ASPECTE FUNDAMENTALE ALE ECLESIOLOGIEI ORTODOXE LA SFÂNTUL IOAN GURĂ DE AUR

Author(s): Dacian But-Căpuşan / Language(s): English,Romanian Issue: 2/2015

Sfântul Ioan Gură de Aur tratează toate aspectele eclesiologiei ortodoxe. Biserica, Trupul lui Hristos este o comuniune sacramentală, a credincioșilor cu Hristos și întreolaltă. Comuniunea dintre uman și divin se realizează în Biserică, prin Sfânta Euharistie. Biserica este îndreptar divin, rolul ei este sfințitor, în afara ei omul nu poate realiza mântuirea. Hirotonia nu este o simplă ceremonie, ci are caracter de Taină. Prin punerea mâinilor arhiereului candidații primesc harul preoției. Ierarhia este o realitate permanentă, de natură sacramentală. Iar termenul de instituție și cel de eveniment, despre care se vorbește atât de mult în eclesiologia actuală, reprezintă în concepția hrisotomică două aspecte ale unei singure acțiuni divine în istorie.

TAINA SLUJIRII FRATELUI. UN MODEL AL COMUNIUNII ÎN ERA INDIVIDUALISMULUI ŞI A FRAGMENTĂRII SOCIALE. ASPECTE MORAL-TEOLOGICE

Author(s): Gabriel Noje / Language(s): English,Romanian Issue: 2/2015

In this study we intend to offer, in a succinct manner, a moral theological diagnosis from the Orthodox perspective to the contemporary individualism. Without insisting on the origins of the phenomenon, our study focuses on a few consequences that individualism posed in the spiritual life and social plan. Finally, we propose a model of communion based on the serving of our fellow men, as a way of overcoming the social fragmentation fueled by individualism.

FENOMENOLOGIE ȘI TEOLOGIE APOFATICĂ: RECEPTAREA SF. DIONISIE AREOPAGITUL ÎN GÂNDIREA LUI JEAN-LUC MARION

Author(s): Nicolae Turcan / Language(s): English,Romanian Issue: 2/2015

This text analyses the reception of St Dionysius the Areopagite’s apophaticism in Jean-Luc Marion’s thought. After a dispute with Jacques Derrida, who claimed that negative theology returns to affirmations after having passed through negations, Marion reads Dionysius’ apophaticism in the same way the Tradition of the Church did. Hence, he asserts that apophaticism is a third way, beyond affirmations and negations. As Marion’s apology evolves, Dionysius’ influences on his thought appear in concepts such as “God without being,” distance, and saturated phenomenon.Furthermore, this study argues the role of the human being in apophatic theology. Because of his radical phenomenology of donation, Marion reverses intentionality in counter-intentionality, experience in counter-experience, and subject in adonné. From this point on, the subject/l’adonné seems to have no determinative role for apophatic gnoseology, although Church Tradition always affirmed the importance of faith and virtues for spiritual ascent. The solution proposed in this text makes a distinction between Kant’s transcendental and the conditions of possibility gained by hermeneutics, ascetics, liturgy, and divine grace. L’adonné has no previous Kantian conditions of possibility; however, it can create some conditions of possibility from previous saturated phenomena. These “conditions” do not jeopardize the excess of the saturation.

DEZBATEREA BIOETICĂ ÎN EUROPA UNITĂ

Author(s): Mircea Gelu Buta / Language(s): English,Romanian Issue: 2/2015

Influența americană privind dezvoltarea bioeticii în Europa nu mai poate fi astăzi ignorată. Încă de la începutul anilor ’80 ai secolului trecut, numeroși bioeticieni și filosofi europeni au vizitat universități din America de Nord, acceptând fără rezerve teoriile seculare asupra bioeticii, în special cele principialiste ale lui Beauchamp și Childress. Cei mai entuziaști au fost englezii și olandezii, așa încât europenii de pe continent vorbesc despre o influență anglo-americană, mai degrabă decât despre o bioetică exclusiv americană. În ciuda acestui import de idei, valorile creștine inspiră în continuare bioetica europeană, o provocare prin care oamenii încearcă să se așeze pe căile care duc spre Dumnezeu sau, din contră, îi îndepărtează de El. Întrucât astăzi filosofia și etica au ajuns să fie înțelese ca discipline intelectuale seculare, posibilitatea implementării unei bioetici creștine trebuie evaluată explorând deosebirile, dar și valorile care despart și apropie cele două proiecte.

