Suma Prieš Pagonis Trečioji Knyga. 10–15 Skyriai
Summa contra Gentiles. Book III. Chapter 10–15
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Summa contra Gentiles. Book III. Chapter 10–15
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The article analyzes the preconditions of the encyclical “Rerum novarum” (1891) and its perception in Western European countries of that period. The peculiarities and attitudes of Polish and Lithuanian Catholic Church leaders towards encyclical are revealed. It is shown that the most active supporters of the encyclical were the young Polish and Lithuanian Catholic intellectuals. They tried not only to reflect upon the social problems of that time and to evaluate them from the Christian point of view, they also took concrete practical actions. The role of Jurgis Matulaitis in spreading in society the ideas of the encyclical and focusing the concentration of Catholic intellectuals for a better understanding and practical implementation of those ideas is disclosed.
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Unlike Marxism, atheistic existentialism does not bring about a shift of hope but a radical critique of hope. It proposes despair as a guarantee of intellectual honesty. In this context G. Marcel’s phenomenology of hope rehabilitates hope, just as much at the practical level - against stoicism – as at the speculative level – against the glorifying of metaphysical anguish. The question of absolute hope, which is at the heart of the philosophy of the absurd, calls for an Marcel’s internal critique of the refusal of salvation. The question also calls for the light of theology which identifies atheistic existentialists to be secularizing the theme of the book of Job.
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Big ideological shifts and innovations have always accompanied Western culture. One of the most important shifts was the formation and spread of Christianity, its interpretation of reality and ethics. It is impossible to overview all the different methodological approaches to Christianity, but it is still necessary to ask what validates the possibility of the Christian faith today and what practical outcomes can we expect in the future, for even the most fundamental institutions cannot live in the past. Therefore, this article aims to reflect upon the nature of theology and its status as Sciencia Practica rooted in two fundamental functions of theology: hermeneutical and ethical. Besides the cognitive and apologetic functions, theology first of all is an interpretation of reality that presupposes participation. Theoreticians as Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Heidegger and many others were interested in the dialectics of understanding and participation. This feature of theology distinguishes it from natural approach of the natural sciences and supernatural doctrines. The first part of the article is dedicated to the hermeneutical function of theology, while Christian ethics is explored in the second. This survey uncovers the hermeneutic circle between the Church as the community of believers and the theological self-interpretation which ends up with ethical imperatives, best seen through the notion of conscience. For the deeper understanding of Christian notion of conscience I make a comparison to the perspective to the secular authority, Martin Heidegger.
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The article discusses the theoretical and practical preconditions and specific features of Indian traditional aesthetics. In the first part, by focusing on the interaction between aesthetics and mythology, religion and metaphysics, the article exposes the positive influence of mythology, religion and metaphysics upon the development of aesthetics. In the next part, the article considers the relations of Hindu aesthetics with art. The analysis of aesthetical phenomena shows the essential interdependence of both. Finally, the peculiarities of the concepts of pulchritude and art in Hindu aesthetics are concisely discussed.
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Milda was first mentioned by Teodor Narbutt in Lietuviu tautos istorija (A History of the Lithuanian Nation) published in 1935. Milda was a goddess of love and matchmaking. Her temples were said to have been in Aleksotas (Kaunas), another on the present site of St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Vilnius, and one more near Seda, Maþeikiai, according to P. Tarasenka. Mythologists - romanticists of the late 19th - early 20th C, such as J. I. Kraszewski, A. H. Kirkor, D. Pođka, L. A. Jucevièius, J. Totoraitis, P. Tarasenka, and P. Dundulienë, had no doubts about the authenticity of goddess Milda and continued disseminated the information presented by T. Narbutas. In the late 19th - 20th C the legends of goddess Milda were used in the works of J. I. Krazsewski, S. Moniuszko, P. Vaièiûnas, B. Sruoga, and P. Abelkis. Over the last decade, folklore literature and periodicals have increasingly featured Milda, called the Lithuanian goddess of love. Rural tourism homesteads have been erecting sculptures of Milda, and pagan communities in different places of Lithuania celebrated Milda's festival in May.
