„Să slujim lui Dumnezeu cu toată mulțumirea!” O analiză din perspectivă social-filantropică a Tainei Sfântului Maslu

Author(s): Ovidiu Soare / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 11/2012

The Sacrament of Holy Unction is the Sacrament of healing our souls and bodies. The fact that this sacrament is present today in our society proves that it fulfills its purpose for which it was ordained, which is the healing. An analysis of social and philanthropic perspective of this Sacrament reveals that our healing comes from God, the Greatest and the Highest, for us not to be healthy in order to fulfill our selfish individual desires, but for a higher purpose, which is to living respecting His commandments, because when we do not, we mocks us, the evil and when we do, we serve God with all thankfulness.

„Słownik polskich teologów katolickich”, t. 9 (1994-2003), red. Józef Mandziuk, Warszawa 2006, ss. 771

Author(s): Józef Mandziuk / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 14-15/2008

„Służ mi i bądź nieskazitelny (…)” (Rdz 17:1) – obrzezanie w Biblii Hebrajskiej jako usunięcie skazy

Author(s): Jakub Pogonowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 45/2019

The purpose of this article is to describe circumcision in the Hebrew Bible as a ritual performed to remove a blemish. The stress has been put on showing the relationship between the literal and metaphorical meaning of circumcision and its theological consequences. The paper includes an analysis of various Hebrew Bible verses pertaining to circumcision and containing related lexemes in various contexts. The analysis shows that the concept of circumcision in the Hebrew Bible presumes that lack thereof – in the literal as well as metaphorical sense – constitutes a blemish, which renders it impossible to fulfil one’s purpose or function.

„Stała pokusa wiary”. Współczesne bałwochwalstwo i jego geneza

Author(s): Janusz Królikowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2017

Looking at some reputedly religious phenomena in today’s world we could openly ask whether these phenomena don’t fall, in certain cases, into a category of a new kind of idolatry which means replacing God with a creature. It is the world of human sensations and experiences that should be especially taken into consideration, sensations and experiences which are often regarded as religious or which, in some cases, undergo the process of absolutisation, whereas this is only a kind of concentration on oneself or on a particular thing. It has been noticed quite accurately, that modern times can be characterised by a shift “from wooden idols to spiritual idols”. Therefore, there is an urgent need for philosophical and theological perspective on this broad sphere of experiences, and for a question whether those experiences create new idols and, by the same token, whether they are idolatrous in character. To answer these questions responsibly and coherently we have to define the origins of idolatry and concurrently find the appropriate criteria which will enable us to evaluate theologically respective phenomena which may appear questionable. This very issue constitutes the subject of this study.

„Stań się ogniem w Ogniu” – Duch Święty i jego działanie w człowieku w świetle pism bł. Marii Celeste Crostarosa (1696-1755)

Author(s): Joanna Pakuza / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2018

“My Spirit, when seated in the righteous soul as on Its own throne, never is silent!” – wrote in her works the Italian nun Maria Celeste Crostarosa, founder of the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer. In her work, she presented a very active vision of the Holy Spirit’s action in the human soul, describing Its power with the help of the element of fire. The article presents the action of the Spirit in the life of the Blessed and the way in which she described it in her spiritual works, among others in her “Autobiography”, “Conversations of the soul with Jesus” and in “Steps of Prayer”.

„Sulle palme ti ho scolpito…” L’uso di Isaia 49,16a nel 2 Baruch 4,2.

Author(s): Jolanta Judyta Pudełko / Language(s): English,Italian / Issue: 61/2/2014

The interpretation of the biblical books started already in the Bible itself, in which one can easily notice the plethora of quotations, allusions to and echoes of other biblical texts. This study analyzes theQUOTATION of Isaiah 49:16a found in the apocryphal Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch. By analyzing the immediate context of this verse in the Book of Isaiah, its form and historical background, the meaning of the text within its original context is reveled. Then a similar analysis applies to the form and the historical context of this verse within its new context, namely in 2 Baruch 4:2. The confrontation yields a significant number of possible interpretations and applications of this Isaianic text within its new context.

