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The article claims that there is a large gap separating dualistic religion from Christianity, and a „dualistic Christianity“ is not possible. The main cause of this is a misunderstanding in the historical reconstruction of Bogomilism. The paper clarifies this and explains the theological origin of this confusion.
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The article may be regarded as a continuation and a concretization of the general principles expounded in my previous article „On the Possible Approaches to Studying Bogomilism“, published in Philosophical Alternatives, issue 5, 2015, and occasioned by Erika Lazarova’s book The Bogomil-Cathar Philosophy as a Lived Ethics, Avangard Print, 2013. The author analyzes concepts such as „Bogomil-Cathar philosophy“ and reveals their groundlessness, as well as that of the phrase „lived ethics“, which is a metaphor, not a scientific concept. The article proves the need to work with sources, not metaphors used as sources. The groundlessness of the concept/term „dualist Christianity“ is revealed: Christianity is monistic, and monism cannot possibly be a dualism.
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The study introduces a definition of Salafism from the perspective of Islamic intellectual history by analyzing specific ideas, cases, processes and entanglements in Muslim theology and jurisprudence. The essay considers the ongoing scholarly debates within Middle Eastern and Islamic studies by simultaneously scrutinizing Arabic-Islamic sources to delineate a set of key relevant Muslim theological and legal debates. The analysis tackles some major issues of the typology and classification of the Salafī movement. Thus, the issue of the enigmatic and ambivalent character of the term Salafism is touched upon insofar as the concept is still applied in a too vague manner to some modernist reformers from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as well as to the markedly different contemporary Salafī movement encompassing a wide range of individuals and groups, including political formations like the Nūr Party in Egypt or jihadist groups, such as the Islamic State (IS). In so doing, the analysis also re-examines some conceptualizations of Islam, and particularly Salafism, within Western social thought.
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The paper analyzes the view that religion is ambivalent in nature, that it has a double cultural existence, that the feelings connected with religious experience are correspondingly ambivalent, as maintained by classic, modern, and post-modern thinkers like F. Schleiermacher, I. Kant, the early Hegel, H. Bergson, S. Kierkegaard, P. Tillich, E. Fromm, etc. These authors have referred to two kinds of religion, each of which has a separate definition: traditional, authoritarian, communal on the one hand, and personal, exalted, mystical on the other.
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The text offers a formal and meaningful analysis of the ritual dance-prayer Sema; on this basis, the author: 1) briefly presents Sufism as a specific mystical movement in Islam, and 2) introduces expository concepts and terminology specific to Sufism. The text proceeds from the premise that Sema is a visual demonstration of Rumi's ideas, expressed in his poetry, regarding the Path, Love, and the Beloved as symbols of the relation of the human being (as created) to the Creator. Thus, the dance Sema becomes a visual-figurative cipher for the adequate reading and understanding of Rumi's mystical poetry.
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Hurufism is an historical mystical-philosophical worldview, part of the Islamic spiritual culture. The founder of this teaching is Fazlullah Naimi (Astarabadi) (1339–1401). In his teaching, Fazlullah attached divine meaning to 28 Arabic and 32 Persian letters. According to Naimi, the letters, numbers, and also traits and features of human face have a hidden secret meaning. Divine signs (letters and numbers) are revealed in the human face (traits and features). Thus, through divine signs, he transferred divine qualities from God to man. Accused of spreading anthropomorphic and anthropocentric ideas that are unacceptable in Islam, Hurufism has been criticized and persecuted since its founding. Its founder, Fazlullah Naimi, and one of his most famous followers, Seyyed Imadeddin Nasimi (1369–1417), were brutally executed. The views of the Hurufites were declared heretical throughout the Islamic world. For this reason, in the following centuries, the Hurufites were forced to hide and their original ideas dnf teachings began to transform rapidly. During that process, Hurufism gradually dissolved in such mystical and philosophical teachings and trends as Bektashism, Alavism, Calendaring, the ideology of Kyzylbash. The ideas of Hurufism enriched the theoretical foundations of these Islamic teachings.
