scholarly journals Ecumenical Convergences: Romanian Evangelicals Exploring Orthodoxy

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 398
Author(s):  
Cristian Sonea

Historically, in Romania, the relations between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the evangelical communities have been characterized by tension and mutual distrust. That is why, unfortunately, there has been no official dialogue between the two communities so far. The present article investigates the theoretical possibility for such an ecumenical dialogue to occur by analysing the contributions of several evangelical theologians who published research studies on theological topics specific to Eastern orthodox theology. Their positions were analysed from the perspective of an inclusive theology which allowed us to identify some common themes for both traditions: the authority in interpreting the Scriptures, salvation as a process, and the Church understood through the application of a perichoretic model. All these convergent themes could constitute the basis for a future official ecumenical dialogue between the evangelicals and the orthodox from Romania.

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-71
Author(s):  
Iuliana Conovici

The Romanian Orthodox Church engaged, after the fall of communism, in the reconstruction of its public identity and its position in society. The public discourse of its official representatives – the Holy Synod and individual hierarchs, especially the Patriarch Teoctist – expresses and „translates” this process to the faithful and the general public. Its perception by this public, particularly when mediated by means of mass communication, is usually partial and frequently altered.</p> <p>By focusing on the official discourse of the Romanian Orthodox Church representatives, as expressed in the ecclesiastical press and (re)transmitted in the common mass media, this paper will explore the justification/explanation by ecclesiastical officials of this process, following the lines of two main - intertwined - lines: the legitimization of the resurgence in the public sphere of the Church as an institution of spiritual and social assistance and its presence as the privileged keeper and guardian of national values.</p> <p>It will be further argued that, while explicitly refuting and condemning any signs of secularization in the Romanian society, the Romanian Orthodox Church, through its official discourse, is actually contributing to the deepening of this very process within both society and the Church itself.</p> <p>Our main sources for the public discourse of the Romanian Orthodox Church will be the ecclesiastical press and collections of speeches, sermons, articles of Orthodox hierarchs and documents of the Holy Synod. For the theoretical framing of the paper, the main references will be works of Thomas Luckmann, Danièle Hérvieu-Léger, Grace Davie, René Rémond, etc.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-112
Author(s):  
Liviu Vidican-Manci ◽  
Emil M. Mărginean

"Abstract Over the past years, there has been a significant increase in mobile applications with religious content. Whether we are talking about Holy Scriptures or the Quran, about liturgical or theological content, digital resources are made available by many interesting applications. The question is, are these applications accurate? How many of them are affiliated with Church institutions? How important would such an affiliation be? What is the situation in Romania, in the Romanian Orthodox Church? In the Romanian-Orthodox digital space there is an abundance of mobile applications, over 20, of which only one is institutionally affiliated. The presence in Romania of many mobile applications developed by private individuals that do not display the source of the liturgical and biblical text is a major concern for the accuracy and authenticity of the information presented. In the first study of this kind in the Romanian literature, we will analyze different examples in order to better understand the functionalities of these applications, but especially to confirm or reject our hypothesis that in the religious environment, an institutionally assumed application is more valuable for keeping the Church teaching unaltered, compared to an application which is the result of a private initiative or even a commercial project. Therefore, we compare the Romanian Orthodox applications with similar applications belonging to a Church that currently has the most complete panel of mobile applications. These are not only fully functional and officially assumed by the Anglican Church, but are constantly updated and maintained. Keywords: mobile applications, Christian apps, digital media, Romanian Orthodox Church, Anglican Church"


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 400-405
Author(s):  
Daniela Sorea

Abstract The Romanian Orthodox Church is one of the institutions in which Romanians have great confidence, according to surveys conducted in the country and studies conducted at the level of the European Union in recent years. The results of these researches do not reflect the attitude of young Romanians towards the church. Theoretically coded analysis of 23 essays by sociologist students on their trust or lack of trust in Orthodox Christianity highlights the students' reserve for priests' behavior, communication strategies, financial interests, and their inclination towards opulence. The analysis also highlights the students' tendency to operate with a far wider understanding of things than the canonical concept of Christianity. This tendency, manifests mainly in the declarative separation of faith from church attendance, shows the alignment of students to the post-secular evolutionary direction of European religiosity


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 497-511
Author(s):  
Iuliu-Marius Morariu

Abstract The Romanian Archimandrite Andrei Scrima was an important worldwide theological personality. His activity as a kind of ambassador of the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras to the Second Vatican Council, together with his publications, conferences and activity as a professor, transformed him into a voice that was almost always trusted. His attitudes and speeches that criticized the Romanian Communist regime made him also to be seen as an enemy by Bucharest’s government. In this context, the Securitate was interested in his ecumenical activity and in his ideas regarding the ecumenism and the potential role of the Romanian Orthodox Church there, trying also to see if his theological ideas were related to the political world and contained criticisms of the dictatorial regime or its relationship with the Church. In this paper, we will describe how his ecumenical activity is described in the Securitate Archives. Due to the fact that file no. 00005468 contains the most important information regarding this topic, the main references cited in the paper are extracted from this source.


