Divine Human Communion Research Articles

Liturgy and Apophaticism

The Orthodox liturgy is a religious phenomenon that can be analyzed phenomenologically and theologically alike, given the emphasis that both phenomenology and Orthodox theology place on experience. By proposing the Kingdom of God instead of the natural world without being able to annihilate the latter in the name of the former, the liturgy seeks divine-human communion. Through the dialogue of prayer, through symbolic and iconic openings, as well as through apophatic theology, the liturgy emphasizes the horizon of mystery as a horizon essential to the way man positions himself before God. The present text attempts to demonstrate that apophaticism, understood as an experience of the mysterious presence of God, is one of the crucial dimensions of the Orthodox liturgy; and that this apophatic presence of God reveals a way of thinking which does not become onto-theology, not even when using concepts borrowed from metaphysics. The overcoming of onto-theology is achieved here not by abandoning concepts such as “being” and “cause” but by placing the language game in the field of prayer and apophatic theology.

On Being Consumed: The Martyred Body as a Site of Divine—Human Encounter in the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch

The manner in which humans and the divine are brought into communion with each other, a key aspect of many religious traditions, is frequently, if not always, material (or sacramental) in character. Meals and food play an important role in this; such meals can include the consumption of the deity (theophagy), as well as the consumption of the human being by the deity. This paper takes its cue from the discussion of constructions of divine–human communion and explores this subject in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch (early second century CE). It shows how in the literary heritage of this bishop, the body as the physical site of martyrdom is of key importance, in particular due to its consumption in the Roman arena. This martyrdom is the way in which Ignatius hopes to enter into perfect communion with the divine. The body thus becomes, in its annihilation, the instrument through which divine–human communion is established. As this all relates to a case of martyrdom, Ignatius’ ideas about the body are also subversive in character: the punishment of his body is, through his theological imagination, transformed into a means of achieving Ignatius’ goal in life: attaining to God.

Theo-Phenomenology of Love in Fr. Dumitru Stæniloae’s Thought

In reading Father Dumitru Staniloae, it is obvious that love and divine-human communion have a prominent role in his theology. This text aims to approach this topic from a phenomenological point of view: it analyzes the implicit reductions working in Staniloae’s texts, the presence of the intentionality, the role of the ego and its limits, as well as the problem of the reciprocity of love (raised by Jean-Luc Marion). We will try to argue not only that there are phenomenological influences in Staniloae’s understanding of love, but also that such a topic requires a phenomenology that synthesizes the phenomenology of the world (Husserl and Heidegger) and the phenomenology of life (M. Henry). Because love, in its perfection, is a gift of the Holy Spirit, both types of phenomenology must be complemented with a dialogical and paradoxical one, a theo-phenomenology of love, where the Given can be invisible, living, eternally saturated, and never reducible to an object or to a concept. Keywords: Dumitru Staniloae, Jean-Luc Marion, love, erotic reduction, theological counter-reduction, reciprocity of love, spiritual life, phenomenology

Love, Life and Politics: Comparing Lutheran and Orthodox Political Theologies

Abstract In this essay, I want to engage Luther’s political theology by engaging Michael Laffin’s recent book, The Promise of Martin Luther’s Political Theology. I am fully aware of the debates around Luther’s political theology and realize that Laffin’s is only one interpretation, but it is a very nuanced interpretation that offers compelling arguments. I then want to illustrate affinities between Laffin’s interpretation of Luther and my own Orthodox political theology based on the realism of divinehuman communion, or theosis. I then want to end by relating this comparison to what is arguably one of the most pressing questions of Christian political theology – the Christian’s relation to political liberalism.

Thomas F. Torrance: Theology and mission in practice

This article proposes that scholarship needs to take into account the intensely missional and practical nature of T.F. Torrance’s life and work. Using primary sources, it isolates mission to the Qiang in China as the area in which personal mission practice and theology coincide. It shows that Torrance’s theology of divine-human communion is rooted in the missio Dei, expressed in the nature of the perichoretic interrelations of the ontological Trinity and the mission of the economic Trinity in the world through the covenant history of Israel. This concept is illustrated practically in the mission history of the Qiang. A holistic concept of mission and theology is therefore at the heart of both Torrance’s biography and theology.

The Mystical as Political: Democracy and Non-Radical Orthodoxy

This recent work by Aristotle Papanikolaou, professor of theology and founding co-director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University, is a profound achievement in political theology. Papanikolaou's work fills a great void in Orthodox Christian studies as well as political theology. Continuing his emphasis on divine-human communion and ecclesiology, he offers the beginnings of a contemporary Eastern Orthodox political theology divorced from imperial and Constantinian traditions found in most Orthodox thought. Additionally, he engages contemporary political theologians and ethicists such as William Cavanaugh, Vigen Guroian, Stanley Hauerwas, John Milbank, and Jeffrey Stout, suggesting possibilities for Christian engagement with liberal democratic civil society that some of these thinkers denounce. What I find particularly helpful in this work is his positive appreciation of liberal democracy and human rights from an Orthodox Christian perspective, which many Orthodox prelates and theologians simply find incompatible with their faith tradition. Papanikolaou starts his work with a discussion and critique of the Eusebian and Constantinian model of Orthodox political theology, bringing the discussion to the present age. Such a model has failed in the postimperial age of the church and does not reflect an alternative patristic theology that can be brought forth for the present age. In this regard, he suggests this other approach to political theology based on divine-human communion in Cappadocian thought as understood in the personalism of John Zizioulas. Emphasizing the importance of the human being as a relational being bearing the imago Dei and existing in Trinitarian relationships of love, a rich model for political theology can be developed. But Papanikolaou does not blindly accept the Eucharistic theologies offered by Nicholas Afanasiev and being discussed in the Radical Orthodox movement today, whereby a sectarian disavowal of the secular is maintained. Asking whether the option is the Eucharist or democracy as Cavanaugh and Guroian (and others) insist, he suggests that the Eucharistic basis of the church opens up the possibility for acceptance of the democratic political sphere as well as greater participation in the common good of civil society.

Being with God: Trinity, Apophaticism, and Divine–Human Communion – By Aristotle Papanikolaou

Being with God: Trinity, Apophaticism, and Divine–Human Communion – By Aristotle Papanikolaou

Being with God: Trinity, Apophaticism, and Divine‐Human Communion – By Aristotle Papanikolaou

Being with God: Trinity, Apophaticism, and Divine‐Human Communion – By Aristotle Papanikolaou

Being with God: Trinity, Apophaticism, and Divine‐Human Communion – Aristotle Papanikolaou

Being with God: Trinity, Apophaticism, and Divine‐Human Communion – Aristotle Papanikolaou