Perspectief 2016-34

Perspectief 30 Dr. Petre Maican This self-sacrificial interaction between two or more human beings is labeled by Stăniloae as a dialogue, because for Stăniloae every encounter between human beings has a double epistemological value. On the one hand, by engaging sacrificially with another human we learn more about ourselves, about what it means to be human. 16 As Stăniloae explains, “the road toward God passes through our humanization. Nor can there be any advancement in this humanization except within the human community; for it consists in the bringing about of a deep interhuman communion” . 17 On the other hand, the progress in union with God, as expressed through our self- sacrificial love, is simultaneously an advancement in our knowledge of God. 18 The knowledge of God, Stăniloae insists, is the knowledge of how much God loves each human being, and this knowledge, like deification itself, is endless. 19 What can be highlighted here is that, for Stăniloae, the human union with God is primarily a dialogical act taking place through the mediation of other human beings. The more honest and loving the dialogue with our neighbours is, the more intimate with God we become and the more we get to grasp about God and God’s work in creation. Put simply, for Stăniloae, refusing to engage in dialogue means rejecting one’s own deification, As Stăniloae repeats constantly, nobody is redeemed alone, but only in relationship with others. 20 Ecclesial Deification Now, all the above statements about deification as being fundamentally dialogical can be agreed upon even by ultraconservatives, if we set this dialogue to take place inside the boundaries of the Orthodox Church. For most believers, it makes sense to say that the dialogue with their neighbor takes them closer to God, especially if the neighbor in question shares the same doctrinal assumptions and participates constantly in the Divine 16 Idem, I, 243. 17 Idem, I, 359. Cf. English translation Stăniloae, The Experience of God , II, 26. 18 Stăniloae, TDO , I, 198–200. 19 Idem, I, 409. 20 Dumitru Stăniloae, "Teologia Euharistiei", Ortodoxia , no. 3 (1969), 357.