MISJE KATOLICKIE W JAPONII. HISTORIA I WSPÓŁCZESNOŚĆ

Author(s): Łukasz Krucki / Language(s): Polish Issue: 13/2014

Christianity reached Japan as late as the 16th century. The rst missionary in the Land of the Blooming Cherry-Tree was St. Francis Xavier. For two years, from 1549- 1551, he preached the Gospel to the native inhabitants of the Japanese Islands, after which he left for China with similar intentions, but died on the way in Continental Asia (2 or 3 of December, 1552). The work of Francis Xavier was continued by the Jesuits, who propagated the Catholic faith with the help of missionary accommodations. The mission’s development was stopped before the end of the 16th century by repressions introduced by shogun Toyoto Hideyoshi. Christian persecutions lasted for almost three centuries and cost the lives of thousands of Christians. It is from this period that we have a list of 42 saints and 393 blessed Japanese martyrs. The period of tolerance in Japan began only in the Meiji period (as of 1868), and actually, from the time of the declaration of the Edict of Tolerance in 1873. This made it possible to carry out orga- nized missionary activities, mainly by Europeans. The development of the missions in Japan, however, occurred only after the 1930’s, among others thanks to the activities of St. Maximilian Kolbe and Brother Zenon Żebrowski, who undertook educational, printing and charitable work. Meanwhile, the so-called Japanese Niepokalanów was built. After the II World War, the work of Polish missionaries continued, particularly in the area of school education at its various levels. In 2011, the Land of the Rising Sun numbered 445,927 Catholics, which comprises 0.3% of Japan’s population.

KONTEKSTUALNY WYMIAR PISARSTWA HISTORYCZNEGO INSPIROWANY MISJĄ WERBISTÓW W CHINACH

Author(s): Andrzej Miotk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 13/2014

The study aims at showing the dependency of missionary work based on various contexts in China as a mission country. The problem is displayed on four incidents from the mission of the Divine Word Missionaries who within a span of 67 years (1882- 1949) sent 543 missionaries to China. The incidents highlight the role of geographical, political, social and religious setting of China for missionary work. The first incident focuses on the role of the river Huang He, called “the sorrow of China” in winning lot of conversions to the Catholicism. The second incident was the murder of two SVD Fathers namely Francis Nies and Richard Henle in 1897 in South Shandong. This gave a pretext for the German’s occupation of Jiaozhou Bay. The third incident was in 1929 in Loshan. The missionaries there were perceived by the Chinese mainly as the agents of imperialism and a threat to the Chinese cultural identity. Finally, the last incident which occurred in Mingkiang discusses the case of breaking the ban on the participation in the worship of ancestors. This particular incident points to different factors which played a decisive role in the de nitive condemnation of the China rites through the decree Ex quo singulari of Benedict XIV (1742).The conducted study stresses the importance of contextualizing historiography. The mission’s historian in the times of an already global Church must ask himself about the relevant and fruitful perspective of a research being conducted. The rst basic step in the process of research is to examine the different contexts of the subject of historical research. Addressing the contexts allows the historian to nd the most inspiring and valuable research questions and to avoid reductionist interpretations. Christianity is becoming less Western and more and more global in its nature, and this leads to new research questions. The SVD China-mission exempli es the need for an interdiscipli- nary approach to the subject of historical research in order to satisfy the complexity of the missionary situation and to expand the categories of interpretation. An interesting problem will be the possible hierarchy and correlation of contexts. The complexity of the historical subject requires from the historian never to assume that the reader really knows what he means. Therefore, the rst fundamental duty of the historian is the effort to understand and clarify the contexts in which the subject of research is intertwined in order to make the text more readable and instructional. At the same time the historian himself should be aware that he perceives the facts through the prism of his personal circumstances such as family, environment, and education. In the process his historical writing becomes subjective.

