Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Experience of God (Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, Volume 1: Revelation and Knowledge of the triuNe God) by Dumitru Staniloae, Ioan Ionita, Robert Barringer ISBN: 0-917651-70-7 Publisher: Holy Cross Orthodox Press Pub. Date: June, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Magesterial! A vision of the God who is always greater.
Comment: Staniloae is simply breathtaking. He holds the tensions of Christian faith in a beautiful harmony. For instance, his discussion of the cataphatic and apophatic way of spiritual life is the best treatment I have ever read on the topic. It steers away from what he considers to be a Westernized understanding of negative theology which borders on agnosticism. Staniloae presents a relational God who creates time and space for man's place of movement toward intimacy with God. Staniloae's thought is particularly relevant in this postmodern age. He would be interesting to read in conjunction with Colin Gunton, Stanley Grentz, Thomas Torrance, or other Trinitarian theologians.
Rating: 5
Summary: A work of consummate spiritual beauty and meaning
Comment: How to convey the spiritual riches contained in this book by Dumitru Staniloae? I knew it was enriching and enlightening when I first read it, but it was only after I picked it up again recently and began really to read it as closely as I could that it gradually dawned on me how wonderful a work this is. It is not an easy book to classify or to read, but I would not characterize his writing style as "exceedingly dense," as did the first reviewer. I understand what the reviewer was trying to say, and I agree with it, but I think it is clearer to say that Staniloae's prose is not dense so much as extremely demanding. His writing demands that you stay present with him in concentration and single-pointed purpose. His writing is not dense in the sense of some closely written, jargon-laden economic thesis, but dense in the sense of exceedingly meaningful, and once penetrated, highly illuminating and enormously rewarding (as the other reviewer also pointed out). You really have to pay attention every moment, because every sentence, every phrase is significant, has meaning, and builds upon what he has previously said in a cumulative and interlocking way, until suddenly, the light dawns and you see something--a familiar doctrine, a spiritual practice, a liturgical prayer--in an entirely new and illuminating way. His writing is rich indeed with meaning and full of light, "shining like shook foil" on many levels.
Some measure of Staniloae's uniqueness as a theologian lies in the fact that this book is the first volume of his masterwork, Dogmatic Theology, with a projected five further volumes to come. Imagine naming a work on Dogmatic Theology, which is usually a subject treated almost entirely in rational, systematic and academic terms, The Experience of God! Anyone who went to seminary in any denomination knows what it means to say that normally nothing could be further from the experience of God than a good stiff exposition of dogmatic theology! And yet, truly, reading Staniloae draws one closer--by preparing the soul and infusing it with fruitful, dynamic images and concepts--to an actual spiritual experience of Divine love and communion. Staniloae discusses the dogmas of Christianity totally through the lens of experience and communion, in a profoundly effective way that is almost unknown or unheard of. One feels completely assured of the possibility and probability of tasting the love of and communion with God, and you feel your heart burning with excitement and hope. Can I really come to experience communion with God in this way, in a way that brings the doctrines of the Church to life almost beyond expectation? Staniloae says, yes, that is what the Incarnation of Christ is all about. While it is a truism about the Orthodox Church, since Lossky, that Orthodox theology has never separated doctrine and experience, I know of no one writing today who brings the experiential so completely into harmony with the intellectual aspects of theology as does Staniloae. And this is to be expected of a man who was himself fully and totally immersed in the mind and spirit of the ânipticâ or hesychast Fathers of the Church, esp. Sts. Dionysios the Areopagite, Maximos the Confessor, Symeon the New Theologian and Gregory Palamas. He knew the ascetic and hesychastic life from the inside, and it is this quality which is so evident in his writing and which makes the spiritual workout it takes to read him with understanding worth all the effort.
To give a brief example from the book itself, one of the ten chapters is entitled, âThe Supra-Essential Attributes of God.â Nothing in this chapter is exactly what you might expect from the title. He discusses therein such Divine aspects as infinity, simplicity, eternity, supra-spaciality, and omnipotence, but he does so in such a way that these mind-boggling concepts, rather than fostering an image of an inaccessibly perfect and impassible Divinity who has no actual place in our religious life, produce instead a dynamic image of God whose very transcendence from everything finite and human, creates in a paradoxical way the actual conditions for the most intimate personal communion and union with Him. In this same context of eternity and infinity, Staniloae presents a meditation of time and space and shows in a marvelous way how genuine and truly Christian is the poetâs insight of âinfinity in a grain of sand and eternity in an hour.â
The spiritual greatness in this book is worth every bit of the effort it takes to extract it. Magnificent!
Rating: 5
Summary: Theology based in love, and experience of Trinity
Comment: This invigorating book is the first time a major work of Fr. Staniloae's has appeared in english. He treats the topics of Revelation, Knowledge of God and the Trinity. Staniloae's theology is based in personal experience of love and communion with God. It is never abstract but is expressive of the encounter with the Triune God. Staniloae's perspective is eschatological and so is focused on human freedom and its fulfillment in God. Staniloae is grounded in the Christian patrisitc tradition in such a way as to demonstrate the wisdom of our forebears and their vital contribution to contemporary theological discourse without ever being trapped in a patristic archeology or fundamentalism.Staniloae's prose is exceedingly dense and can be tough going. However, the pay off is immense as we gain creative insights and understanding into love, freedom, the nature of space and time, the Trinity, the Church and the experience of God
 |
Title: The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church by Vladimir Lossky ISBN: 0913836311 Publisher: St Vladimirs Seminary Pr Pub. Date: 01 March, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Theology and the Church by Dumitru Staniloae, Robert Barringer, John Meyendorff ISBN: 0913836699 Publisher: St Vladimirs Seminary Pr Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
 |
Title: Maximus Confessor: Selected Writings (Classics of Western Spirituality) by George C. Berthold ISBN: 0809126591 Publisher: Paulist Press Pub. Date: December, 1985 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: The Orthodox Veneration of Mary the Birthgiver of God by St. John Maximovitch, Seraphim Father Rose, John Maximovitch, St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood ISBN: 0938635689 Publisher: Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood Pub. Date: 01 October, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.00 |
 |
Title: The Orthodox Way by Kallistos Ware ISBN: 0913836583 Publisher: St Vladimirs Seminary Pr Pub. Date: 01 September, 1995 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
