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THE RELATION BETWEEN THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY Antoniu – Cătălin Păştin Theological, Ecumenical and Intercultural Researches Centre “Saint Ioan Cassian” within the “OVIDIUS” University of Constanta, Romania Abstract—The christian teaching about the One and at the same time the Triune God, with Whom man have to get into communion and to persist in this existence, growing in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit’s work revealed through the holy sacraments and worships of the Church. The Church is the institution of our redemption through which we are growing in Jesus Christ. The Church, understood as the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, prolonged into mankind through the Holy Spirit’s Work and God the One and at the same time the Triune Person represents the greatest Mystery of Christianity. In this meaning prayer is even monological due to the fact that God is a Trinity of persons: “I and the Father are one.” (John. 10, 30). Here lies the great Mistery: the single God worshipped in three persons. The power of the Holy Trinity, which we always find again within the Church through the committing of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, transfigures us in our inner life and so beginns the long process of our perfection and deification in Jesus Christ. Keywords- immanence, Knowledge, Christian Spirituality
I.
INTRODUCTION
The name YAHVE expressed the transcendental nature of God and the name EMANUEL reveals His immanent nature. YAHVE was so holy for the former Jews, that it couldn’t be pronounced. When they came back from their babylonian slavery, the Jews tried more and more to protect the God’s Name from what they considered to be an impolite familiarity. Therefore, the divine name begun to be represented only through the four consonants which composed the name: YHVH. This word means “that who is” or “that who is present” and suposses that God is available to help. Even the transcendent name of God carried in itself a grain of His immanence, which was close enough to come to rescue. Emanuel, “God with us” is used for Messiah. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (ISAIAH 9:6). This will be God amidst us: the divine and quick immanence. Within theology, the concept of transcendent related to God expresses His existence ”separate and beyond and of the limits of the material universe1” (Oxford Dictionary of English, publishing house OXFORD DISCTIONNARRY PRESS, 2003, page 1872). Often the word ”transcendent” (which originates from the latin word transcendens, participle of the latin verb trasncendere = which surpasses) is antinomically used opposite of or face to
face with the meaning of the notion „immanent” (in the volume Oxford Dictionary of English, publishing house OXFORD DISCTIONNARRY PRESS, 2003, page 866),in order to mark the ontological distance between uncreayed – created, an insurmountable distance as a knowing act from creation to Creator without the manifested help from God to man. As far as the transcendens and immanence of God in relation with His creation, the Orthodoxy simultaneously asserts the both concepts, noticing in the notion of transcendence the God’s supreme liberty face to face with the creation limits (affected by the presence of sin), and in immanence the unintelligible snd the incomprehensible God’s mercy through which This restores the world feeding through His redemptive presence and accomplishing His work through the embodiment of His Only begotten Son of God Jesus Christ (see the work with the number 1). The embodiment represents the supreme immanence. God walked again through the garden, this time under the physical form of His children: Adam and Eve (see the work with number 2). The relation between Theology – Philosophy was differently understood in the Eastern Tradition compared to the Western Tradition. Within the Western Tradition the Theology became dependent of two antiquity philosophycal systems. By means of Blessed Augustin, the Western Theology became dependent of the platonism, which manifested reservation and aggression opposite to the material. In platonism it is considered that the spirit is the prisoner of the material and its redemtion consists of the spirit release of the carnal handcuffs. This aversion towards the sensible and material universe imprinted in two ways in the western theology: 1. Firstly through the fact that the Blessed Augustin don’t speak about the spirit presence in the body. Sometimes there is even at him the tendency to make this approach, but he considers that the spirit is outside material. In Protestantism, whose inspiration source is the Blessed Augustin’s philosophy, the human nature is entirely alterated by sin, what represents a remark of the neoplatonism and platonism concerning the material. The neoplatonic system influnced the Western Theology as far as the Predestination Idea, which prevalently was preached by the Blessed Augustin and the Reformers (the Calvinists and Lutherans). Therefore, if the material is bad and couldn’t be improved, the man redemption remains a problem of God, thus
