The Great Britain -
Russia Society
The Great Britain -
Russia Society
The title of Dr Williams’ talk is “Vladimir Lossky: A Francophile Émigré during and after the War”. Vladimir Lossky (1903-1958) was a distinguished Russian émigré philosopher and Eastern Orthodox theologian, whose work has influenced Dr Williams' own thought. In his lecture Dr Williams will share some thoughts about Vladimir Lossky's religious and philosophical outlook and Lossky’s unique place in the politics of the Paris émigrés. In the course of this, he will draw on Lossky's wartime journal, Seven Days on the Roads of France, June 1940 (St. Vladimir 's Seminary Press, 2012).
This promises to be a fascinating subject and is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about an important philosopher and theologian who is not as well known in the West as he might be.
Rowan Williams served with great distinction as Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012, having previously been Bishop of Monmouth and then Archbishop of Wales. He was appointed a life peer in January 2013 and sat as a cross-bencher in the House of Lords until August 2020. He was appointed Chancellor of the University of South Wales in 2013 and served as Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge from 2013 to 2020.
In addition to his pastoral and episcopal ministries, Dr Williams is a highly respected theological scholar in his own right. He read theology at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he graduated with starred first-class honours. He was awarded his D.Phil at Wadham College, Oxford in 1974 for his thesis on Vladimir Lossky, which was titled: “The Theology of Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky: An Exposition and Critique”.
He has written extensively on theological matters. His published works include “On Christian Theology” (2000), “God With Us: The Meaning of the Cross and Resurrection – then and now” (SPCK, 2017) and “Looking East in Winter: Contemporary Thought and the Eastern Christian Tradition” (Bloomsbury, 2021).
Dr Williams speaks three languages and reads at least nine, and has had a lifelong interest in Russian religious thought and in Russian culture more generally. He has written on the moral and religious significance of Dostoevsky as a writer and thinker in “Dostoevsky – Language, Faith and Fiction” (Continuum, 2008). And he is currently patron of the Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius, which promotes ecumenical relations between the Anglican and Orthodox churches.
Dr Williams is also a poet and translator of poetry and a playwright. His collection “The Poems of Rowan Williams” (Perpetua Press, 2002) was long-listed for the Wales Book of the Year Award in 2004. In 2013 he wrote a play called “Shakeshafte”, about an imagined meeting between William Shakespeare and Edmund Campion, a Jesuit priest and martyr. The play was staged at the Dylan Thomas Theatre in Swansea in July 2016 and was favourably received.
Dr Williams has consistently and publicly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In March 2022 he urged senior leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia to call for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and the re-opening of diplomatic engagement. On 3 April 2022, on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme, Dr Williams said that there was a strong case for expelling the Russian Orthodox Church from the World Council of Churches.
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