Justification in the Old Testament

The term „justification” is a fundamental concept in Pauline theol­ogy, which took the term righteousness from the Old Testament. By righteous­ness and justification, the Old Testament means the divine evaluation of human conduct; as such, these concepts are concerned not so much with an ideal of human perfection as with the realization of personal choices in accordance with God’s plan and will. Righteousness is only that which JHWH has found to be so. Man becomes righteous only when he fulfills God’s will. This article is structured in three parts: in the first part, justification is briefly analysed from a dogmatic-theological point of view. The second section focuses on the Old Testament term justice, the background from which the Apostle Paul—and later the whole of Catholic theology—drew inspiration to define the concept of justification. Finally, in a third section, the key concepts in the Old Testament for the doctrine of justification are presented.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/THDL8937

Dialog 53-5 Bîrnat

Endre Kiss

Il peccato e la riconciliazione nel documento conciliare Gaudium et Spes

Alexandru Theodor Cisar – The martyr pastor

The article is dedicated to one of the most representative figures of the Catholic Church in Romania, Archbishop Alexandru Theodor Cisar, and briefly presents the life of this Catholic hierarch until the establishment of the communist regime in Romania. Most of the study presents the persecution to which he was systematically subjected by the communists, our aim being to justify the title of the article: the martyr Pastor.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/WERD9799

Dialog 53-4 Ciobanu

Il peccato e la riconciliazione nel documento conciliare Gaudium et Spes

How does the pastoral constitution of Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, present the theme of sin and reconciliation? We will seek to answer how the discourse on sin, reconciliation and the sacrament of penance fits into this precise point of the search for the defence of the freedom of the person, the profound truth of the self. In this context, the Synod, even if it does not devote a specific study to the subject, defines sin as an evil freely committed before God and against God, an evil that alienates man from the Father, from himself, from others, from creation. At the same time, however, says the Synod, from the moment of creation in the image and likeness of God, man always feels this distance from the Creator and also the need to return. God, who creates man out of love and charity, always approaches the sinner with mercy and calls him to repentance, to a full return to the Father’s house.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/LGQT6960

Dialog 53-3 Endre

Dialog Teologic XXVII/53 (2024)

Dialog Teologic XXVII/53 (2024)
168 p., 17×24, ISSN 1453-8075, 25 lei.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/RIGU9318

Cumpără online de la Librăria Sapientia
Vizualizează online Dialog 53

 

Tarciziu-Hristofor Şerban
La pauvreté dans la Bible (I): D’un état de fait vers une législation de solidarité
This article covert from a biblical point of view a social problem of permanent interest: poverty, seen as a state of precariousness caused by the multiple causes, some involuntary (the state of people left without support – widows, orphans, those with disabilities –, victims of natural disasters, immigrants, etc.) or voluntary (greed of peers, indifference of institutions empowered to watch over the observance of citizens’ rights, etc.) that led to it. It is, however, a scandal in a society that holds a theological view that God is a Father to all members of the People, from which it implicitly follows that the latter are brothers. However, such a scandal generated positions of some of those responsible, most often under pressure from prophets. These positions gradually led to the drafting of legislative codes designed to regulate scandalous social situations. When even these regulations did not eradicate poverty, then the vision of a new, messianic project was born. This project, which has as protagonist a descendant of King David, proposes a new vision (which I will develop in a later article) foreshadowed in several prophetic texts with a messianic theme.

