<p>Innebörden av begreppet tradition varierar mellan de stora kyrkorna. Denna uppsats beskriver traditionens betydelse och plats i den ortodoxa kyrkan. Traditionen har beskrivits både utifrån sin yttre och inre form. I traditionen står theosis, människans gudomliggörelse, i centrum både liturgiskt, i lära och i praxis. Fakta från litteraturen har främst hämtats från verk av de ortodoxa 1900-tals teologerna Kallistos Ware och John Meyendorff. Förutom litteraturstudier har en enkätundersökning med öppna svarsalternativ skickats ut till ortodoxa församlingsmedlemmar. Den fenomenografiska forskningsmetoden har tillämpats på enkätsvaren. Resultatet av dessa visar hur ortodoxa invandrare och svenska konvertiter uppfattar den ortodoxa kyrkan respektive den protestantiska. Utifrån svaren uppställdes olika kategorier som visar på likheter och variationer mellan gruppernas uppfattning om den ortodoxa traditionen. Slutsatsen av undersökningen blev att det finns en tydlig samstämmighet i uppfattningen om både den ortodoxa kyrkan och den protestantiska kyrkan oberoende av personernas uppväxt, utbildning och kulturella arv. Den enskildes uppfattning och kunskap inom detta område har troligen främst sin utgångspunkt i personliga erfarenheter.</p>

Innebörden av begreppet tradition varierar mellan de stora kyrkorna. Denna uppsats beskriver traditionens betydelse och plats i den ortodoxa kyrkan. Traditionen har beskrivits både utifrån sin yttre och inre form. I traditionen står theosis, människans gudomliggörelse, i centrum både liturgiskt, i lära och i praxis. Fakta från litteraturen har främst hämtats från verk av de ortodoxa 1900-tals teologerna Kallistos Ware och John Meyendorff. Förutom litteraturstudier har en enkätundersökning med öppna svarsalternativ skickats ut till ortodoxa församlingsmedlemmar. Den fenomenografiska forskningsmetoden har tillämpats på enkätsvaren. Resultatet av dessa visar hur ortodoxa invandrare och svenska konvertiter uppfattar den ortodoxa kyrkan respektive den protestantiska. Utifrån svaren uppställdes olika kategorier som visar på likheter och variationer mellan gruppernas uppfattning om den ortodoxa traditionen. Slutsatsen av undersökningen blev att det finns en tydlig samstämmighet i uppfattningen om både den ortodoxa kyrkan och den protestantiska kyrkan oberoende av personernas uppväxt, utbildning och kulturella arv. Den enskildes uppfattning och kunskap inom detta område har troligen främst sin utgångspunkt i personliga erfarenheter.

As a key contributor to the current discussion of the Catholic theology of religions, Gavin D'Costa's writings represent a consistent attempt to utilize the resources of the doctrine of the Trinity to address a number of issues regarding the theological significance and function of religions in the salvific plan of God. The aim of this thesis is to examine critically his Trinitarian theology of religions through the lens of a main proponent of patristic theology, Basil of Caesarea, and through a historical-systematic study, address the question of whether his underlying Trinitarianism is consonant with classical Trinitarian theology. After a discussion of Vatican II and post-Conciliar sources, the main contours of D'Costa's theology are highlighted through an interpretive grid of particularity/universality (Christology/Pneumatology) with a second-order universality/particularity. Despite his distancing from the three-fold typology of exclusivism-inclusivism-pluralism, we analyzed that much of his theology continues to fall within the category of traditional inclusivism, particularly since his recent proposal of the limbo of the Fathers contained serious difficulties pertaining to his intention to maintain a singular OT Judaism-Christianity relationship. Next, we examined the main features of Basilian Trinitarianism, and proposed that three major themes are of relevance for a comparative analysis with D'Costa's theology, namely, (1) the doctrines of divine simplicity and inseparable operations, (2) the enlightening work of the Spirit, and (3) the theology of baptism and theosis. Throughout the discussion, in recognition that Basil's thought is part of the patristic theological matrix of his time, we will also reference the writings of other Church Fathers, including Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Augustine. We concluded that while in Basil's theology, economy, relationality and ethics are intricately woven into each other, D'Costa's system, despite its significant merits, was at risk of disaffiliating the connections between the three.

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The identity of Russian Evangelical Churches theology is considered in this thesis. This identity arose as result of interactions of Western Evangelical movements with the Orthodox Church, and with native pre-Protestant groups. The separate area of theology chosen as the subject of research is ecclesiology. The historical background of the appearance of inner-orthodox movements is shown in this work in order to understand the theological peculiarities. Peculiarities of the orthodox and extra-orthodox mentality also are considered, as they become an important environment for the appearance and development of Evangelical theology in Russia. The last part of this work shows peculiarities of recent Evangelical ecclesiology. / Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / M.Th. (Systematic Theology)

In this investigation key elements of the mysticism of Elizabeth of the Trinity (1880-1906) are compared and contrasted with the mysticism of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and as a result, the true nature of the relationship between their respective mysticism is elucidated. Key doctrines which exhibit a remarkable consonance are: the trinitarian foundation of their mysticism, the indwelling of the Trinity in the human soul, asceticism, desert spirituality, sacrificial love, liturgical spirituality, scriptural spirituality, deification and the doxological nature of their mysticism. Elements of divergence exist within the following: election and predestination, apophatic versus cataphatic mysticism, the Roman Catholic dogma of the immaculate conception of the virgin Mary, and the mode of God's presence in the human soul. Elizabeth's relevance for today is also considered, namely, her ecclesial mission which she now continues in heaven: to intercede for people seeking union with God and to draw people to interior recollection. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th.

