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The aim of the article is to discuss the literary legacy of St. Philaret Drozdov in the context of human transformation into a new creation. First, the author presents the most important issues concerning Orthodox anthropology, the concepts of the image and likeness of God, and the issue of grace. Then, he presents the position of the Moscow Metropolitan on the Eucharist and prayer as means of the transformation of a man. Afterwards, the author draws attention to the views of St. Philaret Drozdov on deification, grace and uncreated light in the context of the transformation of a human being. In conclusion, the author summarizes the considerations, emphasizing the importance of the work of the Moscow Metropolitan in the history of the thought of the Eastern Church.
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The article is about a mention of “serpens flatu adurens” – “a serpent burning with its breath” (Deut 8:14) found in St. Jerome’s translation of the Old Testament. The snake is listed among other venomous animals that threatened the Israelites during their journey through the desert. The article intends to answer – basing on the ancient histori-city and literature – what kind of actual snake is behind this extraordinary description. In his translation St. Jerome mentions different snake species known in the Graeco-Roman world, as equivalents to their Hebrew names. As is turns out, Jerome took the discussed in the article term from Symmachus. And Symmachus, in turn, drew on rabbinic commen-tary and made a mistake of mistranslating the Hebrew text. The mistake was, however, acceptable for Jerome in relation to the basilisk. In the ancients’ belief this serpent – along with its deadly abilities – had a power of burning everything around. St. Jerome introdu-ced the name of the basilisk to the Bible seven times (in Septuagint the snake appears only twice). The discussed case would be the 8th mention of the basilisk in Jerome’s translation of the Bible.
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The radical condemnation of anger in Matthew 5:22 raises some fundamen-tal questions: Does this first antithesis of the Sermon on the Mount actually interpret or change the Old Law? How is this radical prohibition of anger fulfilled? Is anger really put on the same level as murder? Is all anger banned? Collecting the answers to these fundamental questions of Greek and Latin early Christian writers, the author of the article reconstructs a patristic propaedeutic for a detailed interpretation of Matthew 5:22, and pays special attention to the contribution of St. Augustine in this field.
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The paper presents an analysis of two prayers by Ildefonso of Toledo addressed to Mary contained in the work “De virginitate Sanctae Mariae”. Both the very personal form of the prayers and their content deserve attention. In these prayers, the Bishop of Toledo expresses his deepest feelings towards Mary, describing her as his Lady and Sovereign. He praises her for her participation in the work of salvation, but above all he asks her interces-sion so that he can be united with Christ. In doing so, he indicates what true Marian devotion consists of: it should always lead to a deepening of the relationship with Christ.
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One of the accusations against Priscillian and his followers was their use of non-canonical books in their writings and teachings. This was proof positive for Priscillian’s opponents that he and his followers were a sect worthy of condemnation and that their writings were tainted with heresy. These accusations are found in several of the Suevic-Visigothic councils of Hispania. it is fortuitous that we have Priscillian’s response to this accusation in his Tractatus III: Priscilliani Liber de Fide et de Apocryphis. This study makes generous use of the testimony of the councils, Priscillian’s own Tractatus III and writers directly involved in the controversy. The use of apocryphal writings was widespread, they appear in many settings and diverse literary genres and art. The example in this study is but one additional example. In this work Priscillian wrote a spirited and convincing defence against his adversaries.
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The contribution examines the membra disiecta of the Municipal Archive of Gemona del Friuli (UD). In order to comply with the topic of the conference, three parchment fragments (1654.26; 1654.32; 1654.33) from the religious field have been analyzed. These are three texts used for the Mass, which combine sung parts with hagiographic texts, such as the Life of Saint Cecilia, and Biblical texts (e.g. the Gospel of Luke). A description and edition of the text is provided for each fragment. The study of the three unpublished codices makes it possible to continue the discussion on the Friulian Middle Ages, which is often lacunar, and to reconstruct the religious and cultural life in the community of Gemona del Friuli.
