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 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)

Ce texte a déjà paru dans Nouvelles clés, n° 14, été 1997. Il a été écrit à partir des deux articles d'Eric Bony parus dans Science Frontières et des déclarations de Joël Sternheimer au Festival Science Frontières 1997. En juin 1992, Joël Sternheimer, professeur à l'Université européenne de la recherche, a déposé le brevet du « Procédé de régulation épigénétique de la synthèse protéique », une théorie révolutionnaire qui permettrait d'expliquer, entre autres, l'influence de la musique sur des organismes vivants. (...) - Biologie – Nouvel article. (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)

Das Buch widmet sich der wenig erörterten Frage nach dem Begriff der Macht in der Theologie und Philosophie des 20. Jahrhunderts. Ausgehend von Theorien bei Arendt, Foucault, Plessner und Jaspers wird der Blick auf die Ontologie der Macht bei Tillich eröffnet. Dabei wird dargestellt, wie er seinem Machtverständnis eine sinntheoretische Wendung gegeben und wie er seine Überlegungen zur Macht mit dem Begriff des Seins in Zusammenhang gebracht hat.

Primeira Carta Prezado Padre Frei Bernardo: Com todo o respeito que devo demonstrar-vos devido aos méritos dos frades franciscanos, desejo apresentar nesta carta algumas dúvidas e mesmo, como parece a alguns, os absurdos evidentes - que parecem seguir-se de vossas afirmações. Com a solução de tais dúvidas espero que a mim e a outros se demonstre com mais clareza a verdade. Li em alguns textos que apresentastes na escola dos frades menores, e aos quais permitistes acesso a todo o verdadeiramente (...) interessado, as proposições que seguem: A primeira, colocada por vós nos Comentários às Sentenças, diz o seguinte: "O conhecimento intuitivo e claro é aquele pelo qual julgamos que uma coisa existe, independente do fato de ela existir ou não." A segunda proposição, colocada no mesmo lugar, afirma: "Na sentença: 'O objeto não existe, logo não é visto', não vale a consequência, como não vale também esta: 'Isto é visto, logo existe'. Ambas aliás são falsas, como o são estas: 'César está na mente, logo César existe; César não existe, logo não está na mente'." A terceira proposição, também no mesmo lugar, diz: "O conhecimento intuitivo não requer necessariamente a existência da coisa." Uma quarta proposição creio poder inferir destas três: "Toda a impressão que temos da existência de objetos exteriores pode ser falsa," pois, segundo vós, ele pode dar-se quer o objeto exista, quer não. (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)

Para toda a espécie de ente existe um supremo bem possível. Como o homem também é ente de uma certa espécie, deve haver também um certo bem supremo que lhe seja possível. Não me refiro ao bem supremo em sentido absoluto, mas o supremo bem para o homem, visto que os bens possíveis ao homem têm um fim e não procedem ao infinito. Investiguemos pela razão qual seja este supremo que é possível ao homem. Deve ser ele um bem que (...) se atribui à sua virtude superior. Não se trata, pois, de algo referente à alma vegetativa - que é própria das plantas - nem de algo referente a alma sensitiva - que é própria dos animais, e por isso os deleites sensíveis pertencem aos animais. A virtude superior do homem é a razão e a inteligência; e constitui a direção da vida humana tanto na teoria como na prática. Portanto, o bem supremo, que é possível ao homem, refere-se à sua inteligência. Por isso, devem doer-se os homens que se atêm apenas aos deleites sensíveis, porque relegam os bens intelectuais e assim jamais atingem seu bem supremo. Entregam- se tanto aos sentidos, a ponto de não procurarem o que é bem próprio do intelecto. Contra eles clama o Filósofo, quando diz: "Ai de vós, homens, que sois contados entre o número dos brutos, pois não cuidais daquilo que em vós é divino" [texto não encontrado]. O que ele chama de divino no homem é o intelecto. De fato, se algo de divino existe no homem, é digno que seja o intelecto. Assim, pois, como é divino aquilo que é ótimo no conjunto de todos os entes, assim também chamamos de divino àquilo que é o supremo no homem. Ora, no intelecto humano há uma potência especulativa e uma prática. Isto se manifesta pelo fato de que o homem por vezes é especulativo, a respeito daquelas coisas sobre as quais não exerce sua atividade, como no caso das coisas eternas; e por vezes é também ativo, segundo a determinação do intelecto, ao escolher uma coisa intermediária em todas as ações humanas. Assim sabemos que há genericamente no homem estas duas potências intelectuais. (shrink)

