If the access to education were conditioned only by the legislative aspects, there shouldn’t show up any major differences regarding the educational level of different social categories (out of religious, ethnic or other characteristic perspective). But there are. And the present paper approaches them. Based on the official statistic information published by National Institute of Statistics, we intended to underline the existence or the absence of some connections between the educational variables (the last graduated school, level of school attended at (...) present, illiteracy) and the religious or ethnic affiliation ones. The long term implications that derive from the presence of the educational gaps between different ethnic or religious groups may become sometimes difficult or quite impossible to predict. An appropriate example could be the recent violent riots in Paris’ suburbs, from Germany or those from Chechnya, Turkey – Kurdistan, Ireland etc. (shrink)

Review of Sandu Frunză, Experien ţa religioasă în gîndirea lui Dumitru Stăniloae. O etică relaţională. 2nd edition, București: Eikon, 2016, 262 pag.

Review of Sandu Frunză, Filosofie şi comunicare cotidiană: cărţile ar putea să-ţi schimbe viaţa [Philosophy and daily communication: the books could change your life], Iaşi: Editura Lumen, 2020.

An important moment in the recent history of the Eastern Orthodox Church was for sure the recognition granted to the Ukrainian Orthodoxy by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople with the Tomos of autocephaly. Praised by some Orthodox churches and damned by other, it was preceded by some attempts of negotiation initiated by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and by a few meetings between the representatives of the aforementioned institution, Russian Patriarchate and the Ukrainian local churches that was later recognised by Constantinople and (...) by a Schism between the Constantinople and Moscow. At the same time, it divided the local Orthodox churches between the ones who sustain one or the other side or prefer to remain in a neutral state and determined later meetings like the one from Amman in Jordan, between leaders and representatives of the Orthodox Church. Conscious of the relevance of the event and its potential consequences, we have tried here to see how it was reflected in the ecumenical space. Therefore, we have proceeded to the investigation of the journals from the ecumenical area that spoke about it, and we analysed the way how they saw it and emphasised the main elements that have raised their interest. Together with the ecclesiastical challenges, we found that they were also interested in this problem not only for its theological meaning but also because of its geopolitical relevance. The research, based on the literature investigated, therefore presents the Ukrainian problem and its image in the ecumenical space.Contribution: The research investigates how the image of the Eastern Orthodox Church changed in the ecumenical space after the foundation of the New Ukrainian Church and the debates that followed inside of the Orthodox space in this context. It is linked with the scope of the journal due to the fact that investigates a topic relevant for the ecumenical area and presents a topic that can contribute in the future to the change of the relationships with different churches with the Orthodox one. (shrink)

An important moment in the history of the Orthodox Church is despite the withdrawal of local churches like the Bulgarian, Russian, Georgian and Alexandrian ones and the fear of Serbian Church to take part in it, the Pan-Orthodox Council of Crete remains an important meeting that influenced the history of Orthodoxy and shifted its conception to the world. The relevance of some of the topics discussed there explains why it can be found inside the important theological journals from the entire (...) world chronicles of the event and articles dedicated to some of the topics investigated. Noticing this fact, we have tried to see the way the social thinking of the Orthodox Church is reflected in the documents released by the participants and its encyclical letter. Because of the fact that, until today, only the Russian Orthodox Church has a document that defines in an articulate way its social thinking and this one was published in 2002, when many challenges were not present in society, the ideas presented there are not only important for their relevance and actuality, but also for the fact that they became the official document that articulates the landmarks of social thinking of the Eastern Orthodox Church, seen as a federation of local churches that are in Eucharistic and doctrinaire communion. Therefore, we have tried to see how the bishops presented to the Pan-Orthodox meeting, the way they understood and approached these topics and what represented the motivations of their conclusions. (shrink)

