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iunie 22, 2025

L’amitié avec Jésus dans les Évangiles. Une interprétation

This article offers a theological and exegetical examination of the relational dynamics between Jesus, his disciples, and the broader public, through the conceptual framework of friendship. Integrating a close reading of scriptural texts with speculative theological reflection, it contends that Jesus – fully human and fully divine – formed authentic friendships and remains open to friendship with every person. Central to this inquiry is the polyvalent Greek term „philos”, which conveys both “friend” and “beloved,” revealing deeper dimensions of relationality within Christology. This exploration posits that perceiving Jesus through the lens of friendship enriches the spiritual life of the believer and strengthens both personal and communal communion with God. On a psychological level, such a friendship can serve as a source of consolation, hope, and healing amid experiences of fear, alienation or loneliness. Ultimately, the article proposes that cultivating a lived friendship with Christ provides a meaningful pathway into the mystery of the Resurrection and an experiential entry into divine life.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/TYQA2914

Dialog 55-9 Budău

iunie 21, 2025

Albino Luciani e Il Concilio Vaticano II. Padre conciliare, divulgatore, custode

Albino Luciani, the future Pope John Paul I, attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council. He had only one intervention, on episcopal collegiality, but he followed the proceedings with great attention and interest and shared the experience with the diocese through articles in the diocesan bulletin and letters sent to various groups. After the Council, he took care to implement in the diocese of Vittorio Veneto, moderately and gradually, the conciliar directives.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/DMRB5868

Dialog 55-8 Fiocco

iunie 21, 2025

Mary Ward (1585-1645) and the Ignatian Principle and Foundation. Historical Impact and Contemporary Implications

This article explores the formative influence of the Ignatian Principle and Foundation in the spiritual life of Mary Ward (1585–1645) and in the founding of her Institute and it evaluates its wider significance on contemporary spirituality. Drawing on primary sources and recent contributions, the study highlights how Mary Ward’s internalization of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises not only shaped her vision for an apostolic religious life for women but also offers invaluable resources on discernment, resilience, and capacity for action in the areas of spiritual formation and pastoral care today.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/TOWM8374

Dialog 55-7 Bălan

mai 11, 2025

Hungarian Greek Catholics During the Bishopric of the Blessed Alexandru Rusu

This study examines the episcopate of Blessed Alexandru Rusu from the perspective of the Hungarian Greek Catholic communities, focusing on the ecclesiastical and identity transformations of the interwar period. Between 1930 and 1948, Bishop Rusu led the Eparchy of Maramureș in a political and social environment where the Romanian national ideal and state centralization posed challenges to minority communities. The situation of Hungarian Greek Catholics was shaped by the bishop’s personal connections, ecclesiastical diplomacy in Rome and Bucharest, and the evolution of Hungarian-Romanian relations. Sources reveal that Bishop Rusu sought to balance loyalty to the Romanian state with the preservation of the Greek Catholic Church’s multilingual and multiethnic character, while the participation and representation of Hungarian faithful gradually diminished. The analysis offers new perspectives for the study of the 20th-century history and identity formation of Hungarian Greek Catholics in Romania.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/QCTB3872

Dialog 55-6 Pallai

aprilie 8, 2025

The Divine Attribute of Transcendence in Schopenhauer’s Work

This article undertakes an extensive examination of the concept of transcendence within the philosophical framework of Arthur Schopenhauer. While Schopenhauer is renowned for his immanent metaphysics, which posits the world as the self-objectification of a blind, striving Will, this paper argues that his system contains a unique and profound form of “immanent transcendence”. The analysis begins by establishing Schopenhauer’s explicit and trenchant critique of traditional, theistic notions of a transcendent Creator-God, which he dismisses as “popular metaphysics” incompatible with his Kantian- inspired epistemology. The core of the article then pivots to explore the three primary pathways through which Schopenhauer offers an escape, or a transcendence, from the suffering inherent in the phenomenal world governed by the Will and the principium individuationis. These pathways are: (1) aesthetic contemplation, where the subject becomes a “pure, will-less subject of knowledge,” momentarily transcending individuality to grasp the eternal Platonic Ideas; (2) ethical action rooted in compassion (Mitleid), which pierces the “veil of Maya” to recognize the shared suffering and fundamental unity of all beings; and (3) asceticism, the ultimate denial of the Will-to-live, which represents the final and most complete form of self-transcendence, leading to a state of nothingness or Nirvana. By analyzing these avenues, the article demonstrates that Schopenhauer does not merely negate transcendence but rather re-conceptualizes it, shifting its locus from an external, divine realm to an internal, experiential liberation from the deterministic chains of the Will. This secularized soteriology provides a powerful, albeit pessimistic, response to the fundamental human need to find meaning and relief from the existential condition.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/WYIH7179

Dialog 55-10 Benescu

aprilie 7, 2025

Il Figlio è «homooúsios del Padre» e «nato dal Padre». Analisi di alcuni testi biblici che esprimono questa realtà dogmatica in altri termini

Is Jesus Christ God or not? This is the great dilemma that has kept many people’s minds and hearts burning in the centuries that followed the appearance of Arius’ teaching in the 4th century. This article aims to analyse some biblical texts that support and express in other terms the truth proclaimed by the Council of Nicaea in 325 that the Son is homooúsios with the Father and is born of the Father, but not before briefly presenting the teachings of Arius.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/GIFE1656

