Journal articles on the topic 'Orthodox Eastern Church Theological anthropology Anthropology'

As a prominent Church father, mystical theologian and incisive polemicist, St. Gregory Palamas has realized a «Summa Theologica» of his epoch, but one that has surpassed not only the thinking of contemporaries, but remained, to this day, a synthesis of philosophical and theological knowledge, at least for the Eastern Christianity. He pointed out with clarity the independence of theology from philosophy or from any other field of research. One of the most important instruments with a view to knowing God is prayer and Palamas began to write under the pressure of defending the hesychastic method of prayer. He proves that true communion with God was possible through sanctification and that God's vision through prayer was a sign of this spiritual communion. In Palamas' very coherent theological thinking, Christology corresponds to his anthropology, and both to his mysticism. St. Gregory strongly depreciated the value of intellectual effort, maintaining the primacy of direct illumination over scientific reasoning. Thus, prayer and asceticism engender love, which leads to illumination by God and participation in the divine life. He tries to make sense of mystical experience in the scientific and philosophical language of his day. Paradoxically, almost every attempt arrives at establishing that the spiritual cannot be grasped by man's natural intellectual capacity, nor expressed in philosophical language. But the spiritual man can be the partaker of this experience through the experience of grace, as divine uncreated energy, the true "face" of God accessible to human contemplation. The Archbishop of Thessaloniki, who realized a synthesis of Science, Theology, and Spirituality outlines the relation between them as follows: Science explores the world and leads to technological inventions; Theology interprets reality within the Christian framework, evidencing the glory of God as reflected throughout his creation; and Spirituality is the privileged path toward personal transformation. The debate about Palamism is likely to continue for some time. His version of theosis (deification) was enshrined in Orthodox teaching as a result of his canonization, but among the intellectuals for whom it was intended it remained controversial, despite its grandeur.

The article is devoted to the study of the relationship between the processes of erosion of the traditional norm vs deviation matrix in the public consciousness and changes in the position of Christian denominations and churches, new tendencies in theological research, canon law, social work, pastoral practice. The purpose of the work is to characterize the processes of diversification of Christian churches for their attitude towards homosexuality under the pressure of changes in the structure of social deviations and the liberalization of the Christian environment. The author defines the main types of historical stigma of homosexuality; characterizes changes in the public opinion of the population of traditionally Christian countries (based on the modern sociological studies); highlights the main innovations in the social doctrine and practice of various Christian denominations; and identifies the dominant trends in eastern and western Christianity in relation to homosexuality. It is substantiated that the contradiction between the official doctrine, the conservative position of the church hierarchy, on the one hand, and liberal tendencies in the public opinion of the secular community, on the other hand, are more or less common to all Christian denominations. The most difficult situation related the Roman Catholic Church, whose followers live in Western countries with a high level of tolerance for homosexuality. Under the pressure of changes in legal institutions, public morals and public opinion, the traditional Christian interpretation of homosexuality is filled with new connotations; changes were introduced in canon law, institute of spiritual education, other religious institutions; the church becomes more open to discuss problems that have long been taboo. Church policy and pastoral practice are based on the clear delineation of the concepts of "homosexuality", "acts of homosexuality", "homosexual inclinations", "homosexual intentions", "homosexual temptation", etc. It has been shown that despite the existing changes in rhetoric, canon law and church practice, the official position of churches is subject to constant critical attacks. Criticism refers not only to the "lack of" acts of homosexuality, the preservation of religious stigma of homosexuality as sin, the condemnation by the church of homosexual behavior, same-sex marriages and gay culture, but also the rooting of patterns of such behavior in monastic and priestly structures. An alternative to the official position of traditional Christian churches is the growing theological movement, which was called "Queer-Theology", which produces its own version of Christian anthropology. Processes of destroying of traditional structure of deviations in the globalized world, from one side, and processes of post-secularizing - from other, generate contradictory consequences for functioning of religious institutes; the palette of possible attitudes to homosexuality becomes complicated. Overall, the differently directed trends were done distinctly in western and east Christianity. In Catholicism, there are processes of liberalization of Christianity, the search for ways to adapt homosexuals to the religious environment, and in the problem field of Christian anthropology new theological interpretations of gender ethics are proposed. In the flow of Orthodoxy, especially of Russian, the fundamentalization and nationalization of Orthodoxy, the defense of the matrix of traditional values will preserve the religious stigma of homosexuality in the future. Research results can be drawn on in the courses of religious-studies and sociological disciplines; in research of the problems of social and religious deviation. Foreseeable assumptions about the development of the research object are finding the best ways to investigate the newest tendencies in attitude of Christian churches toward the social issues of the day; to provide comparative and cross-cultural analysis of processes of diversification of Christian environment.

