Prayers and Spells Against Unholy and Evil Spirits in a Nineteenth-Century Prayer Canon

Author(s): Ivona Karachorova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

In this article, the object or research is a block of six apocryphal prayers from the end of the 18th or the beginning of the 19th century. Among them, there are several prayer charms, of which two are supposedly written by Basil the Great, and four by John Chrysostom. On the basis of four transcripts in manuscripts from SS Cyril and Methodius National Library in Sofia, the inclusion of this block of prayers into prayer canons against evil spirits and demons, which have a diverse composition and are composed according to the regulations of the Orthodox Church, is traced. Among the above-mentioned prayers, for the first time, prohibitive prayers are attested, which so far have not been included in the classification of apocryphal prayers.

Congruence of rituals and theatre.

Author(s): Tudor Cosmin Ciocan / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2015

I have started this research as a response to a pejorative question that religious rituals are merely theatrical, and the personnel involved nothing else but actors; beyond this there is nothing any religion suggests, e.g. healing, divine touch, blessings et.al. This paper is about rituals and their meanings and roles played as in social drama and theatre play. Considering the relationship between ritual and theatre to be reciprocal I will use their functions to evaluate the process of religious ceremonies and the role they play for adherents/participants, as if they would be attending a play. Religious Studies and Drama joint study offers the opportunity to combine two complementary humanities subjects, as both drama and religion are mainstays of cultural practice.

Scientific Consensus, Public Perception and Religious Beliefs

Author(s): Mihai A. Gîrţu,Tudor Cosmin Ciocan / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2014

Starting from the recent public debate over global warming we discuss the scientific consensus and public perception on climate issues. We then turn to the ongoing debate on diets and nutrition, comparing scientific perspectives, public views and religious standpoints.

Post-Pope: A postcolonial approach to religious pluralism in Argentina

Author(s): Miguel M. Algranti / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2014

In this paper I will review the impact of the designation of Jorge Bergoglio as the Catholic Pope on the field of religious heterodoxies in Argentina. From a post-colonial approach, i will consider his designation within the historical relations between the State and the Catholic Church in South America and its capacity to organize one of the most hegemonic and constitutional socio symbolic frames in which religious practices and beliefs struggle for legitimation and negotiates their position on Argentina’s religious field. In this context the concept of religious pluralism, proposed by the social sciences, operates as a device that regulates and administrates religious diversity rather than protecting it.

Българо-румънски колоквиум „На север и на юг от Дунав: търговци, мисионери, пътешественици (ХV–ХVІІІ век)“

Author(s): Penka Danova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 31/2015

Porażka Ojca

Author(s): Maciej A. Sosnowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2 (7)/2015

The father is a dialectical figure. Taking C. Schmitt’s “state of exception” as a point of departure and drawing from G. Agamben’s and W. Hamacher’s analyses, I would like to present in my article the sense of this figure in the context of Hegelian speculation. Although “father’s” tendency appears to be a tendency towards the fullness of identity and pleroma, yet, it hides in itself negativity which cannot be eradicated and which condemns it to unresolvable ambiguity; whereas this ambiguity must lead to the sublation of “metaphysically” understood “fatherhood” for the sake of love.

Житието на Рада Пловдивска и националното еманципиране на българите през Възраждането

Author(s): Maria Levkova-Muchinova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1-2/2014

The article is dedicated to a written monument from the time of the Bulgarian Revival, which is relatively little known to scientists – Life of St. Rada of Plovdiv written by Hadji Dimitar Panichkov. It seeks the place of this literary monument in the context of hagiographic literature created in the XIX century, and among other literary interpretations of the legend. Life of St. Martyr Rada of Plovdiv is not only a literary monument from the nineteenth century, but also an interesting source of information about important events and persons in the history of the city during the 1820’s and 1830’s, and in a broader context – about the historical environment in which Bulgarians build their national identity. It is a valuable documentary evidence of the mentality of Bulgarians from the time of their National Revival. Between attempts at reforms in the empire, military conflicts and liberation movements of the neighboring Balkan nations Bulgarians obtained their national emancipation, with their saints, heroes and role models, national myths and national identity based on them.

