10 March 2010 – Rev. Prof. of Theology Dumitru Popescu (born on 29 June 1929 in Călugăreni village, county of Giurgiu) passed away in Bucharest. He studied at the Seminary of “Metropolitan Nifon” (1940 – 1948), and continued his studies at the Theological Institute of Bucharest (1955 – 1959). In 1972, he was awarded the title of doctor in Theology in Bucharest, benefiting of scholarships of specialisation and documentation at the Faculty of Protestant Theology in Lausanne (1966 – 1967), at the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey (Switzerland, 1966 – 1967) and at the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome (1968 – 1970). In 1973 he was a scholar of the Ecumenical Institute at Tantur (Israel); from 1960 – 1966 he functioned as secretary and then as professor at the Theological Seminary of Bucharest; from 1966 – 1999 he passed to the academic education (reader, speaker, professor) within the Theological Institute of Bucharest, where he was rector (1979-1980, 1988-1991) then between 1992- 1996 he was the Dean of the Theological Institute. On 14 May 2005, he was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of Alba Iulia. From 1998 – 2007, he was guest professor at the Ecumenical Patristic Institute of Bari, and from 1980 – 1988 he was Director for Studies within the Conference of the European Churches (Geneva). In 2001 he was elected honourable member of the Romanian Academy.
Works: Roman-Catholic Ecclesiology according to the documents of the Vatican Council II and its echoes in the contemporary theology (9172); La communion du Saint-Esprit aujourd’hui (1981); L’influence de la philosophie et du developpment de la pensee sur la reception du BEM dans les differentes traditions de l’Eglise (1985); Mission et secularisation (1987); Theology and Culture (1993), Orthodoxy and Contemporariness (1966), Christ, Church, Society (1998); Introduction in the Dogmatic Theology in the Context of the Contemporary Culture (1998); Orthodoxy and Catholicity (1999); God and Creation (2001); Rootless Man (2001); Mission of the Church in a Secularised World (2004); Jesus Christ, Pantocrator (2005); Orthodox Rational Spiritual Apologetics (2009). He published specialised studies in church periodicals (“Biserica Ortodoxă Română”, Studii Teologice”, “Ortodoxia”, “Glasul Bisericii”, Mitropolia Moldovei și Sucevei”, “Mitropolia Banatului”), as well as in collective volumes.