This study reviews various discourses around female sexual mutilation from the perspective of the human and social sciences, and also current debates between supporters of the cultural argument and those defending the universality of human rights. An aside about the Dogon myth of world order recorded by Marcel Griaule in Dieu d’eau or Aristotle’s philosophical discourse in the Reproduction of Animals is required in order to widen the debate and see its importance as regards the dignity of the human person. (...) In Aristotle woman is a freak accident, she interrupts the circle that goes from man to man so that he can start off again. Woman is a "catastrophe" necessary to the exercise of the male genitalia; her body is naturally mutilated and incomplete. In the Dogon myth the clitoris rises up like a termite-hill, it is oversized and must be knocked down, that is, excised. Between excessive size, monstrousness and ugliness come discourses which have since time immemorial accompanied and justified wounding the female genitals. But today a medical type of discourse, which is widely accepted, is aiming to repair excised genitalia and give back to women the happiness of a recovered body. Thus we may ask what "woman’s dignity" consists of and whether it is the same as the "dignity of the human person". (shrink)

La pratique de la solidarité familiale est un fait dans les sociétés africaines même si les personnes sont confrontées à toutes sortes de risques dès leur plus jeune âge, bien avant qu’elles n’exercent une activité leur permettant de se prendre en charge. Ainsi, le manque de protections civiles de même que la « sécurité sociale » qui couvre les individus en cas de maladie et d’autres risques transforment les sociétés africaines contemporaines en scènes où règnent violences et insécurité sociale. Dans (...) ces conditions, c’est la liberté de l’individu qui est en question mais aussi la protection des citoyens, la prise en compte des risques liés à la vie, au travail, à l’éducation, à la santé, à l’environnement. C’est tout le rôle social que doit jouer un Etat de droit qui est en question. Mais le lien de solidarité est d’abord d’ordre éthique. Il lie un humain à un autre, par-delà les lois et les institutions sociales. (shrink)

Os escritos políticos de Ockham giram ao redor da pergunta a respeito do poder do papa. Como esse poder foi concedido por Cristo, deve-se consultar a Sagrada Escritura para saber o que ela diz a respeito. Mas a exegese bíblica cabe aos teólogos e não aos juristas. Na qualidade de teólogo Ockham afirma que os poderes do papa situam-se na ordem espiritual e mesmo nessa ordem ele não é ilimitado, pois se atém ao que foi concedido expressamente por Cristo e (...) deve respeitar a liberdade dos fiéis. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Guilherme de Ockham. Exegese bíblica. Plenitude do poder. Poder. Liberdade. ABSTRACT The political writings of Ockham circle around the question regarding the power of the pope. As such power was conceded by Christ, one must consult the Holy Bible to know what It tells about such power. However, biblical exegesis belongs to the theologians, not to jurists. As a theologian, Ockham states that the powers of the pope are set in the spiritual order, and even in such an order they are not without limits, for they are conformed to what was expressly conceded by Christ and must respect the liberty of the followers. KEY WORDS – William of Ockham. Biblical exegesis. Plentitude of power. Power. Liberty. (shrink)

No presente artigo examina-se aposição do franciscano Pedro de João Olivi ante a Filosofia. Seu texto De perlegendisphilosophorum libris' serve de guia. Constata-seque a critica de Olivi não se volta para o uso emsi dos textos filosóficos pagãos, mas para o modocom que eles podem ser lidos e comentados nomundo cristão, ignorando a subordinação dosaber mundano à sabedoria da revelação.

