За една „ария на клеветата“

Author(s): Erika Lazarova / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 4/2016

The article reveals the scientific incompetence and complete lack of elementary scholarly ethics in A. Stoynev’s quasi-review. It is demonstrated how a superficial reading and lack of familiarity with classical and contemporary scientific sources leads to miscomprehension of the theses regarding dualist Christianity, the genetic link between Bogomilism and Catharism, the pan-ethical and pan-European character of Bogomilism, the immaterial church of dualist heretics, etc. Stoynev’s views on Christianity are hopelessly outdated; moreover, he is evidently not familiar with the genuine meaning of the concept of „heresy“, which means CHOICE, not „falling away from the true faith“. The article exposes the motivation underlying the review in question: the conscious intention to discredit a colleague.

Respect for Human Dignity and the Mitigating of Religious Violence: an African Experience

Author(s): Philip Ogo Ujomu,Аnthony Bature / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2020

This paper studies the values needed for religion to become a means of fostering peace and corporate existence in most parts of Africa. In Nigeria as a local case study the flux of Islam, Christianity and traditional religions created the fertile grounds for conflicts and instability. The abuse of religion for ethnic or political ends led to severe consequences for individuals and society. In a multi-religious society such as Nigeria, the perversion and exploitation of the religious sentiments of the people lead to malice, disarray and violence. Problems of religious and social tolerance facing the society worsened due to the elite motivated violent struggles for benefits, power and influence. So within the society the lack of trust between the ethno-religious groups as well as the crisis of confidence between the rulers and the ruled in these societies ensured an obstruction of national development. Our finding is that the absence or lack of operation of some core social values such as trust, cooperation, compassion, justice and tolerance, undermined the attainment of human dignity and disrupted diverse interests in the society, and ensured that the country achieved little or no sustainable development. We recommend a social order or social system that is human centred; guaranteeing human dignity seen as self-worth, mutual respect and well-being in the material and spiritual aspects of life by using political aspects of the social teachings of the Roman Catholic Church which operates on four central principles. These are the common good, personality or human dignity, solidarity and subsidiarity as options for liberation and transformation.

From Despair to Faith: The Stilling of the Storm

Author(s): Pasquale Basta / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2020

On 27 March, 2020, Pope Francis raised to the Lord a prayer of supplication in the name of the whole of humanity, seeking an end to the Covid-19 pandemic. In that occasion he gave an impressive homily based on the text of Mark 4,35-41, the famous account of the stilling of the storm. The present paper studies the triple attestation in the Synoptics (Matt 8,23-27; Mark 4,35-41; Luke 8,22-25), by considering the main difference on which it’s necessary to reflect with attention: Matthew reverses Mark and Luke in an important point. In fact, in Matt 8,26b, the injunction addressed to the wind and the sea falls after the question about the nature of the disciples’ faith, but in Mark 4,39b and Luke 8,24b the opposite happens: Jesus first calms the storm and only then asks the question about their faith. Why? With different strategies, all three Synoptics show that the disciples are men who, for all their slowness, will enter step by step into the anagnorisis of Jesus. In the course of the drama, the question with which the episode of the stilling of the storm concludes is really serious about Jesus’ identity. Beyond the differences of detail which emerge from the reading in parallel, the three Synoptics agree in conferring the same narrative emphasis on the disciples’ final question: “Who is this then, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” The question about who is this (τίς ἐστιν) forms the key query: if the Christological question continues after the description of the final solution, that means that, for the evangelists, the most important aspect is represented not by the miracle of the stilling of the storm but what that reveals about the identity of the protagonist of the story. The ultimate aim of the text concerns the identity of Jesus as God. The disciples are full of ὀλιγοπιστία because they are frightened of dying, not yet having learnt the perspective of eternal life: the one who speaks in the stilling of the storm is, yes, the Nazarene of history but still more the Risen One whom the great storm of death will have to obey in the morning of Easter.

