Journals of Faculty of Orthodox Theology, Babes-Bolyai University (Romania)
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DIE CHRONOGRAPHIA DES MICHAEL PSELLOS ALS WERK MÜNDLICHER PROSA
Get PDFMichael Psellos’ Chronographia as Oral Prose. Until now only Herbert Hunger and Warren Treadgold had pointed out that Michael Psellos has his Chronographia not written by his own hand but dictated to a professional scribe. Therefore also the structure of this work clearly has an oral character: many references back and forward, transition formulas, dialogues instead of orations. All this corresponds to its almost entirely oral sources and its aural reception. Psellos thinks of the recipients of the Chronographia not als readers but as listeners, may it be in a public θε?ατρον or privately, of course always read out loudly
Prevederi canonice, liturgice și juridice cu privire la folosirea vinului în cult
Get PDFThe following study is focused on the topic of liturgical wine according to the Holy Canons of the Orthodox Church. As we know, in the various liturgical acts of our Church wine is used, along with other elements as bread or oil. The most important use of the wine is in the Holy Eucharist, where wine becomes the Blood of Christ. This is the reason why the liturgical wine must correspond to the canonical prescriptions that inquire the use of a wine with a certain quality. We will emphasize the fact that the Canonical Tradition of the Orthodox Church prohibits the use of crafted wine, or of wine produced with other additives and preservatives. The wine must be fermented, clear and with alcohol, without being mixed with milk or grape juice. So, the purpose of this article is to clarify, based on the Holy Canons, which are the criteria that define a wine as being canonical or non-canonical for use in the Holy Eucharist
MICHAEL PSELLOS ON RHETORIC
Get PDFThe present paper is focused on Psellos’ letters, which contain a number of remarks on his role as a teacher of rhetoric and as a rhetor active at the imperial court, as well as many comments on his correspondents’ and his own style – including considerations on kinds and levels of style, Atticism and sophistry, and judgements on the great rhetorical models of the past. The examination of all these passages makes it possible to highlight the way Psellos constructs his own image as an expert in rhetoric, familiar with Hermogenean theories, but also heavily influenced by Dionysios of Halikarnassos’ aesthetic conceptions. The great diversity of models with whom he identifies testifies to his stylistic versatility and his frequent adoption of a polemical stance can be read as a claim to independence of mind and originality
Modificări calitative ale inimii sub acţiunea harului dumnezeiesc
Get PDFThis theme seeks to explore the extent to which the heart of the postmodern man can be sensitized and reconverted from the state of impassivity, which he manifests both to his own existential state and to the needs and sufferings of those around him, and thus to become a heart more sensitive, more empathetic and more sensitive to the world around. In this sense, we propose that the experience of humility be a possible solution to its reconversion, an absolutely necessary phenomenon in a world that is less and less „kind”. The arguments we invoke are medical, psychological and theological. Thus, we will refer to the central organ of the cardiovascular system not only as a vital organ, which can suffer as a result of a „closed” life, stressed or depressed by negative emotional states or moods, but also as a spiritual organ that has a role in psychosocial and spiritual life, at least as important as for biological life. Although our life is largely due to the heartbeat, we are too unaware that the way we relate to life contexts, to our fellow men, and especially to God, can definitely affect it. However, this motor of life, which beats in our chest, has a malleable functionality, so that, thanks to prayer and repentance, the vital pulsation of the heart can be closely related to the pulsation of the spiritual life. In this sense, spiritual healing, felt as a renewal of the heart and mind, is also reflected in the biological existence of man, as a restoration of his psychosomatic functions
Decretul ,,Haec Sancta” și importanţa sa în cadrul conciliului de la Konstanz (1414-1418)
Get PDFThe solution found by the decree „Haec Sancta” was the main pawn in solving the problem within the Western Church, which arose at the end of the 14th century. Thanks to this decree, it was possible to elect a new pope, and by his election, to end the schism and to reorganise the Western church. Those who dealt with the translation of the original text of the decree „Haec Sancta” shed light, by exegesis on the text of the decree „Haec Sancta”, the origin of the council, the importance of the decree and its necessity to resolve the moment of sad remembrance of the life of the Western Church. However, the decree, has been challenged on numerous occasions, being considered only a solution of damage, and some, more critical, said that it is a heretical theory that is a reference to the constitution of the Roman Catholic Church
Siria între antichitate și actualitate. Situaţia vestigiilor arheologice în contextul primăverii arabe
