ICOANA CREDINTEI.ICON OF FAITH

4 - 4

Authors: Bugiulescu Marin

The 2017 No. 5, Year III, of “Icoana Credinţei. International Journal of Interdisciplinary Scientific Research” offers varied and interesting articles, according to the well-established structure of the Journal.

19 - 25

Authors: Prof. PhD. Pablo ARGÁRATE

In the use of the united Church from the late forth century was developed the catechumenate, meaning a long and profound preparation for Christian Initiation, usually received in the Easter Vigil. However, candidates would receive explanation of the rites only after they were performed, namely during the Easter week. This practice was based on the so-called mystagogical method, the conviction that rites speak by themselves in a powerful manner. The Catechesis of Jerusalem (of Cyril or John, his successor), the Catechetical Homilies of Theodore of Mopsuestia along with the Baptismal Homilies of John Chrysostom in the East, but also both treatises (De mysteriis and De sacramentis) of Ambrose of Milan witness with different nuances to the mystagogical approach, namely the introduction into the mysteries and the Mystery itself by means of ritual actions. In the present study, I will focus on John Chrysostom’s Baptismal Homilies, underlining some aspects: their timely framework, their connection with other similar texts and the general structure of the preparation for the Christian Initiation.

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Authors: Fr. PhD Alexandru-Corneliu ARION

Out of the four fundamental concepts or pillars of Indian religious thinking the present paper aims at disclosing the meaning and significance of the law of universal causality that binds man and cosmos, and condemns the former to an indefinite transmigration, i.e. the law of karma. This pan-Indian term will be underlined as it is reflected in the most important Upanishads and in Bhagavad Gītā, the gospel of Hindu spirituality. On the final part a parallel – between this concept and the teaching about the role of facts in the process of salvation according to the Orthodox Christian theology – will be drawn. In short, karma is a sort of law of causality that makes any action committed by individual leaving behind it a kind of force that causes the joys and sorrows of life, as the action was good or bad. According to Orthodox Church’s teaching good deeds is, along with faith and grace the subjective conditions of salvation, i.e. personal appropriation by every man of the objective redemption brought about by Jesus Christ, the God-man. This appropriation called salvation or sanctification is not simply a gift from God, but a permanent action that lasts throughout human life. If the law of karma acts implacably and independently to the will of man, stamping a fatalist character to life and undermining the human freedom, in Orthodoxy, however, man is not alone, but permanently assisted by the divine grace. But grace does not work irresistibly; it respects human freedom, so the facts present an obvious synergetic character. Therefore, between the Christian teaching on facts and the philosophy of the act, as it emerges from the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gītā is an abysmal distance that comes to differentiate these two religions on this level as well.

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Authors: Fr. PhD. Marin BUGIULESCU

Education is one of the principal activities supposing in a general manner the process of care for the good training of man. But Christian religious education is actually a meeting of man with Jesus Christ, the supreme Teacher, which is why it has a special character going beyond the rigid scholastic framework and involving the space of the Church. Family, School, Church and society are the main factors, but also along with the environment, where the education and training process of the young begin. Sure, what must be noted is the fact that religious education is a continual process by means of which man covers the road from person to personality, from imperfection to holiness.

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Authors: Authors: Fr. PhD. Florea STEFAN

The Christian teaching shows that man has been created “in God’s image” in order to attain “God’s likeness”. “The image” means: intellect, will, affectiveness, love, liberty, responsibility, conscience. We cannot talk about true freedom if we do not take into account responsibility as well, namely the obligation of a person to acknowledge himself as free and aware author of his own actions and to take upon himself the consequences and results of what he does.

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Authors: PhD. Traian-Alexandru MIU

Europe must manage the large number of cultures that practically “collide”. This is the result of increasing migration and excessive emphasis on economic development at the expense of revaluation of spiritual roots of this civilizational space. In this context, the multiculturalism has become a leitmotif of Western policy. In fact, the multiculturalism can be defined as a normative political theory, which wants to regulate the new situation created by cultural minorities. Unlike the cultural pluralism, which aims acceptance of different cultures and the living together in a given society, the multiculturalism promotes the multiplication of diversity, the idea of blurring nationalist trends, the ridding of minorities traditions and our immersion in the hipermodernism. In the reality imposed by multiculturalism matter only the progress that is inconsistent with the idea of cultural heritage. Today, more and more voices in the political world began to criticize the political and social model imposed by multiculturalism and reaffirm the return to spiritual and cultural values that define Europe.