By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
Today, 1 November 2021, marks the twentieth anniversary of the repose of the distinguished professor and teacher Fr. John Romanides, which took place on November 1, 2001 in Athens.
My acquaintance with him in the beginning was through his oral teachings and his texts of the 1970's, and then from 1987 until his repose I had close contact with him. After his retirement from the University of Thessaloniki he remained in Athens, almost alone, and we had frequent personal and telephone communication, because at that time I was serving as Preacher and Director of Youth Ministry of the Sacred Archdiocese of Athens.
In fact, in 1995, at his suggestion, we taught together at a seminar in Canada, presenting the therapeutic teaching of the Orthodox Church to Clergy that came from all the canonical jurisdictions of America. For three days we both delivered lessons in Orthodox theology. The same happened in 1997, near Atlanta, with the additional presence of Fr. George Metallinos.
I came to know Fr. John Romanides after I read the works of many Church Fathers, particularly the Cappadocian Fathers, Saint John of Damascus, Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Saint Gregory Palamas and the Hesychast Fathers of the Philokalia, and I discerned that Fr. John Romanides expressed their teaching. That is, his teaching was the teaching of the Church which was identified through the experience between the Prophets, the Apostles and the Fathers. I always felt it was the goodwill of God that I knew him and I was closely connected with him until he reposed.
Fr. John Romanides at the end of his life, and specifically in the year 1997, at his request, was registered in the list of the Clergy of our Metropolis, without receiving a salary. Until then he was considered a Clergyman registered in the Archdiocese of America. I asked for his discharge from the Archbishop of America and I enrolled him in my Metropolis.
Since then, I have published many texts and so far four volumes presenting the teaching of Fr. John Romanides, and in the Sacred Metropolis of Nafpaktos in 2011 we organized a theological conference in his honor with the participation of many theological Professors, the proceedings of which were published by our Metropolis.
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his repose, I am publishing a short text about this leading dogmatic theologian of our time, which was included in the 12th volume of the "Great Orthodox Christian Encyclopedia".
John Romanides, Protopresbyter
Fr. John Romanides was a student and colleague of Fr. George Florovsky, a Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Throne, a Cleric of the Sacred Archdiocese of America and later of the Sacred Metropolis of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou, a leading dogmatic theologian of the 20th century, a professor of the Theological School of Thessaloniki and other Theological Schools, an author of original texts that had a great influence on theological scholarship, as well as ecclesiastical and monastic life, the history of Romiosini, and became known worldwide.
Fr. George Florovsky described him as the "most astute" of his students and in his letter, after judging his contemporary theologians, he writes about Romanides:
"Generally speaking, there are few theological forces that exist in the Orthodox Church today. I pin my hopes on my student Fr. John Romanides who authored three or four years ago a superior doctoral thesis on the ancestral sin, studying the first two centuries (in Greek at Athens) and is now working near me on his doctorate in philosophy at Harvard.
In him, on the other hand [as opposed to the French and English Orthodox theologians], there is rather a tendency towards the side of 'isolationism' - a turning away from the West in all things and being isolated within the Byzantine Tradition, or truth, and remaining at the level of genuine theological culture and deep ecclesiasticality."
1. Curriculum Vitae
Fr John Romanides was born in Piraeus on 3/2/1927 to Cappadocian refugee parents, Savvas and Eulampia. He was baptized Orthodox in the Sacred Church of Saint John the Russian in New Prokopi of Evia. He immigrated to America with his parents on May 15 of the same year, at the age of just 72 days. He grew up in New York, in Manhattan, on 46th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenue.
He received his primary education at the Elementary School in the area where he lived, and completed his High School education first at Seward Park High School and then at Cardinal Hayes High School, which is a Catholic private school for boys. Then in 1944-1949 he studied at Hellenic College/Holy Cross School of Theology in Boston and in 1949-1953 he studied at the Yale School of Theology. In the meantime, he attended theological classes at Columbia University in New York, where he met Fr. George Florovsky, who spoke to the students. In 1953 he studied for a semester at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York.
At the beginning of 1954 he was at the Russian St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris, where he prepared his first four studies with the titles: "Original Sin According to Saint Paul", "The Ecclesiology of St. Ignatius of Antioch", "Man and His True Life according to the Greek Orthodox Service Books", and "Orthodox Ecclesiology According to Alexis Khomiakov". From October 1954 to the spring of 1955 he was in Munich, Germany.