„Sutry Jezusa” – pierwsze syntezy chrystologiczne Dalekiego Wschodu

Author(s): Dariusz Klejnowski-Różycki / Language(s): English,Polish,Chinese / Issue: 19/2019

Artykuł prezentuje badania dotyczące zabytkowych „dokumentów nestoriańskich” zwanych „Sutrami Jezusa”, które powstały podczas pierwszej misji Kościoła Wschodu do Chin w VII w. pod przewodnictwem Alopena. Teksty te są syntezą chrystologii oraz elementów teologii chrześcijańskiej istotną z punktu widzenia misji w Chinach. Opisują dogmaty chrześcijańskie za pomocą taoistycznej i buddyjskiej terminologii, filozofii, antropologii, kosmologii i symboliki. Są świadectwem rozwoju Kościoła w Chinach w ciągu trzech wieków za panowania dynastii Tang. „Sutry Jezusa” są odpowiedzią na pytanie: Co i w jaki sposób opowiedział Kościół o Jezusie Chrystusie po raz pierwszy Dalekiemu Wschodowi? Większość omawianych tekstów odkryta została w 1900 r. i jest przedmiotem badań teologów i sinologów głównie japońskich, chińskich i amerykańskich. Jednocześnie badania te zupełnie są nieznane w polskiej myśli teologicznej. Artykuł przedstawia pełną listę tych dokumentów, proponując polską nazwę oraz krótkie ich omówienie jako przyczynek do dalszych badań nad nimi. Wśród „Sutr Jezusa” na szczególną uwagę zasługuje kamienna Stela z Xi’an z wyrytym tekstem doktrynalno-historycznym, istotnym także z punktu widzenia rozwoju doktryny chrześcijańskiej w Chinach. Wnioski podkreślają wagę studiowania teologii nieeuropejskich kodowanych w innych systemach kultury i filozofii oraz pewne możliwości przekazu chrześcijańskiej doktryny także w symbolice innych religii (taoizm, buddyzm) z zachowaniem istoty doktryny chrześcijańskiej.

„Szlachetne milczenie” we wczesnym buddyzmie

Author(s): Krzysztof Kosior / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2016

According to the Pāli Canon scriptures, keeping silent was a daily practice of the monks from the congregation founded and presided over by Buddha. The article refers to the events and situations in which Buddha and his disciples refrain from speaking. In particular, the attention is focused on two ways of cultivating the so-called ‘noble silence.’ The fi rst one is characteristic of monks not speaking while staying in a group, while the second is an element of the concentration which determines the progress in meditation, as well as accomplishment of freedom from suffering.

„Taka otóż chwilka”. Stan duchowy człowieka a jego percepcja rzeczywistości w powieści Bracia Karamazow F. Dostojewskiego

Author(s): Urška Zabukovec / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 29/2011

W powieści Bracia Karamazow można w zależności od stanu duchowego człowieka odróżnić dwie przeciwstawne percepcje rzeczywistości: „percepcję zewnętrzną” oraz „percepcję w ukryciu”. Iwan Karamazow będąc w grzesznym stanie duchowym (pragnie śmierci ojca) za pomocą rzekomo pięknej idei o moralnej sprawiedliwości i zadośćuczynieniu wciąga brata Aloszę w „demoniczną eucharystię” i doprowadza go do buntu przeciwko Bogu. Alosza zapomina o niepojętości Bożej istoty, co powoduje zmianę jego percepcji rzeczywistości. Bohater wciąga Boga w sieć relacji czysto ludzkich, opartych na regule wzajemności i żąda od Niego „dowodów materialnych”. W świecie Dostojewskiego możliwa jest metanoia. Dokonuje się ona niespodziewanie i uwarunkowana jest gotowością otwarcia się człowieka na podarowaną mu łaskę.

„Tam, gdzie podążał Szymanowski, zmierzam i ja”

Author(s): Teresa Malecka / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 11/2013

There has been no greater contrast of personality, biography, worldview, and lifestyle. And yet there is no end to similarities, proximities, even kinship; great was Górecki’s fascination with Szymanowski. First was the score of Beethoven’s Ninth, bought for the money earned by selling a ping-pong racket; but Górecki then spent his first savings on Chopin’s Impromptus and Szymanowski’s Mazurkas. He would recount later: “I still have these scores, and that is how my strange story begins: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Chopin’s Impromptus and Szymanowski’s Mazurkas.”28 Yet apart from Górecki’s fascination with Szymanowski music and oeuvre, there is another link still. Both artists fell in love with Podhale, the Tatra Mountains and the culture of the region; so much that its main spa, Zakopane, became their second home. This went hand in hand with their fascination with the music of Podhale. The focal point for Szymanowski’s impact on Górecki brings together two masterpieces of sacred music: Stabat Mater and Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Stabat Mater is one of Szymanowski’s few religious works; Górecki’s Sorrowful Songs are one of the many sacred works written both before and after the Symphony. Yet they are both instances of the highest artistry, of the apogee in their author’s creative achievements. Outside explicit examples of correlation between the work of Szymanowski and Górecki, there is an analogy between them of a more general nature. Taking into account the historical situation in which the two composers lived and worked, and the meanders of Polish music of the 20th centuries, the stylistic breakthrough that took place both in Szymanowski – before his Stabat Mater – and in Górecki – before his Third Symphony – was of tantamount import to establish their rank and their position in the history of Polish music.

