest editors Father Doru and Philip. As editorial assis-
tant for the journal, it is my job to adjust the contribu-
tions to the journal’s style. Mr Basilios Psilacos, Teacher
in Worship, Liturgical Studies and Byzantine Music, puts
the various sections of the journal - preliminary pages,
editorial, and articles - into their print-ready format in
InDesign. This is done according to specifications main-
tained by Mr Anastasios Kalogerakis, College registrar,
who handles the correspondence with the printing
company. Once the journal is printed, it is distributed
by Mr Chris Baghos, the College’s IT and Registry Offi-
cer, to all our subscribers and contributors via mail.
On this note, I bring to a close my celebratory reflec-
tions on Phronema’s thirtieth year. But before I do, I
would like to stress once more the achievements of this
journal in the past few years, especially in relation to its
international editorial board and contributions by
scholars such as Professor Pauline Allen, Associate Pro-
fessor Bronwen Neil, Professor David Bradshaw, Profes-
sor Paul M. Blowers, Emeritus Professor Garry Trompf,
Revd Professor Denis Edwards, and others. These are
just some of the renowned scholars who have recently
contributed articles to both the journal and, in some
cases, chapters in the collective volumes mentioned
above. We are grateful to them, and to you, the reader,
for ensuring this journal’s continued growth and suc-
cess. May it be God’s will that Phronema continue to
enlighten and inspire for many years to come. To find
out more about Phronema, please visit the journal’s
webpage:
www.sagotc.edu.au/phronema
Dr Mario Baghos
Associate Lecturer in Church History
St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College
The Greek
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OUR ARCHBISHOP’S VIEW:
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The oldest circulating
Greek newspaper
His Eminence Archbishop Stylianos (Ecumenical Patriarchate); His Eminence Archbishop Paul (Antiochian Church);
His Grace Bishop George (Russian Church); His Grace Bishop Irinej (Serbian Church); His Grace Bishop Mihail
(Romanian Church); His Eminence Metropolitan Amphilochios (Ecumenical Patriarchate); His Grace Bishop Ezekiel
(Assistant Bishop); His Grace Bishop Seraphim (Assistant Bishop); His Grace Bishop Nikandros (Assistant Bishop)
and His Grace Bishop Iakovos (Assistant Bishop).
5th EPISCOPAL
ASSEMBLY OF OCEANIA
The members of the 5th Episcopal Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of Oceania welcomed
the opportunity to meet in Sydney on Tuesday 13th October, 2015, under the chairmanship ex offi­ outside Greece
cio of His Eminence Archbishop Stylianos of Australia.
CONT. PAGE 3/21
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The First Fruits of Spring at St Andrew’s Theological College:
Professor David Bradshaw’s Lectures in Ancient Greek Philosophy
Email: vema@bigpond.net.au
PAGES 8/26 - 9/27