Christian Family as the Source and Propagator of Vocational Culture

Author(s): Paweł Rabczyński / Language(s): English Issue: 10/2020

Building and transmitting vocational culture is among the primary duties of the Christian family. Vocational culture is composed of all actions supporting the work of awakening vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. Characteristic elements of this culture are: deep religiosity, awareness of the Church mission and the correct vision of vocation. The family builds and transmits vocational culture through a conscious and consistent process of formation according to Christian values and models of behaviour. It thus answers the general call to love and holiness. It is aptly named the Home Church, the first seminary, and the treasury of vocations. The holiness of families is the main condition for the growth and maturation of authentic vocations, and the most appropriate answer to the modern crisis of vocational culture.

Przemiany współczesnej rodziny w zakresie obyczajowości

Author(s): Mirosław Brzeziński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 10/2020

The modern family undergoes various transformations at many levels: morality, tradition, or customs. The whole body of these customs, accumulated over centuries, has always been a great value and refuge for many generations. The times in which we live today bring many changes. The most important factors seem to be cultural, ideological, social or demographic ones. Given such changes, the family must not be a place where the life that begins in it is rejected and annihilated, parental roles redefined, with the duty to raise children transferred to mass media or dangerous ideologies. It is necessary to take action to protect the identity of the family, to build its unity and marital communion for the sake of man and the society in which he lives.

Formy wsparcia rodziny w aspekcie duchowo-religijnym na podstawie badań w Hospicjum Dobrego Samarytanina w Lublinie

Author(s): Mirosław Kalinowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 10/2020

A family care in a spiritual and religious aspects in experiencing existential difficult situation of the cancer in terminally stage of the relatives belongs to holistic dimension of palliative medicine and hospice care. A complementarity of impact of both determine activity in all fields of cancer illness: somatic, psychological, social and spiritual. All of them needs a teamwork with the adequate skills and qualifications, appropriate competence and experience. A subject of this article points out for spiritual and religious aspect of support the family member at the end of life loves one on the basis of own research in Good Samaritan Hospice in Lublin, Poland.

Na pograniczu liturgii i ceremonii. W poszukiwaniu specyfiki muzycznego opracowania hymnu Te Deum w twórczości Józefa Elsnera

Author(s): Remigiusz Pośpiech / Language(s): Polish Issue: 12/2020

Published in 1815 and dedicated to Tsar Alexander I, Te Deum by Józef Elsner illustrates the trend of religious texts, the function of which can be considered in the context of liturgical celebrations as well as secular ceremonies. On the one hand, this composition is part of the rich traditions of Silesian church music, which the composer was associated with by birth and education. On the other hand, it reflects the state of the development of the 19th century musical culture in Poland, which the greater part of his life was associated with. The compositions mentioned in the article, intended for solo voices, mixed choir and orchestra, consist of five contrasted parts, and are stylistically maintained in the trend of the religious creativity characteristic of Central Europe at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which can also be seen in a number of other works by Elsner.

Przeobrażenia tekstowe w pieśniach adwentowych i bożonarodzeniowych zamieszczonych w Śpiewniku kościelnym M.M. Mioduszewskiego (1838) oraz w Śpiewniku kościelnym J. Siedleckiego (2015)

Author(s): Beata Bodzioch / Language(s): Polish Issue: 12/2020

The comparative research undertaken concerns the repertoire of Advent songs and Christmas carols contained in two selected songbooks. Over the course of almost 200 years many textual changes have been made to the songs. These include changing the order, exchanging many words for others, replacing whole phrases and verses with new wording, and corrections in the number of stanzas. The tendency to modernise old texts and to reduce stanza is particularly noticeable. These processes are not the result of the natural evolution of language, but the result of the intervention of individuals. It is difficult to agree with many of the consequences of these interventions. The scale of transformation of the selected song group and the conclusions can only be more fully determined after a comparative study of the melody and rhythm of the songs.