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This paper studies the values needed for religion to become a means of fostering peace and corporate existence in most parts of Africa. In Nigeria as a local case study the flux of Islam, Christianity and traditional religions created the fertile grounds for conflicts and instability. The abuse of religion for ethnic or political ends led to severe consequences for individuals and society. In a multi-religious society such as Nigeria, the perversion and exploitation of the religious sentiments of the people lead to malice, disarray and violence. Problems of religious and social tolerance facing the society worsened due to the elite motivated violent struggles for benefits, power and influence. So within the society the lack of trust between the ethno-religious groups as well as the crisis of confidence between the rulers and the ruled in these societies ensured an obstruction of national development. Our finding is that the absence or lack of operation of some core social values such as trust, cooperation, compassion, justice and tolerance, undermined the attainment of human dignity and disrupted diverse interests in the society, and ensured that the country achieved little or no sustainable development. We recommend a social order or social system that is human centred; guaranteeing human dignity seen as self-worth, mutual respect and well-being in the material and spiritual aspects of life by using political aspects of the social teachings of the Roman Catholic Church which operates on four central principles. These are the common good, personality or human dignity, solidarity and subsidiarity as options for liberation and transformation.
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The article presents the exhibition "Virgin Marys of Medieval Livonia" held in the Art Museum of Estonia - Niguliste Museum in Tallinn (25.10.2019-16.08.2020).
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The article is devoted to the biographical information of the editors of Kishinevskie Eparhialnyie Bedomosti (Chișinău Diocesan Records) from 1867 to 1917. In order to create a collective portrait of the editors are analyzed origin, education, career, the range of scientific or journalistic interests, awards and significance of their activities for the region.
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The paper aims to research the necessity of the policy and legal protection of freedom of religion at the workplace, as well as to support the prevention of discrimination of the employees on grounds of religion. The sociological and legal normative method regarding the implementation of the international principle of Dignity at Work, accompanied by the integrated and holistic approach in the research, has been applied. The basic research questions are defined as follows – whether the majority, declarative guarantee of freedom of religion by the provisions of the Constitution, as well as by positive legal documents, is sufficient for the protection against religious discrimination in the domain of labour, and how to increase the scope and level of individual protection of freedom of religious expression, in a way not jeopardizing the interests of the employer in the conditions of domination of economic principles in business, as well as in the labour market, in addition establishing a balance with social goals in terms of achieving goals of the sustainable development agenda.
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Published in 1815 and dedicated to Tsar Alexander I, Te Deum by Józef Elsner illustrates the trend of religious texts, the function of which can be considered in the context of liturgical celebrations as well as secular ceremonies. On the one hand, this composition is part of the rich traditions of Silesian church music, which the composer was associated with by birth and education. On the other hand, it reflects the state of the development of the 19th century musical culture in Poland, which the greater part of his life was associated with. The compositions mentioned in the article, intended for solo voices, mixed choir and orchestra, consist of five contrasted parts, and are stylistically maintained in the trend of the religious creativity characteristic of Central Europe at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which can also be seen in a number of other works by Elsner.
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The comparative research undertaken concerns the repertoire of Advent songs and Christmas carols contained in two selected songbooks. Over the course of almost 200 years many textual changes have been made to the songs. These include changing the order, exchanging many words for others, replacing whole phrases and verses with new wording, and corrections in the number of stanzas. The tendency to modernise old texts and to reduce stanza is particularly noticeable. These processes are not the result of the natural evolution of language, but the result of the intervention of individuals. It is difficult to agree with many of the consequences of these interventions. The scale of transformation of the selected song group and the conclusions can only be more fully determined after a comparative study of the melody and rhythm of the songs.
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This article deals with selected sacred compositions of the Slovak composer Pavol Krška (1949), who is one of the most important representatives of sacred music in Slovakia in recent decades. His vocal and instrumental pieces Requiem, Stabat Mater and Te Deum are frequently performed and thus brought to the attention of both the lay and professional music community. We believe that, as the composer’s work is so well-known in Slovakia, it will gradually find its place abroad.
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The letter of the Holy Father John Paul II written in Rome in 1987, in the tenth year of His pontificate, on December 4th, on the day of memorial of Saint John Damascene, the doctor of the Church, on the Twelfth Centenary of finishing the controversy over the icon, is of great importance for the Pope’s program of ecumenism. The Holy Father indicated various directions of the dialogue, however, the one of the utmost importance concerned the agreement with the Orthodox Church, which was confirmed in the letters and in His other documents quoted in this paper. The image used to be essential for religious practice, for illustrating the word of prayer and of the song, in order to preserve the tradition of the Church. The strict prohibition introduced by the iconoclasm depreciated not only the artistic tradition of paintings but also the basic dogmas of Christ’s Incarnation and the one which introduced Virgin Mary as the Theotokos (the God-bearer). The ban constituted a threat not only for the icons but also for the Christian faith. In His Letter, the Pope underlined the important role of the Second Council of Nicaea which reintroduced icons and maintained and deepened the meaning of the cult in the faith of believers. Furthermore, the Holy Father indicated the connection with the Second Vatican Council in understanding the function and form of images in contemporary Church. Contemporary trends are overwhelmed by the impotence of the spiritual expression of sacral art, which is a great concern for the Pope. The Letter is, therefore, a dramatic warning of the threats for religious art in contemporary time, expressed by the Holy Father with these words: ‘The rediscovery of the Christian icon will also help in raising the awareness of the urgency of reacting against the depersonalizing and at times degrading effects of the many images that condition our lives in advertisements and the media.’ (DS, 11).
