RELACJE PAŃSTWO – KOŚCIÓŁ W REPUBLICE ESTONII

Author(s): Katarzyna Szwed,Justyna Ciechanowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 02/2018

The aim of the publication is to present those constitutional principles in the Republic of Estonia which concern the relation between the state and church. The freedom of religion and conscience was established based on the European civilization as one of the fundamental indications of the freedom of the individual. It is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia. The Constitution of the Republic of Estonia ensures the freedom of confession as well as a formal separation between a state and a church. It emphasizes the secular nature of the state, presented in the doctrine of the religious law as a state which indicates a separation of the religious associations characterized mainly by organizational and functional independence.

Myślistwo i religia. O religioznawczej ocenie praktyk łowieckich w perspektywie animal studies

Author(s): Alina Mitek-Dziemba / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2018

The main aim of the article is to consider the presence and function of religion (in most cases, the Christian religion) in the broadly conceived hunting practices at the turn of the 21st century, as well as the presence of religious motivation and ideological commitment in the hunters’ community from the perspective of religious studies inspired by the empirical research into the human‑animal relationship (known as animal studies). The hunting narrative is shown, on the one hand, as eagerly seeking legitimacy and support from institutional religion (evidenced by the patron saints of hunting, the hunting ceremonial that has close parallels in the church ceremonial, and the argument in favour of “ecological balance” and “nature management” based on theological sources) and, on the other hand, as disguising an unethical and religiously unacceptable element of the arbitrary taking of life and inflicting pain without a shadow of empathy or without respecting the right to existence of what is a vulnerable being, even more so because it is devoid of human tools and rationality. The author’s examination of the issues leads to the discussion of the hunters’ religious mythologizing of their own status which draws on the ancient origin of hunting practices in prehistoric times: a period when the human‑animal relationship was not yet marked by dualistic division and ontological asymmetry. The paper ultimately aims at the analysis of the way hunting is presented in religious studies research, of the difference between the implications of hunting activities for the human‑animal relationship in premodern tribal communities (which practised subsistence hunting) and contemporary industrialized ones, and of the possibility of granting religious subjecthood to animals which stems from the return to the non‑dichotomous, relational and dynamic view of the world typical of hunter‑gatherers’ times.

Od konfliktu do integracji. Historia i teologiczne uzasadnienie metodologicznej odrębności poznania wiary i rozumu

Author(s): Bartłomiej Chyłka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 16/2017

The history of relationship between faith and reason is marked by four models of the interaction between science and theology proposed by Ian G. Barbour: conflict, independence, dialogue and integration. Even if nineteenth-century positivism is still present in many scientists’ minds, philosophy of science eventually managed to overcome it in the 1960s. A mutual distrust between faith and reason started to disappear. In this context Fr. Michał Heller presented a project of a new discipline – the theology of science which would look at the boundaries of the natural sciences from the theological point of view. According to Fr. Wojciech Giertych the adequate model of relationship between faith and reason can be based theologically on Chalcedonian Christology of Jesus’ two natures. Since reason and faith come together unconfusedly and inseparably in a human being, a mutual dialogue and even integration between theology and science is by all means possible.

Sposoby określania relacji między nauką a religią. Część II

Author(s): Ian Barbour / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2016

Pozostawiając tezę o niezależności, w niniejszej części zarysujemy kilka pośrednich powiązań między nauką i religią, uwzględniając pytania graniczne i metody obydwu tych dziedzin. Rozdział czwarty, zatytułowany Integracja, zostanie poświęcony bardziej bezpośrednim związkom uwzględniając okoliczności, w których teorie naukowe wpływają na wierzenia religijne bądź gdy obie dziedziny przyczyniają się do formułowania spójnego obrazu świata lub systemów metafizycznych.

Powstanie człowieka – niektóre kontrowersje

Author(s): Tomasz Maziarka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2017

This article presents some of the controversy about the creation of man. The first part addresses the issue of determining the first representative of the human race. The latter part is devoted to the evolution of Homo Erectus leading to the emergence of Homo Sapiens. Two theories, most extreme in terms of their assumptions, are presented: “Multi-regional hypothesis” and “African Replacement.” Different definitions of species used by naturalists, and their role in the creation of taxonomy and interpretation of bone material, are discussed. The last part is devoted to the controversy surrounding the Neanderthal and its role in the formation of the modern man.

