scholarly journals Godaan Seorang Imam dalam Pelayanan menurut Yohanes Krisostomus

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-64
Author(s):  
Hendi Hendi ◽  
Sesilina Gulo

Abstract. This article discussed how a priest (church elder or overseer) can overcome worldly temptations through three spiritual disciplines or ascesis: prayer, fasting, and inner guarding. This article used the analytical and argumentative methods in literature written by John Chrysostom in his book "On the Priesthood" and the writings of the Church Fathers to contribute to the ministry of a priest. These three points of ascesis produce a holiness which makes him more Christlike. First, through prayer a priest can practice defeating the temptations and passions that arise from within his soul. Second, through fasting he is trained to overcome the temptations and passions that arise from the body or the flesh. Third, through inner vigilance (nepsis) he will be able to overcome the temptations of Satan who has continually seduced humans throughout the ages. These three asceses are aimed at bringing and guiding a priest to live a holy life, that is, against the desires of the flesh or worldly temptations and to produce good fruits that can be practiced in the ministry and society.Abstrak. Artikel ini mengkaji tentang cara seorang imam (penatua atau pengawas gereja) dalam mengatasi godaan-godaan duniawi melalui tiga disiplin rohani atau askesis: doa, puasa, dan keberjagaan batin. Artikel ini menggunakan metode analistis dan argumentatif di dalam literatur yang ditulis oleh Yohanes Krisostomus dalam bukunya “On The Priesthood” dan tulisan para Bapa-bapa Gereja untuk memberikan kontribusi bagi pelayanan seorang imam. Ketiga pokok askesis ini menghasilkan kekudusan yang semakin menyempurnakan dia menjadi serupa Kristus. Pertama, melalui doa seorang imam dapat berlatih mengalahkan godaan dan nafsu yang timbul dari dalam jiwanya. Kedua, melalui puasa dia dilatih untuk mengalahkan godaan dan nafsu yang timbul dari tubuh atau daging. Ketiga, melalui keberjagaan batin (nepsis) dia akan bisa mengatasi godaan dari Iblis yang senantiasa tanpa henti menggoda manusia di sepanjang zaman. Ketiga askesis ini bertujuan membawa dan menuntun seorang imam untuk hidup kudus yaitu melawan keinginan daging atau godaan-godaan duniawi dan menghasilkan buah-buah kebajikan yang bisa dipraktikkan di pelayanan dan masyarakat.

Vox Patrum ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 291-315
Author(s):  
Jan Iluk

In 1CorHom, edited in the autumn and winter of 392 and 393 AD, John Chrysostom found a natural opportunity to return to his numerous utterances on the role of love in the lives of people. Obviously, the opportunity was the 13“ chapter of this Letter - The Song of Love. Among his works, we will find a few more smali works which were created with the intention of outlining the Christian ideał of love. Many of the contemporary monographs which were devoted to the ancient understanding of Christian „love” have the phrase „Eros and Agape” in their titles. In contemporary languages, this arrangement extends between sex and love. Both in the times of the Church Fathers (the 4th century AD) and currently, the distance between sex and love is measured by feelings, States and actions which are morę or less refined and noble. The awareness of the existence of many stops over this distance leads to the conviction that our lives are a search for the road to Agape. As many people are looking not so much for a shortcut but for a shorter route, John Chrysostom, like other Church Fathers, declared: the shortest route, because it is the most appropriate for this aim, is to live according to the Christian virtues that have been accumulated by the Christian politeia. There are to be found the fewest torments and disenchantments, although there are sacrifices. Evangelical politeia, the chosen and those who have been brought there will find love) - as a State of existence. In the earthly dimension, however, love appears as a causative force only in the circle of the Christian politeia. Obviously, just as in the heavenly politeia, the Christian politeia on earth is an open circle for everyone. As Chrysostom’s listeners and readers were not only Christians (in the multi-cultural East of the Roman Empire), and as the background of the principles presented in the homilies was the everyday life and customs of the Romans of the time, the ideał - dyam] - was placed by him in the context of diverse imperfections in the rangę and form of the feelings exhibited, which up to this day we still also cali love. It is true that love has morę than one name. By introducing the motif of love - into deliberations on the subject of the Christian politeia, John Chrysostom finds and indicates to the faithful the central force that shaped the ancient Church. This motif fills in the vision of the Heavenly Kingdom, explains to Christians the sense of life that is appropriate to them in the Roman community and explains the principles of organised life within the boundaries of the Church. It can come as no surprise that the result of such a narrative was Chrysostonfs conviction that love is „rationed”: Jews, pagans, Hellenes and heretics were deprived of it. In Chrysostonfs imagination, the Christian politeia has an earthly and a heavenly dimension. In the heavenly politeia, also called by him Chrisfs, the Lord’s or the


