The treatise seeks to describe the encounter between Orthodoxy and psychoanalysis as discussed by Thermos. The interaction of these spheres of knowledge should solve the pastoral vocation problem and clergy ineffectiveness. Yet analysis of Thermos's concepts shows that agreement on this interaction will depend on more intra-Orthodox discussion.

This book is an attempt to reveal the advantages and disadvantages rendered in the ongoing dialogue between Orthodoxy and modernity, by way of Thermos's discussions of the complex interaction between Orthodox pastoral theology and psychoanalysis. The author seeks to reconstruct and evaluate Thermos's paradigm to date. The overall aim of the study is to arrive at a balanced judgment which favours interaction between the two spheres of knowledge. This judgment is informed by a two-sided approach: on the one hand, along with Thermos dissecting the interaction between psychoanalysis and pastoral theology by scrutinizing the problem of hieratic vocation and of clergy ineffectiveness, on the other, without Thermos exhibiting the range of his key concepts. Arriving at a balanced argument remains a challenge.

Autorentext

Petru Cazacu was born in Chi i au (Moldova) in 1974. He is an Orthodox theologian who is currently engaged in two separate research projects: Salibiyya and Its Role in the Arab Muslim Discourse, in Germany, and Social Aspects of Religious Education in a Multi-confessional State, in Russia.

Inhalt

Contents: The pastoral vocation problem and its solution by Thermos The human component of the hieratic vocation Problems of clergy s ineffectiveness and solutions advanced by Thermos Self-knowledge Repentance Unconscious Admissible limits of interaction between Orthodox pastoral theology and psychoanalysis.