Filip Ivanovic

Center for Hellenic Studies
  •  15
    Body and Soul in Dionysius the Areopagite
    In Frederick Lauritzen & Sarah Klitenic Wear (eds.), Byzantine Platonists 284-1453, Franciscan University Press. pp. 113-123. 2021.
  • Editorial
    AKROPOLIS: Journal of Hellenic Studies 5 7-13. 2021.
    The editorial introduces the special issue in the memory of Dr. Amfilohije Radović (+2020), Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, by giving brief notes on Radović's life, education, and thought, with special reference to his interest in Byzantine philosophy and theology, and contemporary philosophical anthropology. In addition, the editorial gives a panoramic view of articles contributed to the special issue.
  •  3
    Review of: Sigurd Bergmann (ed.), _Eschatology as Imagining the End: Faith between Hope and Despair_, New York: Routledge, 2018.
  •  6
    Review of: Torstein Theodor Tollefsen, _St Theodore the Studite's Defence of the Holy Icons: Theology and Philosophy in Ninth-Century Byzantium_, New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
  •  7
    The article situates itself within the debate on ecological issues by emphasizing the importance of philosophical and theological approach to the questions at stake, and focusing on the contributions of Byzantine thought, which has been rather neglected in this context. With this in mind, the article offers a panoramic view of several Byzantine authors’ ideas on the environment and the relationship between human beings and the rest of the creation. By examining the thought of Maximus the Confess…Read more
  •  16
    Pseudo-Dionysius and the Importance of Sensible Things
    In Francesca Dell’Acqua & Ernesto Sergio Mainoldi (eds.), Pseudo-Dionysius and Christian Visual Culture, c.500–900, Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 77-87. 2020.
    Dionysius claims that the divine attributes ‘can be fashioned from material things to symbolise what is intelligible and intellectual’. As a matter of fact, sense perceptions are ‘echoes of wisdom’, because they manifest the intelligible. God’s majesty is intermingled in sensible things, which help the human mind to ascend to the ineffable divinity. Thus, sensible things are a concession to human nature, and serve as the mind’s vehicle in its ascent to God. Dionysius constructs an aesthetic sote…Read more
  •  14
    Agni Vlavianos Arvanitis
    AKROPOLIS: Journal of Hellenic Studies 2 121-122. 2018.
  •  27
    Desiring the Beautiful studies the concept of deification, theosis, in two of the most influential early Christian philosopher-theologians, who might be considered as theoretical consolidators of the idea of theosis, and argues that the proper understanding of their central soteriological concept must take into account its dimension of love and beauty. The core of the book consists of six chapters, each dedicated to the three central concepts in two thinkers, and while they can be considered as …Read more
  •  10
    Nevidljiva ljepota i njene vidljive predstave: Estetika Dionisija Areopagita
    Humanističke Studije: Humanistic Studies 3 177-190. 2017.
    This article deals with the aesthetics of Dionysius the Pseudo- Areopagite, a mysterious early Christian author, whose writings show a combination of Christian and philosophical, especially Neoplatonic, influences. Dionysius’ main preoccupation is absolute and true beauty seen as the beauty which is in itself and by itself always beautiful, and which is the cause of all beauty in the world. The beauty of the world, therefore, is a manifestation of the invisible divine beauty, and such aesthetics…Read more
  • In Platonic terms “all things to which we apply the term ‘many’ participate” in something beyond the world of matter, while for Neoplatonists there is a higher aspect that is unparticipated (One) and the “lower” aspect which is participated (Henads). In Christian sphere, since God is the cause of all things, then all things have a share (participate) in God, and so Dionysius the Areopagite claims that God communicates himself to those who participate in him. this does not mean that there is some…Read more
  • Dionysius the Areopagite on Justice
    Studia Patristica 68 231-236. 2013.
    As one of the names attributed to God, justice is defined by Dionysius as something which assigns to everything what is appropriate to it, and preserves the nature of each being in its due order. In this way, it is through divine justice’s definitions that every being is assigned its own proper essence. The same role of justice is applied to the ecclesiastical hierarchy, which, in its conformity to God, is an image of divine justice, and ‘gives to each as he deserves and grants an appropriate sh…Read more
  •  16
    Dionysius the Areopagite between Orthodoxy and Heresy
    Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2011.
