Dr Samuel Kaldas

Lecturer in Philosophy
BA(Hons) (USyd); Grad Cert. Theol. (SCD); PhD (USyd)

Email: samuel.kaldas@nd.edu.au

  • Biography

    Samuel Kaldas is a Lecturer in Philosophy with broad interests across philosophy and theology. His doctoral dissertation (USyd, 2020) was on the Cambridge Platonists, important figures in the development of contemporary philosophy of religion. He has held Research Fellowships at the University of Sydney and Fordham University. Before coming to UNDA, he was Director of Research and Lecturer in Philosophy and Theology at St Cyril’s Coptic Orthodox Theological College (Sydney College of Divinity), where taught on philosophy and patristics in the Orthodox tradition. In 2024, he became an affiliate of the Notre Dame Centre for the History of Philosophy (CHOP).

  • Teaching Areas

    • History of Philosophy (Ancient, Medieval, Contemporary)
    • Philosophy of Religion
    • Moral and Political Philosophy

  • Research Expertise and Supervision

    • Early modern philosophy
    • Philosophy of religion
    • Patristics
    • Eastern/Oriental Orthodox theology
    • Coptic Studies

  • Books

  • Book Chapters

    • Co-authored with Stephen Meawad. “Orthodox Christian Perspectives on Church and State.” Palgrave Handbook of Religion and State, Vol. 1: Theoretical Perspectives, edited by Shannon Holzer. Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.
    • “From Garments of Flesh to Garments of Light: Hardness, Subtleness and the Soul-Body Relation in Macarius-Symeon.” In The Unity of Body and Soul in Patristic and Byzantine Thought, edited by Anna Usacheva, S. Bhayro and J. Ulrich. Contexts of Ancients and Medieval Anthropology, vol. 1. Leipzig: Brill, 2020.
    • “‘Draughts of Love and Divine Revelations’: Experiential Theology in Matta Al-Miskīn and Fayek M. Ishak.” In Copts in Modernity, edited by Nelly van Doorn-Harder, Lisa Agaiby and Mark Swanson. Leiden: Brill 2020.

  • Journal Articles and Proceedings

    • “Reason, Sentiment and Autonomy in the Moral Philosophy of Ralph Cudworth.” History of Philosophy Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 2 (April 2019): 161–79.
    • “A ‘Strange New Philosophy’ of Forgiveness: Insights from St John Chrysostom on Forgiving the Unrepentant.” St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, vol. 63, no. 3 (2019): 261–271.

  • Conference Papers

    • “Ralph Cudworth and the Cambridge Controversy on Predestination: ‘Eternal and Immutable Morality’ and the Double Decree.” Rediscovering the Philosophy of Ralph Cudworth. University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Jun 2024.
    • “Virtue as Participation in the Divine Nature: The Cambridge Platonists between Antiquity and Modernity.” Makarios: Character and Virtue in the Christian Tradition. Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry (ACU)/Human Flourishing Program (Harvard)/Institute for Studies of Religion (Baylor). Rome, Italy, May 2023.
    • “Galileo and Darwin Among the Copts: Early Modern Coptic Reactions to Science.” Second Mega-Conference of the International Orthodox Theological Association. Volos Theological Academy, Volos, Greece, Jan 2023.
    • “Rooting for the Devil: Breaking Bad and the Philosophical Value of Vicious Protagonists.” Screening Virtue, Screening Vice. University of Notre Dame, Sydney, October 2021.
    • “The Passions and the Incurable Wound of Adam: Human Fallenness in Early Monastic Thought.” Theological Anthropology at the Beginning of the Third Millennium, University of Notre Dame, Sydney, February 2020.
    • “The Flight of the Living Dead: Asceticism as Living Death in the Desert Christians and Late Platonists.” International Conference on Patristic Studies, Oxford University, Oxford, August 2019.
    • “‘Draughts of Love and Divine Revelations’: The Religious Epistemologies of Matta Al-Miskin and Fayek M. Ishak.” Copts in Modernity Symposium, St. Athanasius’ Coptic Orthodox Theological College, Melbourne, Jul 2018.
    • “What’s Right (and Who’s Wrong) About Righteousness?: Ralph Cudworth and John Smith on the Metaethics of ‘Imputed Righteousness.’” International Society for Intellectual History Conference 2018: Borders Limits and Boundaries, University of St Andrews, Jun 2018.
    • “The Liberating Chains of Love: Reflections on Jacobsen’s Reading of Origen’s Universalist Soteriology and Cambridge Platonism.” Colloquium Adamantianum II. Christ — The Teacher of Salvation, Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism: Cambridge University, Jun 2018.
    • “‘A Cross for Human Ways of Thought’”: The Trinity and Vladimir Lossky’s Philosophy of Knowledge.” Theology Symposium: The Mystery of the Trinity: Implications for Everyday Living, St. Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College, Sep 2017.
    • “A ‘New and Strange Philosophy’ of Forgiveness: some insights from St John Chrysostom on forgiving the unrepentant.” St Andrew’s Patristic Symposium 2016: St John Chrysostom, St. Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College, Sep 2016.
    • “Can We Forgive the Unrepentant? John Chrysostom and the Self-Respect Objection to Unrepentant Forgiveness.” Justice, Mercy & Wellbeing: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Sydney College of Divinity, July 2016.
    • “Learning as “Awakening” in Freire and Cudworth: Making Sense of a Counter-Intuitive Idea.” Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia Annual Conference, Australian Catholic University, Dec 2015.
    • “Feeling Reason: Making Sense of Ralph Cudworth’s Moral Phenomenology.” Australasian Association of Philosophy Annual Conference, Macquarie University, July 2015.

  • Professional Affiliations

    • Australasian Association of Philosophers (AAP)
    • Society of Christian Philosophers (SCP)
    • ISCAST — Christians in Science and Technology
    • International Association for Coptic Studies (IACS)
    • International Orthodox Theological Association (IOTA)

  • Awards

    • Distinguished Research Fellowship in Coptic Orthodox Studies (Fordham University, 2021–2022)
    • Anderson Junior Research Fellowship (University of Sydney, 2021)
    • Lucy Firth Publication Prize (USyd, 2019)
    • GHS and IR Lightroller Scholarship (USyd, 2018)