By resorting to the spiritual autobiography of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, an important religious and cultural personality of the 20th century, the author tries to emphasise the aspects of political theology that defined her way of acting and thinking and to show how she understood the relationship between religion and politics. Topics like poverty, love, giving, peace, sacrifice or responsibility are presented as keywords in the understanding of a complex vision with interdisciplinary relevance, while the two levels of poverty, namely (...) the material one, often accompanied by physical pain, maladies and other types of suffering, and the spiritual one, that is not necessarily related to the lack of basic material needs and can be found even in developed countries like the United States of America or Japan, are seen through the lenses of political theology. The author shows that, by finding practical bridges between spirituality and politics and by using as sources of inspiration not only Christian thinkers, but also thinkers from other religions, like Ghandi, the Albanese militant accomplished her vocation and also offered important and perennial principles which can help in the understanding of the contemporary world and in finding solutions to some of its crises. Although her message is a sort of combination between theology and social life, the political accents, sometimes theoretical, at other times practical, are important and can be used today for the development of a sustainable discourse for both the theological and the political sphere. CONTRIBUTION: The article brings into attention a spiritual autobiography that was not valorised properly by the contemporary research and in the same time offers an inter-disciplinary approach with ecumenical value. (shrink)

Starting from the investigation of the documents issued by the Bishops who participated in the Holy Pan-Orthodox Council held in June 2016 in Crete, the author speaks in this research about the way in which ecumenism is understood from the perspective of this important event. The article tries to answer the question 'How did the event influence the Orthodox attitude towards ecumenism?' analysing documents, Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today's World and Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest (...) of the Christian World, he shows that the dialogue entailed by ecumenism is perceived nowadays, according to the documents of the World Council of Churches, like a pilgrimage of justice and peace, and he highlights the main topics of this perception. Therefore, he shows that, according to the documents, a real and fruitful dialogue with other Christian faiths must be based on the Trinitarian witness, the Bible, the Tradition, the Creed and the teaching of the Seven Councils and that, among its main topics, one must definitely mention the witness, love, dialogue, the fight against discrimination or the care for the future of the Earth. The relevance of the ecclesiological background and of its understanding for the future of this dialogue is also mentioned. The documents are investigated in a deductive and comparative-analytic way by the author. If before the Council there was no official general attitude of the Orthodox space regarding ecumenism, nor an official document on this topic - although between 1968 and 1998, all the Orthodox Churches were members of the WCC - after this event, there is an official position and a list of main topics that could be developed and principles that should be respected for a fruitful dialogue in the future, at least for the Churches that took part in the Council. By analysing the aforementioned topics, by correlating them with other texts dedicated to the Council of Crete, and also by emphasising the perception of the Orthodox Church about ecumenical dialogue and its developments starting from the aforementioned event, the research brings into attention a sensitive topic and highlights some of its important, but not enough highlighted, aspects. (shrink)

Review of Kristina Stoeckl, Ingeborg Gabriel, Aristotle Papanikolau, eds., Political Theologies in Orthodox Christianity. Common Challenges – Divergent Positions,, Edinburgh: T&T Clark and Bloomberg, 2017.

Important and, in the same time, controversial personality of interwar period and the later one, Nichifor Crainic was in the same time poet, theologian, philosopher and politician. He published many articles, book reviews, chronicles, meditation and theological studies in books and journals like Gândirea or Ramuri (the first one founded by him). Inthe same time, he was the first professor of mystical theology in a Romanian Faculty of Theology, the one of Bucharest. His theological ideas are still relevant today for (...) the theological space and this make them to be analysed, referred to and quoted. In the same time, some of them have influenced his political attitude, making them to become exponential for Romanian Nationalism during the interwar period, to see, as others (for example Nae Ionescu) of being Orthodox as linked with national identity, and also to be closed with far-right movement during the aforementioned period, but also during the Second World War. Using his ideas expressed, both in his books of poetry or theology or in journals like the ones already named, but also information from the books and articles dedicated to him, we will try there to see how his theological ideas and the influence of theology and Orthodox Church upon him, have influenced the Romanian writer in his political actions. We will also see how his ideas are reflected inhis work as politician and writer and we will analyse the influence that he had upon other personalities of his time with same concerns and political orientation. The research will therefore bring again into attention the profile and work of the Romanian theologian, offering a new approach of the relationship between his ideas and works and a reevaluation of his ideas and their actuality. (shrink)

