Stavros Yangazoglou

In this paper, our interest and focus will be on the first inaugural address of St. Gregory Palamas as Archbishop of Thessaloniki, which he delivered in 1350, three days after his arrival in the city, following the cessation of the Zealot revolution. This homily contains an excellent theological and political approach to peace and was delivered at a hiμstorical juncture that clearly showed the successive internal and external dangers for waning Byzantium. Above all, however, this homily is of great interest to us in order to reconstruct elements and examples for our own time and experience. These highlights show that beyond barren antagonisms and sterile ideological debates, through a genuine, critical and creative dialogue of all the trends and currents of Orthodox theology of the 20th and 21st centuries, we ought to move forward and ultimately develop a contemporary and ecumenically fuller example of updated and discerning theology within our difficult and complex times.