OD KOŚCIOŁA EUROPEJSKIEGO DO KOŚCIOŁA RODZIMEGO. MISYJNE NAUCZANIE PAPIESKIE XX WIEKU

Author(s): Jan Walkusz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 13/2014

The Catholic Church’s missionary activities, particularly from the period of great geographical discoveries, was set on the socalled “plantatio Ecclesiae” and for several centuries was based on the system of colonization and the so-called Right of Patronage. Even though many initiatives of the Holy See at that time aimed to remove politics from the missions and make the peoples the subject of the missions, it was only the fall of the Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires, primarily the First World War, that generated the need for a completely new form of Evangelization processes. These principles – in the context of full awareness and precisely de ning missionary goals – were clear- ly formulated in of cial Church documents beginning with Benedict XV through the decree of the Second Vatican Council, ending with the work and teaching of John Paul II. Such documents as: Maximum illud by Benedict XV, Rerum Ecclesiae by Pius XI, Evangelii praecones and Fidei donum by Pius XII, Princeps pastorum by John XXIII, and the decrees Ad gentes or Redemptoris missio by John Paul II unanimously speak on behalf of the need to create native Churches while respecting the culture and traditions of the nations undergoing missionary activity.

TRUDNE PUNKTY INKULTURACJI NA PRZYKŁADZIE MAŁŻEŃSTWA AFRYKAŃSKIEGO

Author(s): Franciszek Behrendt / Language(s): Polish Issue: 13/2014

The first chapter of the study is devoted to the process of marriage and its symbol and ethics value according to the old African customs. The person who has gone an initiation ceremony becomes a different person. By closely observing the various sym- bols and experiencing the effects of the initiation he comes to know himself and the cultural riches of his people.In the second chapter author is looking for some ways how Church wanted to enter into no Christians with the Gospel and Canon Law. The Gospel was proclaimed by helping the people in their poverty, all kinds of illnesses, by schools, hospitals and preaching in the local languages.The challenges of different documents in the history of Church are bearing in mind numerous achievement on the eld of Africans and missionaries. An attempt was made to sketch the main doctrinal currents present in documents issued by pops in the histo- ry. The Church in Africa is striving to develop its own particular identity by seeking to interpret theology in the African context. Preaching and dialogue with the help of customs and inculturation may help to recognize Christ as God, who wants salvation of all the peoples.

WPŁYW MISJI KALIFORNIJSKICH NA POSTAĆ KULTURY AMERYKAŃSKIEJ

Author(s): Marek Grygiel / Language(s): Polish Issue: 13/2014

One of the phenomena that strongly in uenced the shape of the culture of the Uni- ted States, especially its western parts, were the so called “California Missions” . The presented article tries to give an answer to the question of the impact on the form of American culture that those California missions had. The arrival of missionaries from Europe, resulted in a huge change in the culture of the indigenous people living in the areas of the so called top California. It also ultimately shaped the range of phenomena that affected the character of the culture which is still visible to this day. Since the history of Indians is often said to have essential impact in the formation of the present generations, the role of missionaries that worked among different strains of them and their contribution in shaping the culture needs to be acknowledged. Regardless of the various theories that undermine the value of the work of evangelization of Native Ame- ricans , the missionaries contribution in changing their cultural habits is recognized. These changes were introduced through the implementation of European models of organization of life in society: the introduction of a system of values, laws, systems of work, methods of obtaining food, cultivation of plants, cattle breeding, education, organization of spare time. These factors often resulted in a rapid, both civilizational and cultural leap forward.

MISYJNE DROGI KOŚCIOŁÓW WSCHODNICH

Author(s): Stanisław Nabywaniec / Language(s): Polish Issue: 13/2014

The essence of mission in the realm of the Eastern tradition, i.e. that of the Byzantine, means to be a witness of God. According to the understanding of the Orthodox Church, mission is more centripetal than centrifugal. It depends on the internal strength of the Orthodoxy to draw people from outside into its core, instead of sending missio- naries inside out to beyond the boundaries the Church, in order to attract new followers. Orthodox churches of the Byzantine tradition, however, even in a period of internal dif culties, did not stop proclaiming the Gospel to the Gentiles. Their successes in mission works in the 9th century, bear great importance for Christianity - the future of Europe and its civilization.The Nestorian played a signi cant role in proclaiming the Gospel, particularly in Central Asia. In Byzantine, the missionary work was undertaken by Rus‘, rst by Kievan Rus‘, then by Vladimir-Suzdal Rus‘ and later on by Muscovy Rus‘. As a result, Christianity was spread throughout the entire European part of today‘s Russia, further on towards the boundary-less territories of Siberia, as well as Alaska, China, Korea and Japan. The rst Ruthenian missionary centers were mainly colonies of monks. But there were also centres composed of priests and lay people. After the success in the late Middle-Ages and early modern times, the Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th and 18th centuries made little progress as far as missionary work is concerned. In the early 19th century, the Russian Orthodox Church underwent a spiritual renewal and had rediscovered the fullness of Orthodoxy. She „felt“ the need to share her faith with others. The establishment of the Orthodox Missionary Society in Moscow in 1870 had facilitated missionary activities of the Russian mission. However, the outbreak of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 had suddenly and brutally interrupted all missionary works of the Russian Orthodox Church. Instead, these activities were carried out by other Orthodox Churches.

