Dialog Teologic X/ 20 (2007)

Dialog Teologic X/ 20 (2007)
Quo vadis caritas? Principiul carității creștine în dialogul religios contemporan, 195 p., 17×24, 9 RON.

 

Wilhelm Dancă
Formarea permanentă: Când şi pentru cine?
The permanent formation is a necessity every time and for every people, taking into account the axiological confusions and the misleading changes which are influencing the contemporary society. Starting from this point, the author of the editorial which introduces the theme of the 20th number of the theological magazine Dialog Teologic, considering thoroughly the doctrine of the Council Vatican II, the recent teaching of the Catholic Church, and the decisions of the Synod of Iaşi, underlining the importance of the permanent Christian formation of both of lay persons, whose mission is to sanctify the temporary realities, and of priests, called to be ministers of Christ in this changing world and servant of the holy sacraments. The permanent formation is a right, but also a duty and has to get an integral and unifying dimension that is why it remains an urgent exigency both for priests and for lay persons.

COMUNICĂRI

Vladimir Petercă
Sursa nedreptăţilor şi a dezordinii din lume: nebunia. Comentariu la Ps 14
At the end of the XIXth century, the whole world was stirred up by the words of Nietzsche: “God is dead. We have killed him!” The nihilism expressed in this way has very old roots, reaching the time of the Ancient Testament. The author of this study, starting both from the Ps 14, and from the wider context of the Ancient Testament, explains the valences and the causes of these words. The Ps 14, in programmatic and common terms identifies two categories of people: on one hand, the man of justice, the poor and oppressed one, whose Defender is God, and, on the other hand, the sinner and “mad”, whose life mirrors the practical atheism. The message of this study, addressed to the contemporary people, is the one of Ps 14, which, at his turn, represents the synthesis of the Ancient Testament theology: the true God triumphs through goodness and justice, because the “mad’s” happiness is just apparent and deceptive.

Michel Cagin
Génèvieve Fondane. O viaţă închinată misterului lui Israel
Israel had one of the most troubling history. The XXth century represents for this people and for the whole humanity a painful remembrance. This article presents the Gènèvieve Fondane’s biography converted to Christian faith, as it results from the correspondence maintained with J. Maritain and his wife Raissa Maritain. Wife of the Jewish thinker Benjamin Fondane, during his detention at Auschwitz and after his death, Gènèvieve felt the power of God’s grace and, after many demands, asked to enter the order of the nuns Notre Dame of Sion. The present biography has a challenging message for nowadays people, representing both a reproach to anti-Semitism and a precious bridge in the dialogue between Jewish people and Christians.

Vittorio Possenti
Misterul lui Israel. J. Maritain şi Conciliul al II-lea din Vatican
At the elaboration of the documents of the second Council of Vatican worked together biblists, liturgists, theologians and philosophers. Among the philosophers, J. Maritain contributed through his vision about the Jewish people as God’s chosen people. Both through his participation to the Council and through his book “Mystery of Israel”, J. Maritain identified and denounced every form of anti-Semitism, religious, social, economical and political. “The spiritual essence of anti-Semitism is finally a christo-phobia phenomenon”. In the present article, V. Possenti illustrates the connotations of Israel’s mystery for the whole world, taking back the orientation of the French philosopher J. Maritain: in the interreligious dialog is necessary to discover the connections between the new chosen people and Israel, between the new God’s people and the people of the Synagogue.

Virgil Nemoianu
Două aspecte ale catolicismului american
In the last decades there have appeared many statistical studies about the situation of the Catholicism in the West of Europe, which cast a shadow of pessimism on its future. A different image proposes the article of Virgil Nemoianu, about the history, evolution, current situation and future perspectives of the American Catholicism. Even if a minority and constituted of immigrants, the Catholic Church in America maintained its vigour, presenting itself as a vivid and active community. The author exposes shortly but realistic the specific features of this Church speaking about: the situation of the clergy and of lay persons, the American intellectuals, theologians, politicians and mass-media. Finally, he extends his vision about Church, expressing his hope that dialog between orthodox Christian and Catholics in America will bring rich fruits for both Churches.

Ermis Segatti
Tendinţe în reînnoirea teologică din India. Despre Dumnezeu. Premise şi precursori
In the last decades, Europeans manifested in their religious seeking a grow attraction for the Asiatic religions, especially for Hinduism and Buddhism. This study exposes actually the points of contact and of dialog which can be established between Christians and Indian Hindu theology, which manifests an obvious inclination of getting autonomy, thanks to its sticking root in a very rich tradition recognized by history. This tradition was valued by the modern Hindu theologians: Standley Samartha, Vivekananda, Upadhyaya, Neakantha Gorec, Richard of Smet, who suggested in their books the deepness of the old Hindu thinking, and the relations which can be developed between the Hindu theology and the Christian doctrine, between Upanishads and the Christ. Thanks to its orientations favourable to the interreligious dialog, the study offers a generous opening to the approaching between Christians and non-Christians in the context of a globalized world.

Emil Dumea
Cultură, cult şi interculturalitate: repere istorice şi ideologice europene contemporane
At the beginning of 2007, Romania joined UE, belonging in this way to the great intercultural family of the European states. This social-political context, which has also religious implications, explains the appearance of this essay. The author exposes the plenty of signification of the term culture applying it in the present times, bringing out into bold relief the relation with cult: culture without cult is cold and empty; cult without culture is the unjustified limitation of the human person. In the context of the European community the inter-cultural dialog is both a duty and an occasion of reciprocal knowledge and of communicating values. This dialog is able to eliminate tensions and schisms caused by the ignoring of the other partner, remaining in this way a permanent and reciprocal requirement.

Claudiu Dumea
Diavolul şi exorcismele
The contemporary society feels the Evil’s existence as presence and action, but avoids often attributing it the name “Devil”, this subject belonging to the category of taboos. The study surpasses these clichés and tries to underline the different form of Devil’s presence and to expose the main arms we have against him: exorcisms, as it results from the new Ritual of exorcism. The author indicates the exorcist’s qualities, the manifestations of the exorcised person before, during and after exorcism, the content of exorcisms’ prayers, and finally highlights that Devil’s existence is not a reality which depends on the opinion of the majority, but a hostile force which can influence the decisions and actions of nowadays people.

Wilhelm Dancă
Benedict al XVI-lea şi iubirea. Eros, agape şi philia în enciclica Deus caritas est
Saint John gave God an excellent definition: God is love. But, what can expressed these words today, when “love is one of the most used and abused word”? The author of this study, following closed the biography and the first encyclical letter of Benedict XVI, dispels the shadow of contempt which glided on the term eros, showing that there is a God’s eros, eros benevolentiae (different from eros concupiscentiae), which is in the same time agape. These two forms can not be separated they both setting up the nature of the true love. Philia (friendship) harmonises whit eros (the ascendant love) and agape (the descendent love), being the fulfilment of the communion both with God and with people. In the conclusion of this theological approach, the author gives the man’s mission a dynamic note: agape is the fundamental law of his life, and this love is not a conquered state but a permanent increase.