From April 1955 to 1957 he remained in Athens, where he was preparing his doctoral dissertation titled, The Ancestral Sin, and submitted it to the Theological School of Kapodistrian University in 1957. The subject of his doctoral dissertation and the position of Fr. John provoked intense discussion, orally and in writing, but also great tension among the professors of the Theological School, and contributed greatly to the shift of Greek theology from scholasticism to patristic theology. Finally, it was approved by the professors of the Theological School in June 1957 and defended in October of the same year.
In 1957, after completing his dissertation, he returned to the United States and enrolled first in the Department of Graduate Studies at Harvard Theological Seminary and then in the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. During this time he dealt very seriously with theological and historical research and published important texts, under the guidance of Fr. George Florovsky.
Already ordained Deacon and Presbyter in 1951 while studying at Yale, by assistant Bishop Ezekiel of Nazianzus (who was based in Boston, and subsequently the Archbishop of Australia), he served as parish priest in various parishes of the Archdiocese, namely: the Sacred Church of the Holy Trinity in Waterbury, Connecticut (1951-1954), the Holy Trinity Cathedral of New York (1954), the Sacred Church of Saint Athanasios in Arlington, Massachusetts (1959-1965), and at the Sacred Church of the Holy Apostles in Haverhill, Massachusetts (1965-1968).
Between 1958-1965 he taught at Holy Cross School of Theology in Boston and was the director of the scientific journal of the school The Greek Orthodox Theological Review.
At the time he was in America he was a representatives of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America in International and Pan-American Congresses of both an ecumenical and academic nature, was a member of the Orthodox delegation at the Fourth World Conference of Faith and Order in Montreal, Canada and a member of the delegation of observers of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the Second Vatican Council (1959-1965). He also represented the Orthodox Church in informal dialogues with the Anti-Chalcedonian theologians in Aarhus, Denmark in August 1964. He was member the Special Committee for the Sacred Archdiocese of America for the dialogues with the Roman Catholics and Anglicans in America. He represented the Archdiocese of America in the World Council of Churches, in the National Council of Churches in America, etc.
On June 12, 1968, he was elected full professor for the Chair of Dogmatics at the Theological School of Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. Finally, his appointment was made in 1970 when he began his University lectures until 1984, when he retired. From 1970 onward, even after his retirement, he taught as a visiting professor at the Balamand Theological School "Saint John of Damascus" of the Patriarchate of Antioch in Northern Lebanon. He led a generation of Arabic-speaking theologians and clergy, among whom was the new Patriarch of Antioch, John.
When he came to Greece and taught in the Theological School of Thessaloniki, he was part of the Synodical Committee for Inter-Orthodox and Inter-Christian themes, a representative of the Church of Greece to the General Committee of the World Council of Churches, to the Commission of "Faith and Order" of the same organization, and representative of the Church of Greece in the Theological Dialogue with the Anglicans, the Anti-Chalcedonians, the Roman Catholics (in the technical Preparatory Committee) and the Lutherans. He spoke excellently three languages, namely Greek, English and French, although he also had knowledge of German. He had many talents and, among other things, was a pilot on many types of aircraft.
He reposed in Athens on November 1, 2001, outside the Sacred Church of the Holy Unmercenaries at Stadiou Street, and his funeral took place in the Metropolitan Church of Athens on November 6. The funeral was attended by Bishops, teachers, theologians, relatives and friends. The four departments of the two Theological Schools, Athens and Thessaloniki, were represented, and representative professors (Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos, Panagiotis Christinakis, Despo Lialiou and Lambros Siasos) addressed the audience, speaking about the importance of his theology for the Church and science.
2. Orthodox Answer to Scholastic and Protestant Theology
Fr. John Romanides, while in America, studied the scholasticism of Thomas Aquinas and then learned the biblical critical method of the Protestants. He intelligently recognized that the Orthodox of America used the arguments of the Protestants to respond to the Papists, and to respond to the Protestants they used the arguments of the Papists. This led him to reject the scholasticism of the Roman Catholics and the biblical critical method of the Protestants and to proceed to the study of the Apostolic Fathers and later to the study of the Fathers of the 4th century and the later Great Fathers of the Church, such as Saint John of Damascus, Photios the Great, Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Saint Gregory Palamas and the Philokalic Fathers of the 18th century.
In order to understand his teaching, one must have in mind that with what he said and wrote he responded to Scholastic and Protestant theology, which he knew very well, through the Orthodox teaching.
Some characteristic points will be emphasized in this regard.
To the analogia entis (the revelation of God through philosophy and metaphysics) and the analogia fidei (the revelation of God through faith and the words of the Holy Scriptures) of the Papists and Protestants he countered that the revelation of God is to the deified, those who attained deification and glorification.
