Немският хуманист Николай Кузански, идеята за християно-мюсюлманско помирение и събитията в България през 1454 г.

Author(s): Vasil Gyuzelev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 13/2010

This article gives information about one of the three figures of intellectuals that surpassed the ideas of their time from the book "Three champions for Christian-Muslim unity". In 15th century Nicholas of Cusa found similarities between the Holy Bible and the Koran. He accomplished that in time when Byzantium was wiped from the world map from the hordes of the rising Ottoman empire and shortly after the fall of Byzantium, Bulgaria too fell under Ottoman rule.

Kazania filozofa

Author(s): Zbigniew Wolak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2016

Kazania ks. prof. Michała Hellera są doskonałym przykładem łączenia kompetencji w naukach teologicznych i przyrodniczych z pasją nauczania wiary i dawania jej świadectwa. W swoim artykule przedstawiłem wybrane zagadnienia, które ujawniają nowatorstwo jego kaznodziejstwa i pozwalają poznać jego kompetencje zarówno w tych dziedzinach, których znajomość jest koniecznym warunkiem przemawiania w kościele, jak i w tych, które znają nieliczni kaznodzieje. W artykule zamieściłem także kilka własnych refleksji dotyczących teologii, języka, filozofii, nauk empirycznych. Refleksje te, nawiązujące do omawianych kazań, są wynikiem moich własnych przemyśleń, do których sam autor zachęcał czytelników. Natomiast celem artykułu jest wykazanie, że Michał Heller jest uczonym, który również na polu duszpasterskim ma wiele ważnych i ciekawych rzeczy do powiedzenia. Sermons by Father Michael Heller are perfect example of combining competence in theological and natural sciences with a passion for teaching the faith and to bearing witness to it. In this article I present selected topics that reveal the novelty of his preaching and allow us to get to know his expertise in both these areas: the knowledge which is a necessary condition to speak in the church, and sciences which know only a few preachers. The article also contains some of my own ideas on theology, language, philosophy, empirical science. My reflections referring to these sermons, are the result of my own thoughts, to which the author himself urged readers. The aim of this article is to show that Michael Heller is a scientist who in the pastoral field has many important and interesting things to say.

Градината с дървото, което се разклонява: Вавилонски отклонения на Ирена Кръстева

Author(s): Vladimir Sabourin / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2018

Нравствено-етичното и религиозното в съвременната педагогическа наука

Author(s): Luchyan Milkov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2016

Pedagogical science is the science of man, his eternal and constant striving for improvement and self-knowledge. Its foundations were laid in a classical Greek era, in ancient Greece, through the work and writings of many Greek philosophers, among those stand Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

„Ritual“ als epistemologisches Problem der (prähistorischen) Archäologie. Religionswissenschaftliche und erkenntnistheoretische Anmerkungen zum Problem urzeitlicher Religionen

Author(s): Alexander Rubel / Language(s): Romanian,German Issue: 1/2009

„Ritual” as an epistemological problem of (prehistoric) archeology. Religious studies and epistemological notes on the problem of prehistoric religions

Symbolic Functions of Salt and Related Similes in Oriental Curses and Blessings

Author(s): Iulian Moga / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2009

Salt has a polymorphic symbolic functionality that recommends it as one of the most impressive and effective symbols ever. Like many other basic symbols of a remote origin, its perception was ambivalent. Most of its symbolic functions derive from its practical features. It has been valued both for its corrosive and therefore destructive nature, and for its antiseptic and preservative qualities. And this is why its imagery was all the time positive as well as negative within the same type of cultural environment. For example, it was Elisha who cured the waters that made the land infertile with salt, while in other contexts in the Jewish or Mesopotamian cultural milieux, the salt waters possess negative connotations. In the epic of Enuma Elish, Tiamat, who was a personification of the salt waters, was threatening with the destruction of the newly begotten world and the gods until she was eventually slain by the god Marduk who split her body into two parts, subsequently creating heaven and earth.