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it is reached the man Predestination, which is preached by the Protestantism. Both the minimisation of the material and the maximisation of the Predestination represent the two ways through which the platonism have influnced the Western Theology. 2. The second philosophycal system, which made a mark in the Western Philosophy, is represented by Aristotelianism. The Western Scolastic Theology used this system to present and explain the christian teaching and doctrine. Aristotelism was adoptetd like a reaction against the Platonism. So as much Platonism disregards the material, as much Aristotelianism valorize it. In this way is explained the reason, for which, different of the Augustinian Theology, which considers the human nature entirely fallen into sin, the scolastic aristotelian theology estimates the human nature so good, that it almost wasn’t contaminated by sin. Both the protestant and the catholic extreme are the result of the dominance of some philosophycal systems which have a natural provenance, that means outside the Jesus Christ Gospel. No doubt the Scolastic had the merit to contribute to discipline the mind of the occidental man, developing in this way the clarity, distinction and the systematisation, decisive elements which allowed the occidental spirit to become an analitycal spirit, being capable to be preoccupied by analysis and research. But from the theological point of view, Aristotelism had two major negative influences: - Aristotelism, although it surpassed the idea of material and substance, however remains tributary concerning the relation between form and substance. Under the influence of this philosophycal principle, the catholic (scolastic) theology rationalised the Trinitarian Mystery, to firstly argue about the Divine Substance and only then about the Persons. In this way the Trinitarian Persons change into some exterior masks applied to the Divine Nature. Under the influence of Aristotelism, Scolastic developed the mystery of the Trinitarian Community and rationalised the Divine Revelation. - The second aspect of this negative influence is revealed by the fact that Aristotelism preferred to debate about the external relations between things, never understanding the importance and the role of the internal liaisons. Therefore the scolastic catholic theology was oblidged to consider God and world as two realities closed in themselves and bound only through the external relations. The divine grace was an entity added”donum super editum”. The relation between God and world wasn’t understood through the perspective of the Holy Spirit or of the increate energies, but rather like a causal creation. No wonder that the scolastic catholic theology came to consider God as the first immobile engine and the world like a machine which was started by God and then functions through itself, without any divine intervention. One of the greatest errors, which was made by the scolastic catholic theology under the influence of aristotelism is that to conceive the human substance like an autonoumus nature opposite to the divine grace and the supernatural reality. Consequently man begun to understand the divine grace like an assault to his autonomy and freedom and in this way to incline to atheism. God is seen like a closed reality in an
inaccessible transcendence, which has no significance proper for the universe and man existence. From this perspective, philosophy went on, asserting the world secularization ideea, therefore atheism. The dependence of the Western Theology of the one or other philosophical system has led to the creation clearing from each trace of God presence and work. The Orthodox Theology avoided to become the prisoner of one or other philosophical system. Instead of an analytical attitude towards the philosophical systems, the Eastern Theology had a selective and synthetical attitude. Due to this fact, it avoided to change the christian theology into a servant of the philosophy and in this way had the opportunity to introduce true cultural revolutions in the philosophy. For instance, it is well known that one of the greatest dilemmas of the ancient philosophy was the separation between spirit and material, which had a remarkable influence in the Western Theology. Instead to be influenced by this dualism, namely to consider that spirit remains external the material, the Eastern theology have seen in spirit the fundament of material. That means that spirit lies inside and not outside the material. The Saint Gregory of Nyssa asserts that amterial represents a concentration of spirit and energy. In this way the Eastern theology could transcend the philosophycal systems and was able to speak about transfiguration and deification of the human nature emerged from its interior and through the presence and work of the Holy Spirit, namely of the increate energies. The christian faith in only One God as Being but hypostatised in Three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, shows us that He is at the same time transcendent and immanent, beyond but concomitently inside of the world. The Holy Trinity is the fundament of the christian orthodox teaching and faith about God. In this meaning the religious faith in the Holy Trinity dogma delimits the christian faith about God from other doctrines and conceptions, and according to it God accomplishes the redemption of the man who comes to Jesus Christ. The orthodox spirituality implies the love and truth communion of the christian man with God in Jesus