Staff profile

Research

My research interests include classical rhetorical theory and Christian preaching; early Christian asceticism and later Orthodox spirituality; Byzantine hymnography; the cultural and religious links between Byzantium and the Slav world. I've also been investigating the theological responses to the Balkan Wars and WW1 in the works of the Bulgarian writer Yordan Yovkov.

Teaching

• Level 1: Christianity in Context (team-taught course)
• Level 2: Early Christian Doctrine: Trinity and Christology
• Level 3: The Cross in the Shadow of the Crescent (team-taught course)
• Level 3: Faith and the Experience of War in the Orthodox Tradition
• Level 4 (MA): Patristic Ecclesiology
• PhD: supervisor and internal examiner for doctoral dissertations at Durham, external examiner at the universities of Cambridge, Glasgow, Essex and Bucharest. 

Conference Papers and Presentations

• 2018, May – Athens University: “Reconciliation in St John Chrysostom” - public lecture
• 2017, September / December – “Faith-based Army: The Russian Orthodox Church and the Military”, British Army Chaplains Conference and Ecclesiastical History Seminar, Durham
• 2017, June - "Kirche im Krieg: Orthodoxe Soldaten und Militärseelsorger in den Balkankriegen (1912-12)", two lectures at the Augustana Hochschule, Bavaria.
• 2017, April – international conference The Book and the Sword: The Bible in the Experience and Legacy of the Great War. Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge . Presentation on: “Holy and Just Wars in Eastern Orthodoxy: The Balkan Wars (1912-1913)”
• 2016, July – British Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre, Amport House, Hampshire. Conference on “Conflict, Faith and Conscience in the Modern World”. Presentation on: “Does Eastern Orthodoxy have a doctrine of holy war? Study of Orthodox war propaganda from the time of the Russian Japanese War and the First World War”
• 2016, March – Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge. Study day on “Orthodoxy and WW2: St Maria of Paris (Mother Maria Skobtsova)”
• 2015, September – Bose, Italy. International Conference on Christian Forgiveness and Reconciliation among the Churches. Invited as a chair of the round table discussion which concluded the conference.
• 2015, May – Helsinki, ‘Sofia’ Centre of the Finnish Orthodox Church. International Conference on “Political Orthodoxy and Totalitarianism in a post-Communist Era”. Presentation on: “Bulgarian Orthodoxy facing the challenges of the post-communist era”
• 2015, April – Oxford, International Patristic Conference. Paper on: “Revisiting Hospitality in Early Monasticism”
• 2014, September – Tbilisi State University, Georgia. International Conference on Topical Issues of Ancient Culture and Its Heritage. Presentation on: ‘“Praying that wars everywhere may cease”: Reconciliation in St John Chrysostom’
• 2014, May – Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge. Study day on “War and peace in the Orthodox tradition”
• 2011, February: Retreat of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid America of the Antiochian Orthodox Church of North America. Personal invitation by the diocesan bishop to lead 7 workshops on patristic ecclesiology with over 60 clergy, some of which in active ministry as air-force chaplains in Afghanistan. 

Authored book

• Banev, Krastu (2015). Theophilus of Alexandria and the First Origenist Controversy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Chapter in book

• Banev, K. (2018). 'Hospitality'. In Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online. Hunter, David G., van Geest, Paul J.J. & Peerbolte, Bert Jan Lietaert Brill.
• Banev, K. (2018). 'Theophilus of Alexandria'. In Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online. Hunter, David G., van Geest, Paul J.J. & Peerbolte, Bert Jan Lietaert Brill.
• Banev, Krastu, Filaret di L’viv e Galizia, Makaryan, Adam, Menini, Antonio & Yannaras, Christos (2016). 'Misericordia e perdono tra le chiese'. In Misericordia e perdono. Atti del XXIII Convegno ecumenico internazionale di spiritualità ortodossa Bose, 9-12 settembre 2015 a cura di Luigi d’Ayala Valva, Lisa Cremaschi e Adalberto Mainardi monaci di Bose. D'Ayala Valva, Luigi, Cremaschi, Lisa & Mainardi, Adalberto Magnano (BI): Edizioni Qiqajon, Comunità di Bose. 371-390.
• Banev, Krastu (2014). ‘Myriad of Names to Represent Her Nobleness’ The Church and the Virgin Mary in the Psalms and Hymns of Byzantium. In Celebration of Living Theology: A Festschrift in Honour of Andrew Louth. Aldea, Serafim & Mihoc, Justin London: Bloomsbury. 75-103.
• Banev, Krastu (2012). The Ecclesiology of the Philokalia. In The Philokalia: A Classic Text of Orthodox Spirituality. Bingaman, Brock & Nassif, Bradley Oxford: Oxford University Press. 163-174.

Journal Article

• Banev, Krastu (2019). Glaube in Kriegsnot: Der rumänisch-orthodoxe Gebetskreis „Rugul Aprins“ (Der brennende Dornbusch) im Kontext der panorthodoxen Spiritualität. Orthodoxes Forum 33(1-2): 73-90.
• Banev, Krastu (2014). Questions of War and Peace in the theology of Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov (1896-1993). Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 66(3-4): 91-123.
• Banev, Krastu (tr.) (2013). 'Holy Night' by Yordan Yovkov. Sobornost 34(1): 41-51.
• Banev, Krastu (2011). Vulkadin talks to God: A short story by Yordan Yovkov (1880-1937). Sobornost incorporating Eastern Churches Review 33(1): 22-36.
• Banev, Krastu (2005). Two Enigmatic Manuscripts: the Slavonic Translation of the Homilies on the Departure of the Soul Attributed to Theophilus of Alexandria and Simeon Mesopotamites (CPG 2618 and 4035). Palaeobulgarica 29: 72-97.

Translated Book

• Banev, Krastu (trans.) (2008). Архимандрит Софроний Сахаров, Свети Силуан Атонски [Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov, St Silouan the Athonite. Translated from the Russian into Bulgarian] . Sofia: Omophor