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Zofia Branicka (1821-1886) was a Polish wealthy noblewoman who married Italian Prince Livio III Erba Odescalchi (1805-1885) in 1841. From then on until her death she lived in Rome. Thanks to her opulent dowry, Odescalchi family could buy back among others, the Bracciano castle (near Rome) from the Torlonia family. Zofia was very well educated and a polyglot. From the very first years of her stay in Rome, she started to organise famous soirees at her salon in Palazzo Odescalchi. In this way Princess Zofi gathered the elite of aristocracy, diplomacy and the clergy, from diff European countries. Soon she had a possibility to get to know the pope Pius IX, with whom she would maintain a real and close friendship. Zofia had informed the pope about the complex situation of Poland, partitioned by her neighbours. From the beginning of her stay in Italy she was involved in charity work. The princess was very involved in financial and organisational help to Polish people in Italy (emigrees, insurgents, priests, artists as Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Leopold Nowotny, Roman Postempski etc.). She closely co-operated with The Congregation of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ in organising the Polish Seminar in Rome in 1866. That was an event of a great importance for Polish people who at that time had no country of their own. Thanks to her deep religiosity and patriotic activity Princess Zofi was known among her contemporaries as “the Polish pope”. Nobody at that time could have imagine that after one hundred years Karol Wojtyła would become the first actual Polish pope.
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In no historical era have the topics of sex and gender occupied such space in academic and public debates. Today, an immense number of publications and conferences is devoted to subjects such as sexual differences, the definition of masculinity and femininity, the question whether and to what extent is sex part of nature, and to what extent of culture? These topics, always considered important in the anthropological and ethical fields, benefitted in the public debate from a certain social consensus on obvious and indisputable matters, as did those which were hidden from debate and concerned with that which is private and concerns the secrets of home life. Today, they have lost this double protection. Karol Wojtyła’s drama The Radiance of Fatherhood, written in the 1960s, surprisingly anticipates these contemporary discussions and proposes a philosophical and theological perspective appropriate for Western culture in which it is possible to give the right answers to the questions posed. In this perspective, these basic existential realities for every human being – being a son or daughter, mother or father, man or woman, husband or wife – do not only point to the sphere of human biology, nor are they contractual and subject to modifications. Rather, in the symbolic and sacramental interpretation which is proper to human life, they form the spiritual DNA of any human being from which that which is truly human can develop.
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Przedmiotem badań w niniejszym artykule jest poszukiwanie fundamentów tożsamości ucznia Chrystusa znajdujących się w Ewangelii, aby w obliczu świata, w którym wszelkie granice się rozmywają, na nowo pokazać wyraźne rysy ucznia Pana. Cel ten został zrealizowany poprzez egzegezę fragmentu 17. rozdziału Ewangelii według św. Jana (J 17,9-19) z wykorzystaniem biblijnej retoryki semickiej oraz z uwzględnieniem najnowszej literatury z zakresu przedmiotu badań.Zasadnicze etapy pracy, którymi były: delimitacja badanego fragmentu, opis kontekstu biblijnego, interpretacja i wyciągnięcie wniosków teologicznych, zostały ujęte w trzech punktach. Na początku pierwszego punktu omówiono delimitację, ukazując kontekst dalszy oraz bliższy dla J 17. Następnie z zastosowaniem analizy odgórnej wydzielono w nim trzy jednostki: ww. 1d-8, 9-19 i 20-26. Do dalszej pracy wybrano fragment środkowy (ww. 9-19), którego treścią jest modlitwa Syna za uczniów. Poprzez zastosowanie metody analizy retorycznej udało się w badanym tekście wyszczególnić trzy części (ww. 9-11c, 11d-13 oraz 14-19) ułożone koncentrycznie w schemacie ABA’. Dla każdej z nich została opisana struktura wewnętrzna, konieczna do przeprowadzenia właściwej interpretacji. W punkcie drugim przeprowadzono interpretację poszczególnych części poprzedzoną analizą kontekstu biblijnego dla każdej z nich. Ta analiza pozwoliła m.in. zobaczyć powiązanie badanej perykopy z przypowieścią o synu marnotrawnym (Łk 15,31-32) oraz z modlitwą Ojcze nasz (Mt 6,9-13), a przez to dostrzec głębszy sens tekstu biblijnego.Trzeci punkt, który składa się z dwóch podpunktów, pokazuje kompozycję retoryczną całego fragmentu, prowadzącą do wniosków teologicznych. Na jej podstawie pokazano, że istotą przesłania J 17,9-19 jest miłość Ojca, która przyjmuje niedoskonałych synów, aby ci mogli prawdziwie stać się dla siebie braćmi.
