As the dialogue between science and religion has grown more robust, Christians have been led to more nuanced ways of thinking about the connections between these two modes of inquiry. This essay focuses on exploring various deficiencies in naturalistic conceptions of the cosmos, and further exploring how Eastern Orthodox theology provides a more encompassing picture of human beings and their place in the cosmos.

The article deals with the problem of the divine light in the mystical works of St Symeon the New Theologian in the context of the Eastern Christian ascetical tradition. The author focuses on the passages referring to the divine light in the works of Evagrios Pontikos, St Isaac the Syrian, St Maximus the Confessor, and in the Makarian corpus. As is shown in the present contribution, none of these authors created a fully-developed theory of the vision of the divine light. (...) Being close to these writers in many ideas, St Symeon was generally independent of any of them in his treatment of the theme of vision of light, always basing himself primarily upon his own experience. (shrink)

The Bioethics Committee of the Church of Greece, headed by Metropolitan Nikolaos of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki, was founded a few years ago, bringing together clergy, medical and legal experts. In his address, Metropolitan Nikolaos explains the concerns and the conditions that led to its foundation and he outlines some of the activities and the principles of the Committee. This address, a somewhat broad-brush presentation of the state of bioethics in Greece, is offered as a proposal as to how (...) the Church can work within a secular state, and how it can attempt to raise awareness about the spiritual aspect of bioethical concerns. Overall, the Bioethics Committee tries to promote public dialogue about sensitive bioethical issues, and to make sure that the spiritual perspective is duly informed by medical science. In addition, the Committee tries to make sure that the spiritual perspective is considered by the state in the face of existing or emerging law that touches on bioethical concerns. (shrink)

This paper explores how João de Andrade Corvo and José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage, two nineteenth-century Portuguese naturalists, were able to reach prominent political positions in their country by means of their work in, respectively, botany and agriculture, and zoology. The authority they derived from their scientific activities and the knowledge they acquired in the process, favored by their proximity to particular political quarters, elevated them to important governmental offices, in the context of which they implemented policies that reinforced Portugal’s (...) identity as an imperial nation. The colonial policies and agreements signed by Corvo and Bocage aimed at securing Portuguese colonial territories, which, aside from their economic relevance, constituted a symbol of power that reinforced the sovereignty of a small nation in a Europe dominated by the rule of increasingly vaster and stronger states. In spite of their different scientific careers and personal interests, both naturalists played key roles in Portuguese foreign affairs and colonial negotiations of the late nineteenth century, especially during the Scramble for Africa. (shrink)

The polemical literature of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, comprehensively covering the issue of unification, had already outlined most of the important issues surrounding the transition of part of the Ukrainian Orthodox clergy to the union with Rome. However, their resolution raises a lot of controversy and ambiguous estimates of this controversial event. Therefore, actualization of this problem in modern science is a natural phenomenon. Today, as V. Shevchenko rightly points out, “the passionate relevance of the unified issue (...) has already acquired the importance of historical urgency”. In addition, the role of the two most influential dioceses of the Kyiv Metropolitanate, Lviv and Peremyshka, which actually defined the fate of both Ukrainian Orthodoxy and Ukrainian Greek Catholicism, has not yet been properly considered and objectively assessed in these processes. (shrink)

Until recently, the name of Metropolitan Alexy was mentioned by researchers, mainly historians and religious scholars, mostly in the context of the problem of the split of the Orthodox Church in the Ukrainian lands during the years of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1943 as the head of the Autonomous Church. At the same time, he remains almost unknown as a religious thinker, and meanwhile, in his numerous theological-philosophical and historical-religious studies works, the bishop raised the most devastating religious (...) and spiritual problems of society and person, many of which have not lost their relevance to this day. Since Ukraine began to realize itself as a democratic country, the process of revising the relations of our state with various social institutions, including the Church, began to find a model that would ensure the harmonious development of both the state and the Church. In this context, the study of the views of one of the prominent hierarchs of intellectuals Metropolitan Alexy on church-state relations is very important and relevant. (shrink)