Pestroiu, David (2019) The concept of ”The Presence of God”- A link between missionary theology and Christian spirituality. Icoana Credintei. International Journal of Interdisciplinary Scientific Research, 5 (10). pp. 21-30.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
In a world of religious and moral dissolution, in which nihilist atheism and hedonistic consumerism prevail, missionary theology must propose to the secularized human the experience of reunion with God as a means of restarting the religious experience manifested concretely through prayer and intense spiritual life. Modernity has obviously fuelled deified conceptions, isolating God in an inaccessible transcendence, and promoting a total abandonment of the possibility of experiencing any form of real encounter with Him. The only way to get in touch with Him was rational knowledge, as it was found in the Bible, or logical deductions resulting from the dialogue between theology and science. But they dangerously lead to the postmodern concept of a God-idea, concept, force,etc., lacking the attribute of personality. According to Orthodox doctrine, God has a personal character, being, more specifically, a Trinity of Persons. Therefore, we find enough biblical and patristic grounds, all testifying to the existence of divine Presence. This Personal Presence is the basis of promoting an intense spiritual life of the faithful human, who is aware of the necessity of an organic bond with it, creating a true state of communion. It is, on the one hand, a personal relationship cultivated by every person through prayer, but also an inter-personal relationship created within the public cult, especially in the Divine Liturgy and the Holy Mysteries of the Church. The experience of Divine Presence as generated the consciousness of asceticism, consisting in desolation and climbing on the virtue scale, to perfection. The intense spiritual life, especially promoted in the monasteries, has led to the experience of awakeness as a work designed to transfigure human, who gives up on the comfort of the material world, preparing himself or herself for experiencing of the kingdom of God. In this study, I will present, on the one hand, the role of spirituality for missionary theology, starting from fulfilling the concrete experience of the Divine Presence, and on the other, I will seek raising awareness of the dangers of the false spiritualist movements promoted by the New Age movement and the rationalistic - anti-theistic concepts of postmodernity.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Postmodernity; Divine presence; Theosis; Orthodox spirituality |
| Subjects: | B Mission theology/theory > Spirituality B Mission theology/theory > Missio Dei G Christian traditions/Denominations > Eastern Orthodox |
| Divisions: | Central Europe > Romania |
| Depositing User: | Katharina Penner |
| Date Deposited: | 16 Aug 2024 05:55 |
| Last Modified: | 16 Aug 2024 05:56 |
| URI: | https://ceeamsprints.osims.org/id/eprint/2993 |
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