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While reading Thomas Merton’s books one receives the impression of coming into contact with the great tradition of Christian mysticism. For a present-day reader, however, that tradition is no longer self-evident. Upon hearing the term of “mysticism” our imaginations start drawing something akin to the Baroque images of saints: bodies, twisted like those of contortionists, “ecstatic” big eyes, wrenched hands in a “piously elegant” manner, etc. Yet the essence of mysticism does not consist in ecstasy, visions or in any other kind of “strong sensations” which still enchants the admirers of the “Baroque religiousity”. It is quite the opposite: mysticism starts with silence and a sincere prayer. Silence, obscurity, emptiness are the landmarks which set a human person free from the images created by his imagination and liberates him from the concepts formulated by his natural mind.
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The article reveals the influence of Arab philosophy to Latin Western Europe and discusses the propagation of Ibn Rushd’s philosophical and theological ideas. When Cordoba Caliphate was established, Muslim philosophers and theologians commented Hellenistic heritage and passed it to the Christian culture. Unknown to Europe treatises of Aristotle and their commentaries was translated into Latin at Toledo Translation Academy. Arab thinker Ibn Rushd is regarded as one of the most notorious commentators of Aristotle. He not only commented Aristotle but also considered the idea of human thinking and intellectual cognition, was interested in the theory of the World’s eternity, dealt with socio-political aspects of social life and with the problem of unity between theology and religion. While dealing with the latter, Ibn Rushd claimed that political leaders ought to organize social life in such a way that theologians were not able to disturb the peaceful cohabitation of ordinary people and philosophers. Ibn Rushd’s ethical-intellectual theory of society and man played an important role in formation of European intellectual identity.
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The article considers the ethical treatise Shemonah Peraqim (The Eight Chapters) by Medieval Jewish thinker, Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), who claims that human nature is prone to evil deeds and therefore it needs the assistance of mind treatment. The Shemonah Peraqim is written as an introduction to the Avot (The Fathers), the part of Mishna, in which ethical questions are treated against the background of the Jewish faith. In the Shemonah Peraqim, Maimonides combines the moral teaching of the Talmud and the Mishna with ethics of Aristotle and Al Farabi. Maimonides treats the first seven books of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics in the first six chapters of his writing; analyzes human mind and its ability to revolt; discusses its maladies and their treatment; describes the differences between virtuous and temperate man. In the sixth chapter, Maimonides displays the contention between philosophers and rabbis concerning the rules of virtuous and religious life. In the last two chapters, he analyzes the Midrash literature about human nature and its relatedness to God.
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The article analyses works by two most famous Lithuanian philosophers in exile, namely, Antanas Maceina (1908-1987) and Juozas Girnius (1915-1994), such as “Origins and Meaning of Philosophy” and “Man without God”. The conceptual basis of both works in terms of philosophic and ethical views is constituted of virtualist (from Latin virtus “value”) orientation in regard to the world and humans. As emphasized in the article, it is exactly the value-oriented explication of reality that makes the essential link connecting these two Lithuanian thinkers both with Tomistic and with Platonic and existentialist interpretation of reality. It is noteworthy, that despite of the Lithuanian occupation by the Soviets in 1940, which lasted for fifty years, both these philosophers, having emigrated to the West (Western Germany and USA), have remained loyal to the cultural concept of reality, formulated and fostered during the interwar period by the tomists of Kaunas University, chiefly by A. Dambrauskas-Jakštas, and inherited from the Polish mystic H Wronsky, according to which the man has been allegedly presented with a special task by the God himself: that is, to perform as an intellectual and moral assistant of God, a certain little creator who creates and fosters a kind of moral culture that is pleasing to God, namely, philosophy, art, and science. Philosophy is assigned an exceptional role in this search for God process carried on by human means: both as culture and as an intellectual effort, i.e. as ethics and aesthetics with all the resulting consequences; constantly renewing itself and acquiring a new sense, it improves both by rejoicing over its new discoveries and by questioning them as well.