In this article, the author speaks about how a profession can constitute a road to God and can lead one to a deeper understanding of spirituality as the heart of theology, by investigating the spiritual autobiographies of Teilhard de Chardin and Dag Hammarskjöld. While the former was a Jesuit with important contributions to the historical field, the latter was an important personality in the field of international diplomacy, whose contribution came to light towards the end of the important crises that (...) took place in the 1960s. Both of them left us rich spiritual autobiographies in the form of a last published book and a manuscript discovered after the author’s death and published posthumously.Contribution: This article brings into attention two important authors of the 20th century with different confessional backgrounds by investigating their spiritual autobiographies and showing how the profession they exercised led them to God and helped them deepen their spirituality and theology. (shrink)

Amongst the recent documents released by the Greek Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the one titled ‘For the Life of the World’, published before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, touches upon an important section of the life of the Orthodox Church, namely, the social one. As a result of the fact that, so far, there is no official document of the aforementioned Church dedicated to this aspect, whilst the Reformed Churches and the Catholic one have already issued similar documents, I (...) consider the existence of such an article, with all its minuses, important. Moreover, it can constitute a bridge and an invitation to dialogue with other Christian traditions or backgrounds. Being aware of this fact, I have decided to analyse this document in this article to emphasise its influence and its elements of novelty and to speak about both its utility and its weaknesses. As a result of the fact that the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has had an important contribution to its drafting, I will also try to present this aspect and to show how the ecological vision that he has, amongst other aspects, influenced its content. Contribution: Considering the importance of the recent document ‘For the Life of the World of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople’, I will try to analyse it and to present its social relevance and meaning. (shrink)

Important personality of the Romanian space, the Jew Nicolae Steinhardt that will discover the Christianity in prison and will be baptised in Jilava prison, will be not only an intellectual with ecumenical vocation, but also a writer that offers a rich testimony about the way how Communism from the Romanian space can not only ruin a life, but also make one to come closer to God and arrive to a deeper consciousness of the real values of life and spirituality that (...) will therefore be connected to the cultural space, seen as an alternative and a form of survival in the Prison life. Both the experience that he had as an imprisoned for political reasons, like the one after his release will be emphasized in his discontinuous journal and therefore aspects like political theology will come as outcomes of his experiences or as forms of presenting the conclusions of his lectures. Contribution: Based on The diary of happiness, the most important and the most translated work of Nicolae Steinhardt (translated in 20 languages), that constitutes also an important part of the samizdat literature from Romania during the Communist period, the present research emphasizes the way how Steinhardt’s spiritual autobiography comes in contact with the political theology, bringing into attention the pillars of his conception. (shrink)

The issues of bioethics have been present in the Romanian space starting with the past century and have been tackled in different ways, according to context and the people interacting with them. Nonetheless, as a science, it became visible within the university context only towards the end of the past century when the faculties of theology in collaboration with those of medicine managed to introduce in the curriculum of the former and later on in that of the latter the problems (...) of bioethics, as well as their possible solutions. Though being a young science, bioethics succeeded in gaining ground as a university subject due to some doctors, famous in Romania and known as prestigious teachers lecturing in it, and due to its multiple challenges with which the Romanian society has been confronted lately. (shrink)

Using documents, books and articles written by Nicola Velimirović during World War I, this article investigates his attitude towards this conflagration and shows how his Christian views influence his outlook on this topic. Shared during his visits to the USA and England and via lectures given in venues like Westminster Abbey or Oxford University, his ideas make him a militant for peace and, at the same time, a man who defends his country's cause in front of the Austro-Hungarian abuses. Investigating (...) his writings from this point of view is important because he manages to show a different face of the future Serbian bishop and brings to the fore his concerns regarding his contemporary society. (shrink)

