rss_2.0Sciendo RSS Feed for Review of Ecumenical Studies Sibiuhttps://sciendo.com/journal/RESShttps://www.sciendo.comhttps://sciendo-parsed.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/64735eeb4e662f30ba53bbda/cover-image.jpghttps://sciendo.com/journal/RESS140216https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-0110ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-01102023-06-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-0111ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-01112023-06-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-0112ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-01122023-06-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-0101ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-01012023-06-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-0102<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Schmemann’s harsh judgement of the antiphons of Holy Friday matins invites us to consider the role of hymnography in the liturgical celebration. By analysing the historical context of the appearance of the antiphons – according to the methodology proposed by Schmemann – it is possible to consider the way in which these hymns make use of scriptural material by means of patristic intertextuality. The hymns privilege some biblical interpretations in order to encourage the believer to join in the participation in the Kingdom. This parenetic bias, however, often masks the eschatological message contained in the hymns themselves, and even degenerates into denunciatory rhetoric. It is then necessary to recontextualize the functions of hymnography to actualize it, especially by questioning its relationship to Scripture in order to refocus on the theological message.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-01022023-06-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-0105<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>In the 20th century, both in the East, but mostly in the West, a genuine movement of patristic and liturgical renewal took shape, aiming to establish as to what degree the theological discourse and the liturgical life of the Church today corresponds to the spirit and the practice of the Church of the first centuries. In this spirit, the question was often asked if the generalization of infant baptism in the West (5th century), but also in the East (6th century), was influenced by the theory of “original sin” and the Augustinian “bogeyman” concerning the inevitable condemnation to hell of all who die unbaptized. In his book “Of Water and the Spirit”, Father Alexander Schmemann briefly touches, but does not fully develop the subject, and fails to reach any clear conclusions. In the current study we tried, as much as was possible, to follow the roots and dogmatical consequences of this theory, and also to discern its ensuing consequences on baptismal rites and texts, as well as other practical and canonical implications, like the importance of baptismal immersion.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-01052023-06-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-0108ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-01082023-06-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-0106<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Orthodox Church was compelled to move its worship to online platforms. What does such a shift mean in terms of liturgical theology and ontology? To what extent, and in what sense, is participation possible online? How does the virtual space function as a liturgical space? What kind of ontological and aesthetic problems are involved? Orthodox theologians have not yet developed answers to such questions. This paper approaches the problem in the light of Pseudo-Dionysian ontology, supplemented by Alexander Schmemann’s ideas, proposing that virtual worship offers a new sub-category of liturgical reality that reflects the higher forms of reality. To paraphrase the words of Pseudo-Dionysius, cyberspace constitutes a medium in which “like represents like,” though it uses formations that are “even entirely inadequate and ridiculous.”</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-01062023-06-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-0107ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-01072023-06-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-0109ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-01092023-06-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-0104<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The birth of liturgical research in Russia is a phenomenon that deserves careful study. The development of liturgical studies took place mainly in the Theological (Spiritual) Academies of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kyiv and Kazan. The publication of liturgical source materials was the first step towards the establishment of an independent scientific school of liturgical studies in Russia. Thanks to Nikolai Krasnoseltsev, Ivan Mansvetov, Alexei Dmitrievskij, Ivan Karabinov and other prominent liturgists, we have a number of outstanding treatises on the liturgy of the East and West, the Typicon, both of Greek and Russian liturgical traditions, the Sacramental rites and other orders grown out of use. At present, the considerable range of matters addressed in these studies is poorly recognized, although the hypotheses of Russian scholars and their gains in methodology anticipated some of the achievements of the liturgists in the second half of the 20th century.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-01042023-06-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-0103<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate’s liturgical renewal movement has a spontaneous character, but without a well-defined agenda. This paper examines some of the reflections from renowned Romanian theologians about the liturgical renewal in the Orthodox Church and explores how they define the notion of liturgical reform, how they perceive the idea of change in worship, and what a liturgical renewal might look like. Moreover, it examines some concrete reforms that have already been put into practice, but without specific authorization from the Romanian Church hierarchy. The purpose of this approach is to find a starting point for an official synodal and academic debate on the possibility to implement a systematic liturgical reform at an institutional level.