The Orthodox Church in Ukraine and the Ukrainian Language after Revolution of Dignity

Author(s): Nadia Gergało-Dąbek / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

Language plays a very important role in the religious life of an individual, community and state. A common language gives a feeling of unity, helps to create community bonds and facilitates integration and consolidation. Under the influence of the Revolution of Dignity and the hybrid war with Russia, the sense of national identity began to grow in Ukrainian society, and the attitude towards the Ukrainian language as an important component of national identity and security changed. Many Orthodox believers in Ukraine attach more importance to the language of worship and the attitude of the Church towards the hybrid war with Russia. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine established in 2018 represent different attitudes towards the annexation of Crimea, the war in eastern Ukraine and the language of religious practice. The UOC MP, staying in the protectorate of the Russian Orthodox Church, has never condemned the annexation of Crimea and the armed aggression of Russia against Ukraine. In the UOC MP, there is an informal ban on the use of the Ukrainian language, as they perceive liturgical activities in Ukrainian as a betrayal of the "Russian world". Such an attitude causes misunderstandings and even indignation on the part of the faithful, who more and more often go to the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine presenting a pro-Ukrainian attitude.

Rola malowanych jaj w ukraińskiej obrzędowości

Author(s): Yuliya Zlochevska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2022

The article describes the phenomenon of one of the oldest and most significant fields of Ukrainian folk art ‒ Ukrainian Easter dyed eggs, represents the mythical origins of Easter dyed eggs, explains the process of making decorated eggs and highlights their role in Ukrainian folk ceremonies, mainly spring and Easter rites and traditions. In purpose to demonstrate the phenomenon of Ukrainian painted eggs, the author formulates a hypothesis from which it follows that the Easter dyed egg plays a very important role in Ukrainian rituals, both pagan springtime and Christian Easter. The article refers to the achievements of Ukrainian researchers in this area of study, notably the scientific studies of Mykoly Sumcova, Erasta Biniashevskiego, Vasylia Sapigi, Oleksy Voropaja and others.

Několik poznámek k eschatologii v Rozmlouvání člověka se Smrtí

Author(s): Bára Činčurová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2023

The article aims to shed more light on how the late medieval Czech dialogue Rozmlouvání člověka se Smrtí engages with eschatology. Firstly, it focuses on death; mainly that despite the dreadful descriptions of dying the poem maintains that death is a righteous, necessary pathway to an adequate afterlife. Attention is also paid to Trost’s remark that the personified Death embodies both, the first and the second death. Next, the paper focuses on the soul and the body in the dialogue, i. e. their painful separation and their reunion at the end of times. Lastly, the study touches upon afterlife, expanding Trost’s claim about death to concepts of personal and universal eschatology. While striving to capture the overlap of particular and final judgment or hell and second death, it stresses the importance of Death’s rejection of purgatory.

Новият рай - Небесният / Новият Ерусалим. „Старият“ [шеол] и „новият“ ([гей-(х)ином]) ад

Author(s): Mony Almalech / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2004

Samuel Pufendorf (1632–1694) a jeho pojetí právního řádu jako syntézy racionalismu a zkušenosti

Author(s): Radim Seltenreich / Language(s): Czech Issue: 90/2023

In his article, the author examines Samuel Pufendorf (1632–1694), who is considered one of the leading representatives of the conception of natural law. First of all, he tells us about the life of this thinker and his work in the German region and in Sweden where he also wrote his two most important works on natural law. He interprets this primarily as a synthesis of rationalist and empiricist approaches and points out that a person’s rights must be derived from his duties. Finally, the author also notes Pufendorf’s interpretation of religious life, emphasising his efforts to distinguish between the spheres of action of church and state, however much he includes both under the label of corporation. In conclusion, he also reminds us of Pufendorf’s critique of the state-law structure of the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of how his work was received in subsequent legal developments.

Genealogy of Christian Leadership: The Role of Pastoral Care in Educating Communities

Author(s): Vincenzo Salerno,Andrea Mattia Marcelli / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

Pastoral care can be understood independently from specific religious values. However, there are communities for which pastoral care is intertwined with their own religious identity. This paper examines Christian leadership style applied to pastoral care as a historical contingency provided with its own ontological placement, which resulted in the transformation of Christian communities into educating communities. The genealogy of such leadership practices reveals the existence of two concurrent functions: that of the shepherd and that of the helmsman. Both contribute to steering communities in ways that are both consistent with religious tenets and mindful of the creation of meaningful change.

Farár Alexander Šindelár vo funkcii starostu obce Piešťany

Author(s): Stanislav Žlnay / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 1/2023

Very few Slovak communities or cities have in their history a Catholic priest as the head of their administration. One of those was the city of Piešťany, which during the years 1931 – 1938 had as mayor the local priest, Alexander Šindelár. Acting as the mayor of Piešťany, he had a significant contribution in building relationships between the community and spa. In the state archive there is an original copy of his first official mayoral speech. He built the road bridge across the river Vah, and paved streets and paths. For the needs of residents, he founded the new cemetery, which is still operating. Šindelár ended his political activity; he was a district president of Hlinka´s Slovak People´s Party. After the end of his tenure as mayor, he devoted himself solely to pastoral activities in his parish. Šindelár tragically died in his parish in November 1947, after blessing one of the missing bells from the First World War. He is buried in the cemetery not far away from his parish church.