Orthodox Christianity represents the oldest Christian tradition. However, the tragic schism between the Christian East and West has resulted in a lost cognizance of the East by the West (Chrysostomos, 2007). Ultimately, this loss, for the West, involves the loss of part of its own Christian heritage. As attempts at rapprochement are made, on the ecclesiastical, cultural, and international levels, it is important that the West begin to develop an understanding of human psychology from an Orthodox perspective, i.e., a psychology consistent with the cosmology and soteriology of Orthodoxy. Orthodox Christian Psychotherapy bridges the divide between mystical, neptic, and hesychastic teachings and the methods and goals of modern Western psychotherapy. It is the meeting of the transcendent and the secular, and of spirituality and psychotherapy, as they impact all those in need of inner healing from spiritual, behavioral, and / or psychological disorders and pathologies (St. John Climacus, 1979; Romanides, 2007). This study in practical theology concretizes the above by examining the intensity of depressive symptomatology and comorbid anxiety before and after a twelve-week treatment plan using Orthodox Christian neptic-psychotherapeutic interventions and techniques. The results represent yet another step in disentangling the mystery of the relationship between spirituality, psychological treatment, and mental health. The findings, which confirm the efficacy of Orthodox Christian Psychotherapy, offer insight into the ways in which neptic-psychotherapeutic interventions may be applied at the pastoral and clinical level and utilized to treat and / or prevent depressive symptomatology and comorbid anxiety, and possibly other spiritual, behavioral, developmental, and / or psychological disorders and pathologies, in both the Orthodox and general populations. / Practical Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology)

This thesis seeks to demonstrate that, in failing to take the sacramentality of the Word seriously, the preaching of the Church has suffered negative consequences. In short, preaching has often become, at best, a form of instruction or, at worst, an incantation of sorts, rather than an integral part of deepening our relationship with Christ by functioning sacramentally to bring about divine participation with Jesus' corporeal humanity in his living Word. Moreover, this trouble has had a profoundly negative effect on my own Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod due, in part, to our Reformation heritage as Christians who believe, teach, and confess the sole authority and divine inspiration of Holy Scripture. Yet, what has been lost over the past 500 years since the Reformation began is the reality of Christ's ongoing corporeal presence in and for the Church, particularly as he is present in the viva vox of preaching. In order to recover that reality, I propose that one should consider the annunciation to Mary where, with a sermon of sorts, the corporeal Christ took up residence in the flesh of his hearer. In addition to granting Mary a son, however, this tangible presence of Jesus also delivered to her precisely what was contained within his own flesh: the fullness of the Godhead (Col 2:9). When understood as a biblical paradigm for the Church, it becomes clear that what happened to Mary can, indeed, happen to Christians of the present day. To that end, I propose that preaching today, when understood sacramentally, can deliver the fullness of the person of Christ, who continues to come in corporeality, with humanity and divinity, in the viva vox of preaching.

Selected aspects of Nicholas of Cusa's cosmology and anthropology This thesis targets selected topics of theology of creation and of man, that is, theological cosmology and anthropology in the work of a Renaissance philosopher, theologian, mathematician and scientist Nicholas of Cusa. I shall first introduce Cusanus' curriculum vitae, it's historical context and basic characteristics of theological anthropology in the work of Cusanus. After this, I shall present in greater detail selected topics of his mathematical theology, including historical context of this specific discourse on God, world and man using language of mathematics. This includes mathematical description of both created world and of theological reality, e.g. God's transcendence and immanence, the place of man in the universe, or the role of universe which has a mediating role between God and man in the works of Cusanus. Mathematical language used by Cusanus is part of a wide stream of Neoplatonist philosophical and theological tradition. Cusanus is inspired not only by pre-Christian philosophical traditions (Pythagorean school, Plotinus' concept of One), but also by Greek patristic writers like Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. In his concept of "great conjecture" Cusanus presents a model of...

This study offers an ecumenical exploration of human transformation through the examination of this topic in the thought of Karl Barth (1888-1968), a Swiss Reformed theologian; Joseph Ratzinger (b. 1927), a Roman Catholic theologian; and John Zizioulas (b. 1931), a Greek Orthodox theologian. Describing and understanding human transformation stands as a crucial task for theology because no one is simply born a Christian—in order to be a Christian one must become a Christian. The first chapter introduces this topic, the three theologians (highlighting their commonalities), and the three questions that guide the analysis of each theologian and the thesis as a whole: What is the goal of human transformation? What is the basis of human transformation? How are humans transformed? Chapters 2, 3, and 4 treat the topic of human transformation in the theology of Barth, Ratzinger, and Zizioulas, respectively. All three understand the goal of human transformation to be the prayer of the children of God, and locate its basis in God’s reconciling act in Jesus Christ—an act itself based in the primordial divine decision to be God pro nobis. Even within this broad agreement, however, differences are evident, especially with regard to eschatology. Consideration of how this transformation occurs reveals significant differences concerning the agency of Jesus Christ in relation to the Holy Spirit and the church. The final chapter explores 1) the convergences and divergences between Barth, Ratzinger, and Zizioulas regarding human transformation; 2) the contributions of this study to the interpretation of Barth, Ratzinger, and Zizioulas; and 3) the relationship between human transformation and participation in God. Throughout, attention is given to the relationship between Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the church, the eschaton, and the triunity of God and human transformation. All three accounts of human transformation point beyond the transition between sinful and redeemed humanity to a dynamic anthropology in which the constant asking, receiving, thanking, and asking again is the very “ontological location” of the eschatological life of humanity: our being is in becoming.