Sinodul Bisericii Ortodoxe Române a declarat anul 2017 ca Anul Omagial al sfintelor icoane, al iconarilor și pictorilor bisericești, dar și Anul comemorativ Justinian Patriarhul și al apărătorilor Ortodoxiei în timpul comunismului în Patriarhia Română. Având în vedere tema propusă de organizatorii acestei dezbateri, dar și anumite reacții negative după Sfântul și Marele Sinod al Bisericii Ortodoxe, desfășurat în Creta între 18–26 iunie 2016, prezentarea mea va avea ca subiect legătura dintre Biserica Ortodoxă Română și Consiliul (...) Mondial al Bisericilor (CMB) în perioada comunistă dintre anii 1948–1989. Voi analiza critic anumite momente cheie din istoria acestei legături, care au lăsat anumite amprente în istoria Bisericii Ortodoxe Române și de care nu trebuie să uităm așa curând. În același timp, personalitățile care au marcat această perioadă nu pot fi trecute cu vederea, printre care personalitatea Părintelui Patriarh, Justinian Marina, rămâne una de amintit. (shrink)

Cartea de față este teza de doctorat în Teologie a autorului, alcătuită și susținută în cadrul Școlii Doctorale „Sf. Nicodim” a Universității din Craiova, în noiembrie 2021. Lucrarea se remarcă prin rigurozitatea și amploarea cercetării teologice despre o temă actuală în misiologie, anume relația dintre misiune și eclesiologie. În acest sens, opera și personalitatea Pr. Prof. Ion Bria sunt punctele de referință pentru susținerea dimensiunii misionare a Bisericii Ortodoxe. Amintim că Pr. Ion Bria ne-a fost un apropiat, mai ales în (...) perioada activității noastre ca profesor la Facultatea de Teologie din Sibiu (1999- 2001). În semn de apreciere, i-am semnat Prefața volumului Tratat de Teologie Dogmatică și Ecumenică, publicat la editura România Creștină, în anul 1999. Lucrarea părintelui Diac. Doru Marcu se situează la întâlnirea dintre Misiologie și Dogmatică. Totuși, analiza este una misiologică, având în vedere formarea profesional-teologică a autorului, licențiat în teologie, cu studii masterale la Facultatea de Teologie din București și cu studii misiologice în străinătate, la Facultatea de Teologie și Studii Religioase, Universitatea Catolică din Leuven, Belgia. Pregătirea temeinică a părintelui autor se observă din numeroasele studii și lucrări folosite în prezenta cercetare. Apreciem și informațiile inedite despre prestigioasa activitate a Pr. Ion Bria, în conformitate cu documentele de arhivă cercetate de autor în fondul dedicat teologului român în Arhivele Consiliului Mondial al Bisericilor din Geneva, Elveția. Pornind de la adevărul că misiunea este parte integrantă eclesiologiei, autorul demonstrează că, în viziunea Pr. Ion Bria, conceptul liturghie după Liturghie este definitoriu pentru a înțelege legătura dintre cele două dimensiuni. Punctul de vedere al autorului se situează în interiorul teologiei ortodoxe ce consideră că misiunea nu se poate realiza fără eclesiologie. Așadar, Biserica rămâne un organism viu și teandric propovăduind neîncetat mesajul evanghelic al Împărăției lui Dumnezeu. Conceptul liturghie după Liturghie propune o strânsă legătură între actul eclesial și actul misionar, care începe prin săvârșirea Sfintei Liturghii și se continuă ca o nouă liturghie a iubirii aproapelui, prin cuvânt și prin faptă. 8 În concluzie, lucrarea părintelui Marcu este un reper pentru teologia românească și nu numai. Mai mult, având în vedere că în acest an se împlinesc două decenii de la trecerea la cele veșnice a Pr. Ion Bria, cartea de față va reprezenta în mod sigur și un omagiu de cinstire a celui mai important misiolog român. (shrink)