^**</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ress-2023-01032023-06-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-0033ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-00332018-01-11T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-0032ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-00322018-01-11T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-0023ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-00232018-01-11T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-0031ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-00312018-01-11T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-0028<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>This paper aims to successively present approaches to German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s thinking in the Romanian research area and to retain a series of milestones of his ample theological vision that could be relevant to the culture of an Orthodox preacher. I believe that the example of Bonhoeffer’s life and work are positive challenging models for the pastoral Orthodox thinking, due to his homiletic vision of life, somehow comparable with the vision of some theologians, who gave good Christian testimony during the difficult times of Romanian and European history. I dare to assert that Bonhoeffer’s thoroughness to elucidate the terminology of Christian preaching and to deal with specific topics of theology of reality that is active and directed to the service of a neighbor, as well as his manner of eschatologically embracing the Christian life, creates paths for the education of dialogue with Orthodoxy.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-00282018-01-11T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-0025<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>In his honest desire to reform the Catholic Church, Martin Luther looked up sometimes to Eastern Christianity and its Ancient Fathers. Especially in the context of his debates with Catholic theologians, Luther tried to accomplish a theological norm through quotes and arguments from the spiritual thesaurus of the Eastern Church. In spite of the fact that Luther‘s references to the Eastern Church show a certain ambiguity and are not as extensive as one would wish today, these are of particular importance and carry undeniable weight for the Reformation period and the Reformers’ knowledge of Eastern Christianity. Luther’s mentions of the Eastern Church constitute until today the basic points of modern ecumenism between Protestantism and Orthodoxy.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-00252018-01-11T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-0030<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>On the occasion of the commemoration of 500 years since the Reformation, this article, entitled “Reformation and Orthodoxy”, calls attention to the personality of Johannes Honterus (1497-1549), the Lutheran reformer of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Transylvania, and reviews his relationship to Orthodoxy, a relationship which may be referred to as “Early Ecumenism”. Johannes Honterus, one of the most important personalities of the Transylvanian Saxons, was an outstanding scholar who had studied in Vienna, Krakow, Regensburg and Basel. He became the founder of the first school and the first publishing house in Brasov (Kronstadt), and – as Senior Pastor – was the reformer of his native town and eventually all of Transylvania (1547). Honterus had close contacts to Christian-Orthodox Romanians from surrounding areas, and in his publishing house not only Latin, Greek and German textbooks were published, as well as the two most important works about the Reformation in Brasov and the whole of Transylvania, but also – about 1540 –, among others, the so called Christian-Orthodox „Edition of Nilus“, with extracts from the Greek Patristic Literature by Evaragius Ponticus, Gregory of Nazianz and Thalassus. His dialogue with Orthodox visitors to his town inspired his work for the Lutheran Reformation among the Transylvanian Saxons. From 1556 to 1583, Honterus had in his publishing house the most important Orthodox publisher of the 16^th century, Deacon Coresi. This “early ecumenism” became the basis for the well-known tradition of religious tolerance in Transylvania.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-00302018-01-11T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-0026<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>Considering the ethical, anthropological and theological perspectives on the institution of a secular leader, as they are presented in Martin Luther’s writing “Das Magnificat verdeutschet und ausgelegt”, (1521) this paper aims to emphasize his contribution to the contemporary political anthropology and European culture. Presenting Mary’s canticle as a vademecum of educating secular leaders, Luther highlights the need of spiritual substantiation of the education of the secular leader and identifies <italic>mens cordis</italic> as the active and reactive center of the human being, from which all counsels and all reigns must be derived. While still preserving parts of mysticism, mystical and ascetic sources for the Christian education of rulers, thus a fragment of the universal Christian tradition, as they were developed and contextualized in Western Europe, this work by Luther could be a significant impulse for the renewal of the dialogue between Lutheran tradition and Orthodoxy.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/ress-2017-00262018-01-11T00:00:00.000+00:00en-us-1