Teresa of Avila and Jonathan Edwards on Prayer and Spirituality

Contemplative prayer has been a major source of contention in evangelical spirituality. Contemplative prayer is frequently mentioned as one apparent spiritual activity that is foreign to the scripture and Christian worldview and more resembling the New Age Movement and pantheistic Eastern religion by people who are skeptical of the mystical Christian tradition. This article will examine Teresa of Avila’s thought on mystical prayer, which is sometimes misinterpreted as a notion incompatible with evangelical theology of prayer. Hence, Teresa’s ideas of mystical prayer will be examined and compared with Jonathan Edwards’ concepts of prayer, which is considered to reflect evangelical theology of prayer. The comparison suggests that the contemplative, mystical prayer of Teresa is compatible with evangelical theology of prayer in its progress and purpose. Teresa and Edwards both understood prayer as an experience and progress that leads to the complete union with God, mediated by Christ and his words in scripture. This spiritual union with God will transform the devoted one with tremendous passion and strength to love and help others in their struggle and suffering. This study of Teresa’s thought of mystical prayer is expected to reinvigorate evangelical theology and praxis of prayer by learning from the rich spirituality of the Christian mystical tradition.

Revelation and Human Sexuality

From the first pages of the Scriptures, which reveal the original unity of man and woman (see Gen. 1:27–28; 2:18–24), to the last, which announce the marriage of the Lamb (Rev. 21:2, 9), we are reminded that ‘it is not good that man should be alone’ (Gen. 2:18). Passing by way of the corporeal and spiritual union of Christ and the Church, as summarized in Eph. 5:22–32, the original ‘one flesh’ union (Gen. 2:24) of man and woman simultaneously announces and prepares the final form: the wedding of the divine Bridegroom and his spotless Bride, whose identity transcends the figure of the Church to include each of her members, beginning with Mary, her archetype and first cell. Beside the New Adam, as his associate in the mission of redemption, is thus the New Eve: his Bride and Mother, who is the exemplar of faith for all Christians in her self-gift to the divine Bridegroom, who is always the first to give himself.

Spiritual Communion in Mystical Texts from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Centuries

Since around the twelfth century, spiritual communion was defined as participating in the sacrament in a spiritual manner. This practice was based on Augustine’s distinction between the sacrament and the substance of the sacrament, which is spiritual union with Christ. Mystics such as William of Saint-Thierry contributed greatly to this practice, as they focused on the personal dimension of a spiritual union with Christ. Spiritual communion can take place when one is hindered from partaking in the sacrament, through meditation on Christ’s sacrifice or through watching the Eucharistic celebration. Yet, for mystics, spiritual communion is also the continual, inner celebration of the substance of the sacrament, which allowed them to harmoniously combine sacramental communion and spiritual communion. Spiritual communion is referred to by many mystics, including Gertrude of Helfta, Tauler, and the Evangelical Pearl. After the Council of Trent started to promote sacramental communion, the practice of spiritual communion declined.

Natural law as a problem of philosophical anthropology P.Ya. Chaadaeva

The authors substantiate the decisive importance of the problems of anthropology and the philosophy of history in Chaadayev's research. The authors argue that the Roman legal tradition linked the concept of "the right of peoples" to the notion of will. Chaadaev considers consciousness as a practical force, the unity of the logical process and volitional act. The creative potential of the individual is realized through the development and updating of historical tradition. The Russian thinker considers the right to familiarize himself with cultural tradition, the right to responsible moral self-determination, and the right to enter the spiritual union of peoples as natural human rights.

The Ka'ba Orientations

This book is about the most sacred site of Islam, the cuboid, black-robed Kaʿba of Mecca, a building the Qur’an calls the ‘ancient house.’ It explains how the building has been used, conceptualised and represented by Muslims from the earliest period of Islam onwards, and reveals the strata in the Kaʿba’s many meaning and the profundity of its importance for the Islamic world. It does this by investigating six of the building’s spatial effects: as the qibla (the direction faced in prayer); as the axis and matrix mundi of the Islamic world; as an architectural principle in the bedrock of this world; as a circumambulated goal of pilgrimage and a site of spiritual union for mystics and Sufis; and as a dwelling that is imagined to shelter temporarily an animating force; but which otherwise, as a house, holds a void.