This article sets out a Christian theological anthropology for community development. This critical engagement with traditional and doctrinal forms of Christian theological anthropology will analyse two contrasting perspectives of theological anthropology to construct a contemporary community development model that considers the responsibility of communities for community development. The theological model of community development considers narrative as an interlocutor of personhood and community development. This article further investigates conceptual linkages between personhood and community development through classification or categorisation of Catholic and Eastern Orthodox views of personhood. I will use the narrative as a lens to interpret the two perspectives and identify foundations for a triad community development model of personhood, narrative, and community development.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Chinese evangelicals have rarely interacted. Even if it seems that Eastern Orthodox Christianity and its theology have hardly influenced Chinese evangelicals in the past, this article demonstrates the possibility that Orthodox theology can still indirectly transform Confucian-influenced Chinese evangelicals. Moltmann, a great contemporary Protestant theologian, is influenced deeply by Stăniloae, a great modern Eastern Orthodox theologian, particularly in the development of social trinitarian theology in Eastern Orthodox heritage. Moltmann argues that social trinitarian anthropology can prevent the social and individual problems appeared in the societies shaped by either individualism or collectivism. Selfhood is one academic language used to discuss this relationship between the self and society. Despite modernization and westernization, contemporary Chinese people are still deeply influenced by Confucian models of relational selfhood. Even for Chinese evangelicals who had converted years ago, their way of thinking and behavior might be as much Confucian as biblical. The Confucian-influenced collectivist mindset may lead to problematic selfhood and more challenging interpersonal relationships. This article uses Orthodox theology via Moltmann’s social trinitarian, Stăniloae-inspired approach to develop an alternative relational selfhood for contemporary Chinese Christians.

The article presents the results of a study of one of the least known areas of the Russian anthropological tradition, which arose and developed in the interdisciplinary philosophical and theological space of Orthodox thought of the XIX-XX centuries. The authors of the article characterize the most important differences in this interdisciplinary field of anthropological research, referring to several key episodes (cases) of its history. First of all its disciplinary genesis is analyzed – in the writings of the thinkers of the circle of Metropolitan Philaret (Drozdov), where the term Antropologia Theologica (or theological «chelovekoslovie», theological anthropology) arises; the same thinkers systematize and clarify the fundamental concepts of Christian anthropology, both in its Eastern Byzantine version, and those that arised in the historically close Western, Lutheran. Then in the article are proposed the results of the analysis of the works of Bishop Feofan (Govorov), where the Orthodox dominant is developed for a rational and holistic understanding of a person, his nature and composition, which can not be reduced to rational (Aristotelian) human anatomy but containing a certain social minimum of self-movement reasonable social and personal action. Finally in the article are discussed the features of the scientific experimental and philosophical-theological approaches of Archbishop Luke (Voyno-Yasenetsky), medical scientist, philosopher and theologian, continuing the history of a rational and historically diverse Antropologia Theologica.

The writings of the Early Church concerning childhood are not extensive, but in the works of a number of Eastern Christian authors of the second to fourth centuries it is possible to discern some ideas about childhood which raise important problems of Christian theology and theological anthropology. The theological problem is that of the question posed for theodicy by the sufferings and deaths of infants. It is harder to give a brief definition of the anthropological problem, but it is important to do so because to define the problem as the Eastern Fathers saw it is also to identify the set of conceptual tools—the anthropological paradigm—which they used to answer it. These are not, naturally, the concepts of modern anthropology and psychology. Applied to patristic thought, these terms usually refer to speculations about the composition and functioning of the human person or the human soul which belong to a discourse which is recognizably philosophical and metaphysical—by which is meant that it is (though influenced by other sources, such as the Bible) the discourse of a tradition descending ultimately from the anthropological terminology of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. Patristic anthropology seeks to account for the history and experiences of the human person as a created being—fhe experience of sin and mortality in the present life, but also of eternal salvation and advancement to perfection in the image of God.

