„Marginea de tăcere a Cuvântului”. Sfântul Efrem Sirul și Vasile cel Mare despre Taina Teologiei
„The margin of silence of the sacred Word”. St. Ephrem the Syrian and Basil the Great on the Mystery of Theology

Summary/Abstract: The Byzantin and the Syrian historiography mentions an encounter between the two Great Fathers of the Eastern Church, sometime in the fourth century, an encounter that modern critical historiography deems very unlikely to have happened. Whether the actual encounter happened, or not, its meaning appears overwhelmingly important to the state of the Ecclesiastical conscience of the time, which shadows the factual. The apocryphal narratives provide information of a tacit intention to promote the equality in rank of the two Great Fathers, their spiritual unity, a shared theological vision on doctrine during the post-Nicene period, and, not the least important, the complementarity of their methods; St. Ephrem the Syrian opts for a symbolic-poetic approach, whereas St. Basil the Great for a dogmatic-conceptual method. They both struggled to dismantle the rationalist, neo-Aryan theology, and to ensure the preservation and transmission of the unaltered mystery of faith. In this study, I demonstrate that both Great Fathers opted for the apophatic metaphor Word-Silence to transfer the antinomic pair Hidden-Revealed into discourse. St. Ephrem the Syrian poeticized the ontological abyss of Creator-Creature, and forbids humans to gain access to what has not been revealed. He also finds that the only accepted reaction to Divine Love is angelic doxology. On the other hand, St. Basil the Great develops an entire theology of mystery and of the silence that makes the very core of Revelation, by operating a difference between dogma and kerygma. „The margin of silence” of the sacred Word, a theological metaphor coined by Lossky, means that the mystery and silence of the Revelation elude those outside the Church. At the same time, being inside Tradition, entertaining a permanent communication with the living mystery of faith belongs to those who are already inside. Thus, St. Ephrem the Syrian and St. Basil teach us that theology is not a sterile, intellectual discourse on God but living Word that appears within this burning, vivid silence.

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