Christ and with all who belong to Him and share with His Body and Blood within the Eucharist (Holy Communion). If the scolastic theology was dominated by a causal and mechanical conception regarding the relation between God and world, namely an external relation, the Eastern Theology due to the increate energies could speak about an inner link between God and world, develop an energetic conception regarding the intervention of God in His creation and outrun with many centuries the progress, which science will later carry out. Because the Eastern theology is based on the divine revelation and not on the philosophical systems and, because it develops an energetic conception about the divine and created reality, it always had the ressources to successfully get through to all the problems, which each epoch rose before the church. Instead to be influenced and transformmed by the philosophical systems, the orthodoxy let a positive influence giving rise to a moral and spiritual culture, which will last for eternity. Everything which exist, i.e. all creatures are destined to be known by the mind, or with other words the mind is called to know them within a correspondence due to the fact that the
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mind itself has in its essence and works its proper existence attribute. Therefore it isn’t able to know God through its natural works, Who is beyond the existence category. God Himself through His Work endowed mind with the faculty to know Him. Therefore we are far away from the neoplatonic and evagrian panteism, which estimated that mind, finding its last unity, is able through its natural faculties to know The One God. Here is clearly asserted the transcendence of God. II. THE TRANSCENDENCE OF GOD, THE HOLY TRINITY – THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHRISTIAN TEACHING The Holy Trinity represents the basis of the christian orthodox teaching and faith relating to God. The faith in the Holy Trinity Dogma delimits the christian teaching about God from the other concepts and doctrines, in the meaning that only this orthodox teaching and faith shows us that Gad accomplishes the redemption for that man who is truly coming to Jesus. According to this reality the Church has a trinitarian foundation which must not be searched by means of philosophical speculations but only in the Redeemer words and interpretations given by the Holy Fathers.
at the same time considers and prizes man like a person, rising him to this dialogue of love, but without suspending his free will, also only if this man accepts and wants this communion3. The man perfection can carry out only there where God is not conceived like a singular Person, but rather as a communion of persons in a perfect union in a single Being, Who calls everybody to the accomplishment of this communion. Because only in this perfect communion of supreme persons, God can call the man to share with Him this kind of communion. As a perfect love, as a Trinity of absolute persons, God can give Himself to the other persons, if He wants to do that, gradually sharing them from the infinity of His life and love and in this way deifying them.The Orthodoxy prefers to use the terms : “life in Jesus Christ”, “life in Spirit”, “spiritual life”, “life in God”, actually expressing that the essence of the christian life is this union with God, no matter at which level could be this religious experience. Thereby the orthodox teaching followed the example of the Saint Paul the Apostle (references to this subject could be found in Galatians. 3, 28;3, 20; II Corinthians 4, 11; I Corinthians 7, 8; I Corinthians 6, 19; I Corinthians 3, 16; I Corinthians 2, 2; Romans 8, 15; 8, 9- 10; Ephesians 3, 16, 17; Colossians 3, 3; I John 14, 23; I John 3, 24 etc.).
In the Church live is interweaved the life of the Holy Trinity: before His sufferings the Redeemer prays to the Father “that they all may be one.” “As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (John 17, 21).
The orthodox teaching remains truthful to the New Testament and namely don’t rationalize the mystery of God as three consubstantial persons or hypostases, Who from His Love conveys for us in His Holy Spirit through the increate energies, but on the contrary, being based on the experience of a life in communion with God, don’t consider God as being reserved and incommunicative towards us like in the rationalistic monotheistic religions (we mean here Judaism and Mohammedanism) and don’t lead us to a complete fusion with Him, like in the pantheistic religions and philosophies, which recognize like unique reality the essence of one or other kind.
The catholic theologician, Georg Koepgen1, significantly underlined the trinitarian basis of the christian spirituality and at the same time, the undoubted reality that this spirituality was in the best way preserved within the Eastern Church, the biblical teaching about the Holy Trinity being unalteredly kept and maintaining it the central place in the christian piety.
As a Person God can gradually share this spiritual life. This offering of the Holy Trinity can’t be experienced and thought without the increate divine energies in even more increased grades, because the Being Himself represents a shared energy, which we can only very little experience as finite beings, because this shared energy is actually infinite4.