Ortodox Moral Theology and K. E. Løgstrup's Ontological Ethics

Author(s): Ullrich Zeitler / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2015

K.E. Løgstrup is a Danish philosopher and theologian who has tremendous influence on moral thinking in welfare professions in Northern Europe. He developed a conceptual framework for ontological ethics which challenges traditional ethical theories like utilitarianism, Kantianism and virtue theory. Although Løgstrup developed his theory within a protestant cultural tradition, my thesis is that his thinking shares similarities withthe orthodox moral theology which is expressed in the work of the Romanian orthodox scholar G. Popa.

THE AB AURO PROLOGUE OF PELBARTUS OF THEMESWAR’S THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA

Author(s): Alexandra Baneu / Language(s): English Issue: Sp.Iss./2015

The Ab Auro Prologue of Pelbartus of Themeswar’s Theological Encyclopedia. Pelbartus of Themeswar is a 15th century observant Franciscan best known for his collections of model sermons. This article, however, treats one of the two prologues which accompany his work of systematic theology, the Aureum sacrae theologiae rosarium. The Ab auro prologue, which is discussed in detail in the present study, introduces the reader to the main intent of the work. It has a rich metaphoric style and is tacitly inspired by the “Primum principium” of William of Vaurouillon’s commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard.

Consideration about Moral Accomplishment: a Necessity in today’s World

Author(s): Iulia Ţuţuianu / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

Unlike in the atheist existentialism, the Christian one finds the individual in palpable situations, seen as opportunities in the process of personal accomplishment. The existentialism is not a quietude philosophy, but it asks for permanent effort. The religious man has a meaning, a purpose, The Encounter with Absolute, his entire life being part of Propedeutica. He replaces the anguish with hope, with the joy of being closed to God which occurs in each moment when we are aware that we follow our destiny

Kościół Vaticanum II i jego eklezjologia. Próba retrospekcji z perspektywy 50 lat Gaudium et spes (II)

Author(s): Jerzy Gocko / Language(s): Polish Issue: 03/2015

The article is a continuation of a greater research project whose subject it is to look at the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council II. Carrying it out is occasioned by the fiftieth anniversary of the recent Ecumenical Council (1962-1965), and especially by the anniversary of the publication of the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes.The second part of the triptych puts the very Constitution Gaudium et spes in the center of the studies, focusing first of all on the history of its edition; the history full of dramaturgy and unexpected turnabouts. Analyzing particular stages allows grasping the significance of the breakthrough that has happened in those – important for the further history of the Church – events.

Nieograniczone odkupienie i odparta łaska. Klasyczny arminianizm we współczesnej teologii ewangelikalnej

Author(s): Damian Dorocki / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2016

The evangelical theology is not monolith in some areas. One of the evidence for such statement is the existence of two great traditions in evangelical bosom, namely Calvinism and Arminianism. The article presents the evangelical Arminianism in order to show that it is an alternative side of the evangelical Protestantism. The author starts from historical-theological perspective, exposing the soteriology of Jacob Arminius and his followers (so-called Remonstrants) as the main source of modern evangelical Arminian thought. The next part contains the presentation of views of Arminian theologians (F. Leroy Forlines, Robert E. Picirilli, Jack Cottrell, I. Howard Marschall, Roger E. Olson). The analysis, which has been made, indicates that the representatives of this theological stream believe in total depravity of human nature, Christ’s universal atonement and the particular application of redemption, the necessity of God’s grace, which is not irresistible in its nature, and in conditional predestination, which is realized in the saving union with Christ. Moreover, the author includes the Arminian exegesis of three biblical passages that relate to the operation of grace (John 6: 37.39.44); eternal predestination (Eph 1: 3-14); and the extent of the universal salvific will of God and the atonement (1Tim 2: 1-6).

