Small Towns - Big Ideas
In the Czech lands, small towns are once again forming the nation’s culture and mentality. Many of the greatest Czech thinkers, be they poets, intellectuals or scientists, have frequently come from small towns.
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In the Czech lands, small towns are once again forming the nation’s culture and mentality. Many of the greatest Czech thinkers, be they poets, intellectuals or scientists, have frequently come from small towns.
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East Germany and the former Czechoslovakia were very similar countries. But their attempts at dealing with their Communist pasts differ.
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For Germany to truly succeed, it needs a second reunification.
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A report from Kalmykia, Europe’s only Buddhist nation. Republic of Kalmykia is part of the Russian Federation.
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A number of factors that aided the Orange and Rose revolutions are not present in Belarus: the ruler is more authoritarian, the public not yet as motivated to become involved.
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In its campaign against global terrorism, the US is degrading its own, European and International law. “Whatever quality control mechanisms were in play on September 10th were eliminated on September 11th.”
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The text is dealing with the so called household (status) codes (Haustafeln) especially in the Letters to Colossians and Ephesians. Both texts, parts of a more voluminous parenesis for the community of the church, are based on a scheme typical for that period of relations between man and woman, parents and children, and lords and slaves in a household. The Christian interpretation of that scheme in the Letters to Colossians and Ephesians brings a significant innovation, because it is based on a new understanding of man as renovated in Christ. Although the patriarchal order is maintained, still these relations are seen in a new way in which the decisive role is played by pointing to Jesus Christ and his relation to the church. In the Letter to Ephesians first of all the relation between man and women is elaborated and their unity is stressed. The example and at the same time the place of realisation of their relation is the relation between Christ and the church. This relation full of love, obedience and selfsacrifice from both sides ought to fill and represent the Christian marriage. The Letter to Colossians deals with the relation between the lords and the slaves. This relation is again made relative by pointing to Christ. A.significant moment is stressing the dignity of human work, because it is – irrespective of human evaluation – service to Christ himself. Also the relation between parents and children is seen as a partnership with duties from both sides. Beyond that, the letter to Ephesians stresses the duty of parents to educate in faith, to pass the values of life. These texts, though they are often understood as sanctification of patriarchal structures, in reality want to lead to responsible and effective family life in which everyone has his or her role and responsibility. This is the lasting message of these texts irrespective of the momentary social structures which are passing.
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The relationship of Christ and church is an important topic in the work of Joseph Ratzinger – P ope Benedict XVI. This article presents a summary of Ratzinger’s theological approach in a double respect: first, it shows how the current Pope relates the mystery of church to Christ, then it expresses Ratzinger’s approach to Christology on the ground of church hermeneutics. The close connection between Christ and church, which is rethought by the author in the context of up-to-date Christological crisis of church life and in consequence of the 2nd Vatican Council (Lumen gentium, Dei Verbum), is conveyed by the Ratzinger’s notion of church as God’s people, which rises from Christ’s body, and by his explanation of revelation, which is necessarily tied to the accepting subject of the church. Therefore church without Christ is dead and Christ without church incognoscible.
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In this article we intend to present the divine liturgy of the presanctified gifts, an ancient and significant Lenten liturgy of the Byzantine tradition. It consists of vespers and a solemn Holy Communion.
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This article interprets the secret of Easter in the Byzantine rite by means of mystic-theological reflection, or by means of spiritual development of a personality as perceived in the Christian mystic tradition. The article is chronologically structured according to the sequence of days of the liturgical period. The method is the application of the teaching of personal spiritual development by means of the path of conversion, purification, enlightenment and unification on individual days of celebrating the secret of Easter in the Byzantine rite. The gift of knowledge of the perfect agape love which is concluded in the Eucharist leads the man to the conversion and truthful self-knowledge. On Good Friday the worshipper meets the root of all evil and sin, the egoistic and idolatry selflove, confronts themself with treachery, renouncement and succumbing to evil. By Jesus Christ’s road to Calvary who assumes the consequences of the original sin, the man is internally purified and acquires the inner attitude of humbleness and confidence instead of the darkness and anxiety of the soul. The secret of Holy Saturday is Christ’s descending to pre-hell and His Annunciation which liberates from the hell of abandonment and despair in death. People waiting for salvation are enlightened by the announced God’s words; they can fearlessly bear the burden of disturbance to relationships and participate in the resurrection. Worshippers unified with Christ’s God-humanity participate with Easter joy and peace in the expiating force of Christ’s Resurrection. The new God-human life of Easter Sunday is thus opened which a Christian enters through the sacrament of Christening.
