Author: Rev. asist. Ioan Bria (World Council of Churches, Geneva)
Keywords: Jesus Christ, philanthropy, love, Bible, Liturgy
Abstract:
One of the most used divine names that is given to our Savior Jesus Christ – especially in the Church Hymnography, as a doxological expression of the Bible – is “The Lover of Man”. Father Ioan Bria, a former well-known Romanian Dogmatist, comes here with a theology of love, expressed through elements of Soteriology and Christology. It was written in the author’s early years (Ortodoxia, 1st issue 1966) of theological career, a fact witnessing for its freshness. God’s love can be revealed only by knowing His saving work. More specific, in His relation with the Father and the Spirit, with the Apostles, his enemies and the world in general. He divides God’s work in three directions: a) Christological meaning of our neighbour, b) The Charismatic aspect of love, c) The universal and soteriological purpose. Of course, he took as his help the Holy Tradition of the Church: Liturgical books, Holy Fathers’ writings and the contribution of the modern theologians. In acquiring the spirit of love, man has to gain the other virtues. Paradoxically, the latter cannon be gained otherwise but in the spirit of love, though not in the same intensity as the love classically defined by Saint Apostle Paul and others. In the last part of the article, he addresses the question of peace, a state desired and achieved by Saints but which can constitute an example and a guide to our society in general, so ravaged by social tensions and wars in the last century.
(Preluat din Ortodoxia XVIII (1966), nr. 1, pp. 54-70.)
Pages: 108-125