Stosunek do ludzi starszych w starożytności klasycznej i chrześcijańskiej. Miscellanea. „Vox Patrum” 31:2011 t. 56. Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II. Ośrodek Badań nad Antykiem Chrześcijańskim. Lublin 2012 ss. 1014. Wydawnictwo KUL

Author(s): Marek Marczewski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 13/2014

Mircea Remus Birtz, Manfred Kierein, Câteva succesiuni apostolice catoli- ce din România, Editura „Napoca Star”, Cluj-Napoca 2011, ss. 120

Author(s): Krzysztof R. Prokop / Language(s): Polish Issue: 14/2015

WOKÓŁ PLANÓW NOWEGO KSZTAŁTU RELACJI RZECZYPOSPOLITEJ ZE STOLICĄ APOSTOLSKĄ NA PROGU PANOWANIA STANISŁAWA AUGUSTA PONIATOWSKIEGO, 1764-1766

Author(s): Paweł Zając / Language(s): Polish Issue: 15/2016

The reforms advocated by the Czartoryski’s party at the convocation sejm of 1764 included ecclesiastical matters. The disputes between Polish nobles and clergy had centuries-old tradition and concerned such issues as dimes, ecclesiastical jurisdiction over lay nobility and taxation of ecclesiastical property, as well as jurisdiction executed by the papal nuncio in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The article focuses on main discussions concerning those issues between 1764 and 1766. It summarizes contemporary historiographic achievements and includes analysis of some hitherto unexplored sources (e.g. advices of Tommaso Antici addressed to the Polish king), which could illustrate furthermore the atmosphere of reforms typical of the early years of Stanislaus August Poniatowski as the king of Poland.

„... ZASTALIŚMY W ZAKRYSTII TURKA W ZAWOJU, Z BRODĄ OGROMNĄ”. ADAM PROSPER BURZYŃSKI OFM (1755-1830) JAKO PREFEKT APOSTOLSKI W EGIPCIE

Author(s): Tomasz Moskal / Language(s): Polish Issue: 15/2016

Władysław Adam Burzyński OFM (1755-1831), monk, missionary in Egypt, Sandomierz bishop. In the 1791 year began the missionary work in Egypt. During the campaign of Napoleon of Bonaparte, cooperated from fighting at the side of the emperor Gen Stanisław Zajączek. In years 1802- 1808 prefect apostolic, responsible for works missionary. Outstanding priest, made preacher.

DEKRETY SOBORÓW LATERAŃSKIEGO IV (1215) I TRYDENCKIEGO (1545-1563) W PERSPEKTYWIE HISTORYCZNO-TEOLOGICZNEJ

Author(s): Wojciech Zawadzki / Language(s): Polish Issue: 15/2016

In year 2015 falls the 800th anniversary of The Fourth Council of the Lateran deliberation and the 470th anniversary of The Council of Trent inauguration. There also exists a regular historical anniversary between the beginnings of these two, mentioned above. There has intervened exactly 330 years between year 1215 and 1545. The two Councils are set in two dissident historical and ecclesial contexts, which differed from one another in terms of duration, process, number of participants and the amount of the created decrees. Caring for a renewal and a reform of the Church are definitely aspects which connected all of them.This article organizes the knowledge referring to The Fourth Council of the Lateran and The Council of Trent, presenting it historical and theological perspectives.

Robert Romuald Kufel, Internat Biskupi i Małe Seminarium Duchowne we Wschowie (1946-1956), Agencja Wydawnicza „PDN”, Zielona Góra 2012, ss. 180, fot.