I'll say first why I write. It intrigues me, I wonder why I write. How it is that I write and why it's so important. I take this as an act of life. One thing that scares me as a writer is a Lari song “ndombi ku ndombi sadidi mukanda komanda diandi Matsoua Ndele.” That can be translated as “even a black can write, hey, things are progressing. “ In the beginning going to school was considered an enormous act, it (...) was civilization, it was the very center of civilization, and writing a letter for a black person, a poor black, was a grandiose thing. It was in Matsoua's time, in the forties, that people sang this song in the pool to make rubber. (shrink)

The newborn opens its eyes when it comes into the world. We close the eyes of the dead because they are no longer part of the world of the living. It is through looking that we enter the world, that we take possession of it, and that we leave it. We open or close our eyes to the living beings and things that surround us. Of prime importance among these living beings are other humans, who may resemble or be different (...) from us, but whose eyes also look. From this perspective, to live is to look at other people and at ourselves. Artists, particularly those who work with light and looking, such as painters, photographers, or film-makers, show us that art is above all seeing life: we look at the other who has been painted, photographed, or filmed. At the same time a photograph or painting of this other tells us who we are and what type of relationship we have with the world. For looking is never neutral. Every look, from wherever it comes, is imbued with culture. In art, looking is part of writing. But, when we look at others, how do we see them? Do we see them? The blind may have poor sight, yet, because they have bodies, sensibilities, minds, and other faculties that enable them to enter into relations with others, they have a way of looking. (shrink)

This paper provides a rich reconstruction of the notion of dignity and rights of people and individuals in its Assyrian origins in ancient Mesopotamia. It analysis several particular positions. Among them, Bardaisan, Yacoub Aphraates (Aphrahat), Michael the Syriac, as well as, much later, the missionary policy of the Eastern Church in Asia and the influential of the Nestorian church in Asia.

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)

In contemporary African cultures women are going beyond domestic areas and getting involved in public affairs. They are acting in the social sphere. They are taking an active part in campaigns during the election process. Although in contemporary Africa these new ways of participating in public affairs are still closely associated with the religious domain, women are a major factor of social change in today's Africa.

Hay muchas maneras de entender y practicar la innovación social. En este artículo queremos abordar una perspectiva concreta: la innovación social colectiva (ISC) que busca explícitamente la transformación de los regímenes socio-técnicos. A partir del análisis de dos experiencias que tienen lugar en Valencia (grupos de consumo y una cooperativa energética), caracterizamos el sentido de la transformación de las ISC y su direccionalidad. Para lo primero, se recurre al marco de las transiciones socio-técnicas, mientras que para lo segundo el análisis (...) se realiza desde el desarrollo humano. El análisis arroja diferencias sustanciales en la manera en la que las ISC entienden la producción, las tecnologías, las políticas y regulaciones, la estructura industrial, los canales de acceso y las fuentes de conocimiento, respecto de las prácticas socio-técnicas dominantes. Asimismo evidencia que sus propuestas se alinean claramente con los principios del desarrollo humano y permiten la expansión de capacidades y de agencia.There are many ways to understand and practice social innovation. In this article we touch upon a specific perspective: grassroots innovations (gi) which explicitly seek the transformation of socio-technical regimes. From the analysis of two experiences that took place in the city of Valencia (consumer groups and an energy cooperative), we characterize the sense of the transformation of the grassroots and its directionality. For the former, the framework of socio-technical transitions is used, while, for the latter, the analysis is being made through the human development approach. The analysis reveals substantial differences in the way in which gi understand production, technologies, policies and regulations, industrial structure, access channels and sources of knowledge, compared with dominant socio-technical practices. It also shows that their proposals are clearly aligned with the principles of human development and allow the expansion of capabilities and agency. (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)

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)