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Starting from the second half of the 1980s, the indigenous areas of Southern Siberia in the Soviet Union saw the beginning of the liberation movement know as perestroika, which brought on in the region an active,versatile and purposeful restoration of shamanism – the historic religion of the peoples of Southern Siberia. This article explores the new shamanistic forms and practices characteristic only to Southern Siberia formed during these processes, which have common features with similar trends that occurred in other parts of the world. The research methods used in this article include the synthesis and meta-analytic comparison of the data obtained from source materials, which has been the basis for drawing general conclusions giving an overview of the modern specificities and characteristics of neoshamanism in Southern Siberia
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According to traditional Buddhist narratives and popular beliefs, Tibetans are a people chosen by Avalokiteśvara. Therefore, his worship and multitude, as well as diversity of his images, are quite common both in temples and public areas. Unlike the widespread analyses where the Bodhisattva has been treated as a peaceful tutelary deity, and classifications of its images have been based on morphological features, or artistic styles and techniques, this paper proposes another approach by grounding images in Tantric Buddhism models used locally, e.g. outer, inner and secret forms of the Three Jewels or the Three Refuges, popular in Tantric Buddhism. The second part of this paper focuses on images of Avalokiteśvara as a meditational deity and a Dharma protector, which corresponds to the last two out of the three inner aspects of the Three Jewels. Using the method developed by Erwin Panofsky and the analysis of primary Tibetan text are partly used as convenient tools for the description and exegesis of images.
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At the end of the 17th century, under the influence of German events, a Pietist movement also appeared in Gdańsk. It had a moderate impact on the local Evangelical community, sought to dynamize religious life and activate the laity through a deep Christian formation. Pietism enjoyed an average popularity here, although because of the orthodox Lutheran authorities of the city, it was focused on conducting apologetic and polemical activities rather than actually pastoral ones. Constantin Schütz (1646–1712), Ernst Lange (1650–1727), Johann Georg Abicht (1672–1740) and Paweł Świetlicki (1699–1756) were his more well-known and certainly non-anonymous representatives, about whom this text deals. They strongly influenced the shape of the local Evangelical theological discourse.
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The article contains a cultural research and is reconstructive by nature. It offers the author’s interpretation of the sanctuary of the early Turkic era (7th—9th centuries), which is part of the archaeological site, the Bozok Medieval Settlement. The Bozok settlement is located on the territory of Kazakhstan’s capital city of Nur-Sultan, on the shores of the Buzykty Lake. The sanctuary is the key asset of the site, which was later on surrounded by the residential and industrial structures of the Bozok settlement (10th—13th centuries) and then, the elite necropolis of the 14th—16th centuries. The author’s interpretation of the sanctuary is centered around the factors of choosing the lake landscape, caused by the cosmological concept of water purity and the connection between the water and the feminine principle. Water as a source of life, resonates with the nature of motherhood, with the image of a swan and refers us to the cult of Umai, the Great Mother Goddess of ancient Turks, the patroness saint of warriors. The name of the Buzykty Lake also has a profound sacred meaning in the Turkic culture. The etymological study of the toponym “Buzykty” reveals its historical depth known from the ancient Turkic era and the complex semantics of meaning that traces its origin to the mythological characters of the Oguz Kagan and the Heavenly Maiden Umai. The uniqueness of the site (planigraphy, human sacrifice), its geocultural landscape, along with the analysis of the limnonym and the swan mythologeme, make it possible to create a hypothetical model of the rituals, which can explain the sanctuary as a site for secret warriors’ rites.
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The Reformed congregation in Oksa played an important role in the history of 17th century Calvinism in Lesser Poland. Throughout its over 100 years of existence and under the continued patronage of the Rej family the town was not only the place of numerous synods, the location an impressive church edifice, a Reformed school but also the seat of may influential pastors of the Church: Franciszek Stankar the Younger (1562–1621) and Jerzy Laetus (1609–c. 1656). The article traces the history of the congregation, the clergy who ministered there, its last 20 years and the circumstances surrounding its suppression in 1679.
