FR. PENTIUC IS MAIN SPEAKER AT TWO ACADEMIC EVENTS

Rev. Dr. Eugen J. Pentiuc, Archbishop Demetrios Professor of Biblical Studies and Early Christianity and Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, was the main speaker at two recent academic events.

From October 19-21, the ROOTS International Old Testament Symposium, organized by the Orthodox School of Theology of Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania, held its annual conference via Zoom. The theme was God’s Name in the Old Testament: Revelation, Significance, Prayer, and Theology. Fr. Pentiuc, who was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2019 from the same university, offered the keynote address, entitled YHWH: God’s Unfinished Name. 

In his address, Fr. Pentiuc used archeological, epigraphic, and biblical data to demonstrate the uniqueness of the God of the Old Testament, who through the revelation of his unfinished name, YHWH (He Was/Is/Will Be …), with no qualifying predicate, shared with ancient Israel and humanity in general his willingness to accommodate himself to the needs of all.

On October 27, the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University hosted an event via Zoom entitled Hearing the Scriptures: A Conversation with the Rev. Eugen J. Pentiuc. The conversation, moderated by Dr. Michael Legaspi of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, centered on Fr. Pentiuc’s book Hearing the Scriptures: Liturgical Exegesis of the Old Testament in Byzantine Orthodox Hymnography (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021), in which the author illuminates the subtle, profound, and beautiful ways the Scriptures are interpreted, enacted, and experienced in the hymns of the Church.