Christ and the Sharing of Divine Communion in Cyril of Alexandria | Prof. Donald Fairbairn

Happy Thanksgiving from the Thomistic Institute! This talk was given at Hillsdale College on October 16, 2021 as part of the Thomistic Institute conference "Christ the Savior: Perspectives from the Early Church Fathers." For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Donald Fairbairn is the Robert E. Cooley Professor of Early Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. His research interests focus on the relation between the doctrines of the Trinity, Christ, salvation and Christian life in the early church, especially in the 4th through 6th centuries. His responsibilities include further developing the Robert C. Cooley Center for the Study of Early Christianity at the Charlotte campus, which explores the historical foundations of the Christian faith. After graduating from seminary in 1989, Dr. Fairbairn ministered in Soviet Georgia for a year and then taught theology, New Testament and apologetics at Donetsk Christian University in Ukraine from 1992-96. He also served as Assistant Academic Dean there. Since that time, he has continued to teach in Eastern and Western Europe through many short-term trips. Three of his English books have been published in Russian and two in Romanian. He has also written two books published only in Russian. After finishing his Ph.D. in 1999, Dr. Fairbairn taught church history, Greek, Latin and historical theology at Erskine Theological Seminary in Due West, SC. He also served as Associate Dean of Theology and directed the Th.M. program there before coming to Gordon-Conwell in 2010. Dr. Fairbairn and his wife Jennifer have two children, Trey (born in 2001) and Ella (born in 2003). His hobbies include golf, gardening, and playing with his dog.