INTERPRETATIONS OF THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. A BRIEF HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

INTERPRETATIONS OF THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. A BRIEF HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Author(s): Nicolae-Olimpiu Benea / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: Colossians; Pauline Letters; Deutero-pauline Letters; Christological Hymn; Colossian “philosophy”.

The purpose of the present study is to offer an overall perspective of the historic of Epistle to the Colossians’ interpretation. Ever since the 2nd century, we can remark an intense debate regarding the contents of the epistle, in the context of Gnosticism’s development, reaching a peak in the 4th century, where the dispute revolved around the Christological accent. In the philokalic times, the focus of the interpretation will transit from the first two chapters of the Epistle, onto the third, chapter dedicated to understanding the Christian’s mystical relationship with God in Christ. Starting with the Reform, especially in the last two centuries, the focus of the interpretation is determined by the new debates in the field of the epistle’s isagogy.

PSALM 4 – ISAGOGE, EXEGESIS AND THEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION (PART I)

PSALM 4 – ISAGOGE, EXEGESIS AND THEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION (PART I)

Author(s): Stelian Paşca-Tuşa / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: psalm; rabbis; Church Fathers; critical interpretation; king; LORD; Messianic perspective;

In this research paper, we intend to offer the reader the possibility of becoming more familiar with the main types of biblical commentaries through an exegetic exercise centred round Psalm 4. The choice of the supporting text is not at all random since, even from ancient times, the psalms have benefitted from the attention of an impressive number of scholars and have been the beginning of both dialogue and controversy between religions (Christianity and Judaism) and Christian denominations. Throughout the exegetical analysis, we took into consideration the rigors of the Critical approach, which we correlated with the rabbinic and patristic commentaries in order to accomplish a very ample interpretation. Even if these commentators did not entirely agree, rather than bringing to relief their interpretative differences, we tried to underline the common elements existing in the specific manner of interpretation of each exegetical school. Thus, the complexity of this isagogic, exegetical and theological study resides in the fact that it approaches the text of the psalm from a literary, allegorical and spiritual point of view and it can become a hermeneutical paradigm for those who wish to study the Holy Scriptures with scientific and spiritual accuracy.

CURATIVE TERMINOLOGY IN THE ACCOUNT OF THE HEALING OF THE LAME MAN AT BETHESDA POOL

CURATIVE TERMINOLOGY IN THE ACCOUNT OF THE HEALING OF THE LAME MAN AT BETHESDA POOL

Author(s): Răzvan Perșa / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: health; holistic healing; Gospel of John; Bethesda Pool;

The importance of healing in the biblical texts is determined by the use of a precise terminology, which designates multiple therapeutic actions. Analysing the Greek language of healing in the Gospel of John can prove this. The central lexical element around the theme of healing developed in the Gospel of John is the Greek adjective ὑγιής. Used as an antithetical description to the noun ἀσθένεια, this adjective indicates, according to the Gospel of John, a new existential reality concretised in a new moral life. The main thesis of the paper is that the Johannine term ὑγιής involves a holistic existential dimension of human health. An important part before analysing the occurrences of ὑγιής in the New Testament is given by the need of etymological foundation for conceptualizing the health in the Greek world and in the same time the need of emphasizing the Old Testament Hebrew and Judeo-Hellenist perspectives on health. This will give us the possibility to determine the importance of the Johannine healing terminology in the precise social, historical, cultural and linguistic context.

LUKE’S ORIGINAL VISION ON TRANSFIGURATION STORY (LUKE 9: 27-36)

LUKE’S ORIGINAL VISION ON TRANSFIGURATION STORY (LUKE 9: 27-36)

Author(s): Cătălin Varga / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: Kingdom of God; transfiguration; garments of skins; theophany; deification.

Our study is trying to identify the main instruction of the Transfiguration story, reflecting St. Luke’s point of view, using both patristic opinions and helpful modern commentaries. Apostle Luke depicts an original version of the Transfiguration Mountain: eight days passed after the promise of seeing the Kingdom of God; the transfiguration of Christ happens while He was praying; the noun ἔξοδονpoints out Lucanic original vision etc. The foremost kerygma that the disciples are about to learn is that of their own personal transfiguration, the only path of rediscovering the lost Image of a liturgical membership. The presence of the most towering prophets of the Old Testament here on the mountain, certify that before you enter into the Kingdom of God, you have to cross the Golgotha scene, a journey that all of us have to take in order to inherit eternal life. Trying to achieve a proper exegesis of the Sacred Texts is not easy to reach, that is why our work is far from being accomplished.

