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This article contextualises the idea of Christianisation as cultural guilt within the Bulgarian context, particularly at the time of the Bulgarian National Revival. This theory has been most radically depicted in the published works of the outstanding revolutionary and poet of the National Revival, Hristo Botev. The origin of this idea is studied through his cultural dialogue with the texts of Georgi Rakovski (another eminent revolutionary and poet from the same period) to prove that the decadent version of Christianisation was known amongst the Bulgarian elite, most of whom were educated at Russian institutions, where they became familiar with the essays of the German historiogJohann Christian von Engel. Under his influence, Christianisation is considered to be a cultural and political invasion on the part of the Byzantine Empire. In this context, the motive of the lost brightness of the Bulgarian Middle Ages emerges from the literary works of the National Revival. The valuation of the medieval symbols of the obliterated Bulgarian antiquity culminated in the 1920s and 1930s. During that period, aspects of national identification were sought from magicians, dualists, and anchorites, which ultimately did not yield the desired result for the official nationalism but rather caused a crisis of symbols.
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The purpose of the paper is to offer a general discussion of the strategy of adapting Lorenzo Scupoli’s Combattimento spiritual, which was created in the Christian West, to the doctrine, spirituality and sensitivity of the Christian East, and in particular to 19th-century Russian Orthodoxy. Two translations of the work into Russian were used as a basis for observation: one of them was taken from the Italian original without the intention of adaptation; the other (by Theophan the Recluse) was done with the intention of adaptation and its basis was the Greek text already adapted by Nicodemus the Hagiorite. Analysis shows a certain “symphony” of the strategy of adapting the content and language in both the texts: the text that was created as a translation from the Italian original without the intention of adaptation, and the text that was the result of a two-stage adaptation in Greek and then in Russian. In terms of content, the mystical and ascetic assumptions that were developed in the West in the devotio moderna trend were rejected in favor of turning towards the Holy Fathers’ tradition. In the language there was a turn to Orthodox Orthodoxy by the use of means that refer to the doctrine of hesychasm, which was recognized in the 14th century and might even be said to have become a foundation of Eastern spirituality. The result of the content and language harmonization in the adaptation of Theophan the Recluse is the complete abolition of all possible references to Western Christianity.
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This article aims to trace the interpretation of the theme of Wisdom in the Vita of St. Simeon by St. Sava, and its connections with other biblical themes and motifs, with references to various literary sources, models, and patterns employed by the earliest Slavic literary tradition. By analyzing the biblical quotations in the text, the study tries to show why Wisdom occupies such an important place in the first Vita of St. Simeon and what this reveals about the message of the text in its historical and cultural context.
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Raising children and young people in the Christian spirit is a special challenge, especially in contemporary society, where the Christian family lives in a secularized and spiritually confusing world, facing trials such as poverty, unemployment, alcohol, infidelity, divorce, migration etc. In 2020, "Commemorative Year of the Romanian Orthodox Philanthropists", the Romanian Orthodox Church aims to identify and promote the example of those who, over time, have supported spiritually and materially the social-philanthropic activity of the Church, as well as highlighting the role of Christian philanthropy as a main coordinate of the cultural and social activity of the Church.
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The pastoral letters presents the message of the diocesan bishops of Metropolis of Muntenia and Dobrogea: † DANIEL, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, † Nifon, Archbishop of Târgovişte, † Teodosie, Archbishop of Tomis,† Calinic, Archbishop of Argeş and Muscel,† Ciprian, Archbishop of Buzău and Vrancea, † Casian, Archbishop of Dunărea de Jos,† Vincențiu, Bishop of Slobozia and Călăraşi, † Galaction, Bishop of Alexandria and Teleorman, † Ambrozie, Bishop of Giurgiu, † Visarion, Bishop of Tulceaon the Nativity of our Saviour Jesus Christ celebration in 2020. Containing short teachings of faith and pastoral exhortations, the letter was read in all the churches in his jurisdiction.
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Saint Parascheva grew like a beautiful lily in the field of the Church of Christ, fragrant the souls of the faithful with the perfume of virtues and good deeds. Through the ascetic life, through purity and unceasing vigilance, the saint managed to make of her being an honest vessel of the divine Spirit, like the angels.
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A priest does not serve for himself. He is the bishop’s delegate in the parish entrusted to him. In his parish, the soul shepherd is meant to become the face of the Good Shepherd (John 10, 11), being active among parishioners, teaching and administering the Mysteries of God’s Kingdom. The simplicity and sometimes the shortcomings or spiritual slips of his parishioners should not stop the priest from carrying out his missionary work. However, a lucid presence of the young servant is required throughout the extensive process of spiritual guidance of the faithful, to which he fully commits once he has received the Sacred Mystery of Ordination.
