Corneliu Simut

• PhD in Church History (University of Aberdeen, UK)
• Professor at Emanuel University

This article is a systematic overview of Packer’s theology of justification from the perspective of descriptive, analytical, and critical methodologies. A series of books written by Packer were investigated in order to identify various references to justification, which led to a categorization consisting of six features (justification as the legacy...

This article is a research report on the international colloquium entitled ‘Re-Imagining Curricula for a Just University in a Vibrant Democracy’, hosted by the University of Pretoria in 2017 to address a series of prospective changes in religious studies curricula in African and non-African universities. Anchored in the principles of the Draft Fram...

This article is a research report on the international colloquium entitled ‘Re-Imagining Curricula for a Just University in a Vibrant Democracy’, hosted by the University of Pretoria in 2017 to address a series of prospective changes in religious studies curricula in African and non-African universities. Anchored in the principles of the Draft Fram...

Telecommuting in education field, enforced by Romanian Government measures as policy responses to COVID-19 pandemic, has had a tremendous effect both on teaching professionals and on students. This paper investigates the first group, namely the teachers and their perception of online education versus students’ academic performance during distance l...

Luther depicts spiritual formation with permanent reference to the Bible as God’s Word. We find all we need in God’s Word: wisdom, power, life, righteousness, or, as Luther often pointed out, God himself. Spiritual formation begins when we realize that the Word of God went through a process of enfleshment in order to become Christ as well as to bec...

In Augustine, the triune being of God serves as a model for his perspective on spiritual formation. A careful investigation of the human psyche, namely its mind, knowledge, and love, provides us with a psychological pattern which reveals how spiritual formation should look like. The human mind investigates creation and Scripture to acquire knowledg...

For Edwards, spiritual formation is the Christian’s pilgrimage to achieve the knowledge of Christ. Thus, spiritual formation is a journey with a precise destination, namely Christ, which must be taken the right way by focusing on hell and heaven. Edwards explains that, without Christ, our lives are a journey to hell; with Christ, however, our lives...

In Calvin, spiritual formation begins with the knowledge of God as Trinity in his capacity as creator. The realization that we were not created for ourselves, but for God is the moment when our spiritual formation starts. Thus, through spiritual formation, we understand that we are in a personal relationship with God as creator, so we must grow int...

Spiritual formation is a transformative reality that works within us by helping us to become more serious about pursuing and loving God on a daily basis. However, spiritual formation can be achieved as practical sanctification only when we rely on God’s power which transforms us in our capacity as church, as body of Christ. Spiritual formation happ...

For Evagrius, spiritual formation is a process of incessant development through the careful exegesis of Scripture, especially its wisdom books. In order to achieve spiritual formation, we must acquire a certain moral philosophy and a solid natural philosophy which allow us to reach the contemplation of God as Trinity. In more concrete terms, we mus...

Pascal reveals that spiritual formation must always focus on Christ. We must first understand that we are evil and why we are evil; once we are aware of this human plight we all suffer from, spiritual formation begins by developing an awareness that allows us to do something about this situation. We must use our reason to evaluate our problem and,...

For à Kempis, spiritual formation is seen in terms of permanent devotion to God. Spiritual formation begins when we understand not only that we live in the world, but also that the world is under the domination of the devil and his sinful influence. In order to escape the devil, we must fight him, and it is here that spiritual formation begins. Our...

Origen describes spiritual formation in terms of a continuous cooperation between the human will and God’s will. Spiritual formation happens within the human being when we participate in the life of God through actively surrendering our wills to God’s will. Thus, Origen uses the allegory of the journey to present spiritual formation as the human be...

Owen’s perspective on spiritual formation is inextricably connected to the reality of sin and especially what he calls the ‘mortification’ of sin. For Owen, sin is a natural defect which must be constantly fought against in an attempt to manage sin for our spiritual improvement. Sin must be attacked upfront and battled up to the point of death. The...

Packer insists that spiritual formation is a process which begins with God, when we are helped by God’s Spirit to turn to Christ through conversion. What follows after conversion is growth, when we grow into our spiritual formation by becoming more aware of God through intense study and informed discernment. As part of our spiritual formation, we m...

