The “Evangelising” Orthodoxy Revisited: An Eastern Orthodox Perspective

Sandu, Dan (2017) The “Evangelising” Orthodoxy Revisited: An Eastern Orthodox Perspective. Analele Ştiinţifice ale Universităţii »Alexandru Ioan Cuza« din Iaşi. Teologie Ortodoxă, 22 (1). pp. 33-60.

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to show, by providing appropriate arguments, that evangelism is the core of the Orthodox Liturgy. The Eastern Eucharist has about 80 percent of its content biblical and evangelical text, while living in a context where being an ”evangelist” equals being a member of a sectarian type of Christianity. However, Christ brings and proclaims the Gospel (Matthew 4:23, 9:35), His disciples are “evangelised” and sent (missus) to evangelise (Mark 16: 15, Acts 14: 7), Paul is evangelised in Damascus and continues to “evangelise himself” in the Arabian desert, and in turn evangelises all those whom he encounters on the journeys known as “missionary” (Acts 16: 10; 20: 24, Romans 1: 15-16, I Corinthians 9: 16 and many others). In the typical assertion, Paul never defended his own “mission”, social status or work, but the Gospel. Orthodoxy in Romania has already learned much from the “evangelists”. She must rediscover her vocation of evangelising her own faithful with humility. The paper makes a short history and exegesis of the term and its evolution, then underlines the difference between evangelism and mission of the Church, and draws attention on the vocation of the traditional Church to revisit it and make it more evident and more vivid, as well as to learn from the enthusiasm in doing so from other younger denominations at the local level. We all must be aware that Christians must speak with one voice in an Europe which is more and more secularised, driven away from her founding religious values and identity. As the Romanian Theologian Dumitru Staniloae put it: “If I am to be born again, I would do my very best to re-evangelise Europe”.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Ecclesial responsibility, Challenges of evangelism, Evangelicalism, Discipleship
Subjects:	B Mission theology/theory > Conversion B Mission theology/theory > Evangelism/Proclamation of Gospel C Types of Christian Ministry > Discipleship G Christian traditions/Denominations > Eastern Orthodox
Divisions:	Central Europe > Romania
Depositing User:	Users 3 not found.
Date Deposited:	29 Apr 2020 07:05
Last Modified:	14 Nov 2020 18:02
URI:	https://ceeamsprints.osims.org/id/eprint/1740

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