The Experience of God: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, vol. 1

Fr. Dumitru Staniloae seeks always to indicate the inner coherence of dogmatic truth and the significance of each dogma for the personal life of the Christian. It is the theologian’s task to make manifest the link between dogma and personal spirituality, to show how every dogma responds to a deep need and longing in the human heart, and how it has practical consequences for society. Dogmas, he is convinced, do not enslave but liberate; theology is essentially freedom. Freedom whether human or divine, is one of Fr. Dumitru’s recurrent leitmotifs; God has made us partners and fellow-workers, who co-operate with him in full liberty; without freedom there can be no love and no interpersonal communion. -Kallistos Ware, From the Forward

Fr Dimitru Staniloae (1903-1993) is widely considered as one of the greatest Orthodox theologians of the 20th 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.