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