Dr Doru Costache

Senior Lecturer in Theology (Patristic Studies), St Cyril’s Coptic Orthodox Theological College

Presented 28 May, 2020

The Sydney College of Divinity Theology Research Network (TRN) exists to promote theological research. It draws together scholars from the diverse theological disciplines (systematics/doctrine, patristic, biblical theology, ethics, liturgy) within the SCD, and provides them with a forum and focus for theological research.

The video is an online presentation of Dr Doru Costache paper Affirming Creation’s Goodness in a Time of Pandemic: Patristic Insights. The paper is the first in the 2020- 2021 seminar series Theologising in the Shadow of a Pandemic, an initiative of the Sydney College of Divinity Theology Research Network. A shortened text of the paper is available for download.

Affirming Creation’s Goodness in a Time of Pandemic: Patristic Insights

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We, modern Christians, are both unrealistic and unreasonable. We expect only good things to happen. But not so in the natural world, as the Covid19 pandemic has demonstrated. The early Christians were more realistic than this. They knew that the world, while good, is imperfect.

They also knew that there is a wild side to it, as to our own nature. As within, so without. They were convinced that only insofar as we tame our inner selves will there be hope for the world to become—in turn and in time— gentler, as happen around the saints. In this paper Dr Costache considers several witnesses of the ancient Christian wisdom, seeking clues for a realistic appraisal of the natural world

The video concludes with responses from Ms Emily Southwell.