Marius Cruceru: the neo-Protestant Patristics

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleMarius Cruceru: Patristica neo-protestantă
3. Language term Romanian
4. lemma author Stavinschi, Alexandra
5. lemma category Orthodox theological tradition and practice > Patristic studies - Scientific theories and disciplines > Religious studies - Ecumenism and dialogue > Dialogue between churches - Ecumenism and dialogue > Westernism and anti-westernism
6. Publication date 27-1-2017
7. lemma work Bădiliţă, Cristian [Author]. Marius Cruceru: the neo-Protestant Patristics
8. lemma manifestations Stiinta dragoste credinta. Convorbiri cu patrologi europeni. [Science faith love. Conversations with European patrologists]
9. Keywords Early Church Fathers - Cappadocian Fathers - Saint Augustine - Staniloae, Dumitru - Methodological issues - patristic tradition - biblical tradition - neo-protestantism
10. Citations
    1. 224-236
11. Lemma body

    1. This is a conversation that Cristian Badilita had with the baptist pastor Marius David Cruceru, lecturer at the "Immanuel" University in Oradea, where he teaches New Testament Greek, ecclesial Latin and patristics, and who was awarded a PhD from the University of Bucharest with a thesis devoted to the philosophical and theological language of Saint Augustine.

       Interestingly and somewhat surprisingly, the term "patrology" was coined in the 17th century in the Lutheran environment; Badilita invites his guest to give more details about how things have evolved over time and what the motto Sola Scriptura means today. Cruceru provides a very fine-grained answer in which he explains how protestants view the return ad fontes and clarifies the relation between Scripture and Tradition. He wittily points out that "If you discover something new in a text of the Scripture in the first road, what you need to do is to see a psychiatrist”.

       God's Word is infallible, but it has been interpreted over the centuries in different hermeneutical keys that we cannot ignore; these texts need to be seriously taken into consideration. Interestingly, the protestant neo-cults of the Eastern countries (Bulgaria, Russia, Romania) have a totally different relationship with the theology of the Fathers compared to their sister churches in the West.

       The contact with the Orthodox theology has forced eastern protestants to meditate on and analyse not only contemporary, but also traditional Orthodox theology. Cruceru adds a number of important details related to the method and to the dogmatic and anthropologic context in which these texts are studied. The focus is on classical patristics, ie the period between the New Testament and the Council of Chalcedon. In some schools this period is extended, conventionally until John Damascene or Gregory Palamas. Cruceru also talks about Augustine and especially about Dumitru Stăniloae and claims that Contemporary Orthodox theology can be refined and enriched thanks to the critical comments of the protestant scholars.

       Talking about the latest trends in patristics in the neo-protestant world, he mentions the impact that the conversion to the Orthodox Faith of some of their churches members - the majority in the United States - has had. The reserach focus is on Augustin and the Cappadocian Fathers, who are the most studied and read authors. The main topics under debate are triadology, pneumatology, Christology, anthropology and ecclesiology. Many Orthodox scholars are well-known and appreciated in the protestant scientific sessions; among them, John Zizioulas, Alexandr Schmemann, Evdokimov, Jaroslav Pelikan and Timothy Ware. As for the genres, there is lot of interest in the dogmatic treaty and the exegetical treaty, as well as in the commentary of the Bible.