Cosmin Tudor CiocanOvidius University | UOC · Research Center on the Dialogue between science and theology
Cosmin Tudor Ciocan
Doctor of Theology
interfaith dialogue and mutual acceptance; building bridges between Science and Theology; organizing virtual conferences
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Introduction
I teach theology and apologetics. Besides this main occupation, my research is heading toward establishing healthy preconditions for achieving a fair dialogue between science and theology. I started a Research Center at Ovidius University Constanta, with members from all over Romania & foreign partners. Our main outcome is an annually international virtual conference called DIALOGO CONF held at http://dialogo-conf.com. I paint watercolor; I pray to God for enlightenment as Ort. Christian priest.
Additional affiliations
February 2002 - present
May 2016 - May 2016
June 2014 - August 2014
Education
June 2014 - August 2014
Publications
Publications (85)
THIS PAPER IS TRYING TO PUT TOGETHER TWO DIFFERENT RESEARCHES, FROM THEOLOGY AND FROM GENETICS, ABOUT A GENERAL AND UNDETERMINED TOPIC, DEATH. IT IS UNDETERMINED BECAUSE NO ONE CAN SAY SOMETHING DEMONSTRABLE AND UNIVOCAL ABOUT IT, SINCE NO PERSON ALIVE CAN CROSS OVER THE EDGE OF LIFE AND COME BACK FROM THE DOMAIN OF DEATH WITH INFORMATION ABOUT IT....
On behalf of the Organizing Committee, we welcome you to the 1st Virtual International Conference on Dialogue between Science and Theology, jointly organized by the Research Centre for Dialogue between Science and Theology (RCDST) and all our partners from 28 academic institutions, faculties and research centers within 8 countries / 4 continents -...
This paper is trying to put together two different researches, from theology and from genetics, about a general and undetermined topic, death. It is undetermined because no one can say something demonstrable and univocal about it, since no person alive can cross over the edge of life and come back from the domain of death with information about it....
THIS STUDY ENCOMPASSES THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS OF THE INSEPARABILITY OF
RELIGION AND POLITICS OVER THE AGES, REVELING THAT, UNLIKE IN THE WESTERN CHURCH,
THE EASTERN ONE HAS ALWAYS SEEN ITSELF PRIMARILY AS A SACRAMENTAL ORGANISM IN
CHARGE OF “DIVINE THINGS” NOT OF WORLDLY. STARTING FROM THE IDEA THAT RELIGION WAS
ALWAYS THE STRONGEST POLIT...
It has always started from the premise that the pattern
of scientific knowledge is incompatible with the religious one; it
was assumed that the models of modern scientific Cosmology –
including theories of Big Bang and, especially, M-theory – cannot
be explained into a theistic version. Moreover, it has been argued
that these patterns of scientist...
This article investigates the informational completion mechanism of the human mind, through which the brain fills cognitive gaps to create a coherent narrative continuum and eliminate uncertainties. The study aims to analyze whether this process relies solely on immediate experiences and direct learning or if it also includes deeper influences pass...
This article examines interfaith dialogue (IFD) as a transformative tool for combating religious discrimination and fostering inclusive societies. Drawing from theological insights and practical applications, the study explores the historical, social, and psychological roots of religious discrimination, highlighting how IFD can bridge divides and p...
Phenomenological Pluralism (PP) introduces a groundbreaking approach to understanding religious pluralism by emphasizing the unique, irreducible nature of each individual's Personal Experience of the Divine (ExPD). PP challenges the traditional view of religious universality by arguing that spiritual encounters are shaped by the compatibility betwe...
The paper "Challenges of Social Integration of Ukrainian refugee women and their children" explores the difficulties these vulnerable groups face in adapting to the new living conditions in Romania. Introduction: The research focuses on the social integration of Ukrainian refugee women and their children, emphasizing the impact of the war in Ukrain...
The 2024 Fall edition of Dialogo marks a decade of bridging disciplines, connecting science and theology, and fostering spirited dialogue on humanity’s most pressing questions. This special anniversary edition centers on the theme “Novelty vs. Heritage: Navigating the Tapestry of Human Evolution.” As humanity evolves, we find ourselves navigating t...