Observații antropologice în legătură cu complexul monahal de la Dumbrăveni, jud. Constanța

Author(s): Costel Chiriac,Angela Simalcsik / Language(s): English,Romanian Issue: 1/2017

The authors present their historical and anthropological observations concerning bone fragments belonging to a person buried in the 4th century AD in the monastical rupestral complex in Dumbraveni, Constanta county, in Dobruja (4th-6th century AD). It is believed that this person, buried inside the rupestral monastery is marked from an anthropological point of view by his natural and social environment. There are obvious resemblances with the burial rituals practiced in the Judaic desert.

LAUDÁCIÓ - DR. BODÓ SÁRA EGYETEMI TANÁR KÖSZÖNTÉSE

Author(s): János Molnár / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2019

Abban a megtiszteltetésben részesültem, hogy én a 60 év feletti a Tanári Kar nevében köszöntselek Téged a 60 évest. Ritkán éri az embert ilyen megtiszteltetés, mert ritka az az alkalom, vagy inkább egyszeri és egyedi, hogy Dr. Bodó Sára kolleganőnk 60 éves legyen. De mit is jelent ez? Én mint biblikus 1Mózes 6,4. alapján már többször megfo¬galmaztam, elmondtam és le is írtam, hogy a 60 év az ember életében az első félidő végét jelenti és ugyanakkor a második félidő kezdetét. Kedves Sára ezek szerint Te most az első félidő végén és a második félidő kezdetén vagy.

KÖZÖSSÉG ÉS EGYÉN A VÁLTOZÁS KIHÍVÁSAIBAN BEHATÁROLT IDŐUTAZÁS REFORMÁTUS LELKÜLETTEL

Author(s): Miklós Kocsev / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2019

The paper aims to touch upon practical theological issues which refer to a particular country, era, and theological area, namely, to the practical theology pursued at the theological institutions and universities of the Dutch Protestant Church in the second part of the 20th century. The study aims to shed light on practical theologians such as K. A. Schippers (ThUK) and J. Hendriks (VU Amsterdam) who have been and remain integral in their own time and in their respective field of expertise. Moreover, the study also focusses on the most famous Dutch sociologist, G. Dekker (VU-Amsterdam).We also seek to highlight those aspects from the work of these authors which should necessarily be implemented into the practical theological curriculum of the Hungarian-language reformed universities and thereby we would like to link this contribution to the significant practical theological oeuvre of Dr. Sára Bodó.

DIE KONTEXTUELLE THEORIE UND IHRE RELEVANZ FÜR DIE SEELSORGE AN MENSCHEN MIT EINER BLEIBENDEN BEHINDERUNG

Author(s): Jenő Kiss / Language(s): German Issue: 1/2019

The purpose of this study is to present the contextual approach within spiritual care, as well as to show how important it is concerning a person’s life and relationships, with a special outlook towards those with permanent disabilities. To this end, it sketches the history of the formation of contextual therapy and spiritual care and describes its interpretation of human reality (I). Further, it presents the most elementary features of created human existence (theological anthropology). Based on the Creation Story and Karl Barth’s doctrine concerning creation, it draws attention upon the fact that the human being is basically an entity defined by relationships (node–existence), whose humanity is manifested through his/her responsibility towards people belonging to him/her and towards the human world (II.). This evinced image of the human being shows that he/she considers the existential needs and opportunities as representing the most basic elements of human life (basic structure of human life), whereas taking and giving are considered to be the elementary human manifestations. It states that the dynamic balance of giving and taking permits the unfolding of life and relationships, whilst the imbalance (a significant and lasting dominance of either giving, or of acceptance) causes stagnation and spiritual (as well as physical) illness. Contextual spiritual care can help regaining the long-lost balance, as it aims to dissolve the degrading and sickening relationship of subject–object (‘I–that’) by replacing it with the original relationship of subject–subject (‘I–you’), deriving from our created condition (III). The latter does allow particularly vulnerable (permanently disabled) people, who, due to their condition can give less, and are more dependent on others, to experience their own reliability and unique significance (IV.)