Scrinium ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-159
Author(s):  
David C. Sim

The early Church Fathers accepted the notion of an intermediate state, the existence of the soul following death until its reunification with the body at the time of the final resurrection. This view is common in the modern Christian world, but it has been challenged as being unbiblical. This study reflects upon this question. Does the New Testament speak exclusively of death after life, complete lifelessness until the day of resurrection, or does it also contain the notion of life after life or immediate post-mortem existence? It will be argued that, while the doctrine of future resurrection is the most common Christian view, it was not the only one present in the Christian canon. There are hints, especially in the Gospel of Luke and the Revelation of John, that people do indeed live again immediately after death, although the doctrine of resurrection is also present. These two ideas are never coherently related to one another in the New Testament and it was the Church Fathers who first sought to  systematise them.



Author(s):  
Geoffrey Kinyua Njeru ◽  
John Kiboi

The study of the nature of the church1 is very significant to the body of Christ. Often, when this subject is introduced, Christians tend to ask: which is the true church and how can it be identified? Most churches claim to be the only ‘true church’ based on their teachings and this has continued to divide the body of Christ across the centuries. The Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church has maintained the physical observance of the Sabbath to be one of the marks2 of identifying the ‘true church,’ yet the church fathers described the church as One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. The SDA uses the Sabbath worship as a mark of identifying a ‘true church’ alongside the four attributes; and on the other hand, those churches that do not worship on Saturday regards the SDA’s emphasis of worshipping on Saturday as ‘worshipping the day’ rather than the almighty God. Besides this, misunderstandings have been encountered between the SDA and the so-called Sunday churches concerning the issue of what constitutes the true Sabbath. The study employs the dialogical-ecclesiological design in its bid to understand the contestations between the SDA and the ‘Sunday churches’ and in its building on the premise that dialogue is critical in our endeavor to find a new understanding and re-interpretation of the Sabbath, as one of the marks of a true church. The crucial question remains: can the observance of physical Sabbath be considered as one of the key marks of knowing the ‘true Church’?


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Ł. Grotowski

Orthodox frescoes founded by King Ladislaus II Jagiello (1386–1434) in the collegiate church in Wiślica have come down to us in a very poor condition. Covered by plaster as early as at the turn of the 17th century, they remained unknown until World War I, when, after a heavy bombardment, fragments of paintings reappeared from beneath white paint. A careless restoration brought about further damages, mostly on the surface of the paintings, and presently only about forty percent of the original murals is still visible in the presbytery of the church. Nevertheless, the general layout of the iconographic programme can be reconstructed based on the preserved fragments. Although the ceiling had to be rebuilt after the war, on the basis of its restorers’ testimonies it is possible to reconstruct the themes connected with Christ’s eternal glory in Heaven. Side walls were originally divided into five (or six) zones, while the semi-octagonal gothic apse into two zones. The upper parts of the side walls were covered with the images of the Church Fathers. Only the images of John Chrysostom and Basil of Caesarea survived on the S wall. Below, a row of prophets surrounded the whole presbytery. Their images are much better preserved. The figures of Isaiah, Solomon, Zechariah the Younger, Abdias (?), Micah, Amos, Elijah, Elisha, Habakkuk and Jonah are identifiable, mostly thanks to the scrolls with the texts of their prophecies. Their images were supplemented with the busts of Old Testament patriarchs shown in a clypei on the inner side of the triumphal arch; only four of them have survived (Melchizedek, Job?, Aaron and Hur).


Author(s):  
Mathew Kuefler

The period between the third and fifth centuries CE was crucial for the development of Christianity not least for ideas about desire and the body. Patristic writers hoped for the elimination of sex and sexual desire among Christians, encouraging the renunciation of sexual activity, marriage, and family life. Monasticism and men’s self-castration were among the varied means by which to achieve that renunciation, the former encouraged by the Church Fathers and the latter discouraged. Marriage was permissible if couples engaged only in procreative sex with each other, and married only once. Other types of sexual behaviour, including what we would call homosexuality, were condemned. Gender difference was also reinforced in this period and earlier notions of a genderless ideal in Christianity were mostly abandoned, through the strengthening of traditional public lives for men and private lives for women.