Dialog 55-5 Ciobanu

aprilie 7, 2025

Le Comunità Gerachiche “abituali”

At a time when the Italian Church is suffering from a drastic decline in the number of priests, when for decades the pastoral care of parish Units has been tried, when pastoral conversion is necessary to develop existing ministries and create new ones so as to witness a concrete synodality and active co-responsibility, this study on Hierarchical Communities fits in. Conceived by Prof. Valdrini, Hierarchical Communities, habitual and intermediate, become valuable tools for a structural organization of dioceses. Moreover, a characteristic feature of them is that they consider not only the territorial aspect, but also the theological aspect of Communities gathered around the Risen One. They help to set up an organization in “concentric circles” so as to make visible both the hierarchical and the co-responsible and synodal aspects. What the study attempts to do, besides reaffirming the substantial importance of dioceses and parishes, is to give a universal norm to Pastoral Zones, Foranies and Pastoral Units. This becomes, thus, a practical solution, not only for the decline in priests, but for a rethinking of Church as a Community of believers.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/QEAR4654

Dialog 55-4 Buzziol

aprilie 7, 2025

La reciprocità come principio costitutivo della volontà:la prospettiva fenomenologica dell’opera Il volontario e l’involontario di Paul Ricoeur

The approach with which Marion approaches Thomas’s Aquinas theology at the beginning of his phenomenological journey bears the imprint of Heidegger’s critique of onto-theology, but also of his personal hostility to the conceptual idolatry and atheism manifested in Nietzsche’s philosophy. What Marion contrasts with the conceptual idol is the icon and iconic thought. If the idol comes from looking at it, the icon looks at us, calls forth the vision, letting the visible become saturated with the Invisible. According to Marion, conceptual idolatry still seems a dangerous temptation in our times. Metaphysical categories, concepts can function as idols if they are generated by thought as objects appropriate to ‘God’ on the basis of its divine founding function.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/XJUW7074

Dialog 55-3 Pitreți

aprilie 7, 2025

The mechanisms of religion assimilated into the political-economic culture of modernity

Can we axiomatically define that the Christian’s Sisyphean striving for reconciliation with the world is part of divine oikonomia, as the Fourth Gospel, that of St John, explicitly states? Or can we view the development of human history as a divine pedagogy of social cohesion, as some Pauline or Acts of Apostles readings might suggest? In order to avoid simplistic interpretations, the answer can only be nuanced, or even susceptible to a certain duplicity, if formulated within the paradigm of a superhuman understanding beyond the power of understanding.
It is not uncommon for secular researchers who have studied Council Vatican II to equate the change in attitude towards the world with a kind of theology of compromise. Aggiornamento, a neologism that would be adopted by almost every language on this occasion, appeared to denote an adaptation of the Church to the contents of the world, as E. Voegelin termed them. However, a more thorough investigation into the origins of modernity reveals a process that mirrors the developments of the latter half of the 20th century, albeit in the opposite direction. This earlier period can be characterised as a subversive appropriation of a series of cultural and symbolic elements that were specific to a world order based on a religious vision.
The present study will focus on investigating those elements in the economic field, which are considered to be among the innovative elements of modernity. The advent of the Industrial Revolution, concomitant with the rise of liberalism, signifies the initial phase in the genesis of the new economy. Consequently, both the centralized economy and autarchy, despite their inherent challenges to liberalism, will become avatars of the new economy. The concept of an intramundane ecclesia is proposed as a theoretical framework underpinning various proposals for reordering the world on new foundations, including the invisible hand, catallaxy, historical determinism, or variants of political-economic Gnosticism, and will constitute veritabile epiphanies of it.
Nevertheless, when considered within the overarching framework of the Economy of Redemption – a framework that is often overlooked – the newly proposed economic systems will expose their inherent limitations rather than demonstrating their efficacy.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/IRFH4069

Dialog 55-2 Grigore

martie 29, 2025

Fates of Roman Catholic Priests of the Diocese of Satu Mare Under the Survaillance of the Securitate

During the communist regime, the Securitate services paid special attention to the clergy of the Diocese of Satu Mare. Labeled as “enemies of the regime” or “hostile vipers of the regime”, they were closely monitored in the files named “the Roman Catholic issue”, “tax evasion issue” or “the Hungarian national irredentist issue (Roman Catholic)”. This study aims to present the fate of two priests, Galambos Ferenc and Fehér István, who were closely surveilled by the Securitate at different times and for different reasons. Galambos Ferenc came to the attention of the Securitate starting in 1946 when he was the parish vicar in Petrești. After 1948, he was closely monitored by the Securitate both for his loyalty to the diocesan leadership and for his pastoral activities, as he refused to accept a nationalized Roman Catholic Church. Especially in the 1980s, the increasing contacts between the clergy and the Western world became a sensitive point for the Securitate. Most of the parish priests came under surveillance due to their “suspicious relationships with foreign countries”. These relationships were nothing more than their efforts, either to manage their parishes (securing funds from charitable organizations) or to ensure the smooth running of their pastoral lives (risking the acquisition of religious literature). One such case was that of Father Fángli Eduárd, the parish priest in Rătești, who was monitored for more than a decade until his premature death at the age of 38.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/MRDJ4048

Dialog 55-1 Giurgiu