The theologian Nichifor Crainic taught us a lasting positive lesson, through which he shaped the destiny of contemporary Orthodox theology, because it was assumed and completed in Sibiu by Fr Dumitru Stăniloae. Crainic was not only the one who understood that there could be no Orthodoxy without “thought”, without culture, literature and art. He truly was “our only interference theologian”, as the church historian Teodor M. Popescu (1893-1973) said in 1940. Moreover, he was the first who understood that there could be no theology without mysticism, nor Orthodoxy without Philokalia. In theology, Nichifor Crainic was “a discoverer and a creator”, a theologian who opened heavenly horizons before our eyes. He should be remembered for ever.

Archdeacon. Dr. Ioan I. Ica jr, professor at "Andrei Şaguna" Theology Faculty of "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu

This paper emphasizes the importance of the Holy Eucharist to believers’ lives; without it, they do not have access to their own spiritual accomplishment and redemption. Moreover, the Holy Eucharist is an unbloody sacrifice brought by our Lord Jesus Christ who spiritually reiterates His sacrifice on Golgotha within and through the Church. There is a strong, mutual bond between the Holy Eucharist and the Church, between the Eucharistic Mystery and the other Mysteries of the Church. The Holy Eucharist ensures the Communion between the God-Man Jesus Christ and man, and among the members of the Church, who compose the body of the Church, whose Head is Christ Himself.

Drd. Stelian Gomboș - Councilor (superior) at the State Secretariat for Religious Affairs of the Romanian Government in Bucharest

Saint Paul’s statement that “God will be all in all” and other passages in the Holy Scripture are taken by Origen as the biblical foundation for his eschatological doctrine of universal salvation, evil and purification of the soul. Origen defended himself against his detractors who accused him of an attempt to prove that demons may be saved as well. His anthropology provides more arguments on this statement. Universal salvation is just a hope and not a necessity. The free will plays an important role in the spiritual participation in the eternity. The devil is not able to make the good choice, although he is no victim, but a guilty angel who turned away with all his being from the source of goodness toward evil. The anthropology and soteorological view of the author give us a clearer image of his doctrine of apocatastasis in a time of research and project of the pioneered theology.

Drd. Adrian Roman

The article studies the specific characters of the levels of language (phonetic, semantic, morphological and syntactical) in both liturgical and personal prayer, emphasising a remarkable potential of graphicalness.

An extremely important issue in the history of Orthodox Churches in the Habsburg monarchy (and later on, in the Austrian/Austro-Hungarian Empire) is their juridical status, especially their relationship to Ecumenical Orthodoxy. According to Nicodim Milaş, the two Orthodox Churches in Hungary (Ser- bian and Romanian) were autocephalous Churches in the early twentieth century. However, there is no Tomos issued by the Ecumenical Patriarchy or by any other autocephalous Church on the foundation of an autocephalous Romanian Orthodox Church in Transylvania (similar to the one recognizing the Orthodox Church of the Roman an Kingdom, signed on 25 April 1885 by Joachim IV, the Ecumenical Patriarch).

This article is a brief presentation of the process through which the title of “pontifex maximus” was replaced with “basileus isapostolos” in the case of Roman emperors, in an attempt to prove that this mutation is not only a formal replacement of an obsolete title with a newer one, but a fundamental religious and political shift. After analysing the consecration ceremonies in both the pagan Roman state and in the Byzantium of the first centuries, we notice that the change exerted a strong influence on the involvement of the political into the religious, at the level of a potential harmony between imperium and sacerdotium, towards what the literature terms as the Byzantine “symphony”.

The narration of the words of institution is one of the most complex sections of the Eucharistic anaphora. Its origins go back to the beginnings of Christian worship, and its evolution was an ample and long process. The words uttered by the Saviour and the acts performed during the Last Supper were preserved by the oral Tradition of the Early Church and they were written later on in the Holy Scripture. The words of institution were thus adapted and adjusted to the biblical texts and, according to Cagin, it was enriched with non-biblical material, which brought a certain symmetry to the blessing of the bread and the wine. Saint Basil’s Eucharistic texts do not render literally a biblical passage, but they are actually a mature synthesis of the fragments in the Holy Scripture which describe the Last Supper. Although the narration of the words of institution is mentioned in Saint Basil’s De Baptismo 1, 3, 2 his intervention into the text cannot be demonstrated. The passage in De Baptismo contains a free quotation of the texts in Luke 22:19-20 and I Corinthians 11:23-30, which proves that these biblical passages were used in worship.