Od katechizmu do Twittera. Michel Remery. Tweetując z Bogiem 1: #Wielki Wybuch, Biblia, wyprawy krzyżowe, czyścieć... Tweetując z Bogiem 2: #Modlitwa, seks, kariera, grzech śmiertelny... Edycja Świętego Pawła, Częstochowa 2014, ss. 224 i ss. 224 + ap

Author(s): Andrzej Kiciński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2015

“Tweeting with God” is worth getting to know from both pastoral and mediaperspectives. The Dutch Catechism created the perspective that Christians encounterdifferent religions and ideologies, and that we need to explain the approachof Catholicism in relation to old and new ideological trends. Today thereis a new “Dutch” idea of passing down the faith to younger generations throughsocial media. In this model the current young generation asks questions of theChurch, and the Church – in this case through a cleric, a single priest leadingpastoral groups – attempts to give them the answer. Written responses are placedin a book and in modern applications, and via smartphone, tablet, or other tools,these responses allow access to the world of religious leading a dialog of faith insocial media.

Józef Kloch. Kościół w Polsce wobec Web 2.0. Wydawnictwo Jedność, Kielce 2013, ss. 334.

Author(s): Paweł Mąkosa / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2015

The book “Church in Poland towards Web 2.0” is devoted to the modern technologiesin activities of the Catholic Church in Poland. The main value of thebook is empirical research conducted on a very large group of respondents. Veryimportant are also insightful analysis of the results and a very accurate postulatesformulated for the Church in Poland.

Jarosław Woźniak. Rozwój mediów w przekazie wiary w archidiecezji lubelskiej po roku 1989. Wydawnictwo Gaudium, Lublin 2015 ss. 250.

Author(s): Mirosław Chmielewski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2015

In his monograph entitled Development of the media at the service of faithtransmittance in the Archdiocese of Lublin after 1989, Rev. dr Jarosław Woźniakaims to answer the main research question of how the Archdiocese of Lublin hasresponded to the contemporary challenges of media communication. The methodologyhe uses relies on the pastoral paradigm, with its three cornerstone principles:to observe – to assess – to act. The way in which the author of the monographapproaches the exploration of his research material leads him to assume a tri‑partitestructure of his text.Apart from these three core components, the monograph also includes an introduction,conclusions, four annexes and a list of references. Chapter one offersa synthetic outline of the teaching of the Catholic church on mass media. Chapter2 relies on archive materials and the sources created by the author of the monograph.Both these sources are used in order to depict the evolution of the activitiesundertaken by the Archdiocese of Lublin in the domain of media communication.Chapter 3 lists recommendations and tasks for the future development of theArchdiocesan media in the evangelizing activities of the Church. The monographalso includes a vast archival documentation, which is divided into four annexes.A definite advantage of the monograph is that it presents an outline of the historicalevolution of the Archdiocesan media and that it develops valuable practicalrecommendations, which are worth elaborating an extrapolating on the area ofpastoral practices in the domain of media.

Sympozjum Środowiskowe − 50 lat Światowych Dni Środków Społecznego Przekazu. Idea i podstawowe myśli Ośrodek Kultury i Formacji Chrześcijańskiej w Jarosławiu, 16-17 października 2015 roku

Author(s): Małgorzata Godzisz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2015

The Environmental Symposium took place at Centre of Culture and ChristianFormation in Jaroslaw from 16th to 17th October 2015 under the title: „50 years ofthe World Day of Social Communications. Idea and basic thoughts”. The authorsof the papers have passed since the genesis of the assumptions purposes to therelationship behavior in the Pope’s message. They noticed historical tutorial andalso pastoral dimension of these documents.

