TUTORIAL 2

1) Divine Charisma and Personal Experience

2) An Orthodox and Evangelical Dialogue on Theological Method
Presented by Con Farrugia March 2011

DIVINE CHARISMA AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

DIVINE CHARISMA AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

All theology is made possible by the Holy Spirit Theology is the most supreme and sublime of all gifts of the Holy Spirit Theology is perfected in the trinity Theology is the art of arts and the science of sciences

DIVINE CHARISMA AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

The gift is received from above and being taught from above Theology is a suprarational mystery into which one is initiated only by an unwavering faith God shapes the journey of our lives and not simply the concept in our minds

DIVINE CHARISMA AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Theological journey begins with the last supper

DIVINE CHARISMA AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Evagrius of Pontos If one is a theologian, one will pray truly If one prays truly, then one is a theologian
__________________________________ Theology has to inspire human soul towards life giving and life saving love of God

DIVINE CHARISMA AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Theologians only 3 ever given this title by the Church

St Symeon

Ap John

St Gregory

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

Reverend Doctor Stanley S. Harakas

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

Orthodox theology the past Orthodox theology the modern world Orthodox theology the future with reference to Evangelical Protestant tradition

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

The Past

Revelation Christ, Holy Spirit Apostles Church Holy Tradition Scriptures

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

The Gospel as a Canon of Faith

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

The Holy Spirit revelation

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

St Paul receives the revelation of God

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

There are two fundamental realities

Kataphatic theology Proclaimed and expressed in as many ways as possible Within the mind set () ethos and experience by the churchs experience Revelations can not be conveyed alone by written rational concepts

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

Apophatic theology

to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

St John of Damascus

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

Divine Energies God relates to what He has created

Experience of God is not his essence, but his contact point with us, his energies.

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

"The Apostolic Faith in the Scriptures and the Early Church" put it this way:

The New Testament writings exhibit diversity in the formulation of the faith confessed concerning Jesus. There are four gospel books to proclaim the one gospel. Epistles stem from the questions that are being addressed; but a positive variety of thought and formulation must also be ascribed to the abundant character of the faith and to the mystery of the person being confessed, both of which find a doxological expression. Questions arise as to whether the diversity amounts to internal contradictoriness. While individual Christians and scholars have sometimes considered this to be the case, the churches have maintained the unity and coherence of the scriptural canon whose establishment owed much to the use of these writings (sic!), all these writings, and no other writings in the gradually settled worship of the early church. Tensions among the various accepted writings permit mutual correction and enrichment.

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

Mosaic Theological Method

Multiple witnesses to divine revelation existing side by side

No single image or expression tells the whole story of revelation.

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

The Present

Pseudomorphism The Neo-Patristic Synthesis Orthodox Theological Reductionism

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

The Future theological method

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

The Future cont

analogia entis The analogy of being Analogies are used throughout Scripture and in tradition

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

The future cont 1960 radical theology Theology from below

Western thinking

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

The Future cont New theologies:Liberation Feminist of every kind Black Caribbean African Asian Polynesian Class

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

The Future cont

Scripture Revelation and Ecclesiology The Patristic Mind

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

Three fundamental levels of hermeneutical by Fr Stylianopoulos Exegetical

Interpretive or evaluative
Transformative

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

"additional decisive hermeneutical factors" Faith and reason Scripture and tradition The community of faith and individual members Human capacity and Divine grace

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

The Patristic Mind

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart." Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God

AN ORTHODOX AND EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE ON THEOLOGICAL METHOD

Orthodox theological method and its obligatory appeals to the multifaceted criteria of dogmatic authorityholy Scripture, liturgical custom, patristic consensus, conciliar declaration, and creedal statement

EVAGRIUS OF PONTOS

CONCLUSION
Evagrius of Pontos

If one is a theologian, one will prays truly

If one prays truly, then one is a theologian ______________________________________ Only through prayer can we truly know God otherwise we are only speaking of God

Ultimate aim bring people closer to God

PRAYER