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Efstathios Kessareas

Efstathios Kessareas is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Faculty of Philosophy (Department of Religious Studies – Chair of Orthodox Christianity) of the University of Erfurt, Germany. He is working on the research project: ‘The Challenge of Worldliness to Contemporary Christianity: Orthodox Christian Perspectives in Dialogue with Western Christianity’. He holds a PhD in sociology and a MA in religious and development studies. In the past he conducted postdoctoral research at the Center for Social Theory of Ghent University, Belgium. He has published on sociology of religion, Orthodox Christianity, and modern Greek ideology.

Essays

“When shall we be free?” Conceptualizing Freedom in Orthodox Christianity

The primacy of the inner type of freedom can produce a withdrawal from the world or an attitude of passivity towards its frustrating circumstances, particularly when the believer searches for real freedom exclusively inside the self irrespective of the conditions that exist in the broader socio-political environment.