Rights (Claims) of Parents and the Child’s Welfare

Author(s): Paweł Bortkiewicz / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2015

In the contemporary bioethical disputes, which are at the same time political, what is often put forward is the argument of the right to have or not have a child. According to the supporters of this right, it is a consequence of widely promoted reproduction rights (which are an expression of the so-called reproductive medicine). Such a perspective constitutes an expression of a peculiar asymmetry — claims with relation to the child do not correspond with the rights of the child. The mentioned idea, visible in the acts of the codified law, is the subject of Church criticism. In place of the claims with relation to the child, the Church, by the means of John Paul II’s words, formulates an original idea and the charter on the rights of the child.

Social Determinants of the Significance of the Child in a Micro- and Mezosocial Perspective

Author(s): Jacek Kurzępa / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2015

The author touches upon the subject matter of the rights of a child within the vista of the social conditions in the micro and mezosocial perspective. In the initial part of his considerations he indicates toward the challenges that the ageing society has to face, as well as evokes the phenomenon of love — as not only an ontic value but also biological and demographic. A natural destiny and biology of the body is ageing, we should accept such a natural consequence, which for ages has been difficult and led toward negation and acknowledgement that nature can be cheated, or improved. As a result new offers appear, be it within the scope of medicine (medications that help preserve the potency regardless of the age) and also beauty and plastic surgery, which subjects to correction the natural flabbiness of the skin, its senile spottiness and naturalness. What follows the possibilities and technologies is genetic engineering and modification connected with conception, creating new life, as well as its deprivation (euthanasia). The new possibilities kindle human passion, dream of perpetual youth, deny and disclaim the law of nature. They strengthen these “dreams,” elements of cultural narration, which talk people into recognizing new axiology, accepting every “modality” of the current ethical, moral, legal and customary axioms. What also appears within the scope of the “dreams of eternity” is the necessity of commercializing emotions, interpersonal bonds, using human embryos, organs, exploitation of children and their abuse. In spite of the proclamation of rights and respect toward Human Person, regardless of age, the letter of law and declarations are not a sufficient guarantee to protect and care for children and childhood effectively. In the evoked, numerous examples of destroying the nature of childhood and treating children atrociously, the Author reveals claptrap and ineffectiveness of signatories of manifold documents and declarations on the one hand and touches upon the issue of our individual, personal responsibility for the fate of the youngest ones on the other. He emphasizes, both by generously making use of referred ideas conceived by Saint John Paul II, as well as by referring to Janusz Korczak, or Ellen Key, that the fate of the child is in our, adults’ hands. Therefore, if “our adulthood grows wild,” it is difficult to hope that we will behave properly and accordingly toward those who are weaker, smaller and dependant. In the face of the above, our adulthood, in its humanistic dimension, must continuously become better, more mature and also more beautiful, in order to meet the challenges which we face and which are connected with protecting and caring for the youngest ones.

The Art of Communicating with a Child

Author(s): Stanisława Mielimąka / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2015

The article discusses effective communication with the child, that is, giving satisfaction to all the participants of the interaction, which in the first place requires the knowledge of the components of the communication process. Messages sent by people entering into interaction with each other may take the form of specific stimuli and responses stemming from — according to Eric Berne — three states of ego personality: the ego state Parent, the ego state Adult and the ego state Child. These states are shaped from the early years of the child’s life and determine the quality of communication of each person with other people over the whole course of life. They decide whether transactions with others are simple, which generally promotes the continuation of the interaction, or crossed leading to a feeling of being not understood, or even to the interruption of the interaction. The article provides examples of simple and crossed transactions. Characteristics of the communication barriers have been given, named by Thomas Gordon the twelve typical ineffective behaviours of parents, teachers or bosses. The last part of the article indicated factors of effective communication with the child reflecting the adoption of the attitude “towards the child” including acceptance, passive and active listening, articulating statements of the “I” type, using the “method with no failures” in solving common problems, focusing on what is happening “here and now” in a relationship with the child.

