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“The Bride then beholds the Bridegroom. And He, as soon as she has seen Him, goes away. He does it frequently throughout the Song; and that is something nobody can understand who did not suffer it himself. God is my witness that I have often perceived the Bridegroom drawing near me and being most intensely present with me; then suddenly He has withdrawn and I could not find Him, though I sought to do so. I long, therefore, for Him to come again, and sometimes He does so. Then, when He has appeared and I lay hold of Him, He slips away once more; He has so slipped away, my search for Him begins anew.” The present paper gives a new Hungarian translation of this well-known Origenian section of the First Homily on the Song of Songs. It also aims to show that the main use of the word “mystic” in Origen is connected with the twofold interpretation of the Scriptures. For Origen, the most mystical piece of the Bible is the Song, which is a drama. My paper emphasizes the relevance of the dramatic form with respect to this personal evidence concerning the experience of textual interpretation. The second speech of the Bride to the Bridegroom or the new interpretation of the passage in Song of Songs 1, 6 affords an opportunity to describe the difficulties arising during the search for the ultimate meaning of the Scriptures.
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Setting out philosophically to delineate the theory of theophany in the Areopagite’s theology, the present paper, in a first instance, offers a short overview of the divine appearances in the Old Testament, then adumbrates the difference between the concepts of theophaneia and theophania, respectively, in Classical Greek, and, after that, turns to how St Gregory of Nyssa conceived of theophany in onto-theological terms. In the main part, I point out on the basis of On Celestial Hierarchy 4, 3 that the character of Dionysius’ idea of theophany is restrictive or reductive: the angelic orders produce the divine appearances in order thereby to manifest in a reduced volume the infinite divine essence, for the sake of the illumination of the lower orders of existence. The objective of this reductive representation is to offer an example to be imitated by the lower orders. This implies that lowerranking beings have a tendency to go out of their innate natures, in an effort, ultimately, to imitate God; and that (the hyperbolically transcendent) God also has a tendency to come out of His secret and absolutely hidden essence. In a next step, we cast a glance into the Scholia to the Celestial Hierarchy and the Divine Names, to see their interpretation of two key passages that concern the concept of theophany. I come to the overall conclusion that the Areopagite’s idea of theophany maintains the chief characteristics of the Old Testament divine appearances and St Gregory’s onto-theological presuppositions. Dionysius’ theory of theophany, in a final analysis, answers “yes and no” to the question concerning God’s knowability. This, we believe, is due to the circumstance that discursive reasoning cannot remain thoroughly systematic as it approaches the condition of its own operation, God.
More...Hadewijch és Szent Ágoston találkozása – Imitatio Augustini?
Hadewijch, the 13th century beguine, the mystical leader of a group of like-minded women, is the author of 31 mystical letters, 16 rhymed letters, 14 visions and 45 mystical love songs. She used her immense talents and her literary and theological knowledge in order to provide spiritual guidance in a powerful language. She probably aimed at a kind of speech that once filled her when she heard a sermon about St. Augustine: “No sooner had I heard it than I became inwardly so on fire that it seemed to me everything on earth must be set ablaze by the flame I felt within me. Love is all!” (Letter 25) From her writings it is obvious that she was deeply – we could even say: intimately – attracted to St. Augustine, whom she mentions four times in her visions and letters. In Vision 11 Hadewijch and Augustine appear as two eagles. They are swallowed by a phoenix representing the Unity in which the Trinity dwells, and they are flying about incessantly in the deep abyss of Unity. She says she greatly desired to experience divine love in the Trinity with Augustine. In the List of the Perfect attached to the Visions, she gives the names of people dead and alive who, in her view, reached perfection during their lives, or, in other words, who “grew up in Love.” St. Augustine is the 11th Perfect. The way she writes about him here is like a vision itself: Augustine is tortured by the awareness of his weakness, but then he casts off humility and lets himself be swept away by the “Storm of Unfaith.” This storm is, as we understand from the related Vision 13, the highest gift of Love and comes forth from the Divine Touch. Those who get this gift are thrown into the abyss of Love – the same space where Hadewijch and Augustine have been swallowed by in Vision 11. What Hadewijch writes about Augustine in the List is exactly what she is striving for and reaches in Vision 13, and which she asks her followers to reach. In the Letters St. Augustine is mentioned in the context of mystical speech. When in Letter 22 Hadewijch writes about the ineffability of God, she quotes Augustine and points out that one can interpret something of God only for those who understand with their souls. What follows is the depiction of the unimaginable dimensions of the Divinity put in a kind of “langugae of the ineffable.” If we first read the texts in which Hadewijch makes mention of Augustine and then examine the attributes of space in the state of perfection, in her whole oeuvre, we can get a glimpse of the deepest layers of Hadewijch’s mysticism, the inner space of the forces that touch the mystic and give shape to the specific mystical language of the Ineffable Hadewijch was a master of.