ELCSERÉLT NARRATÍVÁK – GONDOLATOK A SZÉGYENRŐL A GEN 1–3 ALAPJÁN –

Author(s): Anita Barnóczki / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2019

As humans, we can narrate ourselves in many ways. Our narratives and narrative identities are complex, they are developed, formed, and influenced by many factors. Shame is one of the determinants of the development of our narratives, which indicates the limitations and boundaries of the individual, keeping the individual within these and ultimately, as a positive effect, awakening a desire for God. However, shame can become a determinant of the narrative: changing the questions of “what is happening” to those of “whose fault is it” traps us and keeps us captive. Based on Gen 1–3, we can understand what our creational basic narrative could be, which is briefly that we are good creatures of God in a world created good, we have limited freedom, but great dignity, and a task as well. For the created man and woman, there was no shame; it appeared with sin; and from the details of the story of the temptation and the Fall, we can understand much of the mechanisms of changing the original narrative into the shame-narrative, and the functioning of the reactions given to it. One’s self-reflection gets alienated from revelation, then splits, falls into pieces, and the prevailing shame forces us to hide and to create obscure narratives. The use of the concept of shame in the Old Testament is sometimes linked to the moment of mourning, from which it can be understood how the public act, the manifest and lived, limited, fragmented, and weak state can resolve the self-destructive state maintained by hiding. True resolution can be brought about by the birth of a new narrative arising from the Trinity: in the cross, through Christ taking common cause with us in the deepest loneliness of shame and pain, God can become our Father. The Father sees us as children, in whom God is delighted through Christ. And the Holy Spirit can give light and strength in this, praying in a way we are unable to do, so that the statement “I am a Christian” may become a narrative mode, taking on the duality of the “already” and “not yet” state.

TRINITÁRIUS ÉS INKARNÁCIÓS KOORDINÁTÁK KÖZÉ HUZALOZOTT PARADOX MODELL A KONTEXTUÁLIS LELKIGONDOZÁSBAN

Author(s): Levente Horváth / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2019

The Fall is manifestly the distortion of the imitatio Dei. It demands the safeguard of “the move from above towards below”, the paradoxical kenosis orientation of the divine incarnation and impulse, which proves to be the total, diametrical opposite of the absurd striving of the obscene human hubris in its aggressive and ego-centric “move from below towards above”. This requires a radicalism that is not just an attempt to formulate ethics but, specifically, to create a specific area of counselling, namely, contextual counselling. Similarly, in a truly theological ethic, God must not be merely considered, but manifest as the Foundation and Alpha of any contextual counselling. This statement immediately imposes upon us and forces us into a new perspective: that we can no longer talk about God but, from now on, only talk to God. This must be the non-possessive default mode of true theological discourse in opposition to classical objectifying expressions.What are the staggering implications of this? If the counsellor does not begin a client’s session by talking to God in a direct way, or ceases to talk to God, then it becomes impossible to talk to the client as well. Moreover, in ceasing to talk to God and the client, one ends up merely addressing a vague monologue to oneself in a devouring way with the Self alone, and as such, is essentially not talking at all anymore, not even to oneself. Emptying the theological logos of the personal aspect of the relational koinonia with God severs the core concepts and teachings of Christianity from their context and from their participatory character. Fellowship in the Body of Christ demands participation in the fellowship and participation (perichoresis) of the Persons of the Trinity as much or more than in each other’s mission, commission, and existence.Professor Dr. Sára Bodó has inspired me (especially concerning grief and exploring different approaches to counselling in the very specific context of comforting people who have lost a loved one) to try to examine a wider context and perspective in seeking a model from the counsellor’s point of view. This leads to a conviction that contextual therapy and theological commitment discover that nothing can be closer to a genuine approach than the a priori approach of the contextual per se in tackling the human condition. The “Trinitarian Family” model has to be at the forefront of our investigation, while the incarnational model makes relevant the filial aspect of the Sonship of the Son, pointing toward and including our filial relation toward the same Father, as a result of the adoption of mankind into a sonship state and into the family of God. This is qualitatively far greater than simply regarding people as sinners. This adoption as described by systematic theology was achieved through and by the ascension of the Son into heaven and his sitting at the right hand of the Father. In the works of Iván Böszörményi-Nagy, the founder of so-called contextual family therapy, the emphasis falls on what he developed and called multi-directed partiality. This concept can be understood as the main methodological principle of contextual therapy as such. In this study, I have tried to point to the Trinitarian model through which we can understand family relationships on the basis of the Trinitarian and incarnational model. The self-differentiations from each other of the three Persons in the Godhead are also a calling for a multi-directed partiality in an approach to human personhood within the family context. The dialogical means of affirming and differentiating the relationships within the Trinity can be applied to evoke a dialogue of responsible mutual position-taking among family members. In our case of counselling responsibility, this consists of a sequential turning towards member after member (even absent members), in which both acknowledgement and expectation are directed at them. This is definitely an alternative to the more common “neutrality” or unilateral partiality of other approaches. In the traditional theological handling of the Trinity, and of the incarnational and salvific work of the Son, I have traced this same unilateral partiality with a concern to avoid the pitfalls of those conceptually valid, yet relationally void notions, and even dogmatic frameworks, which are construing the human condition in less relational terms, i.e., in the understanding of the divine imago Dei. The Trinity and the descending move from above of the Son’s incarnation need to treat each Person from the point of view of each: the relational standing of each is giving their real meaning and significance as divine Persons in their unique and common contexts. Thus, each Person is serving also as a genuine context for the others, and even for us, as we find ourselves grafted into the relational life of the Trinity by staggering grace. This is no more and no less than recognizing perichoresis as the foundation of genuine human community (the countercultural position and mission of the Church), against Western worldviews and the narrative of an individualistic society as a whole.

