ICOANA CREDINTEI.ICON OF FAITH

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Authors: Petros VASSILIADIS

Many scholars in modernity have accused Saint Paul either for an unrestricted obedience to civil authorities (Rom 13), or for surrendering the divine gift of freedom and human dignity and accepting the status of slavery (1 Cor 7:21; Phlm), or for implying the subordination of women (1 Cor 14:34ff.; Eph 5:22; Col 3:18; etc.). I am referring of course to the well known household codes (Haustafeln, Col 3:18ff. and parallels). It was mainly these cases that gave rise to the criticism that Paul (or the Pauline school) did not resist with all his power as he should to the socio-political status quo of his time, and that he and his school, and Christianity thereafter, tolerated unjust social institutions and structures.

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Authors: Marin BUGIULESCU

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the theological reflection on the relationship between man and cosmos. The origin of the world and man is connected to God; God is the Creator and consequently the Author of them both. Unlike dualistic materialistic thinking, according to the Christian conception the whole cosmos is created by God. In search for the cosmos an important chapter was granted for man, considered to be a synthesis of the world. Man, from the theological perspective, is the personal, rational, free, and speaking being that has – through the image of God according to which he has been created –, the tension after perfection. But it pertains exclusively to the relationship with Christ in the light of Whom he really knows himself, and by knowing himself he recognizes the infinite beauty of the Archetype. This is the existential-theological truth, which the content of this paper emphasizes, according to the Bible and patristic teaching.

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Authors: Mihai Sebastian STOIAN

Humans have studied and have been studying ceaselessly the universe, trying to find out our place in this mysterious cosmos, learning all the time something and as we believe that we have established something, there are other question marks to come. This is probably due to our inability to know everything. Science sometimes seeks and finds answers but not cease to be amazed, to bow before the mystery. However we must accept that there are countless ways to approach the differences between the possibilities of knowledge for understanding the universe

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Authors: Encarnación Ruiz CALLEJÓN

The purpose of this work is to analyse the contribution of the Jewish doctor Isaac Israeli to the medieval reflection on the relationship between man and the cosmos. To this end, starting from the methodological change proposed by al-Yabri for the study of classical Arabic philosophy, I question the usual characterization of the Jewish author as being merely an eclectic thinker, and indicate the most noteworthy aspects of his position. The philosophical texts that have come down to us reveal a philosopher who participates in the great debates of his time, among them: the relation between philosophy and revelation and the nature of the human intellect. Beyond the prophetic aspect, Israeli points to a special logic based on the ability to argue evoking images, a universal way that facilitates the compression of a complex idea or promotes the performance of an action.

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Authors: Ion Marian CROITORU

While, in the 19th century, many servants of the monastic settlements left Wallachia and Moldova, because of the measures taken there, the situation was nevertheless different in the 18th century, when monks from different areas inhabited by Orthodox Christians came to the Romanian Countries, where they encountered an uninterrupted reality of hesychastic renewal started by Saint Gregory of Sinai (1255-1346), due to the fact that the Romanians had known another cultural continuity, different from what had happened, until that century, in the Greek Byzantine or in the Slav world. This reality explains why the revitalization of the hesychastic and spiritual life in the areas north of the Danube is related, in the 18th century, to the Saints Basil of Poiana Mărului (1692-1767) and Paisius Velichkovsky or Wieliczkowski of Neamţ (1722-1794), both of them arrived from the Slav world in the Romanian extra-Carpathian territories. Saint Basil founded many hermitages and trained many disciples in the practice of the prayer of the mind or of the heart, becoming known as a great teacher of this prayer, in the modern times. Just as the Holy Fathers of Mount Sinai (Gregory, Philotheos, Hesychios), but also from other parts of the Byzantine world (Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Saint Gregory Palamas etc.), once again, he draws the attention not just of the monks but also of the lay people on the prayer of the heart, so that in the 19th century it was not the teaching of Saint Paisius on the practice of the prayer of the heart that prevailed, but the teaching of Saint Basil, followed especially in the Romanian and in the Russian tradition. Regarding the monastic life, the activity of Starets Basil can be characterized by the ecumenicity of the Orthodox faith, due to the fact that, on the one hand, he brought together monks from the Romanian and the Slav area, and, on the other hand, he contributed to the enrichment of the Romanian monasticism through the cultivation of the spirit of two Holy Mounts, Athos and Sinai.

