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This article analyzes the ideological influences of Egyptian leaders Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb on the Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Banna and Qutb are considered by many scholars as prominent thinkers in the Muslim world of the twentieth century. They have had a major impact on Islamic extremism in modern times, and have dealt with a number of religious and social issues, which exist in Islamic discourse until today. On the one hand, many of their writings were written metaphorically, while on the other hand, their writings are interpreted by many as explicit orders to exercise violence. This article examines whether Qutb and al-Banna’s ideas still have actual impact on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The aim is to make a case for assuming a new standpoint, which will add to the wider research knowledge.
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The article addresses the topic of a religious picture and small sacred pictures derived from it in the aspect of sacral, aesthetical, and artistic values contained in them and received by a recipient. The phenomenological hermeneutics have been considered to be a proper perspective for analysing questions that bind a religious experience with a sensual one. A category of non-distinguishness that renders the connection between signans andsignatum in reception of art and present in religion, derived from H.-G. Gadamer and expanded by J. Tokarska-Bakir has been applied in the present paper. It allows the investigator to see how the sacral and aesthetic values are recognized in a religious painting or in a small sacred picture
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The article describes and presents thinking of three outstanding representatives of a contemporary Czech philosophy of religion. Otakar Funda radically realized the project of demythologization and existential interpretation and he also demythologized the category of transcendence. He became an atheist and corresponds with the thoughts of S. Žižek in understanding of love. Tomáš Halík is a Christian philosopher. He occupies himself with the analysis of relation between secular and religious thinking and the role of Christianity in current society. We could understand his recent book I Want You To Be : Christianity after Religion as a fictitious dialogue with authors who refuse to accept a personal, transcendental God and refuse him as the source of love. Jolana Poláková follows the tradition of dialogical philosophy. She emphasizes the difference between monological and dialogical philosophical theology. The man meets God in a dialogue as much as the God meets the man. The dialogue is a place of God’s proximity.
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In some places in the Book of the Wisdom of Ben Sira we can notice specific. Texts in which the wisdom of God is presented as a person (4,11-20; 6,18-36; 14,20-10; 24,1-34; 51,13-25). These descriptions introduce wisdom in a twofold meaning: with reference to the created word and life also with reference to man’s behavior. Both cases refer to the same attribute of God which is present in the created world as well as in rational and supernatural norms that control human behaviors. It seems possible to read into this picture for not only a common personification in literal sense of words as the means but also in a deeper conception of the subject of this wisdom to show wisdom as hypostasis understood as ‘greatness which has participation in God's nature which through its influence goes into the world without lessening its nature as the cause of the hypostasis’. Wisdom described by Ben Sira is therefore rooted in the Creator. It is the ruler of the world, the people and it holds a divine cult. It leads religious gatherings and in this way it makes peoples' destiny depended on itself. However, it cannot be identified with the elements of study about the Holy Trinity or to be referred to Christ (1 Kor 1,24) Described Wisdom is truly privileged, but it does not match up with the concept of God’s Person because it has many characteristics of man's wisdom. Ben Sira was only developing and improving the already existing process in the early literature of wisdom, describing Wisdom as hypostasis which then by going through the next books was fully developed in the New Testament.
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Numerous evangelical texts present Jesus’ public life as a victory over Satan. Jesus drives out evil spirits with a word and power which he possesses. Texts featuring exorcisms contain a dialog between Jesus and not a sick person but an evil spirit. Miracles – Christ’s exorcisms are a flag symbol of the coming of the Kingdom of God. Messiah’s actions demonstrated in New Testament are the source of Christian service of evicting demons. Jesus commanded His followers to expel evil spirits in his name. In the post-apostolic church the practice of exorcising is done during the baptismal ceremony. Since the 12th century the service of expelling has weakened and since the 13th century under the influence of rationalism and empirical sciences very little has been mentioned about the presence of Satan. Consequently it led to the crisis lasting until modern times. The turning point in changing the church views on this issue was Pope Paul VI’s attitude and his statements. Nowadays, the practice of exorcising is developing intensively. The evidence for it is a new Ritual approved by Pope John Paul II in 1998 and a growing number of appointed priests to the function of exorcist and their regular formation, as well.
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Since the begging of 20th century amongst Ruthenian highlanders (usually called Lemkos) massive movement of changing creed from Greek catholic to orthodoxy started. This movement, often called „religious war in the mountains”, which had a boiling point in the late twenties of 20th century during so called the „Tylawska schism” was a very complicated process caused by few different factors. One of the most important cause were internal problems of Greek catholic Church like i.e. nationalization (ukarinization) which provoked aversion between conservative Lemkos, who had determined ethnic identity as Ruthenians (non Ukrainians). Other internal problem was question of arbitrary changeless in liturgical services made by Greek catholic priests and also a efforts of uniate hierarchy to enter celibacy. Other causes that could be pointed were missionary work of orthodoxy Church, firstly by Moscow Patriarchate and by Polish Autocephalous Orthodoxy Church and social and political factors. Under idea of social factor author understands Lemkos’ poverty that forced numerous group of them to emigration to the USA or Canada where they found their self under the influence of orthodoxy church and usually changed creed. Afterwards they were supporting schismatic missionary work with money and publications that they were sending from America. Also important was position of the Polish authorities, which have support orthodoxy’s progresses, taking them as a chance for Lemkos’ polonization.