Marriage, its forms and special features of the Bolgarians' prenuptial communication in Odessa region during the Soviet period

In the following article marriage is discussed as a form of social relationships among the Bolgarians in Odessa region while public affairs transition from androcentric society to civil law relations.The role of economic aspect is defined in procedures of entering into marriage during XX century. The portrait of "ideal" partner is described according to traditional society's demands and also its changes are mentioned under the challenge of that time. Transformations in prenuptial communication in the second half of XX century are recorded together with the Bolgarians' attitude to the institution of marriage in general. The author makes a conclusion as for changes in the institution of marriage and its semantic issues. Although, before the Soviet regime marriage was seen as a stable economic position in androcentric culture of Bulgarian village, during the second half of XX century wedlock was being perceived as a spiritual union by the general public. Prenuptial communication was getting open for young people and it caused contraventions of main prohibited cultural traditions. Moreover, forms of marriage got changed, too. During the second half of XX century the main form to get married remained as a complex of wedding rituals widespread but transformed for that time. However, most wedding rituals kept their original forms such as church weddings, regenerated only after the Soviet Union's collapse while forming independent Ukraine, and marriage registration.

The Mystery of Marriage: Mystery of Human Love Crowned in Glory and Honour. An Orthodox Perspective

The Mystery of Marriage has always been understood by the Eastern Orthodox as a divinely mandated holy act, in which the grace of the Holy Spirit is communicated to the affianced man and woman, whose natural bond of love becomes thus elevated to the state of representation of the all-encompassing spiritual union between Christ and His Church. According to the patristic tradition, the service of the Mystery of Marriage invariably took place during the Liturgy and within the Eucharistic context. It was through the blessing of the bishop that the espousal love merged with the love of Christ–the true source and power of all human affection, and only then could the two become one single being, one single “flesh”, the body of Christ. The intent of the present article is by no means to cover all aspects of the marriage ritual in the Orthodox Church, as this is a vast topic that begs for further theological research and ample multi-angled analysis, but rather to examine the patristic view on the Mystery of Marriage and on its evolution, and to revisit the exegesis of its liturgical expression.

THE UKRAINIAN GREEK-ORTHODOX CHURCH OF CANADA (1918-1939): PROBLEMS OF BUILDING

In the article it is done historiographical and sources study analysis of the material concerning to the activity of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada (hereinafter referred to as UGOCC). The reasons influenced on its creation are shown. The main of them was the desire of the public activists to give possibility to the immigrants to attend their native church with Ukrainian divine service, deprived the influence of Rome and Moscow. The conditions in which Ukrainians consolidated on the basis of Orthodox religion were analyzed. Orthodox were mainly those who moved from Bukovina and Galicians, that past from Greek Catholic faith to Orthodox. The history of origin and further activity of UGOCC in the interwar period, according to valid norms of the Canadian legislation, is described in the research. The most important problems of the building of UGOCC, such as the lack of priests, searching for a bishop by Ukrainian origin, and the struggle for the recognition of the canonization by the Constantinople Patriarchate are defined. Specific peculiarities of functioning the UGOC on Canadian territory, its ties with the same church in Ukraine are characterized. So, UGOC of Canada gave great significance to the spiritual union with the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (hereinafter referred to as UAOC), on it repeatedly stressed in its councils. UGOCC recognized itself as a part of the UAOC, headed by the Metropolitan Vasyl Lypkivsky. Particular attention is paid to internal conflicts in the interior of the Orthodox church. During the interwar period the discussion question of the canonicity of UGOC of Canada is remained, which Ivan Teodorovych and most of the members of the church`s council aspired to, but a part of the public activists led by V. Svystun was against the connection with the Constantinople Patriarchate and resanctifying the Archbishop, because it would mean «treason» of UAOC in Ukraine and the Kyivan canons of 1921. Therefore, the article analyzes the main problems of the building of the Ukrainian Orthodox church in Canada in the interwar period as well as the ways to solve them.

The Gnostic New Age

Gnosticism is a countercultural spirituality that forever changed the practice of Christianity. Before it emerged in the second century, passage to the afterlife required obedience to God and king. Gnosticism proposed that human beings were manifestations of the divine, unsettling the hierarchical foundations of the ancient world. Subversive and revolutionary, Gnostics taught that prayer and mediation could bring human beings into an ecstatic spiritual union with a transcendent deity. This mystical strain affected not just Christianity but many other religions, and it characterizes our understanding of the purpose and meaning of religion today. In The Gnostic New Age, April D. DeConick recovers this vibrant underground history to prove that Gnosticism was not suppressed or defeated by the Catholic Church long ago, nor was the movement a fabrication to justify the violent repression of alternative forms of Christianity. Gnosticism alleviated human suffering, soothing feelings of existential brokenness and alienation through the promise of renewal as God. DeConick begins in ancient Egypt and follows with the rise of Gnosticism in the Middle Ages, the advent of theosophy and other occult movements in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and contemporary New Age spiritual philosophies. As these theories find expression in science-fiction and fantasy films, DeConick sees evidence of Gnosticism’s next incarnation. Her work emphasizes the universal, countercultural appeal of a movement that embodies much more than a simple challenge to religious authority.