Rate My Professor Michael Plekon

Michael Plekon served as a faculty member in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Baruch College of the City University of New York from September 1977 to August 2017, rising from assistant professor to professor and serving as coordinator and professor in the Religion and Culture program before becoming Professor Emeritus. He earned an A.B. in Sociology and Philosophy from The Catholic University of America in 1970, an M.A. in Sociology and Religion from Rutgers University in 1974, and a Ph.D. in Sociology and Religion from Rutgers in 1977, where he studied under Peter L. Berger. Plekon's academic career paralleled over forty years as a priest in Eastern and Western churches, assisting at multiple parishes while contributing to sociology, anthropology, and religious studies.

Plekon's research specializations include the social history of American religious traditions and communities, connections between social theory and theology, the social and theological thought of Søren Kierkegaard, contemporary Eastern Orthodox theology and theologians of the Russian emigration, saints in modern times, the life and work of those in ordained ministry, and the death and resurrection of faith communities. His extensive publications feature books such as Living Icons: People of Faith in the Eastern Church and Holiness in Our Time (University of Notre Dame Press, 2002), Hidden Holiness (University of Notre Dame Press, 2009), Saints as They Really Are: Patterns of Holiness in Our Time (University of Notre Dame Press, 2012), Uncommon Prayer: Prayer in Everyday Experience (University of Notre Dame Press, 2016), The World as Sacrament: Ecumenical Reflections on Worldly Spirituality (Liturgical Press, 2017), Community as Church, Church as Community (Cascade Books, 2021), and Ministry Matters: Pastors, Their Life and Work Today (Cascade Books, 2024). He has edited, translated, and introduced works by theologians including Paul Evdokimov, Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, Arthur Carl Piepkorn, Nicholas Afanasiev, and Maria Skobtsova, alongside essays on Thomas Merton. Plekon received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (1979-1980), honorary Fulbright, American Scandinavian Institute, and Lutheran World Federation fellowships at the University of Copenhagen’s Institute for Systematic Theology (1979-1980 and 1981), multiple PSC-CUNY Faculty Research Awards, a Faculty Fellowship Publication Award (2014-2015), and book honors such as the 2016 Foreword INDIES Gold Award in Adult Nonfiction, Religion for Uncommon Prayer. He continues as a reviewer for journals and works on new projects including Communion and Community.