Keywords: Holy Fathers; Patristics; patristic theology; topicality; continuity
The topicality of the Holy Faders has been subject to research on several occasions, both in Romania and abroad, yet, no discourse suffi cient in itself has been accomplished. The purpose of this study is to create an overview of the previous research results and to add new elements to a strictly Orthodox perspective on the topicality of the Holy Fathers. This overview encompasses the conclusions of the author’s study and research in his attempt to reclaim a so-called Introduction to Patristics. The Holy Fathers, their thinking and theology remain a constant reference in the Orthodox Church and theology. Unfortunately, nowadays, the patristic text is rarely referred to in the Orthodox academic circles, which usually prefer a theology that doesn’t refl ect the patristic teachings. The contemporary man is unable to fi nd himself in the study of the Holy Father’s words, and no longer has the desire to seek answers to his problems by approaching the theology of the Church. The Fathers’ topicality, importance, and authority is confi rmed by God’s topicality, importance, and authority; thus, their validity is proven by the truths they express and by the rules of life they promote, at all times, for every Christian. This presentation is intended not only as a highlight of certain contemporary Orthodox theological aspects, but as a reminder of the importance of the patristic theology for the theology of the Church.
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Keywords: holidays; evocation; events; Church; nation; personality; Nicolae Colan; encomium
The encomia of Metropolitan Nicolae Colan praise and preach the great Christian truths, along with their holidays and martyrs, concurring to the limitless praise of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. On a different level, consistent to the idea that the writing must follow reality, to praise and adequately evoke historical personalities, Nicolae Colan also presented in his writings pieces of history, as seen through his own eyes, which, today, help us see more comprehensively various events and phenomena. To the same image, it also contributes the diversity of the personalities evoked and praised, from Church fi gures like Andrei Şaguna, Roman Ciorogariu or Nicolae Bălan, to laic fi gures from various fi elds of activity: Octavian Goga, general Averescu, king Carol the 2nd, Ion Luca Caragiale, Sextil Puşcariu, as well as peasant Petrache Lupu, and so many other important fi gures, which shared with Nicolae Colan their creed, their values, their faith, and devotion to the Church, language and nation, everything surrounded by a specifi c Transylvanian spirit, a spirit he believed in and cultivated rigorously.
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Keywords: Diplomacy, Immunity, Romania, Securitate, United States, Italy
This study is based on a secret Italian diplomatic document that makes reference to the pressures on the foreign diplomatic missions in Bucharest exercised by the Romanian communist authorities and to the infringement of the diplomatic immunities and privileges by the same authorities. Not only the spying techniques through wiretaps and environmental registerings are highlited, but also the direct pressures on the American diplomats and on the service passport staff (for Austria) to cooperate with the Securitate. The pressures were so great that the head of the Italian Legation in Bucharest required the change of the entire staff and officials.
More...Keywords: First World War, Romania, Intelligence, Propaganda, Xenophobia.
The present paper aims at tackling a distinctive (and less considered) topic within the vast research area dedicated to the First World War, namely the issue of society’s perceptions and behavior concerning the Foreigner(s), both during the years of neutrality and equally after Romania’s intervention into the conflict, on the Entente side, in 1916. Based mainly on memoirs, press collections and archival documents, the research unveiles the metamorphosis of Romanian society in terms of attitudes towards foreigners, under the effects of the war propaganda, or due to its own perceptions and emotions. While the perception of the continous threat represented by the presence and activities of the enemy (Central Powers agents and spies) can easily be traced – and to a great extent, explained, the war years witnessed also a growing xenophobia exhibited towards vast categories, including German school students.
More...Keywords: Nicolae Iorga, History-production, New Man, Cult of personality, Communist Romania.
Nicolae Iorga is the towering figure of historical studies in Romania. The sheer volume of scholarship he produced throughout his life combined with heavy involvement in politics before and after the First World War amount to a highly complex intellectual biography. He was a central figure in the process of the nationalization of the Romanian nation-state both as an epistemic interpreter and as a political figure. The fate of his biography, ideas, and scholarship during the communist regime is inextricably tied to the latter’s development on the path to domestication. My study analyzes some of the central aspects of the double-edged process through which N. Iorga officially attained the status of founding father of the Romanian history-production while simultaneously becoming the subject of a cult of personality from mid-1960s onward. Nicolae Iorga, as a symbolic and scientific authority, transformed into a central legitimizer of state socialism’s historiographically encoded identitarian master narrative.
More...Keywords: Romanian society, Ideological pressures, Repressive apparatus, Ceausescu’s regime, Letters to power.
The first years of Ceausescu’s regime were a period of transition and rehabilitation both at the level of discourse and the practice of power in connection with society. From the perspective of the letters to power, the criticisms by those who were discontented were aimed more at the abuses of the party bureaucracy or state functionaries than the leader of the party. The Romanian society oscillated between consensus and dissent. On one hand, there was expressed adhesion to the projects of the regime, and, on the other hand, the same society criticized political or economic measures perceived as an intrusion into its privacy. Duplicity was equally a way of finding consensus and escape. The consensus lasted as long as the political power fulfilled its promises to society (access to goods, supply of food, rising salaries, access to information). In time, with the deterioration of living conditions and ideological pressures, the void left by the loss of popular support was filled by a repressive apparatus whose role was to maintain a state of fear and control the disappointments of the population.