Abstract This article traces the development of hesychasm, a common prayer practice in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, from the fourth century A.D. to the present and proposes an understanding of missional theology that is grounded in hesychast theological anthropology. The theological foundation of hesychasm rests upon the view that humanity is open to the transformative union with God through prayer. This foundation reformulates the conception of mission theology as an in-depth ascetic experience of God’s presence that encompasses the various manifestations of human missional experience. The paper interacts with the development of hesychast doctrine from the fourth century in the African desert, to its formulation by Gregory Palamas in the fourteenth century, and finally culminating in the contemporary philosophical writings of Sergei Horujy. Horujy is a physicist at Moscow State University and an Orthodox theologian. His synergistic school of anthropology conceives of humanity as consisting of a triple border: ontological, ontic, and virtual. He is deeply indebted to Gregory Palamas’ distinction between essence and energies, that is, between God’s core being and his manifestations as experienced in hesychast prayer practice. Horujy applies this distinction, particularly the “energies,” as a way to conceive theological anthropology. His own project in part critiques the modern and postmodern crisis of the human subject and in part redefines the complex humanity around a spiritual core. Incorporating Horujy’s synergistic anthropology into a theology of mission means viewing humanity’s potential for union with God as both a process and outcome for mission practice. Mission can no longer be viewed as an appendage of the Christian life, but is actually a means of experiencing union with God.

The object of this research is the embodiment of the Orthodox anthropological ideal in the works of I. S. Shmelyov. Among multiple images of a righteous man described in the literature, I. S. Shmelyov in his works features “righteousness in the world”. Dilogy “Summer of the Lord” and “Pilgrimage” is selected as an example, namely the image of Gorkin as church-going person among others. His image reflects a peculiar worldview model that reconciles the contradictions of worldly and religious life, due to the dominant of Christocentrism — the uniform principle of an Orthodox person. Through the prism of soteriological attitudes, the author traces in the image of Gorkin the embodiment of the principles of Christian morality, love for the neighbor, and orientation towards the Prototype. The main conclusions consist in development of the original concept of a church-going person, which is based on the Orthodox understanding of human. The author distinguishes between the Orthodox and the abstract spiritual, which is essential for an adequate interpretation of the applied artistic method. Based on Shmelev's reference to the fundamentals of Orthodox anthropology, the interpretation of images suggests using the theological concepts and the elements of patristic teachings. A sequential, rather than fragmentary analysis, is carried out on a specific example of the image of Gorkin. The methodological novelty of such approach lies in the establishment of a profound axiological connection between fiction and Christian anthropology, which underlies the artistic uniqueness of Shmelev's works.

The article traces the formation of Eastern Christian anthropology as a new religious and philosophical tradition within the Early Byzantine culture. The notion “Patristics” is reasoned as a corpus of ideas of the Church Fathers, both Eastern and Western. The term “Eastern Patristics” means the works by Greek-Byzantine Church Fathers, who in the theological disputes with the Western Church Fathers elaborated the Christian creed. Based on an analysis of the texts of Greek-Byzantine Church Fathers, the most important provisions of Eastern Patristics are deduced and discussed, which determined the specificity of Christian anthropology. In this context, different approaches of the Eastern Fathers to the explanation of the Old Testament thesis on the creation of man in God’s image and likeness and the justification of the duality of human essence are shown. Particular attention is paid to considering the idea of deification as overcoming the human dualism and the entire created universe, the doctrine of the Divine Logoi as God’s energies, and the potential elimination of the antinomianism of the earthly and Divine worlds. The article reflects the anthropological ideas of the pre-Nicene Church Father Irenaeus, the non-canonical early Christian work The Shepherd of Hermas, and the teachings on the man of the classical Eastern Patristics period by Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, and Maximus the Confessor.

