Nikolay Mikhaylovich Opotsky was born on November 16, 1872, in a family of an official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Having graduated from the Belozersk spiritual school and the Novgorod ...theological seminary, in 1896 has been imposed in the deacon, and less than in a year, his presbyteral hirotoniya was taking place on March 6, 1897. In 1902, after the sudden death of his spouse, Nikolay Mikhaylovich made a firm decision to continue the spiritual education and to take monastic vows. By this time he already had real vicarial experience. In the characteristic given to him by the Novgorod diocese for receipt in the spiritual academy it has been written that he is “a person absolutely sober and in vicarial activity hardworking and vigorous”.
This paper explores motifs from the Orthodox Christian tradition in the works of the famous Russian philosopher Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin. The introduction offers a series of testimonies from the ...thinker’s personal life that confirm his affinity toward Christianity and Russian Orthodoxy, and the source of this affinity is linked to his ethnic origin, spiritual environment and the literary-philosophic tradition in which he was intellectually shaped. After presenting a few universal Christian ideas in his works ‒ the comparison of the relationship between the author and the hero with the relationship between the Creator and His human creation, incarnation and the word (logos) ‒ this paper points to the specifically Orthodox ideas in his writings. Those are: perichoresis or the mutual permeation of the two natures of Christ, the holiness of the body and the apophatic approach in theology, the buffoon as a fool for Christ’s sake, and communality as the essence of the existence of the Church. Finally, Bakhtin’s central idea, dialogism, is presented as a means used on the path toward divinization, or theosis, the basic characteristic of Christian spiritual life in the Orthodox East.
The concept of light occupies a prominent place in most religions and cultures and can be understood both at a literal and a metaphorical level. Ever since antiquity, people have created and, later ...on, have developed a mutual connection between light and divinity. Noticing that the sun was the one that provided them with light, the people of ancient times came to attribute human qualities to the light in the sky and to serve it. Unlike them, the hagiographers specified from the very first book of the Holy Scripture that light is God’s creation (Gen. 1:3-5; Is. 45:7) and that it differs significantly from the lights in the vault of the sky (Gen. 1:14-18). The light made by God on the first day of creation to give light to the world is different from the natural light that the sun and the moon shed. Prophet Isaiah underlines this distinction, foretelling a time when the sun will no longer have to shine during the day, as God Himself will be an everlasting light for man (Is. 60:19-20; acc. Rev. 21:23; 22:5). In other words, the Old Testament grants a deep theological dimension to the primordial light, highlighting the fact that its radiance is due to God and that it cannot exist separately from Him. Thus, in this study we shall demonstrate that the uncreated light which was commanded into being by God is nothing else than the radiance of God’s glory and, implicitly, a manner of revealing the mystery of the uncreated light that overflew the world from the very first day of the text of creation.
In the 41 oration, Gregory Nazianzen analyses again the divinity of the Holy Spirit, a subject that is developed in his Fifth Theological Oration. Gregory tries to establish the point by quite a ...different set of arguments from those adopted in the former discourse, none of whose points are here repeated. In the other oration, 41, Gregory refers to the importance of the resurrection for the human race. He presents Christ as the new Adam who saved the human from the death and reunites again the man with God. In this paper, we will examine the teaching of Gregory Nazianzen about the divine status of the Holy Spirit and his equality to the other two persons of the Triune God through theological and biblical images. Also we will present how he connects his teaching for anthropology with the teaching of Christology. In the end we will show how Gregory produced these orations for public festivals within the literarily ripe tradition of pagan festival rhetoric but he gives to his orations theological content.
The present study aims to highlight the concept of philanthropy in the writings of the Saint Basil the Great, the manner in which it was materialized during the lifetime of the Great Cappadocian ...Father and its relevance for the mission of the Orthodox Church in the contemporary society. Man as a social being and philanthropy as a result of the communion in love, following the Trinitarian model, are the main themes of Saint Basil’s sermons. The study shows that the philanthropy-centered discourse of Saint Basil would not have any impact if it weren’t reinforced by the personal example, when he shared to the poor all his wealth inherited from his parents and built a whole philanthropic complex on the outskirts of Caesarea. Regarding the importance of St. Basil's writings for the current life of the Church, the study points out that St. Basil was actively involved in the life of society and tried, with audacity and perseverance, to denounce and correct its inequalities. In so doing, he proved to be a leader of the Church whose spiritual, administrative, and moral authority was so great that it could no longer be ignored or challenged by the authority of the state.
