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John Behr (born 16 October 1966) is a British Eastern Orthodox priest and theologian. Since 2020, he has served as the Regius Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen. He is the former dean of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, where he was the director of the Master of Theology Program and the Father Georges Florovsky Distinguished Professor of Patristics. He was ordained to the diaconate on 8 September 2001 and the priesthood on 14 September 2001. He served as the editor of the Popular Patristics Series, published by St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, from 1999 until 2020. The specific date range "1999–2020" is given in post-2020 printings of the PPS books edited by Behr. He was elected dean of the seminary on 18 November 2006 and served from 2007 until 2017 when he was named Father Georges Florovsky Distinguished Professor of Patristics. Announcement of election
Behr has been Distinguished Lecturer at the Fordham University Theology Faculty, Visiting Professor of Historical Theology at the Nashotah House Theological Seminary, adjunct lecturer and faculty member of the St. Athanasius College which specialises in Coptic Orthodox theological studies. In September 2019, he was also appointed as professor in divinity at the Aberdeen University's School of Divinity, History and Philosophy.
He was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 2025.
Behr is married to a teacher of English and is the father of two sons and a daughter. at minute 1:13.
Because the answer to a question can only be provided by its meaning, Behr begins with the question Christ himself asks, "Who do you say I am?" This answer, while provided by the Gospel, requires reflection—interpretation and explanation of this very person of Jesus Christ, his life and works. The writings of the New Testament, written from an interpretative confession of the crucified and risen Christ contemplated through Scripture, were the subject of intense debate and formation, eventually finding their normative foundation by the end of the 2nd century. According to Behr, this background is not only necessary for understanding later theological debates, but it is crucial to understanding those boundaries that identify Jesus Christ. It is the unique Jesus Christ-crucified on a cross, buried, risen three days later-contemplated through the texture of Scripture-the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets-who is revealed as the Son of God. The incarnation, then, is not the single moment in which something began but rather a recapitulation—the same presence of the same word. It is through the Word of God previously hidden in the Scripture, as preached by the Apostles, revealed by the Holy Spirit, that the invisible, incomprehensible Father is made visible and comprehensible by the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. It is he who is always the Coming One, whom through continual contemplation and immersion in Scripture, devotion and death in his name, allows us to participate in the fullness of God.
Key to understanding Behr's approach, the introduction, standing outside of the main body of work, explains the need to scrutinise our inherently flawed perspectives and presuppositions regarding 4th century theology. An awareness of this 21st century understanding of such terms as "orthodoxy", "incarnation", and "Trinitarian" theology recognises that we speak these terms with 1,600 years of definitions already read into them, rather than how the authors themselves used these words within their own texts.
The Nicene Faith both discusses and reflects upon Athanasius and the Cappadocians’ exegetical principles and subsequently derived theology, specifically within the context of the controversies upon which this was forced. Thus, leading to a further, more carefully worded engagement with Scripture, once again seeking to answer the same question that led the way to Nicaea, Christ's "Who do you say that I am?"
Nicene faith is, then, a particular confession, revealing the power of God, responding to Christ and the Spirit, concerning the God whom they reveal as the Father. It is the transformation fashioned in and by Christ that propels all theological contemplation. It provides the lens through which one understands his Passion. When Christ dies as a human being, he demonstrates his divinity as God—he raises his own body. God's power is found in human weakness—the form of a servant transforms into the form of the Lord—revealing not inferiority but true divinity and equality. It is as the crucified one that glory is both received and revealed—the same glory which he shared with the Father from all eternity, by which there is no other. This revelation, the cornerstone of all Christian theology, through which God is made known, is located solely on the Cross. The one who was creator is the one who now renews. It is the Passion, the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God, illumined by and through the Cross, Christ's voluntary bodily death and resurrection, through which those who have put on his faith, now live in Christ and continue to demonstrate his victory.
Once again returning to the earlier witnesses, Behr begins with the way in which the disciples came to know Jesus Christ as the Son of God—through the Cross and the manner in which the Passion was interpreted and proclaimed. This revelation does not occur in light of the Passion, but when the risen Christ himself directs the disciples to the scriptures. The text of the Old Testament, previously viewed as a narrative of the past, is revealed as a thesaurus of imagery, with the historical event of the Passion as its starting point. It is Christ, not scripture, who is exegeted. The crucified and risen Lord standing before them is the one of whom the scriptures have always spoken—the one who is still the Coming One.
Given this perspective, Behr continues by explaining how the results of the theological debates of the first four centuries—particularly Trinitarian theology and Christology—have become separated from the way in which they were exegetically formed and articulated. Within this structure he considers questions of canon and tradition. How is it that we speak of creation and salvation today? How is the "Fall" (mis)understood? This is crucial, not only regarding the narrative of salvation history, but more importantly how we understand our own lives. Additionally, Behr examines how Mary is spoken of in the Gospels and liturgical texts—both the nativity and the Virgin Mother as the church. Finally, he focuses on theme of incarnation, which upon interpretation presents the body as that through which Christians are to glorify God.
In the carefully worded postscript, Behr provides further attention to modern theology's paradigmatic shift away from the exegetical methods from which early Christian doctrine was originally elaborated. Today's starting points are conclusions without arguments that have resulted in ambiguity. Much of our theology now works within a modern historical framework, recounting the interaction between God as Trinity and the world. With a Trinity as a starting point, the linear movement proceeds to retell the creation story, our time in Eden, and the Fall of Man as a historical moment in history. Thus begins salvation history, the second person of the Trinity—the pre-incarnate Logos—revealing himself to Abraham, conversing with Moses, and speaking through the Prophets. This culminates in the incarnation of one of the Trinity, who then returns to the Father, sends the Holy Spirit to guide the church for the rest of humankind until the second coming, which is the literal, definable end of the time-line. This popular modern trend which seeks the reality of history—how things really occurred as a neutral statement—ignores the recognition that history is an interpretation of past events. Instead of interpretation and confession, theology has become a fusion of metaphysics and mythology.
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