Kozmikus elrendeltség sorsfordító folyamában

Author(s): Sándor Békési / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2010

Das Buch Esther scheint dem Leser zuerst eine einfache Lektüre zu sein, nur später werfen sich Fragen in uns auf. Warum besitzt Esther keine Persönlichkeit? Warum kommt der Name Gottes nicht in dem ganzen Text vor? Warum steht die den Juden zulässige Grausamkeit am Ende der Geschichte? Die Antwort lässt sich kurz zusammenfassen: das Buch Esther ist eine historische Moralität, die das Befreien des Volkes Israel von der fremden Herrschaft auf der Basis des babylonisch-persischen (Massoretischer Text) und des ägyptischen (LXX) Astralmythos erzählt. Mit dieser Gestalt erfüllt das Buch zwei Anforderungen: einerseits können die Juden Mittel und Wege finden, um ihre Befreiung von der intriganten Gewalt aus zu bezeugen; anderseits wird es möglich, fremden Kulturen den befreienden Gott apologetisch bekannt zu machen. Die Wende der Geschichte ist der kosmische Sieg der Personifikation der Istar-astarte-Isis-sothis-Esther, die das Volk Israels repräsentiert. Gott greift in die von den Sterngöttern angeordneten Ereignisse ein und mit diesem Akt zerlegt Er die Geschichte in zwei Fäden: in einen kosmologischen und in einen historischen Religionskreis.

Prawda informacji dziennikarskiej w społecznym nauczaniu Kościoła i kodeksach etycznych środków komunikowania

Author(s): Paweł Leszko / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2019

The purpose of this article is to show that the most important feature of information provided by a journalist is truth. One of the basic human rights is the right to true information, because the common good can be built only on the truth. The journalist’s task is to take care of the truthfulness of information at every stage, both during the collection, transmission and use of appropriate technical means.

La création du monde, du paulicianisme arménien au bogomilisme bulgare et au catharisme occidental.

Author(s): Alain Vuillemin / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2019

According to a Cathar legend retold in 1960 in the tale The Santa Estela del Centenari (The Holy Estella of the Centennial, written by Occitan and French author Joan Bodon or Jean Boudou, Satanael or Satan, the evil demiurge, had created the world. This account of the origins is also the story of the Bogomils in Bulgaria. The belief originated in Armenia, on the border between the Persian Sasanian Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire, between the 5th and the 7th centuries A.D. Since the end of the 19th century, however, these conceptions have resurfaced again in modern literature, theatre, novels, and poetry, both in Bulgaria and in France. What can a comparativist literary approach based on the scarce Cathar, Bogomil, and Paulician texts we have at our disposal reveal about this lost account of the origins of the world, and about the questions posed by Paulicians, Bogomils and Cathars on the existence of God, evil, and man?

Aspects de l’image de la Thrace dans le discours religieux de l’Antiquité

Author(s): Mina Tasseva Bencheva / Language(s): English,French Issue: 24/2019

The sacred discourses (hieroi logoi) are a group of ancient texts that existed in some philosophical and religious movements such as Pythagoreanism, Orphism, the cult of Dionysus and the goddess Isis. Due to their secret content, much of these discourses is now lost or known only partially, by accounts of various Greek authors such as Herodotus, Pausanias and Plutarch. Excerpts of these works can therefore be regarded as testimonia to various details on the content, authorship and transmission of these discourses. According to some of these testimonia, Orpheus and Thrace were involved in the composing and transmission of some of the most ancient hieroi logoi. The paper intends to explore aspects of the image of Thrace and its role in religious communication based on these testimonia. After a brief introduction, it will focus on the narratives related to the region. According to a tradition related by Iamblichus and Proclus, Orpheus was the author of a sacred discourse that was thereafter transmitted to the Greeks. Both the creation and the transmission took place in specific locations in Thrace. The analysis of that tradition, along with the locations and the techniques of transmission it refers to, suggest that these locations were associated with a special kind of religious knowledge, hence their mention played a significant role in the narrative and in conveying its message.