„Taptybė tarsi sala“: Anglijos lietuvių akademinio jaunimo atvejis

Author(s): Rasa Račiūnaitė-Paužuolienė / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 100/2019

This article examines the cultural and religious identity expressed by the Lithuanian academic youth in the prestigious universities of England. Drawing on the theoretical background of the anthropologists E. Gellner and T. H. Eriksen, particular attention is given to the concept of identity. The analysis of cultural and religious identity is based on the ethnographic fieldwork of the author in England and Lithuania in 2017. The study reveals that the identity of Lithuania academic youth in England is like an „island“ hanging between several continents, where they “feel at home everywhere, but at the same time anywhere“. The analysis of the cultural identities of Lithuanian students and graduates in England emphasis a mixture of identities of several strata – city dweler, ethnographic representative, national, European, international citizen. The importance of religious idendity among academic Lithuanian youth in England was made by an empirical survey. In the three groups of prestigious university students and graduates, the vast majority were atheists, Roman Catholics, and agnostics. Some of the answers revealed undefined religious identities.

„Táto ekonomika zabíja“ alebo „Pápež, ktorý nerozumie ekonomike?“

Author(s): Radovan Šoltés / Language(s): Slovak / Issue: 2/2016

The exhortation of Pope Francis Evangelii Gaudium brought many ideas and reflections of the contemporary Church, but also the Western world, which has become characterised by a way of economic thinking and acting, that increasingly clashes with borders of social ethics. Francis´ controversial dictum “this economy kills” (EG 53) questions the discourse of contemporary standards in the economic space. But the criticism of the current capitalist economy by Francis is not solitary in the tradition of the social doctrine of the Church, but builds on the previous encyclicals, which also critically assess style of market economy, that does not respect the dignity of the human person. They do not condemn the market economy in itself, but draw attention to the necessary ethical dimension of economics, namely, to serve man and not vice versa.

„Teologia paruzyjna” jako przełom w eschatologii chrześcijańskiej

Author(s): Łukasz Pondel / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 44/2019

Scholarship does not like rapid changes. The current proposal thus fits into the modeling understanding of theological treatises in an integrated manner. The aim is not to initiate a Copernican revolution, but to attempt an integrated look at eschatology with the help of “parousian theology” (sic!). The proposed focus, after a more detailed development, may lead to a breakthrough in eschatology. The methodology rightly “suggests” that, as in every theological field, the first steps should be towards the foundation of Christian faith, that is, the Word of God. Following this, we should look at the current ways of understanding eschatology, looking for integrating connections. It will be shown that “parousian theology”, by its very definition, allows a bridge to be built between the present and the future, bringing out two paths to light, and at the same time two senses in which such theology may be practised: an eschatological and a Christological sense. For these two paths to combine, it is necessary to examine these senses in “parousian theology” (praesentia and adventus, as two Greek definitions of παρουσία). It is many years since Marie-Joseph Lagrange tried to connect these paths, dividing the eschatic times into two eons. The Lagrange concept allows “parousian theology” to build a bridge between the present and the future and vice versa. Will the idea of “parousian theology” become a Copernican breakthrough in eschatology?

„Tierisches” Eugena Drewermanna. W kierunku teologicznym

Author(s): Zbigniew Kadłubek / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2015

The author’s essay is a collection of several short, seemingly casual reflections which contain more profound themes, giving the reader much food for thought. Starting from a personal wish to explore the question of animality, the author delves into the issues of biopoetics and zootheology, before once more returning to personal reflections, which lead him to the negation of the human and the animal as equal existences under law.

„To jest owczarnia onego Dobrego Pasterza”. Pojęcie „prawdziwego” Kościoła w polskich szesnastowiecznych katechizmach

Author(s): Waldemar Kowalski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2016

The paper focuses on the way in which the authors of Polish Catholic and Evangelical catechisms of the 16th century understood and explained of the idea of the Church. According to the decrees of the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church was presented as the continuator of the teachings of the Apostles, with its power deriving from the authority of the Pope, the successor of Peter, and unity of faith confirmed by miracles. Protestant theologists preach about the visible church, which exists wherever the pure Word of God is preached, and claim that sacraments are administered in accordance with the Gospel. The universal invisible Church exists alongside the visible Church. It connects every person following the Christ, who is the only head of his Church.