Osudy jezuitov v Spišskej Novej Vsi v časoch druhej svetovej vojny

Author(s): Marek Rímsky / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 1/2023

After the First Vienna Award and the occupation of southern Slovakia by the Hungarians in 1938, the Jesuits from Košice had to move from the newly built house to a new residence in Spišská Nova Ves. The small community repaired the church and the habitation in which it lived. The order took over the rights and duties of the vicariate, so it had to teach religion in the city and its surroundings. The Jesuits often had to deal with personnel issues and especially the problematic figure of Father Ján Guga, who had a close relationship with the Orthodoxia and Russia. In the city, they watched the movements of the troops and experienced the atmosphere of war. The most unpleasant situations were connected with the persecution and deportation of the Jewish population, whom the superior of the house, Štefan Kramár, tried to help by baptizing them. The documents of the house were preserved in the Michal Lacko´s Centre of Spirituality East-West, where they are stored, only until August 1943. For this reason, we only know detailed information about the life of the Jesuits in Spišská Nová Ves until this period.

Tvor věřící jest řeči pln: výzva hermeneutiky pro teologickou antropologii

Author(s): Zdenko Širka / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2023

This study focuses on the ways in which people live in speech and how speech becomes their home. It shows how through speech one expresses existential questions, how speech can grasp the search and finding of the good, the true, the beautiful, how speech formulates the question for God, how it asks for God’s name. At a deeper and more fundamental level, then, it traces speech as that which speaks to us, dealing with the relationship of speech and understanding, the possibilities of communication, dialogue, and, finally, how we can bear witness in speech to that which is inexpressible. The study takes inspiration from the ideas of (theological) hermeneutics, especially those of Hans-George Gadamer (1900–2002), which we use in the context of theological anthropology to show its relevance to how humans understand themselves and the world around them, how they understand God, and how they speak about themselves in relation to God.

Tomasz Snarski, Kościół katolicki wobec kary śmierci. Między prawem a filozofią i teologią, Biblioteka Więzi, Warszawa 2021

Author(s): Konrad Burdziak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 42 (1)/2023

Pühajõe mäss 17. sajandil ja selle taga olevad uskumused

Author(s): Merili Metsvahi / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 3 (83)/2022

In 1640 the landlord of Sõmerpalu in South-Estonia ordered to build anew watermill on the sacred river Pühajõgi. But in the years 1641 and1642 the weather turned extremely poor. Among the peasantry a strong belief set in that the bad weather conditions were revenge of the Pühajõgior the deity living there, who had been offended because of the dam and the mill built on the river. The peasants destroyed the dam, the watermill and purified the river. In the article perception of the nature by Estonian peasants of the 17thcentury is discussed. The main source used is the book Kurtzer Bericht und Unterricht Von der Falsch-heilig genandten Bäche in Lieffland Wöhhanda (A Short Report on and a Lesson by the River Võhandu in Livonia, Wrongly Regarded as Holy) by Johann Gutslaff (1644).

Зараждането на иконата в първите векове от възникването на християнството

Author(s): Ivelina P. Ivanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

This article presents the way of the iconography from the nascency of the Christian religion, the first centuries of persecution and the profession of faith in the underground catacombs, which became the natural home of the first Christian images, to its recognition as an equal religion in the IV century.

Mieczysław Gogacz’s Anthropological Explanation for the Existence of Angels

Author(s): Izabella Andrzejuk / Language(s): English Issue: 11/2022

Professor Mieczysław Gogacz, the renowned philosopher and founder of the recent version of Thomism – the Consistent Thomism 1, claims that angels are the final causes (causa finalis) of human soul. He derives his conception from the principle, characteristic not only for Thomism but also for the entire classical philosophy, which says that for the existent results we respectively search the prior causes. Ultimately, such established philosophical stance regards searching for causes and asking about causes. Hence in analysing the problem of final causes understood as the external causes which constitute the essence of human being, it is worth to define the scope of the research. First of all, we search for the answer to the question about the causes of human being, therefore metaphysics of real beings is the area of our study, what results in further implications. Primarly, we need to acknowledge that each essential state or activity inevitably must possess its real cause in another being. When we notice there is no such cause it means that we encounter the subsistent being (ens subsistens). It belongs to the essence of the method of metaphysics to demand theses cause to be indicated. Metaphysical methodology, when applied consequently, allows to claim that within the area of human being, reality is that what the essence exclusively receives from its existence (esse). Consequently, there must be some other causes that constitute the essence in its internal content, endowed with an act and potency (potentia), both spiritual and material. The aim of this paper is to follow the thought of Gogacz exactly in the area of discovering the role of angels as causes for the particular development of human soul. Therefore Gogacz’s proposal becomes the „proof for the existence of angels”, on the basis that each thing in order to act and cause results must, first of all, exist.

