With the publication of the sixth volume of The Experience of God, Holy Cross Orthodox Press has brought to completion a project begun in 1994: the integral translation into English of the Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Archpriest Dumitru Staniloae (1903-1993). His approach is by no means "dogmatic" in an authoritarian sense. He is never content simply to state propositional truths in a doctrinaire fashion, but he seeks to expound the reasons that underlie the Church's teaching, indicating the inner logic of the Orthodox faith, its unity and coherence, and likewise its personal relevance to daily Christian living.
This sixth and final volume of The Experience of God has as its subject what in Western theology are termed "the four last things": death, judgement, heaven, and hell. Fr. Dumitru maintains that, for each one of us, this present life is the time of decisive choice, and yet at the same time there is progress after death. [His] unshakable faith in the resurrection- in the conclusive victory of life over death- confers on Fr. Dumitru's understanding of the last things a resounding note of hope.
For many years to come [The Experience of God] will form an invaluable resource for all who seek to enter more deeply into the inner meaning of Orthodoxy. -Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia
Fr. Dumitru Staniloae (1903-1993) is widely considered as one of the greatest Orthodox theologians of the twentieth century. He was Professor of Dogmatics at the Theological Institute in Bucharest, Romania, from 1947-1973. In 1990 he was made a Member of the Romanian Academy.