EGY HOSSZÚTÁVÚ KÜLDETÉS: A HÁRMAS KÖTÉL CSALÁDKÖZPONT BEMUTATÁSA

Author(s): Tünde Pál / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2019

Based on the experience of the marriage preparation programme of the Unitarian Church in Sfântu Gheorghe, we have created the Hármaskötél Családközpont (Three Ropes Family Centre), which is trying to answer the challenges of the transformation of marriage and religion through its programmes and groups. We are convinced that family is the most appropriate institution for transmitting the values and building up society. On this basis, our aim was to create a new service model, which is capable of strengthening families and transmitting the family spirituality. However, we assume that being connected to the families is also an active missionary activity, the active manifestation of religiosity, in which the missionary strength consists of paying attention, empathy, help, namely the service.The essay deals with the social phenomenon defining the need for founding the Hármaskötél Családközpont (Three Ropes Family Centre) and the practical questions concerning the organisation of its groups.

NÉHÁNY LELKIGONDOZÓI SZEMPONT A TÜRELEM FOGALMI MEGKÖZELÍTÉSÉHEZ

Author(s): Szilárd Sándor / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2019

Toleration has many concepts. One of these concepts can be one of pastoral care. Why do we need this? You find an answer in “Some pastoral aspects about approach of toleration’s concept”. In pastoral care, we have to be open for different concepts even about toleration, because there are several different life stories and cases. This essay also includes my personal view for toleration that could be used in dialogs and meetings. For being able to dedicate this personal view, I am using the four-dimensional model about relations of humankind, of people, and of concepts. This approach is a challenge and at the same time – according to my experience – it is a helpful possibility. Challenge: how to be authentic and how to use the concept of toleration authentically and recognizing its colourful and multi-directional meaning? Possibility: because it gives chances for responsible and at the same time for a free “common ground” (what can be named after Buber “the place between” people who have met). The purpose of dialog looks forward to help finding own spiritual sources. The purpose of pastoral care is to lead the seeker to his or her sources. This common ground is where the dialog and meetings can happen between the helper and the helped. From this point of view, pastoral care is about being authentic with ourselves (who would live in pastoral care) with who is asking our help and of course with God. The model of contextual pastoral care has four dimensions. These dimensions are: facts, psychology, transactions, and relational ethics. The frames or aspects and of approach for toleration’s concept can be read from its four dimensions. I learned about these four dimensions in a contextual treatment studying and experiencing the challenges and the possibilities, too. In this approach the helper has to learn about facts of whom he or she is helping in order to know something about the concept of his or her toleration. These facts are biological and all that is related to his or her life. According to facts’ dimension, the question is what and how much help one received and gave in his relations in her or his own family. The question topic is: what does toleration mean in her or his life and how he or she deals in his or her gain – lose games? The second dimension searches the trust experiences in his or her life. This is related with the “temporary object”. Experiences of rewards, pains, disappointments in expectations of her or his life are some aspects that can help in approaching the concept of toleration with who we talk. These aspects are about the life’s experience sources. The third dimension searches for the concept of toleration in family and his or her relations of everyday life. The concept of toleration can be touched on the fields of relation of “I” and between family members and the world near him or her. Finally the fourth dimension of aspect in contextual approaching is the relational ethics. It is important to look after possibilities and after needs in the order to do in a correct way the giving and receiving. This balance of relationships is used by Böszörményi-Nagy Iván, whose name is related to contextual approach and therapy.