The study aims to determine the latest understanding of the place and role of culture in Christian anthropology. The author proceeds from the lack of translation of the works of Chrysostomos Stamulis and the absence among Ukrainian religious scholars and theologians of ideas about the range of transformations of the fundamental ideas of Orthodox theology in modern Greek theological thought. Scientific novelty lies in defining the place and role of culture within the transformations of contemporary Greek Orthodox anthropology. The newest approach to understanding of culture as an expression of the divine in man provides the Orthodox anthropology with new vectors of development. The study indicates that the Orthodoxy continues to play significant role in formation of the Greek nation. Within this context, the dialogue with culture initiated by Chrysostomos Stamulis becomes an important factor of this formation and search for identity. Culture, in all forms of its expression, appears not only as a form of spiritual secular being, but also as the deep essence of man, one of the aspects of the image and the likeness to the God, that encourages man to go beyond the boundaries of everyday routine, and with the ability to admire Beauty, to reach the state of Love. The theologian is trying to demonstrate that presence of Christ in man cannot be measured only by man's presence at the liturgy or involvement in the life of the church, but that extent of man's freedom is also an important factor. Man is not an angel whose mission is solely to perform the will of the God. Man is the image and the likeness of the God, man is graced with mind, freedom, creativity and love. With them, man is the creator of our world, through culture, art and science, as well as through multiple social and personal relationships. Chrysostomos Stamulis unveils significant culture formative potential of the Orthodox anthropology, in which is formed the kind of man who is able to see good, beauty, love of the world created by the God, and through herself she affirms them in the outside world boldly starting a dialogue with it. And both culture and art play important role in this dialogue.

The article analyzes the key issues of the theology of the modern Greek theologian Chrysostomos Stumulis. Emphasizing the need for the development of Orthodox thought and a clear definition of its place and role in the modern world, the theologian raises issues that are a definite taboo not only for Orthodoxy, but for Christianity as a whole. The problem of the correlation of Eros love and Agape love acquires a new interpretation from theologian, which reveals new horizons for the creation of the latest Christian anthropology. In this context, the view of the theologian is revealed on the relationship between the key anthropological categories of Christianity - faith, love and freedom. Violation of their interaction generates a distorted embodiment of these qualities, which necessitates degradation both of society and of man. The theologian emphasizes that the inability of the Church for millennia to boldly raise the question of the nature of Eros and give him a worthy place in the nature of incarnation limits both the Church and the understanding of Christ. Modern theological thought must respond to problems that are too acute in society, despite the fact that they can be a challenging task for Orthodoxy. The ability of theology to respond to them, generates a "high risk" theology, which has the determination to speak and show the morbidity of an idealized past, dare to point out that some aspects of universally accepted truths are obsolete. The formation of a culture of embodiment is the basis upon which the theologian develops the Theology of the Word of the Flesh. Spirituality, which denies incarnation, in the opinion of the author, appears as pastoral idolatry and leads to dehumanization of society. Understanding the culture of theology as a manifestation of the culture of the flesh, as an expression of all aspects of human life in the perspective of their transformations through the Person of the Incarnate, appears as a continuation and expansion of creation. Love requires the adoption of matter and the human body. Only in this sense disclosure of a human as a Person, in the full extent of his creative spirit. Holistic understanding and a fair assessment of love - eros describes it as an opportunity for revelation and knowledge of both human personality and divine. Violating questions of love, sexuality, desire and satisfaction, the theologian indicates that they have not only anthropological nature, but are a holistic manifestation of the essence of the church body. Consequently, the accusation of Eros by Orthodox theologians points to an inhuman society, full of objections and accusations in human existential self-consciousness. The theologian draws attention to the need for theological discourse in the 21st century in the context of the formation of modern anthropology, in the aspect of disclosure of its completeness, which was lost in the abolition of theology.

