St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute

The Institut de Théologie Orthodox Saint- Serge in Paris is the only French-language institution that offers a degree in Orthodox theology at university level worldwide.

History

Friedrich von Bodelschwinghstraße founded in 1850, a German -speaking Lutheran church in Paris for the then numerous German workers and their families. After the First World War, these practically disused church was offered for sale by the French Church.

At that time, Paris had numerous Russian Orthodox believers who had their homes because of the Russian Revolution to leave. Their spiritual leader, Metropolitan Evlogij Georgievsky (1868-1946), was looking for a church that would serve as a place of worship and theological seminary for the training of young priests of his diocese at the same time.

Through donations of exile Russians but also the ecumenical community initiated by John Raleigh Mott the purchase was possible. Since the July 18, 1924 in the Orthodox calendar July 5, the name day of Sergius of Radonezh Church and Institute were placed under its patronage.

Staff

Metropolitan Evlogi made ​​from the beginning to work with excellent professors, theologians and religious thinkers, whose work contributed greatly to making known the Orthodox theology in the Western world:

  • Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov
  • The patristic scholar and pioneer of the ecumenical movement Georgi Vasilyevich Florovsky,
  • The patristic scholar and liturgist Cyprian Kern,
  • The historian Anton Vladimirovich Kartaschew
  • The historian Georgi Petrovich Fedotov
  • The philosopher Vasily Wasiljevitsch Zenkovsky
  • The pioneer of the ecumenical movement Lev Aleksandrovich Zander
  • New Testament scholar Cassian Bezobrazov
  • Canonist Nicolas Afanasiev

University

Shortly before the Second World War, the Institut Saint - Serge got the right to award master's degrees and doctorates. During the first decades of the language of instruction was Russian, today she is French.

Ecumenism

The Institut Saint - Serge played a significant role in the emergence of the ecumenical movement, which led to all the major international conferences on the establishment of the World Council of Churches, professors of the Institute were involved.

Professors of the Institute participated as observer at the Second Vatican Council, and were then invited to teach the Institut Catholique de Paris at the Institut Supérieur d' Etudes Œcuméniques.

Ecclesiastical Status

Under canon law, the Institute is the Exarchate of orthodox churches of Russian tradition in Western Europe and with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Opel.

Major graduates

  • John Meyendorff
  • Alexander Schmemann
Religious law
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