Phenomenological Pluralism (PP), grounded in the existential phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, offers a novel approach to religious pluralism by emphasizing the unique and irreducible experiences individuals and communities have with the divine. Central to PP is the concept of "My (personal) God," which acknowledges that each person's encount...
DIALOGO Multidisciplinary Open Access JOURNAL Available online at www.dialogo-conf.com/dialogo-journal/ Dialogo by RCDST is licensed under Creative Commons Attribu-tion-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License-221-SECTION 3 A B S T R A C T This article examines the subtle interconnection between the sanctity of life and individual autono...
DIALOGO Multidisciplinary Open Access JOURNAL Available online at www.dialogo-conf.com/dialogo-journal/ Dialogo by RCDST is licensed under Creative Commons Attribu-tion-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License-147-SECTION 2 A B S T R A C T This article explores the concept of 'adaptive symbiosis' between religion and culture, challenging...
The international conference on “Discrimination, Bias, and Repudiation” emerges as a pivotal forum to unravel and confront the complex web of societal challenges ingrained in discriminatory behaviors. This interdisciplinary exploration seeks to decipher the underlying mechanisms and societal-cultural environments that foster these phenomena. Rooted...
Who should attend Dialogo2024DBR? Dialogo2024DBR offers opportunities to: LEARN From global experts and get first hand advice from leaders in their fields SHARE Present your research, share your experience or raise awareness of your work and get valuable feedback from peers NETWORK Meet colleagues and likeminded people from around the world, make n...
This eighteen issue of DIALOGO [2023.10.1] is dedicated to the general purpose of our endeavor, i.e., building a valuable and non-utopic dialogue between all science domains and as many theologies and spiritualities as possible. At the same time, we wanted to bring to the attention of the participants of this session a topic of increasing importanc...
Aging is an inevitable part of life. It brings forth a plethora of changes, both physical and emotional, that can pose several challenges for individuals. In this article, we will delve into the issues associated with aging, explore their impact on daily life, and provide insights on how to navigate through them gracefully. We all know that Aging i...
Our 18th event has successfully finished; it is now publicly released and published [as volume 10.1]. Thank you to all the attendees for their wonderful contributions and for offering their articles to the readers for free. This edition was another excellent session of discussions and debates, for sure an excellent contribution to your work and ple...
Nov 2022 Twice-yearly Conference on Bridging Science and Spirituality
This is a follow-up to the practical research on hospice healthcare patients that proved they need either ‘Spiritual’ or/and ‘Religious’ assistance and that these needs are basic, natural, and almost standard. Since that research with direct involvement in palliative care greatly helps the multidisciplinary team develop an improved intervention pla...
This seventeen issue of DIALOGO [2023] is dedicated to the multi-theme `Freedom, Human Rights, Global Crises, Solidarity & Values ` - addressing several actual issues with a central focus on human rights, seen in our society nowadays concerning globalization amid global crises that occurred in the latest years, and beyond towards a holistic approac...
"The primary purpose of this study is to understand if/how patients of hospice healthcare require ‘Spiritual’ or/and ‘Religious’ assistance and if its involvement in palliative care helps greatly. We have built a correlative of two scales and administrated them on the same sample, along with complete demographics questions to a group of people unde...
The main purpose of this study is to understand how the ‘laws’ of the cross-cultural model apply to cross-religions/interreligious communications with populations from different cultures amid migration. The aim is to identify the steps in which the cross-culture model generally works and if they apply the same way to the religious realm or not. Bei...
MOTIVATION: Whatever we approach the subject of ‘health’ – in every sense, physical, mental, spiritual, religious, or holistic - society has always been the perfect environment for them to grow, flourish and refine their tendencies. Today, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis and global upheaval while after the Covid-19...
Sensory-perceptive activity expresses the attributes of real objects and provides information connected to both external and internal reality. Perception helps us embed the information taken from sensations, helping us form the perceptive image that must be completed by each individual in their existence. Practically, perception facilitates the ada...
Just as there are people who are born with certain sensory limits or altered sensitivity (+/-) and perceive the outside world differently, so there are several ‘stimuli’ that alter our subjective perception (+/-) of reality (re)giving a different/distorted image of it, the religious faith being one of those. This role is played, for example, by a s...
