Dumitru Stăniloae (Romanian:[duˈmitrustəniˈlo̯aje]; 29 November [
O.S. 16 November] 1903 – 4 October 1993) was a
RomanianOrthodox Christian priest, theologian and professor. He worked for over 45 years on a comprehensive
Romanian translation of the Greek
Philokalia, a collection of writings on prayer by the
Church Fathers, together with the
hieromonk,
Arsenie Boca, who brought manuscripts from
Mount Athos. His book, The Dogmatic Orthodox Theology (1978), made him one of the best-known Christian theologians of the second half of the 20th century. He also produced commentaries on earlier Christian thinkers, such as St
Gregory of Nyssa, Saint
Maximus the Confessor, and St
Athanasius of Alexandria. He is also remembered as editor in chief of the regional orthodox newspaper Telegraful Român (1934–1945) where he imposed a nationalist and antisemitic editorial line.[1][2][3]
Biography
Dumitru Stăniloae was born on 16 November 1903, in
Vlădeni, in what is now
Brașov County, Romania. He was the last of five children of Rebeca (mother) and Irimie (father). His mother was a priest's niece. On 10 February 1917 he went to
Brașov to study at the
Andrei Șaguna High School. He received a fellowship from the
Gojdu Foundation in 1918 and a fellowship from the
University of Cernăuți in 1922.[4] Disappointed by the quality of the manuals and the teaching methods, he left for the
University of Bucharest after one year. He was offered a fellowship by metropolitan bishop
Nicolae Bălan at the Metropolitan Center in
Sibiu in 1924 during Lent. Stăniloae graduated from the University of Cernăuți in 1927, receiving a fellowship to study theology in
Athens. In the fall of 1928 he earned his
PhD degree at
Cernăuți,[4] with thesis Life and work of
Dositheos II of Jerusalem (1641-1707) and his connections with
Romanian Principalities. The Metropolitan Center in Sibiu offered him a fellowship in
Byzantine studies and
Dogmatics. He went to
Munich to attend the courses of
August Heisenberg (father of physicist
Werner Heisenberg), and then went to
Berlin,
Paris, and
Istanbul to study the work of
Gregory Palamas.
He married on 4 October 1930, and his wife gave birth to twins in 1931, named Dumitru and Maria. He and his wife had another daughter, Lidia, on 8 October of the following year; and that year he met and befriended ultra-right ideologist
Nichifor Crainic.
In January 1934, Stăniloae took over as editor in chief of the Transylvanian bi-weekly church newspaper Telegraful român(The Romanian Telegraph). He would hold the position until May 1945. Under the previous editor in chief, George Proca, Telegraful român had published ambivalent articles about the Jewish minority. Under Stăniloae, the editorial line became aggressively antisemitic. It published eulogies of legionaries
Ion Moța and
Vasile Marin, far-right politician
A. C. Cuza, Romanian dictator
Ion Antonescu and even
Adolf Hitler. As antisemitic legislation was adopted by the successive Romanian governments Telegraful supported the legislation. Deportations of
Roma and Jews were also encouraged. Some editorials (including a 1942 article suggestively titled Au să dispară din Europa, i.e., They will disappear from Europe) go as far as advocating the
Final Solution.[1]
Stăniloae was ordained a
deacon on 8 October 1931 and was ordained
priest on 25 September 1932. In June 1936 he became
rector of the Theological Academy in Sibiu. In 1940, at the initiative of poet
Sandu Tudor, the Rugul aprins (Burning Bush) group was founded. It was composed of
priest-monk Ivan Kulighin (confessor of Russian
Metropolitan bishop of
Rostov, refugee at
Cernica Monastery), priest-monk Benedict Ghius, priest-monk Sofian Boghiu, Prof. Alex. Mironescu, poet
Vasile Voiculescu, architect Constantin Joja, Father
Andrei Scrima and
Ion Marin Sadoveanu. The group gathered regularly at the
Cernica and
Antim monasteries, maintaining Christian life in
Bucharest.
In 1946 he was asked by metropolitan bishop Nicolae Bălan, under pressure from
Petru Groza, first
Communist Prime Minister of Romania,[5] to resign as rector of the Theological Academy in Sibiu. He remained a professor until 1947, when he was transferred to the
University of Bucharest's Faculty of Theology, as the
Ascetics and
Mystics chair.
Because of political unrest in Romania in 1958, following a split in the
Romanian Communist Party, Father Dumitru was arrested by the
Securitate on 5 September. While he was in
Aiud Prison as a political prisoner, his only surviving child, Lidia, gave birth to his grandchild, Dumitru Horia. Lidia was asked to leave the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Physics because of the arrest of her father.
He was freed from prison in January 1963, and then began work as a clerk at the Holy
Synod of the
Romanian Orthodox Church, and began teaching again in October. He attended conferences in
Freiburg and
Heidelberg at the invitation of Prof.