Vox Patrum ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 245-258
Author(s):  
Juliusz Jundziłł

The paper is a preliminary outline of the history of views on the teaching of speech to children in ancient thinkers, especially Aristotle, Romans from the times of Republic and Empire, as well as the Church Fathers, especially Western, inclu­ding Augustine in order to determine what John Chrysostom wrote and said on that subject. All the above-mentioned were not really interested in teaching speech to infants and children but in the physiology of this phenomenon (especially Aristotle) and creating the most favorable environment for the shaping of speech through the selection of nannies and child minders. There were no attempts, as Augustine aptly wrote, to teach speech consciously; it was the child himself that had to associate the sound with its material, meaningful background through ob­servations and repeating experiences. What is more, both moral philosophers and Church Fathers described in a friendly manner (also Chrysostom) talking to chil­dren using a special, childlike language since it pleased and still pleases adults, although spoils the way children speak. The Classic Antiquity, which took care about the proper speech and promoted (like Church Fathers) rhetoric in everyday life and science, forgot about the basics, the process of creating speech, which re­sulted from depreciation of the first stage of children’s life, condemned to contacts with slaves – nannies. It was only the school age that stirred up stronger emo­tions but, as some moral philosophers wrote, children already had speech defects, among others, because of parental consent for the language deprivation.


Author(s):  
John Monfasani

George of Trebizond (born in Crete, very probably in Candia [modern Heraklion], 4/5 April 1396; died, Rome, after 28 November 1473) was one of the most significant figures of the Renaissance. He emigrated to Venice in 1416 and established himself with remarkable rapidity as a teacher of Latin and rhetoric in Venice and the Veneto. In the late 1430s he entered the papal court, then resident in Florence. In 1444, after the papacy had returned to Rome, he gained the office of papal secretary and spent the rest of his life, apart from some notable absences, in the Eternal City. Already by 1434 he had published what became one of the classic Neo-Latin texts of the Renaissance, the Rhetoricorum Libri V, to which in Florence in the late 1430s he added the Isagoge Dialectica, which in turn became a best seller to the mid-16th century. Once arrived in Rome, however, George embarked on a new career as a translator from the Greek, becoming in the end one of the greatest of Renaissance translators. Between 1442 and 1459, he translated most of the Aristotelian corpus, Plato’s Laws and Parmenides, Ptolemy’s Almagest, Demosthenes’ Oration on the Crown, and the Church Fathers Basil the Great, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebiusof Caesarea, Gregory Nyssenus, and John Chrysostom. Then, in the 1450s and 1460s, he got involved in the Renaissance Plato-Aristotle controversy, writing the first major Latin work in the controversy, the Comparatio Philosophorum Platonis et Aristotelis, which is a passionate defense of Aristotle and condemnation of Plato and the spread of Platonism in the Latin West. Underlying George’s attack on Plato was an apocalyptic vision that demonstrably motivated him from the 1430s to the 1460s, when he went to Constantinople to convert Mehmed the Conqueror to Christianity in order to save the world from the onslaught of Gog and Magog. Upon his return to Rome in 1466, his extravagant praise of Mehmed resulted in his spending four months in jail under suspicion of treason. In August 1469, his great opponent, Cardinal Bessarion (b. 1403–d. 1472), came out with the In Calumniatorem Platonis, which successfully set the parameters of the Plato-Aristotle controversy for the rest of the Renaissance. George outlived Bessarion and remained famous throughout the Renaissance, but because the unique 1523 printing of his Comparatio was so miserably done (based on an enormously flawed manuscript to which the editor added a new set of errors), in the end he lost the one great intellectual-theological battle of his life.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 67-81
Author(s):  
Искра [Iskra] Христова-Шомова [Khristova-Shomova]

Celestial symposium: Commentaries to the Book of Job 1:6 in the Byzantine and Slavic traditionsJob 1:6 is one of several places in the Bible where God’s sons (celestial beings) are men­tioned: “One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.” Numerous commentaries of the Church Fathers were included in the Greek catena to the Book of Job. Some of these were not written specially as commentaries to this passage but are extracts from works commenting the nature of the angels, their place in God’s providence and their role in human life. The author then goes on to discuss the two Slavic translations that were made of the catena. The first one comprises the majority of the texts included in the Greek catena, while the second one contains only two small passages from commentaries of Saint John Chrysostom and Olympiodoros. The article provides a comparison between Slavic texts, which were translated from Greek in the Balkans at the same time: in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century. Several miniatures from medieval Greek manuscripts, which illustrate the Celestial symposium, are represented at the end of the article. Niebiańskie sympozjum. Komentarze do Księgi Hioba (1, 6) w bizantyńskiej i słowiańskiej tradycjiWerset 1,6 Księgi Hioba jest jednym z wielu miejsc w Biblii, w którym wspomina się synów Bożych: „Zdarzyło się pewnego dnia, gdy synowie Boży udawali się, by stanąć przed Panem, że i szatan też poszedł z nimi”. Ogromna liczba komentarzy Ojców Kościoła do Księgi Hioba została zawarta w greckiej katenie. Niektóre z nich nie zostały napisane jako bezpo­średni komentarz do tego wersetu, lecz są wypisami z prac autorów, komentującymi naturę aniołów, ich miejsce w Bożej opatrzności, a także rolę w życiu ludzkim. Ponadto istniały dwa słowiańskie przekłady kateny. Pierwszy zawierał większość tekstów pochodzących z greckiej kateny, a drugi składał się zaledwie z dwóch passusów, będących wyimkami z komentarzy św. Jana Chryzostoma i Olimpiododrosa.W artykule porównano teksty słowiańskie, które zostały przetłumaczone z języka greckiego na Bałkanach w tym samym czasie: pod koniec wieku XIV lub na początku XV. W artykule przedstawiono również kilka miniatur pochodzących ze średniowiecznych greckich rękopisów, przedstawiających niebiańskie sympozjum.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Nesterova