"When we talk about dialogue, we always start looking for ways to best present the content of our speech. Approaching another through dialogue does not seem to care too much about the will or desire to accept the otherness for dialogue even if this is the basis of the binary formula of dialogue. Yet, in the case of religious dialogue, things are no...
The Crisuri Basin, with its total length of 1093 km (among which 670 km in Romania), is subjected to an effective environmental monitoring system consisting of 18 water stations network. Their integrated information is used for the water assessment problem to understand the biogeochemical processes leading to significant pollution levels in some ru...
We have used the term 'fetish' in a broader sense and especially related to the functions that a 'fetish' has in society. We are talking either about the tags that any 'fetish' receives [as undesirable, unwanted, forbidden, and peculiar], or about the uncertainty of its social approval, about the coagulating role it plays on individuals with the sa...
The way in which the “traditional” system of education ends up deflecting people's attention from the things that make us, human beings, a whole, a species, and a unity, is constantly and ascendingly challenged and thought against. Currently, we need to find out what features of the former educational system, especially those institutionalized, mai...
All the religious traditions raise endless prayers for living aids, those spread all over human lives. Without the hope that in all our needs and trials we have ‘someone’ to second us, so powerful that can help us overcome anything that stands in our path (more accurate 'against our wish'), most religious traditions would not be given any considera...
Ancient beliefs such as astral projection, human possession, abduction and other similar are not only universal, taught by all religions, but also used as premises for core believes/expectations, such as after-life, eternal damnation, reincarnation, and many others. Transferring Consciousness to a Synthetic Body is also a feature of interest in our...
There is consistent evidence that everything coming out from the religious/spiritual (R/S) phenomenon bends us most harshly. And that occurs regardless of the form religiousness or spirituality takes in practice or theory, despite the broad range of embracing religious concepts and creeds from atheism to fanatism, or moreover disregarding the impos...
We are witnesses to a major reshaping of our world: the World and our lives as we used to know are ending and they are reshaping constantly and drastically under pressure. Everything we knew about this world, our old habits, values, human rights, ethical patterns et all. These days, since the pandemic outburst, I saw the perceptions we have/ had on...
Session 4. Miscellaneous a b s t r a c t While spreading wide-world, the new coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 made changes in many social departments of our society on levels we never thought about and messes with all our cultural habits. Thus, we witnessed that the religious denominations took into consideration changes without precedent in their cultic his...
We witness that the religious denominations took into consideration changes without precedent in their cultic history and thus dogmatic as well concerning the actual threat of Coronavirus. While spreading wide-world, the COVID19 makes changes in many social departments of our society on levels we never thought about. We see for example the Roman Ca...
Obesity is one of the most significant public health challenges and becomes a public health problem. Consumption of fast-food, which have high energy densities and glycemic loads, and expose customers to excessive portion size, is frequently associated with weight gain, therefore, it is hypothesized that relative availability of fast-food is a risk...
The Confusional state is a condition that has been distinguished from other psychic states. Its assessment has been known to be determined by neurologic criteria. The clinical diagnosis implies that the person is incoherent, confused, aggressive or hallucinating.
Families confronted with this are confused and sometimes believe that there is a psyc...
Disordered arousal leads to a confusional state with an incoherent line of thought, temporal disorientation, poor recall, visual illusions, hallucinations and disordered behavior. With the exception of dementia with Lewy bodies, which is characterized by fluctuating confusion, other disorders causing dementia persist and deteriorate over months or...
The ecotheological consciousness involves respect and care for the community of life in the three well-living dimensions as theological spirituality, understanding and appreciated the horizontal sacred and environmental protection actions.
We conducted this research to highlight the impacts related to environmental studies from social and ecotheol...
The experiments of quantum physics indicate that an electron will change its behavior/
reality depending on whether or not the electron is being observed as if the particle is
aware that it is being observed. The reality thus is presumed to be, or only to be thought
of as a scenario that can be altered, changed, or imagined differently depending on...
There is a real need for rational and scientific debate between all parties involved in environmental risk management in Romania and in the region of Central and Southeast Europe against human domination of nature. The issue of industrial risks is of major importance especially in the Romanian technology park highly wear and aging, involving specia...
