Dean Pentiuc’s Return with a New Publication

After an unexpected and necessary medical leave that began this summer, our esteemed Dean, Rev. Dr. Eugen J. Pentiuc, plans to return to his decanal duties beginning January 7, 2025. 

President Demetrios S. Katos, Ph.D. commented, “I am confident that Fr. Pentiuc’s return will bring renewed strength to Holy Cross’s mission. I look forward to working together to build the future of our Church.” 

Additionally, Dean Pentiuc has recently published a new book, A Drawing Book Hermeneutics: Seeing the Scriptures as a Teenager (En Route Press) which is the digitized version of a manuscript on which he began to work in 1972, at the age of 16, while a high school student in Suceava (Bucovina county), Romania. The manuscript, completed in 1973, contained original illustrations in ink on glossy paper featuring Moses’ life (fragmentary), many of the Sunday and feast-days Gospels listed in any Eastern Orthodox lectionary, and John’s Revelation (fragmentary). (You may find it on Amazon.com)

Rev. Dr. John Behr remarks, “Having given us an aural interpretation of the Scriptures (Hearing the Scriptures: Liturgical Exegesis of the Old Testament in Byzantine Orthodox Hymnography, OUP 2023), renowned Orthodox Biblical scholar, Fr. Eugen J. Pentiuc, now offers us a visual exegesis, showing us an earlier and artistic dimension of his creative intellect. The pictures accompanying the selected scriptural texts included here, drawn by a 16-year-old in communist Romania testify to the fact that the light of Christ shines in, but is not overcome by, the darkness of the world. The visual hermeneutics presented here both give an insight into the genesis of Fr. Eugen’s intellectual and spiritual development and will inspire others to follow the same path.”