This article describes the semantics of the word concept, which is represented in late 17th-century homiletic texts. It is defined by the topics of sermons in terms of their ontological and anthropological content, which is characterised by specific features depending on the author. The article mostly focuses on Statir, an extensive and little-studied collection of sermons written by an anonymous author on the Stroganov patrimonial estate. The text is of considerable scholarly interest because of its high artistic level and the author’s fresh view on the traditional aspects of religious life. His sermons actualise the concept of the word on three levels: the Divine Word – the word of the Church Fathers – the sermon word of the clergyman. The three levels are arranged in a hierarchical chain, whose first link is the Word spoken by God the Father (God the Son) and the Gospel, while the next is represented by the teachings of the Holy Fathers. Each new link is the priest’s word, which is reflected in sermons addressing the parish and readers of the collections. These levels are fully represented in the sermon Word 35. Teaching for the Day of the Three Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom. Praise of their Care for the Flock. And about the False Shepherds, and on Heretics, and on the Existing Schismatics. The reader joins in the praise of the three hierarchs and theologians to whom the sermon is devoted. It dwells on the topics of the teaching word, the transformative word, and the role of the clergyman in the process of relaying the truth and criticism of tendencies deviating from the Church and offering an alternative interpretation of its dogma. The word concept is also studied in Food for the Soul (Rus. Obed Dushevnyi), a sermon collection written by Simeon Polotsky, which was familiar to the author of Statir as can be seen from the references. The author of the article carries out comprehensive text analysis and examines the historical and cultural content of the preaching texts. Features of the thematic content of the sermon are examined through the rhetorical structure of a separate work. The study demonstrates that for the author of Statir, the semantics of the multi-level word concept is primarily associated with the categories of continuity, transmission of true knowledge, and transformation of reality. The word is a key to salvation capable of confronting the unrighteous word and directing believers’ lives (in contrast to the word in Food for the Soul where it appears as a resource, a specific fuel required for the spiritual development of the recipient). In the sermon Teaching for the Day of the Three Hierarchs, the author builds a complex system of arguments designed to convince the readers of the need to learn the word of truth through sacred texts and curb the spread of false teachings. Using extensive metaphors and creatively processing sources, the author engages the recipients in the space of teachings and convinces them to adopt his point of view. The sermon resembles a fluent multidimensional conversation, whose themes form a network and are combined into an integrated system by the word concept.


Vox Patrum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 303-360
Author(s):  
Stanisław Longosz

The Church Fathers presented a decidedly negative stance toward all public spectacles of their time, which they generally accused of being immoral and idola­trous in nature. For this reason, the ancient Church, although it has inherited many spectacular elements (especially in the area of liturgy – processions and acclama­tions, among others; and in the sphere of the language – many terms, expressions and comparisons), has never created its own drama. Many authors of that time, especially those concerned with pastoral implica­tions, noticed that this definitely negative attitude was failing in practice, because many Christians, even though they had renounced the spectacular splendor of the devil at baptism, often attended spectacles, because it was very difficult to eradi­cate their desire to watch performances, which they treated as a public pleasure they are entitled to (voluptates). In response to this situation, many early Christian writers renounced efforts to uproot people’s desire for viewing pleasure, and proposed to change the sub­ject being viewed. Instead of harmful public spectacles, they suggested watching Christian substitute performances, which included beautiful scenery of nature (as was already suggested by some stoics), but most often more expressive biblical scenes or events. The author of the article selects and presents five early Christian writers – Tertullian, Novatian, St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine and Quodvultdeus, who openly wrote about such substitute Christian performances.


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