To the vita activa (activist way of life, social action) of the Papists and Protestants and the vita contemplativa (neo-Platonic ecstasy, contemplation) of the Papists he countered with Orthodox hesychasm, as experienced by the Prophets, Apostles and Fathers of the Church, but he also countered it with ecclesiastical life, in which the Mysteries and asceticism are united, and man is led into the experience of revelation. Orthodox hesychasm is the Orthodox methodology for the acquisition of the knowledge of God, in conjunction with the whole ecclesiastical life.
To the sola Scriptura (Scriptures alone) of the Protestants and the two sources of the Faith (Scripture and Tradition) of the Papists he underlined the sola Pentecoste (Pentecost alone), which means that the source of faith is Pentecost, which is the highest degree of the revelation of God. Then, the deified and glorified saints who attained the unspeakable/uncreated utterances recorded this experience with created utterances, meanings and images in the Holy Scriptures, in their works, in the decisions of the Local and Ecumenical Synods, and in the worship of the Church. Thus the sola Scriptura must be connected with the sola Pentecoste.
To the dichotomy between the lex credendi (rule of faith) and the lex orandi (rule of prayer), which took place in critical historical times in the Orthodox Church, under the influence of western theology, he countered by uniting the two, since the revelation of God, which is given to the deified, was recorded in the worship of the Church and in the decisions of the Local and Ecumenical Synods, as well as in the teaching of the deified saints.
To the split between theologia Crusis (theology of the Cross) and theologia Gloriae (theology of Glory), which is observed in the West, in Papism and Protestantism, but also under the influence of Orthodox theologians, he countered by uniting the mystery of the Cross and the mystery of Glory. He does not question the paschal character of Baptism and Divine Communion, but connects it closely with the mystery of the Cross, which consists of purification, illumination and glorification, as we see in the teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas. This is the reason why he very often stressed the preconditions of participation in the Mysteries of the Church, without ignoring them. And he did this because he noticed that many participate in the Mysteries in a mechanical and pietistic way.
Daniel Payne writes the following about Fr. John Romanides:
"It is important to note the influences upon Romanides’s theology. First and foremost, Georges Florovsky influenced Romanides’s theology. As I have noted, Romanides considered Florovsky as the one who 'taught him to think like an Orthodox.' It was Florovsky who introduced him to patristic theology with his 'neo-patristic synthesis.' Furthermore, Florovsky introduced Romanides to the concept of Christian Hellenism. Romanides develops this concept in his Romeic thesis, however, he makes a change to Florovsky’s thought."
"Florovsky also most likely was the first to introduce Romanides to the neptic theological tradition, especially the work of Gregory Palamas."
"Concerning the ascetic tradition, the question is raised as to where Romanides learned hesychasm. As noted earlier, he knew the use of the komboschini and the Jesus Prayer prior to his arrival in Greece. Did he learn them from Florovsky? Possibly, but Florovsky is not known for being a hesychast. Meyendorff? Again this is a possibility, but unlikely. It appears that he learned it from his mother, Eulampia. She was a very pious woman, who became a nun after the death of her husband at Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Boston. Eulampia eventually became a gerontissa at the monastery of St. John the Evangelist in Thessalonike. Apparently, she had a great influence on the spirituality of Romanides [See Lambros Fotopoulos, “Gerontissa Eulampia Romanides,” Ephemerios, June 2003, 11-14.]. While learning the spirituality of hesychasm from his mother, he learned the theology from his professors."
3. His Theological Work
A complete and concise presentation of the theological work of Fr. John Romanides was made by Andrew Sopko in his book titled: Prophet of Roman Orthodoxy, The Theology of John Romanides. I think that no one can criticize the teaching of Fr. John Romanides if they have not carefully read the book by Andrew Sopko. The seven chapters of this book record in a wonderful inductive and scientific way the whole theological and historical thought of this great theologian of the 20th century, with his own consent and supervision, which shows his agreement with the content of the book.
The first chapter, titled "Orthodox Tradition and its Captivity", refers to the Orthodox tradition and the pseudomorphosis that came from time to time to the Church and the Theological Schools, and this climate was met by Fr. John Romanides when he came to Greece. He dealt with it in the elaboration of his dissertation and later with his hesychastic teaching. He distinguished from the beginning this alteration and began with his texts and words to correct it, first in lex credendi and then in lex orandi.
The second chapter, titled "A Debate About God", presents the debate that Fr. John Romanides had with Professor Panagiotis Trembelas when his dissertation was submitted to the Theological School of Athens regarding the Ancestral Sin.