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The article analyzes the fight between mystics and dialecticians, which took place during the 12th century. The scholastic theology was based on the dialectical method and Aristotelian logic. It strived to explicate the truth of Revelation and texts of the Church Fathers by the means of grammar and formal logic. But the partisans of mysticism protested against far-fetched rationalization of theology. They claimed that truth is more attainable trough humility and love than through dialectics and logic. In the article, the conflict between mystics and dialecticians is presented in chronological order. The heretical propositions, extracted form Abelard’s theological treatise by Bernard of Clairvaux and abbot Wilhelm, together with Bernard’s letter to Church hierarchs are considered.
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In this article the concept of free will is analyzed as it is presented in the treatise by Bernard of Clairvaux Concerning Grace and Free Will. In the treatise Bernard of Clairvaux conjoins the elements of ascetics and mysticism; he mixes practice with theory, and he gives a new interpretation of the role of philosophical contemplation in the quest of truth. He focuses attention on the will and considers it from the prespective of the liberum arbitrium. Bernard of Clairvaux speaks of three species of freedom: natural (naturae); that, given by grace (gratiae); that of life or glory (vitae vel gloriae). He derives them from the Trinity by means of analogy. This classification of freedom enables him to analyze the essence of man anthropologically, psychologically and theologically. The three species of freedom establish the possibility to escape necessity, sin, and suffering. The natural freedom, which man still possesses, is realized by means of liberum arbitrium, the foundation of every free act. The quality of liberum arbitirium makes an actor virtuous or sinful, worthy to be priced or punished. The two remaining species, according to Bernard of Clairvaux, are lost because of the original sin. That is why man is prone to obey carnal pleasures in spite of rational considerations and admonitions. Man needs gratuitously given divine grace in order to overcome sinful desires.
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In the article the concept of exclusive mysticism, uniting theoretical and practical peculiarities of its expression, by Bernard of Clairvaux is analyzed. Faith and contemplation is the main supernatural abilities of a mystic, by means of which man’s intellectual activity apprehends reality and its own Creator. Mysticism is monastic asceticism supported by intellectual abilities and divine grace. It reflects the links of theoretical moral harmony and metaphysical pulchritude. During them, the indestructible internal beauty and sensation of affinity to deity comes into being. The sensation of mystical reality is incompatible with mundane delights and carnal pleasures. Bernard saw the new moral behavior of Christendom in the union of the ideals of knightly and monastic life. He elaborated the knightly Code of Honor and the program of knightly virtues as instruction for the protection of Christianity and struggle for goodness and truth. The idea of knighthood is presented as Christ’s suffering for faith. Bernard saw the way to personal salvation and sainthood in the fight against the earthly enemies of Christianity and thoughts, propagated by heretics. Relaying on the authority of the Church he severely criticized dialecticians, who tried to overshadow his exclusive mysticism by rationalizing theology.
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Étienne Gilson juxtaposes what he calls Aquinas’s “existentialism” to what he calls Scotus’s “essentialism.” For Gilson, “existentialism” is philosophical truth, the only view compatible with an authentically Christian metaphysic, while “essentialism” is a Hellenic mistake that seduces Christian philosophers by appealing to the idolatrous desire to reduce reality to what is intelligible. In this paper, the author attempts to describe the difference between “essentialism” and “existentialism” as understood by Gilson. Then, he assesses the case for attributing “essentialism” to Scotus, based on an assessment of Scotus texts and secondary scholarship.
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This article analyzes the relationship, according to Aegidius Romanus, between spiritual power and temporal power. From the point of view of the Augustinian author, the autonomy of the world or that of second causes, following St. Thomas Aquinas, must be respected, so that the motions of nature are not usually hampered by any extraordinary intervention. However, this intervention will always be possible in the form of a miracle and according to a special law. Similarly, temporal power normally follows its own goals, without interventions ab extra, nevertheless, the Pope’s plenitude of power can suspend, if necessary (in casu), the power of the secular princes.
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