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Coptic-Arabic liturgical texts express the Easter mysteries in the rich idiom of the Scriptures and ancient Christian tradition, as seen in the Eucharistic Liturgies of St. Basil and St. Gregory, as well as in hymns and prayers of the Sixth and the Ninth Canonical Hours. They concentrate on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross as connected to that of the Holy Mass. The liturgical texts profess, in accordance to the Creed, the Divine economy of salvation in the incarnation of the Son of God and his crucifixion for human sin, his death and descent to the hell as well as ascent to the Father. Prefigured in Isaac and the Suffering Servant, he is seen as establishing the Eucharistic Sacrament on Maundy Thursday to perpetualize the effects of his sacrifice for participants in the Mass. His trial and his suffering before Pontius Pilate is contemplated, along with his crucifixion, his acceptance of the Thief on the Right. The liturgical texts essentially confess Christ’s death in the human body, his burial and descent to save the deceased, his resurrection and his ascension to sit with the Father. These points are succintly expressed in the ancient Trisagion. Fundamental is the connection between Christ’s incarnation and the redemption as well as between his past work of salvation and its present effect in the Eucharist. Coptic liturgical texts unite catechesis of faith to acting out Christ’s Easter mysteries where the salvatory events happen in the life of the participants.
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We present a brief description of the contextual situation of Gypsies in Portugal. Then we compare the expression of racism regarding Gypsies in Portugal with what happens in other European countries. Our results show that white Portuguese people manifest a pattern of evaluative answers regarding blacks that closely approaches what is found, in a dominant way, in other countries of the European Community regarding the different minorities that live there at present: the answers show subtle racism. On the contrary, the attitude of the Portuguese regarding Gypsies is openly negative, while it is positive or subtly negative in other communitarian countries and openly negative in the Eastern countries.
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The aim of this paper is to explain the ways of structuring identity strategies and maintaining positive self-esteem in the institutionalized or excluded school children, within the framework of social identity theory. The main hypothesis is that institutionalized pupils choose collective strategies whereas excluded children prefer the individual ones. The secondary hypothesis refers to the factors that can influence this choice such as personal self-esteem, collective self-esteem and locus of control. The subjects are 88 secondary school pupils institutionalized or not and selected to have different sociometric statuses. The results infirmed most of the hypothesis. The main conclusion is that we can not distinguish specific strategies of institutionalized children but we may notice a preference for mobility strategies. Personal and collective self-esteem do not relate with the choice of strategies and locus of control influences the choice of a strategy if it is external.
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Starting from two main concepts - brainstorming and groupthink - this article analyzes the group decision making. The context, risk shift as well as the role of culture value theory in the group decision making are crucial to a better understanding of this process. By taking into account these aspects, the author will emphasize brainstorming as a technique used to promote and stimulate the group creativity, leading to productivity of the ideas generated and postponing their criticism. In the second part of the article, the pathologizing effect of the groupthink phenomenon during group decision making is considered.
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This article intends to explain how the "Transnistrian identity" is constructed by transnistrian authorities through their official discourses and how this narration is perceived by the population of the left bank. We examined the main mechanisms and stratagems of the construction the "Transnistrian identity", focusing on the the memories of the Transnistrian conflict and of the Soviet past, politics of celebration centred on the "heroic" years from the history of the Transnistrian republic, and the discourse of the federalization of the Republic of Moldova. Applied approach attempt to prove the fact that social frameworks of the past comprise the structure of the collective memory, and are materialized, modified and shaped by means of language. By applying the discursive analysis, we attempt to determine how language is used to engineer an array of versions of the past events and which are the interpretative repertoires, adopted explanatory and supporting pattern, that have been employed in the management and construction of the Transnistrian identity.
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