ANDREI ŞAGUNA AND THE LEADERS OF THE EVANGELICAL-LUTHERAN CHURCH IN TRANSYLVANIA

ANDREI ŞAGUNA AND THE LEADERS OF THE EVANGELICAL-LUTHERAN CHURCH IN TRANSYLVANIA

Author(s): Mircea-Gheorghe Abrudan / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: Orthodox Church; Transylvanian Saxons; XIXth century; inter-confessional dialogue and relationship; Georg Paul Binder; Georg Daniel Teutsch; Jakob Rannicher.

Born, educated and living in the multilinguistic and multiconfessional space of the Austrian Monarchy, Andrei Şaguna has been able to fructify both the cultural and the patristic heritage of Orthodoxy, and the modern and liberal spirit of the second half of the 19th century, cultivating good relationship with Bishop Georg Daniel Teutsch and friendships with Alois Sentz and Jakob Rannicher. His correspondence and the historiographic evidence reveal these contacts as having been marked by respect, due to the function his acquaintances had in the academic staff, the imperial and local administrative and educational mechanism, but especially by reverence and appreciation. The life, activity, and works of Metropolitan Andrei Şaguna, make him a European figure, because of his formation, his pastoral mission, his strong dedication to education and to bringing the culture closer to the Transylvanian Romanians, and his part in the inter-confessional dialogue before the initiation of the Ecumenical Movement and the official contacts between the Orthodox and the Lutheran churches.

THE INTERRELATION OF EUCHARIST AND MARRIAGE. THE MISSION OF THE PARISH IN FORMING COMMUNICANTS AND SPOUSES IN HOLINESS

THE INTERRELATION OF EUCHARIST AND MARRIAGE. THE MISSION OF THE PARISH IN FORMING COMMUNICANTS AND SPOUSES IN HOLINESS

Author(s): Philip LeMasters / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: Orthodox; ethics; marriage; Eucharist; sex; sacrament.

Orthodox parishes today must enable communicants and spouses to recognize how their communion with Jesus Christ calls them to a holy communion with one another. Eucharist and marriage both manifest a covenantal communion that changes the identity of the persons who participate in them from isolated individuals to participants in the Body of Christ. They also involve physical actions that transcend the merely physical in their significance, and thus resist the Gnostic tendencies of separating “body” and “person.” They both draw on the deep incarnational sensibilities of Orthodoxy. Sacrifice is central to both sacraments, as husband and wife wear the crowns of martyrdom as they offer themselves to one another and to the Lord, in whose offering they commune in the Eucharist.

NARRATING THE HOLY MAN IN LATE ANTIQUITY: THE CASE OF SHENOUTE OF ATRIPE

NARRATING THE HOLY MAN IN LATE ANTIQUITY: THE CASE OF SHENOUTE OF ATRIPE

Author(s): Daniel Lemeni / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: holy man; spiritual authority; monasticism; holiness; Late Antiquity; Shenoute of Atripe.

This paper generally explores the central role of holy men in Late Antiquity, and especially the case of Shenoute of Atripe, an extraordinary Egyptian monk from the first half of the fifth century. Our major premise is that in the Christian communities of Late Antiquity, the saint (the holy man so well studied by Peter Brown) played a role comparable to that of a prophet, seen as the axis of the community. In other words, the charismatic holy man transformed his territory into a sacred space and created a new site for the interrelation between society and the sacred. Moreover, all those blessed with charisma served as a focus of divine power and delineated a new territory of grace. This process can be described as a kind of “spatialization of charisma”. Briefly, every dwelling place of a holy man became a sacred site and a locus of personal salvation. For Shenoute, the body is the site of redemptive transformation. It is also the site for theological development, social control, and the construction of Christian identity. Therefore, our conclusion is that the holiness of this figure becomes a significant social factor in late antique Mediterranean world. The visibility of holiness – the fact that holy man is observed and narrated – plays a central role in understanding the cultural significance of this figure in a changing world.

