Course aims:

to know and understand the mission’s exigencies;
to develop the most important missionary aspects;
to define and describe the key concepts, theories, methods specific to the discourse missiological and to develop in students some specific skills about the quantitative and qualitative theological research.

Course Entry Requirements:

n/a

Course contents:

1. Fire from an Old Testament perspective; 2. Christian cremation and martyrdom; 3. The value of the body in Orthodoxy; 4. The practice of cremation and non-Christian occult organizations; the pro-cremation position; 5. The Roman Catholic Church's current position on cremation; 6. The current position of the local Orthodox Churches regarding cremation; 7. Cremation in the interwar and communist periods; 8. The practice of incineration in the post-December period; 9. The desacralization of nature; 10. Ecology, mission and the 21st century's challenges; 11. The environmental subject as an existential problem; 12. Patriarch Bartholomew's vision of ecotheology.

Teaching methods:

Lecture, exemplification, conversation, debate, PowerPoint presentation, video-projections.

Learning outcomes:

Ability of applying the principles for understanding a missiological document in an appropriate manner, respectively, to take into account all elements involved (linguistic, socio-cultural, religious), and interpret both in a synchronous and diachronic mode; critical reading skills on bibliographic sources and ability to initiate own research.

Learning outcomes verification and assessment criteria:

Written paper-interpretative essay – 20%. Frontal evaluation / Oral exam: 80%

Recommended reading:

Bartolomeu I, Patriarhul Ecumenic, Întâlnire cu Taina. O prezentare contemporană a Ortodoxiei, Andreiana Publishing House, Sibiu, 2016, x.
Michele Aramini, 1500 Grammi di cenere, Cremazione e fede cristiana, Editrice Ancora, Milano, 2006, x.
Jean-Claude Larchet, Fundamentele spirituale ale crizei ecologice, Sophia Publishing House, București, 2019, x.
Răzvan Brudiu, Incinerarea - provocare misionară sau contramărturie creștină?, Presa Universitară Clujeană, Cluj-Napoca, 2018, x.
John Chryssavgis / Bruce V. Foltz, Pentru o ecologie a transfigurării, Doxologia Publishing House, Iași, 2017, x.