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The term ‘metaphysics of being’ in this article aims to explicate the turn in Islamic philosophy ascribed to Mulla Sadra’s development of the idea of transcendent philosophy (ḥikmamuta’âliyya) in which the theory of being occupies a central position. Namely, Shirazi, establishing the precise differentiation between the concept and the reality of being, claims that being – as the basis of all things – is that according to which everything is what it is, and that the entire reality is nothing else but gradation of that being which in its basis is one and indivisible. The author will present the interpretation of that philosophical position on the basis of content analysis of central parts of Kitâb al-mašâ’ir as a work which synthesizes the entire existential ontology of the philosopher from Shiraz.
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One of the greatest challenges of contemporary institutional education, public and private, is certainly an understanding of the philosophy of the educational process, or, more specifically, the realization of the purpose of scientific work. Reflecting this problem, it is necessary to establish a mutual relationship: science (ilm), education (edeb) and the concept of true certainty (hakkul jekin). In a sense, the quality of the teaching and scientific process can be assessed precisely on the basis of insight: in the objective state of the development of science, the degree of education of teachers and students (which, in the most basic sense, implies mutual human relations), and attitudes towards the reality of true certainty. In this way, it is possible to speak about the authentic reform of education, and it is precisely through interlinked but also necessarily comparative work on improving both the quality of scientific research, and the education of the individual, and the improvement of the relationship between teachers, and between teachers and students.
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As musicians, we find it beneficial to research the meanings of music as reflected in Patristics. This study is a reminder that music has a divine role, and that it is important to never forget that the sonorous art has always been used as praise. Starting from the importance of music in the Holy Bible, we will discuss the place of music in Patristic texts. For a meaningful musical life, we believe that it is our duty to read and deepen the ideas put forward by the Church Fathers about the way music has to be merged with faith.
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The liturgical tradition of the Slavs is based on the Byzantine religion culture. The paper in his content compares the text of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom in two versions – the contemporary Old Church Salvonic and Greek from the Cod. Graec. Qu. 23 (the Jagiellonian Library) to show the place of Byzantine prayers in modern Byzantine-Slavonic liturgy.
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Dealing with the concept of god in philosophy, theology, kalām etc. is necessary, aside being surprising, since it is among one of the most essential topics of these disciplines. But when it comes to deal with the concept of god in Sociology or when “the concept of god in Sociology” is talked about, it is considered at first glance that the two things which should not be together are used together in a paradoxical way and with a meaningless force. However, if the issue is seen a little more closely, it will be understandable that the situation is not so. Because researching social dimensions of religion or reverse that society’s religious dimensions, Sociology has directly or indirectly been interested with the concept or subject of god; by carrying the subject on further aspects, some sociologists have even argued that society generates a god or gods, the society and God are the same thing, and god or gods are the reflections of society or groups. Thus, in Sociology, especially in the clas-sic “Western Sociology”, society is god (God, god or gods), and god is society or group. In this viewpoint, society deifies or makes itself god. This can also be expressed as follows: God makes Himself society or socializes Himself that is, reflects himself into society. In a sense that God has become so-ciology/sociological, and sociology has become god/divine. In this study, the concept of god in sociology is considered based on the ideas of some socio-logists and some sociological sources at the level of introduction.
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Regardless of gender, when we say ‘work’ we are talking about an activity as old as humanity for both men and women. Work done by the women is also equally senior both at homes such as cooking, cleaning, childcare, and outside work such as gardening and farming. But the concept of ‘working women’ has a history of just two centuries. The main reason is the fact that, in the process of modernization and industrialization, only that part of work which is done outside of home for money is considered to be valuable and only this part is called ‘work.’ Both demand for and supply of women’s work as part of the labor force has increased due to mass production brought about by industrialization as well as the two world wars. Today women working outside of home for earning money are widely accepted in our society, and accordingly, the number of “working” women who work for a certain amount of wages has been rapidly increasing. This increase in the female la-bor force positively contributes to economic development of the countries. However, the reasons for women working outside cannot be reduced only to economic reasons. Women may choose to work outside for other reasons such as increasing the quality of life, self-confidence, personal improvement, socialization, and self-esteem. Although not very common, there is, to a certain degree, some reservations and a negative view of women being in the economic life working outside for a pay. This reservation and negative view are more common in traditional societies and primarily in religious communities. This study investigates the view of men who regard themselves as religious on women working outside for a pay.