GROWING WITH THE HOLY FATHERS: ‘ABBA’ (THE ELDER), ‘THEŌRIA’ AND ‘PHRONÊMA EKKLÊSIAS’, A ‘HERMENEUTICAL SPIRAL’ DERIVED FROM THE ASCETICAL ‘PRAXIS’ OF THE WORD

GROWING WITH THE HOLY FATHERS: ‘ABBA’ (THE ELDER), ‘THEŌRIA’ AND ‘PHRONÊMA EKKLÊSIAS’, A ‘HERMENEUTICAL SPIRAL’ DERIVED FROM THE ASCETICAL ‘PRAXIS’ OF THE WORD

Author(s): Nichifor Tănase / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: Asceticism and Scripture; Patristic Hermeneutic; Spiritual Authority; Theoria; Isaac of Nineveh.

PIETISTIC WAY OF LIFE AND SOPHIOLOGY: SPINOZA’S RECEPTION BY THE RADICAL PIETIST GOTTFRIED ARNOLD (1666-1714)

PIETISTIC WAY OF LIFE AND SOPHIOLOGY: SPINOZA’S RECEPTION BY THE RADICAL PIETIST GOTTFRIED ARNOLD (1666-1714)

Author(s): Picu Ocoleanu / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: Spinoza; Pietism; Sophiology; acosmism; Pantheism; fatalism; philosophy as way of life.

After the fierce polemic (1720-1740) between Joachim Lange and his Pietist companions from Halle, on one hand, and Christian Wolff as representative of the Enlightenment, on the other hand, the two sides have reached a common denominator: the refutation of the philosophy of Benedict Spinoza as “acosmism”/Pantheism with fatalist consequences. Spinoza and the Spinozism became the common enemy of both, Pietism and Enlightenment. Against such an interpretation, the German radical Pietist Gottfried Arnold proposes in the second volume of his work Unpartheyische Kirchen- und Ketzer-historie (1700/1741) another, very original Spinoza’s reading. The Dutch philosopher thinks and actually lives as an authentic Pietist. He affirms and practices the unity between thinking and life and proposes a kind of metaphysics of the unity between God and nature, which should not be understood as pantheism, but as sophiology: all the things are included in God because their concepts are thought by the “Eternal Wisdom of God”.

DEACON CORESI’S IMAGE IN HISTORICAL RECORDS

DEACON CORESI’S IMAGE IN HISTORICAL RECORDS

Author(s): Victoria Alina Grădinar / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: Coresi; arts; literature; old Romanian writing; religious books.

Coresi, member of the clergy ordained in the first rank of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, settled in Brasov in 1559, printed fundamental religious books in Romanian for more than 20 years. This remarkable and valuable person whose statute has been captured in written documents or fine arts portrayals, opened the way for writing in Romanian, and the Coresian image has been known and appreciated, especially starting from the 18th century until now, due to researches in the field of history, theology and fine arts. As a text translator or translation reviser, Coresi has been studied and is still under the attention of our researchers of old literature. Deacon Coresi’s image can be traced in time in various creations in the fine arts field.

MACARIE THE HIEROMONK AND THE TRANSLATION OF HYMNS INTO ROMANIAN. BCASE STUDY: HEIRMOS OF PENTECOST

MACARIE THE HIEROMONK AND THE TRANSLATION OF HYMNS INTO ROMANIAN. BCASE STUDY: HEIRMOS OF PENTECOST

Author(s): Daniel Mocanu / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: Macarie the Hieromonk; Heirmos; Pentecost; musical analysis; Romanianisation.

The goal of our paper is to explain the special importance which the Pentecost Heirmos has within Macarie, the Hieromonk’s creation (1750-1836), one of the most outstanding figures of the ecclesiastical Byzantine music in the Romanian area. We intend to undertake a comparative musical-literary analysis of Heirmos IX at the Feast of Pentecost, composed by Petros Lampadarios and translated by Macarie the Hieromonk. We will inventorize the solutions that Macarie found for solving the prosodic and metric differences between Greek and Romanian. He noticed the impact those solutions had on the melodic path of the Heirmos (the place of the cadential formulas). In addition to the version based on Petros Lampadarios’ composition, Macarie the Hieromonk, also wrote an original Pentecost Heirmos. It was based on Byzantine bases, which, due to its melodic and composition particularities, has been considered a masterpiece of the Romanian Byzantine church music.

BOSKO I. BOJOVIC – L'EGLISE ORTHODOXE SERBE. HISTOIRE – SPIRITUALITE – MODERNITE, INSTITUTE DES ETUDES BALKANIQUES, BELGRADE, 2014, 372 P.