Pavol Krška (1949) – A Slovak Composer of Sacred Music

Author(s): Miriam Matejová / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2020

This article deals with selected sacred compositions of the Slovak composer Pavol Krška (1949), who is one of the most important representatives of sacred music in Slovakia in recent decades. His vocal and instrumental pieces Requiem, Stabat Mater and Te Deum are frequently performed and thus brought to the attention of both the lay and professional music community. We believe that, as the composer’s work is so well-known in Slovakia, it will gradually find its place abroad.

Pastoralni rad fra Ilije Starčevića

Author(s): Mato Nedić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 53/2020

Kao i na drugim životnim područjima, tako i u svećeničkome djelovanju postoje vidljivi i manje vidljivi učinci napora koje pojedinac čini kako bi se što potpunije ostvario u zajednici u kojoj živi, kako bi što cjelovitije dao doprinos razvoju društva i ostavio trag. Ta težnja za ostavljanjem traga u ljudskoj zajednici ne mora nužno potjecati iz tašte duše, ona je prije svega utemeljena u čovjekovoj želji da čini dobro i da svoje ja dovede do ispunjenja. Tako i u svećeničkome djelovanju postoje materijalni tragovi rada i zalaganja, ali i oni nematerijalni, duhovni, koji su puno važniji, ali su često budućim naraštajima manje vidljivi.

Teologiczne korzenie współczesnego kryzysu ojcostwa, płci i rodziny. Na marginesie Promieniowania ojcostwa Karola Wojtyły

Author(s): Jarosław Kupczak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1S/2020

In no historical era have the topics of sex and gender occupied such space in academic and public debates. Today, an immense number of publications and conferences is devoted to subjects such as sexual differences, the definition of masculinity and femininity, the question whether and to what extent is sex part of nature, and to what extent of culture? These topics, always considered important in the anthropological and ethical fields, benefitted in the public debate from a certain social consensus on obvious and indisputable matters, as did those which were hidden from debate and concerned with that which is private and concerns the secrets of home life. Today, they have lost this double protection. Karol Wojtyła’s drama The Radiance of Fatherhood, written in the 1960s, surprisingly anticipates these contemporary discussions and proposes a philosophical and theological perspective appropriate for Western culture in which it is possible to give the right answers to the questions posed. In this perspective, these basic existential realities for every human being – being a son or daughter, mother or father, man or woman, husband or wife – do not only point to the sphere of human biology, nor are they contractual and subject to modifications. Rather, in the symbolic and sacramental interpretation which is proper to human life, they form the spiritual DNA of any human being from which that which is truly human can develop.

Braterstwo i przyjaźń społeczna wymiarem ekumenicznej kultury spotkania

Author(s): Franciszek Kampka / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 20/2020

Autor analizuje encyklikę Fratelli tutti papieża Franciszka i pokazuje, jak idee braterstwa i przyjaźni społecznej bliskie są postawie ekumenicznej. Papieski opis współczesnego kryzysu jest zgodny z analizami socjologicznymi: doświadczenie samotności i niepewności w relacjach społecznych, dominacja ekonomicznego wymiaru globalizacji i przemiany komunikacji społecznej – to cechy obecnego systemu, których dysfunkcjonalność ujawniła pandemia Covid-19. Realizacja nowej idei proponowanej przez Franciszka – rozwijania braterstwa i przyjaźni społecznej – będzie możliwa między innymi dzięki budowaniu kultury spotkania i odwagi dialogu, jakie praktykowane są w ruchu ekumenicznym.

United by the same concern Ecumenical impulses of Pope Francis in the context of integral ecology

Author(s): Andrzej Anderwald / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 20/2020

One of the important tasks of the Church in the temporal order are concern for the work of creation and for man himself, and sometimes even the defense against threats of technical progress, conducted from any ethical and moral references. The concern for the common home is not only a domain of the Catholic Church. Similarly, other churches and Christian communities as well as other world religions reflect on the issues relating to the degradation of human and natural environment. Thus, the aim of these reflections is an attempt to recognize ecumenical impulses of the Pope Francis in the context of integral ecology that takes into account the interlinkages between different dimensions of reality. Therefore, during the considerations will be presented firstly the papal diagnosis of the social and ecological crisis (1), then the proposals of actions aiming at the development of integral ecology (2) as well as an invitation to a dialogue resulting from the care for the common home (3). The main sources of the analysis undertaken are the two papal documents, namely the encyclical Laudato si’ (LS) and the post-synodal apostolic exhoration Querida Amazonia (QA).