„Triadele” Sfântului Grigorie Palama: repere pentru cateheza contemporană

Author(s): Roger Coresciuc / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 2/2014

The challenge of the modern/contemporary catechesis as it is approached by the patristic theology is extremely important: The Triads of Saint Gregory Palamas suggest a vivid theology which cannot go without the hesychast experiences, results of the ascetical life. The unity of the theological knowledge is represented, in fact, by the unity of the hesychast living on its whole. The legitimacy demands of Varlaam, in a field totally alien to his skills, are a pattern for the way the modern catechesis should react with regard to the adaptability requests. The Dionysian concept of `unity` can be seen along the entire defensive Palamite work. The knowledge of God is a unitary act, which moves from multiplicity to unity, not by acquiring multiplicity, but overcoming it in a transcendental way. On a contrary way, Varlaam, the great rival of the Palamite theology, considered the results of the philosophical knowledge to be gleams of the eternal judgments existing within the divine mind. Saint Gregory Palamas verticality and congruency with its simple truths. The demand of establishing any kind of catechesis on answers regarding firstly the scientific primary truth `area` and, then, the truths resulted from the confessional knowledge is a premise which cannot form the base of a real catechetical itinerary.

„Trójka widm w bezokoliczniku”. Spektralne koniugacje Witolda Wirpszy

Author(s): Piotr Bogalecki / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2016

This article presents an interpretation of Witold Wirpsza’s poem ‘Zgryzota i dalekie światło’ [Distress and a Distant Light]. Bogalecki begins with an analysis of the poem’s formulas and procedures in a Deleuzian context. His goal is twofold: first, to deduce Wirpsza’s understanding of the theme of the spectre, which only becomes meaningful through Jacques Derrida’s hauntology and the works of Giorgio Agamben and John D. Caputo. The second goal is to indicate a direction for a post-secular reinterpretation of Wirpsza’s work. His return to the theological or religious tradition can be understood as a deconstruction of the traditional form of religious and metaphysical poetry. The effect turns out to be an affirmative recognition of the language of religion as a spectre that incessantly ‘haunts’ modern, seemingly secularized discourses.

„Tu i tam – zawsze wasz”

Author(s): Janusz Poniewierski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 736/2016

„Tysiąc lat jest jak jedna Noc”. Rozważania Karola Wojtyły o człowieku i jego dziejach z okazji tysiąclecia chrztu Polski

Author(s): Mirosława Ołdakowska-Kuflowa / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2016

In 1966, Karol Wojtyła, the then Archbishop of Cracow, inspired by the Millennium of the Baptism of Poland, wrote a poem entitled Easter Vigil 1966. The poem evokes the profi le of Prince Mieszko I, the Polish ruler who took the decision to accept the Christian baptism. The poem comprises a philosophical and religious meditation making use of poetic language and employing the stylistic means characteristic of poetry. The objective of the meditation is to show the beginning, the meaningfulness, and the goal of the humanity, and to do so based in a specifi c vision of man. The anthropology put forward by the author has Christian roots and manifests marks of a polemic with the materialistic view of the world, the outlook offi cially accepted in Poland in the communist times. In his philosophy of history, Wojtyła clearly refuted the official Marxist doctrine. Today, the problems he addresses in his poem, as well as the ideas and arguments he incorporates, assume a new relevance in the face of the new intellectual fashion for the so-called new humanities, also called performative humanities or non-anthropocentric humanities, which spring from the Marxist tradition and are rooted in historicism.

„Umysł widzący swoje światło” w nauce duchowej Ewagriusza z Pontu

Author(s): Leszek Misiarczyk / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 29/2016

The monk Evagrius of Pontus (345-399 AD) presents in his spiritual doctrine the concept of "pure prayer", that is, prayer not only devoid of any contact with material things but also divorced from any concrete image in the nous (i.e., the mind or intellect). This type of deep prayer becomes a source for the knowledge of God. Upon reaching this state of deep purification, the nous experiences during prayer the light of God and also perceives himself as radiant. Evagrius specifies that the nous sees itself in the color of the sapphire or in sky-blue, or even as a star. Scientists for a long time asked themselves whether, for Evagrius, this light originated within the mind itself, or came from God. It seems that monk of Pontus joins these two lights together, although considering them always as separate. The light of nous itself is but a reflection of the divine light, in the same way that the moon reflects the light of the sun. Even if the nous is not the source of its own light, nevertheless its light is real. In a time of deep spiritual union with God, His light illuminates the human nous and turns it into radiance.