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Leadership styles in southeast Europe tend to lie at the poles along a line stretched between passivity and authoritarianism. This is a universal problem in the global church, not one unique to southeast Europe. However, the fact remains that the mainstream leadership models in this part of the world need to be appraised and healthier models need to be developed. Unfortunately, the leadership models being imported from the West take as their cue business management, oftentimes focusing on efficiency, productivity, and growth rather than focusing on Kingdom expansion and serving the Bride of Christ. However, a model does exist for servant leadership, a model that emerged from the Eastern Church 17 centuries ago. In this paper, I will examine Gregory Nazianzen’s Oration II which presents a spiritual model of leadership for the 21st century. While written many centuries ago, this text is still able to speak to the modern mind and remains relevant for several reasons. First, this is the first extant extra-Biblical account of an individual’s struggle with calling and obedience to Christian ministry. Second, Gregory’s model is saturated with Scripture, providing a sound though unique perspective from his brilliant and highly trained mind. Finally, as one of Gregory’s primary concerns is remaining faithful during a corrupt public form of Christianity, the context is appropriate to the traditional church contexts of southeast Europe. Following a brief historical background, this paper will look at three elements of Christian ministry and how Gregory addresses their spiritual components. First, the roles of a minister, under the titles of priest, king, and prophet. Second, the challenges that beset ministers who seek to serve. And third, the personal struggles that an individual must face and overcome to be obedient in this calling.
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The article researches the migrations of German Protestants in the area of Moslavina and Bilogora after the issuing of the Protestant Patent and religious liberalization in the second half of the 19th century. First, we research the regional background of the settlers (colonists), and we go on to follow the development of their church communities and parishes. After this, we describe the specific settlements with an absolute or relative German Protestant majority, as well as the historical circumstances of their church organization. Finally, we use sources, literature, and oral history (i.e., interviews) as we research the processes of migration and evacuation of German settlers and Protestants from those parts, as well as the destinies of their pastors and preachers during and after WWII.Due to the scope of the research, the article was divided into two parts. In part 1, the emphasis is on migrations, the settlers’ confessional background, and the founding of the first two large parishes in the region, and after that, we describe other parishes and their branches, their development, and stages of abandonment, as well as the description of their final spiritual workers’ activities.
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Several pedagogical considerations come with the transition from traditional to virtual teaching, and it is necessary to provide teachers with a potential approach to teaching and learning. This article gives an overview of the teaching methods Jesus used with a focus on parables, highlights the modern constructivist approach to teaching, and singles out characteristics of constructivism in Jesus’ teaching model. Combined, this presents a basis for practical advice in today’s context of online teaching, respectively in a virtual setting. The article highlights characteristics of Jesus as a teacher which present-day teachers can apply to their contexts and finishes with suggestions for further research.
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This article addresses the problem of preserving the faith in God while discouraging circumstances, based on the first part of Habakkuk’s prophecy. The message of the book teaches us how to benefit from our faith by presenting the process through which the prophet overcomes the confusion around him, even in God’s acting for his people. In the introduction, it is argued that faith is a basic principle of life, which can be questioned because of difficult circumstances. The first part of the article discusses why Habakkuk’s prophecy can be understood as a “burden,” and the second part presents the historical context of the book of Habakkuk. The third section discusses the internal and external crisis in Judah and the fourth section analyses the prophet’s reaction against the Babylonian crisis. The fifth section described the faith as a proper response to the crisis (2:1-4) while the final section discusses implications of Habakkuk 2:4 for the teaching of the New Testament.In general, we can see that in the first part of Habakkuk (1:1-2:4) the prophet questions the validity of his faith in God, because of the apparent long divine silence about injustice in Judah (1:2-4). Then, he was unhappy with God’s answer, who decided to send a new crisis to solve the first crisis (1:5-6). After the prophet’s complaint (1:7-2:1), God advises him and his people to trust His solution in overcoming the crisis (2:2-4). The insights from the message of Habakkuk analyzed in this article, may help the reader to preserve authentic faith in a time of crisis. Also, that pattern of living by faith from this Old Testament book is taken over by the New Testament authors so that Habakkuk’s expression “the righteous live by their faith” (2:4), is quoted as a key statement for the Gospel message of salvation (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38). But not only that, this statement defines the proper behavior of people in expecting the divine solution of salvation in the time of crisis.
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The doctrine of prevenient grace in the Wesleyan tradition has always played an important role in shaping the way we understand and participate in the mission of God (Missio Dei) and the role of the church in it. The doctrine of prevenient grace, in the Wesleyan-Arminian tradition, continues to shape the understanding of holiness as God’s activity to restore broken relationships. Holiness, as it is often misunderstood, is not a physical separation between what we consider holy and unholy, churchy and worldly, pure and impure, but the redemption of broken relationships (God and humans, humans with each other, humans and creation and human with the self). The goal of this paper is to further explore the theological and missiological bases of the doctrine of prevenient grace, as understood by Wesley, and the practical implication that this doctrine has in shaping the way the church fulfills its missiological call in the world. This paper is divided into three main sections: the first part of the paper will focus on defining prevenient grace and its relationship to the mission of God (Missio Dei); the second part will explore the missiological and theological implications of the doctrine of prevenient grace, and the last part will illustrate practically the theological and missiological motivation of the work of the Church of the Nazarene with refugees in Zagreb, Croatia.
