Starting from the premises that transdisciplinary elements are to be found in various traditional cultures, such as the polyvalent and inclusive perception, this essay suggests that the use of such elements in the patristic Byzantine tradition was not always a mere instinctive reaction. More precisely, the author identifies in the Byzantine world theoretical and practical attitudes that indicate the use of transdisciplinary elements both consistently and consciously. Following a succinct introduction to the transdisciplinary principles, the essay deals with presenting and analyzing a few examples of transdisciplinary thinking in the patristic Byzantine tradition, such as the Chalcedonian Creed; the multilayered hermeneutics of St. Maximus; and the inclusivism practiced by St. Maximus and Gregory Palamas with regard to the relations between technology and spiritual life. In the end, the lecture suggests accepting transdisciplinarity as a logical and natural product of an evolving cultural phenomenon which included, at a certain point in history, the patristic Byzantine tradition.

Keywords: transdisciplinary hermeneutics, Chalcedonian Christology, inclusive logics, layers of reality and perception, Byzantine tradition

DORU COSTACHE