BOSKO I. BOJOVIC – L'EGLISE ORTHODOXE SERBE. HISTOIRE – SPIRITUALITE – MODERNITE, INSTITUTE DES ETUDES BALKANIQUES, BELGRADE, 2014, 372 P.

Author(s): Maxim (Iuliu-Marius) Morariu / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

The history of the Serbian Orthodox Church is not very well known in the Ro-manian space. Some pages from the works about the history of the universal Church published by authors like Father Ioan Rămureanu , Father Nicolae Chifăr , Father Vasile Muntean or Father Mircea Păcurariu show some aspects of it (especially from the medieval period, when this Church had also a Patriarch) and some works present the relationships between this Church and the Romanian Orthodox Church . However, these works only give a general vision (and not always a complete one) about the history of this important ecclesiastic institution.

JOACHIM G. PERSOON, SPIRITUALITY, POWER AND REVOLUTION: CONTEMPORARY MONASTICISM IN COMMUNIST ETHIOPIA / VACLAV JEZEK, OVERVIEW OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH DURING COMMUNISM, VOLOS ACADEMY OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES, VOLOS, 2014, 545 P.

JOACHIM G. PERSOON, SPIRITUALITY, POWER AND REVOLUTION: CONTEMPORARY MONASTICISM IN COMMUNIST ETHIOPIA / VACLAV JEZEK, OVERVIEW OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH DURING COMMUNISM, VOLOS ACADEMY OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES, VOLOS, 2014, 545 P.

Author(s): Maxim (Iuliu-Marius) Morariu / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

In a special way, the Volos Theological Academy from Greece published in 2014 a book written by two authors about the relationships between the Orthodox Church and Communism. The first part of it (p. 11-259), signed by the English researcher Joachim G. Persoon, specialised in the history of the Ethiopian Church (he gained his PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies from the University of London), is in fact the PhD thesis of the first author. The second part of the volume (pp. 260-495), written by the Czech priest Vaclav Jezek, aims to help the reader to become familiar with the situation of the Orthodox Churches from Eastern Europe. After an examination of the history of the Church in this space (starting from the Middle Ages), the author presents the main aspects of the relations between Church and State in countries like Romania (p. 437-442), Yugoslavia (pp. 442-447), Bulgaria (pp. 447-452), Albania (p. 452-455) or Cyprus (p. 455-460). At the end of the book, there is another presentation of a brief history of the Ethiopian Church (pp. 460-464) and the impressions of the first author about the country.

DISCOURSES OF KORUNK IN PUBLIC SPHERE ISSUES BETWEEN 1990 AND 2000

DISCOURSES OF KORUNK IN PUBLIC SPHERE ISSUES BETWEEN 1990 AND 2000

Author(s): Mária Botházi / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: Korunk; editorial conceptions; writings on public issues; period of transition; the press of minority.

The study attempts to give a picture about the editorial conceptions of the first period in Korunk’s third wave – in this context, the research focuses on the articles on public issues (appeared between January 1990 and December 1999) released by this historic periodical. The topics of the study are: the Hungarian press/media in Transylvania; the Church; minorities; coexistence; (Hungarian) university (in Transylvania); Hungarian-conscience in Transylvania. The paper states that there are well observable discourses on these topics in Korunk, it attempts to describe them and to give a picture of that intellectual pathway Korunk tried to follow in the mentioned period.

GRIGORE H. GRANDEA: POLITICS, JOURNALISM AND WAR

GRIGORE H. GRANDEA: POLITICS, JOURNALISM AND WAR

Author(s): Ștefana-Oana Ciortea-Neamțiu,Lucian-Vasile Szabo / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: Grandea; Războiul; Eminescu; Timpul; newspapers.

Grigore H. Grandea was one of the most important and influential Romanian journalists and publishers. He outlined in his biography that he was Lord Byron’s grandson, but this is false. Grandea worked for several important publications such as Dâmboviţa, Albina Pindului, Timpul and Războiul. He was appreciated by Mihai Eminescu and mocked by Titu Maiorescu. At Timpul, Grandea worked with Ioan Slavici, another prominent journalist and publisher, and this happened just before Eminescu joined the editorial staff. Grandea’s most important realisation was the daily gazette Războiul, the most powerful newspaper of its days. Războiul had at a certain point a circulation of 15 000 to 18 000 copies per day, compared to Timpul, which had a circulation between 3 000 and 6 000 copies per day. Grandea polemized with the representatives of the Liberal Party, at the time being in power, and especially with C. A. Rosetti, political leader and publisher at the daily newspaper Românul.

