Journals of Faculty of Orthodox Theology, Babes-Bolyai University (Romania)
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Atitudinea faţă de neamuri în Vechiul Israel. Exclusivismul Iudaic. Semnificaţii și actualizare
Get PDFThe history of Judaism teaches us that one faces a crisis best by devoting himself, even in the very heat of the crisis, to the permanent and enduring values of Judaism and mankind. For the very nature of a crisis is impermanence, transcience, an interruption in the normal development of mankind. The term Judaism, which implies a definable belief-system, has no real equivalent in the traditional vocabulary of the religion itself. Its widespread use in European languages owes largely to the encounter with Christianity, which attaches greater importance to creeds and doctrines. In Jewish tradition, theology and religious concepts rarely have been perceived as defining features. It is more accurate to employ the term Judaism in a broader cultural sense to denote the fulf range of religious expressions of the people of Israel. This usage correctly underscores the national character of the religion, ineftrica bly bound to historical experience, Without attaching disproportionate weight to its theological component. As we shall observe, Judaism contains a complex variety of elements, including law, ethics, morality, observances, worship, and beliefs. Technically, the word Judaism Iike its cognate terms Jew and Jewish—refers to a more narrowly defined time frame within the longer national history, commencing at the conclusion of the biblical era. Whereas earlier epochs had known of twelve tribes of Israel, or of the two rival monarchies of Judah and Israel, a sequente of conquests and exiles brought about a situation in which only a vestige of the original people , dominate by the anciend tribe of Judah and inhabiting its ancestral territory (Judea), was able to maintain its religious and cultural identity through subsquerit gcnerations. In some recent scholarship and thcological writing it has become common to restrict the use of Judaism to those manifestations that emerged after the Babylonian exile, as distrinct from earlier Israelite or Hebrew religion. We must take care not to construe this terminological preference as an assertion that the Judaism of the Second Temple was a new and original invention , unconnected to the religton of thc Hebrew scripturcs
The Concept of "Conqueror" in the Letters of the Apocalypse
No full textThis study examines the notion of “conqueror” as found in Revelation 2-3, specifically at the end of the seven letters addressed by the Saviour of the churches of Asia Minor. An exegetical investigation was carried out, following the immediate context in which the term is used, but also the general message of the letter. A central place is occupied by the promises made to the victor and which give us a broad perspective on the relationship that Christ has with His Church. These promises are an integral part of the body of each letter, an indispensable and motivating rhetorical element
Adam și Eva. Perspectiva biblică și perspectiva evoluţionistă. Aspecte introductive
Get PDFThis paper is an introduction to the problem of the relationship between the creation of man in Genesis 1-3 and the scientific perspective of the evolution of the human species. Therefore, we aimed to identify the main research questions and the objectives arising from them. As main questions we have: Did death exist before the fall of man? How did the fall affect the entire creation? How does the biblical account of human creation reconcile with the information about the multitude of hominid species provided by paleontology? At what point in history did Adam and Eve appear and what species were they part of? When exactly did they become in the image and likeness of God? Consistent with these questions, we will have as objectives: the state of the world before the fall of Adam; the creation and fall of man; the origin of death and evil in creation. Another section of this paper deals with the way in which Orthodox theologians approached the problem of the creation-evolution relationship and the solutions they proposed
The Psalms, the hymns and the texts of the Old Testament and their use in Holy Monday and Tuesday
Get PDFThe worship of the Orthodox Eastern Church involves a multitude of references hints and images of the Old Testament, in all the sequences (liturgies) and hymns. Particularly in the Holy and Great Week, the texts of the Old Testament are used with particular emphasis. On Holy Monday and on Holy Tuesday there is use of the texts of the Old Testament. Holy and Great Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday remind us of the eschatological meaning of Pascha. In this paper we are going to analyze the real and deep influence of the Old Testament to these days of Holy Monday and Tuesday and why the Orthodox Church chose to use the Old Testament although the Jews refused Christ and led him to death. The goal is to show that Orthodox Greek Christians use these texts from the Old Testament because they have no hostile attitude against Jews.