The article studies a little-known episode of an important stage in the history of the Republic of Venice – the formation of national church identity and the codification of the experience of state-confessional relations accumulated here over centuries. Two protagonists of this period – the Orthodox Metropolitan Gavriil Seviros and the Catholic monk Paolo Sarpi united in opposition to the Holy See and in an attempt to create an independent Venetian Church. Events had been developing against the background of a long confrontation between Venice and the Holy See, the so-called “War of the Interdict”, which began with the fact that Pope Paul V excommunicated the republic for its independent position in church matters. An unrealized project, which had as its model the Orthodox state and the Church, is a unique example of the assimilation of the Eastern tradition by one of the famous Western theologians – Paolo Sarpi. His cooperation with Metropolitan Gavriil in protecting the Greeks from the influence of Rome was clearly manifested during a trial of 1610, two documents of which are first published in Russian in the appendix to the article. Thanks to Gavriil’s authority, the See of the Metropolitan of Philadelphia became prestigious, his title as Patriarchal Exarch in Venice gave him access to the Doge’s palace, and his status as the head of the Orthodox of Dalmatia and the Ionian Islands was subsequently twice confirmed by the patriarchs of Constantinople.

Невротическая религиозность представляет собой проблему, связанную с комбинацией религиозной веры и определенных психологических расстройств человеческой личности. Несмотря на свою распространённость, в контексте православного пастырского богословия и религиозной антропологии невротическая религиозность всё ещё остаётся недостаточно исследованным явлением. В данной статье автор предлагает анализ генезиса и феноменологии невротической религиозности, выстроенный таким образом, чтобы упростить его богословское рассмотрение. Автор намечает перспективы богословского рассмотрения данной проблемы и основные пастырские методы, необходимые для окормления людей с невротической религиозностью. Методология автора включает обращение к классическим источникам по данной проблематике, в первую очередь к работам З. Фрейда, К. Юнга, К. Хорни и С. Пфайфера, которые рассматриваются в контексте опыта современных православных исследователей, таких как прот. Андрей Лоргус, И. Корнаракис, М. Филоник и Н. Скуратовская. The neurotic religiosity is a complex issue combined by religious faith and a range of human neurotic dissociations. Though widespread a phenomenon, it has not been enough addressed within the framework of Eastern Orthodox pastoral theology and religious anthropology. The author offers an analysis of origins and development of neurotic religiosity as well as its characteristic manifestations in a form that is meant to facilitate further theological study of the issue. Also, the author shares his vision of addressing the issue theologically and observes key points that might be considered by the clergy who provide pastoral ministry to persons with neurotic religiosity. The method applied by the author is based on using classical sources, including S. Freud, K. Jung, K. Horney, and S. Pfeifer, within a milieu shaped by some modern Eastern Orthodox researchers as A. Lorgus, J. Kornarakis, M. Filonik, and N. Skuratovskaya.

Introduction: Research on Russian Orthodox Church history of the period of the Great Patriotic War has ample complex of sources come into scientific operation fully enough. However, it should be noted that researches chiefly focus their attention on documentary sources whereas it must be admitted that memory-based oral literature, such as orally transmitted pieces of evidence devoted to the history of Russian Orthodox Church parishes in the rear, for example, is somewhat lacking. The purpose of our research is caused by the necessity to fill the lacunas in the field of the church history in Mordovian study of local lore during the period of 1941–1945 as well as to enrich information which is presented rather sparingly. Materials and Methods. The materials of the article are orally transmitted sources collected and processed by the students and teachers of Saransk theological seminary. Interdisciplinary nature of the problem of our research determined the coherence of methodological aims of social knowledge such as hermeneutics, historical anthropology, sociology, etc. Results. The article describes the results of the work connected with collecting and analyzing several narrative complexes of memory-based and orally transmitted pieces of evidence linked by the period of the Great Patriotic War and the theme of life in the rear parishes of Mordovian region. Collecting information was carried out by means of free interviewing methods, frequently used in cultural and anthropological researches. Discussion and Conclusions. The significance and value of orally transmitted historical sources concerning the church history of the Great Patriotic War period are hard to overestimate. Interviewees reconstruct not only the events of the past but also transmit, along with the whole complex of their emotional experiences, linked with these events, their mental references. All this is essential for better understanding social history, the history of family on the one hand, and the history of culture, on the other, inasmuch as oral pieces of evidence supplement documentary information with anthropological constituent. This is the most valuable thing while studying themes, closed for the public before, such as Russian Orthodox Church history of the first half of the XX century, for example.