POST-PROCESSING ERRORS IN ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHY

POST-PROCESSING ERRORS IN ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHY

Author(s): Ioana-Andreea Filipaș / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: advertising photography; digital post-processing; photo editing.

In order to be appealing and therefore increase the chances of the product to be sold, advertising photographs must be of a high quality from a compositional and technical perspective. For that level of quality to be reached, the raw photographs are most of the time retouched. As the post-processing technology evolved, the possibilities of photo editing became infinite. However, the more complex and advanced the post-processing operations are, the higher are the chances of making errors. This study aims to identify the most frequent post-processing errors in advertising photography, the reasons which lead to these errors, and the way in which they affect the advertising campaigns.

THE SELF (RE)PRESENTATION. SELFIE AS CULTURAL ARTEFACT AND SOCIAL PRACTICE

THE SELF (RE)PRESENTATION. SELFIE AS CULTURAL ARTEFACT AND SOCIAL PRACTICE

Author(s): Andreea Alina Mogoș / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: cyber-self; self-presentation; selfie; SNS.

The issue of self (re)presentation rose over the time the interest of psychologists, sociologists, art historians and other social scientists. The current study will focus on clarifying the concepts of self-presentation and self-representation using the symbolic interactionism paradigm, and the dramaturgical approach, followed by an overview of the visual self-representations phenomenon in social networking systems. The analysis focuses on selfies as photographic objects (artefacts) and cultural practices.

MAD MAX: NARRATIVE MASCULINITY

MAD MAX: NARRATIVE MASCULINITY

Author(s): Deniz Müjdat / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: Mad Max; masculinity; violence; hegemonic masculinity; representations of men.

The Mad Max series enshrines the cinegoers’ memory for many years and it has been considered as a cult classic. Along with the new sequel of Mad Max, Max’s got a new face. Despite the fact that, it’s not the only thing which has been changed with the last film. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) came in for criticism about the new Max and his manliness, and it draws a considerable amount of media attention to the gender representations. As long as the representations of men and masculinity is analysed within the context of gender studies and any other interdisciplinary approaches of the media outputs will raise the awareness of public about gender representations on the media.

WALKING THE DEAD THE MAKINGS OF A GAME WITHIN A SUCCESSFUL TRANSMEDIA FRANCHISE

WALKING THE DEAD THE MAKINGS OF A GAME WITHIN A SUCCESSFUL TRANSMEDIA FRANCHISE

Author(s): George Prundaru / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Keywords: video games; transmedia; immersion; gameplay; engagement; agency.

This study is an analysis of the transmedia project The Walking Dead. A very successful franchise at the moment, with a lot of products in multiple media, it offers a very good opportunity to identify the position and specific characteristics of videogames in comparison to other media, and to see the relationship between them. Looking at the main three products in the franchise, the comic book, the television series and the adventure game, the research applies an analysis grid meant to bring out the way in which similar contents behave differently when translated across media, the way in which media can communicate between themselves and what the role of the consumer is in each instance. This paper concentrates on the experience of the adventure game in the context of the other products in the franchise, and on how the specific means of expression overlap.

Tailoring a Fashionable Self: Sartorial Practices in an Emerging Market Context

Tailoring a Fashionable Self: Sartorial Practices in an Emerging Market Context

Author(s): Alin Croitoru,Horaţiu Rusu,Mihai Stelian Rusu / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

Keywords: Clothing preferences; Fashion behaviour; Market standardization; Personalization.

This study consists in a quantitative analysis of fashion preferences, examining various factors influencing clothing personalization. The first part of the paper sets out the theoretical framework, discussing the historical relationship between the emergence of modernity and the configuration of fashion industry. The study proceeds with detailing the regional context where the empirical research is grounded, paying particular attention to the development and current status of the region’s clothing industry. After presenting the data and the methodology, the paper discusses the empirical findings followed by their interpretation. Based on the results we argue that the level of education, marital status, shopping frequency, and the importance of clothing quality are the most important predictors in fashioning individuals’ sartorial choices as well as their preference for clothing personalization.