Publishing House Metropolitan of Oltenia, Craiova, 2021
The work Diaspora. Models and perspectives presents the most important missionary aspects of the diaspora phenomenon from the perspective of the Orthodox Church and pays special attention to the role that the diaspora has in fulfilling the command of the Savior Jesus Christ to preach the Gospel to all nations.
The work has six chapters, preceded by the content of the paper, introduction and are concluded with conclusions and bibliographic list.
The first chapter, entitled Migration in the Holy Scripture as a Pattern of the Diaspora, places the diaspora in the context of the theme by presenting the scriptural framework to specify its Christian theological horizons.
The second chapter, Types of Diaspora: Jewish Diaspora and Orthodox Diaspora, defines the evolution of the concept of diaspora historically and sociologically in order to highlight the role that the diaspora has played in transforming the world over time.
The third chapter, Church and Canonical Perspectives on the Current Orthodox Diaspora Issue, deals specifically with the Orthodox Diaspora. Thus, here we focused the study on the historical, legal and theological aspects related to the Orthodox diaspora.
The fourth chapter, The Orthodox Diaspora in Europe, describes the Orthodox Diaspora in Europe, especially in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, with the intention of identify contemporary models of the diaspora in order to specify the evolution of the contemporary Romanian diaspora.
The fifth chapter, The Romanian Model of Orthodox Diaspora in Western Europe, analyzes the pattern of the Romanian Orthodox Diaspora in Europe and highlights the administrative, liturgical and pastoral elements, which are similar to those of the Romanian Orthodox Church, to specify the viability of this organizational model for the Romanian Orthodox Diaspora, in the face of missionary challenges in the Western Orthodox diaspora.
The last chapter, the sixth, Diaspora. Characteristics and Conceptual Vulnerabilities, considers the definition of an Orthodox theology of the diaspora as an answer and solution offered by the Church to today’s Orthodox missionary.
The final conclusions shows that migration functions as a divine strategy for fulfilling the universal missionary plan. Being a global phenomenon, the spread of people in all directions can symbolize the implementation of God’s great plan to save all nations. When people move around, so do the opportunities for the spread of the Christian faith. Migration continues to be a means by which God fulfills His plan to redeem the world through Jesus Christ. The process of the continual expansion of the Church, the Body of Christ, both in the past and in the present, and especially in the future, cannot be explained without considering the sovereignty of God, who rules over all nations.