The points addressed in this debate are: "God as actus purus", "Energy vs Essence", "God as nous", and the scholastic principle of "analogia entis" and "analogia fidei". His correspondence with Panagiotis Trembelas, with comments and remarks, was published in a book by Fr. George Metallinos.
The third chapter, titled "Theocentric Anthropology" presents Orthodox Anthropology according to the teaching of Fr. John Romanides, recording the relationship between body, soul and spirit, describing Adam before and after the fall, analyzing the significance of justice and justification, the great value of the New Adam, Christ, who incarnated for the salvation of man, and the theology of the Body of Christ, which became the source of the purifying, illuminating and deifying energy of God.
The fourth chapter, titled "The Unity of the Old and New Testaments", investigates the teaching of Fr. John Romanides on the Prophets, the Apostles and the Saints who partake of the glory of God, with the difference that death in the New Testament has been abolished. This chapter analyzes individual sections, such as: Revelation, Scripture and Criticism, the Lord of Glory, Glorification in the Old Testament, Glorification in the New Testament, and Succession in the Post-Apostolic Church.
The fifth chapter, titled "Roman Theology", describes how the Roman State preserved the heart of the ancient Church and the spiritual life of revelation, which is purification, illumination and deification. In this perspective are studied the Local and Ecumenical Synods, the difference between Ambrose and Augustine, the Franco-Latin Tradition, the Palamite controversies, and the issues related to the Third Rome, a theory that seeks to overthrow the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Orthodoxy of the Roman Fathers.
The sixth chapter, titled "Towards the Future", sets out the challenges that the Orthodox Church will face in the third millennium, such as ecumenism, human rights, and the discoveries of science.
Finally, the seventh chapter titled "Romanides and Contemporary Orthodox Theology" highlights the three main dangers of modern Orthodoxy, according to Fr. John Romanides, and these are the theology of the person, eucharistic ecclesiology, the split between the theology of the Cross and the theology of Glory in the mysteries, ecclesiastical life and theology.
Andrew Sopko's book presents the "panorama" of all the theology expressed by Fr. John Romanides, the alterations and pseudomorphosis of ecclesiastical life in the rule of faith (lex credendi) and in the rule of prayer (lex orandi) and, of course, it presents all the amazing and great theological and historical work of this great researcher and theologian.
In general, Fr. John Romanides expressed the theology of the deified saints, namely the Prophets, the Apostles and the Fathers, which at its base is simple.
He started from the position that the deified participate in the purifying, illuminating and, above all, in the deifying energy of God, they see in the divine Light the pre-incarnate Word of the Old Testament and the incarnate Word of the New Testament, which is why they teach that the Triune God is three Lights, who have a common essence and energy, and with this experience they face heretics, who theologized philosophically; that man was created by God to participate in His Light and this is how he lived in Paradise; that the fall of the first-formed is the deprivation of the divine Light, when their nous was darkened; that Christ by His incarnation made the body, which He received from the Panagia, a source of the uncreated energies of God and revealed this Light to mankind, who through ecclesiastical life (Baptism, Chrismation, Divine Communion) participate in the Light, when they have the appropriate preconditions; that during the Second Coming of Christ people will see God either as light or as fire, depending on their spiritual condition; that Paradise and Hell exist from the perspective of man and not from the perspective of God.
He especially emphasized this last point, as the pre-eminent pastoral theology of the Church, which aims at the healing of people, so that when they meet God at His Second Coming, they may see Him as light and not as fire, that God will be for them Paradise and not Hell.
Therefore, this leading theologian of the Orthodox Church attached great importance to the requirements of Orthodox theology in the Orthodox methodology for the knowledge of God, which is the neptic and hesychastic tradition of the Church, as expressed by the Cappadocian Fathers, the Areopagite writings, Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Saint Gregory Palamas and the Fathers of the Philokalia. It is about purification, illumination and deification.
However, the steps of the spiritual ascent to God, which is the partaking of the purifying, illuminating and deifying energy of God, as is taught by all the Fathers of the Church, clearly separated them from Neoplatonism. Thus, it is not possible to attribute this distinction to Origenism and Neoplatonism. After all, the Fathers of the Church, although they adopted these terms, as well as others in Triadology and Christology, such as nature, essence, person, hypostasis, etc., they gave them Orthodox content. Therefore, although the same terminology is used by the Neoplatonists, there is nevertheless an abysmal difference between Neoplatonism and the hesychasm of the Orthodox Fathers.