Get PDFThe Middle East area is full of history more or less known even by archaeologists and historians. This makes this area devoid of its due importance. The Orient area hosts among the oldest permanently inhabited human settlements of which there are testimonies and documents. Unfortunately, archeological research began recently, about a century ago, and has managed to bring to the surface only a part of the history of those places. However, we are glad that the interest in this area is also due to the culture, not only to the oil fields that we find in the Arabian Peninsula. We highlight this aspect because, as we will see in the following lines, not always a very coveted resource brings with it a certain advantage. The geographical position of Syria has made it a disaster for several ancient cities, including Palmyra, Damascus or Ebla. These cities were the „collateral victims” of resource struggles. The aim of the paper is to highlight the rich past and the poor present that the cities I will talk about have
De la sclav la vizir: ascensiunea lui Iosif în Egipt
Get PDFThe present study aims to shed more light on an Old Testament biblical moment that we do not consider sufficiently intensely treated in local biblical theological disciplines: the rise of Patriarch Joseph in Egypt, from slave status to vizier status, or, in other words, to the second position in the Egyptian empire, after that of Pharaoh. In our research we used interreligious sources, in addition to the specifically Christian ones (Holy Scripture and patristic writings) using the Muslim Qur’anic account of Joseph’s life in Egypt, but also the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius. It will thus be noted that the biography of Joseph in Egypt, at least until the time he becomes vizier, is approached differently in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim writings mentioned above, between which there are obviously both similarities, as well as differences, both aspects that are incompatible and aspects that can be harmonized in an exemplary manner in order to fill some gaps regarding the rise of Joseph in the empire of the pharaohs. At the same time, in conducting this research, we used strictly profane sources related to ancient Egypt, sources that, through their level of objectivity, gave us very useful and very interesting details, details that clarify many aspects of the scriptural report from the Book of Genesis on how Patriarch Joseph ascended to Egypt from a simple slave to the second man in the empire. We sought in the research to be as objective as possible in terms of extrascriptural sources, so we can bring some clarifications of a religious, historical, political, social and moral nature that we consider necessary in achieving an exegesis or a strictly historical approach to this scriptural episode from the Old Testament
The Education of the Apostle John Between Discipleship and the Fourth Gospel
Get PDFThe synoptic gospels present the Apostle John, during the three years of discipleship next to Jesus Christ, in a different way than the Gospel of John. Along with his older brother, James, and the Apostle Peter, he is part of the small, intimate group, which is present at all the important events of the Saviour’s ministry. Jesus chooses to change John into a disciple of “love,” of gentleness, of compassion by accepting him, by unconditional love, and by entrusting him as the son of Mary, the Mother of God. The paradigm of life is shaped in his new relationship, a fact proved by the writing of the fourth Gospel: he does not mention his name, he describes himself as the disciple “whom Jesus loved”, the emphasis on love is twice as great as that of truth and justice
PSELLOS’ COMMENTARY ON THE JESUS PRAYER
Get PDFThe commentary on the Jesus Prayer published by Sinkiewicz in 1987 is a genuine work by Psellos. It is ascribed to him in a number of manuscripts and is not eccentric in relation to his interests. Indeed, he wrote a commentary on the ‘Kyrie Eleison’. Moreover, the theological points in the commentary echo those he described in Poem 4 Westerink. The commentary contains a previously unidentified verse which contains eleventh century expressions. Psellos’ commentary was used by Markos Eugenikos when he wrote his own commentary on the same prayer which was published in the Philocalia. Psellos’ commentary was transmitted in a number of manuscripts preserved today on Mt. Athos also under his name
INCORPOREALS IN THE ONTOLOGY OF CREATED BEINGS IN THE BYZANTINE PHILOSOPHY OF MICHAEL PSELLOS
Get PDFIn this contribution I tried to show that Psellos has a complex understanding of the ontology of the being of incorporeal entities that is shaped mainly from a Christian position but also supplemented by the methodological use of positions from ancient philosophy. There is surely a lot more to say about this problem, but I think the classical notions of soul or forms cannot be very easily included into Psellos philosophical framework. His discussion with the pagan philosophy is not only complex but depends also on the circumstance and context of the problems he is discussing in specific texts. Regarding incorporeal beings, he seems to advocate the existence of angels and souls while forms do not seem to have an own ontological realm between God and sensible cosmos. The question of Platonic forms as the thoughts of gods is tricky. On the one side Psellos points to God as direct cause of creation, on the other side he holds back on characterizing God’s thoughts