Nicolas Berdyaev’s spiritual autobiography was, unfortunately, the least well-known of his publications. Therefore, we will try to shed light on it, emphasising its philosophical and political value. We will describe the manner in which the author speaks in order to deepen our understanding of it. We will also consider the genesis of some of his works, noting the influence his spiritual experiences had on them. We will emphasise some of the main political aspects his spiritual autobiography contains, showing its usefulness (...) in areas like political theology. Therefore, we will present the interdisciplinary value of this autobiography, together with its potential for building bridges between spirituality and different areas of science in an analysis dedicated to providing a holistic understanding of his work. We will observe how his spiritual experiences informed his way of thinking, allowing him to critique topics like modernity, a system based on freedom, love and human dignity and a profound understanding of eschatology as the accomplishment of the world and its mission.Contribution: The research investigates Berdyaev’s memorial work showing why it can be considered a spiritual autobiography and it emphasises also its relevance for the philosophical area. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo analizamos la relación dinámica entre razón y pathos que anima la obra de Carlos Blanco. Esta relación, que llamamos noesis, es enfocada como un acontecimiento que se reproduce en cada una de sus libros y que gobierna la lógica de sus conceptos.

Author of more than 80 studies and articles of theology and bibliotheconomy and of the book: Cenzurarea presei ortodoxe în comunism, but alsoPhD in philology and member of important associations and cultural institutions, Silviu-Constantin Nedelcu is already a name known in the Romanian cultural space. His recent book, entitled: O scurtă istorie a bibliotecilor byzantine, published by the acclaimed Lumen Publishing House from Iassy, comes to offer a new testimony of the quality of his investigations.

L’essence de la BD réside dans l’espace qui existe entre deux cases, ce qui demande un travail de reconstruction au lecteur. Il s’agit d’un « art séquentiel ». Or le dessin animé et le jeu vidéo sont aussi des arts séquentiels. Il s’agit donc, dans cet article, de comparer la culture de labande dessinée avec les autres formes de culture et de technique que l’on trouve dans des médias développés plus tard, comme le dessin animé ou le jeu vidéo. La (...) BD est-elle un média précurseur des autres formes de culture de l’image séquentielle ou y a-t-il des interactions économiques et culturelles entre ces nouvelles formes d’art apparues au XXe siècle?The essence of a comic strip is in the spaces between the frames, which demand reconstruction on the part of the reader. Comic strips are a “sequential” art form, but this is also true of animations and video games. This article therefore sets out to compare the comic strip culture with other cultural and technical forms found in the media which developed later, like film animation and video games. Was the comic strip medium a precursor of other cultural forms based on sequential images, or is there a circular process at work between these new art forms that appeared in the 20th century? (shrink)

Bien que, dans notre pays, la BD ait longtemps été perçue, y compris par ses « spécialistes », commeune production culturelle quasi-exclusivement franco-belge et américaine, l’offre de bandes dessinées sestructure aujourd’hui en France essentiellement autour de trois traditions nationales : franco-belge,américaine et japonaise . Mais la place énorme occupée par les mangas chez les lecteursactuels ne doit pas faire oublier que la bande dessinée a connu une évolution historique distincte dans lestrois aires culturelles concernées, notamment en termes de modèles économiques (...) d’édition et de types delectorat recherchés. Une mise en perspective de ces spécificités permet de comprendre comment, en vingt ans, les mangas sont devenus des concurrents irrésistibles des bandes dessinées franco-belges et américaines.In France, comic strips have long been perceived – including by “specialists” – as an almost exclusivelyFranco-Belgian and American form of cultural output. Today, however, the comic strip market essentiallyrevolves around traditions of three different origins: Franco-Belgian comic strips, American comics andJapanese manga. But the enormous popularity of manga among today’s readers should not obscure the factthat historically, comics have evolved very differently in the three cultural areas in question, especially interms of economic publishing models and target readerships. Bringing a fresh perspective to bear on thesespecificities, this article shows how manga, in just twenty years, have come to compete irresistibly withFranco-Belgian and American comics. (shrink)

We give the natural topological model for $\neg$BD-${\mathbb N}$, and use it to show that the closure of spaces with the anti-Specker property under product does not imply BD-${\mathbb N}$. Also, the natural topological model for $\neg$BD is presented. Finally, for some of the realizability models known indirectly to falsify BD-$\mathbb{N}$, it is brought out in detail how BD-$\mathbb N$ fails.

1. Bd. Einleitung, Text und Übersetzung -- 2. Bd. Kommentar.

1. bd. Inleiding en geschiedenis der Grieksche wijsbegeerte vóór Platoon en Aristoteles.