Spiritual formation is defined as the practical side of sanctification and its purpose is holiness. Concretely, spiritual formation is achieved through permanent worship in a state of continuous awareness about God’s sovereignty. Thus, spiritual formation includes a wide range of spiritual realities such as growth, development, fight, reading, pray...

Spurgeon’s idea of spiritual formation revolves around the reading of Scripture, seen as a process which spans throughout the whole duration of our lives and which is anything but easy. The Bible is a book which we must wrestle with in order to understand it properly. Spurgeon warns that Scripture can be read without understanding, in which case we...

In Wesley, spiritual formation is a way to spiritual perfection. Christians are helped by the Holy Spirit, who allows us to follow Christ in minute detail; this is the very substance of spiritual formation. As part of our spiritual formation, we must pursue Christ’s example in an attempt to develop a character and a behaviour which is as close as p...

Intercultural theology is increasingly a major subject matter of 21st-century scholarly inquiry. This results in an interreligious discourse and encounter at different levels. However, gone are the days when the aim is to identify or even to fuse certain overlapping magisteria. A linguistic-cultural approach takes us beyond mergers or grand unified...

The main idea of this investigation is to identify a series of challenges and opportunities presented by telecommuting within the school system as a result of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic. The objective of the paper is to identify key elements which are able to provide concrete assistance in building a sustainable online education system, with particula...

The cue for this article is human rationality being the cornerstone in Wentzel van Huyssteen’s thinking, and Alister McGrath’s scepsis about the feasibility of a postfoundational transversality in particular. This article does not intend to juxtapose Van Huyssteen’s postfoundational rationality to McGrath’s enterprise of a ‘rational consilience’ bu...

This article’s premise is that science holds the promise of deepening religious perspectives on creation. The natural sciences have convincingly proved that nature is not static, or a ready-made creation dropped from heaven. Theologians need to read nature as scientists see it and engage with that understanding theologically. The concept of resona...

Baptist–Orthodox discussions could take the shape of a continuous and constructive dialogue if their historical understandings of the Bible are investigated based on their specific perspectives on doctrine. Concretely, the idea of theosis, present in Greek Patristics and later used by the Eastern Orthodox Church as deification, can be investigated...

This article is firstly an investigation of traditional Christian thought about the world with the purpose of establishing whether Christianity’s three main confessions (Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and mainline Protestantism) share similar concerns about the current situation of nature. Secondly, the investigation is followed by a comparis...

On 29 July 2017, an international colloquium entitled ‘Re-Imagining Curricula for a Just University in a Vibrant Democracy – Carrying the Conversation Forward’ was held at the Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa. A wide range of scholars from African and non-African countries provided variegated perspectives on how t...

In December 1989, Communism died in Romania—if not as mentality, it surely met its demise as a political system which had dominated almost every aspect of life in the country for over four decades. Thus, at least in theory, an ideological vacuum was created and concrete steps towards filling it with different values and convictions were supposed to...

This paper investigates the possibility of identifying various ecodomical or constructive possibilities which have the potential to ideologically transform the world at a global scale in the sense that they can promote a set of ideas with positive connotations in dealing with the extremely complex issue of religion. Whether religion is good or bad,...

TRS are two interconnected and mutually dependent fields of academic inquiry, which belong to the larger and more encompassing domain of general humanities. Given this interconnectivity, reciprocity, and interdependability as integrative part of the humanities, TRS find themselves in the same position of being constantly evaluated from various pers...

This paper focuses on how Philip Melanchthon organized his theology of preaching in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the very first defense of the early church reformers’ approach to doctrine against formal papal criticism as drafted in the Confutation of the Augsburg Confession by Johann Eck, who had been commissioned by emperor Charles V t...

Vito Mancuso, one of Italy's most famous intellectuals and author of best-selling books on religion - such as L'anima e il suo destino [The Soul and Its Destiny] (2007) and Io e Dio. Una guida dei perplessi [I and God. A Guide for the Perplexed] (2011) - is a secular theologian and philosopher of religion who promotes an anti-Traditional understand...