Самотракийските божества в заклинание от Късната античност

Author(s): Georgy Mishev / Language(s): English,Greek, Ancient (to 1453),Bulgarian,Latin Issue: 24/2019

The paper discusses a magical incantation on a lead tablet from the so-called tabellae defixionum. Among the invoked deities in the text of the incantation of special interest is the mentioning of the names of the Samothracian gods, otherwise known only from a fragment by the 3rd century BC mythographer and geographer Mnaseas. The presence in the text of an invocation of Dionysos, and of other deities connected with the mystery cults, is an interesting evidence about the connection between the mystery and magical rites during the Late Antiquity.

Томислав Йованович на 70 години

Author(s): Anisava Miltenova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 38/2019

Златанова, Румяна. Дръзки са словата ви... Мал. 3:13. Житията на Дванадесетте пророци в старобългарски превод

Author(s): Yavor Miltenov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 38/2019

ESOTERIC PRACTICES OF BULGARIAN INTELLECTUALS IN THE 1920s AND 1930s: A CASE STUDY

Author(s): Georgeta Nazarska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

The article presents some facts of newly-found archival documents, testifying to the existence of esoteric networks and practices involving the Bulgarian intellectuals in the 1920s – 1930s. The structure, aims and practices of an esoteric network created by Stoyan Zaimov (1853 – 1932) – a famous Bulgarian revolutionary and cultural figure, are reviewed in the context of the rise of secret and closed societies in Bulgaria after World War I.

Osmanlı Medreselerini Islah Çabaları Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme

Author(s): Hasan Yıldız / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 1/2019

Madrasahs which set ground for Ottoman education system are institutions provided important services for both government and the society approximately six centuries throughout its institutional existence. It is quite predictable that reforms are made due to unsystematic implementations and occasionally occurred problems in Madrasahs which are established and expanded based on needs of muslim community, which was a key factor of state organisation and the empire. The abundance of academic studies which had maintained it for three centuries by accepting irregular implementations and problems, that is the reason of reform activities, as a start of impairment and regression are noticeable. To link impairment and regression with an event occurred in the past, and to discuss six century long aquis by tearing apart from its context and approach as it is an independent piece, moreover, to make comparison and evaluation over non-equivalent educational institutes are preventing approaches for good results. In this article, needs of reform in Ottoman madrasahs which had six century long past, reform attempts and its results, whether impairment and regression are originated from structural matters, and how far implementers are effective in impairment and regression are evaluated and discussed. The aim of this article, which was prepared by scanning archives and scientific studies of said period, is to make sound evaluations about Ottoman madrasahs. In this context, contrary to widespread narratives, it is revealed that within the periodical context, madrasahs and those affined with them exhibited attitudes open to change and development.

ПЕРЕНЕСЕНИЕ МОЩЕЙ ПРП. ИОАННА РИЛЬСКОГО (1469) В КОНТЕКСТЕ ПРАВОСЛАВНЫХ БАЛКАН ВТОРОЙ ПОЛОВИНЫ XV ВЕКА

Author(s): Dmitry I. Polyvyannyy / Language(s): Russian Issue: 3/2019

Translation of St. John of Rila’s holy relics from Tyrnovo to Rila monastery in the literary works devoted to it was represented as an eschatological epilogue of the medieval Bulgarian culture. A decomposition of the description within the context of the social and confessional realities of the early Ottoman domination at orthodox Balkans allows to look at the event itself against the background of the emerging sociocultural processes. Their main actors were local communities of clergy, former aristocracy and citizens as well as intellectual networks of authors and scribes. The renewed sacral geography of the former Byzantine, Bulgarian and Serbian lands became an element of the early Ottoman sociocultural landscape. The translation of St. John of Rila’s relics is represented in the article as result of common efforts which lead to the affirmation of Rila monastery as the main spiritual and cultural center of the Bulgarian lands under Ottoman domination.

Gastrodiplomacy: a (Not-So-) Soft Power

Author(s): Raúl MATTA / Language(s): French Issue: 23 (1)/2019

This article aims to analyze gastrodiplomacy, which has become a trendin international relations, as a set of institutional practices that pushes the boundariesof the political uses of food cultures. I will show that the rise of the concept in recentyears lies to the fact that it extends to the national and international levels, itsintrusive and performative nature (that is, generative of participation and action) andstrong ideological charge. More specifically, I will address the way in whichgastrodiplomacy, as instrumentalized by public and private agencies, participates inthe making of imaginaries aimed at facilitating the adhesion of citizens to theinterests of political and economic elites.