The christian faith in One God as Being but hypostatised in Three persons: Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, shows us that God is transcendental but at the same time immanent, that He is beyond the but also inside the world2.
“But the trinitarian community of the divine Persons, dinamic structure of an endless love, isn’t a uniform love of the three Persons between them, but a love of Father and Son and a hypostatized communication between them, in the Person of the Holy Spirit. If I wouldn’t have the other like a different person, if this wouldn’t give me a different love than mine, I wouldn’t be interested too much. Without these special attributes, the divine love, however infinite, would have something monotonous in its essence”5. The redemption and deification of those who believe in Jesus Christ is just the extension of the affectionate relations between the Divine Persons to the conscious creatures, i.e. to the human persons.
The divine trinitarian relations are:
a model of the relations between people within the Church and
a power, which generates and deepens these relations.
The personal spiritual perfection of the man through his for ever unconfounded union with God could be carried out only there where it is believed in an eternal eschatology of man, in his union with God. This kind of eschatology is a natural consequence of a Trinitarian God. More like that, He descended to us through His Son embodied as man, always maximally approaches to everybody to give him the perfection and deification possibility, i.e. to be in an accomplished life communion. The union of man with God for eternity is guaranteed and conveyed only there where One of the Divine Persons embodied Himself as man for eternity revealing in this way the eternal love of God for humanity. This is the essential conviction of the orthodox spirituality. Only a personal God, Who is the supreme and inexhaustible spring of love and Who
Therefore, The Holy Trinity is essentially revealed in the redemption work and this signifies that It is the basis of our redemption. Through His Son, God manifestes His Love towards the others, as Father for all His spiritual sons. With the help of the Holy Trinity our redemtion accomplished. That means, in the structure of the supreme interpersonal love it is given to human persons the unique opportunity to be redeemed.
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This above mentioned opportunity is delivered by the Holy Trinity through one of Its Persons : the Logos or the Word of God later incarnated into man, when the “Word became flesh” at the the fulness of the time”6. Through His incarnated Son, after Whose image we are created, we get into communion with the Holy Father and through the Holy Spirit we pray to God or speak with Him like His spiritual sons, better to say we begin to dare to be like sons before almighty God. The Holy Spirit brings in creation the life and the reciprocal trinitarian love, actually It rises the entire creation to the trinitarian love and deification, which is in fact endless. The work of the Holy Trinity carries out within the Church, which is full of the increate and sanctifying energies7 This sanctifying work is firstly promised by the Our Redeemer Jesus Christ: „If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him”. (John, 14, 23). The revelation acts of this Holy Trinity represent redeeming and deifying acts, through which we are arised to the communion with the Persons of the Holy Trinity, through the power of the Holy Spirit.8 The uninterrupted working presemce of the Holy Trinity in the Church and in the life of the believers is continuously requested through the request, thank and blessing prayers of the clergy members and of the christian community together with its pastor and priest. This power can transfigure us in our inner life and in this way begins the long process of our accomplishment and deification in Jesus Christ. All the church prayers begin with the invocation of the Holy Trinity, showing through this liturgical rule that no prayer could be carried out with a real fulfilment hope without the deep belief in It. All the prayers finish with the glory of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, with the confession of Its blessing power, as the main reason and principle that all what was carefully requested, can be achieved. At the start of each everyday activities, the believers of the Church usually make the sign of the holy cross, invoking the blessing protection of the Holy Trinity, suggesting in this way that in a some measure the Holy Trinity dwells in their inner being. That means the Holy Trinity is an inexhaustible source of sacrificial love amd divine increate energies, practically being the main basis of our authentic christian spirituality. Our spiritual life has as initial point the communion of trinitarian life and love, which is maintained through the inexhaustible energies of the Holy Spirit, which help us in the ascetic efforts and in all our good deeds made towards our brothers in Christ and even when somebody reaches the highest achievement of this religious experience, the same beneficent energies maintain the perspective of an endless progress. As a final conclusion, we assert that the Holy Trinity is the main fundament of the orthodox faith and teaching about God. The belief in the dogma of the Holy Trinity delimits the orthodox teaching about God of othe other doctrines and
