ELEMENTE DE TEOLOGIE ÎN OPERA LUI DIMITRIE CANTEMIR

Ludmila USATÂI Catedra Literatură Română şi Teorie Literară

Rezumat

In the history of Orthodox theological thought, the name of Dimitrie Cantemir should be placed among the important Romanian personalities such as Neagoe Basarab, Petru Movilă, and Nicolae Milescu Spătarul. There are some Cantemir’s works which form a substantial part pf this specific topic such as: „The Divan or The Wise Man's Parley with the World or The Judgment of the Soul with the Body”, the third part of Description of Moldova and others. Cantemir used to write his works while Baroque culture was blooming both in Europe and Romanian counties. So, it was favorable to use the same literary motives as fortuna labilis and vanitas vanitatum which are familiarly to earlier medieval works as The Teachings of Neagoe Basarab to his Son (written in Slavonic in 513-1521, translated in Romanian in 1654) or The Life of the World (1671-73) by Miron Costin. Another Cantemir’s important work is An introduction to Islam written for Europeans, in which the author expresses an Christian vision upon Muslim religion.