Organizing on the Internet: Semiological Analysis of a Digital Apparatus of the Online Candles

Author(s): Delphine Saurier / Language(s): English Issue: 23 (1)/2019

Religion is massively present on Internet, and for two decades scholar shave studied this presence essentially to understand the effects of Internet on religious practices. In this article we conduct a semiological analysis of a digital apparatus called Online candles in order to show how an apparatus for asynchronous cyber rituals has been developed for the benefit of a religious organization: theSanctuary of Lourdes. In so doing, this article contributes new findings that advance our understanding of how religious practices on the Internet reveal a new age religious organization strategy.

Prusko-­brandenburskie fascynacje islamem

Author(s): Krzysztof Bassara / Language(s): Polish Issue: 676/2019

Historia tatarskich osadników w państwach pruskich wyłamuje się z prostego mitu historii Warmii i Mazur jako czysto polskiej lub niemieckiej. Państwo na wskroś chrześcijańskie budowało swą potęgę dzięki lokalnym atutom współżycia różnorodności etnicznej oraz religijnej.

Католическите мъченици на България (1944 – 1989 г.) – от политическа репресия към религиозен култ

Author(s): Iglika Mishkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2019

Maximos életrajza: források és következtetések

Author(s): Miklós Vassányi / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 3/2016

This paper intends to offer a sort of status quaestionis concerning St Maximus the Confessor’s life story. In a first instance, the biographical sources are enumerated under two headings: 1. Greek and Latin sources; 2. Syriac monophysite sources. The first group includes Maximus’ correspondence, the Diputatio cum Pyrrho, the Relatio motionis, the Disputatio Bizyae, the Hypomnesticon, the Vita Maximi and several minor epistles. Among the Syriac sources, generally hostile towards the Confessor, we find George of Resh’aino’s invective, Michael the Syriac, the Chronicon anonymi, and Bar Hebraeus’ chronicle. For each source text, a description and an analysis is offered with especial respect to the main moot question of the Confessor’s biography, namely, to whether he was of Constantinopolitan or of Palestinian birth. The conclusion is that all considered, the second option seems more likely in the mirror of the most recent research.

RECENZJE

Author(s): Przemysław Sołga,Dariusz Adamczyk,Andrzej Kobyliński,Mirosław Golon / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2019

1. Review of: Helena Słotwińska, Pedagogika religii w relacjach z dyscyplinami teologicznymi,Wydawnictwo KUL, Lublin 2016, ss. 242. ISBN 978-83-8061-264-8. Review by: Dariusz Adamczyk 2. Review of: Paweł Lisicki, Poza polityczną poprawnością. Polska, Europa i Kościół między nihilizmem a islamem, Wydawnictwo M, Kraków 2017, ss. 272. Review by: Andrzej Kobyliński 3. Review of: Józef Binnebesel, Koncepcje lęku przed śmiercią w kontekście Tanatopedagogicznej Relacyjnej Terapii Zastępczej, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UMK, Toruń 2018, ss. 529. Review by: Mirosław Golon 4. Review of: Jerzy Prochwicz, Arcybiskup Stanisław Gall (1865-1942). Biskup Polowy Wojsk Polskich, Ordynariat Polowy, Warszawa 2018, ss. 52. Review by: Przemysław Sołga

METHODOLOGICAL STATUS OF THE SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH BEFORE THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL

Author(s): Jerzy Gocko / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2018

The present article raises the issue of the methodological status of the Church’s social doctrine from its beginnings, namely, from the social teaching of Leo XIII, to the Second Vatican Council. In the first part, the author highlights the substantial role of the Magisterium in constituting the Church’s social doctrine. The second part, presents an analysis of the key social documents of the Church, with particular emphasis on methodological strands. The reflection is based on the assumption that the Church’s social doctrine is not just another ecclesial scientific discipline, since it involves a more complex reality in terms of practitioners, methods, sources of cognition or, finally, the nature of assertions formulated within that area of science.