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Review of: Matylda Urjasz-Raczko - Frances Luttikhuizen, Underground Protestantism in Sixteenth Century Spain. A Much Ignored Side of Spanish History, Göttingen [2017], Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Refo500 Academic Studies, vol. 30), ss. 448
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Focusing on the early Pahlavi period the article is aimed at showing the tendencies and processes of development of Christianity among the Iranians as well as the circumstances under which the Protestant believes were communicated, debated and assimilated by the Iranian converts. Adopting the historical methods for describing the social changes that occurred in Iran as a result of the authoritarian policy of the Iranian monarch Reza Shah the article reveals the concept of conversion as a change of values arguing that the converts constructing and imagining their identity remained Iranians by keeping the most valuable feature – the Persian language. Thus, the religious conversion was associated with the concept of Iran-ness (iraniyyat) yet an alternative to the state national policy at that time.
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Review of: Niko Ikić „Križni put dijaloga i ekumenizma“, Katolički bogoslovni fakultet, Sarajevo – Glas Koncila, Zagreb, 2019., 720 p. Review by: Antun Japundžić
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This article was written on the occasion of the 1600th anniversary of the death of St. Jerome, and it deals with Jerome’s letters, that is, some Christian messages in those letters. In the first part, the saint places emphasis on building one’s own personality and relationship with God. As a lover of Sacred Scripture, Jerome confesses before God; he encounters God within himself and in the interpretation of Scripture, and all those who are lazy to know God and the mystery of the Word are subjected to his criticism. The second part of the paper deals with emphasizing mutual cooperation within the church community, primarily among priests, deacons, monks. In this context, the value of friendship and peacekeeping among church officials is an overriding topic for Jerome. The third part is dedicated to the dignity and role of women. The fact is that Jerome’s life and work are marked by communication with women. These are primarily widows, nuns, girls, mothers, wives, rich and respectable Roman citizens. The author wishes to point out that all of Jerome’s correspondents, directly or indirectly, clearly or dimly, mirror the mentioned Christian messages.
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Review of: Jonathan Shepard - Adrian Jusupović, Kronika halicko-wołyńska (Kronika Romanowiczów) w latopisarskiej kolekcji historycznej [The Halych-Volhynian Chronicle in the Annalistic Historical Tradition], Cracow: Avalon; Warsaw: Instytut Historii PAN, 2019, 204 pp. (with illustrations)
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Since the 1960s, the concerns of lawyers, sociologists, psychologists and historians have expanded to study prison as an isolated environment, governed by specific rules and used to punish antisocial acts. The legal, criminological, sociological and ethnological literature was the closest to the social problems of the prison, using a specific language of analysis. There have been fewer historians’ concerns for studying special places of detention, such as monasteries. From the first centuries of the Middle Ages, monasteries became places of penance, of moral discipline, for fallen monks, but also for the laity. The custom of transforming some annexes of monasteries into prisons, for various social culprits, was old, being one of the expressions of secularization, which became rampant with the eighteenth century. Detention in the monastery was not only a lack of freedom, physical and mental penance, but also a deprivation of food, water, hygiene, there was a danger of outbreaks of epidemics. The abusive application of the secularization of monastic wealth, from 1863, associated with other laws on monastic life, adopted in the nineteenth century, severely affected the heritage of monasteries. In most cases, monasteries deteriorated due to social, political and cultural neglect. The monastic world was affected by the voluntary departure or expulsion of monks from the dungeon-monasteries. The remaining ones were forced to live in the vicinity of the detainees, without the peace of an authentic religious life. This fate was shared by the Văcărești, Cozia, Mislea, Bisericani, Cotroceni, Pantelimon, Pângărați, Bârnova and Bistrița Vâlcii Monasteries. The most dramatic fate befell the Văcărești Monastery. The monastery and the prison were constantly in a paradoxical situation, their fate in the nineteenth century shows the difference between the penance assumed by the monks and the secular punishment, perceived as a deprivation of liberty of detainees, for antisocial acts. The secularization of the forms of imprisonment gradually led to the priority of the secular penitentiary, which took precedence over the Christian penance, as different and, for a long time, complementary forms of social discipline.