Author(s): Roland Prejs / Language(s): Polish Issue: 15/2016

Z teologii literatury, czyli krytyczne spojrzenie na twórczość ks. Stefana Radziszewskiego

Author(s): Jan Walkusz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 15/2016

Leksykon socjologii moralności. Podstawy – teorie – badania – perspektywy, red. Janusz Mariański, Zakład Wydawniczy NOMOS, Kraków 2015, ss. 976

Author(s): Janusz Mariański / Language(s): Polish Issue: 15/2016

L’argomentazione politica in Antirrēsis di Hipacy Pociej

Author(s): Viviana Nosilia / Language(s): Italian Issue: 10/2016

The article investigates the interconfessional polemical literature as a valuable source offeringan insight into the major values of the society of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th–17th centuries. These texts also help understanding phenomena other than the merely religious ones. In the debate, juridical and political arguments were used too. We focus on the casestudy of Hipacy Pociej’s Antirrēsis (Ruthenian: 1599; Polish: 1600), written in response to MarcinBroniewski’s Apokrisis (1597). Pociej, who had an outstanding political career before becominga Uniate bishop, mastered these arguments perfectly. His work is imbued with the mentality of thecommunitas nobilium, which also played a part in his lexical choices.

Srpska pravoslavna crkva, desekularizacija i demokratija

Author(s): Milan Vukomanović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 10/2016

In Serbia, in the aftermath of 5 October 2000, the process of desecularization, including the revitalization of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), overlapped with the democratization of itspolitical institutions, as well as with the political and social pluralism. The desecularization of theSerbian society had already started in the socialist Yugoslavia, but the process itself intensified inthe early period of political pluralism and establishment of the democratic political institutions. IsOrthodoxy compatible with democracy, viewed not only as the will of the majority or an electionprocedure, but also as a political culture of pluralism and rule of law? Is Orthodoxy possible asa “civic” church, in line with the European political tradition of democracy and pluralism? Theauthor contends that the contemporary Orthodoxy, including the SOC, accepts globalization inits technical, technological and economic sense, with a parallel tendency towards cultural fragmentation. Thus one needs a consensus between the SOC, state and society in Serbia concerningthe basic values, such as: democracy, civil society, pluralistic discourse, secular tolerance andindividual human rights.

Biblical-Theological Basis for Dialogue about the Marriage and the Family in Today’s World

Author(s): Jarosław Jęczeń / Language(s): English Issue: 10/2016

In today’s world there is a strong need for a dialogue about the marriage and the family. First and foremost young people, but also families, married couples including non-sacramental marriages are interested in this dialogue. The need for this dialogue can be observed within the Church. This has been demonstrated by the latest Fourteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops as well as the Church’s relations with the world, mainly represented by the mass-media. Therefore it is worth to recall, discover or rediscover this dialogue’s basis.

Religia i religijność Polaków w obserwacjach francuskich podróżników w Rzeczypospolitej XVII wieku

Author(s): Agnieszka Michalczuk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 10/2016

In the 17th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth became a country that French peopleliked to visit. Many of them left descriptions of the country which was different to their own incertain aspects. One of these aspects was Polish people’s religiousness and their attitude to nonCatholic religions. They were surprised at tolerance for people of another faith among the nobilityand at the royal court, the co-existence of churches of different denominations and the lack of mutual aggression. On the other hand, they could see Polish people’s attachment to tradition and theiroriginal rites, at the same time pointing out their excessive demonstration of religious feelings,sometimes even bordering sanctimoniousness.

Mithra ja Mithras: küsimus Iraani ja Väike-Aasia Mithra kultuse ning Rooma Mithrase kultuse omavahelistest seostest ja Rooma Mithrase kultuse päritolust.