Valerian Sergiu Topală
Neo-Thomistic Organicism, A Scientific-Metaphysical Perspective on Human Nature
This article offers an alternative solution to the perennial philosophical problem of human nature. The view proposed is “Neo-Thomistic Organicism”, a form of dualism, of the hylomorphist type, that does not subscribe both to the extreme characteristics of Cartesian dualism, and to complementarian non-reductionist physicalist views. Our optic integrates the scientific elements of a form of biological vitalism and both shares Aristotelian-Thomist metaphysics, and alienates from Thomas Aquinas in crucial points. In this sense, our perspective is constituted as a scientific-metaphysical understanding regarding human nature, in general, and regarding the soul-body relationship, in particular. The novelty brought by our article does not lie in a completely new perspective, but in some of the morelandian modifications made to classical Thomism and in the holistic approach to the subject that integrates the relevant scientific discoveries in the field of biology and neuroscience. In opposition to Moreland, on the question of individuation, this article is proposing a hybrid approach to how substances and bare particulars possess properties. To achieve its purpose, our analytical approach will begin by offering an exposition of Thomas Aquinas treatise on human nature as it is registered in Summa Theologica, Ia, qq. 75-89, especially to outline, on this basis, some of the fundamental points in which we differ from classical Thomism. This will be followed by a presentation of our perspective, of the morelandian type, and its compatibility with scientific research in biology and neurology. Next, in order to further clarify our position, we will turn to a comparison between the morelandian perspective and complementarian naturalist-physicalist conceptions of human nature, especially of substance. At the end of this comparison we will outline the objections to the morelandian view that distinguish us from it. Finally, we will offer a response to the causal pairing physicalist objection.

Kiss Endre
Il peccato e la riconciliazione nel documento conciliare Gaudium et Spes
How does the pastoral constitution of Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, present the theme of sin and reconciliation? We will seek to answer how the discourse on sin, reconciliation and the sacrament of penance fits into this precise point of the search for the defence of the freedom of the person, the profound truth of the self. In this context, the Synod, even if it does not devote a specific study to the subject, defines sin as an evil freely committed before God and against God, an evil that alienates man from the Father, from himself, from others, from creation. At the same time, however, says the Synod, from the moment of creation in the image and likeness of God, man always feels this distance from the Creator and also the need to return. God, who creates man out of love and charity, always approaches the sinner with mercy and calls him to repentance, to a full return to the Father’s house.

Petru Ciobanu
Alexandru Theodor Cisar – The martyr pastor
The article is dedicated to one of the most representative figures of the Catholic Church in Romania, Archbishop Alexandru Theodor Cisar, and briefly presents the life of this Catholic hierarch until the establishment of the communist regime in Romania. Most of the study presents the persecution to which he was systematically subjected by the communists, our aim being to justify the title of the article: the martyr Pastor.

Cristian BÎRNAT
Justification in the Old Testament
The term „justification” is a fundamental concept in Pauline theol­ogy, which took the term righteousness from the Old Testament. By righteous­ness and justification, the Old Testament means the divine evaluation of human conduct; as such, these concepts are concerned not so much with an ideal of human perfection as with the realization of personal choices in accordance with God’s plan and will. Righteousness is only that which JHWH has found to be so. Man becomes righteous only when he fulfills God’s will. This article is structured in three parts: in the first part, justification is briefly analysed from a dogmatic-theological point of view. The second section focuses on the Old Testament term justice, the background from which the Apostle Paul—and later the whole of Catholic theology—drew inspiration to define the concept of justification. Finally, in a third section, the key concepts in the Old Testament for the doctrine of justification are presented.

 

Valerian Sergiu Topală: Neo-Thomistic Organicism, A Scientific-Metaphysical Perspective on Human Nature

This article offers an alternative solution to the perennial philosophical problem of human nature. The view proposed is “Neo-Thomistic Organicism”, a form of dualism, of the hylomorphist type, that does not subscribe both to the extreme characteristics of Cartesian dualism, and to complementarian non-reductionist physicalist views. Our optic integrates the scientific elements of a form of biological vitalism and both shares Aristotelian-Thomist metaphysics, and alienates from Thomas Aquinas in crucial points. In this sense, our perspective is constituted as a scientific-metaphysical understanding regarding human nature, in general, and regarding the soul-body relationship, in particular. The novelty brought by our article does not lie in a completely new perspective, but in some of the morelandian modifications made to classical Thomism and in the holistic approach to the subject that integrates the relevant scientific discoveries in the field of biology and neuroscience. In opposition to Moreland, on the question of individuation, this article is proposing a hybrid approach to how substances and bare particulars possess properties. To achieve its purpose, our analytical approach will begin by offering an exposition of Thomas Aquinas treatise on human nature as it is registered in Summa Theologica, Ia, qq. 75-89, especially to outline, on this basis, some of the fundamental points in which we differ from classical Thomism. This will be followed by a presentation of our perspective, of the morelandian type, and its compatibility with scientific research in biology and neurology. Next, in order to further clarify our position, we will turn to a comparison between the morelandian perspective and complementarian naturalist-physicalist conceptions of human nature, especially of substance. At the end of this comparison we will outline the objections to the morelandian view that distinguish us from it. Finally, we will offer a response to the causal pairing physicalist objection.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/WOKN8508