    Dionysius the Areopagite between Orthodoxy and Heresy aims to explore the thought of one of the most controversial characters of Christian history, Dionysius the Areopagite, and put it in a correct context, between pagan (namely Neoplatonic) philosophy on the one side, and Christian theology, on the other. In significant part, the book examines Dionysius’ Neoplatonic sources, but it also offers insights into the original points of his philosophy and theology, thus showing how he managed to achie…Read more
  • Педагошка и терапеутска улога философије код Климента Александријског
    Гласник Одјељења Хуманистичких Наука Црногорске Академије Наука И Умјетности: Bulletin of the Department of Humanities of the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts 4 199-217. 2018.
    Clement of Alexandria (150-215) is one of the first Christian thinkers to offer a detailed account of the relationship between Christian faith and Greek philosophy. As a philosophically educated man himself, Clement claimed that philosophy is necessary for reaching the complete knowledge of God, and that Greek philosophy, being of divine origin, was God’s gift to the Greeks, acting as a preparation for the Gospel. Since it concerns the comprehension and contemplation of truth, philosophy is a pr…Read more
  •  22
    The aim of the paper is to give a condensed presentation of the view on philosophy by one of the most important Church fathers and Byzantine thinkers, Maximus the Confessor. According to him the true Christian philosophizes three things, which are the commandments, the dogmas and the faith, so that “the commandments separate the mind from passions, the dogmas introduce it to the knowledge of beings, and the faith introduces it to the contemplation of the Holy Trinity”. In this way he defines the…Read more
  •  11
    Ivanović analyzes Dionysius’ thought in order to gain insight into his understanding of the body and matter, with a special emphasis on deification. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite reflected on beauty as a divine name, discussed the pairing of the Good and the Beautiful, elaborated on beauty in heaven and earth as a glimpse of divine beauty, and showed the importance of material symbols for one’s elevation to God. If humans are composite beings, made of both soul and body, and if they are create…Read more
  •  13
    Maximus the Confessor’s Conception of Beauty
    International Journal of the Classical Tradition 22 (2): 159-179. 2015.
  •  37
    One of the most important exponents of the School of Alexandria, Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150. – ca. 215.) is the author of a famous trilogy, consisting of Protrepticus, Paedagogus, and Stromata, which correspond to the three ways of acting of the Logos, namely to convert the pagans to the true faith, to cure the soul from passions, and to uplift the soul to the methodic and intellectual life of spiritual perfection. Logos thus acts through exhortation, training, and teaching. Clement consider…Read more
  •  18
    This book contributes to the study of the notions of symbol and icon by examining two phenomena that greatly contributed to their development: the thought of Dionysius the Areopagite and the iconoclastic controversy. Different historical and philosophical-theological contexts are examined within the framework of the influence that Dionysius exerted on main protagonists in the controversy and the theology of icon. The reader will find a discussion of the main points of Dionysius' doctrine, the fe…Read more
  •  14
    Byzantine Philosophy and its Historiography
    Byzantinoslavica 68 369-381. 2010.
    The article deals with the question of existence of a separate academic field of Byzantine philosophy and of its place in the modern philosophical research. In the first part, author gives an outline of the main trends in the scholarship on Byzantine philosophical tradition, highlighting some of the main works in the field. In the second part, the author gives his opinion on the questions raised and offers some suggestions and remarks on the development of the study of Byzantine philosophy.
  •  9
    The Importance of Greek Culture for Development of European Civilization
    In Konstantine Boudouris (ed.), The Philosophy of Culture I, Ionia Publications. pp. 134-154. 2006.
    The contribution considers three themes, Hesiod as the precursor of scientific philosophy and ethics, Plato’s political thought and its importance in our days, and the continuity of Greek thought in Byzantine philosophy. It deals with Hesiod’s works Theogony and Works and Days, Plato’s Republic, and it examines the formation of main formulations of Byzantine-Christian doctrines (God’s essence and nature, iconoclastic debate, etc.), through the use of methods and terms of ancient Greek philosophy…Read more