conceptions, in the meaning that only a such Divinity is the single redeeming as the basis of the love communion with us, as persons projected into eternity. The christian faith in a single God as Being, but hypostatized in Three Persons or in Three Hypostases: Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, reveals the truth according to Which God is transcendent and at the same time immanent, that He is beyond the world but also in the world9. More like that, He descends to us through One of His Persons, always maximally approaches to everybody to give him the perfection and deification possibility, i.e. to be in an accomplished life communion. This is the conviction of the orthodox spirituality. Only a personal God, Who is the supreme and inexhaustible spring of love and Who at the same time considers and prizes man like a person, rising him to this dialogue of love, but without suspending his free will, also only if this man accepts and wants this communion10. The man perfection can carry out only there where God is not conceived like a singular Person, but rather as a communion of persons in a perfect union in a single Being, Who calls everybody to the accomplishment of this communion. This accomplished communion with the supreme Persons can nourish with its endless and perfect love our deep thirst for this communion and love between us. We are called to think this nourishment but at the same time to live and experience it. As perfect love, the Holy Trinity is able to give Itself over the other persons, if It wants, sharing from the Its endless life and love and finally deifying them. These persons can gradually become participants to this divine life. This offering of the Holy Trinity can’t be experienced and thought without the increate divine energies in even more increased grades, because the Being Himself represents a shared energy, which we can only very little experience as finite beings, because this shared energy is actually infinite11. At the same time, this trinitarian community of the divine Persons doesn’t mean a uniform love of the three Persons between them, but a love of Father and Son and a hypostatized communication between them, in the Person of the Holy Spirit. From here it could be concluded that this love is not uniform, because otherwise it would become monotonous12. The redemption and deification of those who believe in Jesus Christ is just the extension of the affectionate relations between the Divine Persons to the conscious creatures, i.e. to the human persons. Therefore, The Holy Trinity is essentially revealed in the redemption work and this signifies that It is the basis of our redemption. Through His Son, God manifestes His Love towards the others, as Father for all His spiritual sons. With the help of the Holy Trinity our redemption is accomplished. That means, in the structure of the supreme interpersonal love it is given to human persons the unique opportunity to be redeemed. This above mentioned opportunity is delivered by the Holy Trinity through one of Its Persons: the Logos or the Word of God later incarnated into man, when the “Word became flesh” at the the fulness of the time”13.
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Through His incarnated Son, after Whose image we are created, we get into communion with the Holy Father and through the Holy Spirit we pray to God or speak with Him like His spiritual sons, better to say we begin to dare to be like sons before almighty God. If the Son wouldn’t have incarnated like a man, the Love of Father wouldn’t overflow towards us, which from Jesus Christ like a human being passes to us. Through the Incarnated Son radiates into the mankind and world the Holy Spirit, like the Love of God towards us and our Love towards God. The Holy Spirit brings in creation the life and the reciprocal trinitarian love, actually It rises the entire creation to the trinitarian love and deification, which is in fact endless. The work of the Holy Trinity carries out within the Church, which is full of the increate and sanctifying energies14. This power can transfigure us in our inner life and in this way begins the long process of our accomplishment and deification in Jesus Christ. The uninterrupted working presence of the Holy Trinity in the Church, which is confessed by the Epistles of the Holy Apostles, was very efficient from the oldest times through the request, thank and blessing prayers of the clergy members and of the christian community together with its pastor and priest. That means the Holy Trinity is an inexhaustible source of sacrificial love amd divine increate energies, practically being the main basis of our authentic christian spiritualityThe revelation acts of the Holy Trinity are redemption and deifyings acts, there are our rising acts to get into communion with the Persons of the Holy Trinity trhough the power of the Holy Spirit 15. Our spiritual life has as initial point the communion of trinitarian life and love, which is maintained through the inexhaustible energies of the Holy Spirit, which help us in the ascetic efforts and in all our good deeds made towards our brothers in Christ and even when somebody reaches the highest achievement of this religious experience, the same beneficent energies maintain the perspective of an endless progress. The spring of this spiritual power and the model of the orthodox christian life, the communion of the christian with Jesus Christ in His Church and the growing - up through the christian virtues in Christ (Ephesians, 4, 13), represent the essence of this spirituality. „If the christian has his faith in the Holy Trinity as basis for his spiritual life, this spirituality begins to be real part of his innermost being. (On the other hand we would say: the act of faith is actually the getting into communion with God, but which can be developed through the purification of passions)”16. „The Being, life and work of this Three divine Persons are common, but each of Them has in His own way His unique being and participates or performs the common work according to His irreducible special feature, otherwise according to „His personality”17.
