God’s goodness | Martyria

Studia Theologica No. I (XIX) / 2025 On God’s goodness and man’s part in it Rev. Prof. Dr. Constantin Coman

Taking as its starting point the Saviour’s reply to the rich young man — ‘No one is good except God alone’ (Matthew 19:17) — this article explores the scriptural and patristic foundations of divine goodness, drawing on the writings of Saints Gregory of Nyssa, Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, Athanasius the Great, John of Damascus and Dumitru Stăniloae, to demonstrate that man participates in goodness by partaking of the divine source, not through his own powers.

Studia Theologica No. I (XVII) / 2024 On God’s goodness Lecturer, PhD Mihai Burlacu

The article analyses goodness as a divine attribute and a moral category, demonstrating that it is not an innate or passive quality, but a free act of the will, peculiar to personal beings. Drawing on Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Father Dumitru Stăniloae and the words of the Saviour in Luke 18: 19, the author shows that true goodness has God as its sole source and is realised only through man’s conscious communion with Him.

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