Professor Paul L. Gavrilyuk

Paul L. Gavrilyuk is the inaugural Michael Huffington Chair of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in the Faculty of Theology and Religion, and Professorial Fellow at Merton College. Prior to Oxford, Prof Gavrilyuk was the Aquinas Chair in Theology and Philosophy in the Theology Department of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota (2013-2025). In addition to St. Thomas, he has held visiting appointments at Harvard Divinity School, Calvin College, and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy. Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, he studied physics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (1988-1993). Upon graduation, he continued his education in the United States, where he pursued Master of Theological Studies at Perkins School of Theology (1993-1995) and a Ph.D. in Historical Theology in the Graduate Program in Religious Studies at Southern Methodist University (1995-2001). Gavrilyuk is the founding president of the International Orthodox Theological Association (IOTA), which includes over 1,000 members and is the largest academic society of the worldwide communion of Orthodox Churches. He is also the founding president of a humanitarian organization Rebuild Ukraine (rebuild-ua.org), which has provided over £600,000 in vital aid to Ukraine’s defenders, refugees, and children affected by the Russian invasion. 

Modern Russian religious history and thought, particularly Vladimir Solovyov, Pavel Florensky, Sergius Bulgakov, Georges Florovsky, Ivan Popov, Vladimir Lossky, and Alexander Schmemann; modern Ukrainian religious history and thought, especially Kyivan Christianity and theological tradition, Kyiv Theological Academy, theology and history of Holodomor, public theology of Euromaidan; Orthodox political theology and geopolitics, particularly the Russian World (Russkii mir) concept, Orthodox nationalism, trauma studies, deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, war and peace studies; deification studies; spiritual perception; neopatristic theologies, Orthodox understandings of East and West; theories of doctrinal development; metaphysics of mediation; Orthodox natural theology and accounts of religious experience; religious epistemology; sources of Christian divisions and models of Christian unity; theological and historical aspects of ecumenical dialogue; patristic understandings of God, divine attributes (e.g. impassibility, simplicity), patristic Christologies, history and theology of early Christian rites of initiation and catechumenate, individual early Christian authors (e.g. Cyril of Alexandria, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, and Maximus the Confessor).  

Founding President, International Orthodox Theological Association (IOTA). Programs: mega-conference in the Republic of Georgia; IOTA Future Leaders; IOTA Colloquia; IOTA YouTube Channel; IOTA Talks; IOTA Dialogues.

Managing Editor, IOTA Publications
Coordinator, IOTA YouTube Channel
Principal Investigator, Spiritual Perception Research Project
Founding President, Rebuild Ukraine (rebuild-ua.org)
 

Oxford Handbook of Deification, co-edited with Andrew Hofer and Matthew Levering. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024.
On Christian Leadership: Letters of Alexander Schmemann and Georges Florovsky (1947-1955). Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2020.
Georges Florovsky and the Russian Religious Renaissance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
The Suffering of the Impassible God: The Dialectics of Patristic Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Perceiving Things Divine: Towards a Constructive Account of Spiritual Perception, co-edited with Frederick D. Aquino. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 
The Spiritual Senses: Perceiving God in Western Christianity, co-edited with Sarah Coakley. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012.