SPRAWOZDANIA

Author(s): Andrzej Kobyliński,Radosław Błaszczyk,Mirosław Stanisław Wierzbicki,Stanisław Chrobak,Krzysztof Niegowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2018

1. SPRAWOZDANIE Z KONFERENCJI NAUKOWEJ CZŁOWIEK POSZUKUJĄCY PRAWDY (Poznań, 11 maja 2017), Report by: Andrzej Kobyliński 2. SPRAWOZDANIE Z XXXI SYMPOZJUM LITURGICZNEGO SAKRAMENT ŚWIĘCEŃ JAKO DAR I TAJEMNICA (Ląd nad Wartą, 20 października 2017), Report by: Radosław Błaszczyk 3. MIĘDZY EKSKLUZJĄ A INKLUZJĄ W EDUKACJI RELIGIJNEJ RELIGIA JAKO DYLEMAT EDUKACJI – TEORIA I PRAKTYKA (Wrocław, 8-9 grudnia 2017), Report by: Mirosław Stanisław Wierzbicki 4. SPRAWOZDANIE Z MIĘDZYNARODOWEJ KONFERENCJI NAUKOWEJ HISTORICAL, LEGAL, POLITICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS OF CONTEMPORARY MILITARY AND NON-MILITARY CONFLICTS (Warszawa, 12-13 marca 2018), Report by: Andrzej Kobyliński 5. SPRAWOZDANIE Z DZIAŁALNOŚCI TOWARZYSTWA NAUKOWEGO FRANCISZKA SALEZEGO W ROKU 2017, Report by: Stanisław Chrobak 6. DZIAŁALNOŚĆ KULTURALNA MIĘDZYNARODOWEGO CENTRUM DIALOGU MIĘDZYKULTUROWEGO I MIĘDZYRELIGIJNEGO UKSW W ROKU 2017, Report by: Krzysztof Niegowski

Religious threat. Islam in the discourse of right-wing Polish-language web portals after the parliamentary elections of 2015 in Poland

Author(s): Stella Grotowska / Language(s): English Issue: 1 (237)/2019

The article shows religious phenomena as a part of agenda setting performed by Polish-language portals. The research included the content analysis of 3 intentionally chosen websites (niezalezna.pl, wPolityce.pl, telewizjarepublika.pl) identified as right-wing or conservative both by journalists and media researchers in Poland. The study was based on the assumption that communication via media has an effect on the formation of public opinion by raising specific topics, assigning meanings to objects, people or events, and moving issues from one agenda to another (e.g. from the area of politics to religion). The author also assumed that users and journalists working for right-wing portals view religion as a natural element of their worldview and are interested in religious themes. This is believed to be the reason why they pay more attention to these themes than journalists and publishers of left-wing media. The aim of the research was to find the basic topoi organizing narratives concerning religion, social contexts in which religion was situated and functions assigned to it in media interpretations. A qualitative analysis of texts regarding religious phenomena was performed. The results of the study showed that during the examined period of fifteen months between 2017-2018, most statements were related to Islam. However, the analyzed texts did not concern Poland directly. The texts focused on Islam in western Europe or other parts of the world. These fundamental topics were highlighted throughout the analysis using the agenda setting theory: conflict and violence, the clash of civilizations, demography, rivalry among religious ideas, the political agenda. Throughout the research, two components were distinguished – the cognitive and the affective. The cognitive component was based on scientific sources (for example, in texts about demographic problems), but then again it was limited to very basic and generalized statements. In the affective layer, negative emotions prevailed.

Relacje rząd rumuński – Cerkiew w kształtowaniu oficjalnej polityki tożsamościowej państwa po 1989 roku

Author(s): Jan Wendt,Jan A. Wendt,Alexandru Ilies,Tomasz Wiskulski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2018

Relations between the Romanian government and the Orthodox Church after WorldWar II changed several times with the change of the party’s policy and role of thechurch in socialist Romania. After the persecution and arrests of clergy in the 1960s,the church became a useful tool in promoting Romanianism in Transylvania andBanat, a loyal ally of the communist authorities. After the Romanian revolution(1989), its role in shaping national belonging and national identity in the official onegovernment policy has increased. The aim of the research and analysis carried out isan attempt to indicate the dynamics of changes in clergy vocations and administrativestructures in the Romanian Orthodox Church and to assess the role played by thegovernment-Church relationship in shaping the official identity policy of the state,as well as national identity in the post-revolution period. The work uses statisticaldata presenting changes in the Romanian Church and the report “Religious beliefsand nationality in Central and Eastern Europe” developed by the Pew ResearchCenter based on surveys carried out in 2015–2016.