Dimitrios Mpalanos on the Ways of Development of Orthodox Theology

The article talks about the writings of Dimitrios Mpalanos, associate professor of dogmatics and professor of patrolology at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Athens. During his life, he did not create any voluminous general work on dogmatics or symbolics, but wrote a number of monographs and articles related to these subjects. If the publications of some parts of the lectures he gave on dogmatics are not particularly original, then his views on the further development of Orthodox theology are of much greater interest. D. Mpalanos was the first among Greek authors to critically examine the content of the symbolic books of the Orthodox Church and came to the conclusion that they are only historical in nature as theological monuments of their era and cannot in any way be considered as complete and error-free expositions of the Orthodox doctrine. His thoughts regarding the form of theological education are also of interest, where he was a supporter of predominantly teaching in secular theological faculties, since, in his opinion, it is there that, in comparison with church educational institutions, the spirit of free research and openness to modern society is preserved to a greater extent. In his lectures on patrolology, he expressed his desire to remain theologically within the framework of the Holy Fathers of the era of the Ecumenical Councils and his rejection of late Byzantine Orthodox theology.