This paper presents to the reader’s attention a unique case of a local “messianic” prophecy which combines features of folk religious movements and principles of functioning of the bureaucratic machine. The manuscripts of civil servant and merchant Adrian Pushkin, who lived in the 19th century in the city of Perm (Kama region, West-ern Ural), are considered as a variation of development of popular religion which includes a messianic-apocalyptic narrative. This places the provincial clerk closely to founders of the alternative to the official Orthodox discourse movements in the Russian Empire, as well as new religious movements of the later period. The aim of this paper is to determine the place and the role of Pushkin’s revelation in the religious space of that historical period. The main sources of the research are local archival documents which include business correspondence, personal letters, photographs, also documents related to Pushkin’s psychiatric examination and his subsequent expulsion to the Solovetsky Monastery, letters and family photos of the “prophet”, and service notes. The research method is based on the phenomenological approach with elements of hermeneutical analysis. The new revelation was founded on biblical text well known to the Perm messiah, and its content was provided by the social and historical context. The targeted audience for the new prophet was the middle strata of the society, comfortable for him. The preferred way of communication involved the tools of the bureaucratic system of pre-revolutionary Russia. The development of the new interpretation of Christian teaching was based on individual choice of the revelator and mediated by already initiated processes of secularization of public life. Traditional narratives and imagery of the sacred books of the Orthodox tradition were placed by the messiah-bureaucrat in the context of local space of the region and the country, and were interpreted through realities of personal life. Open criticism of the official Church was combined with a complex of mythological ideas. The main accents of the prophetic text were apocalyptic and chiliastic, related to the personal and professional crisis experienced by the author. The latter was triggered by the abolition of serfdom and destruction of the habitual environment and self-realization system. The style and con-tent of Pushkin’s text represent a mixture of theological concepts and elements of folk narratives based on the biblical tradition. As a result of the textual development, the signature myth was formed, rooted formally in Chris-tian dogmas and associated with folk religious culture.

The article traces the formation of a new religious and philosophical tradition of consideration of the human being. It was formed in the texts of representatives of Eastern Patristics at the epoch of Trinity and Christology theological discussions in Byzantium from the 4th to 7th centuries. The author presents the early Church Fathers’ ideas of the period of Christian apologetics, who laid the foundation for early medieval Christian anthropology. The work analyzes the significant issues, the solution of which allowed Greek-Byzantine Church Fathers to shape the an­thropological tradition of Eastern Christianity. In particular, the author notes the differences in the justification of the Eastern Church Fathers’ Old Testament point on the creation of man in the God’s image and likeness. The researcher stresses the diversity of concepts about the contradictory nature of the human as­sociated with the confrontation of the soul (spirit) and body. In this context, the principle of antinomianism is deduced as the primary method of theorizing about the person in their relationship with God and the created world. Special at­tention is paid to the Patristics interpretation of the idea of deification, compre­hended as the life goal of an individual, and, at the same time, as a process of re­alization of the highest purpose by unifying two contradictory worlds – Divine and earthly – into one harmonious Universe. Deification is derived as an oppor­tunity to overcome man’s duality and as his righteous path guiding each individ­ual to self-improvement, self-knowledge, and spiritual unity with the Creator. The article is based on the analysis of the sacred texts of Eastern Christianity, specifically by Irenaeus, Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Maximus the Confessor.

Media create the worldview, mentality and ethical attitudes. In the cultural perspectives it often intensifies as one of the many oppressive attitudes that culture applies to people. However, the theological perspective has a different approach. In the Holy Bible, we already find forms of broadly understood mediality, which - in the article - is understood not only as influences on people, but also as a form of communication, especially in the light of the relation Creator-Creation. At the same time, the concept of anthropology of the Eastern Church adopted in the thesis aims at the subject of reflection on anthropology and mysticism, leading man to the path of knowing God. This knowledge becomes possible only within the Church: a living organism with the head of the Savior, Jesus Christ. In an attempt to analyze mediality of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the article does not ignore any of the hypostases of the indissoluble Holy Trinity. The Old Testament God appears here from the beginning as a media. The New Testament Son of God, the Savior Jesus Christ, becomes a man, to give a man the opportunity to reunite with God, after centuries of lost communication, which is a consequence of the sin of the forefathers Adam and Eve. And the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, both in ecclesiological and individual dimensions, enables this unity. In the light of the issues addressed in the article, the mediality of Jesus Christ has been treated in many aspects.