Transitions Online_Society-Faith in Feminism

Author(s): Gorkem Pancaroglu,Adem Emre Topcu / Language(s): English Issue: 02/05/2019

A devout, hijab-wearing Muslim is the co-founder of a website that has become a platform for questioning male-dominated interpretations of Islam.

Fény, kígyó, bárány

Author(s): Katalin Szőcs / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 04/2018

AN INSTANCE OF ESOTERIC IMAGINATION: FRITZ LANG’S METROPOLIS (1927)

Author(s): Roxana Elena Doncu / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2017

A pioneer of the science-fiction genre, Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) has fascinated and puzzled critics and audiences alike. Although the futuristic skyscrapers of Metropolis seem to belong more to the science-fiction tradition, the film is overloaded with symbolic and religious meanings. While the Christian symbolism has been noted and analysed by various reviewers and scholars, its esoteric side has been neglected, maybe as it was often conflated with the religious. However, esotericism is associated with the main idea of the movie, mediation. The esoteric mediates between religion and science, pointing to the birth of modern science from Renaissance Cabbalism, Hermeticism and Neoplatonism.

A COMPARISON OF MODERN SCIENCE WITH VEDIC SCIENCE

Author(s): Subhendu DAS / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

THIS IS A REVIEW OF MULTI-DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH ARTICLES ON THE TITLE SUBJECT; PUBLISHED IN VARIOUS PEER REVIEWED JOURNALS; PROFESSIONAL CONFERENCES; AND SCIENTIFIC BOOKS; INCLUDING THE BOOKS OF RELIGIONS. (A) THERE WAS A TIME WHEN VEDAS WERE KNOWN ALL OVER THE WORLD. YOU CAN SEE THE INFLUENCES OF VEDAS IN THE BOOKS OF ALL MODERN RELIGIONS. FOR EXAMPLE; YOGA AND YOGIC POWERS ARE DESCRIBED IN BIBLE AND ALSO IN THE BOOKS OF JUDAISM. THERE ARE MANY HIGH LEVEL MODERN YOGIS ALL OVER THE WORLD WITH MAGICAL POWERS. SAINT JOSEPH OF CUPERTINO HAS DEMONSTRATED LEVITATION; DEFYING GRAVITY; AND HIS CASE IS MOST WELL DOCUMENTED IN THE WESTERN WORLD. YOGIC POWERS SHOW US THAT YOU CAN DISCOVER THE TRUTH; ONLY BY OBSERVING THE NATURE; JUST LIKE GALILEO DID. (B) UNFORTUNATELY; MODERN SCIENCE HAS ABANDONED THE APPROACH OF OBSERVING THE NATURE; AND HAS GONE ON A TRACK DEFINED BY HYPOTHESIS; ASSUMPTIONS; EXPERIMENTATIONS ETC.; TO DISCOVER THE TRUTH. AS A RESULT WE CAN SHOW THAT THE MODERN SCIENCE LACKS THE TRUTH. WE DO NOT KNOW EVEN GRAVITY CORRECTLY. WE DO NOT KNOW WHY PLACEBO MEDICINE WORKS. (C) WE SEE THAT VEDIC SCIENCE GIVES US A VERY MEANINGFUL AND UNIVERSAL DEFINITION OF TRUTH. WHEREAS THE MODERN SCIENCE LACKS ANY SUCH DEFINITION; CAUSING A MAJOR CONFUSION IN RESEARCH ACTIVITIES. (D) THE VEDIC SCIENCE ALSO HAS ANOTHER VERY CRUCIAL DIFFERENCE – IT HAS OBSERVED TWO TYPES OF CAUSES: (I) EFFICIENT CAUSE AND (II) MATERIAL CAUSE; BEHIND EVERY PHENOMENON. ON THE OTHER HAND MODERN SCIENCE CONSIDERS ONLY THE MATERIAL CAUSE. THIS IS WHY VEDIC SCIENCE IS VALID FOR THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE AND FOR ALL TIME; PAST; PRESENT; AND FUTURE. WE WILL ILLUSTRATE ALL RESULTS OF VEDIC SCIENCE WITH OBSERVATIONS IN NATURE. SUCH EXAMPLES WILL BE BEYOND COMPREHENSION OF MODERN SCIENCE. (E) THIS RESEARCH WILL SHOW THAT THERE IS A HEAVEN AND HELL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN ENGINEERING. MODERN SCIENCE THEREFORE IS NOT AND CANNOT BE THE FOUNDATION OF MODERN ENGINEERING

