Beautiful Struggle: Holiness and Liberation among the Saints of Cyprus

Around the eastern Mediterranean, with its long history of intercultural exchange and political violence, the Orthodox Christian saints have provided diverse paths of resistance to situations of imperial domination, ecological precarity, and spiritual captivity. Aaron Hollander, PhD, adjunct professor of theology takes the island of Cyprus as a test case in his new book, Saint George Liberator, and interprets modern Orthodox hagiography as a lived theology of liberation in the midst of personal and political struggles. At this book launch event, hosted by Fordham’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center in collaboration with the Center on Religion and Culture and the theology department, Hollander will join in conversation with Boston College professor Elizabeth Prodromou, PhD. Together they will discuss the new book, the construction and mobilization of saintly figures, and the distinctive perspectives on holiness that Orthodox Christianity can offer to broader ecumenical and interfaith conversations about political resistance and integral liberation.