BIOGRAPHY

The Right Reverend Bishop Maxim
Bishop of the Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church
in North and South America

His Grace Bishop Maxim (Vasiljevic) of Hum was elected Bishop of the Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church in North and South American at the regular assembly of the Hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade, Serbia in 2006. Bishop Maxim is docent of the Divinity School at the Theological Faculty of the University of Belgrade, and was teaching Christian Anthropology and Sociology at the University of East Sarajevo.

His Grace Bishop Maxim graduated from the Theological Faculty of the Serbian Orthodox

Church in 1993. He completed his Masters of Theology at the University of Athens in 1996, and then three years later, in 1999, at the same university, he defended his doctorate in the field of Dogmatics and Patristics. He worked for one year on his post-doctorate in Paris and the Sorbonne in 2003-04, in the field of Byzantine History and Hagiography. During this time, he also delved in the theory and practical application of painting at the French Academy of Fine Arts in Paris. Bishop Maxim speaks Greek, French, Russian and English.

Currently, as well as fulfilling his Archpastoral duties in the Western American Diocese, His Grace Bishop Maxim is a Professor of Patrology at the St. Sava School of Theology in Libertyville, Illinois.  He is the editor of “Theology” – Journal of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade.

He also leads the Diocesan iconographical school inspired by Byzantine and Serbian medieval fresco painting and by Fr. Stamatis, a famous Iconographer from Athens, Greece.

Bishop Maxim’s scholarly studies and articles include essays on Holy Fathers and Saints; he has also written on the hagiographical and iconographical themes.

Some recent publications:

“An existential interpretation of dogmatics: Theological language and dogma in the face of the culture of pluralism“, St Vladimir’s Seminary Quarterly 51 (2007), 395-422.

“La conception de la sainteté dans l’oeuvre hagiographique de Syméon le Métaphraste“, Revue des Études Byzantines 66 (2008) p. 191-207.

“Holy Icons and the ultimate state of being“, Annual 2007 of the Western American Diocese, Los Angeles 2007, 37-39.

“The Orthodox Marriage and Family“, a lecture given at the KSS Annual Retreat in Jackson, 2007 (to be published).

St  John the Chrysostom, Commemoration of the 1600th Anniversary of the Repose of St. John Chrysostom, St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church, November 13-14, 2007

View Pan-Orthodox Sermon:
http://www.westsrbdio.org/latest_news/Visits_Fall2007/PanOrth_Liturgyi.html

“Ecclesiological provincialism compared to the Church's concrete unity",  The Path of Orthodoxy, May 2007.

Newest Publication:

History, Truth, Holiness
by Bishop Maxim Vasiljevic

Bishop Maxim’s first book, described by Fr. John Breck as an “exceptionally important collection of essays” contributing to both the theology of being and also contemporary theological questions, is now available! Christos Yannaras describes Bishop Maxim as “a theologian who illumines” and Fr. John McGuckin identifies his work as “deeply biblical and patristic, academically learned yet spiritually rich.” The first half of the book collects papers emphasizing theological ontology and epistemology, reminding us how both the mystery of the Holy Trinity and that of the Incarnation demand that we rethink every philosophical supposition; it includes chapters on holiness as otherness, truth and history, and the biochemistry of freedom. The second half of the book features lectures dedicated to the theological questions posed by modern theology, including studies of Orthodox and Roman Catholic ecclesiology, liturgics, and the theology of icons.