We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
The topicality of the Holy Faders has been subject to research on several occasions, both in Romania and abroad, yet, no discourse suffi cient in itself has been accomplished. The purpose of this study is to create an overview of the previous research results and to add new elements to a strictly Orthodox perspective on the topicality of the Holy Fathers. This overview encompasses the conclusions of the author’s study and research in his attempt to reclaim a so-called Introduction to Patristics. The Holy Fathers, their thinking and theology remain a constant reference in the Orthodox Church and theology. Unfortunately, nowadays, the patristic text is rarely referred to in the Orthodox academic circles, which usually prefer a theology that doesn’t refl ect the patristic teachings. The contemporary man is unable to fi nd himself in the study of the Holy Father’s words, and no longer has the desire to seek answers to his problems by approaching the theology of the Church. The Fathers’ topicality, importance, and authority is confi rmed by God’s topicality, importance, and authority; thus, their validity is proven by the truths they express and by the rules of life they promote, at all times, for every Christian. This presentation is intended not only as a highlight of certain contemporary Orthodox theological aspects, but as a reminder of the importance of the patristic theology for the theology of the Church.
More...
The encomia of Metropolitan Nicolae Colan praise and preach the great Christian truths, along with their holidays and martyrs, concurring to the limitless praise of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. On a different level, consistent to the idea that the writing must follow reality, to praise and adequately evoke historical personalities, Nicolae Colan also presented in his writings pieces of history, as seen through his own eyes, which, today, help us see more comprehensively various events and phenomena. To the same image, it also contributes the diversity of the personalities evoked and praised, from Church fi gures like Andrei Şaguna, Roman Ciorogariu or Nicolae Bălan, to laic fi gures from various fi elds of activity: Octavian Goga, general Averescu, king Carol the 2nd, Ion Luca Caragiale, Sextil Puşcariu, as well as peasant Petrache Lupu, and so many other important fi gures, which shared with Nicolae Colan their creed, their values, their faith, and devotion to the Church, language and nation, everything surrounded by a specifi c Transylvanian spirit, a spirit he believed in and cultivated rigorously.
More...
This article attempts to succinctly present John of Damascus’ teachings about passions and virtues, as well as the papers where these teachings are presented. In the fi rst part, the author refers to the paper Sacred Parallels, considered by scholars the Holy Father’s essential work with regard to moral-ascetic teachings. Nothing more than a large anthology of Bible texts and patristic texts, the paper is not representative for the saint’s teachings. The author then presents the moral-ascetic elements from John of Damascus’ theological works, especially in his dogmatic writings. Through this step, it is once again acknowledged the fact that, in the Orthodox faith, the dogmatic and the moral attitude go hand in hand. The last part is specifi cally concerned with the moral-ascetic works of the saint, On the Eight Spirits of Evil and On Virtues and Vices. The author presents the contents of these two short writings, as well as the most important ideas, with a special focus on the second work, included by Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain in his Philokalia. Through this, John of Damascus – par excellence, the dogmatic mind of our Church – earned himself a consecrated place among the ascetic and neptic Church Fathers.
More...
Up until recent times, the love for homeland was a noble feeling, a duty of honor. Today it’s either extinguished in favor of a limitless cosmopolitism or altered, being visible but in unimportant areas. Either way, the mystical soul of the love for homeland and its connection to God has been lost to a great extent. Normally, earthly homeland should be a mirror of the eternal, celestial Homeland, to whom the natural man aspires naturally through everything he does. Suddenly becoming a gift, as well as the fruit of a sacrifi ce fulfi lled by many generations, paid in blood many times, the Homeland must be served with defended and intensifi ed faith, as much as it is in everyone’s power, by the addition of personal deeds, accordingly. The great artists are those who fulfi ll and assume this responsibility to a greater extent, thus becoming, in happy cases, voices of their peoples in front of the world and, especially, in front of God. For Andrei Tarkovsky “Homeland is the country where you were born, where you were raised, and whose roots and culture you possess.” As a result, one’s homeland means landscape, history, culture… The spiritual element of the homeland is the one prevailing in Tarkovsky’s work; and, inside it, naturally, the Christian Orthodox faith he assumes and confesses, through his work and words. There are two situations which can render a more dramatic character of the love for Homeland, thus emphasizing it: the war (especially the one against invaders) and the exile. Andrei Tarkovsky knew them both. He knew the Great War to Defense the homeland directly, by the diffi culties that reverberated into his life, and indirectly, by his father’s participation to this war. Later, he also knew the exile, in which he was practically pushed by the hostile attitude of the political and cultural Soviet authorities, which obviously hindered his work. Though in exile, Tarkovsky carried his Homeland along, in his heart. He too was sick of that nostalghia he so often talked about. This thing is visible in his movies, whose feeling and tones are Russian, even when their space and time seem indeterminate. The love for homeland is treated in one way or another in each of the movies directed by this great director, especially by referring to its politic and cultural history. Tarkovsky’s heroes experience nostalghia for their Homeland, and, intricately, for its sufferings, but also for their own sufferings in relation to the Homeland. They also feel responsible for its spiritual prosperity and, thus, even more often, they experience guilt when failing to do so. They are concerned with its evolution and its status when this becomes precarious from a spiritual point view, with everything this implies, including serious moral misconducts. As such, they try to save everything that can be saved. In Tarkovsky’s movies, we fi nd debates on and feelings for a concentric and successive series of homelands, from that of the childho
More...