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The article proposes the edition of the transposition of the Creed in Provençal verse handed down from the manuscript ms. Firenze, BML, Ashburnham 105. The manuscript is a miscellany of texts in the Provençal language datable to the 14th century and exemplified for personal use by Peyre de Serras, an apothecary who lived in or near Avignon in the mid-14th century. Many of the works contained therein are of a hagiographic or devotional nature: among the latter, the Provençal versions of three ‘customary’ prayers – the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Creed – are of particular interest, due to the tenacious resistance of the ecclesiastical hierarchies of the Romance-speaking countries to the possibility of allowing lay people to recite these prayers in their vernacular. The importance of this edition lies in the fact that in the current state of knowledge, the proposed text is the only version of the Creed in Provençal that has come down to us. Of equal interest are the relations it may have had with the Cathar heresy in a territory and at a chronological height – Provence in the first half of the 14th century – in which many forms of religiosity condemned as heretical were still deeply rooted in the hearts and consciences of many of the faithful.
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The Vienna Hermetica consist of four fragmentally preserved texts found on Viennese papyri (Papyri Vindobonenses Graecae 29456r et 29828r) from the 2nd or 3rd century AD. Fragments III and IV are almost completely missing. On the other hand, the content of Hermetica Vindobonensia I and II oscillates around the privileged position of man (HV I) and the only nameless God (HV II).
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List of dissertations in Christian antiquity completed in Polish research centres in 2021-2022.
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In this paper I propose to analyse Evagrius Ponticus’ treatment of emotions, especially happiness, in his Scholia to the Psalms. First, I will contextualise Evagrius’ work, which has just been published, with its own characteristics, both in terms of literary genre and in terms of the type of Evagrian exegesis. Then, the place of emotions in the text will be discussed, with particular emphasis on joy, on the basis of the analysis of all the occurrences of that concept in the Scholia. As a result, it is observed that Evagrius’ hermeneutic of the Psalms, at least in the case of joy, is fundamentally allegorical, which would make impossible the existence of joy in man in its classical sense, since it could only be experienced as the reaction to the possession of a spiritual good, which is gnosis or knowledge of God. In this way, the Scholia to the Psalms support the spiritualistic interpretation of Evagrius’ doctrine.
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In the late 4th century, bishops utilized the so-called ius intercessionis right to intervene in order to help those in need, be they the persecuted, the accused or the convicted. These actions of a bishop were rooted foremost in the idea of mercy and it was also due to this right that a bishop became the one to decide about the granting of the right to asylum – a right which was gradually extended to Christian churches at the time. St. Augustine encounters the issue of Christian asylum as the bishop of Hippo Regius in Africa mainly in his preserved correspondence, but he talks about seeking sanctuary in Christian churches also in one of his sermons, specifically in Sermo 302 delivered on the feast of St. Lawrence. This paper focuses on presenting the circumstances of a violent act in Hippo Regius and its implications to potentially sanctuary seeking in local Christian church, particularly on the ground of analysis of post sermonem to Sermo 302.
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The first published biography of one of the members of the first community of the Order of Mercy, founded by Fr. Michał Sopoćko according to the revelations received through the intercession of Sister Faustyna Kowalska; court clerk in Vilnius and Toruń.
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Since ancient times, priests of any cult, coming to offer sacrifice to their deity, did not come dressed haphazardly but in special attire. Just as the high priests, priests, and Levites of the old covenant had garments for services and sacrificial offerings, Christians, right from the beginning, while breaking bread, adorned themselves in garments to serve Christ. Even today, when a Christian enters the church and sees the beautiful clerical vestments, they immerse themselves in the specific liturgical atmosphere. However, beyond mere admiration, some Christians, driven by curiosity, seek to learn about the history and etymology of these beautiful garments. In their aid comes the work compiled by Archdeacon Dr. Vlăduț-Iulian Roșu, which, as he himself states, is the most comprehensive and complex work on this subject.