A ZENE HATÁSA AZ ÉRTELMI ÉS AZ ÉRZELMI INTELLIGENCIÁRA

Author(s): Lajos Király / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2019

This study analyses the effect of music on aesthetic and emotional intelligence. Since creativity also means healing creation at the same time that implies digging deeper and transcendence as well, we would like to talk about the therapeutic effects of music with an intercommunication outlook. Some state that musicality is inborn and coded into our genes, which we call talent that can be further developed and transferred to the following generation. According to others, musicality and the ability to play and sing is not merely a matter of genetics but also the social and cultural background the individual grew up in is very important. We shall see that there are cultures in which music is the sole instrument with which the individual can adapt into the respective culture. Many deem that music is the “peak of human intellect and emotionality”, and that is why many studies were published in the second half of the 20th century about its effects on intellectual and emotional development. In what follows, we shall also talk about the debated Mozart effect, the biological basis of music and the stimulation of logical thinking. By music, the help, the counselor, the attender, the priest have a tool with which they can positively influence cognition, the expression of feelings, the development of creativity, whilst „the effects of the expansive transfer prevails through the intellectual, emotional and motivational changes”. But for all that, we must be familiar with the effects of music on intellectual and emotional intelligence.

A VILÁGKÉP ÉS A VILÁGSZEMLÉLET MEGKÜLÖNBÖZTETÉSE A VALLÁSPEDAGÓGIÁBAN

Author(s): Dávid Németh / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2019

In the field of practical theology from a Christian pedagogical perspective we have to make a clear distinction between world picture (describing empirical reality) and worldview (determining personal affection to the first one). While the science based world picture tends to be as objective representation of our actual world as is could be, the worldview is hermeneutical system based upon principles, ideas and values. In most cases, mixing up these two notions cause tensions between faith and natural science. In order to clarify some points of differentiation and also reference to each other, this study investigates the two notions in the context of religious education.

EGYHÁZI-VILÁGI HATALMI HARC ZSARNAY LAJOS SZEMÉVEL

Author(s): Marianna Misák Bátoriné / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2019

The situation of the Protestant churches was quite difficult in the 18th century, because of the counter-reformation. This was the reason why they were not able to avoid the introduction of laymen in their everyday lives. After the diet of 1791, which partially allowed the churches to fulfil their legally granted rights, this practice caused conflicts between the laymen and clerics. The principal place of these debates was in the Transtibiscian region. The situation of the Cistibiscian Church District was quite different. Because of its unique conditions, it required the involvement of the laymen in the church-governance. Our work focuses on the question of how did Lajos Zsarnay – as the professor of the Reformed College of Sárospatak, later the chief-clerk, after that the bishop of the Church District – consider these conflicts. The conclusion of our work is that in the Cistibiscian Church District there were no such debates before, during and after the service of Zsarnay. In contrary, he always considered the cooperation of the clerics and laymen as a positive phenomenon.

A KATAKOMBAFESTMÉNYEK MINT „VIZUÁLIS PRÉDIKÁCIÓK” ÉRTELMEZÉSE

Author(s): Olga Lukács / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2019