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The oldest activity by St. Vincent de Paul was establishing the Company of the Daughters of Charity in Chatillon-les-dombes, France in 1617 which nowadays is known all over the world as the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, whose main purpose was to serve the poor, the sick and orphans. Continuous charity work started with bringing to Poland in 1651 the Congregation of Priests of the Mission by Polish Queen Marie Louise de Gonzaga. The first institution of the Company of the Daughters of Charity in Tarnow and Tarnow diocese was set in 1872 at the cathedral parish, next in 1934 at the parish of the Priests of the Mission, and in 1937 Section of the Young was established at the cathedral parish. The activities performed by Tarnow Society were highly rated by the General Assembly in Paris. Even the process of closing down church societies by the Polish People's Republic authorities in 1949 did not stop the work of charitable groups in Tarnow parishes, in particular, in the missionary Holy Family Parish.
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Family is the first school in life. It is a communion of people, where we are given from father and mother the most important life lesson – lesson of love. From parents, our first educators, the man acquires cultural, ethical, social, spiritual and religious values. The institution which definitely exerts the influence on the education of a young man together with Christ and Church is a catholic school. It possesses a church entity and functions in a system of state education. It is defined by a Christian concept of the world and its purpose is integral formation of the learner focusing on his complete personality development progressing as a synthesis of intellectual, spiritual, emotional and physical formation. At present (2009), there are 500 catholic institutions in Poland including gymnasiums, primary and secondary schools and universities as well. The university with the oldest traditions is The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin and one of the youngest is Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw. Other respected universities are The John Paul II Pontifical University in Cracow and Pontifical Faculties of Theology in Warsaw and Wroclaw. A new phenomenon is establishing universities by convent entities. In particular, Jesuit University of Philosophy and Education ‘Ignatianum’ in Cracow features high dynamism of development. All Catholic schools in Poland belong to the Catholic School Council which has legal personality being under the ecclesiastical and civil law. The council is a full member of the European Committee for Catholic Education in Brussels. Magdalena
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Teaching the class is prevailingly an event of experience. Each teaching class offers new experience for students. Religious studies teacher has a difficult task to present an experience of faith and to try to make a transfer of religious values. Inevitably, in this work, very often it happens that students react differently to the content that is offered, interpreting his methods in a way that was not planned. One of the reasons for this is that new generations, so called “digital generations”, have been growing up with information technology (IT) and are habitual to the cyber space of ’new reality’. Research analysis shows that students spend most of the day with these technologies, examining the ‘space’ of the new reality. It is beyond any doubt that the time spent within this ‘space’ influences their overall development. However, the aim of this articleis not to establish to what extent technology is influencing students’ development, but rather it aims to offer teachers of religious Islamic studies guidelines for a better preparation for teaching class with generations who, besides living in this world, to a great extent live in the cyber space of the world of new reality. This article, thus, presents the basic guidelines for teachers that should be kept in mind when communicating with present generations.
More...GENEZA WSPÓŁCZEŚNIE UŻYWANEJ FORMY MODLITWY W OBRZĘDOWOŚCI KOŚCIELNEJ – KATOLICKIEJ I PROTESTANCKIEJ
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the process of deritualisation of the language of contemporary Polish translations of the Bible on the example of a culture-based text, that is Our Father [Mt 6:9–13]. It was initiated by the translators of Biblia Tysiąclecia (the Millennium Bible) [1965], who radically broke with the traditional linguistic form of this fragment of the New Testament. The analysis assumes the terminological discrimination used in the more recent research on the specifi city of linguistic phenomena in religious communication: the language of religion as a semiotic code and religious language as one of the signs within the code. From this perspective, Our Father, the text of the prayer used in church rituals and said as part of private piety, needs to be considered a text-formula falling into the conceptual sphere of the term the language of religion. Contemporary Polish translations of the fragment of the Gospel According to St. Matthew 6:9–13, in turn, which prioritise the most adequate communication of Biblical contents possible with a language that is fully understandable to the contemporary reader, fall into the sphere of the concept religious language. Selected contemporary translations of Our Father were subject to a linguistic analysis consisting in identifying the distribution of Polish equivalents of the original Greek New Testament. This allowed the following conclusions: 1. Our Father, as a fragment of the Gospel According to St. Matthew, is treated by the contemporary translators of the Holy Scriptures as an integral part of the Biblical text, subject to the principal translation rule, that is faithful rendering of the sense of the Greek original with linguistic devices of contemporary Polish, the consequence of which is a radical departure from the traditional archaic form of the prayer. 2. The traditional form of Our Father, the origin of which dates back to the Bible translations by Jakub Wujek [1593] and Daniel Mikołajewski [1632], which is linguistically archaic today, has become a sign of the language of (Catholic and Protestant) church rituals as a prayer text-formula, which is not subject to modernization. 3. The process of deritualising Our Father has still been in progress, the effect of which is new Catholic, Protestant, ecumenical translations of the prayer (and the Holy Scriptures) that are independent of the code of religious rituals.