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Hacı Bayrâm-ı Velî (Ḥājjī Bayrām Walī) in his time did not remain indifferent to the problems of the society, and in solving the problems he highlighted the purpose of human existence and the search for meaning. Although the concepts in poems he wrote shed light on the needs of his time, it can be said that today’s people continue to be up-to-date in terms of responding to the universal needs and existential quests common to his self. The language and approach used in his poems are designed to address the subjective experiences and meaning processes of each individual. Similarly, he devoted importance to spiritual education and sought the solution of individual and social problems in this way. It can be said that Hacı Bayrâm-ı Velî, in particular, has handled the meaning attributed to the existence of the human being from the perspective of monotheism (tawhid). In this study, which aims to examine existential themes related to spiritual education (irshad) in Hacı Bayrâm-ı Velî’s poems, the main existentialist themes that come to the fore are as fol-lows: The emergence of inner life, awareness of the purpose of existence, spiritual needs, spiritual change and transformation, the idea of unity and harmony with the Creator.
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The proximity of Lwów (today: Lviv), an important centre of scientific life, became the reason why Drohobycz (today: Drohobych) found itself early on within the range of the interests of archaeologists, conservators of historical monuments, and historians of architecture. The regaining of independence by Poland in 1918 created new conditions for the protection of historical monuments. The Uniate church of St. yur in Drohobycz was recognised as an important monument in the Lwów conservation regiom, particularly in view of growing interest in wooden churches regarded as typical architecture in this part of the Second Republic. On 23 March 1934 the church was listed in a register of historical monuments. An essential role in the protection of historical monuments in the Second Republic was played by the Central Office for Art Monument Inventories (CBI), which conducted a planned and systematic inventory campaign across the entire Republic. CBI devised a model of “catalogue cards” containing administrative-historical data and a description of the given historical object for the purpose of recording historical monuments and a planned publication series of a topographic catalogue of art monuments. The cards in question included also one dealing with the church of St. Yur. The description on the catalogue card was based on own-observation familiarity with the object in contrast to earlier used questionnaires. A list of images, i.e. photographic plates and/or prints as well as architectonic-measurement photographs constituted another integral element of the card. The discussed catalogue card of the church of St. Yur is an important and heretofore incompletely exploited source of knowledge about this prominent monument of wooden architecture.
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Etudier une religion revient in fine, à analyser des « représentations (croyances, mythes,dogmes), une organisation (mosquées, églises, confréries, sectes) et des rites (Dumortier, 2002).
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The writer of this text expresses her opposition to the recent decree issued by the Government of the Republic of Serbia on introducing religious instruction into primary and secondary schools. She gives two legal reasons to justify her attitude. According to the national law, the constitutional principle of the separation of the church from the state, which has been in force in the Yugoslav legal order for over half a century and which is explicitly regulated by the existing constitutions of Serbia and Yugoslavia, does not allow the jurisdictions of the church and the state to overlap. This means that the state cannot interfere in religious issues, nor can the church have jurisdiction in exclusively secular matters, such as curricula in the public school system. According to international law governing the right of the child to freedom of religious worship, the teaching of certain religion or belief is considered as incompatible with the right to freedom of religion as stipulated in Article 18 (4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Lastly, there are some non-legal arguments against the introduction of religious instruction in schools. They can be expressed through the notorious fact that every religion is based on dogma, exclusiveness and absolute obedience to authority. Taking all these reasons into account, the writer of this text thinks that instead of religious instruction in public schools there should have been introduced a general history of world religions and religious ethics presented in a neutral, rational and critical way.
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The article shows distinct types of religiosity coexisting in a Parisian catholic parish, as evident in differences in organization of the mass observed between three liturgical animators. The analysis of differences of religious preferences is especially pertinent in case of studies made in parishes, as they are often heterogenous communities due to the arbitrary (and not voluntary) assignment of their members. The analysis proposed in the article draws from Simmel’s theory of religion as well as from the actor-network-theory, in the paradigm of relational sociology, which aims to take into account the specifics of religious phenomena. Therefore, the main task is to represent crucial relation between believers and the spiritual realm. Preferences regarding liturgy are shown as resulting from different ways of conceptualizing relation between the faithful and their God.
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Education is a complex process because of its influence in child’s personalitydevelopment. Above all subjects, Religion is the queen, the spring of all values the students canlearn. Romanian society was separated from every religious act because of communism atheism.During the communism period, it was forbidden to speak about God and Religion within theschool. Beginning from 1990, the things changed and the exuberance of the freedom of language andthought continued, as was normal, with the re-introduction of Religion into school.the icons resumedtheir place in classrooms, the teachers started to transfer the values. Everybody agrees that thissubject influence beyond the classroom. Religion must be seen and treated as a link between schooland family, the values go within the family and change behaviors, attitudes and lives. Manystudent’s families transformed only as a influence of their children’ life changing through orthodoxvalues learned from school, from Religion hour, from Religion’s teachers. A lot of mothers andfathers started to fast because of their children, started to go to church to pray. It was a blooming ofspiritual life. Both the parents and children reinvent their life through Orthodoxy’s values. Thisphenomenon was supported by orthodox literature and by mass media.