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In 1147, Bernard of Clairvaux wrote a letter regarding a crusade against the pagan Slavs residing on the east side of the Elbe. In his opinion, the nation of Slavs should be either totally exterminated, or converted. The author of the article puts forward a hypothesis that this famous statement of Bernard’s statement ought to be interpreted in the context of his views and opinions on the fight against heresy. The analysis is based on, besides the mentioned letter, some other of Bernard’s writings.
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Johann Jacob Schmidt, a pastor in eighteenth century Pomerania, was an author of five Biblical compendia intended as a help for a detailed study of the Bible. With the focus of the Holy Land, Schmidt provided in these compendia detailed description of the geography, history, customs, and natural knowledge including astronomy and medicine of Biblical times to show the veracity of the Bible and its relevance to any reader of any time, particularly in spiritual matters.
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Round anniversaries of important events invite us to reflect and, in the case of Truths of the Faith, to look at their origins. The dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, present in the Church for centuries, was solemnly proclaimed only seventy years ago at the request of bishops and the lay faithful, in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus. The content of this dogma was developed, enriched with the teachings of successive popes to show that Mary of the Assumption is not only a model, an example to follow, but also the hope of believers for their Assumption.
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Review of: William R. Estep, Povijest anabaptizma: Uvod u anabaptizam šesnaestoga stoljeća, Krapina: Baptistička crkva „Emanuel“, 2020., str. 249.
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The goal of the article is to present the origin and the legal aspects of honouring, as well as awarding and using papal decorations in Poland. It analyses the legal regulations formed as a result of the reforms implemented by Pius X in 1905, Paul VI in 1966 and John Paul II in 1993. These regulations are compared with the established papal practice, international customs and Polish legislation. It is claimed that the present complicated honours system of the Holy See has undergone a profound evolution. The Author interprets the Polish constitutional and statutory provisions which make the receipt of papal decorations as foreign honours subject to prior consent of the President of the Republic of Poland. It has been shown that currently, contrary to the communist times, the Polish regulations recognize the papal honours system without any subjective, objective and functional exceptions and limitations. Political practice is also favourable to papal awards, which is reflected for example by the priority of papal decorations over those from other states. Finally, the article also enumerates the most important rules of using papal honours in Poland.
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This article emphasizes the essence of the renewal of religious life according to the decree of the Second Vatican Council, “Perfectae Caritatis.” The purpose and Christocentrism of religious life is revealed. Basing itself on observations of famous figures in the religious life, the concept of religious life is analyzed: reading signs of the time, noting the charisma of the founder, using given gifts, following Christ in solitude or in religious families. All of the executors of the renewal of religious life, whose duty is inner revival and external renovation, are named.
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The article considers the ordination rites of deaconesses in the Early Church according to the oldest Greek, Latin and Georgian liturgical manuscripts. The oldest reference to women as deacons occurs in Paul's letters (c. AD 55–58). Their ministry is mentioned by early Christian writers. The oldest ordination rite for deaconesses is found in the 5th-century Apostolic Constitutions. It describes the laying on of hands on the woman by the bishop with the calling down of the Holy Spirit for the ministry of the diaconate. A full version of the rite, with rubrics and prayers, has been found in the Barberini Codex In the Byzantine church, women who were deacons had both liturgical and pastoral functions within the church. These women also ministered to other women in a variety of ways, including instructing catechumens, assisting with women's baptisms and welcoming women into church services. They also mediated between members of the church, and they cared for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the imprisoned and the persecuted. Two types of monastic women were typically ordained to the diaconate in the early and middle Byzantine period: abbesses and nuns with liturgical functions, as well as the wives of men who were being raised to the episcopacy. There was a strong association of deacons who were women with abbesses starting in the late fourth century or early fifth century in the East, and it occurred in the early medieval period in the Latin as well as the Byzantine Church. A comparative analysis of sources shows that deaconesses had some functions in the domain of public liturgy which were similar to the functions of deacons, but not identical, and the ordination rite for women as deacons was not identical to the ordination rite for men as deacons. The ancient manuscripts confirm the ceremony performed for ordaining deaconesses was merely a solemn dedication and blessing.
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