Dialog 53-2 Topală

Tarciziu-Hristofor Şerban: La pauvreté dans la Bible (I): D’un état de fait vers une législation de solidarité

This article covert from a biblical point of view a social problem of permanent interest: poverty, seen as a state of precariousness caused by the multiple causes, some involuntary (the state of people left without support – widows, orphans, those with disabilities –, victims of natural disasters, immigrants, etc.) or voluntary (greed of peers, indifference of institutions empowered to watch over the observance of citizens’ rights, etc.) that led to it. It is, however, a scandal in a society that holds a theological view that God is a Father to all members of the People, from which it implicitly follows that the latter are brothers. However, such a scandal generated positions of some of those responsible, most often under pressure from prophets. These positions gradually led to the drafting of legislative codes designed to regulate scandalous social situations. When even these regulations did not eradicate poverty, then the vision of a new, messianic project was born. This project, which has as protagonist a descendant of King David, proposes a new vision (which I will develop in a later article) foreshadowed in several prophetic texts with a messianic theme.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/WBFQ5110

Dialog 53-1 Serban

Ciobanu Ramona

  • Current challenges of the modern family – alcohol consumption and violent behaviour
  • The Social Control Of Drug Users without Criminal Behaviour

Iosif Iacob: The Meaning of Sacraments as “Signs of Faith” – Reciprocity between faith and sacraments

God, through the Church, enters into a personal dialogue with man out of his desire to save him. This dialogue is carried out in different ways and based on certain criteria. One of these is the sacramental reality. The sacraments are a concretization of the divine action that fully realizes the mystery of salvation.
In 2020, a document of the International Theological Commission was published with the title: Reciprocity between faith and sacraments in the sacramental economy. Here it is reaffirmed that the essence of faith is found in the principle of sacramentality. This principle represents the very nature of Christian revelation, namely, the dialogical response of the believer and the Christian community, such that there is no authentic sacramental celebration without faith.
The theological study has always linked the doctrine of the sacraments and their celebration to the gift of faith that the believer receives from God exclusively based on the merits of Jesus Christ.
On the other hand, Christ, giving birth to the sacraments, also gives them the ontological power that works on the inner plane in the human being. This gives the believer a certain spiritual experience that enables him to live and act as a person of faith. It is therefore important to understand the relationship between faith and sacraments, starting from the meaning of the notion of faith.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/YKEE1324

 

 Dialog 52-10 Iacob

Ştefan Lupu: „La cattolicità aperta”, quale apertura dogmatica e spirituale delle Chiese cristiane, nella visione del teologo ortodosso Dumitru Staniloae

In this study, I intend to present, firstly, the ecumenical vision of the Romanian Orthodox theologian Dumitru Stăniloae about the open catholicity [sobornicity] as a dogmatic and spiritual openness of the Christian Churches that aims to find their unity and, secondly, about Eucharistic intercommunion. At the base of this open catholicity there is the fact that in Holy Scripture we notice a diversity of traditions and connotations, diversity that comes from the diversity of God’s actions in the history of salvation. Having the intention to overcome the dogmatic differences that separate the Churches and to reach full Eucharistic communion, many people have fallen into an easy enthusiasm, thinking that the differences can be overcome with the warmth of love, or in a diplomatic spirit, achieving a compromise between divergent positions. The result of these two trends, which are based on a different ecclesiological conception, is known by the term eucharistic intercommunion. According to Stăniloae, intercommunion is not full eucharistic communion and, therefore, the groups that intend to be in intercommunion cannot be in total communion, as, instead, Eucharistic communion is conceived.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/XCAS4922

Dialog 52-9 Lupu