GB 10-12/2020

In the lines below are, in translation, three Greek texts with an important dogmatic contribution. The translation is accompanied by an introductory study. The study aims to examine, to specify the foundations of the heresy of Apollinaris of Laodicea (ca. 310-392) and to fill this gap in the study of his doctrine. The whole Apollinarian system is based on the Greek notion of ἐνανθρώπησις, misinterpreted in the Greek way of thinking. For common thought, and therefore for Apollinaris, two perfect beings cannot be united, that is, the perfect God cannot form a single reality with a complete man. St. Gregory the Theologian will oppose to this heresy the soteriological argument, stated thus: „τὸ γὰρ ἀπρόσληπτον, ἀθεράπευτον” („for that which is not assumed is not healed”). At the same time, this study examines the exchanges between the new Christian culture – freshly born – and the dominant philosophical thinking.

This study talks about some of the most important chroniclers and contemporary witnesses of the history of the Byzantine Empire, respectively: Eusebius of Caesarea, St Basil the Great, Liutprand of Cremona, Niketas Choniates and Geoffrey of Villehardouin, out of the desire to know better their life and activity, as well as the context in which they were formed, in order to understand and appreciate the historical events described by them. The choice of the five authors is based on the richness and diversity of the historical information provided by them, taking into account the fact that some of them (respectively, the last three) are less known in the Romanian theological space. It should be added that not all were “chronicler” in the historical-critical sense of the word, but some only offered to posterity useful and sometimes unique information and testimonies in their works, for a better understanding of the life of the Byzantine Empire. Of course, we do not intend an exhaustive approach to the subject, the text being only an overview of the life and works of the authors.

he post-December press, and especially the Orthodox one, which we deal with in this study, has been very little studied and represents, paraphrasing the words of Patriarch Nicodim Munteanu, a “working field of the Lord” that is still waiting to be made. Thus, the end of 1989, after December 21 and especially the beginning of 1990, represents the dawn of the liberation of the church press from silence. The release from censorship imposed by the atheist-communist regime for almost 45 years restored the momentum and courage of young theologians, at that time, who engaged in the new mission of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The new breath that the Orthodox press acquired in the first years of freedom after the Revolution of ῾89 can be seen in the pages of all the official periodicals of the Church, as well as in those that appeared immediately after 1990. The authors are not just theologians (clerics and hierarchs), but also lay people, from different fields, which shows the openness of the Romanian Orthodox Church to the faithful and the general public. This first year of freedom of the Herald „Vestitorului Ortodoxiei Românești” reveals an Orthodox press freed from the rigors imposed by communist censorship, which developed according to the historical moment and which could be further analyzed during the three decades of existence, a goal that remains open to young theologians and researchers of the History of the Romanian Orthodox Church.