Warunki dopuszczenia do Sakramentu Ołtarza w refleksji Światowej Federacji Luterańskiej z lat 1947-2010

Author(s): Jerzy Sojka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2016

Artykuł „Warunki dopuszczenia do Wieczerzy Pańskiej w refleksji Światowej Federacji Luterańskiej z lat 1947-2010” przedstawia jak przebiegała dyskusja nad wymogami, których spełnienie było wymagane dla dopuszczenia do Wieczerzy Pańskiej na forum największej międzynarodowej organizacji zrzeszającej Kościoły luterańskie – Światowej Federacji Luterańskiej. Zidentyfikowano trzy warunki, których spełnienie było wymagane dla dopuszczenia do Stołu Pańskiego: 1. przyjęcie chrztu, 2. rozróżnianie ciała i krwi Pańskiej oraz wyznanie wiary, 3. spowiedź. Dwa pierwsze spotkały się z powszechnym uznaniem, ostatni był w dyskusji kwestionowany. Omówienie w artykule uzupełnia przedstawienie dyskusji na temat form dyscypliny kościelnej.

Die Bekenntnisschriften der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche. Vollständige Neuedition, red. I. Dingel i in., Göttingen 2014, ss. VIII + 1712. Die Bekenntnisschriften der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche. Vollständige Neuedition. Qellen und Materialen.

Author(s): Jerzy Sojka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2015

GROWING WITH THE HOLY FATHERS: ‘ABBA’ (THE ELDER), ‘THEŌRIA’ AND ‘PHRONÊMA EKKLÊSIAS’, A ‘HERMENEUTICAL SPIRAL’ DERIVED FROM THE ASCETICAL ‘PRAXIS’ OF THE WORD

Author(s): Nichifor Tănase / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

THE STAUROLOGICAL CREDIBILITY OF THE GENESIS OF THE CHURCH

Author(s): Jacenty Mastej / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2014

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest ukazanie staurologicznej wiarygodności genezy Kościoła. Tak postawiony problem został rozpatrzony w trzech punktach. Kolejno zaprezentowano następujące zagadnienia: eklezjalne aspekty królewskiej godności Jezusa (I); eklezjotwórczy charakter wydarzeń na Gol- gocie (II) oraz Pentekostalny aspekt śmierci Jezusa (III). Ukazując wiarygodność Kościoła w jego genezie trzeba mieć na uwadze złożoną strukturę Eklezji: naturalną i nadprzyrodzoną, historyczną i ponadhistoryczną, widzialną i niewidzialną. Właściwe ukazanie wiarygodności Eklezji wymaga zatem dostrzeżenia widzialnych elementów jego genezy oraz poznania i zrozumienia nadanej im przez Boga treści i historiozbawczego sensu.

Ars vel scientia (disciplina)?

Author(s): Oleg Georgiev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 22/2016

This article deals with the analisis of the notion of scientia and ars in the Latin West of the end of classical era. Scientia is a Latin word that has played important role in medieval philosophy. It’s use as the translation of the Greek word ἐπιστήμη, which captures Aristotle’s conception of science and has become very important in the thirteenth century. The notion in question, more or less developed by different authors and linked to an educational environment marked by the liberal arts and dialectics in particular, is shown to be generally rooted in views expressed mainly by Augustine, Boethius, Martianus Capelae, Cassiodorus and Isidore of Sevile. Scientia is construed mostly as theoretical, spiritual knowledge that is a necessary step in the quest for the ultimate intellectual state of wisdom (sapientia).

Recontextualization of the Concept of Teaching: If Man Could Teach and Call Himself Teacher. The Thomas Aquinas’s „Commentary“ on "De magistro" of Augustine

Author(s): Gergana Dineva / Language(s): English Issue: 22/2016

The current paper will explicate and examine the linkage between the brief reinterpretation of the concepts „teaching“ (ad docendum, docere, doctrina) and teacher (magister), conducted by Thomas Aquinas mainly in his Quaestiones disputatae de veritate, question 11, where he refers to the substantial treatise of Augustine De magistro, and the specific character of his contemporary doctrinal and cultural practices, compared to the one, which Augustine knew and had to consider in the time, when he was building his own theory of transmission of knowledge. The work also very briefly outlines the contemporary with Thomas educational and cultural practices, bringing them into comparison with those that were known to Augustine in the time in which he builds his theory of transmission of knowledge.The text aims to show the interpretational turn that Thomas Aquinas undertakes, in order to preserve the main Augustinian thesis that God is the ultimate intrinsic teacher, but at the same time, using Aristotle’s theory of potency, to open the possibility for the human being to be a teacher. Thomas demonstrates that one person could teach another not in the role of an internal cause, but as an external secondary cause, as the teacher only helps the learner to activate his own intrinsic power of knowledge acquisition, inborn to him as an active potency (potentia activa).