It should be noted that purification, illumination and deification, which he received from the common teaching of the Church Fathers, he did not consider them as stages independent of each other, but as results of the energy of God. That is, the Grace of God, when it purifies man, it is called purifying, when it illuminates him, it is called illuminating, and when it deifies him it is called theoptic. In other words, these are not moral situations of people.
Also, Fr. John Romanides connected purification, illumination and deification with the Mysteries of the Church, according to their necessary preconditions. After all, we see this very clearly in the prayers of all the Mysteries and of the divine Eucharist, since the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ illuminates some, deifies others and condemns others. The augmentation, at times, of the purifying and illuminating Grace of God was done, because this ecclesiastical tradition had been forgotten or overlooked.
4. Impressions of Students and Readers
Fr. John Romanides was a fascinating and alluring teacher and attracted many students from all the University Schools to his classes. The amphitheaters of the Theological School of Thessaloniki were filled to overflowing with students who wanted to hear his Roman and Orthodox speech, expressed with authenticity and persuasiveness. He connected theology with history, the dogmatic with the hesychastic, dogma with spiritual experience, Romiosini with universality.
Fr. George Metallinos, presenting the work of Fr. John Romanides, refers to his importance and makes six basic points.
a) He gave priority to empirical theology, as did the deified Prophets, Apostles and Fathers, setting aside scholasticism (metaphysics).
b) He connected the University theology with worship, the philokalic tradition, hesychasm, asceticism, but also the pastoral character of theology, which is found in purification, illumination and deification.
c) He established in his theological method the connection between dogma and history, and with this he completed the effort of Fr. George Florovsky.
d) He ascertained the difference between the Frankish and Roman civilizations by studying Romiosini and Frankism. With an excellent knowledge of the sources, he used the Roman keys to understand our history, putting aside the Western European keys of interpreting history.
e) He thoroughly studied the historical use of our national names (Hellene, Roman, Greek, "Byzantine") and identified their context, their historical importance and their involvement in the political-diplomatic and cultural comparisons of the Franco-Germanic world with our Eastern one.
f) He saw, through this knowledge, also Hellenism outside of any nationalism, and in fact on the borders of universality and unity between Romiosini and Orthodoxy.
His students remember the zealous teacher, the authentic preacher of the Prophets, the Apostles and the Fathers, the "Prophet of Romiosini".
Those who knew him from the university traditions, the International Conferences and the dialogues, but also from his books express themselves with enthusiasm for his person and his work. Here are some important judgments about him:
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew writes: "The dogmatic teaching of the ever-memorable Fr. John Romanides ... opened new, as well as traditional-patristic, roads for contemporary Orthodox theology.... He was a child of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, producing spiritual sap from the healthy roots of the reverent and holy-bearing Cappadocia from where he was from, and who was given to discern and to proclaim the truth that true Theology is not moralism or academic scholasticism, but the experience of purification, illumination and theosis."
Patriarch of Theophilos of Jerusalem writes: The theology of Fr. John is "a fruit of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by a pious priest, a faithful minister of the altar, a wise teacher and a weighty scholar of the Romaio-Orthodox Patristic Tradition."
Archbishop Hieronymos of Athens and All Greece writes that Fr. John Romanides "contributed decisively by bringing to his side, from the rise of the captivity of Orthodox theology, to the rescue and promotion of basic theological truths, by which his work becomes the breath of the Church."
Many clergymen, monks, teachers and readers spoke highly of him and called him: "the New Moses of theology"; "the Roman teacher of Orthodox faith and life from America"; "the contemporary giant of Orthodoxy"; "the magnificent interpreter of theology"; "a true theologian"; "unique and unrepeatable"; "his speech was stimulating and intensely sparkling", and so on.
Of course, his speech, which was awakening and provocative, provoked reactions from people who expressed another theology foreign to the theology of the Prophets, the Apostles and the Fathers. And the Cappadocian character of Fr. John contributed to this reaction. And some mistakes, which he also made, showed that no one can be perfect.
5. Writings
The life of Fr. John Romanides is divided into two periods, namely the first 42 years in America - including the periods he was in Europe for his studies - and the final 32 years in Greece until his death. In the meantime he traveled all over the world to participate in International Scientific Conferences, in dialogues of the Orthodox Church with other denominations, for lectures and for the delivery of courses in Universities, Theological Seminaries and Ecclesiastical Conferences.
Thus, his texts are written in English and Greek, so that those who do not have access to these languages cannot see his theological and historical thought as a whole, and that is why they know him in fragments. It follows that his work is largely unknown to many and scattered.
