Profile:
Dr John Bekos is Teaching Associate at the Theological School of the Church of Cyprus. He also teaches at the University of Cyprus and the St Barnabas Seminary of the Church of Cyprus. He has a strong interdisciplinary capacity as regards his studies (twice PhD holder in the field of Cognitive Psychology/Education and Christian Ethics) and is distinguished for his trans-disciplinary research and teaching. Since 2015 he is appointed as the Academic Supervisor for the reform of Religious Education in Cyprus. He has a good track-record of publications in top journals such as Studies in Christian Ethics, Christian Bioethics, Studia Patristica and the International Journal of Public Theology. He is also member of the Church of Cyprus Synodical Committee for Bioethics. For more than a decade, he was member of the Cyprus National Bioethics Committee (NCBC) and substantially contributed to the publication of a series of opinions. Since 2013 Dr Bekos serves as an Ethics Review Expert in the European Commission (FP7 and Horizon 2020) and the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). His scholarly work focuses on, among others, the most challenging socio-political issues like bioethical issues, the current financial and refugee crises in Europe and the role of religion in education and the modern societies. He is the author of ‘Which Ethics? Which Story? The Narrative of Divine Liturgy and the Transformation of the Human’ published in Greece by En Plo editions. His last book Euthanasia and Patristic Tradition: Reading St John Damascene and St Symeon the New Theologian on Christian Bioethics is published by James Clarke & Co (Cambridge, UK).