The fundamental duties believers make them responsible and help them find their role and purpose in the life of their parish. Thus, believers have the following duties, not obligations: to participate, as frequently as possible, in the divine services of the Church, especially on Sundays and feasts, and in the Holy Mysteries of the Church; to support, strengthen and confess the belief of the Orthodox Church; to live according to Orthodox teachings; to obey their parish priest and support him in accomplishing his pastoral and missionary programme. Every believer must have a strong consciousness of a parishioner, which ennobles the above, the parishioner becoming thus the worthy shepherded.

Over time, a series of portraits – representations of either plastic art or photography –have been dedicated to Metropolitan Andrei Şaguna, which decisively contribute to the historical evocation of his personality. Among these, the works of two prominent representatives of the early twentieth century Romanian art, namely the Transylvanian painter Sava Henţia and the sculptor Frederic Stork, are worth being mentioned. In both cases, the portrayal of Metropolitan Andrei Şaguna was entrusted to the above-mentioned artists through official order, by the Theological-Pedagogical Institute and, respectively, by the Consistory of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Sibiu. This study aims to highlight the extent to which these two artistic images managed to render and communicate to posterity the physical features and the memorable spiritual qualities of the hierarch. Began a few decades after Şaguna’s death, the two works demanded prior documentation on the part of their creators, including a selection of sources, which the present study has identified with a series of portraits after living models and with some old photographs of Şaguna. The promotion of the project concerning the placement of a monument, representing Metropolitan Şaguna, in a public place in Sibiu has also been approached, as this initiative has not been materialised yet.

Pe data de 15 noiembrie 2009, Întâistătătorul Bisericii Ortodoxe Sârbe s-a mutat la cele veşnice, la venerabila vârstă de 95 de ani. Internat din data de 13 noiembrie 2007 la Spitalul Academic Militar din Belgrad, în urma unor probleme cardiace, pulmonare şi neurologice, cel despre care s-a afirmat că era „singurul om în jurul căruia sârbii erau uniţi” a păşit în Împărăţia lui Dumnezeu smerit, împăcat cu Dumnezeu şi cu cei din jur, după cum i-a fost şi viaţa! ...

Stefan L. Toma

Într-o vreme în care dialogul inter-creştin şi inter-religios pare mai necesar ca niciodată, în contextul în care la nivel mondial conceptul de interculturalitate e tot mai abordat, ca şi perspectivă a unităţii între oameni şi culturi, abordarea problematicii ecumenismului mai suscită încă diverse reacţii, chiar şi în sânul Bisericii Ortodoxe. Patriarhia Ecumenică, având rolul de a coordona dialogul oficial al Bisericii Ortodoxe în ansamblul ei cu celelalte Biserici creştine, pe baza hotărârilor Sinoadelor locale ale Bisericilor Ortodoxe Autocefale, este şi cea care monitorizează, într-un mod responsabil, atât reacţiile pozitive, cât şi negative, cu privire la dialogul ecumenic. ...

Stefan L. Toma

- Giuseppe Belotti/ Salvatore Palazzo, Genitori, la sfida educativa, Ed. ElleDiCi, Leumann-Torino, 2010, 235 p.
- Sandro Ferraroli, Educare si puo. Famiglia e scuola insieme, ElleDiCi, Leumann-Torino, 2010, 230 p.
- Arhid. Prof. Dr. Constantin Voicu, Patrologie, vol. II, carte tipărită cu binecuvântarea Preafericitului Părinte Daniel, Patriarhul Bisericii Ortodoxe Române, Ed. Basilica, Bucureşti, 2009, 408 p.

Revd. Daniel BUDA, Associated Professor at the “Andrei Şaguna” Orthodox Faculty of Theology, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Romania. He is also Program Executive for Church and Ecumenical Relations in the World Council of Churches