Ontološka analiza slobodne volje u duhovnoj tradiciji islama

Author(s): Tehran Halilović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2018

Although we intuitively feel that we have the freedom to choose what we want to do and what we do not, in the philosophical explanation of various events and realities there is a recurring suspicion that we are not really as free as we think. God’s omniscience and His absolute power are established facts which some Muslims have failed to reconcile with the aforementioned sense of free will. On the opposite side of the spectrum there have been Muslim thinkers who, for the sake of preserving man’s freedom and of the survival of man’s responsibility, have advocated the idea that man’s voluntary actions are exempt from God’s absolute attributes. The Islamic philosophers and the representatives of doctrinal gnosis in Islam reject both of the preceding opinions and express a moderate view according to which the divine attributes do not impinge on man’s free will. In the opinion of Islamic philosophers, man’s sense of free will is equal to immediate understanding of one’s own truth and therefore cannot be wrong. In order to establish this conviction demonstratively, Mulla Sadra Shirazi presented the ontological position of a copulative being that signifies a state of complete dependence on the independent source of being, which is God. According to Mulla Sadra, people and all other God’s creatures are completely dependent on the divine being in the sense that without the being provided to them by God they do not possess independently even their own essence. On the basis of this complete ontological dependence, free will as God’s gift to man can also be, genuinely, attributed to man. In fact, the freedom of man’s will is just as real and genuine as man’s being itself, which is also given to him by God.

Duchowość i podmiotowość w cyberprzestrzeni

Author(s): Mariusz Wojewoda / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2018

The author of the article analyses the problem of spirituality and subjectivity in the context of the issue of interpersonal communication in the cyberspace. Spirituality is deeply connected with the concept of soul and spirit, and it is usually associated with the religious image of the world, but it is possible to express the problem of spirituality in a broad anthropological and cultural context. In the modern concept of a human being, one usually resigns from using the term “soul”, but treats seriously problems that concern a spiritual man, such as the consciousness and activity of the subject, and individual identity. The author of the article postulates a return to the interest in the issues of spirituality in the context of a reasonable use of technological tools, and to the defence of one’s own authenticity of experiences and agency in relation to the contemporary activities in the cyber world.

Číselná symbolika 153 rýb u sv. Augustína

Author(s): Peter Olexák / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 2/2017

This study analyzes Augustine’s interpretation of the number 153, found in John 21,11. Despite Augustine’s condemnation of those mathematicians who calculated a person’s destiny out of his or her birthday and name, we have to bear in mind the critical passage Gen. ad litteram 2, 17, 37. He immersed himself into the study of figures and numbers in the Bible, and their allegoric interpretation was part of his exegesis. In this we may be able to see not only a proof of his neo-platonian education, which comprised geometry and arithmetics, but also his inclination towards exact science. This paper is an attempt to compile and understand the texts of Augustine in which he interprets the Johannine number 153.

Słowo wstępne

Author(s): Sławomir Nowosad / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2018

Osoba – dusza – mózg. Co gwarantuje status ontologiczny człowieka

Author(s): Michał Oleksowicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2018

The concept of man’s ontological status, which is being hotly debated in current discussions on the relationship between the mind and the body, has its roots in European thought. This article indicates where answers to the question of the man’s ontological status in the context of the current cultural mind-body debate can be found. Since the history of the mind-body debate is long and extremely rich, the following anthropological terms that were defined in Western antiquity will serve as a backdrop for the reflections presented below: 1) the soul as the material part of the human body, which is the starting point for later reductionist views; 2) the soul as an immaterial and immortal reality imprisoned in the human body, which gives rise to dualistic definitions of man; and 3) Aristotle’s approach, which describes man in terms of matter (ὕλη) and form (μορφὴ), where the soul is neither reduced to the material parts of the body nor treated as a separate substance present in the body. A response to the question regarding man’s ontological status will be formulated in light of the theoretical similarities between Aristotelian and Thomistic philosophies and the natural sciences, especially current physical theories (quantum field theory, QFT) and different kinds of research on the human brain (brain neural field studies).

