Herciu Bogdan
- Principii pentru o antropologie politică în „De civitate Dei” a sfântului Augustin
In this article, the author analyses the matter of “supernatural” in the recent theological debate. Starting from the New Testament, and through the teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Church, and the medieval authors like Anselm of Canterbury, Toma of Aquino and Gaetan, analyzing the conception of supernatural of the authors from the modern time like Baius or Robert Belarmin, and in the time of the neo-scholastic, the author concludes with the recent attempts of explaining the supernatural in the contemporary catholic theology. There are presented the ideas which refer to this subject in the writings of the great theologians of the XXth century like Karl Rahner, Juan Alfaro and Henri de Lubac.
In the history, the prayer of the Church had different expressions and its development carefully considered the sung form. The antiphons were used in the Mass and in the Divine Office which means that this form of prayer has become an important liturgical function over time. This study explores a small group of antiphons: the “hodie antiphons”. The author wants to bring together all the antiphons of the Divine Office which begin with this word hodie (= today) and to delimit a repertoire quite original in terms of melodic and textual composition. The first part of this work offers a historical analysis of the concept of antiphon, the history and evolution of this concept and its use in the celebrations. The central part contains the analysis of the word hodie and the analysis of the manuscripts used in the preparing of the edition of Corpus Antiphonalium Officii, edited by the Benedictines of Solesmes (France).
At the beginning of the XX-th century, in the Catholic Church appeared and devolved a very important movement of theological and spiritual renewal, which prepared the “spring” of the Second Council of Vatican. The article of Stefan Lupu proposes in a synthetically form the ecclesiology from Catholicism. Social aspects of dogma and Meditation on the Church, fundamental books which synthesize the ecclesiological thinking of Henri de Lubac. The first part of this article has an introductory nature, framing these books in the context they appeared and presenting the existential question which they met and answered. Then, the author exposes briefly the vision of this French theologian on the Trinitarian origin of the Church and on its place in the history of redemption. This ecclesiology had and has a great influence on the contemporary theology, because, being anchored in the Tradition, tries to give an original answer the questions of nowadays word.
Death represents the inexorable end of every human being. But people who die are aware of their death; that is why they prepare themselves for this obligatory limit. The article of Petru Dorcu stops on this subject and presents in concise and comparative terms the vision of Karl Rahner on death and the one of his disciple, Ladislau Boroş. After the briefly description of the anthropological and theological dimensions of the death in the theology of Karl Rahner, the author offers different aspects of the method necessary for an adequate analysis of death from the point of view of the theology of Ladislau Boroş. Also, he focuses the analysis on different philosophical notions which represent the basis of the theology of death in the Hungarian theologian. Finally, the author compares critically these two viewpoints, bringing into bold relief their role in understanding the phenomena of death and of life, especially in their active and responsible dimension.
Starting with the Second Council of Vatican, the theologians defined Church using new notions: communion, God’s assembly, the Eucharist assembly. The Canadian theologian Jean Marie Roger Tillard, one of the greatest of the theology of communion, developing the ecclesiology of the Second Council of Vatican, created a theology about the local Church in which he brings into bold relief the relation between ecclesiology and liturgy, starting from the strong relationship between Church and Eucharist. The article of Daniel Iacobuţ aims to present just this theology of communion, mentioning firstly its source – the Holy Trinity, in order to infer then the implications of this theological fact in the life and in the sacramental activity of the Church, especially in celebrating the Eucharist, icon of the communion in the Church. Because “Eucharist is building the Church”, at the end of this article, D. Iacobuţ recommends us to make a renewal of the liturgical spirituality and a profound study on the importance and the meaning of the Eucharist celebration.
The religious vision of Gianni Vattimo influenced very much the philosophical and the cultural agora of the last decades, arousing passionate discussions in the Western countries. This debate is not well known in Romania; that is why the author of this article plans to analyze the philosophical-existential proposal on faith of Gianni Vattimo, by presenting a short interpretation of the logic development of his ideas, a critical evaluation and some points which seem to be prolific for the theological thinking. In his research, Mihăiţă Blaj exposes the theory of Gianni Vattimo about “the friendly Christendom” which requires as preambula fidei a “weak ontology”, and finally, from the viewpoint of the fundamental theology, makes a critical evaluation of these ideas which influenced deeply the forma fidei of the Western contemporary culture.
The scientifically and the literary thinking of Mircea Eliade represents a deep and an ample universe whose knowledge requires the help of some guides able to lead us to the essential aspects of his writings. The study of Elena Bortă just aims to guide us in this vast universe of Mircea Eliade by exposing and explaining the main notions from the books of the great historian of religions: coincidentia oppositorum, theatrum mundi, mythology of memory and of oblivion. Keeping the methodology of the great scientist, the author of this article demonstrates the influence of these notions in the writings of the universal literature, in the texts of the Asian cultures and religions, and in the evolution of the characters from the novels of Mircea Eliade. For the contemporary people, these scientific notions do not represent tedious abstractions because they theorize the essential aspects of the human reality in its concretization and continuity along the centuries.
At the beginning of its existence, the Diocese of Iaşi was led by alien Bishops who perceived the spiritual and the material problems of the new Diocese and contributed in many ways to solve them. One of the greatest Bishops who worked in Moldavia was the Franciscan Swiss Dominic Jaquet (1843-1931). After presenting the main steps of his historical research, the author of this study exposes briefly the biography of this brave Bishop, underlining the central aspects of his formative curriculum. Then Fabian Doboş illustrates the activity as Bishop of Dominic Jaquet and his pastoral and cultural accomplishments; finally the author bring into bold relief the role of the Bishop Dominic Jaquet in promoting the cultural life in the Diocese of Iaşi, especially his contribution in building and supporting the Institute Cipariu.