12. Citations by Others in Academic Works

Because his work has provoked interest, it has been studied by academics.

The impact of his work is obvious from the range and number of citations by others that are found in academic works, books, postgraduate dissertations, doctoral theses and in very many articles. It is also interesting that academic assignments have been written of which the exclusive subject of research is either the author’s theological work in general, or one specific book by him.

By way of example, it is worth referring here to the article by Tony R. Young, ‘Psychotherapy with Eastern Orthodox Christians’, Handbook of Psychotherapy and Religious Diversity, P. Scott Richards and Allen E. Bergin (eds), American Psychological Association 2014, pp. 89-104, in which Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos is described by the author as an Orthodox member of clergy who has made an extensive study of the Fathers, regards Orthodox asceticism as therapy, and has established the term ‘Orthodox Psychotherapy’. Young analyses this specific term on pages 101-102, referring to the author’s books Orthodox Psychotherapy, The Illness and Cure of the Soul in the Orthodox Tradition, and Orthodox Spirituality: A Brief Introduction.

In the same vein, Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna, who holds a PhD in psychology from the Princeton University, in his work A Guide to Orthodox Psychotherapy: The Science, Theology, and Spiritual Practice behind it and its Clinical Applications, University Press of America 2006, refers in detail to the term ‘Orthodox Psychotherapy’ and notes that the term “… was coined by a gifted religious writer and theologian, Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos. …”

About 750 titles of academic works have been identified in which often multiple references are made to the books of Metropolitan Hierotheos. We mention indicatively that one single postgraduate dissertation contains about 300 references.