Below I will list his basic works that established him as the leading dogmatic theologian of the 20th century, but his complete works are listed in the book of the Metropolitan of Nafpaktos Hierotheos, titled π. Ἰωάννης Ρωμανίδης, ἕνας κορυφαῖος δογματικός θεολόγος τῆς Ὀρθοδόξου Καθολικῆς Ἐκκλησίας, pp. 403-427.
"Original Sin According to Saint Paul".
"Man and His True Life According to the Greek Orthodox Service Books".
"Orthodox Ecclesiology According to Alexis Khomiakov".
"The Ecclesiology of St. Ignatius of Antioch".
"Justin Martyr and the Fourth Gospel".
"H. A. Wolfson’s Philosophy of the Church Fathers".
"Highlights in the Debate over Theodore of Mopsuestia’s Christology and Some Suggestions For a Fresh Approach".
"Notes on the Palamite Controversy and Related Topics".
"Notes on the Palamite Controversy and Related Topics II".
"Saint Cyril's One Physis or Hypostasis of God the Logos Incarnate and Chalcedon".
A complete and concise presentation of the theological work of Fr. John Romanides was made by Andrew Sopko in his book titled: Prophet of Roman Orthodoxy, The Theology of John Romanides. I think that no one can criticize the teaching of Fr. John Romanides if they have not carefully read the book by Andrew Sopko. The seven chapters of this book record in a wonderful inductive and scientific way the whole theological and historical thought of this great theologian of the 20th century, with his own consent and supervision, which shows his agreement with the content of the book.
The first chapter, titled "Orthodox Tradition and its Captivity", refers to the Orthodox tradition and the pseudomorphosis that came from time to time to the Church and the Theological Schools, and this climate was met by Fr. John Romanides when he came to Greece. He dealt with it in the elaboration of his dissertation and later with his hesychastic teaching. He distinguished from the beginning this alteration and began with his texts and words to correct it, first in lex credendi and then in lex orandi.
The second chapter, titled "A Debate About God", presents the debate that Fr. John Romanides had with Professor Panagiotis Trembelas when his dissertation was submitted to the Theological School of Athens regarding the Ancestral Sin.
The points addressed in this debate are: "God as actus purus", "Energy vs Essence", "God as nous", and the scholastic principle of "analogia entis" and "analogia fidei". His correspondence with Panagiotis Trembelas, with comments and remarks, was published in a book by Fr. George Metallinos.
The third chapter, titled "Theocentric Anthropology" presents Orthodox Anthropology according to the teaching of Fr. John Romanides, recording the relationship between body, soul and spirit, describing Adam before and after the fall, analyzing the significance of justice and justification, the great value of the New Adam, Christ, who incarnated for the salvation of man, and the theology of the Body of Christ, which became the source of the purifying, illuminating and deifying energy of God.
The fourth chapter, titled "The Unity of the Old and New Testaments", investigates the teaching of Fr. John Romanides on the Prophets, the Apostles and the Saints who partake of the glory of God, with the difference that death in the New Testament has been abolished. This chapter analyzes individual sections, such as: Revelation, Scripture and Criticism, the Lord of Glory, Glorification in the Old Testament, Glorification in the New Testament, and Succession in the Post-Apostolic Church.
The fifth chapter, titled "Roman Theology", describes how the Roman State preserved the heart of the ancient Church and the spiritual life of revelation, which is purification, illumination and deification. In this perspective are studied the Local and Ecumenical Synods, the difference between Ambrose and Augustine, the Franco-Latin Tradition, the Palamite controversies, and the issues related to the Third Rome, a theory that seeks to overthrow the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Orthodoxy of the Roman Fathers.
The sixth chapter, titled "Towards the Future", sets out the challenges that the Orthodox Church will face in the third millennium, such as ecumenism, human rights, and the discoveries of science.
Finally, the seventh chapter titled "Romanides and Contemporary Orthodox Theology" highlights the three main dangers of modern Orthodoxy, according to Fr. John Romanides, and these are the theology of the person, eucharistic ecclesiology, the split between the theology of the Cross and the theology of Glory in the mysteries, ecclesiastical life and theology.
Andrew Sopko's book presents the "panorama" of all the theology expressed by Fr. John Romanides, the alterations and pseudomorphosis of ecclesiastical life in the rule of faith (lex credendi) and in the rule of prayer (lex orandi) and, of course, it presents all the amazing and great theological and historical work of this great researcher and theologian.
In general, Fr. John Romanides expressed the theology of the deified saints, namely the Prophets, the Apostles and the Fathers, which at its base is simple.
