Conștiința și destinul post-mortem în gândirea lui Constantin Dulcan: o evaluare teologic-ortodoxă Antropologia lui Constantin Dulcan în dialog critic cu teologia răsăriteană
Consciousness and the Afterlife in the Thought of Constantin Dulcan: An Orthodox Theological Assessment Constantin Dulcan’s Anthropology in Critical Dialogue with Eastern Theology

Summary/Abstract: The article analyzes, from an Eastern Orthodox theological perspective, the interpretations of consciousness and post-mortem survival in the work of Dumitru Constantin Dulcan, with special emphasis on the role attributed to Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) within “scientific–spiritual” discourses. It offers a synthetic presentation of the main characteristics of these interpretations—especially the understanding of consciousness as a fundamental reality irreducible to the brain and the use of NDEs as “empirical data” in favor of a “mind beyond”—and examines their anthropological and eschatological significance. In critical dialogue with the key points of Orthodox thanatology (the understanding of the soul, the continuity of consciousness after death, the particular judgment, the intermediate state of awaiting the final judgment, the nature of heaven and hell), the study brings to light both genuine convergences (the critique of materialism, the intuition of an irreducible spiritual dimension, the emphasis on moral responsibility) and major tensions (doctrinal syncretism, the weakening of the Trinitarian and ecclesial framework, the unwarranted extrapolation of NDEs as an eschatological foundation). Finally, several Eastern Orthodox theological criteria of discernment are proposed for evaluating contemporary discourses on death, the soul, and the future reality “beyond,” together with several directions for further research concerning the dialogue between Orthodox thanatology, the sciences of consciousness, and new forms of spirituality.

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