This article is an attempt to provide a systematic and integrative picture of the main contributions presented at the colloquium which addressed the current state of theological education, proposals for the basic values to be laid as foundation for a new theological curriculum and concrete attempts to build such a curriculum in South Africa, the Af...

This paper is an attempt to identify common factors which constitute the foun-dation of decolonization in indigenous African religions. Since such aspects need to be essentially constructive in order to effectively and positively replace Colonial ideas, this particular search for common ground concerning decolonization in indigenous African religio...

This paper is an attempt to present the Hegelian theology of Vito Mancuso, a radical lay Catholic theologian, from the perspective of the ethics of social consequences, as primarily promoted by Vasil Gluchman. Mancuso is a keen observer of today’s society and he identifies a serious flaw among contemporary people in what he calls the idol of our ti...

Vito Mancuso is an Italian theologian and philosopher of religion, who deflects from traditional Catholic theology with the intention to draft a new perspective on how theology should be understood, not only in the academy but also in public and private life. This is why he resorts to Hegelian concepts, which redefine most of what traditional theol...

This paper focuses on a chronology of events presented by the Romanian media, especially newspapers with national coverage and impact like Gândul and Adevărul, between the first week of June to the first week of September 2015, when the issue of having a mosque erected in Bucharest, the capital city of Romania, was intensely debated by intellectual...

For the most part, contemporary Romanian Orthodox spirituality is still heavily based on a rhetoric which builds on the notion of ancestry with the intention not only to provide Romanians with a safe comfort zone, but also to secure its privileges and influence over most of today’s Romanian society. In attempting to go back in history to demonstrat...

This paper is an attempt to offer a concrete contribution to the study of indigenous African religions and in particular to the support of creating a set of tra-ditions from whose perspective one could engage in the study of indigenous African religions as well as of African spirituality in general through the unifying theme of ecodomy. Defined in...

Slavoj Žižek's philosophy spans over more than three decades, which is confirmed by the numerous books he published since the late 1980s. Since his thinking about the idea of logos is no exception, this article focuses on what can be termed Žižek's early philosophy, and especially that depicted in his The sublime object of ideology (1989) and The m...

Vito Mancuso, a young Italian theologian of lay inspiration, has been causing a great deal of theological unrest within Italy's conservative quarters because of his radical program intended to re-found Christianity in order for it to be understood by contemporary men and women. Mancuso's concern to re-anchor Christian theology in the experience of...

This article presents Ricoeur's attempt to pass from a theoretical understanding of human fallibility to a more pragmatic approach which is supposed to explain the reality of man's capacity to choose evil. Man is fallible because he lives as a finite being in contrast with the infinitude of God. As God's infinitude and ontology cannot be grasped by...

Historically, the twentieth century can barely be connected to traditional Christianity if one thinks of the dramatic changes produced by Protestant liberalism in the second half of the nineteenth century throughout Western Christianity. As it dawned, the twentieth century seemed an easy prey for theological liberalism, which continued to spread de...

Heavily influenced by classical liberalism and especially by Adolf von Harnack in theological matters, Erich Fromm (1900–80)—who acquired fame after his association with the Frankfurt School of critical theory as he joined the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research in 1930—produced a series of works that, in addition to sharply opposing traditiona...

Writing in the second half of the fourth century, Gregory Nazianzen (330–389) provides us with one of the classic examples of traditional Christian theology. Decades after the Edict of Mediolanum (313 AD), Christianity was no longer preoccupied with the threat of imminent persecution, so the dangers from outside became increasingly a matter of the...

Christian thought has gone through a series of complex developments with the result that its main doctrines were altered significantly enough for the church to witness a wide range of ecclesiastical unrest from misunderstandings and tensions to reforming initiatives and, at times, even serious schisms. The most important dogmatic shift that affecte...

Vito Mancuso (b. 1962), one of Italy’s younger theologians, whose lay affiliation succeeded in creating significant waves of both admiration and criticism, is one of the theological rising stars of today’s academic agenda. A controversial figure perceived as a liberal within Vatican circles, Mancuso has recently stirred Italian traditional Catholic...

