Istvan Perczel

István Perczel is Professor at the Department of Historical Studies at Central European University (CEU), where he has been teaching since 1994. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies and Head of Unit at the Center for Religious Studies. He holds affiliations with Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, as the Mar Chrysostom Chair Professor, a visiting position he assumed in 2023.

His research interests span Patristics, late antique philosophy, early Christian theology, Syriac studies, and the history of Indian Syrian Christians. He is particularly known for his groundbreaking work on Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and sixth-century Origenism. His research is deeply interdisciplinary, combining philology, philosophy, theology, and cultural history.

The most recent publications reflect a strong focus on manuscript studies, Christian Platonism, and Indian Christian history. His work often deciphers theological and philosophical texts through historical and linguistic analysis, with a particular emphasis on Syriac and Greek sources. Themes of heresy and orthodoxy, intercultural exchange, and liturgical and mystical theology recur across his scholarship.

• David Beecher Evans and Origenism in the Sixth Century (2023)
• Christology and the Eucharist in Two Redactions of Pseudo-Dionysius (2024)
• New Evidence on the Sixteenth-Century East Syriac Missions in the Malabar Coast (2024)

Perczel has received numerous fellowships from institutions in Leuven, Washington, Athens, Berlin, Trento, Princeton, Jerusalem, and Bochum. He has served as visiting professor in Paris, Halifax, and multiple Indian cities including Kottayam, Kalady, and Bangalore.

He has supervised several PhD students whose work has led to influential publications in early Christian theology and comparative religious studies. His current research projects include the Cluster of Excellence EurAsian Transformations and Cultural Symbiosis and Conflict in South India, funded by European and Indian sources.

Perczel initiated the SRITE project in 2000 to digitize and catalog the manuscript heritage of Indian Syrian Christians. This long-term fieldwork-based initiative has uncovered over 1,500 Syriac manuscripts and thousands of palm-leaf documents, significantly enriching the understanding of South Asian Christian history and culture.