What does doctrinal development mean?

Author(s):  
Norman Russell

This chapter, the first to address ‘the larger questions’, discusses the philosophical and theological context in which Palamas worked. The East made a distinction between the ‘outer wisdom’ of the pagan Greek philosophers and the ‘inner wisdom’ of the Church Fathers. Palamas rejected the parity of the two wisdoms espoused by Barlaam, who argued that ‘truth is one’, but did not repudiate philosophy as such. All parties to the controversy, however, gave priority to the Church Fathers, taking as their chief authority Dionysius the Areopagite. The correct exegesis of Dionysius became central to the debate. Methodological issues that were discussed explicitly include the relationship between dogmatic and mystical theology, and between theology and contemplation, and the correct explication (anaptyxis) of Christological dogma. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the different ways in which theological decisions were made authoritative in the East and in the West.

Author(s):  
Peter Linehan

This book springs from its author’s continuing interest in the history of Spain and Portugal—on this occasion in the first half of the fourteenth century between the recovery of each kingdom from widespread anarchy and civil war and the onset of the Black Death. Focussing on ecclesiastical aspects of the period in that region (Galicia in particular) and secular attitudes to the privatization of the Church, it raises inter alios the question why developments there did not lead to a permanent sundering of the relationship with Rome (or Avignon) two centuries ahead of that outcome elsewhere in the West. In addressing such issues, as well as of neglected material in Spanish and Portuguese archives, use is made of the also unpublished so-called ‘secret’ registers of the popes of the period. The issues it raises concern not only Spanish and Portuguese society in general but also the developing relationship further afield of the components of the eternal quadrilateral (pope, king, episcopate, and secular nobility) in late medieval Europe, as well as of the activity in that period of those caterpillars of the commonwealth, the secular-minded sapientes. In this context, attention is given to the hitherto neglected attempt of Afonso IV of Portugal to appropriate the privileges of the primatial church of his kingdom and to advance the glorification of his Castilian son-in-law, Alfonso XI, as God’s vicegerent in his.


2021 ◽  
pp. 257-271
Author(s):  
Денис Владимирович Макаров

Основная цель исследования состоит в выявлении основной проблематики романа «Александр Невский» и в исследовании особенностей художественного образа святого благоверного князя Александра Невского в художественном произведении одного из выдающихся представителей советской военной прозы Бориса Львовича Васильева. Начиная со второй половины 1990-х годов писатель воплощает в литературе образы выдающихся древнерусских князей и создаёт в своих исторических романах целую галерею художественных портретов: Владимира Святого, Ярослава Мудрого, Владимира Мономаха и многих других. В работе применяется сравнительно-исторический метод и метод филологического анализа. Для достижения указанной цели анализируется основная проблематика романа Бориса Васильева. В качестве наиболее актуальных для Руси XIII в. вопросов, поднимаемых автором, выделяются проблемы духовного наследия Византии, феодальной раздробленности, двоеверия, взаимоотношения власти (государства) и Церкви, исторического выбора между Востоком и Западом. Автором статьи предпринимает сопоставление образа святого благоверного князя Александра Невского прежде всего со знаменитым памятником древнерусской литературы XIII в. «Повесть о житии Александра Невского». Также в статье указываются предшественники Бориса Васильева в создании образа благоверного князя Александра Невского в русской литературе XIX и XX вв., среди которых поэты Аполлон Николаевич Майков, Лев Александрович Мей, Константин Михайлович Симонов и писатели Алексей Кузьмич Югов, Василий Григорьевич Ян, Анатолий Александрович Субботин, Сергей Павлович Мосияш. Наиболее важные результаты исследования состоят в выявлении основных особенностей художественного образа святого благоверного князя Александра Невского в романе Бориса Васильева. The main purpose of the research is to identify the main problems of the novel «Alexander Nevsky» and to study the features of the artistic image of the saint Prince Alexander Nevsky in the artistic work of one of the outstanding representatives of Soviet military prose - Boris Lvovich Vasiliev, who turned in the second half of the 1990s-2010s to the embodiment in artistic images of outstanding Ancient Russian princes and created in his historical novels from 1996 to 2010 a whole gallery of artistic images: Vladimir the Saint, Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir Monomakh and many others. To achieve this goal, the main problems of the novel by Boris Vasiliev are analyzed. The research highlights the problems of the spiritual heritage of Byzantium, feudal fragmentation, dual faith, the relationship between the government (state) and the Church, the historical choice between East and West are highlighted as the most relevant issues for Russia of the XIII century raised by the author, the problems of the spiritual heritage of Byzantium, feudal fragmentation, dual faith, the relationship between the government (state) and the Church, the historical choice between the East and the West. The comparison of the image of the saint Prince Alexander Nevsky is undertaken, first of all, with the famous monument of ancient Russian literature of the XIII century «The Story of the Life of Alexander Nevsky». The work also identifies the literary predecessors of Boris Vasiliev in creating the image of the blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky in Russian literature of the XIX and XX centuries, among them the poets Apollo Nikolaevich Maykov, Lev Alexandrovich May, Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov and the writers Alexey Kuzmich Yugov, Vasily Grigoryevich Yan, Anatoly Alexandrovich Subbotin, Sergey Pavlovich Mosiyash. The comparative-historical method and the method of philological analysis are used in the work. The most important results of the study are to identify the main features of the artistic image of the saint Prince Alexander Nevsky in the novel by Boris Vasiliev.


