The Experience of God: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, Volume One, Revelation and Knowledge of the Triune God by DUMITRU STANILOAE, IOAN IONITA, ROBERT BARRINGER - June 1999

Holy Cross Press, June 1999. Paper Back. New. The marks of true and living theology, according to Archpriest Staniloae, are ''fidelity to the revelation of Christ given in holy Scripture and Tradition...responsibility for the faithful who are contemporary with the theology as it is being done, openness to the eschatological future.'' Fr. Dumitru treats the patristic writers as contemporaries, ''living witnesses whose testimony requires on our side a continual self-examination and rethinking, with present-day concerns in view.'' Yet his work is also creative, bridge-building work, pointing towards paths yet unexplored. His is a theology of meeting and response, love and personal communion. He contends that any knowing we come to comes to us in communion, with ourselves, one another, and with God. Therefore it is also strongly Trinitarian- God as the supreme structure of interpersonal love. Staniloae also stresses apophatic knowledge, ''paradox is to be found everywhere,'' he says, and in so doing emphasizes the saving dialectic of the ''otherness yet nearness of God.'' In his forward-facing theology, Fr. Staniloae conveys a strong vision of cosmic transformation, making his theology essentially aesthetic, full of beauty and joy, and ultimately, great hope. 280 pp.