Peace and its Meaning according to Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae (1903-1993)

Abstract

Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae is for sure the most important Romanian theologian of all times. Among the topics approached in his works, peace is, for sure, one of his important themes. I will try there to analyse his vision on this topic and to distinguish between the two levels of the way he understands peace namely the practical and the theoretical one. For the second part, the focus will be rather on the articles published in the interwar period, where the perspective will not be only a theological one, but also with references to the social, cultural, historical and political realities, a fact that will not be any more encountered in his work belonging to Communist period, because the censorship will not allow it. I will try to emphasize there the way how he saw peace in relationship both with the spiritual life, freedom, idea of community and nation, or with outcomes like the monastic or the hermitic life.