Biography
Yannis studied at the Universities of Thessaloniki, Münster, and Princeton where he earned his PhD. His dissertation (and first book in press from Harvard University Press), entitled ‘Christianity and Hellenism in the Fifth-Century Roman Empire: The Apologetics of Theodoret of Cyrrhus Against the Greeks in Context’ explores how the apologetic writings of a fifth-century author, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, became a way of engaging with the culture of the empire and of influencing the development of that culture and how Christian identity and culture were formulated in response to the cultural force of Hellenism by the need of Christian writers to articulate their position in the empire and within a Greek intellectual tradition. After a stint at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, in 2006 he was appointed AG Leventis Lecturer in Greek patristics at Oxford. His research interests include the Christianization of the Roman Empire, Patristics, Byzantine Christianity, apologetics, church history, late antique philosophical culture, organization of knowledge in late antiquity and Byzantium.
In 2010 he was awarded a prestigious five-year grant from the European Research Council (€1.5M) for the project ‘Defining Belief and Identities in the Eastern Mediterranean: The Role of Interreligious Debate and Interaction.’ He is currently working on a book (under contract with OUP) on the definition of belief and identities in the eastern Mediterranean (6-8 c. AD) based on the ERC research project. This project seeks to recover the processes by which religious beliefs and identities were defined through inter-religious interaction and debate in the religious culture of a broader social base in the eastern Mediterranean (6-8th centuries AD) through examination of a neglected, unconventional corpus of medieval Greek, Syriac and Arabic literature of debate and disputation (consisting of collections of questions and answers, dialogues among others). These sources help us to understand the kinds of perplexities that were being raised in Christian communities of the eastern Mediterranean as they negotiated a lively and contentious religious and social landscape.
At the same time they must be seen as an attempt by Christian authors to work out how Christianity was to define its position with regard to other religions (Hellenism, Judaism and Islam) in a period still characterized by considerable fluidity and change. As well as writing those doubts, challenges, objections, concerns, issues and anxieties back into the religious history of the eastern Mediterranean, this full-length study of these texts will provide scholars not only with a detailed knowledge of the ways in which religious belief, practice and communities were defined in contrast to other religious systems, and a fuller sense of the religious, social and intellectual history of the eastern Mediterranean but also with a nuanced picture of their self-definition, one which will be more sensitive to the processes that led to its formation.
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Papadogiannakis, I., 2021, Building the Kosmos. Greek Patristic and Byzantine Question and Answer Literature. Demulder, B. & Van Deun, P. (eds.). Brepols, p. 23-65 (Lectio). Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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Papadogiannakis, I., 2019, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses . Verheyden, J. (ed.). 3 ed. Belgium: PEETERS PUBLISHERS, Vol. 95. p. 397-414 18 p. (Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses). Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.2143/ETL.95.3.3286793
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Papadogiannakis, I., 2019, Jewish-Christian Disputations in Antiquity and the Middle Ages Timothy and Aquila, Petrus Alfonsi and Jewish Polemics against Christianity. Morlet, S. (ed.). Leuven: PEETERS PUBLISHERS, p. 143-156 13 p. Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
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Papadogiannakis, I., 2017, Dialogues and Debates from Late Antiquity to Late Byzantium. Cameron, A. & Gaul, N. (eds.). London: Routledge, p. 94-104 10 p. Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315269443
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Papadogiannakis, I., 2017, (Accepted/In press) Greek Laughter and Tears: Late Antiquity, Byzantium and Beyond. Alexiou, M. & Cairns, D. (eds.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, p. 187-198 11 p. Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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Papadogiannakis, I., 2017, Apocalypticism and Eschatology in Late Antiquity. Encounters in the Abrahamic Religions, 6th-8th Centuries. Amirav, H., Grypeou, E. & Stroumsa, G. (eds.). Leuven: Peeters, p. 107-124 18 p. ( Late Antique History and Religion). Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
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Papadogiannakis, I., 2016, Education and Religion in Late Antique Christianity: Reflections, Social Contexts and Genres. Gemeinhardt, P., van Hoof, L. & van Nuffelen, P. (eds.). London: Routledge, p. 61-72 11 p. Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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Papadogiannakis, I., Mar 2013, La littérature des questions et réponses dans l’Antiquité profane et chrétienne: de l’enseignement à l’exégèse: Actes du séminaire sur le genre des questions et réponses tenu à Ottawa les 27 et 28 septembre 2009. Bussières, M-P. (ed.). Turnhout: Brepols, p. 271-290 19 p. Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Papadogiannakis, I., 2012, Washington D.C.: Harvard University Press. 194 p. Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Papadogiannakis, I., 2011, Encyclopedic Trends in Byzantium?: Proceedings of the International Conference Held in Leuven 6-8 May 2009. Van Deun, P. & Mace, C. (eds.). Leuven: PEETERS PUBLISHERS, p. 29-41 12 p. Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter