#For the life of the world

The article analyses the significance of the human person in the context of medically assisted reproduction, contrasting two opposing approaches: the Roman Catholic approach, which rejects these methods on the grounds that they undermine human dignity by separating the conjugal act from procreation, and that of bioethicists such as John Harris and Torbjörn Tännsjö, who accept them on the grounds of reproductive freedom. From the perspective of Orthodox theology, assisted reproduction does not, by definition, infringe upon human dignity, provided that it is therapeutic in nature, is intended for the spouses, and does not result in the destruction of embryos.

The text analyses the study The History of Christianity as Cultural History, published in 1927 by Professor Teodor M. Popescu upon his appointment to the Chair of Universal Church History at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Bucharest, and examines its contemporary relevance to the debate on the relationship between Christianity, culture and modernity. The philosophical foundations of the work — which draw on the ideas of Rickert, Windelband and Schleiermacher — are examined, alongside the thesis that Christianity, although not a cultural programme, has generated a civilisation that is defined in contrast to its religious origins, whilst remaining its constitutive source.