The Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Michael Plekon's areas of specialization include the social history of American religious traditions and communities, social theory and its connections with theology, the social and theological thought of Søren Kierkegaard, contemporary Eastern Orthodox theology and theologians of the Russian emigration and saints, canonized or not, in our time.

He was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, honorary Fulbright, American Scandinavian Institute and Lutheran World Federation Fellow at the University of Copenhagen’s Institute for Systematic Theology in 1979-80 and 1981, working on Kierkegaard's social and theological criticism.

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Having published many articles on Kierkegaard and other modern theologians, he has also edited, translated and published several volumes of the writings of theologians Paul Evdokimov, Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, Arthur Carl Piepkorn, and Nicolas Afanasiev, among others. He published a study of ten remarkable 20th century persons of faith in the Eastern Church, also one on the ordinary, diverse shapes of holiness in our time, and is working on a third about American voices, paths and patterns of holiness.

He continues to edit and translate important studies and biographies for publication here and is a reviewer for several other journals. He is a priest of the Orthodox Church in America, assisting at St. Gregory the Theologian Church in Wappingers Falls, NY.

He received his A.B. from The Catholic University of America and his M.A. and Ph.D from Rutgers University where he was a student of Peter L. Berger.

Recent Publications:

• Saints as they really are...--American Voices, Lives and Paths to Holiness, University of Notre Dame Press, forthcoming 2010.
• Michael Plekon, editor, Jerry Ryan, translator, Hyacinthe Destivelle, The Moscow Council of  1917-1918, University of Notre Dame Press, forthcoming.
• Olga Lossky, Towards the endless day: a life of Elisabeth Behr-Sigel (1907-2005), Michael Plekon and Jerry Ryan, trans., University of Notre Dame Press, forthcoming, 2010.
• Hidden Holiness, University of Notre Dame Press, 2009.
• Nicolas Afanasiev, The Church of the Holy Spirit, by Nicolas Afanasiev, trans. Vitaly Permiakov, Michael Plekon, ed., with introductory essay, University of Notre Dame Press, 2007.
• Tradition Alive: An Anthology on the Church and the Christian Life in Our Time, edited, translations, introductory essay, Sheed & Ward/Rowan & Littlefield, 2003
• Living Icons: People of Faith in the Eastern Church and Holiness in Our Time, (University of Notre Dame Press, 2002, paper, 2004).
• “Witnesses and Voices: Images of the Church from Afanasiev, Schmemann, Meyendorff,” in Orthodox Christianity in American Public Life: Challenges and Opprtunities of Religious Pluralism in the 21st Century, Boston University Institute on Religion and World Affairs, University of Notre Dame Press, forthcoming.
• “Relativism and Fundamentalism : An Eastern Church Perspective from the “Paris School” and Living Tradition,” in Relativism and Fundamentalism in Religious Traditions. ed. James Davidson Hunter, Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans, forthcoming
• “ ‘The world as sacrament’: The world in Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s vision,”  Logos, 2009, forthcoming.
• “Bishops as servants,” Sobornost, Fall, 2009, forthcoming.
• “To become permeable to Christ: Elisabeth Behr-Sigel’s Theological Vision, “ The Ecumenical Review, 61, 2, 2009.
• “The Russian religious revival and its theological legacy,” in The Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology, Elizabeth Theokritoff and Mary Cunningham, eds, Cambridge University Press, 2008, 203-217.
•  “The Power of Love: Nicolas Afanasiev on the Church’s Life,”in Friendship as an Ecumenical Value, Lviv: The Ukrainian Catholic University, 2006, 114-120.
• “Living Tradition: Social Theory working with theology—the case of Fr. Sergius Bulgakov,” LOGOS, 47, 1-2, 2006, 89-102.
• “Lo Spirito prega in noi: preghiera del cuore, liturgia e vita cristiana,” in I. Alfeev, V.A. Kotel’nikov, A. Louth, M. Van Parys e Aa.Vv., La preghiera di Gesù nella spiritualità russa del xix secolo: XIIth Conference on Orthodox Spirituality, Edizioni Qiquajon: Bose, 2005, 307-324.
• “Becoming What You Pray: Three Images, Three Voices,” The Ecumenical Review,  57, 4, 2005, 395-405. Also French version: “ ‘L’Esprit Saint prie en nous’: La signification liturgique de la prière de Jésus,” Contacts, 212, 2005, 351-366 and Russian version, Pages , 10: 3, 2005, 409-421.
• “The ‘Sacrament of the brother/sister’ in the lives and writings of Mother Maria Skobtsova and Paul Evdokimov,” St.Vladimir’s Thelogical Quarterly, 49, 3, 2005, 313-334. French version: “Le sacrement du frére/soeur chez Paul Evdokimov et mère Marie Skobtsov,” Contacts, 205, Jan-Mar 2004, 5–28.

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