2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul R. McCuistion ◽  
Colin Warner ◽  
Francois P. Viljoen

This article maintained that the historicity of Jesus’ baptism was intended to flesh out the righteousness of God that was well-documented in the Hebrew Scriptures. Furthermore, the historical event initiated the ontological emphasis on the relationship of baptism to righteousness. To support this proposal, this article focused on Matthew’s fulfilment statement in Matthew 3:15. Looking specifically at this verse within its context, the article examines what Matthew may have intended for his community to grasp regarding the Christian tradition of righteousness. The article is divided into four sections that are intended to examine Matthew’s intentions. Firstly, the immediate context is examined, showing the influences and setting for the fulfilment statement. The following section explores the fulfilment statement within this context. The third section uncovers some of the theological traditions in Paul and the church fathers. Finally, the baptismal statement of Matthew 3:15 will be tied directly to the relationship of the law and righteousness in Matthew’s ἦλθον statement of Matthew 5:17. Hierdie artikel betoog dat die historiese waarheid van Jesus se doop bedoel was om die geregtigheid van God, wat volledig uiteengesit is in die Hebreeuse Bybel, te versterk. Verder het die historiese gebeurtenis die ontologiese klem op die verhouding van die doop tot geregtigheid geïnisieer. Om hierdie voorstel te ondersteun, fokus hierdie artikel op Matteus se verklaring van verwesenliking (Mat 3:15). Deur spesifiek na hierdie vers binne sy konteks te kyk, ondersoek die artikel wat Matteus moontlik beplan het sodat sy gemeenskap die Christelike tradisie van geregtigheid kon begryp. Die artikel is in vier afdelings verdeel om sodoende Matteus se bedoelings te ondersoek. Eerstens word die onmiddellike konteks ondersoek wat die invloede en agtergrond van die verklaring van die verwesenliking uitwys. In die volgende afdeling word die verklaring van die verwesenliking in hierdie konteks verken. In die derde afdeling word ’n paar van die teologiese tradisies van Paulus en die kerkvaders aan die lig gebring. Ten slotte is die doopverklaring van Matteus 3:15 regstreeks aan die verhouding van reg en geregtigheid in Mattheus se ἦλθον verklaring van Matteus 5:17 gekoppel.


2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-43
Author(s):  
Lucian N. Leustean

This article analyzes the relationship between the Orthodox Church and the communist regime during one of the most intense periods of religious persecution in the Romanian People's Republic from 1956 to 1959. The church hierarchy demonstrated its support for the socialist construction of the country, while, at the same time, the regime began a campaign against religion by arresting clergy and reducing the number of religious people in monasteries; rumours even circulated that in 1958 Patriarch Justinian was under house arrest. Seeking closer contact with Western Europe, the regime allowed the hierarchy to meet foreign clergymen, especially from the Church of England. These diplomatic religious encounters played a double role. The regime realised that it could benefit from international ecclesiastical relations, while the image of Justinian in the West changed from that of “red patriarch” to that of a leader who was genuinely interested in his church's survival.


Author(s):  
Paul L. Gavrilyuk

The chapter argues that the twentieth-century neopatristic theologies were not purely historical exercises, but theologically motivated enterprises. More specifically, Georges Florovsky’s ‘neopatristic synthesis’ was a response to his ‘modernist’ predecessors, such as Pavel Florensky and Sergius Bulgakov. The organizing principle of Florovsky’s neopatristics was Chalcedonian Christology. In contrast, Vladimir Lossky’s reconstruction of ‘mystical theology’ had the vision of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Gregory Palalmas as two focal points. It is argued that Alexander Schmemann’s liturgical theology may be likewise considered as a version of neopatristic theology with the emphasis on liturgical practice, and especially the eschatological dimension of the Eucharist, as the primary locus of theologizing. Thus, neopatristic theology cannot be regarded as a monolithic entity, but as a conglomerate of distinct theological visions, each with their own methods and organizing principles, which took as their inspiration the concept of a ‘return to the Church Fathers’ and creative appropriation of patristic heritage.


Author(s):  
J.M.M.H. Thijssen

The problem of the eternity of the world was much debated in Western philosophy from the twelfth through the fourteenth centuries, but its history goes back as far as Philo of Alexandria and the Church Fathers. The principal topic of controversy was the possibility of a beginningless and yet created world. The arguments that fashioned the medieval discussion rested upon assumptions concerning the concepts of eternity and creation. In addition, the issue of eternity intertwined with discussions of the relationship of God to creation, with proofs of the existence of God, with the nature of the material universe and with the nature of infinity. Some of the most ingenious ideas in these debates were obtained from pagan Greek, Islamic and Jewish traditions.


Why History? ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 45-61
Author(s):  
Donald Bloxham

Chronologically and conceptually, this chapter links classical antiquity to the middle ages. Most of its focus is on the second to sixth centuries, and especially the overlap of ‘late antiquity’ and the ‘patristic era’, or the era of the church fathers. It addresses historical thinking in Christianity in the context of Christianity’s relationship to Greco-Roman and Jewish influences. It is a story of intellectual novelty, and of imposition, but just as much it is a tale of syncretism. Of the rationales for History identified in the introduction, the two figuring largest in this chapter are History as Speculative Philosophy and History as Identity, the latter especially in its genealogical form. Along the way in the chapter, attention is devoted to the relationship between grand conceptualizations of the overall historical process and the study of human choice and agency. That discussion illustrates similarities as well as contrasts in the way causal explanations can operate in disparate sorts of historical account, whether or not divine or quasi-divine forces are involved. The point looking forward is that at certain levels secular and non-secular Histories need not conflict.


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