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The process of secularization, known as the process of the privatization of religion or its denial from the public square, is a heritage of Modernity. This reality had (and continues to have) important consequences for Christian theology. Hence, the renewal of Christian theology is urgent, and has a lot at stake, especially regarding the need for a renewed Christian message within contemporary society. Though public theology appeared as a normal consequence of the need for the renewal of Christian theology, this renewal is not necessarily present in many of its methods. The rigidity of both of its theological methods and language remains a problem for public theology. This article suggests that the new shift in anthropology should be taken into consideration when constructing a viable public theology nowadays. The category of “religious imagination” is of utmost importance since it takes into consideration the new definition of the human being, which is in line more with postmodernism than modernity. Thus, the article sketches the possible substantial contribution the religious imagination brings towards the revitalization of contemporary public theology. Moreover, the article mentions recent Romanian studies on the imagination, which stresses, even more, the richness hidden within it and its possible usage for the construction of a viable public theology.
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Through the concrete steps taken by its members (clergy, believers, and monks), from 1998 until now, the Romanian Orthodox Church has carried out extensive actions to monitor and solve the migration crisis. Thanks to this approach, initiated and improved by its current Primate, His Beatitude, Patriarch Daniel, both in the country and in the diaspora of our Church, the phenomenon of migration was not only be monitored, but also solved both in accordance with Church rules and with State laws, as well as those of the Law of the European Union, that is, of the EU Member States. From our article, the informed reader will be also able to see that, in its actions for monitoring and solving the migration problem, our Church has taken into account both the guidelines issued by the bodies of the Ecumenical Council of Churches and the guiding principles stated by the leaders of the two Churches, Catholic and Orthodox, namely, His Holiness, Pope Francis, and His Beatitude, the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, in their joint Declarations on the issue of migration, hence the ecumenical nature of the approach to the issue of migration.
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Joshua Hochschild credits John Paul II for the success of the expression “meaning of life” among Christians, but he warns that this expression stems from a modern framework different from classical theism. Hochschild’s criticism challenges theists to clarify how the quest for meaning channels the basic questions of classic theism while advancing new ones. First, I will propose a different historical reconstruction of the “meaning of life,” tracing its origin back to the medieval sensus and its use in Biblical hermeneutics. Second, I will show that existentialism and phenomenology are the heirs of this legacy, and their use of the “meaning of life” is mostly positive. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI adopted this expression under their influence. Finally, I will argue that the theistic quest for the “meaning of life” addresses classic questions such as happiness and the purpose of human life in the universe, and raises new questions regarding the individual purpose, the history of salvation, and the narrative of life.
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Although the question of whether, in the thought of Thomas Aquinas, sanctifying grace is “created” or “uncreated” has received considerable attention in the last several decades, many of the questions and arguments proposed by those, such as Karl Rahner, Jerome Ebacher, and Anna N. Williams, in favor of grace being uncreated have gone unanswered. Among these ancillary questions and arguments are those concerning the proper subject of grace, the categorial classification of grace, and the reason for the mystery and unconsciousness of grace. These questions appear unrelated, but, as this paper argues, they are each logically connected to each other and to the overall thesis that sanctifying grace is created, not uncreated. This paper aims to make Aquinas’s thesis that grace is created more palatable to objectors by addressing each of these previously unaddressed ancillary questions.
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Jacques Maritain criticized Husserl’s phenomenological method—the ἔποχή—as being incompatible with the realism of St. Thomas Aquinas. Maritain equated phenomenology with idealism, holding that it universally negates the existence of known objects as things in the world. Not surprisingly, then, a tendency has arisen in the thought of Thomists commenting on Karol Wojtyła’s phenomenological-Thomism to distance Wojtyła’s method from that of Husserl. However, since Wojtyła himself saw fit to appropriate the phenomenological method, Thomists will do well to reevaluate Husserl’s ἔποχή. This study shows that Husserl’s phenomenology is formulated as an Aristotelian science, consciously presupposing the existence of its subject matter and not universally negating the existence of known objects as things in the world. The ἔποχή, thus, is compatible with the realism of the Angelic Doctor, and the phenomenological-Thomism of Karol Wojtyła stands on firm realist ground.
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This article discusses Karol Wojtyła’s study on the concept of “person” and its anthropological foundations. It refers to his great book: The Acting Person, in which Wojtyła approaches the reality of the person from the perspective of the person’s action. The article shows that, in his book, Wojtyła goes beyond classical Thomism by following the great intuitions of Personalism and Phenomenology and putting them at the service of an adequate anthropology that does justice to the reality of the person. Then it examines Wojtyła’s claims about: (1) the person as a source of validation of moral experience, (2) experience as a source of knowledge, (3) consciousness and the efficient causality of the person, (4) the transcendence of the person in action (self-determination), (5) the integration of the person in action, and finally (5) the person’s subjectivity and irreducibility. The article is aimed at delivering a framework to elaborate a metaethics that would contribute to the human person’s happiness and fulfillment.
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