The present paper aims at tackling a distinctive (and less considered) topic within the vast research area dedicated to the First World War, namely the issue of society’s perceptions and behavior concerning the Foreigner(s), both during the years of neutrality and equally after Romania’s intervention into the conflict, on the Entente side, in 1916. Based mainly on memoirs, press collections and archival documents, the research unveiles the metamorphosis of Romanian society in terms of attitudes towards foreigners, under the effects of the war propaganda, or due to its own perceptions and emotions. While the perception of the continous threat represented by the presence and activities of the enemy (Central Powers agents and spies) can easily be traced – and to a great extent, explained, the war years witnessed also a growing xenophobia exhibited towards vast categories, including German school students.
More...
Nicolae Iorga is the towering figure of historical studies in Romania. The sheer volume of scholarship he produced throughout his life combined with heavy involvement in politics before and after the First World War amount to a highly complex intellectual biography. He was a central figure in the process of the nationalization of the Romanian nation-state both as an epistemic interpreter and as a political figure. The fate of his biography, ideas, and scholarship during the communist regime is inextricably tied to the latter’s development on the path to domestication. My study analyzes some of the central aspects of the double-edged process through which N. Iorga officially attained the status of founding father of the Romanian history-production while simultaneously becoming the subject of a cult of personality from mid-1960s onward. Nicolae Iorga, as a symbolic and scientific authority, transformed into a central legitimizer of state socialism’s historiographically encoded identitarian master narrative.
More...
The first years of Ceausescu’s regime were a period of transition and rehabilitation both at the level of discourse and the practice of power in connection with society. From the perspective of the letters to power, the criticisms by those who were discontented were aimed more at the abuses of the party bureaucracy or state functionaries than the leader of the party. The Romanian society oscillated between consensus and dissent. On one hand, there was expressed adhesion to the projects of the regime, and, on the other hand, the same society criticized political or economic measures perceived as an intrusion into its privacy. Duplicity was equally a way of finding consensus and escape. The consensus lasted as long as the political power fulfilled its promises to society (access to goods, supply of food, rising salaries, access to information). In time, with the deterioration of living conditions and ideological pressures, the void left by the loss of popular support was filled by a repressive apparatus whose role was to maintain a state of fear and control the disappointments of the population.
More...
The aim of this article is to analyse the impact of the political decision making regarding urban planning, together with the development of the city of Bucharest at the beginning of the communist regime. The economical and political transformations characteristic of the post-war period have created the premises for a transition from the inter-war urban planning to a new concept of reconstruction. The aforementioned concept was under a powerful ideological influence; it was set to build the „new socialist city”, in contrast to the old, „bourgeois” socio-political theories and practices. Con- sequently, between 1948 and 1952, the Romanian communist regime set the foundation of a centralised and politicised institutional system. A new administrative apparatus subdued to the interest of the new political system was thus created. This has marked the debut of the wielding of a strong political control over decision-making, thus opening a path towards certain urban transfigurations. The state governed over the phases of the building processes, from sketch to implementation, by regulating the investments and funding projects through annual and five-year plans. This reconsideration of urban systematisation allowed the state to develop new projects and programs both in the architectural and urban areas.
More...
The Declaration of April 1964 is known as a document that epitomized Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej’s policy of autonomy from Kremlin. At the same time, it provided the theoretical foundation for the foreign policy initiatives pursued by Dej's successor, Nicolae Ceauşescu. Although N. Ceauşescu avoided mentioning the Declaration in his post-1965, he remained faithful to its principles. In fact, Ceauşescu’s international stances were the direct continuation the political line spelled out in the Declaration. The Declaration proclaimed that all communist parties were equal within the international communist movement, that patronizing attitudes need to be rejected, and that all communist parties were free to choose their own path toward communism. Gheorghiu-Dej did not live long enough to see the outcomes of the major shift represented by the Declaration of April. Later, N. Ceauşescu turned Gheorghiu-Dej’s embryonic ethnic nationalism into increasingly chauvinistic policies. This synthesis of Leninist dogmas (first and foremost the leading role of the communist party) and resurgent far-right themes and motifs resulted in a national Stalinist experiment. Only apparently forgotten, the Declaration was in fact Ceauşescu’s national Stalinist Charter.
More...