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Orthodox theology is an inexhaustible source of teachings and dogmas that remain relevant in all times, thanks to the wisdom of the Holy Fathers of the Church and, above all, thanks to the profound impact that the Saviour Jesus Christ had on humanity, giving us the chance to save our souls from the death of sin. Today, the world is facing a host of anthropological and ecological ills. Man has been given the chance of salvation, but he has misunderstood his mission in the world and has neglected the special role he has had since his creation: i.e. to be an steward of the world.
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The spread of the cult of the divinity of Syrian-Arabic origin Azizos from the East to the Danubian provinces and Rome has traditionally been related to its importance in the Syrian city of Edessa and to different Roman military campaigns against the Parthians and the Sassanid Persians in that same area, in the second and third centuries A.D. Through the analysis of the epigraphic repertoire of this divinity in Dacia, as well as with the study of certain monetary emissions of the time of Emperor Elagabalus and with the revision of the ancient literary texts, we present certain results, which can open new perspectives of study. The importance of Edessa as the origin of the spread of the cult of Azizos in Dacia can be generally confirmed, in the cases of some inscriptions of precise dating and by the military character of the dedicants. On the other hand, a new proposal is introduced in relation to the inclusion of the god in the triad of the city of Emesa and with the possible discusion of the cult jointly or parallel to the Sol Inuictus Elagabal in the time of Emperor Elagabalus, when we refer to inscriptions of imprecise dating at the time of the Severan dynasty and the dedicators are not military and have no direct relationship with any of the campaigns in Parthia.
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The present paper focuses on the Polish religious polemic during the first phase of the Reformation period. Today we know only a few plays from this period. Fortunately, they do allow us, nevertheless, to analyse the main topic and to reconstruct their hypothetical staging.
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Christianity is a religion that is constantly evolving. The form of transmission changes over the centuries, but the doctrines that God’s People have believed in from the beginning never change. Despite various divisions, the vertical dimension of Christianity, with the successor of St. Peter as the head of the Church, perseveres in the one true faith and guards it. The defense of the faith is best illustrated by the persecution of Christians and the fight against Arianism. The unity of believers and the meaning of the sense of faith can be seen in the works on the announcement of two Marian dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It’s hard to be a member of the Church these days. If someone wants to follow the difficult path of Christian credibility, he must establish a very close relationship with God, so that his faith is not preserved, and thanks to the sensus fidei he can examine the truth that God gives and live according to it without being influenced by others.
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The article delves into the issue of apostasy among the citizens of the Roman Empire during the brief reign of Julian. It provides an overview of the tactics employed by the emperor to convert his Christian subjects to paganism and evaluates their success across different strata of late Roman society, including the bureaucracy, military, Christian clergy, intellectual elite, and common people. It is concluded that Julian’s efforts at returning the Roman Empire to paganism were far more successful than it has traditionally been thought.
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The article discusses the problem of movement to “axial time” (Karl Jaspers’ term) on the basis of two cultural traditions - Sumero-Akkadian and Egyptian. An attempt is made to find signs of the emergence of a new consciousness within the framework of collective-traditional consciousness. These signs are the emergence of authorship, the emergence of new genres, the peculiarity of which is a free change in the position of the speaker, the change in the perception of the world through the ideas of justice, the emergence of new narratives, existing in parallel with the traditional ones. It is shown that by the end of the second millennium BC both cultures possessed almost all the set of the named features. We consider the peculiarities of functioning of such mystically experienced images-concepts as “me” (norm, measure, etc) and “shimtu” (fate) in Mesopotamia and “maat” (order, justice, etc) in Egypt. In both cultures, the existence of personal gods, doubles, and personified souls creates the possibility of a regularly practiced reflection on one’s life. The notion of authorship of certain texts shows that, along with folklore, certain narratives are formed that are transmitted along with authoritative names. Nevertheless, the possibility of transition to individual consciousness proper was blocked by two crucial features of these cultures - the consciousness of absolute dependence on the gods, who could, if they wished, but were not obliged to reveal to man his destiny, and the attachment of each individual to his social position, where status plays a leading role in determining man's destiny than his own efforts.
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