III. IMMANENCE OF GOD INCARNATION A BEGINNING AND A PREMISE OF THE REDEMPTION AND DEIFICATION OF MAN The redemption and deification are for some from the Holy Fathers, notions and realities, which reciprocally implicate in the orthodox christian spirituality. The human nature of the Redeemer Jesus Christ got into a process of gradual deification which has lasted from the Incarnation till the Resurrection, when it was completely filled with the deifying energies of the Holy Spirit, but only after His Ressurection. The deification of the human nature, although given in His embodiment, is progressively performed, along His fleshly Life through His Sufferings, Sacrifice on the Cross, Ressurection and Ascension.18 From the theological point of view, the immanence of God is asserted and argued in Orthodoxy through the presence of the divine grace- i.e. of the divine increate energies, which sustains19 the whole Universe being as „linkbridge” over the „precipice” of the transcendence of God towards His creation. In this meaning it is paradoxically asserted the transcendence but at the same time the immanence of God. If the transcendence specially refers to His nature, about which man actually knows nothing, the immanence is expressed both through the divine grace and through the concrete reality of the Embodiment of jesus Christ like Son of God, from Whom we are taking the Eucharistical Sacrifice(the Eucharis) till the end of the time. The Divine Grace, which is given to us, exists in Its fullness within the humanity of the Person of Jesus Christ, to which all the increate energy of His deity overflowed. The Divine Grace, which comes from Jesus Christ, being undivided energy of the divine Being, unites the believer not only with Our Lord and Savior and the Persons of the Holy Trinity but also between them. And our ontological liaison with Our Redeemer Christ is carried out and strengthened through the Holy Spirit. The deification of the human nature from the Person of Jesus Christ is given at the Embodiment event, but is gradually disclosed along the time on the earth. God descended into the world and embodied being and remaining true God and true man, resembling to us but without the original sin (Philippians, 2, 6-7), and the man who had interrupted the dialogue with Him can rise to the fullness of the divine life and has the possibility to become”God after the divine Grace”., because the union of the two natures: the divine and the human in the hypostase of the Logos, i.e. of the fleshed Son, was decided by God even from eternity, because this was the last purpose for which the world was created from nothing19. Through His embodiment, the Son of God has risen within man the divine image to its complete communion with God and fellow men20, because through this Incarnation has taken place not nor an ontological recovery but also a renewal and an ontological growing-up of the divine image found in the human nature. Also, the Son of God remains cu with this feature and capability even when He has incarnated, His filial Love towards His Father fulfilling His Humanity. But through His Humanty, which in fact resemblances to our humanity, is fulfilled by filial Love the complete nature contained in His
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hypostases, and our image is more and more becoming the image of Jesus Christ, that means, after the image of the incarnated Word, with other words “a new creature” (“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” – 2 Corinthians 5,17)21 .
the human nature, organically linked with it through His Body. And through His acceptance by the people, everybody performs his aspiration to contain the essence of the universe and to deify through themselves the outer space.
Through His Incarnation Our Savior Jesus Christ” becomes the human nature ontologically assumed” and namely He restores it, as the same Maximus the Confessor says: ”according to its essence”, because becoming man the free will was kept within the peace impassibility with nature”22.
[1]
As a conclusion: the Son of God becoming a man accepted and assumed the human nature with its three main capabilities: mind (reason), feeling and free will. But in Jesus Christ there is both a divine will and work and a human will and work, which were obeying to His divine will23.
