Calea teurgică

Author(s): Viorel Igna / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-2/2015

The theurgy is the combination of knowledge and rituals with the intention of something mystical-religious: the Chaldean Oracles are the first expression of theurgy. The theurgy can be practiced in two ways: the first one involves the use of symbols, the other requires the participation of a trance medium. For Jamblichus the theurgy rappresents the elevation of the soul to ddivine through the work of the Gods. He poses the theurgy at the top so that it takes the place of mysticism. For Porfirio, the theurgy, as initial purification of passions, is efficient only in relationa to the irrational part of the soul; and that this also can be purified only with the help of moral virtues, and with the progressive scale of all the virtues.

Existenţialismul teologic al Stareţului Sofronie „Principiul persoanei” şi teologia dialogului

Author(s): George Zavershinsky / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 08/2015

Genuine dialogue is based on the hypostatic principle of the being, either divine or human. When I meets You in a hypostatic relation, there is always the eternal You which confirms that the dialogue is genuine, becoming hypostatically clear. The existentialist concept will be examined in the light of the hypostatical principle or that of the person, given by Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov. Father Sophrony considers that his relationship with St. Silouan the Athonite and the experience of the personal God are the most important things that influenced his way of life and his theology. In a dialogical sense, it is most necessary to highlight the genuine dialogue between Father Sophrony and St. Silouan, both having tasted the same experience of the eternal You, of the personal God. They lived the time of a true challenge to the very existence of mankind and have experienced that nothing but personal prayer could save mankind from chaos and total destruction. This challenge encouraged theological and philosophical thinkers of the last century to focus on the rediscovery of humanism in the context of personal approach.

St. Gregory of Narek and his Book of Lamentations – Between Being and Freedom

Author(s): Nikolay Petkov / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2015

„Copiii şi tinerii bine educaţi devin cu vârsta tot mai înţelepţi”Pastorală la Naşterea Domnului – 2015

Author(s): Andrei Andreicuţ / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 01/2016

The absolute educated child and young man is our Lord Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem's manger. That is why we want to mould the youth in the spirit of His Gospel. No other occupation is more important than educating and training young people. Family, church and school educate and mould youth and all three must work together in this endeavour. Children and young people need the experience and advice of the elders, thus we, as adults, have a great responsibility towards them. We must enhance the connection between the mystery of the family and the mystery of the Church, between the mystery of the child and the mystery of the person, since, in order to be a true man, Jesus Christ was born of a woman and came into history as a child at Christmas

„Naşterea Domnului – Sărbătoarea omeniei şi a bucuriei” Pastorală la Naşterea Domnului – 2015

Author(s): Justinian Chira / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 01/2016

This pastoral letter talks about how the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated with great joy, love and trust on the whole earth and how people greet Him like a Master who is alive, strong and giving new and everlasting hopes and joys. We all rejoice now, as angels in heaven rejoiced at the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and as old Joseph, patron of the Virgin Mary rejoiced; but most of all the Mother of God rejoiced when she saw the Word of God fulfilled and this joy was transmitted to all the nations, which have since seen every newborn baby an heir of the kingdom of heaven

„Regele Irod” Pastorală la Naşterea Domnului – 2015

Author(s): Petroniu Florea / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 01/2016

This pastoral letter presents the life of Herod, whose reign was characterized by the Jew historian Joseph Khusner as a river of blood and, given the cunning, the cruelty and the tragic end of the king, the same historian said that he ascended to the throne like a fox, reigned like a tiger and died like a dog. Knowing Herod's life we observe the work of evil in this world and understand whose wrath Baby Jesus escaped but we also see how God takes care of His chosen people

Monahul în har, conform Părintelui Sofronie

Author(s): Athanasie Ietvici / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 01/2016

Through repentance, prayer and the ascetic struggles of the monastic life, the Grace of the Holy Spirit distinguishes the monk in Grace. Such monks were Saint Silouan and his disciple and biographer Elder Sophrony. By the Grace of the Holy Spirit, believers are informed of the presence of God in their lives and advance in Christ. The monk tastes Grace. The taste of Grace, which in realized within the Church, cultivates a closer relationship with the living and true God, with the life-giving Trinity. The monk experiences the taste of divine Grace by his participation in the Divine Liturgy. Elder Sophrony shows in his works that people thirst for God and this is why they want to emerge from the constraints of time and space. Communion with God ushers man into divine eternity. In this way, new horizons are opened for human existence. If human life and, in particular, that of the monk, is not a life in Grace, i.e. the life of Christ Himself within us, then we are poor and naked. In order to keep man from aggrandizement, which displaces the Grace of God within him. He uses His withdrawal as a means of training. This lies close to the boundaries of despair, but is not the same as really being abandoned by our merciful God. It occurs so that our faith will become deeper, greater and firmer.