Poznanie intelektualne duszy ludzkiej oddzielonej od ciała (anima separata) a intelekt czynny i możnościowy

Author(s): Michał Zembrzuski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 11/2022

The purpose of this paper is to attempt the answer to the question of how the soul comes to know, not as a form of the body, but as a subsistent form, independent in its existence from the body, but dependent on its own created act of being (ipsum esse). We will be interested in the question of how the separated soul comes to know: Whether the two intellectual powers that are naturally in the soul - the possible intellect and the active intellect - will realize their acts, and therefore whether the soul will come to know at all, and whether it will come to know individual reality? There will be a theological theme in the paper, that is, a theme determined by the issue of the completion of the human structure in the body (the resurrection of the body) and the related beatific vision, which is the achievement of the end of human intellectual activities. It seems that the question of anima separata is not a purely speculative problem, since it contains the answer to the question of understanding human nature, an answer that is most relevant to philosophy in its practical field. For Aquinas, the existence of a separated soul, suspended, as it were, be-tween existence in an animated body and existence in a glorified body, is “hypothetical”, and the humanity of such an entity is incomplete. However, given that Thomas is essentially considering real and not possible entities, the topic of the existence and workings of the separated soul should not be within the field of his subject matter. It seems, however, that Thomas was interested in confronting such a theme, which would reveal the uniqueness of human nature also in this aspect.

Moralny wymiar apostazji. Uwagi w kontekście filozofii klasycznej

Author(s): Marian Szymonik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 11/2022

Apostasy is a phenomenon which is gaining strength especially in contemporary religious life in Poland. This paper addresses the issue of the moral dimension of apostasy. A definition of apostasy is the starting point of this analysis. Then conditions of departure from faith are presented. The first are objective con-ditions connected with the state of contemporary culture and philosophy. Contemporary thought is marked by philosophical nihilism, whose main manifestation is the abandonment of metaphysics. In the next part subjective conditions of apostasy are discussed, which basically derive from misconstrued human freedom. The phenomenon of apostasy is also affected by social factors. The discussion closes by drawing attention to the connection between the axiological crisis and apostasy. The paper seeks to draw attention to the moral responsibility of man for the act of apostasy. Man is a free being. A particularly sensitive area of this freedom is religion. Man’s openness to truth makes him open to God as the ultimate fulfilment of man. Just as truth is the means of human existence, so also religion appears as the sphere of the highest values that give meaning to human life. From the philosophical, especially moral point of view, apostasy appears as a form of man’s escape from a deeper, and at the same time difficult, insight into the sense of his own life and the whole of reality.

Людмила Ф. Фомина: Космонимия в Бивлии руской Франциска Скорины

Author(s): Liudmila Fomina / Language(s): Russian Issue: 3/2023

The article discusses the nominations of the Great Bear constellation, the Pleiades asterism, the planet Venus and the collective name Zodiac in the Russian Bible by the outstanding pioneer printer and translator of the 16th century – Francysk Skaryna. The purpose of the article is a historical and linguistic analysis of the astronomical nominations presented in the biblical books of Francysk Skaryna, in particular, the study of the sources of their appearance, the correlation of Church Slavonic and popular names (Czech, Russian, Belarusian). It is noted that cosmonyms make up two groups: the first – Church Slavicisms, continuing the Cyril-Methodian tradition in this lexical sphere; the second – the popular names, partly due to the influence of the Czech Bible of 1506 and widely known in the territory of Slavia. The name of the Zodiac is also marked by Czech-Latin influence. Comparison with the Ostrog Bible, which appeared in the 16th century and later as a model of the normalized Church Slavonic language, demonstrated that the language of Skaryna᾽s Bible largely deviates from its norms and is subject to the Belarusian linguistic influence. The author comes to the conclusion that the lexical and grammatical features of the Church Slavonic language of the Belarusian version are reflected in the cosmonymy of Francysk Skaryna᾽s Russian Bible.

Preface

Author(s): Maya Ivanova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

Cyril and Methodius. Images. Memory. Identity (A Book Review)

Author(s): Ewelina Drzewiecka / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

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Еditions of the Cyrillo-Methodian Research Centre at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences for the period 2021–2022

Author(s): Nely Gancheva / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

SLOŽENOST CRKVENO-DRŽAVNIH ODNOSA U UVJETIMA VJERSKE, NACIONALNE I POLITIČKE HETEROGENOSTI

Author(s): Nikola Čiča / Language(s): Bosnian,Croatian Issue: 23/2023

Review of: Krize, sukobi i solidarnost u perspektivi crkvene povijesti (od srednjega vijeka do suvremenosti), Zbornik radova s V. kongresa hrvatskih povjesničara. Zadar, 6.–9. listopada2016. godine, Ana Biočić (ur.), Katolički bogoslovni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu – Kršćanska sadašnjost, Zagreb, 2021