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Authors: Traian-Alexandru MIU

Secularization is a phenomenon supposing major mutations on the social level. Thus, based on the principle of rationality, secularization has led to the removal of religion from the social sphere, the desacralization, aiming, ultimately, that the sacred disappear altogether from man's life. Within the globalizing-secularizing society, economics seeks to take possession of the entire social and spiritual life, helped by a policy-aggressive mercantile mentality. Secularization has led to manipulation of man so that he believes he has to build his future by abstaining from religion. The secularized man has come to the conclusion that only by his own forces helped by reason, economy and technology he can be the one who creates progress, namely perfection for himself and for the world he lives in. The hypermodern man is a man of ephemerality, a human being looking for his accomplishment in trifles, who no longer has deification as his final goal. The problems that man is facing today can be solved by taking the eternity as reference system for them.

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Authors: MA. DD. PhD. Spyridon K. TSITSIGKOS

In this poly-prismatic short study is examined historically and totally the diachronic attempts of an approach of “Absolute being” from the side of thinking man. More specifically it is searched philosophical and theological doubting and seeking for the existence of “Absolute being,” as for the – conscious or unconscious – its influences above in human mentality. Also, it is discussed generally if firstly is feasible any approach of „Absolute being” by man. Moreover, the various philosophicaltheological and religious-psychological ways of approach of „Absolute being” are recorded as also and how this “approach” is meant. Finally, it is reported the theological perpetual process of approach of “Absolute being” as the profound reasons of this „approach”

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Authors: Fr. PhD. Florea STEFAN

The concept of beauty has theological grounds, because man himself is considered image of God’s Son. The Orthodoxy practiced since the beginnings to the contemporary times an all-inclusive spirituality: the spiritual beauty of the spiritualized person can be seen in the way of living, manifesting itself fully from physical beauty to the beauty of the inter-human relations, of the relation mancreation and of the relation man-Divinity.

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Authors: PhD Mihai Sebastian STOIAN

Reason for being, the significance of the ecclesial ordained ministry, cannot be understood but starting from the Church itself and from the dependency link, from the charismatic-historical life and present at the same time - of Christ who constituted and defined. Starting from this link of the Church with Christ, which is the Body link with His Head through which pours the Spirit life in the whole body, we understand why it exists and must be this ordained, original, «main» or «fundamental» ministry. Starting from here, can be understood, to what extent it is absolutely necessary for preserving the Church’s vocation and its mission and how it is possible to affirm that he belongs to its essential structure, in a word as it is deeply ecclesiastic.

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Authors: Fr. PhD. Prof. Leontin POPESCU

The medical world has nowadays become an interesting place of interdisciplinarity, a place where natural, humanist, religious sciences, with their corresponding personalities, come together; they are dedicated to helping the ill / the suffering. The greatest challenge, from this point of view, is precisely the capability of integrating various components so as to provide the patient with the best assistance. However, contemporariness shows us that the development of medical means in a sole naturalist direction has led to objectifying disease which becomes itself a reality, independent, looked upon from an exclusively biological perspective, without the spiritual and moral connections of the person experiencing illness and suffering. This resulted in depriving the ill person of his disease, many physicians treating not the person who is ill, but the specific illness or organ.

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Authors: PhD. Paul SCARLAT

The idea of Santa Claus is a universal one, which has been carried on for generations despite many obstacles. Although related to fantasy and imagination, he belongs to all cultures and for children he maintains a real presence. Cognitive Science examines the idea of this mysterious individual and brings clarification to his existence in society. Because this “superhero” plays a part in society, he needs a mental structure that can be imagined, a particular and specific cognitive structure. The study identifies the cognitive mechanisms by which the idea of Santa Claus is generated. The history of Santa has interfered with religion since ancient times. He is sometimes confused with religious figures. Cognitive Sciences as applied to religion seem to confirm the universality of religious beliefs and a certain similarity between the idea of Santa Claus and that of holy persons, such as St. Nicholas. However, there are opinions within this field of research that differentiate between the two areas: fantastic and religious.

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Authors: PhD. Edwin, EL-MAHASSNI

Over the last few decades, there has been a plethora of literature that has analyzed and discussed the development of doctrine with much of it challenging the theories of Vincent and Newman. Some of the disagreements are not whether tradition should be a criterion or a factor, but rather to what extent it should be so. Coincidentally, just over fifty years ago, Thomas Kuhn, a philosopher of science challenged the traditional view through which science progresses. Opposing Karl Popper’s assertions that science is completely objective, Kuhn believed that although it may follow long periods of stability and steady growth, occasionally there would be watershed moments which would completely revolutionize a particular field leading to a revaluation of long-established idea with not every reason attributed for these revolutions being neither rational nor scientific. Further, there has also been growing awareness in the literature of doctrinal development on factors which influence this progress in Christian teachings. In this paper, the aim is to understand the way some key aspects of Kuhn’s work intersect with some of the contemporary theories in the development of Christian doctrine.