Revista „Ortodoxia” în anii ’50

Author(s): Mircea Gelu Buta / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 01/2016

The article evokes the activity of The Orthodoxy journal during the communist regime. The church press of those times, though with a small number of journals and only one newspaper, was noted for the depth and variety of studies and articles they published. The worst period of the communist regime, not only here, but also in the other satellite countries of the Soviet Union, was between 1948- 1953. The country as well as its secular culture were devastated then, a limited destalinization, also called “the thaw”, beginning only in 1955. As a paradox, in the 50s, the Orthodox church culture has experienced a flourishing of the University and Seminary education and of the theological literature. The editorial board of the journal “Orthodoxy” of that time consisted of three leading figures of the Romanian theology: Liviu Stan, Teodor M. Popescu and Dumitru Stăniloae (order of the technical box of the journal) and a distinguished theologian, Nicolae Balca, all four being university professors

Un an cu Mitropolitul Ioan

Author(s): Nicolae Morar / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 01-03/2016

It has been a year since Holy Reverend Ioan has been installed as Leader of the Orthodox Church of Banat. Within the clerical environment, Holy Reverend Ioan is perceived in an excellent manner as he is construed as a soul well focused on daily realities and focused on institutionally traditional Christian values, interested in promoting the evangel ideal and reassertion of patristic feelings. During this time, His Holiness has been involved in raising the level of theological education in Timişoara by participating in numerous symposiums and conferences; he has proved to be a fine curator and project manager for new projects in the area of social care, having visited all churches in the process of construction and all social dwellings of the Church.

Postul, scoala a infranarii

Author(s): Ionel Popescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 01-03/2016

Fasting is our small sacrifice that we bring to God in response to His huge sacrifice for our salvation. Fasting is our gift, the gift brought by Christians, to the table filled with presents that Christ the Lord has prepared for us. It is the heroic deed of defeating selfishness, of triumph over ourselves, of victory over the evil inside us that streams from sin and leads to sin. He prepares us, by moral drive, and leads us, by practicing virtues and deeds of Christian generosity, to untimely and eternal salvation that our Merciful Lord wants to bestow upon us all.

Valorile si frumusetile Ortodoxiei

Author(s): Ionel Popescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 01-03/2016

Orthodoxy represents, for the believers of our Church, a treasure filled with gems which we have the duty to know, cherish, live and carry forever in our souls. To those who wish to acknowledge Orthodoxy with its multitude of teachings, its spiritual, moral and cultural patrimony, we address the calling from this Sunday’s evangel: „Come and see for yourself!“ Come and see Orthodoxy in its entirety, its truths, its depths, its experiences, its spiritual beauties.

Spasava vera, koja kroz ljubav dela

Author(s): Jovica Trkulja / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1-2/2014

Бахтин и православна хришћанска традиција

Author(s): Svetozar Poštić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 162/2017

This paper explores motifs from the Orthodox Christian tradition in the works of the famous Russian philosopher Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin. The introduction offers a series of testimonies from the thinker’s personal life that confirm his affinity toward Christianity and Russian Orthodoxy, and the source of this affinity is linked to his ethnic origin, spiritual environment and the literary-philosophic tradition in which he was intellectually shaped. After presenting a few universal Christian ideas in his works ‒ the comparison of the relationship between the author and the hero with the relationship between the Creator and His human creation, incarnation and the word (logos) ‒ this paper points to the specifically Orthodox ideas in his writings. Those are: perichoresis or the mutual permeation of the two natures of Christ, the holiness of the body and the apophatic approach in theology, the buffoon as a fool for Christ’s sake, and communality as the essence of the existence of the Church. Finally, Bakhtin’s central idea, dialogism, is presented as a means used on the path toward divinization, or theosis, the basic characteristic of Christian spiritual life in the Orthodox East.

On the Building of the First Stone Church of “Dintr-un Lemn” Monastery (Romania) and its Architectural Characteristics

Author(s): Nicoleta Stanca,Valentin Ciorbea / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

The article discusses the historical moment of the mid-seventeenth century when the building of the stone church at “Dintr-un Lemn” Monastery began. The first benefactors are presented: boyar Preda Brâncoveanu, the rulers Matei Basarab (1632-1654), Șerban Cantacuzino (1678-1688), Ștefan Cantacuzino (1714-1716) and Constantin Brâncoveanu (1688-1714). We have also analyzed the architectural characteristics of the stone church, according to which the building style places “Dintr-un Lemn” Monastery in the age of Matei Basarab.

