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Austen Ivereigh, Prorok. Biografia Franciszka, papieża radykalnego, tłum. Marcin Masny, Wydawnictwo Niecałe, Bytom 2015, 504 s.
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This article gives an update on the security situation in Turkey and the visit of Pope Francis to the country.
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This analysis discusses the currents in Catholic bureaucracy and leadership in Croatia, in light of regional efforts and Pope Francis' reforms.
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In this research paper, we intend to offer the reader the possibility of becoming more familiar with the main types of biblical commentaries through an exegetic exercise centered round Psalm 4. The choice of the supporting text is not at all random since, even from ancient times, the psalms have benefitted from the attention of an impressive number of scholars and have been the beginning of both dialogue and controversy between religions (Christianity and Judaism) and Christian denominations. Throughout the exegetical analysis, we took into consideration a few rigors of the Critical approach which we correlated with the rabbinic and patristic commentaries in order to accomplish a very ample interpretation. Even if these commentators were not entirely in agreement, rather than bringing to relief their interpretative differences, we tried to underline the common elements existing in the specific manner of interpretation of each exegetical school. Thus, the complexity of this isagogic, exegetical and theological study resides in the fact that it approaches the text of the psalm from a literary, allegorical and spiritual point of view and it can become a hermeneutical paradigm for those who wish to study the Holy Scriptures with scientific and spiritual accuracy.
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My paper deals with the necessity of existing cultural, social and religious dialogues between the leaders of the messianic Judaism movement and the metropolitan Orthodox Church, based on an honest, reverent and respectful approach, in order to present to this marvelous Jewish Christian community, the spirituality of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Body of Christ, that is the Orthodox Church. The elimination of the dichotomy fundamentalism vs. liberalism is a goal that has to be accomplished, so we can develop a constructive ecumenical dialogue that promotes our Holy Tradition of the Apostolic Orthodox Church. Last part of my research contains several suggestions regarding means of improving the dialogue while accepting the fact that both messianic Judaism and Orthodox Christians inherited specific authority, doctrines, practices and above all, a complementary Christian Tradition.
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In the last three decades of the 19th Century, Denmark experienced a mayor cultural struggle, a spiritual fight, which has profoundly influenced the way of thinking and the situation for the Christian Faith until the present. In this struggle, Christianity and Conservatism expressed themselves on one side, Atheism, Materialism and Individualism on the other. One of the signs was an intense debate about the relationship between faith and knowledge. In this case the Protestant Bishop Martensen presented a very interesting answer to Atheist claims. Another was the demand, from the Radical side, for "schools without confession", that is without any connection with Christianity at all. Finally, there was the question, if upbringing and education should take place in absolute freedom. In the old Orthodox countries, young people as well as parents, schools and the Church will face many of the same problems and questions. All of this asks the question, how can the Church handle a general cultural conflict?
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A zealous hierarch and preacher, with a significant contribution to the theory of homiletics and the development of Romanian homiletic literature during the first half of the 20th century, was Bishop Grigorie Comşa of Arad whose life and works, intertwined in an exemplary pastoral paradigm, fully deserve our attention and gratitude. Beside a great number of sermon books, bishop Grigorie Comşa also bequeathed to us The History of Romanian Preaching – a 303 – page anthology of homilies and a major source for the field of Practical Theology. It is also a landmark of inter-war culture, as it provides an overview of the medieval and modern church thought. The contribution of homilists is easily identified, as the book is structured according to two criteria: the historical one (by centuries, starting with the first extant records dating from 15th century) and the geographical one (for the three great historical provinces: Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania). The last book to be mentioned was published in 1920. The author does not confine himself to enumerating the books, but provides commentaries on the quality of these sermons. We also note that he presents and describes valuable sermons in manuscript form, who are now known due to the diligent author of this History.
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God is the supreme Mystery of existence, He is by His own power above existence. God is the tripersonal super-essence of spiritual nature, above all spirituality that we may understand or imagine. He is the one Who brings everything into existence and that is why there is a fundamental difference between God and creation; the origin and the existence of the creation depend on the will and the creative work of God. As personal super-essence and super-existence, God is completely free because He cannot be closed into a reference system; He is the ultimate instance of all His decisions and acts. Man, created in the image of God reflects at the level of creation the freedom of God. As created existence, he is part of a reference system of the created world, which depends on God in its existence and becoming. As personal existence, in the image of God, the human person is capable of an existence that is not entirely enclosed into the reference system of the created nature; he is called to the free communion with God and it is the ultimate instance that decides his thoughts, acts and words. Man guards and increases his freedom or loses it according to the manner in which he professes it. For within the freedom of man the possibility to state the freedom is involved, at the same time renouncing it. The paradox of the freedom of man consists of the fact that man gives up his freedom through his own freedom because of pride or because he leaves the communion with God, Who offers him the true freedom.
