IJASOS- International E-journal of Advances in Social Sciences

Abstract

Orthodox
theology sees the rational world or the world through which the Reason after
which all were brought to existence emerges as an extension of the common being
of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. This does not in any way mean a form of
pantheism, but rather the assertion of the world as rationality imprinted with
the image of the Logos, the One that gathers and embodies the rationale of the
whole existence. As the world is created by the Word through the word and man is
the face of the Word, it results from here that the world is a means, a medium
of dialogue between man and Word. By meditating and knowing the world and
oneself in its rationality, man becomes acquainted with the Son, or in other
words, he gets to know the world and oneself through the Son, and that is how
man also reaches the Father, for he is made “after the image of” the Father;
and everything is done through the Holy Spirit. Man is created by a special
action of God following the counsel of the Divine Persons, which shows that man
is created as a community hypostasis, as a dialogue hypostasis, a subject of
communion, but following the pattern of the One who created him: man is
imprinted with the community face of the Logos as perfect love. Man is created
after the image of the Trinity and requires itself after the Trinity, this
being shown both in the horizontal relationship of man with the fellow human
beings and in the vertical one, in his permanent tension after the Personal
Absolute. As the world is created by Word through the word, and man is the face
of the Word, it results from here that the world is a means, a medium of the
dialogue between man and Word.

The
present study highlights the importance of teaching about the rationality of
creation in Orthodox theology, with reference to the inter-human relations, as
well as to the spiritual life of man.