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Dogmatic Theology: Creation, God's Image in Man, & the Redeeming Work of the Trinity
In this book, a revised, annotated, and expanded second edition of Théologie dogmatique, edited in the French by Olivier Clément and Michel Stavrou, readers encounter Lossky’s classroom lectures on dogmatic theology. Lossky confronts the great questions of theology: How can we know God? How is the Creator related to his creation? What is the vocation of human beings, created in God’s image?
These questions are understood in light of the two great mysteries of the faith: the Trinity and the incarnation of the Son of God. In Lossky’s articulation, these are not abstract theories, but living and vivid realities. “Emphasizing the thought of the Fathers, Lossky actualizes the latter in a creative fashion through a critical reflection—namely on the theme of the person—attempting through an approach that is faithful and free, to express the elements of the ecclesial tradition in a contemporary language. In the wake of the Fathers, Lossky linked dogma narrowly to the spiritual life, rejecting the false and ruinous split between spirituality and theology, hence this term ‘mystical theology’” (from the Introduction).
This dynamic tension between theology and spirituality is maintained in the Orthodox Church, which, as Lossky put it, “is not an element of world history among so many others, but the very center of the universe and its history, the center in connection with which the historic process in its entirety as well as each particular destiny receives its definitive meaning. Although the Church is in the world, she is not a constituent part of it, for she contains what the world cannot contain: the fullness of uncreated grace.”
These questions are understood in light of the two great mysteries of the faith: the Trinity and the incarnation of the Son of God. In Lossky’s articulation, these are not abstract theories, but living and vivid realities. “Emphasizing the thought of the Fathers, Lossky actualizes the latter in a creative fashion through a critical reflection—namely on the theme of the person—attempting through an approach that is faithful and free, to express the elements of the ecclesial tradition in a contemporary language. In the wake of the Fathers, Lossky linked dogma narrowly to the spiritual life, rejecting the false and ruinous split between spirituality and theology, hence this term ‘mystical theology’” (from the Introduction).
This dynamic tension between theology and spirituality is maintained in the Orthodox Church, which, as Lossky put it, “is not an element of world history among so many others, but the very center of the universe and its history, the center in connection with which the historic process in its entirety as well as each particular destiny receives its definitive meaning. Although the Church is in the world, she is not a constituent part of it, for she contains what the world cannot contain: the fullness of uncreated grace.”
208 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2017
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About the author
Vladimir Lossky
19 books79 followersVladimir Nikolayevich Lossky was an influential 20th century Eastern Orthodox theologian.
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February 12, 2023He is has a difficult style of writing sometimes. But if you read over such parts two or three times it makes good sense about ninety percent of the time. Aside from this, the work is incredibly well packed with information. It is not a waste of time whatsoever. Making sense of Christ's Kenosis, for me was by itself worth the price.
April 14, 2025
This and Lossky's "Mystical Theology" are both really great books
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews