Doru Costache

Rev. A/Prof. Doru Costache

Research Director

Profile

Associate Professor Doru Costache is an Australian clergyman and academic born in Bucharest, Romania. Recently, he was appointed the ISCAST Research Director. He lives with his wife, Otilia, in Sydney’s Northern Beaches area, where they enjoy bushwalking and stargazing. They have a grown daughter who prefers city life. When it rains, all three find refuge in science-fiction literature, movies, and TV series.

Doru is a graduate of the University of Bucharest (Romania, 2000), where he earned a doctorate in theology for a thesis on the anthropic cosmological principle assessed through the lens of two theologians, one medieval (Maximus the Confessor) and one modern (Dumitru Stăniloae). Since 2016, he lectures in patristic studies at St Cyril’s Coptic Orthodox Theological College and is a faculty member of the Sydney College of Divinity’s Graduate Research School. He lectured in patristic studies for St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College (2005-2017) and also tutored and lectured in systematic theology for the Department of Orthodox Theology of the University of Bucharest (1995-2004). He is an honorary Associate of Department of Studies in Religion, the University of Sydney (2017-2021). He was an Adjunct Senior Lecturer with the School of Philosophy and Theology, the University of Notre Dame Australia (2017-2019) and a Durham International Senior Research Fellow of Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, United Kingdom (Epiphany Term, 2018).

For almost as long as his twenty-plus years of academic work, he sharpened his pastoral skills as an ordained minister of the Orthodox Church in a range of settings, from parishes to missions to chaplaincy. Since 2017, he guides a little ‘mission church’ dedicated to Saint Gregory the Theologian, in Mona Vale NSW.

Apart from his ministry and his academic work, he has a rich experience of mentoring young people for ministry, academic work, and life. His approach to mentoring is Socratic—thus heuristic—also finding inspiration in Pierre Hadot’s take on philosophy as a way of life. 

Science and Faith Interests and Recent Activities

Doru is interested in the articulation of the early Christian worldview at the crossing of scriptural wisdom, ancient cosmology, and theological insight, together with drawing lessons on this articulation for contemporary science & faith conversations. He recently finished a book on this topic, currently shivering with anticipation at the impending verdict on the part of a European publisher.

He is a co-chair of the ‘Cosmology’ group within the project Science and Orthodoxy around the World II, hosted by National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens, Greece (2020-2023).

He was a participant in project Science and Orthodoxy around the World, hosted by National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens, Greece (2016-2019).

Professional Associations

  • Fellow of ISSR International Society for Science & Religion
  • Fellow of ISCAST Christians in Science and Technology
  • Member of the International Association for Patristic Studies
  • Member of the Australasian Association for Byzantine Studies.
  • Member of Sydney College of Divinity’s Theology Research Network
  • Co-convenor of NSW Ecumenical Council’s Theological Reflection Commission
  • Founding director of The Australian Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies

Recent Publications

  • Humankind and the Cosmos: Early Christian Representations. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 170. (Leuven and Boston: Brill, 2021).
  • ‘One Description, Multiple Interpretations: Suggesting a Way Out of the Current Impasse.’ In: Christopher Knight and Alexei Nesteruk (eds). Eastern Orthodox Christianity and the Sciences: Theological, Philosophical, Scientific and Historical Aspects of the Dialogue. Science and Orthodox Christianity 2. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2021: 33-49.
  • ‘Maximus the Confessor and John Damascene’s cosmology.’ Pages  81-91 in The T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Theology and the Modern Sciences. Edited by John Slattery. Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, 2020.
  • ‘Andrew of Crete’s Great Canon, Byzantine Hermeneutics, and Genesis 1-3.’ Pages 67-85 in Hymns, Homilies and Hermeneutics: Experiencing Liturgical Texts in Byzantium. Edited by Andrew Mellas and Sarah Gador-WhyteByzantina Australiensia 25. Leuven: Brill, 2020.
  • Dreams, Virtue and Divine Knowledge in Early Christian Egypt. Cambridge University Press, 2019. Coauthored with Bronwen Neil and Kevin Wagner.
  • ‘The Orthodox Doctrine of Creation in the Age of Science.’ Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies 2:1 (2019): 43-64
  • ‘A Theology of the World: Dumitru Stăniloae, the Traditional Worldview, and Contemporary Cosmology.’ Pages 205-22 in Orthodox Christianity and Modern Science: Tensions, Ambiguities, Potential. Edited by Vasilios N. Makrides and Gayle Woloschak. Science and Orthodox Christianity 1. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2019.

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