The Orthodox Churches are part of the ecumenical movement with the inner wish to clarify the theological elements which keep the whole Christianity divided. For this goal, every Church is represented somehow in discussions by her theologians who are training to carry a theological dispute at this level. The Romanian Orthodox Church was indirectly represented in the World Council of Church by professor Ion Bria (1929-2002), who had worked officially at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva for more than 20 (...) years. This theological research has the aim to speak to us about Bria’s personality and ecumenical activity. In order to accomplish this goal, I will expand my research in three chapters. In the first one, I will present his biographical life. Until this moment he remains the most important Romanian theologian involved in the ecumenical dialogue. The second chapter deals with the history of the modern ecumenical movement and also with Bria’s perspective on the dialogue between Orthodoxy and ecumenism, which are for him two correlative elements. Bria comes to confront the anti-ecumenical part within the Orthodox Church who does not accept the Christian dialogue being afraid of heresy. Bria explain how through dialogue, the line between Orthodoxy and the other Christians can be overrun. In the third chapter I explain the missionary concept ‘liturgy after the Liturgy’, both historically and theologically. Being aware that there are some uncertainties around this concept I decided to clarify it in a proper way. Bria is known as the promoter of this concept, so I will search to find out who is the originator of this expression as such. In the same chapter I will analyze the ecclesiological elements from Bria’s writings. The ecumenical dialogue is interpreted of being an ecclesiological problem par excellence so I will outline Bria’s position regarding the teaching of the Church. In conclusion I will present in a synthetic way the results of this study. (shrink)

Tal vez el problema más difícil de esa disciplina llamada bioética es el de la fundamentación o justificación de sus prescripciones y recomendaciones, así como el de la elección de los criterios por los cuales un individuo decide seguir o no seguir adelante con sus accio nes. La misma definición de "dilema de la bioética " depende de la que deci damos que está siendo violado o no por las nuevas tecnologías médicas o cien tíficas. Pero un problema adicional consiste (...) en establecer si una fundamenta ción de carácter filosófico posee la fuerza suficiente para imponerse como política de salud pública. Por la general, nuestras intuiciones morales encuen tran su expresión en las decisiones jurídicas y en las intenciones del legislador. No obstante, en la que concierne a las decisiones autónomas de los miembros de una sociedad, las políticas públicas como era de esperarsese inclinan decididamente en favor de medidas de carácter paternalista, que sacrifican las diferencias entre los individuos al interés común. (shrink)

For this study, we will present the most important ecumenical activities of Patriarch Justinian Marina. He was the third Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church between 1948 and 1977. During this period, he was very concerned to establish a relationship with the main ecumenical institutions. We will speak about his dialogue with one of the most important ecumenical group, namely the World Council of Churches, founded in 1948 in Geneva, Switzerland. Of course, the dialogue with the Church of (...) England must to be mentioned. His ecumenical activity was very important for the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Justinian being one of the most important Church leaders who tried and succeeded to be in contact with different religious leaders from Romania and abroad. We do not have to forget that during his time the communist regime ruled our country. In the first part, we will give different historical information about his ecumenical activity and in the second part we will explore his theological thinking about the ecumenical dialogue and movement. (shrink)

Review of Boldyrev, I., Stein, S. et al.. Interpreting Hegel's Phenomenology of spirit: expositions and critique of contemporary readings. London: Routledge.

Review of Ahmed Malik, S.. Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm. London: Routledge.

This book brings together the study of two great disciplines of the Islamic world: law and philosophy. In both sunni and shiite Islam, it became the norm for scholars to acquire a high level of expertise in the legal tradition. Thus some of the greatest names in the history of Aristotelianism were trained jurists, like Averroes, or commented on the status and nature of law, like al-Fārābī. While such authors sought to put law in its place relative to the philosophical (...) disciplines, others criticized philosophy from a legal viewpoint, like al-Ghazālī and Ibn Taymiyya. But this collection of papers does not only explore the relative standing of law and philosophy. It also looks at how philosophers, theologians, and jurists answered philosophical questions that arise from jurisprudence itself. What is the logical structure of a well-formed legal argument? What standard of certainty needs to be attained in passing down judgments, and how is that standard reached? What are the sources of valid legal judgment and what makes these sources authoritative? May a believer be excused on grounds of ignorance? Together the contributions provide an unprecedented demonstration of the close connections between philosophy and law in Islamic society, while also highlighting the philosophical interest of texts normally studied only by legal historians. (shrink)

Measuring gene expression on a global scale has been one of the vexing problems of cell biology. Velculescu et al.(1) recently proposed a system for identifying gene expression levels based on very short sequence tags – about nine base pairs – located at a specific site within a gene transcript. By coupling the strategy to current automated sequencing machines and the large expressed sequence tag databases, it should be possible to follow changes in gene expression for large numbers of genes (...) economically and accurately. (shrink)

