Pogląd chrześcijaństwa prawosławnego na religie świata
Loading...
Date
2008
Authors
Advisor
Editor
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Wydział Teologiczny UAM
Title alternative
An Orthodox Christian View of the World Religions
Abstract
The article presents the thought of Father Dumitru Staniloae ( t 1993), one of the most outstanding
Romanian theologians of the 20th century, based on his book Poztia d-lui Lucian Blaga
fata de Crestinism si Ortodoxie (The Attitude of Mr. Lucian Blaga toward Christianity and Orthodoxy)
Sibiu, 1942.
The author begins by expounding the general character of the universal religious phenomenon.
Beyond the multiplicity of the forms and the ways in which religion is manifested there are
certain common points. Fr. Staniloae distinguishes five such specific elements typical for religion:
1. a strong and steadfast faith in the truth of the things it professes; 2. the personal character of the
ultimate reality; 3. there is a certain differentiation a believer makes between these ultimate realities
with a clear and less clear personal character and nature - even though sometimes the divine
reality is perceived in an extremely intimate relationship with nature, each religion preserves an
awareness that the divine reality is something else than nature itself; 4. the belief in the self-revelation
of the divine reality - it is a universal conviction with the believers of all religions that the Divinity revealed and reveals Itself and the data about It are not a figment o f the human mind or
imagination, a self-revelation o f the human spirit; 5. a certain expectance, confidence and hope with
which man ties himself up to the Divinity in as far as his destiny is concerned. The universal human
consciousness expects and believes in man’s salvation from under the destructive power of
nature or o f certain evil forces. Expectation is a deep instinct o f the human nature; faith is the
mysterious power given to man at the same time with any religion.
There is also a functional interpenetration o f these elements. Faith without a personal God and
without revelation cannot exist, nor without the presence o f a purpose, as that o f the salvation of
existence. Their persistence reveals the existence o f a personal relationship between God and man
in the interest o f his salvation, as well as man’s firm belief in the possibility o f a personal salvation
and in a special communion with God and, as a result, that there is also an interest on the part of
God to save man.
Faith and revelation are conveyed from generation to generation, but at the same time faith is
largely produced by revelation, each man experiencing in a mysterious way the pressure o f the ultimate
reality upon his conscience. All kinds o f theories have been conceived which see religion as
originating from the divinization o f the forces o f nature, society, or a political leader etc. In reality
however religious experience distinguishes the divine from all these phenomena, even though it
may have the experience o f the divine presence and o f its power in connection with them. Religious
experience is an awareness o f the mysterious presence o f the Divinity and as such any religious
man knows the difference.
In the case o f the religious phenomenon we come across a minimal realization and participation
o f the ultimate reality pertaining essentially to the faith in the Divinity, to its revelation and to
the hope in a personal salvation as a common minimal background o f all religions, and as such o f
the Christian Faith. Fr Staniloae draws our attention to the fact that what counts in the relation
among religions is not this minimal background but the contribution of each religion. In his attempt
to draw a line between Christianity and the other religions, he asserts that everything the
non-Christian religions possess in addition, as a surplus, is either a jungle o f myths, or a resuscitation
in different manners o f the same minimal background which make up the universal religious
conviction. Myth is a human invention bom o f his endeavour to capture in image the basic fact of
the Divinity and of Its revelation; hence a poetic and personalized expression of what is known
through the general revelation, or a personalization o f a power in nature or of a personal attribute.
Christianity differs radically from these religions, because by the surplus it asserts, it testifies
to an essential increase in the divine revelation. We have in Christianity the full revelation of the
Divinity, as well as the manifestation of Its personal character as God has come as a man among
men. Christianity is an entirely different religion in so far as the awareness of the nearness of the
divine reality is concerned, as the only religion dominated by the awareness of an increase - to the
last possible extent - in the divine revelation, without imposing a new element to the general definition
of religion. Moreover, Christianity is not a religion of myths. This is due to the fact that
God’s presence in the world, as a perceptible and active reality, renders futile all myths: when the
divine reality is so close to us and so commanding, there is no longer any place for myths. At the
same time there is no attitude which embraces all parts of the Universe with so much love and
appreciation as does Christianity, because all are the work of the hands God and the object of His
fatherly care.
Description
Sponsor
Keywords
phenomenon of religion, religious conviction, revelation, faith, divine reality
Citation
Poznańskie Studia Teologiczne, T. 22, 2008, s. 189-202