[3]
The liberty, with which is endowed the human nature, also and the will, represents one of the essential features of the divine image from everybody and it is referring to the human soul, but found in a tight liaison with body. Within our human nature, there are many impulses, which operate under the influence of different circumstancies, but the main fact is disclosed by our consideration, intention and finally our choice, which have to comply with reason of the integral human nature. The human person, acting according to the essence of his nature and of the other fellow men, is acting alike the will of God, through the love power which springs from the Trinitarian God. From here results that God has created the men endowed with a will, which is sustained and helped by His Love with the unique and real purpose to develop a unity between them and with Him. But when people were driven by some unilateral impulses from their sinful tendencies, being under the attraction of some aspects of the world, unilaterally considered and perceived, they reached thoughts and choices, which in fact represented the contrary towards the unity between them and God24. Through the Embodiment has taken place an ontological as well as moral renewal, due to:
first of all a restoration and a thorough knowledge of God, through the rediscovery of the divine reasons located by Logos in things, beings since the beginning and through the support of the wolrd, carried out through the restoration and deification of the human nature from the Hypotase of the Incarnated Logos. secondly took place a restoration and an increase of the content of the knowledge of the Trinitarian God and through thye direct discovery of God in the Incarnated Word: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth”. (The Gospel according to Saint John, 1, 14).
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The Savior Jesus Christ is the Person Who holds in Himself from Divinity till the deified material of the universe, through
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Georg Koepgen, Die Gnosis des Christentum (The Gnosis of Christianity), Salzburg, 1939, page 63. Preot Profesor Dumitru Radu, Sfânta Treime (The Holy Trinity) in the magazine “Îndrumări Misionare” (The Missionary Consultancies), Editura, Institutul Biblic şi de Misiune, Bucureşti, (Ed., I.B.M., Buc.), (Publishing House of the Romanian Orthodox Church Bible and Mission Institute) 1986, page 107 – 108. Pr. Prof. Doctor, (Pr.Prof.Dr.), Dumitru Stăniloae, Spiritualitatea Ortodoxă, Ascetica şi Mistica, Ed., I.B.M., Buc., 1992, p.29 (The Orthodox Spirituality, Asceticism and Mysticism, Publishing House of the Romanian Orthodox Church Bible and Mission Institute, Bucharest, 1992, page 29). Ibidem, page 35- 36. Ibidem, page 36. Idem, Sfânta Treime – Creatoarea, mântuitoarea şi ţinta veşnică a tuturor credincioşilor, în “Orthodoxia”, an XXXVIII (1986), NR. 2, p. 2324(HOLY TRINITY – THE CREATOR, REDEEMER AND ETERNAL TARGET OF ALL BELIEVERS, IN THE THEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE “ORTHODOXY”, Year XXXVIII (1986), Number 2, page 23 – 24). Ibidem, page (30 – 31). Idem, Teologia Dogmatică Ortodoxă, Ed. I.B.M., Buc., 1978, p.287 (Rev. Professor Doctor DUMITRU STĂNILOAE, THE ORTHODOX DOGMATIC THEOLOGY, Publishing House of the Romanian Orthodox Church Bible and Mission Institute, Bucharest, 1978, page 287). Pr. Prof. Dumitru Radu, Sfânta Treime (The Holy Trinity) in the magazine “Indrumări Misionare” (The Missionary Consultancies), Ed. I.B.M.,(Publishing House of the Romanian Orthodox Church Bible and Mission Institute), Buc. 1986, page 107 – 