This book collects papers on the greatest philosopher of late antiquity and founder of Neoplatonism, Plotinus (d. 270), and the founding figure of philosophy in the Islamic world: al-KindÄ« (d. ca. 873). A number of the contributions focus on the text that joins the two: the Theology of Aristotle, in fact an Arabic version of Plotinus' Enneads produced in al-KindÄ«'s translation circle. Adamson argues that this translation is best understood as a reinterpretation of Plotinus designed to appeal to contemporary readers (...) in the culture of the 'AbbÄ sid era. Other papers look at al-KindÄ«'s thought, exploring his ideas concerning metaphysics, free will, astrology, and optics. The traditions of Plotinus and al-KindÄ« are also treated, with papers on Plotinus' student Porphyry and his Arabic reception, and on followers of al-KindÄ«. Adamson argues that we can identify a 'Kindian tradition' in the 9th-10th centuries. He discusses the philosophical presuppositions of this movement, and the use of al-KindÄ«'s ideas made by one representative of the Kindian tradition, the Persian thinker Miskawayh. (shrink)

The so-called "Theology of Aristotle" is a translation of the Enneads of Plotinus, the most important representative of late ancient Platonism. It was produced in the 9th century CE within the circle of al-Kindī, one of the most important groups for the early reception of Greek thought in Arabic. In part because the "Theology" was erroneously transmitted under Aristotle's authorship, it became the single most important conduit by which Neoplatonism reached the Islamic world. It is referred to by such thinkers (...) as al-Fārābī, in an attempt to demonstrate the agreement between Platonism and Aristotelianism, Avicenna, who wrote a set of comments on the text, and later on thinkers of Safavid Persia including Mullā Ṣadrā. Yet the "Theology" is not just a translation. It may in fact more accurately be described as a creative paraphrase, which takes frequent liberties with the source text and even includes whole paragraphs' worth of new material. Adamson's book offers a philosophical interpretation of the changes introduced in the Arabic version. It is argued that these changes were in part intended to show the relevance of Plotinus' thought for contemporary Islamic culture, for instance by connecting the Neoplatonist theory of the First Principle to theological disputes within Islam over the status of God's attributes. At the same time the paraphrase reflects a tendency to harmonize the various strands of Greek thought, so that a critique by Plotinus of Aristotle's theory of the soul is subtly changed into a defense of Aristotle's theory against a possible misinterpretation. The upshot, or so Adamson argues, is that the "Theology" needs to be read as an original philosophical work in its own right, and understood within the context of the ʿAbbāsid era. (shrink)

If an asymmetry in time does not arise from the fundamental dynamical laws of physics, it may be found in special boundary conditions. The argument normally goes that since thermodynamic entropy in the past is lower than in the future according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, then tracing this back to the time around the Big Bang means the universe must have started off in a state of very low thermodynamic entropy: the Thermodynamic Past Hypothesis. In this paper, we (...) consider another boundary condition that plays a similar role, but for the decoherent arrow of time, i.e. the quantum state of the universe is more mixed in the future than in the past. According to what we call the Entanglement Past Hypothesis, the initial quantum state of the universe had very low entanglement entropy. We clarify the content of the Entanglement Past Hypothesis, compare it with the Thermodynamic Past Hypothesis, and identify some challenges and open questions for future research. (shrink)

The objective of this study is to conduct an analysis of the terminologies employed by Imam Ibn Rajab in his well-known work, "Fath al-Bari Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari," with the intention of enhancing our comprehension of his methodology in the field of Hadith studies. The study utilises a methodology that combines textual analysis and statistical techniques to examine the occurrence and usage of specific terms. The study also compares Ibn Rajab’s terminology with that of "Muqaddimah Ibn Salah" for a thorough analysis. (...) The study's main findings highlight the nuanced interpretations and variations in Ibn Rajab’s use of terminologies, specifically in synonymous terms like 'tafarrud' and 'garabah'. Furthermore, it emphasises his careful choice of the term "hasan" and the potential consequences it carries. The statistical analysis offers valuable insights into the frequency and patterns of these terminologies, which contributes to a quantitative understanding of their significance. After analysing the results, several suggestions are put forward. First, to gain a deeper understanding of Ibn Rajab's unique perspectives, it is recommended to thoroughly examine his methodologies throughout his entire body of work. Second, additional research is required to delve into the interpretations and implications of synonymous terms employed by Ibn Rajab. Third, conducting a thorough examination of his specific use of the term "hasan" would yield valuable insights into his criteria for evaluation. Fourth, it is important to conduct a thorough comparative analysis between the two texts, "Muqaddimah Ibn Salah" and the current text, to identify any similarities, differences, and potential influences. Fifth, it is recommended to broaden the statistical analysis to explore patterns, trends, and correlations within the dataset. Furthermore, gaining a broader understanding of Ibn Rajab’s contributions within the academic and scholarly landscape would greatly enhance comprehension. (shrink)

