Ivan Karageorgiev

This article examines the notion of illumination in the Orthodox theological tradition, focusing on the conditions and modalities according to which the divine Light can be perceived by the human being. The author adopts a speculative and doctrinal approach, articulating patristic data and hesychast theology to account for the phenomenon of the vision of the uncreated Light. The central idea maintains that this illumination does not remain foreign to the material body, but reaches and transforms it in a real way, thus inaugurating a process of transfiguration of the entire being. On the theological level, the article provides a structured reflection on the relationship between uncreated divine energy and human matter, contributing to a more precise understanding of the Orthodox conception of deification as an integral transformation of the person, body and soul.

This article examines the notion of personal otherness by bringing Emmanuel Mounier's personalist philosophy into dialogue with the Orthodox conception of the human person. The study adopts a comparative and theological approach, articulating two distinct traditions of thought around a common problematic: the objectifying reduction of the human person to a thing among things. The author shows that, in Mounier, authentic freedom can only be fulfilled in relation to others, which aligns with the Orthodox vision according to which the person is constituted in communion. The theological contribution of the article lies in the highlighting of a convergence between Western personalism and Orthodox ecclesiology: Eucharistic communion appears as the place where otherness is fully sanctified and where the solitude of modern man finds a coherent anthropological and soteriological response.