TABOR - Tradition and Contemporaneity in the Romanian Orthodox Church
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Father Ioannis Romanides, a hesychast in the academic theology of the twentieth century


Ioannis Romanides, Greek theologian who studied in the United States, has made a decisive contribution to the revival of Greek neo-patristic theology in the twentieth century. He was the most gifted student of Father Georges Florovsky and he  perceived very accurately his teacher`s message   about turning academic theology and Christian spirituality towards their patristic sources. Father Ioannis Romanides`s work encountered much resistance among conservative academic circles and pietist organizations. Nevertheless, it had a crucial role in reorientation towards experience and dogmatic and mystical reformulation of the Greek theological thinking in the second half of the twentieth century. Its starting point was the rehabilitation, in the academic theology field, of the major theologians and philokalic mystics of the Church and their vision, especially the hesychastic-dogmatic synthesis St. Gregory Palamas. The thematic and methodological field of his theological vision has the following main lines: an Orthodox response to heterodox confessions - also identifying their influence on theology and church life;  empirical dogmatics and therapeutic Orthodoxy; a Palamite Theology (of the highest level) and a historical theology (which requires some nuances); an eschatology of Glorification. His theological work, equally  traditional and original, exerted a great influence on several generations of theologians and bishops of the Church to this day. Some of them even thought that his work and personality are so important and precious that we can speak of "an age before him and one after him" in the Greek theology of the twentieth century.
 
Keywords: Ioannis Romanides, neo-patristic revival, Greek theology, dogmatic theology


 

GRIGORE DINU MOŞ