Authors

Rev. Fr. Vasileios Thermos

Fr. Vasileios Thermos is a priest of the Church of Greece. He was born in 1957 in Lefkada, Greece. He studied Medicine and Orthodox Theology at the University of Athens and holds a doctorate from the same University. Together with his priestly ministry in Athens, he is a practicing psychiatrist, and is Professor of Pastoral Theology and Psychology at the University Ecclesiastical Academy in Athens. He has practiced psychiatry and psychotherapy for children and adolescents in Athens since 1990. Fr. Vasileios was a visiting scholar in 1996-1997 at Harvard University, Boston College, Boston University, and Andover Newton. The author of many books and articles, he offers spiritually provocative and clinically informed programs and retreats in Greece, the United States, Albania, and Cyprus. His insights into the fields of theology and psychology are combined with a strong undercurrent in psychoanalytic thought.

Elissa Bjeletich
Elissa Bjeletich hosts three popular Ancient Faith Radio podcasts: Raising Saints, Everyday Orthodox, and together with Kristina Wenger, Tending the Garden of Our Hearts. She is the co-author of Tending the Garden of Our Hearts: Daily Lenten Meditations for Families (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019) and also of Blueprints for the Little Church: Creating an Orthodox Home (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2016). She is the author of Welcoming the Christ Child: Family Readings for the Nativity Lent (Sebastian Press, 2017), and In God’s Hands: A Mother’s Journey through Her Infant’s Critical Illness (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2013).

Elissa has five daughters and a son who reposed in 2005. She is active in Orthodox youth and family ministries, directing and teaching Sunday school at Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church and volunteering at summer and family camps, and has contributed to several national curriculum projects. She sits on the Advisory Board of Youth Equipped to Serve (YES), a ministry of FOCUS North America.

 Christos Yannaras

Christos Yannaras was born in 1935 in Athens. Today he is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Pandion University in Athens, Department of Political Science and International Studies. He obtained a doctorate of theology at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, and a doctorate of philosophy at the Medical Faculty des Lettre (Sorbonne) in Paris. As a visiting professor he taught in Geneva and Paris, and at the Philosophical Faculty of Crete. The focus of Professor Yannaras’ academic work is his long-term study and research on the differences between the Hellenic and the Western European philosophy and theological-ecclesiastical traditions: these differences are not exhausted within the sphere of theory, but are determined by one’s lifestyle or environment, that is, what we would call culture and civilization. Yannaras has written more than forty books, numerous studies, and a seemingly infinite variety of critical and engaging articles in the Athens newspapers To Vima and Kathimerini.