Diversos modelos litúrgicos y ecuménicos de la completa Iniciación Cristiana

Author(s): José Manuel Fernández Rodríguez / Language(s): English,Polish,Spanish Issue: 20/2020

The sacraments of the Christian initiation have been the main point of an intense debate in the ecumenical movement in the last years. There is still critical literature about the sacraments of the initiation brought out of the bilateral and multilateral ecumenical meetings. However, the sacrament of the confirmation has not found the right place in the initiation triad, due to the concordances and discordances in the conception of the confirmation and the Christian initiation that are found in churches. Every single church community has presented its peculiar way to understand and give the confirmation by means of the sacramental liturgy process. The main goal of this research is to highlight the relationship between the baptism and confirmation in this chronological order, and between the Eucharist and these two sacraments. This close relation among the three sacraments is shown by means of several liturgy models which advocate the restoration of the ancient order of the Christian initiation.

Social Processes Affecting Families in Rural Hungary

Author(s): Tamás Ragadics / Language(s): English Issue: 10/2020

Rural poverty appears in several European regions, particularly in post-socialist countries effected by a rapid transformation of socioeconomic system. The aim of this paper is to describe some crucial processes triggering the transformation of family life in rural Hungary by means of a research conducted in the South Transdanubian region. In the background of this research, there is a broad network of researchers and social experts working for better understanding of deprived populations’ attitudes and motivations in minor settlements located far away from developed centres. We hypothesize that the situation of poverty is connected to impedimental forms of norms and behaviours. We used qualitative research methods to explore some pressing problems and challenges from the viewpoints of local experts and mothers of families connected to local social systems. We also aim to examine family attitudes to the labour market, services and consumption, the most important factors effecting socioeconomic conditions of deprived social groups. As a conclusion, we can state that complex education and mentoring programs are necessary in the field of conscious family planning and in the development of self-care skills.

Stephan Ernst, Am Anfang und Ende des Lebens. Grundfragen medizinischer Ethik, Verlag Herder, Freiburg – Basel – Wien 2020, ISBN 978-3-451-38812-5, ss. 400

Author(s): Janusz Podzielny / Language(s): Polish,German Issue: 10/2020

Konferencja naukowa z okazji 300-lecia Synodu Zamojskiego

Author(s): Przemysław Nowakowski CM / Language(s): Polish Issue: 56/2020

Przemysław Nowakowski (red.) Statuty Synodu Zamojskiego 1720 roku. Nowe polskie tłumaczenie z komentarzami, Avalon: Kraków 2020, ss. 432, ISBN 978-83-7730-418-1

Author(s): Mateusz Rafał Potoczny / Language(s): Polish Issue: 56/2020

XVII-wieczne opracowania kantyku Magnificat Sebastiana Lemlego z kościoła pw. św. Marii Magdaleny we Wrocławiu

Author(s): Bartosz Jagiełło / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 55/2020

W artykule omówione zostały dwa opracowania kantyku Magnificat powstałe w I połowie XVII wieku na potrzeby celebracji liturgicznej protestanckiego kościoła św. Marii Magdaleny we Wrocławiu. Autorem kompozycji jest Sebastian Lemle związany wówczas z tą wrocławską świątynią. Przedstawione kompozycje stanowią przykład recepcji polichóralnej twórczości na Śląsku. Jednocześnie są świadectwem zachowania kantyku Magnificat w celebracji wspólnot protestanckich, a także potwierdzają zasadę jego wykonywania zgodną z praktyką alternatim.

Śp. ks. dr hab. Walerian Bugel (1968–2020)

Author(s): Stanisław Jan Rabiej / Language(s): Polish Issue: 55/2020