Several viewpoints took shape about the pictures and icons during the history of Christianity. The image representations have been subject to debate not only among religions but among the various Christian approaches, too. This debate flamed up quite strongly in different times in history.The study aims to determine the extent to which the icons and representations are rooted in Christian tradition. The study points out that early Christian art did not appear and develop in a void. It was the outward manifestation of a new spirituality as well as the result of a development process that occurred when the local cultures of the ancient world got in contact with each other.It is essential to point out that in icon painting as well as in the paintings in the catacombs the message of the icons was also perfectly grasped by those who did not study painting or were not very skillful painters, but still observed the iconographic traditions while those who the painting were addressed to accepted them. One can assess Early Christian art by the very few frescos remaining in the catacombs in Rome.They used pagan symbols as well as some themes of Greek and Roman mythology in order to convey the teachings of the church. They also used the ancient forms of art, loading them with a new content subsequently altering the respective forms as well. The art of the catacombs was actually dogmatic art since the theme depicted on the frescos mostly followed the texts of the scripture. Furthermore, the symbolic language had a paramount importance. The works of art created in the first centuries can also be considered as “visual sermons” that helped them explain God verbally and drive them to God.

HOGYAN KERÜLTEK KALOTASZEGI VARROTTASOK A KIRÁLYLÁNY KELENGYÉJÉBE?

Author(s): Sarolta Püsök / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2019

The study has three major units:A) Protestantism and social engagement. In the Hungarian Protestantism it is common and a tradition to be socially engaged. One can’t be indifferent in the case of social issues, but has to declare God’s glory in the world through having a responsible approach to their community in social, economic and cultural respects.B) The culture-historical role of pastor’s families. The walls of a manse are made of glass – as the Hungarian saying says the life of the pastor and their family has always been interesting to the outer world. After the period of illuminism, but more in the 19th century the residents of the manse consciously assumed the role of being an example. They readily undertook the duty of social organisation, the one of spreading culture, and educating the people.C) The exemplary voluntary work of Gyarmathy Zsigáné. The lady presented in the study was born in the middle of the 19th century as a pastor’s daughter, with her husband they have coordinated and made a considerable contribution to the cultural, social life of Călata (Kalotaszeg) region in Transylvania. She took the beautiful handmade embroideries sewed by the countrywomen to world fairs, and promoted this kind of traditional craft through her assiduous publicistic work. She formed friendships with painters, ethnographers, fashion designers, won the support of noble women from around Europe, using her network she popularized the embroideries, so they reached America, queens in European royal courts, Parisian, Viennese salons. With her writings she aided the picturesque but dismally poor region with waking demand for the embroideries, so opening the door to home-industry, which was almost life-saver for the country-folk. This helped not only to lessen the economic hardship, but also to save the values of folk art from sinking into oblivion, this way the techniques and the pristine patterns have been passed on to the coming generations and they can still be admired as a decoration of many reformed churches in Călata region (Kalotaszeg).

KÖNYVISMERTETÉS - PÜSÖK SAROLTA: AZ ÍRÁS VONZÁSÁBAN (BIBLIKAI TANULMÁNYOK) PRESA UNIVERSITARĂ CLUJEANĂ KIADÓ, CLUJ-NAPOCA, 2017. 232 OLDAL. ISBN: 978-66-37-194-8.

Author(s): Olga Lukács / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2019

A szerzőtől megszokott igényességgel, magas szakmai tudással ajándékozza meg ez újabb kötetével ingyen, e-book formában az olvasót. Ha a Püsök Sarolta tudományos teológiai profilját nézzük, alapvetően a rendszeres teológia területével foglalkozik, így e bemutatásra kerülő kötet rendhagyónak bizonyul. Az előszóban ő maga fogalmazza meg, hogy miért tartja ezt a kötete fontosnak: „...szükségszerű is a biblika teológiai kitekintés, hiszen becstelen volna az a rendszeres teológiai vizsgálódás, amely függetleníti magát a bibliai alapoktól, ezek vizsgálatától. A két évtizedes tanári és kutatói munka során gyűlt össze ez a válogatás a bibliai kutakodás eredményeként, amelyen a szűk szakmai körhöz tartozók természetesen azonnal érzékelhetik a rendszeres teológus sajátos munkamódszerének a nyomát. Az említett megközelítési mód elsődleges célja, hogy a Biblia nagy kérdéseinek kontextuális vizsgálatát követően a fő üzenetet a vizsgált korszakból áthelyezze a mába, újrarendezze, kiemelje az időszerűség mércéjével, de ennek érdekében alkalmanként eltekint a biblikusoktól megszokott részletességtől.” (5.o.)