Keywords: Old Testament, Holy Week, Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, liturgy, psalm
REMARKS ON PSELLOS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE PATRISTIC EXEGETICAL TRADITION IN HIS THEOLOGICA
Get PDFIn this paper I explore Psellos’ attitude towards the Church Fathers’ exegesis with the focus on Theol. 1. 1 Gautier. Relative Theologica are also examined. His critical arguments and his enthusiasm for Proclus’ hermeneutics are analyzed systematic comparative and are contextualized through historical-comparative methods in the eleventh century’s conflict between philosophers and mystics
Reflecţii asupra cercetării inconștientului spiritual în pastoraţie
Get PDFThe unconscious is one of the concepts of high interest, both for science and theology. The interest shown for the study of the unconscious is found in works conducted by specialists in philosophy, psychology, psychoanalysis and neuroscience. At the same time, in theology it is found predominantly in patristic writings but without an explicit mention of the name of the unconscious, which the science uses. The increased interest in this concept is justified by the complexity of this little-known dimension of man. Also, as the unconscious dimension is of both psychological and spiritual nature, the development of the study of the unconscious in theology is a necessity. This paper sheds light on the most relevant considerations regarding the study of the spiritual unconscious in the pastoral work. In this sense, the paper deals with the most relevant perspectives on the metaphysics of the mind because the unconscious is often associated with the mind and the psyche, as well as some aspects specific to the unconscious in philosophy and psychology. Also, the most relevant aspects of the spiritual unconscious and its dimensions, the “theophilic” unconscious and the “misotheistic” unconscious, were analysed, in order to identify the most important opportunities regarding the study of the spiritual unconscious in the pastoral work
Roland Clark, Religious Reform and Sectarianism in Interwar Romania. The Limits of Orthodoxy and Nation Building, Bloomsbury Publishing, UK, 2021, 232 p.
Get PDFPSELLOS’ HAGIOGRAPHICAL WRITINGS: RESOURCES AND NEW DIRECTIONS
Get PDFResources available for Byzantine scholarship in general and for studying Psellos in particular have improved greatly in recent years. Electronic databases assist editors of texts in isolating an author’s stylistic habits and in identifying parallel and source texts, while increasingly sensitive search engines provide wide access to scholarly articles, online manuscript catalogues, online publications of texts and translations and great potential for further expansion. Teubner has published Psellos’ extensive writings in genre-defined volumes such as poetry, philosophy, forensic orations and hagiographic orations that represent modern categories of literature but do not capture Byzantine conceptualizations. Two examples illustrate this observation. (1) Although the oration on the Miracle at Blachernae is among Psellos’ hagiographic writings, it contains a brief ecphrasis of a “living icon” prominent in art-historical discussions; however, the oration chiefly focuses upon the Byzantine court system and Psellos’ suggestion for designating a miracle to resolve a vexed legal case. (2) Psellos’ Encomion on Symeon Metaphrastes resembles a saint’s vita and his hymn/canon for Metaphrastes represents a step towards honoring a “new” Byzantine saint. This process continued for 400 years. The 14th-century Hesychast movement used Metaphrastes’ writings to validate their own views and expedited his inclusion in the Synaxarion of Constantinople in the 15th Century
Spaţiul digital în sprijinul filantropiei creștine
Get PDFPhilanthropy is a form of communion between people, aid for those in need, compassion for others and it represents a man’s gift to another man. The Church is the most suitable environment for expressing Christian philanthropy because here we realise the communion and the unity of each person, together with God. In terms of philanthropy, every century had its own way of realisation. Our century has also many methods towards a philanthropic action and one of them is the digital space, the most used environment from our daily life. Therefore, how to sustain philanthropy and solidarity in an era of connection and technology? Perhaps social networks and the digital space could be the suitable answer to this question, because they manage somehow to put together people from around the world. This article aims to demonstrate, by analysing some studies and examples, the fact that the internet could be a good way of spreading, not only the idea of philanthropy, but also the main actions that could be done, in this sense
ARISTOTELIAN AND NEOPLATONIC ETHICS IN MICHAEL PSELLOS AND JOHN ITALOS
Get PDFThis paper examines the use made by Michael Psellos and John Italos of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics together with Neoplatonic sources (in particular Porphyry’s Sentences) on the subject of virtue. Examining chapters 66-81 of Psellos’ De omnifaria doctrina and Essays 81 and 63 of Italos’ Problems and Solutions, I argue that both philosophers have a coherent theory of virtue which integrates Aristotelian ethical virtue in the Neoplatonic hierarchy of the virtues