Centre for Patristics and Early Christianity

Dr. Lewis Ayres

Professor of Catholic & Historical Theology, Durham University

One of the world’s leading experts in patristic and early Christian studies, Professor Ayres has served at Durham University since 2009. His research initially focused on Trinitarian theology in Augustine and in the Greek writers of the fourth century; this led to the publication of a number of articles, as well as the highly influential monographs, Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth Century Trinitarian Theology (Oxford, 2004/6), and Augustine and the Trinity (Cambridge, 2010). Dr. Ayres’ current research concerns the development of early Christian cultures of interpretation between 100 and 250.

Rev. Dr. John Behr

Regius Chair in Humanity, University of Aberdeen

A leading expert in the field of patristic studies, the Reverend Professor John Behr is currently at the University of Aberdeen, following twenty-five years at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. Dr. Behr’s list of publications is both vast and incredibly varied. These include several works on Irenaeus of Lyons and, more recently, new critical editions and translations of Gregory of Nyssa’s On the Human Image of God (Oxford, 2023), and Origen’s On First Principles (Oxford, 2017). Published in between them was the monograph John the Theologian and His Paschal Gospel: A Prologue to Theology (Oxford, 2019). Father Behr is also working on a new critical edition and translation of Irenaeus’s works.