On behalf of the Organizing Committee, we welcome you to the events of DIALOGO Conferences & Journal, an international endeavor targeting Conferences on the Dialogue between Science, Philosophy and Theology, jointly organized by “the Research Centre for Dialogue between Science and Theology” (RCDST) from “Ovidius” University of Constanta (Romania)...
Religion is and it has always been the most paradox, intriguing and social active factor in the world history since the beginning of human society and till the end of it, no matter how evolved or primitive its precepts ever were. For that reason Religion was always a subject for endless study in different perspectives and with different outcomes. W...
Interfaith marriages, a social problem nowadays and a religious positive perspective. Abstract: Marriage is a part of individual life as well as a social issue and when it comes to youth this must be regarded even more carefully. The concept of 'interfaith marriage' denotes marital union wherein the partners belong to the different faith or religio...
Reflecting on the position each of these domains, Philosophy and Theology, had in the past, we have considered that we need to reconnect from the last step. The Romanian Orthodox university theology long felt the need for extensive and in-depth dialogue with university philosophy. Friendships close and full of usefulness between theologians and phi...
unlike the official ratio between Christianism and Mosaism, where Christianism is consider the continuer of Mosaism, I reconsider this position based on facts and prophecies told in Bible which prove that OT has to be distinguished in two separate realities, the genuine 'voice of God' expressed in prophecies and Decalogue, and the religiousness of...
My assertion is that God’s biblical
image may not reflect entirely His existence
in itself as well as His revealed image. Even
if God in Himself is both transcendent and
immanent at the same time, and He is revealing
accordingly in the history of humankind, still
the image of God constructed in the writings
of the Old Testament is merely the perspe...
In philosophy of religion the term
of Immanence is mostly applied to GOD in
contrast to the divine Transcendence. This
relation, as we will see here, it is not far from
the truth since one cannot be without the other,
however they are not to be put in contrast, but
in conjunction. The one-sided insistence on
the immanence of God, to the exclusion o...
this is a collection of papers presented at an international conference in Santa Barbara - California University, August 2014, about Religion and contemporary challenges. there were other papers too, but they are not been published here for different reasons.
On behalf of the Organizing Committee, we welcome you to the 2nd Virtual International
Conference on the Dialogue between Science and Theology, jointly organized by the
Research Centre for Dialogue between Science and Theology (RCDST) from Ovidius
University of Constanta (Romania) along with all our partners from 31 academic institutions,
faculties...
Starting from the traditional approaches
to teaching science and religion we discuss modern
pedagogical methods based on inquiry. We explore
whether and how the teaching methods specific to each
discipline may benefit in the teaching of the other.
I have started this research as a response to
a pejorative question that religious rituals are merely
theatrical, and the personnel involved nothing else
but actors; beyond this there is nothing any religion
suggests, e.g. healing, divine touch, blessings et.al.
This paper is about rituals and their meanings and
roles played as in social drama and...
This paper was made as part of a wider
research I made about rituals and their meaning
and roles they are playing in the religious system
of thinking. The way they are thought, displayed,
precisely followed as instructed and believed, makes
them a powerful social act that has been always
provided by any religion, and also a tool for religion
to mak...
Is religion inductive of or instrumental for violence? How are cultures of violence constituted, reproduced, perpetuated and normalized through religious institutions and discursive practices? What are the factors that induce religiously inspired (or labelled) violence? What can we learn from a historical perspective on faith based violence? And mo...
The thesis of this research project is that, despite the disappearance of the Communist and secular policy of implementing an atheistic worldview and life, neither the Communist regime, nor the post‐socialist Romania have led to a low attendance of religion, as it supports the rational choice theory of religion (TARR), but to a new revival of it. T...
Starting from the recent public debate over global warming we discuss the scientific consensus and public perception on climate issues. We then turn to the ongoing debate on diets and nutrition, comparing scientific perspectives, public views and religious standpoints.
The family has always been considered as the first and basic
expression of man's social nature. Even today this way of looking at things
remains unchanged. Nowadays, however, emphasis tends to be laid on how
much the family, as the smallest and most basic human community, owes to the
personal contribution of a man and a woman. The family is in fact...
