The Gift of the World. An Introduction to the Theology of Dumitru Staniloae. . - book review

Charles Miller, The Gift of the World. An Introduction to the Theology of Dumitru Staniloae, T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 2000, 128pp., GBP18.95.

This publication is one more contribution to the theological literature on Fr Dimitru Staniloe's writings and Patristic reflections. It is only during recent years that the writings of this distinguished and eminent Romanian Orthodox theologian have begun to be known in the West, due to various translations of his theological works and writings into Western languages. I had the great privilege and God's blessing to know Fr Staniloe personally in the 1970s and, later on, to receive his advice on various theological matters. For this reason I am very grateful to Charles Miller for having collected Fr Staniloe's lectures in Oxford in this small but interesting volume of essays, and for presenting them in a very coherent way which, even as he comments on them, keeps the originality and simplicity of this great Orthodox theologian's thought.

Fr Staniloe's originality lies in his conception of God, which affirms that it is very simple to conceive of God and to know him. Fr Staniloe, as a Romanian with his strong and deep belief as a pastor and theologian, tries to harmonize the "Western" and "Eastern" heritages according to the tradition of the fathers of the Church. He lived before and after the totalitarian communist regime in his country and this experience very much marked his theological analysis -- without however leaving any deep influence upon his theological thinking. Fr Staniloe's great love for the hesychastic period, and in particular St Gregory Palamas on the "uncreated energies" and Maximos the Confessor on the micro-cosmos and macro-anthropos (see below), led him to deal also with the translations of the entire collection of Philokalia of the Fathers and Ascetics of the Desert. It was as Staniloe's great theological work on Orthodox Dogmatics was translated (under various titles into English, French and Greek) that he began to be known in the West and scholars became aware of his theological and philosophical thought.

The present small publication includes six chapters on issues which were very dear to Fr Staniloe, issues on which he lectured and which he analyzed in depth -- not just "ecumenically" but also in a "catholic" way. These essays are offered as a kind of prologomena to the work of his Orthodox dogmatic theology.

Fr Staniloe's personal style -- doing theology as a confession of faith rather than as an abstract "system" of thought -- enables him to create a theology of creation in which the world is a theophany, a manifestation of God which is transparent to the light of God. This is in order that God himself may be revealed in creation through this creative act, as well as through His will for humankind. As Fr Staniloe affirms, "the Orthodox Church does not separate natural and supernatural revelation. Natural revelation is known and fully understood in light of the supernatural revelation: and natural revelation is given and maintained by God's confirmed action upon nature" (Dogmatic Theology I, p. 9). However, underlying Fr Staniloe's whole approach is the argument which he develops in emphasizing the solidarity between humankind and creation, as well as Maximus the Confessor's view of humankind as a "little world" (micro-cosmos) and the cosmos as an "enlarged humanity" (macro-anthropos).

Meanwhile Fr Staniloe considers what Christians mean when they speak of dogma and, following from that, what the relationship is between dogma and theology. This reality is possible only by means of a pneumatological understanding of the Church. The Church -- which preserves, preaches, applies or fructifies, explicates and defines dogma -- is not conceived of in static or institutional terms, but as a community of persons "who believe in Christ and who have taken their being from the descent of the Holy Spirit and from the apostolic preaching of Christ". Its permanent pentecostal character means that the Church is "itself part of the revelatory action of God. Thus, the sacramental food for the liturgy of our minds, even as bread and wine, are the sacramental food for the liturgy of our souls and bodies, as it leads us towards experience of the Kingdom of God".

Fr Staniloe's originality lies in his development of an integrated vision of Christ and the natural world as well as his distinctive theology of the world as "gift", a term pointing, at the cosmic level, to the world's purpose within the relationship and dialogue between God and humankind. This "dialogue" has, according to Fr Staniloe, its first utterance in the creation of the world by the Word, when God gave the world as a gift to humanity.

In one essay Fr Staniloe emphasizes the relation between Christ, Creation and Cross, balancing his theology between creation and salvation, e.g. the presence of the Incarnated Logos and God's revelation in Christ also in the Cross. Fr Staniloe insists that: "When God created all things that he might share his love, the purpose of all things was that they might attain to full participation in this love, that is, to full communion with God." Therefore the restoration of the world as gift depends upon the restoration of humanity's freedom, as described in the first chapters of Genesis.