108. Pr.. Prof. Dr., Dumitru Stăniloae, Spiritualitatea Ortodoxă, Ascetica şi Mistica, Ed. I.B.M., Buc., 1992, p.29 (The Orthodox Spirituality, Asceticism and Mysticism, Publishing House of the Romanian Orthodox Church Bible and Mission Institute, Bucharest, 1992, page 29). Ibidem, page 35- 36. Pr.. Prof. Dr., Dumitru Stăniloae, Spiritualitatea Ortodoxă, Ascetica şi Mistica, Ed. I.BM., Buc., 1992, p.36 (The Orthodox Spirituality, Asceticism and Mysticism, Publishing House of the Romanian Orthodox Church Bible and Mission Institute, Bucharest, 1992, page 36). Pr. Prof. Dr., Dumitru Stăniloae,Sfânta Treime – Creatoarea, mântuitoarea şi ţinta veşnică a tuturor credincioşilor, în “Orthodoxia”, an XXXVIII (1986), NR. 2, p. 23-24 (HOLY TRINITY – THE CREATOR, REDEEMER AND ETERNAL TARGET OF ALL BELIEVERS, IN THE THEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE “ORTHODOXY”, Year XXXVIII (1986), Number 2, page 23 – 24). Ibidem, page 30 – 31. Pr., Prof., Dr., Dumitru Stăniloae, Teologia Dogmatică Ortodoxă, Ed., I.B.M., Buc., 1978, p. 287. (Rev. Professor Doctor DUMITRU STANILOAE, THE ORTHODOX DOGMATIC THEOLOGY, Publishing House of the Romanian Orthodox Church Bible and Mission Institute, Bucharest, 1978, page 287). Idem, Spiritualitatea Ortodoxă, Ascetica şi Mistica, Ed. I.B.M., Buc., 1992, p.40 (The Orthodox Spirituality, Asceticism and Mysticism, Publishing House of the Romanian Orthodox Church Bible and Mission Institute, Bucharest, 1992, page 40). Daniel, Patriarhul Bisericii Ortodoxe Române, Teologie şi Spiritualitate, Ed., Basilica a Patriarhiei Române, Bucureşti, 2010, p.88. Pr., Prof., Dr., Dumitru Radu, Iisus, Mântuitorul Lumii, în Îndrumări Misionare, Ed. I.B.M., Buc., p.331 (Reverend Professor Doctor Dumitru Radu Jesus Christ, Savior and Redeemer of the World, in the magazine
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“The Missionary Consultancies” ,Publishing House of the Romanian Orthodox Church Bible and Mission Institute, page331). [19] Sfântul Maxim Mărturisitorul, Răspunsuri către Talasie, 60 P.G. 90, col. 621 AB, p.101 (Saint Maximus the Confessor, Questions to Thalassius, 60 Patrologia Graeca, Migne Collection 90, col. 621 AB, page 101). [20] Pr., Prof., Dr., Dumitru Stăniloae, Teologia Dogmatică Ortodoxă, Ed., I.B.M., Buc., 1978, vol. I, p. 408.( Rev. Professor Doctor DUMITRU STANILOAE, THE ORTHODOX DOGMATIC THEOLOGY, Publishing House of the Romanian Orthodox Church Bible and Mission Institute, Bucharest, 1978, volume I, page 408). [21] Pr., Prof., Dr., Dumitru Radu, Mântuirea - a doua creaţie, în revista “ Ortodoxia”, an XL (1986), nr. 2, p. 54 - 551 (Reverend Professor Doctor Dumitru Radu Jesus Christ, Savior and Redeemer of the World, in the magazine “Orthodoxy” ,year XL(1986), number 2, page 54 - 551).
[22] Sfântul Maxim Mărturisitorul, Exposito in Orat. Domine, P.G., 90, 977 (Saint Maximus the Confessor, Exposito in Orat. Domine, 60 Patrologia Graeca, Migne Collection 90, page 977). [23] Pr. Prof. Dumitru Radu, Hristologia Sfântului Maxim Mărturisitorul, in “Ortodoxia”, an XL(1988), NR. 3, P. 68. (Reverend Professor Doctor Dumitru Radu – The Hristology of the Saint Maximus the Confessor, in the magazine “Orthodoxy”year XL (1988), number 3, page 68. [24] Pr., Prof. Dr. Dumitru Stăniloae, Teologia Dogmatică Ortodoxă, Ed., I.B.M., Buc., 1978, vol. I, p. 68 - 69. (Rev. Professor Doctor DUMITRU STANILOAE, THE ORTHODOX DOGMATIC THEOLOGY, Publishing House of the Romanian Orthodox Church Bible and Mission Institute, Bucharest, 1978, volume I, page 68 - 69).
Philosophy, Ethics and Religion 10.18638/quaesti.2016.4.1.307
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