Perspectief 2016-34

2016-34 Why Ecumenical Dialogue Matters for the Orthodox Church 33 Com ment these explanations are also enriching the tradition of the Orthodox Church. 28 For Stăniloae, the truth of faith remains unchanged, it is our understanding of it that develops over time. The same effect of enriching our tradition happens when we try to explain our faith to other Christian denominations. Ecumenical dialogue has in this sense a particular significance, since all the participants have tried to deepen the understanding of the revelation of God in Christ. Although some of their views might seem exaggerated, others can prove exceptionally helpful, allowing us to better grasp the richness of our own tradition. This thought is explicitly modelled by Stăniloae himself through an abundance of references to non-Orthodox thinkers and theologians, especially in his discussion of ecumenism. 29 Paul Tillich, Teilhard de Chardin, Simone Weil, Martin Buber, Gabriel Marcel, are all used by Stăniloae to emphasize particular aspects of the Orthodox teaching. 30 Listening to the voices of others does not dilute our faith, but rather helps it grow, opening new avenues for a much more complex understanding of God’s revelation in Christ within the Church. What Stăniloae says here is not that the Orthodox Church only owns a limited degree of the truth of revelation, nor that the Orthodox Church needs to be reformed. He is adamant that this is not the case. 31 What he wants to tell us is that the Church does not exist for itself as a self-fulfilled reality, but in order to bring everybody into union with God. To achieve this goal, the Church must vacate its comfort zone, in order to transcend itself and enter into dialogue with others. In its attempt to bring them closer to God, each of the ‘others’ the Church meets is extremely valuable, because – directly or indirectly – they will serve to deepen the knowledge of God that the Church has held up to that point. This does not mean we, as Orthodox, have to change our dogmas for each person we meet, 28 Idem, 655–657. 29 Stăniloae’s inclusion of the three offices of Christ in his Christology should be mentioned here, although this notion does not appear as such in the Patristic Tradition but has been introduced by Calvin. See Radu Bordeianu, "(In)Voluntary Ecumenism: Dumitru Stăniloae’s Interaction with the West as Open Sobornicity", in Orthodox Constructions of the West , ed. George E. Demacopoulos and Aristotle Papanikolaou (Fordham University Press, 2013), 240–54. 30 See Stăniloae, "Coordonatele Ecumenismului", 531–535. 31 Idem, 513–515.