Evolutionary approaches to the emotions have traditionally focused on a subset of emotions that are shared with other species, characterized by distinct signals, and designed to solve a few key adaptive problems. By contrast, an evolutionary psychological approach (a) broadens the range of adaptive problems emotions have evolved to solve, (b) includes emotions that lack distinctive signals and are unique to humans, and (c) synthesizes an evolutionary approach with an information-processing perspective. On this view, emotions are superordinate mechanisms that evolved (...) to coordinate the activity of other programs in the solution of adaptive problems. We illustrate the heuristic value of this approach by furnishing novel hypotheses for disgust and sexual arousal and highlighting unexplored areas of research. (shrink)

Inspired by the Studies on authoritarian personality and based on contemporary research on authoritarianism in Brazil, we will analyze the construction of the idol aura surrounding former president Bolsonaro, which allowed the far right to be elected and remain in power until the last elections in 2022. We see his rise as mostly due to the digital violence that largely benefited his campaign and was directed against the block of left-wing candidates. So as to clarify this issue, we will revisit (...) the sociohistorical and psycho-political fundamentals of the antidemocratic and ethnocentric behaviors spurred by that leadership that became idolized. We will also outline an emancipatory, antiracist, culturally relevant and decolonial education, as a way to provide what Adorno regarded as being the antidote to the reemergence of a regressive barbarism. In the case of Brazil, barbarism refers to the remnants of the slave system implemented in the country for three and a half centuries, whose destructive potential was awakened under Bolsonaro’s government, given the latent antidemocratic and authoritarian tendencies in our society. (shrink)

Lo studio si concentra sul modo in cui i commenti alla Metafisica di Paolo di Venezia e Alessandro di Alessandria evidenziano il grado di modificazione della comprensione della dottrina aristotelica sull'essenza, dovuta alla ricezione della dottrina di Tommaso d'Aquino e di Averroè al riguardo. Dopo un'introduzione di inquadramento storico dottrinale dei due commenti, la seconda parte è centrata sulle dottrine dei due maestri relative all'essenza, e l'A. articola la sua ricognizione attorno ai temi del rapporto fra essenza e sostanza, essenza (...) e predicazione, e sulla rispettiva ricezione della dottrina tomista sull'essenza, fondata a sua volta sulla dottrina avicenniana . La terza parte verte su una puntuale ricostruzione della dottrina dell'essenza in Paolo, mentre la quarta evidenzia come Alessandro sia la fonte primaria di Paolo. L'A., infine, esamina il commento di Alessandro in relazione al tema dell'essenza. Nella conclusione ribadisce come Alessandro e Paolo tentino di riconciliare la dottrina averroista con Aristotele, adottando l'interpretazione di Tommaso. Tra i testi dell'Aquinate utilizzati si ricordano il De ente et essentia, il commento alla Metaphysica e quello alle Sentenze, la Summa theologiae. (shrink)

Zygon®, Volume 57, Issue 2, Page 443-466, June 2022.

. Undoubtedly, multinational corporations must play a significant role in the advancement of global ecological ethics. Our research offers a glimpse into the process of how goals of ecological sustainability in one multinational corporation can trickle down through the organization via the sustainability support behaviors of supervisors. We asked the question “How do supervisors in a multinational corporation internalize their corporation’s commitment to ecological sustainability and, in turn, behave in ways that convey this commitment to their subordinates?” In response, we (...) created a theoretical framework for supervisor sustainability support behavior based on Stern et al., Human Ecology Review 6(2), 81-97 (1999) value-belief-norm (VBN) theory. We then tested our framework by performing a survey-based field study of supervisors in a multinational pharmaceutical company that has publicly professed a goal of ecological sustainability. (shrink)

Rips et al. claim that the principles underlying the structure of natural numbers cannot be inferred from interactions with the physical world. However, in their target article they failed to consider an important source of interaction: finger counting. Here, we show that finger counting satisfies all the conditions required for allowing the concept of numbers to emerge from sensorimotor experience through a bottom-up process.

Childress and colleagues conclude that arguments from distributive justice do not justify discontinuing ECMO over a capacitated patient’s objections (Childress et al. 2023). However, this conclusio...