As a Protestant writing in the second half of the twentieth century in western Europe, Paul Ricoeur (1913–2005) could not ignore the recent legacy of theological liberalism despite his predominant philosophical interests. Although he did not share the “classical” liberal interest in Christology, Ricoeur was intensely concerned with the problematics...

Although the Protestant Reformation sought to turn to the church of antiquity as the desired ecclesiological and theological model for the newly established Protestant communities, the vital issues of patristic theology as reflected in Gregory Nazianzen and his Christological focus were no longer a problem in the sixteenth century. The doctrine of...

This book is concerned with the presentation and analysis of certain dogmatic issues such as christology, ecclesiology, pastoral work, anthropology, faith and bioethics among many others-all meant to illustrate how Christian thoughts stands between traditionalism and radicalism. It is both a dogmatic study and a historical overview of the topic.

The idea but also the reality of evil is essential for Ricoeur especially in connection with the concept of fallibility. In order to investigate the link between evil and fallibility, Ricoeur begins with a thorough analysis of evil from the perspective of human freedom. The discussion about man's freedom and the fact that evil exists in the world l...

This article presents and analyses Ricoeur's notion of fallibility from the idea of myth to that of symbol in the context of the dialectics be-tween finitude and infinitude. In Ricoeur, myth is used to present natural reality in a symbolic way which, it is argued, contradicts the traditional Christian perspective on reality which includes the ontol...

At this point of his argument Küng offers a new definition of the church that is closely connected to the idea that Jesus is dead. This is why the church, in his view, is the “community of those who believe in Christ.” It is significant that he refers to the community of those who believe in Christ, not in Jesus.1 Then, he gives further details abo...

Having offered a definition of what he thinks the church in general really is in history (which is, at the end, a discussion about the ontology of the church even if Küng seems to be quite unhappy with ontological aspects unlike his 1962 views), Küng moves forward toward an analysis of the work of the church. The first step for him at this point is...

The fourth and the last sign that describes the ontology of the church is apostolicity. As early as 1962, Küng does not have many things to say about the apostolicity as a sign of the church apart from the fact that each sign of the church—which, of course, includes apostolicity— should be understood in close connection to the rest. So apostolicity...

In 1962, Küng begins his discussion about the ontology of the church with the external appearance of the church, which discloses his attitude to its unity. Thus, the fact that the church is one should never be only an external reality in the sense that it strikes the eye by stirring feelings of awe. The manifestation of the church and of its true n...

The second sign that makes up the ontology of the church is catholicity, and in 1962 Küng decided to approach it with a brief discussion about the existence of the church in history. This seems to be the easy way for Küng because the church does exist as a community’ that lives in history.2 Moreover, not only that it exists in history,3 but the chu...

The third sign of the church that is characteristic of its ontology is holiness. One of the starting points in Küng’s 1962 analysis of the holiness of the church is based on the observation that the church is truly holy when its decision in all matters is to follow spiritual things, not human interests such as partisan wishes or political interests...

Unlike his ecclesiological discourse in 1962, Küng now presents the church without resorting to the traditional categories represented by the signs of the church. Thus, Küng is no longer interested in the being of the church but rather in the function of the church. Consequently, he starts with a discussion about the spirit of the church,1 which he...

Küng’s analysis of the church in 1974 is drastically changed if compared to his 1962 convictions. In his On Being a Christian, üng’s starting point for his description of the church is a Christological pretext that seems to be aimed at this subsequent treatment of Scripture.1 Thus he writes that Jesus of Nazareth is still alive for humanity even if...

This work sought to offer basic proofs that Hans Küng’s ecclesiology changed drastically between 1962, when he published his Structures of the Church, and 1974, the very year that celebrated his On Being a Christian that was later to become an influential bestseller. It was argued that this dramatic change is actually Küng’s transition from a fairl...

The book presents the transition from traditionalism to modernism in connection to two of Küng’s most important books on ecclesiology: Structures of the Church (1962) as representing Küng’s traditional theology, and On Being a Christian (1974) as a reflection of his modern approach to Christianity.