Problema inspiraţiei divine este contradictorie, puţin dezvoltată şi de aceea
neformulată în chip unilateral. Aproape în toate materialele care s-au scris - cel puţin
în partea teologiei ortodoxe - ea se află tratată în raport cu revelaţia; este adevărat,
această dezvoltare a Inspiraţiei prin raportarea ei la Revelaţia dumnezeiască îşi are
motivele...
Dispute among St. Augustin and Pelagiu is a moment in which is obvious a
differentiation between Christian Est and Latin West in what concern the theaching about the divine gift.
Created grace can`t make goddesness out of human nature. Ergo, augustinism is semipelagian.
Scholastically did not do anything else but ingravescence the things which Prot...
Questions
Questions (29)
Currently, Dialogo Journal & Conferences has opened its 17th edition of the biannual virtual conferences on the dialogue between sciences and theologies. This edition - May 20-28, 2023 - is dedicated to a bunch of themes that are linked together to address a challenging hypothesis: whether we [people] should vouch for a global perspective on [human] values, such as "Freedom, Human Rights, Global Crises, Solidarity & Values" or, on the contrary, the perspective of accepting/implementing 'universal' values threatens basic human rights and human needs, cultural heritage, as well as the religious or political beliefs, traditions, Ethnicity, or even skin color.
I sense a great deal of anxiety around the world that the fabric of international relations may be starting to unravel – and that globalization itself may be in jeopardy. Globalization has brought great opportunities but also many new stresses and dislocations. There is a backlash against it - precisely because we have not managed it in accordance with the universal values we claim to believe in.
due to Covid-19 multiple issues created in our society, our former Slovakian publisher [EDIS] closed its doors and withdrew from many external commitments, Dialogo Journal included. We have received until now from them DOI codes, 10.18638/dialogo, and CrossMarks, basic conditions for a prestigious Journal to engage international, visible, and trustworthy publication – necessities covered by a local, Romanian University Library sponsorship. To be more explicit about our needs, we managed to find a librarian to give us DOI and Crossmark codes, therefore, we could be fine with self-publishing, but still, Clarivate, DOAJ, and other databases [such as Index Copernicus et al] have among their requirements that any Journal has to have a publisher to get their attention for indexation. Therefore, I turned out unto you with this kind asking, if someone knows a Publisher House that is not predatory and can help us with a simple, basic partnership for publishing an OA journal. Our needs are not at all impossible or hard to be fulfilled: only a tutorship(assuming each other, us of you as our Publisher, and you about us as a partner Journal), exchange of logos to display on the web and other promotional materials, and most of all enroll your Publisher name (contact and credentials) to all the Databases that indexed us until now, not few, 20! , while you need to respond to any contact [if it happens to check on us] a Database might have to validate our partnership.
In the preparation of Dialogo's next event, May 2021 – dedicated to clarifying an actual misunderstanding and less considered issue, the difference and separation between being spiritual, non-religious, and religious in Society - I would like to provoke you to a public discussion on this theme and as many issues emerging from it: should we consider as a different realm from religious that of spiritualism? Can Spirituality be apart from Religion and vice-versa? Is it more correct to say Spirituality and Spiritualism - what's the difference?
On the other hand, comparing those two [or three, if nonreligious is also an independent realm], can we assert one that is better - on the social ground; e.g., less violent, group builder, socially motivational, etc? Does spirituality or religious belief help or hinder the social [secular] order? Which one proved of being better in this regard?
We are witnesses for a major reshaping of our world: the World and our lives as we used to know are ending and they are reshaping constantly and drastically under pressure.
Just a little example we have in mind to start this discussion and invite you all for an international, multidisciplinary virtual conference, one of Dialogo.
for example in..
1. Art and Literature (topics under consideration: These are the days of creation, of inspiration as it was always the case with times of sorrow, despair, and challenges - a strong motive for humans to immortalize their struggle of surviving. So many artworks emerge amid pandemic, from daily impressions and blogging to hard-core literature and other arts - all proving that humans are more than individuals and survival more than a sacrificed generation...
On the other hand, this is a time for huge changes in Arts as well for artists cannot perform in public but online, cannot be free in the creative act, and, most of all, there are tremendous changes demanded in all kind of arts from the 'black lives matter" movement up to adjustments of literature, sculpture or cinema...).
