Volker L. Menze

Volker L. Menze is a Professor at the Central European University (CEU) in the Department of Historical Studies. He is also a Senior Member of the Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies and a Member of the Center for Religious Studies. His research focuses on ecclesiastical history between 300-700 CE, with a particular emphasis on Church Councils, Christological controversies, and religious conflict in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.

• Key Research Areas:
  • Ecclesiastical Politics
  • Syriac Texts and Hagiography
  • Book Burning and Alternative Ecclesiologies
  • Episcopal Nepotism
  • Comparative Church Council Studies
• Major Publications:
  • Justinian and the Making of the Syrian Orthodox Church (Oxford, 2008)
  • The Last Pharaoh of Alexandria: Patriarch Dioscorus and Ecclesiastical Politics in the Later Roman Empire (Oxford, 2023)
  • From Ctesiphon to Toledo: Comparative Perspectives on Early Church Councils (Annales Historiae Conciliorum, 2024)
• Current Project:
  • With Richard Price: Alexander of Hierapolis and the 'Nestorian Controversy'