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This paper addresses, from an analytical perspective, the conceptof”friendship”, as methodology in Christian education, stemming from the elements of Scripturepresent in the Gospel. Christ uses personal example as a real, tangible, obvious and easy element,meant to challenge and support with arguments behavioural changes through modelling ( after themodel of the one standing in front), , and everyone is invited to appreciate, respect and love oneanother. Jesus Christ is the teacher par excellence, and his methodology implies the cultivation offriendships. From a pragmatic perspective, he sees everybody as friends, regardless of thepotentialities that each might have, of social status or used resources. Love as strong feeling ofaffection, attraction and union between people takes on more hypostases, of which the agape- is theexpression of complete love, devoid of selfishness, with the the capacity to continuously offer, withoutasking for anything else in exchange, it is the model of Christic love; being a love of action, whichimplies unconditional support, compassion for the other, and is consumed as an attitude, aspiritually motivated behaviour and unrestrained in feelings.
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On the foundation of Christian doctrine, Rumanian Orthodox Churchcreated an mainteined a living relationship with the prison environment for the moral and socialrehabilitation of inmates. Continuously adapting, the Church became receptive to the new challengesand sought to take on new responsabilities, including religious and moral counseling and education.The present paper, which is intended to be a guide for the chaplain priest today, exposes an in-depthanalysis of the psycho-spiritual processes involved in delinquent behavior; presents an informativematerial for the most commom psychopathologies specific to this space and proposes psycho-pastoralthechniques with a sanogenic role.The originality of this study is the use of materials specific to classical counseling andpsychotherapy in a pastoral context. Thus, attitudes such as unconditional acceptance, empathy,congruence, collaboration and abilities such as active listening, observation, feedback,summarization, etc. are scriptural justified and constitute the therapeutic reference frame. Christiancounseling and pastoral psychotherapy, with a role in reaffirming God's image in man, areconsistent with the theoretical foundations of two empirically susteined contemporary approaches:cognitive-behavioral theraoy and logotherapy. The common goal of building the relationship betweenpsychology and theology is „the new man"(Ephesians 4, 24), rehabilitated man, transformed bypersonal effort and free choice, both spiritually and cxognitively and behaviorally. The efficiency ofthe chaplain priest in his psycho-pastoral and educational interventions is conditioned by the correctappropriation and implementation of the theoretical elements, but also by the effort directed towardsachieving this change in his own person. The guide does not mean replacing the psychologist's workbut completing.
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Our study examines the recommendations addressed to the women of Ephesusin Paul's first letter to Timothy. For a proper understanding of the circumstances in which theseexhortations were made, a brief description of the cultural, social, economic and religious context ofEphesus was made in the first century AD. Issues related to women's clothing and how they shouldhave been shown in society are addressed. In addition, it analyzes the recommendations that SaintPaul made to women in the city in an attempt to counter extravagance and elitism. Women shouldconsider the work of spreading the gospel and of dealing with the ministers who have been entrustedwith this sacred mission, stating that it excludes the possibility that the analyzed fragment isinterpreted as an argument for men's support for women. It is emphasized the importance ofmaternity, against which the women of Ephesus showed themselves with restraint, being influencedby the heresy of the victims. Salvation is not conditioned by the birth of children, unless salvation isunderstood as a denial of heretical doctrine; therefore, recommendations addressed to womenhighlight aspects of the genuine living experience of the Christian doctrine that they have assumed inthe past, but abandoned it in favor of heresy.
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Ever since the most historic times, the family has been a topical subject,bringing a extraordinary influence in the world. Society with the norms could not ignore this form oforganization called "family". The family is one of the basic elements of society, and even we can evensay that it is the most important link that connects one realm to another. Like any otherinstitution, the family can be threatened. These threats, as we will see in the article, come from boththe outside and the interior. If family is the institution that should work with each institution,whether educational, economic or other, unfortunately it is not possible at all times. We live in asociety where, slowly, but with rapid steps, the abnormal begins to become normal, the illegal tobecome legal. And this great evolution of society represents a real regression of the family institutionor, more precisely, a huge obstacle to the world where the family is the most sacred element. In thispaper I will try to identify these factors that cause the family some contemporary handicaps, and atthe same time we will try to answer a question that is being asked more often in our days, namely:"The family, where?"
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