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Cierpiący Sługa Pański ukazany w czterech fragmentach Księgi Izajasza jest postacią zarówno fascynującą, jak i niezwykle tajemniczą. Niniejszy artykuł, zatytułowany Trzecia Pieśń Sługi Pańskiego (Iz 50,4-11) – tekst kanoniczny i jego paralela w Targumie Jonatana, miał na celu przybliżenie osoby Sługi poprzez szczegółową analizę fragmentu znajdującego się w 50. rozdziale tej prorockiej księgi Starego Testamentu. Punkt 1. prezentuje tło historyczne oraz teologiczny klimat, w jakim powstały poszczególne pieśni. Deutero-Izajasz, anonimowy prorok, który zebrał i zredagował myśli tzw. szkoły Izajasza, działał w czasach niewoli babilońskiej. Głosił pocieszenie narodu i łaskawą miłość jedynego Boga, który posłużył się osobą perskiego władcy, Cyrusa II Wielkiego, aby wybawić swój wybrany naród z niewoli. Mając w pamięci czasy niewoli, została spisana Trzecia pieśń Sługi Pańskiego, której szczegółowa analiza znalazła swoje odbicie w punkcie 2. Wyłania się z niej obraz wybranego przez Boga Sługi, którego intymna więź ze Stwórcą przeplata się z niesprawiedliwym cierpieniem. Jednak ufność w Bożą pomoc utwierdza Sługę w trwaniu przy powierzonej mu misji. W punkcie 3. biblijny tekst został wzbogacony żydowską tradycją aramejskich tłumaczeń, tzw. targumów. Przekłady te były niezbędną pomocą dla narodu, który po powrocie z niewoli posługiwał się jedynie językiem aramejskim. Oprócz funkcji translatorskiej targumy pełniły także zadanie interpretacji tekstu biblijnego, wprowadzały konieczne wyjaśnienia i doprecyzowania, a ich rewizja w szkołach rabinackich pomagała utrzymać ortodoksyjną teologię judaistyczną. W Targumie Jonatana Sługa Pański jest prorokiem, którego zadaniem jest wykładanie Tory tym, którzy odeszli od Bożych przykazań. Zatem łatwiejsze będzie nie tylko teologiczne zgłębienie jednego z tekstów Starego Testamentu, ale również bliższe poznanie tajemniczego Sługi, który w proroczym słowie stał się obrazem i pierwowzorem wcielonego Słowa – Jezusa Chrystusa.
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Po przedstawieniu rzeczywistości dotyczącej charyzmatów w Starym Testamencie, w Ewangeliach, Dziejach Apostolskich zostało omówione pierwotne znaczenie i występowanie słów „charyzmat/charyzmaty” w Biblii. Na tym tle autor rysuje bezpośredni kontekst nauczania o charyzmatach omawiając wspólnotę Koryncką i Pierwszy List do Koryntian. W swoich analizach koncentruje się na sekcji dotyczącej rzeczywistości duchowej (1 Kor 12–14) ukazując różne funkcjonowanie charyzmatów wewnątrz Kościoła przedstawionego jako ciało Chrystusa. Ujmuje zależności pomiędzy charyzmatami a miłością oraz praktykowaniem glosolalii i proroctwa. Całość dopełnia omówienie analiz dotyczących nauczania św. Pawła o charyzmatach dokonanych w różnych artykułach przez Käsemann, R.Y.K. Fung, G.D. Fee, J.D.G. Dunn. G. Barbaglio.
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