More...Keywords: Systematisation, Socialist reconstruction, Communist regime, Urban policy, Bucharest.
The aim of this article is to analyse the impact of the political decision making regarding urban planning, together with the development of the city of Bucharest at the beginning of the communist regime. The economical and political transformations characteristic of the post-war period have created the premises for a transition from the inter-war urban planning to a new concept of reconstruction. The aforementioned concept was under a powerful ideological influence; it was set to build the „new socialist city”, in contrast to the old, „bourgeois” socio-political theories and practices. Con- sequently, between 1948 and 1952, the Romanian communist regime set the foundation of a centralised and politicised institutional system. A new administrative apparatus subdued to the interest of the new political system was thus created. This has marked the debut of the wielding of a strong political control over decision-making, thus opening a path towards certain urban transfigurations. The state governed over the phases of the building processes, from sketch to implementation, by regulating the investments and funding projects through annual and five-year plans. This reconsideration of urban systematisation allowed the state to develop new projects and programs both in the architectural and urban areas.
More...Keywords: Declaration of April 1964, Romanian Communism, National Stalinism, International communist movement, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej.
The Declaration of April 1964 is known as a document that epitomized Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej’s policy of autonomy from Kremlin. At the same time, it provided the theoretical foundation for the foreign policy initiatives pursued by Dej's successor, Nicolae Ceauşescu. Although N. Ceauşescu avoided mentioning the Declaration in his post-1965, he remained faithful to its principles. In fact, Ceauşescu’s international stances were the direct continuation the political line spelled out in the Declaration. The Declaration proclaimed that all communist parties were equal within the international communist movement, that patronizing attitudes need to be rejected, and that all communist parties were free to choose their own path toward communism. Gheorghiu-Dej did not live long enough to see the outcomes of the major shift represented by the Declaration of April. Later, N. Ceauşescu turned Gheorghiu-Dej’s embryonic ethnic nationalism into increasingly chauvinistic policies. This synthesis of Leninist dogmas (first and foremost the leading role of the communist party) and resurgent far-right themes and motifs resulted in a national Stalinist experiment. Only apparently forgotten, the Declaration was in fact Ceauşescu’s national Stalinist Charter.
More...Keywords: Nicolae Ceaușescu, Ideology, Science, Academy of RSR, Academy of Social and Political Sciences, Reform, Romanian Communist Party.
The appearance of the Academy for Social Sciences (ASS) represents the meeting point of several processes that signal the maturation of Romanian communism. The strengthening of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s power meant not only the continuation of the desovietization policy, but also the creation of a Romanian form of communism. Initially, its complexity surpassed the simple assertion of national interests. The end of the 60’s represented, in Ceaușescu’s view, the moment in which one could consider the successes of the efforts to improve the relation with the intellectuals. A period of great reform for communist Romania followed. Among the first measures taken was the extension of the party’s direct authority over social science research. Trying to create a national idea that would combine historical tradition and Marxism-Leninism, science and creation were to be transformed into ideology and propaganda. This has contributed to the birth of a personality cult which had a Stalinist dimension.
More...Keywords: Romanian Marxist historiography, history textbook, Mihail Roller, de-Stalinization, Andrei Oțetea.
The aim of the study is to present the evolution of the Romanian Marxist historiography using the history textbook prepared under the direction of Mihail Roller. Its main purpose was to provide a model for the interpretation of historical events. Following the evolution of editions, we can observe the growing influence of Mihail Roller and the limits of the de-Stalinization in Romania after the XXth Congress of the CPSU in 1956.
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E tička poruka kur’anske objave izrazito je usmjerena u socijalnom pravcu. Islamska etika u najvećoj mjeri je socijalna etika. Socijalne vrijednosti utemeljene na Kur’anu i Sunnetu, imaju značenje samih religijskih vrijednosti. Socijalna etika sadržana je i u muslimanskom bogoslužju (ibadah), a ne samo u fikhskim disciplinama koje se bave međuljudskim odnosima. Osjećanje za socijalnu pravdu, briga za slabe, siromašne, bolesne, obespravljene, potlačene, produbljivanje solidarnosti među ljudima, jednom riječju dobročinstvo, čini istinski sadržaj bogobojaznosti (taqwa). O tome karakteristično i upečatljivo govori kur’anski ajet (49 :177) u kojem se kaže kako “Nije dobročinstvo u tome da Istoku ili Zapadu okrećete lica svoja, nego su dobročinitelji oni koji vjeruju u Allaha, i u Onaj Svijet, i u meleke, i u Knjigu, i u vjerovjesnika, i oni koji od imetka, premda im je srcu mio, daju rodbini, i siročadi, i ubogima, i putnicima, i prosjacima, i za oslobađanje iz ropstva, i oni koji namaz klanjaju, i zekat daju, i obaveze svoje, kad se njima obavežu, izvršavaju, i koji su strpljivi u siromaštvu, i bolesti, i za borbe junačke! Eto, takvi jamačno vjeruju i Takvi su bogobojazni.”
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