Dr Eleni Giannakopoulou has been serving as an Associate Professor (since 2018) in the Department of Social Theology and Religious Studies of the School of Theology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, with the academic field “Canon Law and the Teaching of the Ecumenical Councils”, within the Section of Canon Law.
Her scholarly specialization focuses on Canon and Ecclesiastical Law, the History of the first eight centuries, and the Ecumenical Councils, as well as their dogmatic teaching, with particular emphasis on the study and interpretation of the sources of the Ecumenical Councils, such as the Acts, the Sacred Canons, state legislation, ecclesiastical regulatory provisions, etc.

She holds degrees in Theology, Law, and German Language and Literature, and has an excellent command of English and German. Following the prescribed electoral procedures, she was elected Director of the Section of Canon Law (2023–2025); her term was renewed for a further two-year period after re-election (2025–2027).

From an ecclesiastical perspective, she belongs to the Holy Archdiocese of Athens, where she is actively involved in parish life as a member of the Parish Philoptochos Fund of the Holy Church of Saint Marina, Ano Ilisia. Since 2020, she has served as an alternate member of the Synodal Committee on Monastic Life of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, a term that has been renewed for a second consecutive period.

Within the framework of her teaching activities, she collaborates with the Pastoral Training Foundation of the Holy Archdiocese of Athens, while since the spring semester of 2025 she has been teaching Ecclesiastical and Canon Law at the Ecclesiastical Schools for the Training of Candidate Clergy (SMYK) in Vella of Ioannina and Crete. For this teaching, she prepared and provided a relevant manual, specifically adapted to the needs of clerical students, enriched with visual material, practical guidance, and theological–canonical analyses useful for the exercise of the clerical ministry.

Teaching Activity

• Ecclesiastical Family Law and Gender Equality

• Special Issues of Family Law and Gender Equality

• Greek Ecclesiastical Law

• Contemporary Issues of Ecclesiastical Law

• Dogmatics

• Canon Law (General and Special Part)

• Sources of Canon Law

• Functioning of the Synodal System

• Synodality in the 21st Century

• History, Theory, and Contemporary Issues of the Synodal Institution

• Canon Law and the Law of Religious Communities

• Methodology of Canonical Science

• Criminology and Victimology from a Theological Perspective

• Methodology of Scientific Research and Writing (Theory and Practice)

• Introduction to the Ecumenical Councils

• Diachronic Development of the Synodal Institution

• First Ecumenical Council: Sources and History

Scholarly and Social Activities

She is an active member of a number of scholarly societies of national and international scope, including:

• Gesellschaft für das Recht der Ostkirchen (Society for the Law of the Eastern Churches)

• Hellenic Society of Ecclesiastical and Canon Law

• Hellenic Society for the History of Law

• Hellenic Society of Family Law

• Ecumenical Patristic Society

• International Association of Orthodox Dogmatic Theologians

As a researcher and faculty member, she has engaged with a wide range of scholarly issues within her field of expertise, which she has presented at numerous conferences, scientific symposia, and academic events in Greece and abroad, through papers, communications, and lectures.