Lucian Turcescu

Religion, Politics and Sexuality in Romania

This article considers homosexuality abortion contraception family planning and prostitution several broad areas in which the Romanian churches gave pronouncements with regard to acceptable behaviour for the larger society. The article ends with a brief discussion of the Orthodox struggles to regulate additional aspects of the sexual life of its clergy and their families. While the views of the Romanian Orthodox Church on homosexuality and abortion were presented before this article is the first to report on Romanian churches’ position on prostitution and Orthodox priests’ divorce. (excerpt)

Church, state, and democracy in expanding Europe

Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Bulgaria Chapter 3: Czech Republic Chapter 4: Estonia Chapter 5: Hungary Chapter 6: Latvia Chapter 7: Lithuania Chapter 8: Poland Chapter 9: Romania Chapter 10: Slovakia Chapter 11: Slovenia Conclusions Notes Bibliography Index

The Devil's Confessors: Priests, Communists, Spies, and Informers

The article charts the efforts of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the countrys largest religious denomination, to block the public exposure of the names of priests and prelates who collaborated with the dreaded communist secret political police, the Securitate, by informing on other priests, disclosing information obtained from believers during confession or supporting communist antireligious policies. The article identifies four types of attitudes toward the Securitate of members of the Romanian Orthodox clergy, presents the arguments in favor of and against the public exposure of tainted priests, examines the recent revelations regarding the controversial past of Patriarch Teoctist, and investigates the Churchs efforts to impose amendments to the Romanian transitional justice legislation that would exempt priests from being investigated by the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archive.

“Person” versus “Individual”, and Other Modern Misreadings of Gregory of Nyssa

This article argues that, despite claiming that his own ontology of personhood is patristic–based, John Zizioulas has not convincingly exegeted the Cappadocian theology of person, especially that of Gregory of Nyssa and Basil of Caesarea. This is unfortunate, given the fact that there are dozens of patristic quotations from, or references to, various Greek Fathers (especially the Cappadocians) throughout Zizioulas’s works. Instead, he uses nineteenth– and twentieth–century insights which he then foists on the Cappadocians. This methodology leads him to misleading conclusions. Zizioulas is therefore in error when he contends that the Cappadocians did not understand a person as an individual or when he credits them with having had the same concerns we moderns have when combating individualism today.

Gregory of Nyssa and the concept of divine persons

The concept of personhood is central to a wide range of contemporary issues, ranging from reproductive rights to the death penalty and euthanasia. We may think that the concept of person is a modern discovery. In fact, however, this idea does not originate with our discovery of human rights, consciousness, and individuality. As this study shows, for example, the fourth-century theologian Gregory of Nyssa developed a very sophisticated concept of the person in the context of his attempts to clarify the paradox of the Trinity - a single God comprising three distinct persons. Turcescu offers the first in-depth analysis of Gregorys writings about the divine persons. Turcescus work not only contributes to our knowledge of the history of Trinitarian theology but can be helpful to theologians who are dealing with issues in contemporary ethics.

Politics, national symbols and the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral

Abstract Among religious denominations in Romania, the dominant Orthodox Church has been the closest to the state, often positioning itself in opposition to the budding civil society. The prolonged negotiations for a location in downtown Bucharest suitable for the new Orthodox Cathedral for National Salvation best illustrate the interactions between different segments of the political class, the Orthodox Church, and a variety of civil society groups seeking to define the public space and the countrys new democracy. They further illustrate how contesting actors use the recent past to define the politics of the present.

Politicians, Intellectuals, and Academic Integrity in Romania

(2004). Politicians, Intellectuals, and Academic Integrity in Romania. Problems of Post-Communism: Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 12-24.

The Orthodox Churches and Democratization in Romania and Bulgaria

On 1 January 2007, two of Eastern Europe’s predominantly Orthodox countries, Romania and Bulgaria, officially became EU members. This brought to three the number of predominantly Orthodox EU member states, with Greece having been one since 1981. To be accepted in the union, a country must meet several pre-accession criteria that indicate its commitment to become a Western-type liberal democracy, to demonstrate profound respect for human rights, and to join the capitalist economic union. As in 1989, when Romania and Bulgaria were the last former Soviet satellites to shed their communist regimes, again in 2007 they were the last ones of the group to enter the EU, three years after the Central European and Baltic states joined, because of their difficulties in meeting the accession criteria. Both countries had to harmonize their legislation with the acquis communautaire and to revisit much of their political, economic, and civic culture in order to bring them in line with those of the democracies they sought to become by joining the EU club. A factor that was not part of the negotiation process in view of EU accession is religion. Each EU member has the freedom to manage its Church-state relations in its own way. This chapter looks at how the dominant Orthodox Churches of Romania and Bulgaria performed during the process of democratization leading up to their countries’ admission into the EU.

Lexicon Gregorianum, Worterbuch zu den Schriften Gregors von Nyssa (review)

Cyril’s ministry? While it cannot be proven that a narrative of institution was not used in Jerusalem during this time, such lack of reference to a narrative in M may suggest its status as a set of preaching notes where details were omitted or assumed. Doval thinks that the stress on Christ’s ministry which we find in M’s commentary on the Our Father is indicative of Cyril’s theology. A chapter on theology and spirituality finds the typologies used in both C and M comparable and suggestive of common authorship. Comparing John’s few extant works with M confirms John’s Origenism but reveals that none of these Origenisms are present in M. The final stylometric analysis details word usages between the two works, supporting M’s literary affinities with C in terms of Greek vocabulary. The persistent question of authorship receives a comprehensive treatment in this work. Nonetheless, Doval’s approach is tentative and measured throughout, and it allows the evidence to speak for itself. The door on John’s authorship of M is not completely closed, but for Doval it remains an improbability at best. Barring new evidence, it will probably never be opened wide again in the wake of this study. William P. McDonald, Tennessee Wesleyan College