Part of Allen et al.’s criticism of Hamilton’s rule makes sense only if we are interested in social adaptation rather than merely social selection. Under the assumption that we are interested in casually modeling social adaptation, I illustrate how graphical causal models of social adaptation can be useful for predicting evolution by adaptation. I then argue for two consequences of this approach given some of the recent philosophical literature. I argue Birch’s claim that the proper way to understand Hamilton’s rule (...) is as providing an organizational framework for causal models is incorrect. I provide an account of a causally adequate decomposition of evolutionary change due to social adaptation and show that my account is superior to Okasha’s. (shrink)

We review the findings of Cho et al.(1) on the crystal structure of a p53 tumor suppressor‐DNA complex. The core DNA binding domain of p53 folds into a structure termed a β‐sandwich, which organizes two loops and a loop‐sheet‐helix structure on one surface of p53 to interact with the consensus DNA recognition sequence of p53. These structures help to explain the functions of wild‐type p53 and the effects of tumor‐associated mutations on p53 DNA binding, transactivation and suppression of cellular proliferation.

Women; ethics; religious aspects; ethics.

Legislation banning gender-affirming medical care (GAMC) for minors is inconsistent with the Consensus Recommendations for Pediatric Decision-Making (Salter et al. 2023). Gender dysphoria is a medical condition, and GAMC promotes adolescents’ health interests. The evidence for GAMC is comparable to the evidence for other types of pediatric medical care. Parents are permitted to consent for similar risks in the treatment of other conditions. Evaluation of the potential benefits, risks, and treatment alternatives is contingent on individual patients’ clinical conditions and adolescents’ (...) and their parents’ values and preferences. Such decisions are within the scope of parental discretion and should be made through shared decision-making with health-care providers. Parents’ declining GAMC does not inherently create a significant risk of serious imminent harm required to justify state intervention. Usurping parental discretion for GAMC is unjust: it treats this medical care differently than other comparable types of medical care without sufficient justification. (shrink)

PrécisDespite significant scholarship, research, and funding dedicated to implementing criminal diversion programs over the past two decades, persons with serious mental illness and substance use disorders remain substantially overrepresented in United States jails and prisons. Why are so many U.S. adults with behavioral health problems incarcerated instead of receiving treatment and other support to recover in the community? In this paper, we explore this persistent problem within the context of “relentless unmet need” in U.S. behavioral health (Alegría et al., 2021).

Dans les nations industrialisées, les goûts des individus sont désormais employés à doper la consommation. L'industrialisation de la jouissance privilégie le superflu au nécessaire, la sensibilité à la raison, la séduction à la faculté de juger. Pourtant, avec l'exploitation du goût, le capitalisme est loin d'avoir découvert une terre inconnue. A l'âge classique, la noblesse de cour cultivait un style de vie commandé par les loisirs et le goût, tout en faisant du bon goût un critère de distinction et de (...) promotion individuelle. Ces relations de compétition entre courtisans ont-elles été les premières notes en prélude au libéralisme? Si l'improductivité, au sens économique, a pu constituer une valeur fondatrice du goût, comment l'industrie a-t-elle pu transformer le goût en moteur économique de la consommation? Le devenir esthétique du capitalisme repose sur la captation et la conversion de ce qu'il aurait de plus individuel en valeurs mesurables, échangeables et massifiables, susceptibles de coloniser les moindres recoins de l'existence et de al culture. L'ouvrage montre que les enjeux du capitalisme esthétique excèdent le territoire angélique des agréments : les batailles esthétiques sont au cœur d'une guerre économique pour le contrôle des émotions et des affections. (shrink)

من نعم الله على عباده أنه شرع لهم ما يصلحهم وحرم عليهم ما يفسدهم؛ فجعل رضاه حيث منفعتهم، وجعل سخطه حيث مضرتهم؛ ومن هنا لا يخفى على عاقل لِمَ حرم الله الغرور وجعله من الحوائل دون دخول الجنة -كما أخبر بذلك المعصوم صلى الله عليه وسلم- وما كان لامرئ أن يدخل الغرور قلبه إذ الملك كله لله والعباد مستخلفون في الأرض يعمرونها لا ليتفاخروا ولا ليتكبروا وإنما لتعلو كلمة الله -تعالى- التي تقضي بالحق لكل العباد. في هذا الكتاب إطلالة على (...) الذنب الأول )الغرور( الذي من أجله تكبر إبليس عَلى السجود لآدم فاستحق لعنة الله -عز وجل- عبرة لمن أراد السلامة من هذه الآفة الكبرى، فيعرض الكتاب في فصوله الثلاثة: مفهوم الغرور وماهيته التي يخلط كثير من الناس بينها وبين الثقة بالنفس والإخبار بالواقع. ثم يطوف في نماذج من الرسل الكرام الذين لم يقعوا في هذه الآفة مع أنهم لهم كل كمال بشري. ثم يسرد الكتاب عواقب الغرور ومآله ليتبين الخيط الأبيض من الخيط الأسود، ويظهر الصبح لذي عينين. (shrink)