On December 7, His Eminence Seraphim, Metropolitan of the Diocese
of Angola and Zimbabwe of the Patriarchate of Alexandria held a
public lecture at Tbilisi Theological Academy and Seminary. The
topic of his lecture was: “St. Athanasius of Alexandria’s Teaching
Against the Arians”. The speaker noted that the work done by him on
this issue years ago determined the topic of his Master’s thesis
later. Therefore, before starting the main part of the lecture, he
spoke about the general methodology of research preferable to be
used while working on a Master’s or Doctoral topic. In addition, he
formulated several basic criteria, which should be considered by a
person seeking any of these degrees in Theology. The main theme of
his lecture concerned the methods employed by Saint Athanasius of
Alexandria while striving against the Arians’ teaching. His
Eminence pointed out that all false teachings are based on
misinterpretation of the Holy Scripture, and in order to protect a
human being from such misinterpretation, three main points must be
clearly understood:
1) Who or which individual, a specific phrase of the Holy Scripture
pertains to;
2) What time span is regarded and
3) What was the author’s specific purpose when he wrote this phrase
in the Scripture.
His Eminence Seraphim concluded his speech with a
question-and-answer session. Also, he recalled his relationship
with the Catholicos-Patriarch, the details of his meeting with him
and expressed his gratitude to the Rector of Tbilisi Theological
Academy and Seminary, Protopresbyter Giorgi Zviadadze.
At the end of the lecture, the Rector thanked the guest for his
interesting lecture and friendly relations with our Church and our
country.