PREZENTĂRI BIBLIOGRAFICE

Author(s): Sorin Cosma,Vasile Rojneac,Cristian Băleanu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 07-09/2018

COMUNITATEA ROMÂNEASCĂ DIN TÂRGU MUREȘ (1700-1848). PERSPECTIVE CONFESIONALE

Author(s): Catalin Maier / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 21/2018

In this research I am interested in topics relating to the ethnic and confessional structure of the city and I tried to see how these evolved over time. At the same time, this paper also highlights firts pieces of information that the documents provide with regard to the existence of an Orthodox deanery in this area. The first name of an Orthodox archpriest in this area is the one inscribed by Pătru Todoran of Hodac, a skillful craftsman and priest at the same time, on the beam of the iconostasis he built for a church between 1695 and 1696 for the community of Orthodox believers from Văleni-Oaia. The location of the deanery he had to supervise remains unknown. The first historical evidence about the establishment of the deanery in TârguMureş only appeared in 1814. A detailed reconstruction of the birth and evolution of this community cannot be fully revealed largely because most of the archives were destroyed during the 1848 revolution. In the revolutionary context the archpriest’s house was broken into, and even the Metropoly’s archives in Sibiu were devastated, in March, 1849.

Orthodox Brotherhood of the Bishop Makari (Opotsky) in the Soviet Russia

Author(s): Aleksandra Budanova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

Nikolay Mikhaylovich Opotsky was born on November 16, 1872, in a family of an official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Having graduated from the Belozersk spiritual school and the Novgorod theological seminary, in 1896 has been imposed in the deacon, and less than in a year, his presbyteral hirotoniya was taking place on March 6, 1897. In 1902, after the sudden death of his spouse, Nikolay Mikhaylovich made a firm decision to continue the spiritual education and to take monastic vows. By this time he already had real vicarial experience. In the characteristic given to him by the Novgorod diocese for receipt in the spiritual academy it has been written that he is “a person absolutely sober and in vicarial activity hardworking and vigorous”.

Suffering – a mysterious divine pedagogy: its positive role in our lives

Author(s): liviu petcu / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

Many times this question is vividly present in our conscience or persists in our mind: what is the positive role of suffering in our lives? Logically or philosophically speaking, the fact of suffering is neutral. What is relevant indeed is its purpose – both from the perspective of our understanding of it and also of the manner in which we permit it to affect us. Under this aspect, Orthodox Spirituality provides us with the means to perceive suffering in a positive light, as an instrument for our spiritual progress in Christ and not as something that is devoid of any sense. We may entrust our suffering to God, with the unfailing hope that He knows how to valorize it and let us then supplicate Him for support in finding its meaning. We are prompted by the Fathers of the Church to offer our suffering to God, being assured that He can and will employ it to take us to a new profundity of faith and of worshipping Him in love.

Saint Gregory Palamas and the Heritage of the Cappadocian Fathers

Author(s): Porphyrios Georgi / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

The relation between the teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas and his antecedent patristic tradition was an essential theological issue raised among scholars during the twentieth century. Even though numerous studies have undertaken to situate the Father of Hesychasm vis-a-vis the preceding patristic heritage, the task of analyzing the patristic components of his teaching remains a delicate and open issue. This paper explores the major guidelines in the teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas borrowed from the Cappadocian Fathers. It depicts the dynamics of his reception of their theological tradition and the extent to which they inspired him: whether he imitated and quoted them passively, or whether he was creative and renovative in rearticulating their theology ten centuries later.

The Orthodox Icon, Source of the Catechesis

Author(s): Roger Coresciuc / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

The icon is a support that directs towards Image. The iconic Christian life is a very important aspect for the configuration of the contemporary catechetical language and discourse. Without denying the importance of the informal catechesis, we must draw the attention upon the risk of lingering on the informal aspect. The reality that reveals before the one who contemplates and who opens oneself to the iconicity of contemplation surpasses the stage of a simple word. Hesychia is the instrument that can be used successfully by all those who want to enter the universe of contemplation. The contemplated reality, icon and substance of the same reality, can be discovered in a gesture of reciprocal revelation in the mystery of silence and of the super-rational word.