Author(s): Jaan Lahe / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 1 (68)/2015

The cult of Mithras was one of the so-called oriental cults that were spreading during the first four centuries AD in the Roman Empire. The cult spread from Spain and Britain to Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt, leaving behind a notable number of extant monuments – more than 1,000 epigraphs, 700 reliefs depicting the god Mithras and more than 500 other reliefs. While the cult first began to spread at the end of the 1st century AD, a deity named Mithras was already present in the epigraphs of the Achaemenids and in the Avesta and was also worshipped in Hellenic Asia Minor before t he area was absorbed by the Roman Empire. Up to the present day, one of the key questions in researching the Roman cult of Mithras has been the relationship of Mithras to the god Mithra worshipped in Iran and Hellenic Asia Minor. The autor of this article analyses the points of contact between the Roman Mithras and the cult of Mithra of Persia and Asia Minor to answer the question of how to interpret the relationship between these gods and cults. The author arrives at the conclusion that while the Iranian cult of Mithra, the Hellenic cult of Mithra of Asia Minor and the Roman cult of Mithras share some common elements – the name of the god, its relationship to the Sun and commonalities in the case of Asia Minor and Rome, including a similarity in the way the god was depicted (in Persian clothes, with a halo around his head), there are still significant substantive differences between the cults, out of which the most notable are the absence of the definition of mystery and mystic features in the Roman cult of Mithras, as well as the absence of a depiction of the most important events (the birth of Mithras from a rock; Mithra slaying the bull; meal shared by Mithra and the god of the sun; Mithra and the god of the sun riding a carriage to heaven) in Iran and Asia Minor in the pre-Christian era. Based on these observations it can be said that the cult of Mithra of Iran and Asia Minor and the cult of Mithras of Rome should be regarded as separaate cults and not the local versions of a single “Religion of Mithra”. The Roman cult of Mithras has not grown out of the cult of Mithra of Asia Minor, but it is possible that the cult of Mithras which emerged in Rome has borrowed some elements from it, out of which some parts can be traced back to the ancient Persian religion or even the ancient religion of Indo-European tribes.

Mesopotaamia kuningate universalistlikud taotlused, jumalik päritolu ning valitejate jumalikustamine Varadünastilisel ja Akkadi ajastul

Author(s): Vladimir Sazonov / Language(s): English Issue: 1 (68)/2015

As we can see, ideology and religion (theology) played a significant role in warfare and especially in the justification of wars in Mesopotamia already since ca. 2400 BCE (or even earlier). We have hundreds of pieces of evidence from Ancient Mesopotamia where the ruler used theological justification for his military campaign or the invasion of another country. The theology of warfare in Ancient Mesopotamia developed with the new period and became better formulated and more complex during the course of history. If the inscription of Ur-Nanše (Early Dynastic ruler of Lagash) does not document the use theology (or much use of it) to support his wars against Umma (we have no evidence) then his grandson E-anatum certainly did use it and lot of relevant ideas were already quite well developed. Many ideas from the Early Dynastic period (E-anatum, En-metena, Lugal-zage-si, etc.) were adapted by Sargonic kings such as Sargon of Akkad or Naram-Sîn, or Neo-Sumerian kings (Ur-Namma, Šulgi) who tried to implement theology more effectively than their predecessors. We can see that the theology of war was used by Sargonic and Neo-Sumerian kings in their aggressive politics as a tool for justifying war; theology even helped them to create a centralized state (Akkadian ‘empire’, Neo-Sumerian kingdom). In the Ur III period we find many texts (especially Šulgi’s hymns, royal inscriptions, etc.) in which theology was often used very masterfully and to propagandistic ends, and it seems that the theology of war at that time was already quite well-developed. In Assyria as far back as the late second millennium (Middle Assyrian period) and the first millennium BCE the theology of war became a very important part of state ideology, one of the fundamental pillars of state propaganda, and was used for justifying wars, deportations, mass killing, etc. So the theology of war is a very old and traditional phenomenon, continually changing, developing, transforming with each new epoch or new term of rule, yet still retaining many similarities with its earlier manifestations. If we compare the theological justification of the Neo-Assyrian kings with that of the period of E-anatum, En-metena, Lugal-zage-si or the Sargonic periood or the Ur III period, we find a lot of similarities and certain differences. Of course, on the one hand it was the same Mesopotamian cultural area where people greatly honoured ancient tradition, while on the other hand it was also a dynamic culture, not isolated from outside influences. This is the reason why in the inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian kings we find several elements originating from earlier times – from their predecessors in Assyria, but also from even the Early Dynastic, Sargonic, Neo-Sumerian and Old Babylonian periods.