Pán prsteňov ezotericko-teologický

Author(s): Róbert Sarka / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 1/2014

This essay follows the traces of esotericism in the Tolkien´s major work, The Lord of the Rings. As a Catholic author, he uses the elements of magic and esotericism temperately to avoid their promotion. Tolkien could manage the harmony between fantasy and Christian ideas. In the background of the work we can see that the author is literate mainly in medieval ideas about esoteric world, however his Christian position does not change. The dramatic end of the black wizard Saruman and the black Lord Sauron are a suffi cient warning against magic.

KOPP, B. Scheldon. Triffst du Buddha unterwegs... Psychoteraphie und Selbsterfahrung. Fischer : Frankfurt 2012, 224 s.

Author(s): Gabriela Kolšovská / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 1/2014

KOPP, B. Scheldon. Triffst du Buddha unterwegs... Psychoteraphie und Selbsterfahrung. Fischer : Frankfurt 2012, 224 s.

Quod scripsi, scripsi

Author(s): Vladimír Juhás / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 2/2014

Words cannot express everything. When limited by the resources of language in our research, we begin to use gestures, colors, or sounds. We have the tendency to attempt using all our senses in order to find the right channel for expressing ourselves. A theologian should be a man of such complexity, making recourse to all the senses in his theological endeavors. He cannot remain content with his ability to understand, but must be able to see, hear, and feel. This essay, inspired by the work “Poetic Dogmatic” by the German theologian Alex Stock, intends to demonstrate such shift from the competence to understand to the ability to see and feel. The German theologian strives to combine intellect with emotion. His methodology is adopted in this article which reflects on the inscription on Jesus’ cross Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum.

SCHMITT, Carl. Politická theologie. Štyři kapitoly k učení o suverenitě. OIKOYMENH : Praha 2012

Author(s): Peter Olexák / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 1/2013

SCHMITT, Carl. Politická theologie. Štyři kapitoly k učení o suverenitě. OIKOYMENH : Praha 2012

Ježišova telesnosť v Jánovom evanjeliu

Author(s): Juraj Feník / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 1/2019

This essay focuses on the theme of Jesus’ corporality in the Fourth Gospel. While Johannine studies rightly tend to underline the various ways in which John communicates Jesus’ divinity and union with the Father, this gospel is also filled with texts that stress Jesus’ humanity. From the prologue to the resurrection scenes Jesus periodically appears not only as fully human, but also as fully bodily. The introductory part of the article traces some of the occurrences of the motif of Jesus’ humanity/corporality. In the attempt to point up their significance and function, the two main parts then identify the texts which describe Jesus’ body parts and his physical postures. The essay notes John’s particular interest in drawing attention to Jesus’ body parts and postures, a feature that contributes to John’s being „a maverick Gospel“ that continues to fascinate its readers. As the Son of God in constant communion with the Father, Jesus, as portrayed in John, emerges as a fully human and bodily person.

The Church and Politics. Research on Polish National Security

Author(s): Cezary Smuniewski / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2017

The article deals with the issue of the relationship between the Church and politics, honing in on specific elements of Polish thinking concerning the security of the Polish nation, namely the contribution of Christian thought, the Church’s concern for independence and the sovereignty of Poland. In Poland, attempts to ring-fence the spheres of religion and politics, on the grounds of being at opposite poles, prove a threat to national security. The Church from the beginning of the Polish state has participated in the processes of creating national security, especially in the ideological aspect, by shaping national identity, patriotic attitudes, promoting national history and systematic encouragement to engage for the common good.