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The object of this paper is an analysis of fragments of the Bible which refer to language and its functions either in a metaphorical, indirect, not straightforward manner or in a direct, straightforward manner. The Bible provides the answer to the questions about the origin of language (glottogony), its functions and principles of use. The multitude of such functions is noticeable: creational and denominative (onymisation), integrative and differentiating, evolutionary and stabilising, performative (causative), axiological, manipulative, magical, symbolic, expressive (emotional), prophetic and eschatological, ecclesial and sacral, theandric, etc. They require further research and analyses. Familiarity with and respect for the principles of Biblical linguistics could be helpful both in private and social life of a human being.
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The name Septuagint originally referred to the translation of the first collection of the Hebrew Bible, that is the Torah, into Greek. It later comprised also various books incorporated into it: the translation of other two collections, that is Prophets and Writings. Later, seven other books, translated from Hebrew or written in Greek, were added to the Greek version of the Jewish sacred books, which is when the same name was given to all books, which – by analogy to the Hebrew Bible – gained the status of the Greek Bible. It was an extremely bold and, in many ways, a totally unprecedented translation undertaking, which exerted a permanent infl uence on the European and global culture. The Septuagint was the basis of the New Testament, written and accepted in Greek as a record of Jesus Christ’s life and activity as well as the birth and establishment of Christianity. It was a signifi cant bridge between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament also because it considerably contributed to rapprochement between the Judaic and Hellenic cultures. This paper discusses the origin and impact of the Septuagint as well as its specifi city.
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The Hebrew Bible, in its both prose and poetic layer, is abundant with diverse direct and indirect plays on words, which are applied to a varying degree in individual books. This paper presents selected examples of plays on words from the Hebrew Bible. They are discussed by three categories. The first group identifies homonymic puns and repetitions (e.g. cāpār wāʼēper – ‘dust and ashes’ [Gen 18:27]) and the second – polysemantic puns (e.g. different understanding of the word bêt, the basic meaning of which is ‘a house’). The relationship between proper names and a play on words is discussed separately. The conclusion presents the main functions of plays on words. Unfortunately, this significant element of the works by the authors of the Bible is in most cases impossible to render in translations of the Bible as a play on words is usually lost in translation, as is the thought it expresses. In spite of that, its adaptation was attempted also in Polish translations, e.g. the famous play on words from the Hebrew text Gen 2:23, which occurs between iššāh – ‘a woman’ and ̓iš – ‘a man’ [Gen 2:23].
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One of the consequences of the EuroMaidan Revolution was bringing to light the role that religion and church organisations play in Ukraine. In this context, Ukrainian spiritual leaders have been faced with the important task of uniting the society, or at least not dividing it any further.
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Azerbaijan is the most secular Muslim-majority state in the world. However, despite the declaration of religious freedom in its constitution, Azerbaijan does not make it easy for Christian organizations to operate. Even with thousands of years of Christian history in the Caucasus, attitudes towards Christianity today are largely based on Azerbaijan’s sour relations with Armenia.
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Paul introduced his novel expression ὁ ἔξω ἄνθρωpος as a metaphor for the physical body, identified our “outer person” with a tent-like house and created the combination of the two phrases ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωpος and ὁ ἔξω ἄνθρωpος. “The man within” is inherently connected with the mind, the process of moral decision-making, and it represents this rational aspect of the “I” which is in harmony with the law of God but does not possess the power to overcome sin. The human “I” is split, simultaneously belonging to the old epoch of sin and death and to the new epoch of life and spirit, which places “I” in the midst of an eschatological tension. There is a remarkable similarity of patterns between 2Cor 4:1–5:16(17) and Rom 7:7–25 and 12:1–2.
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This article is an attempt to present some of the theological ideas of Paul using various methods of post-colonial analysis. The writings of Paul are not an easy subject to study, and it should be insisted that the post-colonial lens offers only one way of doing it. The essence of the writings of Paul is defined by salvation by the gospel of Jesus Christ. This proclamation is based on anticipation of the king’s return that the prophetic writings of the Old Testament declare, and therefore it touches not only on the religious sphere but also on the political area of society as well. In putting Paul’s writings into the post-colonial research perspective, it is imperative not to regard them as a simplified opposition or revolution against Roman society. There is much more than a dualism in them, and it is wise to take into consideration Paul’s broad and complex discursive program.
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