Author(s):  
Ramona-Gabriela Paraschiv

In the current context of increasing transnational organized crime, in a risk societyfavored by certain phenomena of individualism and globalization, it is necessary toinvestigate what role the Church may have in preventing deeds dangerous to human values.In this respect, the Romanian Orthodox Church, which has a well-defined place in thenew European construction, aims to substantially contribute to educating people in the spiritof Christian morality, so that they cannot commit antisocial acts injurious to others and forother values of humanity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 422-428
Author(s):  
Alin Cristian Scridon

Aim. We tend to believe that the religious life of Romanians in the diaspora – living in the proximity of the Romanian borders (we do not take into account the groups that left towards Spain, Italy, Germany, and so on at the beginning of the third millennium) - is a taboo subject. The Orthodox (Romanian) clerical elite focused less on the assiduous study of the religious life of their Romanian brothers outside the borders; in this case, in Hungary. Therefore, we have the scientific duty—but more importantly, the moral duty—to bring to light the truths that are either not known or are known in a distorted form. The road of Voniga (Giula-Giroc)  that we followed during the PhD research period was a blessing from the point of view of a scientific void/niche. Methods. In our study, we have applied two “simple” components: the archive and the specialised bibliography. Results. The archive was largely preserved only by Elena Csobai and Emilia Martin. The respectable ladies professionally structured the archive (Romanian Orthodox Church in Hungary) and saved hundreds of research sources from the depth of history. Conclusion. As Moisa noted (2011), the puzzling ethnographic, linguistic, cultural, and historical bulk material is without a doubt focused on the Church. The church is inextricably linked to the lives of Romanians in Hungary. Going through the tens of thousands from the mentioned fields, even superficially, there is an undeniable truth: the spirituality is present, more or less, in the writings of most of the select researchers who have worked in the scientific field for the past three decades.


Author(s):  
Cristian Sonea

The article presents the current missionary formation in the Romanian Orthodox Church. I evaluated the national curricula from the faculties of Orthodox Theology, following the missionary orientated topics in each subject, and I analyzed the curricula of Missiology taught in the faculties.The article underlines the relation between the content of the Missiology curriculum and the historical context in which the Orthodox Church in Romania developed, and it explains why there are both innovative and conservative themes within the curriculum. Finally, the specificities of the orthodox missionary formation in Romania are emphasized, such as the spiritual education, the central place of the liturgy, and the focus on internal mission.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Ionuț Biliuță

Abstract The paper focuses on the ideological roots of the prison saints movement in contemporary Romania. The text uncovers the interwar and communist conceptual premises upon which the biographies of fascist martyrs for canonisation as saints by the Romanian Orthodox Church were shaped. As martyrs for the Christian faith, those deceased were depicted as respectable figures, showcasing their martyrdom on the same moral footing as the dissidents of former democratic parties opposing communism. Furthermore, the narrative strategies in shaping a fascist hagiography from the interwar up to the post-communist years stand as another critical issue for the present article.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 138-149
Author(s):  
Sorin Marinescu

The present work is intended to be a retrieval of the history of the contribution of personalities that have marked the history of the Romanian Orthodox Church and, implicitly, the history of Romania. Thus, In the “Commemorative Year of the Patriarchs Nicodim Munteanu and Iustin Moisescu and of the translators of church books” in the Romanian Patriarchate, addressed to the Romanian Orthodox hierarchies and eparchies in the country and abroad, we set out to talk about the Patriarch Iustin Moisescu for understand the role it played in promoting living theology as a model, based on prayer, experience and life, even if the historical times were very difficult for the Church, the communists wanting to destroy it, because it maintained the consciousness of national identity and a hierarchy of authentic values, that opposed the atheist ideology promoted by them. Thus, starting from a brief biography of the one who was the fourth Romanian Patriarch, we were interested in the perception of contemporaries, as well as those who succeeded him, as I have not neglected his quality as a theologian, teacher university and publisher. Iustin Moisescu was an intellectual, theologian, who devoted all his energy to maintaining the right faith, to support the monastery life, to relieve the people and to give cultural brilliance to the Church, as he alone confessed.


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