Книга на истината

Author(s): Henry Suso / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 22/2016

Križ Isusov u Novom Zavjetu kao izraz prihvaćanja nasilne smrti

Author(s): Mato Zovkić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1/2016

This is an exegetical and theological essay on the cross of Jesus in New Testament writings considered as acceptance of his violent death and an integral part of his mission. Jewish religious leaders handed Jesus over to the Roman occupying power to be sentenced to death because they believed he was a dangerous false teacher of faith and a self-styled prophet who was seducing their people. The author sees the hymn of Phil 2:6-11 as the oldest written testimony explaining the shocking death of Jesus on the cross. St. Paul took this hymn from the Jerusalem community of the first Christians using Greek in their liturgy, only three years after his encounter with the risen Christ on his journey to Damascus in about AD 36. The author of the Third Gospel in presenting the death of Jesus appreciated the Greek culture of his audience at the time and therefore pointed out that Jesus on his cross was not primarily the Suffering Servant of God according to ls 53 (vicarious death, as in Paul) but the contested Righteous Man (dikaios) open to God and his fellow humans while suffering a violent death on the cross. St. Luke illustrates this through three sayings of Jesus from the cross that are unique to Luke’s account. )n John’s Gospel Jesus’s death on the cross is a physical and spiritual elevation of the Son of God (hysphotēnai dei - John 3:14; 8:28; 12:32). In John, by saying „tetelestai – it is finished“ (John 19:32) Jesus accepts his violent death and dies aware that he has fulfilled his life’s mission. According to John 19:37 and Revelation 1:7 Christians are baptized men and women who look with repentance, faith and hope to the Pierced One.

Sfantul Ioan Hrisostom - model pentru slujitorii de azi

Author(s): Ionut Constantin / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 01-03/2016

As one may notice, Christian preacher, from the perspective of John Chrysostom, is a means for a priest to religiously educate a Christian, bring him down the path of the Church and closer to Christ. That is why he had shown, by holding numerous lectures during masses, that preachers held at any moment may create sensibility and open man’s soul to God. Preacher is not a „simple means of defense, but also the weapon of a large and holy offensive and preventive action.“

Dimensiunea ontologica-comunicationala si misiunea comunitara a Teologiei

Author(s): Alexandru Mălureanu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 04-06/2016

The author considers that there is no need for a renewal of Theology, but a spiritual renewal of theologians, a return to confession and God, by means of invoking the Holy Spirit in prayer, in order to offer light to the mind and soul, in view of assuming the modality of belonging to the Parents of the Church. It is necessary to have a personal and communion-wise relationship with God by participating in the liturgical, doxological and eucharistic life of the Church, in permanent communication and communion with God, by impartation to Christ - the Embodied Wording, the One who restored the ontological relationship between man and God.

Obraz świata w średniowiecznej teologii

Author(s): Jerzy Buczek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 16/2009

Medieval authors, both theologians and philosophers, and writers and poets as well, aimed at creating one model that would depict the whole reality: God, world and man. They used creatively the image of the world from the Greek philosophy to illustrate the whole reality of the world created by God as a one system perfectly corresponding to the theology. According to St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas, and other medieval theologians the world is harmonically structured into to the levels of perfection. All realities interact. In the centre of the world there is man. God as a creator with his power, employing angels and using planets rules the whole reality. Planet interaction is related to the whole reality with the exception of thinking and free acts of the man. The world rotates, all leads to the man salvation and at the end when the rotation stops there will be no time, no birth and no death. In the depiction given by medieval theologians, nature, philosophy and theology constitute the great whole which can be defined as a Christian world view.