He started from the position that the deified participate in the purifying, illuminating and, above all, in the deifying energy of God, they see in the divine Light the pre-incarnate Word of the Old Testament and the incarnate Word of the New Testament, which is why they teach that the Triune God is three Lights, who have a common essence and energy, and with this experience they face heretics, who theologized philosophically; that man was created by God to participate in His Light and this is how he lived in Paradise; that the fall of the first-formed is the deprivation of the divine Light, when their nous was darkened; that Christ by His incarnation made the body, which He received from the Panagia, a source of the uncreated energies of God and revealed this Light to mankind, who through ecclesiastical life (Baptism, Chrismation, Divine Communion) participate in the Light, when they have the appropriate preconditions; that during the Second Coming of Christ people will see God either as light or as fire, depending on their spiritual condition; that Paradise and Hell exist from the perspective of man and not from the perspective of God.
He especially emphasized this last point, as the pre-eminent pastoral theology of the Church, which aims at the healing of people, so that when they meet God at His Second Coming, they may see Him as light and not as fire, that God will be for them Paradise and not Hell.
Therefore, this leading theologian of the Orthodox Church attached great importance to the requirements of Orthodox theology in the Orthodox methodology for the knowledge of God, which is the neptic and hesychastic tradition of the Church, as expressed by the Cappadocian Fathers, the Areopagite writings, Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Saint Gregory Palamas and the Fathers of the Philokalia. It is about purification, illumination and deification.
However, the steps of the spiritual ascent to God, which is the partaking of the purifying, illuminating and deifying energy of God, as is taught by all the Fathers of the Church, clearly separated them from Neoplatonism. Thus, it is not possible to attribute this distinction to Origenism and Neoplatonism. After all, the Fathers of the Church, although they adopted these terms, as well as others in Triadology and Christology, such as nature, essence, person, hypostasis, etc., they gave them Orthodox content. Therefore, although the same terminology is used by the Neoplatonists, there is nevertheless an abysmal difference between Neoplatonism and the hesychasm of the Orthodox Fathers.
It should be noted that purification, illumination and deification, which he received from the common teaching of the Church Fathers, he did not consider them as stages independent of each other, but as results of the energy of God. That is, the Grace of God, when it purifies man, it is called purifying, when it illuminates him, it is called illuminating, and when it deifies him it is called theoptic. In other words, these are not moral situations of people.
Also, Fr. John Romanides connected purification, illumination and deification with the Mysteries of the Church, according to their necessary preconditions. After all, we see this very clearly in the prayers of all the Mysteries and of the divine Eucharist, since the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ illuminates some, deifies others and condemns others. The augmentation, at times, of the purifying and illuminating Grace of God was done, because this ecclesiastical tradition had been forgotten or overlooked.
4. Impressions of Students and Readers
Fr. John Romanides was a fascinating and alluring teacher and attracted many students from all the University Schools to his classes. The amphitheaters of the Theological School of Thessaloniki were filled to overflowing with students who wanted to hear his Roman and Orthodox speech, expressed with authenticity and persuasiveness. He connected theology with history, the dogmatic with the hesychastic, dogma with spiritual experience, Romiosini with universality.
Fr. George Metallinos, presenting the work of Fr. John Romanides, refers to his importance and makes six basic points.
a) He gave priority to empirical theology, as did the deified Prophets, Apostles and Fathers, setting aside scholasticism (metaphysics).
b) He connected the University theology with worship, the philokalic tradition, hesychasm, asceticism, but also the pastoral character of theology, which is found in purification, illumination and deification.
c) He established in his theological method the connection between dogma and history, and with this he completed the effort of Fr. George Florovsky.
d) He ascertained the difference between the Frankish and Roman civilizations by studying Romiosini and Frankism. With an excellent knowledge of the sources, he used the Roman keys to understand our history, putting aside the Western European keys of interpreting history.
e) He thoroughly studied the historical use of our national names (Hellene, Roman, Greek, "Byzantine") and identified their context, their historical importance and their involvement in the political-diplomatic and cultural comparisons of the Franco-Germanic world with our Eastern one.
f) He saw, through this knowledge, also Hellenism outside of any nationalism, and in fact on the borders of universality and unity between Romiosini and Orthodoxy.
His students remember the zealous teacher, the authentic preacher of the Prophets, the Apostles and the Fathers, the "Prophet of Romiosini".
Those who knew him from the university traditions, the International Conferences and the dialogues, but also from his books express themselves with enthusiasm for his person and his work. Here are some important judgments about him:
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew writes: "The dogmatic teaching of the ever-memorable Fr. John Romanides ... opened new, as well as traditional-patristic, roads for contemporary Orthodox theology.... He was a child of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, producing spiritual sap from the healthy roots of the reverent and holy-bearing Cappadocia from where he was from, and who was given to discern and to proclaim the truth that true Theology is not moralism or academic scholasticism, but the experience of purification, illumination and theosis."
