Torstein Theodor Tollefsen

Liturgiska handlingar och heliga ting förutsätter i stor utsträckning varandra. Den materiella aspekten av gudstjänstens riter sträcker sig över byggnader, interiörer, textilier, redskap, instrument, konst och informationsbärare, såsom böcker och inskriptioner. Tanken på helighet som kopplad till konkreta fysiska objekt har varit en känslig och invecklad fråga i vissa kristna konfessioner. Trots detta kvarstår faktum att de föremål som utgör nödvändiga materiella betingelser för gudstjänstfirande i de flesta samfund tillmätts speciell betydelse. Inte sällan har sådana föremål efter hand också kommit att räknas till kyrkornas kulturarv och på så sätt fått stor betydelse för människor även långt utanför den ursprungliga liturgiska situationen. I denna volym behandlas materiella aspekter på gudstjänsten från medeltiden och framåt. Perspektiv finns både från väst- och östkyrkan, och från protestantiska frikyrkorörelser. Utöver de fem tematiska artiklarna finns två andra liturgivetenskapliga bidrag samt en avdelning med recensioner av nyutkommen litteratur på årsbokens områden.

This book offers an investigation into the basic structures of St Maximus the Confessor's thought in the context of ancient and late antique philosophy. The introduction explains what is meant by the term 'metaphysics of Maximus', and discusses possible senses of terms like 'Christian philosophy' and 'Byzantine philosophy'. On the background of a definition of 'Christian philosophy', the author devotes two chapters to discuss Maximus' ideas of knowledge of the created world and of God. The chapters that follow are devoted to the doctrine of creation, the function of the so-called logoi (divine Ideas) in the procession and conversion of the totality of beings in relation to God, and the relation between the logoi and the so-called divine activities. The logoi, eternally comprised in God's knowledge as the divine thoughts in accordance with which everything is created, are then shown to function as principles of a rather complex order of being: the cosmos instituted as a whole-part system. This whole-part system secures the possible communion between all creatures and facilitates the conversion of everything to the divine source as a unity in plurality deified by God. The last chapter treats of the doctrines of Incarnation and deification in order to clarify the exact sense of deification for all beings. In the final part of the book, the author applies Maximian metaphysics to a major ethical challenge in our days: the environmental crisis, thus proving that late antique philosophy still has relevance today.

St Theodore the Studite's Defence of the Icons provides an investigation of the icon-theology of St Theodore the Studite, mainly as it is presented in his three refutations of the iconoclasts, the Antirrhetici tres adversus iconomachos. Torstein Theodor Tollefsen explores Theodore´s 'philosophy of images', namely his doctrine of images and his arguments that justify the legitimacy of images in general and of Christ in particular. Tollefsen offers a historical, theological, and philosophical exploration of Theodore's doctrine of images and his arguments justifying the legitimacy of images and of Christ. In addition to the main elements of Theodore´s defence of the icon, like the Christological issue, the relation between image and prototype, the question of veneration, his explanation of why we may say of an image that 'this is Christ', and his innovative thinking on the representative character of the icon, the book has an introduction that places Theodore in the history of Byzantine philosophy: he has some knowledge of traditional logical topics and is able to utilize argumentative forms in countering his iconoclast opponents. The volume also provides an appendix which shows that the making of images is somehow natural given the character of Christianity as a religion.

Activity and Participation in Late Antique and Early Christian Thought is an investigation into two basic concepts of ancient pagan and Christian thought. The study examines how activity in Christian thought is connected with the topic of participation: for the lower levels of being to participate in the higher means to receive the divine activity into their own ontological constitution. Torstein Theodor Tollefsen sets a detailed discussion of the work of church fathers Gregory of Nyssa, Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor, and Gregory Palamas in the context of earlier trends in Aristotelian and Neoplatonist philosophy. His concern is to highlight how the Church Fathers thought energeia (i.e. activity or energy) is manifested as divine activity in the eternal constitution of the Trinity, the creation of the cosmos, the Incarnation of Christ, and in salvation understood as deification.