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Prayer is one of the renewing aspects of the Christian religion. It summarises the whole Gospel. St. Cyprian presents the evangelical precepts/ teachings as the foundation of the path to salvation. Tertullian shows that prayer is considered by Christians offering spiritual sacrifices, which replaced the older offerings to the idols and pagan deities. Prayer is following the exhortation of the Saviour, for true worshipers, to worship God in the Holy Spirit and truth. Prayer teaches patience, suffering for the Lord; it helps to the removal of God's wrath, it helps watching and praying for enemies and persecutors, washing our sins, casting temptations, quenching persecutions, lifting the fall; it offers support for the weak, attack and defence weapons for Christians.
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This paper follows on from the premise that humans are narrative beings, i.e. their identity is founded on stories. From a theological perspective, more importantly, Christian identity is founded on a particular story – the story of Jesus Christ. As a consequence, theology is the critical reflection of this story. Narrative theology is a school which emphasizes this point of departure. However, narrative theology also has its potential weaknesses. In the pursuit of their at least partial overcoming this paper suggests speaking about narrativist theology instead, drawing on from the difference between story and narrative. Subsequently, it argues for the need for the Christian church and theology to be involved in a generous and open dialog with various narratives of the Christian story and with various narratives of other stories. Finally, it suggests understanding (the Christian) story as something which must not be merely narrated, but also ritually enacted and embodied.
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Saint Paul refers to Christ’s ability to radiate his divine light of himself while other OT luminaries like Moses could only reflect that light. This experience of theosis is being, also, described as “transformation into unveiled glory” (2 Cor. 3.7-18). By this verse deification through the vision of God becomes an immanent and mystical event. This aspect of deification as transformation into glory (glorification) is both an inward quality of spiritual knowledge and an outward radiance. The nature of the glory of Moses and the visible splendour shining from his face from his direct contact with God (Exod 34.29) signifies God’s visible, divine presence. As all believers encounter God directly (with unveiled faces) through the Spirit’s presence they reflect this glory as mirrors and are themselves glorified in the process (from glory to glory). The transformation into this glory is not only noetic but also embodied because it is a visible manifestation. The noetic enlightenment is associated with participation in divine glory in 2 Cor 3-4 and is correlated to the somatic experience of glory in 2 Cor 4:16-5:5. Paul speaks also of this epistemic process of contemplation which generates the ontological mirroring process. And, because for us there is no veil over the face, we all see as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, and we are being transformed (μεταμορφούμεθα) into his image (τὴν αὐτὴν εἰκόνα) with ever-increasing glory. But Luke is the only evangelist to use the word “glory” (doxa) and the only to mention that Jesus and the three apostles went up the mountain specifically to pray (Lk 9:29-31). This is a detail in spiritual tradition of hesychasm which was richly developed, the vision of light at the culmination of intense periods of prayer is the deification of our nature. This light is an enhypostatic symbol, the uncreated radiance of God, a divine energy. This manifestation of Christ in the divine nature is not something external to ourselves. It is interiorized through the life of ascetism and prayer. Christ will radiate within us. But this pneumatic nature of Christ’s luminous body is experienced through Eucharist as well. This holy sacrament accesses the divine light, veiled by Christ’s visible body. Also, Sebastian Brock extends forms of light comparison to the internal light of Mary’s womb when bearing Jesus. Christ’s light transforms her body in which He resided, as it ‚gleams from within’. In her, the light-bearing Christ is ‚woven’ as a garment. Speaking of the hesychast method of prayer and transformation of the body, Gregory Palamas also uses this Pauline theology of 2 Corinthians in Tr. I.2.2. But he adds that “We carry this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Cor. 4:7). So we carry the Father’s light in the face (prosōpon) of Jesus Christ in earthen vessels, that is, in our bodies, in order to know the glory of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, during the hesychast controversy, St Gregory Palamas defends the reality of the encounter with God of those monks who reported seeing a vision of light at the culmination of intense period of prayer. For the light is nothing less than the uncreated radiance of God – a divine energy accesible to the senses. This manifestation of Christ is not something external to ourselves.
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The person is ontologically a communicational person, a relational being. Through communication we do not communicate just a message formed of words, but most of the times, beyond words we share a part of who we are and we receive a part of what the other is. Communication has as a final target to achieve communion, it is meant to lead us to the other’s inner self, to advance from me and you to the opening of us. Social networks, as the most used means of communication today, may enhance the entire process, but they may also limit it. In order to explore the facilities and excesses that pertains the use of social networks, we have used a questionnaire specifically designed for this aim, and the results of this research are presented in the last part of the present study.
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The present study analyzes the role and the rights of the laity, in various Statutes of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The present study shows that within the Romanian Patriarchate there are two different approaches concerning the extent of the involvement of the laity in the three-fold ministry of the Church, in particular as to its role in the field of Church governance. Thus, on the one hand one sees a strong tendency to limit the laity’s role and rights in the governing of the local Church (the diocese) or at the supra-local level (the Metropolis or the Patriarchate). On the other hand, there is another position that allows a greater involvement of the laity in the governing of the Church. The lack of laity’s involvement in the recently held Pan-Orthodox Council determines us to look again and critical to the situation within the ROC and argue for a return to an old and ecclesiologically sound canonical practice of total integration and active participation of the laity in the Church.
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