Patriarch of Theophilos of Jerusalem writes: The theology of Fr. John is "a fruit of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by a pious priest, a faithful minister of the altar, a wise teacher and a weighty scholar of the Romaio-Orthodox Patristic Tradition."
Archbishop Hieronymos of Athens and All Greece writes that Fr. John Romanides "contributed decisively by bringing to his side, from the rise of the captivity of Orthodox theology, to the rescue and promotion of basic theological truths, by which his work becomes the breath of the Church."
Many clergymen, monks, teachers and readers spoke highly of him and called him: "the New Moses of theology"; "the Roman teacher of Orthodox faith and life from America"; "the contemporary giant of Orthodoxy"; "the magnificent interpreter of theology"; "a true theologian"; "unique and unrepeatable"; "his speech was stimulating and intensely sparkling", and so on.
Of course, his speech, which was awakening and provocative, provoked reactions from people who expressed another theology foreign to the theology of the Prophets, the Apostles and the Fathers. And the Cappadocian character of Fr. John contributed to this reaction. And some mistakes, which he also made, showed that no one can be perfect.
5. Writings
The life of Fr. John Romanides is divided into two periods, namely the first 42 years in America - including the periods he was in Europe for his studies - and the final 32 years in Greece until his death. In the meantime he traveled all over the world to participate in International Scientific Conferences, in dialogues of the Orthodox Church with other denominations, for lectures and for the delivery of courses in Universities, Theological Seminaries and Ecclesiastical Conferences.
Thus, his texts are written in English and Greek, so that those who do not have access to these languages cannot see his theological and historical thought as a whole, and that is why they know him in fragments. It follows that his work is largely unknown to many and scattered.
Below I will list his basic works that established him as the leading dogmatic theologian of the 20th century, but his complete works are listed in the book of the Metropolitan of Nafpaktos Hierotheos, titled π. Ἰωάννης Ρωμανίδης, ἕνας κορυφαῖος δογματικός θεολόγος τῆς Ὀρθοδόξου Καθολικῆς Ἐκκλησίας, pp. 403-427.
"Original Sin According to Saint Paul".
"Man and His True Life According to the Greek Orthodox Service Books".
"Orthodox Ecclesiology According to Alexis Khomiakov".
"The Ecclesiology of St. Ignatius of Antioch".
"Justin Martyr and the Fourth Gospel".
"H. A. Wolfson’s Philosophy of the Church Fathers".
"Highlights in the Debate over Theodore of Mopsuestia’s Christology and Some Suggestions For a Fresh Approach".
"Notes on the Palamite Controversy and Related Topics".
"Notes on the Palamite Controversy and Related Topics II".
"Saint Cyril's One Physis or Hypostasis of God the Logos Incarnate and Chalcedon".
The Ancestral Sin.
Student Notes on Dogmatics, According to the Traditions of Professor Fr. John Romanides, edited by I.B. Congolese.
Dogmatic and Symbolic Theology of the Orthodox Church.
Romiosini, Romania, Roumeli.
"Critical Review of the Applications of Theology".
"Franks, Romans, Feudalism and Doctrine. Interaction of Theology and Society".
"Jesus Christ - The Life of the World".
"Introduction to the Theology and Spirituality of Romiosini versus Frankism", in the work The Romaioi or the Romeoi Fathers of the Church: Gregory Palamas. Vol. 1.
"Church Synods and Civilization".
"Religion is a Neurobiological Disease, and Orthodoxy is its Cure", etc.
Fr. John Romanides clarified Orthodox theology from Western admixtures and presented it in its authentic expression, as lived and expressed by the Prophets, the Apostles and the Fathers. He showed that Orthodox theology is expressed through medical terms, that is, with the healing of the nous and the heart of man, so that man can come to see God as the Light and not as fire, and he did this with polemical terminology, because to the extent that one fights the devil, one participates in the glory of the Kingdom of God, which is the uncreated glory of the divinity in the human nature of the Word.
He is indeed a "Prophet of Romiosini" with the universal dimension of the term, he is a modern Father of the Church or at least a disciple of the Fathers of the Church, and for this reason it is absolutely right what Fr. George Metallinos, a premier Professor and one who was beloved by Fr. John Romanides, wrote: "Without neglecting the contribution of our other great theologians, I dared to speak of an era 'before' and an era 'after' Fr. Romanides."
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