The Book of Prophet Jonah challenges us to face a reality that justifies our quality of God’s children. Often, Christians are faced with a choice between creating or not the necessary frameworks for ...the redemption of the contemporary man who has sometimes an adverse attitude towards the Church. It is this choice that their privileged status of God’s chosen people, of holy people whose mission is to be a light among other people, depends on. Those who set themselves up as judges and punishers of others’ deeds are in conflict with God, by neglecting their vocation and the mission to which they have been called. For these reasons, the association with Jonah is extremely appropriate. The prophet refuses to preach in Nineveh in order to avoid being the instrument by which God brings redemption to an impressive number of sinners. The aim of this study is to fructify this behavioural paradigm to acknowledge the fact that disobedience towards God takes us out of communion and makes us lose the privileged status of God’s chosen one. In order to succeed in this endeavour, I shall bear in mind the most recent researches that try to solve the mystery of the prophet’s unexpected behaviour, but also the opinions of some personalities who represent the Jewish and patristic tradition, which mostly characterises the Christian East. These directions shall offer the reader the possibility of thinking more before choosing to get angry like Jonah or be merciful like God
The paper explores the relations between body, soul and passion from the perspective of two Syriac writers, John the Solitary and Isaac of Nineveh. According to them, the body and the soul are not in ...opposition since through them man contemplates the beauty of the outer and inner world. For this reason, we have three elements as parts of the human nature: the body, the soul and the spirit (the innermost part of the soul) and a threefold spiritual life: according to the body, to the soul and to the spirit. As regarding the body-soul-passion connection, both authors believe that passion can be good, bad or neutral and belongs to both body and soul. Ultimately, bad passions, as temptations, can be necessary for man's spiritual progress because God has put everything in the structure of man for its benefits. So, salvation refers to the totality of human, body and soul, and passions can be transformed into `wings` to facilitate our spiritual ascent.
Man’s purpose, by his own nature, is deification; he is called to mysteriously become god through his free collaboration with the grace of the Holy Spirit. In other words, man must partake in the ...radiance of godly glory and become a light similar to the One Who is Light and the source of Light. This calling is underlined many times in the writings of the mystics who experienced the becoming into light. The transfer of these mystical experiences can be found in a catechetic form in the liturgical rites gravitating around the feast of the Lord’s Transfiguration. The content of these odes helps us understand that the partaking in the light radiating from the Being of the Trinity is not a request reserved only for those initiated in the Hesychastic life, but an offer made to all Christians who take part in Eucharistic life. They mysteriously rejoice at their partaking in the mystical Body of Jesus Christ. This suggests that actually living in the light of God’s glory is a sine qua non condition for salvation.
This contribution analyses the relationship between Halle Pietism and Russian Orthodoxy with a focus on the mobility of actors on both sides. This included Halle Pietists travelling to Russia, but ...also young Russians being invited to Halle to study theology. The paper uses unpublished sources from the Archives of the Francke Foundations in Halle to paint a comprehensive picture of this mobility of people, but also of ideas and literature, which might not have achieved the intended aims on either side, but was still an important episode in German-Russian relations that has received very little attention in existing research. The relationship is looked at over four distinct chronological stages from the final decade of the 17th century to the Catherinian era in the 1760s, with an additional section focusing on Russian academic migration to Halle. Each of these stages must be seen both within the context of what happened in Russia at this time, as well as the developments in Halle. This paper takes all these aspects into account.
Orthodox Church law is comprised of elements that regulate the life of the Church at various levels. The theological decisions, oroses, canons and canonical letters, which concern the Church ...globally, obviously focus on doctrine. Still, they also characterize the theological aspects of ecclesiology, primarily expressed in the Orthodox Church’s fundamental confession of faith – the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. Although a number of the canons of the ecumenical councils and of the Holy Fathers, historical and contemporary resolutions passed by various local Orthodox Churches and other ecclesiastical authorities and institutions pertain to the universal sphere in many aspects, the vast majority of them set specific organizational standards of church life in the local perspective: the local Church, basic administrative units (dioceses, metropolises or exarchates), but above all in basic organizational structures, which include parishes and monasteries.
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