Religious Education of Children in Families of Different Confessions

Author(s): Józef Budniak / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2015

The family is the first and most important educational environment. It also concerns religious education. Parents are the first teachers of faith and they are responsible for their children’s religious education. In inter-religious families the job is even harder as the child is brought up at the meeting of two confessions which differ from each other. In such a family, the child is introduced into the Church community, taught the first prayer, starts the first conversations about religion, reads the Holy Scripture, and what is most important — he or she adopts a positive attitude to the faith in God. Inter-religious families live in the spirit of ecumenism — they celebrate holidays in concord with Catholic and Lutheran traditions, attend both Churches, teach their children respect, love and tolerance for people of other religions. All these values help to educate the child to become a good man and a good Christian.

Children’s Rights. Provisions of Certain International Conventions

Author(s): Nicolae V. Dură,Teodosie Petrescu / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2015

The subject of the article is the analysis of thirteen international Conventions concerning the rights of the child presented chronologically, according to their coming into force. Such an analysis gave the authors the opportunity to remark that such international documents having compulsory juridical force also evince the evolution of the world states awareness concerning both the need of harmonizing the legislation in this field, and the obligation of taking concrete and effective measures on ensuring the legal protection of the children.

Protection of Minors in the Current Canon Law

Author(s): Damián Němec / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2015

Outgoing from a short analysis of the conception of minors, adults and persons of major age in the canon law in the 20th century, the author presents two ways of the protection of minors in the current canon law: the guarantee of their autonomous actions (personal status, cooperation with pastors of the Church, law of sacraments) and the very protection of their rights above all in the procedural law and in the penal law. Withal the author tries to identify to what degree this regulation has its fundament in the divine law or in the merely ecclesiastical law.

The Right of the Child to Access Information and to Express Views Freely

Author(s): Leszek Adamowicz / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2015

The Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by the UN General Assembly on November 20, 1989, and ratified by Poland on July 7, 1991 (Dz.U. 1991, No. 120, item 526), includes in its contents, among others, declarations of children’s rights to information and to express those views freely in all matters concerning them directly. In particular, the right to information includes more specific issues: the right to information on parentage (the knowledge of their parents); “the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of boundaries, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art or through any other medium of the child’s choice”; the right to receive relevant information, dependant on the age and understanding of children, which should give them the freedom to fully exercise their rights, unless this would be contrary to their welfare, and right to information about the educational process. However, the right to expression includes the right to speak in judicial and administrative proceedings, the right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of thought, belief and religion, including its practice, the right to association and the right to assembly.

Legal Protection of the Child from Violence and the Detention of Minor Foreigners in Poland

Author(s): Małgorzata Tomkiewicz / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2015

Legal protection of the child in its normative dimension, including the protection of minors against violence, is one of the fundamental principles of contemporary legal systems, which is rooted in numerous acts of Polish and international jurisprudence. The abundance of regulations in this scope indicates that legal system in Poland shields minors against violence comprehensively and — as it seems — universally. However, there arises a question whether the law protects to the same extent minor foreigner residing in the territory of the Republic of Poland, particularly those who are subjected to the procedure of placing them in guarded camps for foreigners; which is followed by the question: Are the standards of the said protection identical in the case of minors who are subjected to detention along with their family members, and in the case of minors who are unattended? By means of the analysis of the legal solutions currently in force, the present article tries to answer the above questions.

Does the Catholic Vision of the Principle of Subsidiarity Pertain to Polish Family Law?

Author(s): Piotr Kroczek / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2015

In Polish law, among many constitutional principles, there is the principle of subsidiarity. In the context of family, the understanding of the principle in Polish legal system and in the Catholic teaching is quite similar. The aim of the article is to examine if the principle in question is present in the provisions of family law. The conclusion is that sovereignty of families is well safeguarded in Polish law by the means of the principle in question. To protect autonomy of family, one must not demand that the laws be changed, but rather that the principle be respected in application of the family law.