Paul Miron, with the permission of the State Department of Cults, who wanted to change the image of Romania.[6] While lecturing at
Oxford University, he became friends with the theologian
Donald Allchin. He retired in 1973.
He died in Bucharest on 5 October 1993, at the age of 90.
Father Dumitru Stăniloae was proposed for canonization in 2025 when the
Romanian Orthodox Church will celebrate 140 years of autocephaly and 100 years since obtaining the status of a patriarchate.[7]
The Victory of the Cross: A Talk on Suffering, Fairacres Publications, Oxford, 1970 (
ISBN978-0728300491)
Theology and the Church, SVS Press, Crestwood, 1980 (
ISBN978-0913836699)
Liturgy of the Community and the Liturgy of the Heart: From the Viewpoint of the Philokalia, Fairacres Publications, Oxford, 1980 (
ISBN978-0948108037)
Prayer and Holiness: The Icon of God Renewed in Man, Fairacres Publications, Oxford, 1982 (
ISBN978-0728300934)
Eternity and Time, Fairacres Publications, Oxford, 2001 (
ISBN978-0728301535)
Orthodox Spirituality: A Practical Guide for the Faithful and a Definitive Manual for the Scholar, STS Press, South Canaan, 2002 (translation of Orthodox Spirituality, Bucharest, 1981) (
ISBN978-1878997661)
^Roland Clark, Nationalism, Ethnotheology, and Mysticism in Interwar Romania, The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies, Number 2002, 2009
^
abCernăuți (
Romanian) = Чернівці, Chernivtsi (
Ukrainian). This article uses the
Romanian form for the name of this city in northern
Bukovina.
Ștefan Buchiu, Father Dumitru Stăniloae – The Theologian of Divine Love (Părintele Dumitru Stăniloae – teologul iubirii dumnezeiești), 2022, ISBN
ISBN978-606-29-0537-8. This anthology compiles 20 articles exploring Stăniloae's theological insights, reflecting his influence on contemporary Christian theology and practice.
Kevin M. Berger, Towards a Theological Gnoseology: The Synthesis of Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae Vol's 1-2 (2003. UMI, Ann Arbor)
Catholic University of America, Doctoral Dissertation
Radu Bordeianu, Dumitru Stăniloae: An Ecumenical Ecclesiology (2011. T&T Clark, Bloomsbury)
ISBN978-0567334817
Andrew Louth, 'The Orthodox Dogmatic Theology of Dumitru Staniloae', in Modern Theology; 2 (1997), p. 253-266
Charles Miller, The Gift of the World – An introduction to the theology of Dumitru Stăniloae (2000)
Mihail Neamțu, 'Between the Gospel And the Nation: Dumitru Stăniloae's Ethno-Theology', in ARCHAEUS. Studies in History of Religions; 10:3 (2006)'
[1]
Ivana Noble, 'Doctrine of Creation within the Theological Project of Dumitru Stăniloae',
[2], in Communio Viatorum; 49:2 (2007), pp. 185–209.
S.-L. Toma, Η πατερική παράδοσις εις το έργον του π. Δημητρίου Στανιλοάε και ο σύγχρονος κόσμος (2007. Θεσσαλονίκη: Πουρναράς).
Lucian Turcescu, 'Dumitru Stăniloae', Commentary and Original Source materials in English translation, in The Teachings of Modern Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature, edd. J. Witte and F. Alexander (2 vols. 2005.
Columbia University Press, New York), 1:685–711 and 2:537–558. [The two volumes received the Choice Outstanding Academic Titles Award for 2006.]
Lucian Turcescu, ed. Dumitru Staniloae: tradition and modernity in theology (2002. Center for Romanian Studies, Iași)
ISBN973-9432-29-8
Mircea Ițu (2006), "Îndumnezeirea omului in viziunea lui Dumitru Stăniloae" ("Inner godliness of the human being in Dumitru Stăniloae's vision"), in Lumină lină, number 4, New York, pp. 15–23. ISSN 1086-2366
(in Romanian)From East to West, interview with
Sorin Dumitrescu on Eastern vs. Western spirituality
[4]
(in Romanian)Dacă n-ar fi iubirea Tatălui și a Duhului, n-ar fi nici Hristos, interview
[5]
(in Romanian)Teologie Dogmatică Ortodoxă freely downloadable at
Bilioteca Teologică Digitală (Digital Theologic Library)
(in Romanian)Scurtă interpretare teologică a națiunii by Dumitru Stăniloae
(in Romanian)Învierea Domnului și importanța ei universală by Dumitru Stăniloae
(in German) Liviu Jitianu: Christologische Symphonie von Mensch und Welt. Grundzüge einer neupatristischen orthodoxen Theologie im Werk von Dumitru Staniloae. Dissertation, Freiburg University, Freiburg 2006 ("Christological symphony of man and world. Outlines of a neo-patristic orthodox theology in the works of Dumitru Staniloae";
online version)