Staff profile

My research is divided between patristics and modern Orthodox studies. In the first area, my chief contribution is my 2015 monograph which offered an anaylsis of the anti-Originist polemic in the letters and sermons of Theophilus of Alexandria.  In my second area of research, I have examined the pastoral relevance of theological ideas in 19^th and 20^th -century Eastern Orthodoxy.

In December 2023, I was ordained priest in the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain of the Ecumenical Patriarhate, taking the name Nikita. 

Recent Teaching

• Level 1: Introduction to the History of Christianity
• Level 2: Early Christian Doctrine: Trinity and Christology
• Level 2: Research Project and Colloquium: "Tradition and Traditions in Orthodox Christianity"
• Level 4 (MA): Patristic Ecclesiology
• PhD: supervisor and internal examiner for doctoral dissertations in patristics and modern Orthodox theology
• External examiner at the universities of Cambridge, Essex and Glasgow in the UK, as well as at the University of Bucharest in Romania.

Recent Conference Papers and Presentations

• 2024, March - "St John Chrysostom on the Universality of Christian Priesthood within the Context of Judaic and Hellenic Discourses on Self-Sacrifice", presented at the Biblical Studies and Patristics Research Seminar, Durham.
• 2023, December - “Prohibitum est sanctis patribus symbolo addere aliquid vel minuere”: The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in the Context of the Ninth-century Missions to Moravia and Bulgaria", presented at the International conference on "The Nicene and Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan Creeds. Tensions, Rapprochements, Effects" organised by the Fondazione per le scienze religiose, Oxford.
• 2023, October - Vortrag an der Universität Münster mit dem Titel "Theophilus von Alexandria und die Rolle von Rhetorik und Macht in der ersten origenistischen Kontroverse." Gehalten im Rahmen des Workshops "Vom Anhänger zum Gegner des Origenes. Die antiorigenistischen Schriften des Theophilus von Alexandria (399–404). Kolloquien zum Nachleben des Origenes XII. Der Origenismus in der Spätantike IV".

Authored book

• Banev, K. (2015). Theophilus of Alexandria and the First Origenist Controversy: Rhetoric and Power. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof%3Aoso/9780198727545.001.0001

Chapter in book

• Banev, K. N. (2023). A ‘City whose Gates are Always Open’? Visions for Jerusalem in Orthodox Christianity. In N. de Lange, E. Narinskaya, & S. Sheridan (Eds.), Tois Pasin ho Kairos: Judaism and Orthodox Christianity Facing the Future (1-12). Lexington Books / Fortress Academic
• Banev, K. (2018). Theophilus of Alexandria. In D. G. Hunter, P. J. van Geest, & B. J. L. Peerbolte (Eds.), Brill encyclopedia of early Christianity online. Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/2589-7993_eeco_sim_00003431
• Banev, K. (2018). Hospitality. In D. G. Hunter, P. J. van Geest, & B. J. L. Peerbolte (Eds.), Brill encyclopedia of early Christianity online. Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/2589-7993_eeco_sim_00001634
• Banev, K., Galizia, F. D. L. E., Makaryan, A., Menini, A., & Yannaras, C. (2016). Misericordia e perdono tra le chiese. In L. D'Ayala Valva, L. Cremaschi, & A. Mainardi (Eds.), 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 (371-390). Edizioni Qiqajon, Comunità di Bose
• Banev, K. (2014). ‘Myriad of Names to Represent Her Nobleness’: The Church and the Virgin Mary in the Psalms and Hymns of Byzantium. In S. Aldea, & J. Mihoc (Eds.), Celebration of living theology : a festschrift in honour of Andrew Louth (75-103). Bloomsbury
• Banev, K. (2012). The Ecclesiology of the Philokalia. In B. Bingaman, & B. Nassif (Eds.), The Philokalia : a classic text of Orthodox spirituality (163-174). Oxford University Press

Journal Article

• Banev, K. (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, K. (2014). Questions of War and Peace in the theology of Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov (1896-1993). The journal of Eastern Christian Studies, 66(3-4), 91-123. https://doi.org/10.2143/jecs.66.3.3064559
• Banev, K. (. (2013). 'Holy Night' by Yordan Yovkov. Sobornost, 34(1), 41-51
• Banev, K. (2011). Vulkadin talks to God: A short story by Yordan Yovkov (1880-1937). Sobornost, 33(1), 22-36
• Banev, K. (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). Starobʺlgaristika, 29, 72-97

Scholarly Edition

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