Gerald O’Collins, Catholicism. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017, 168 p.:
This is a book review of:Gerald O’Collins, Catholicism. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017, 168 p.
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This is a book review of:Gerald O’Collins, Catholicism. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017, 168 p.
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Jerusalem Temple represents a religious and political unity symbol for the chosen people. The study aim’s is to evidentiate this status of the Temple in Haggai’s book. Therefore the author presents the historical context in which the prophet had lived and prophetised highlighting some important aspects of his message. In conclusion he asserts that the prophet reached his goal: the Temple was rebuilt and the postexilic Israelite community consolidated both religiously and politically around it.
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In this research, we propose to approach a topic of iconography from a patristic perspective. In other words, we want to investigate and see how the iconic morphology of cherubims respects the details mentioned or debated in the texts of Holy Fathers and assumes the theological message transmitted by them. Although Holy Fathers texts represent the main inspiration source for iconography, it is possible that the icon painters inspire also from other sources in their realisation of artistic representation There we will try to analize especially the tetramorph morphology, one that challenged very much the creativity of icon painters. We will use the contextualisation and the method of linguistic analyse, but the main method will be specific to the Christian East, where the most important aspects are the unity of text and integrity of theological message.
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In this paper, I will try to explore the social consequences of mystical theology that we can find in Pseudo-Macarius’ works. When we mention Pseudo-Macarius, usually we associate this name with a teaching of prayer that leads to an ascension towards God. However, in my opinion, his understanding of love towards other people and toward God’s creation still remains unexplored. Through his Homilies and his Great Letter, I will try to draw an outline that will show practical implications of his mystical theology upon human relations towards creation and fellow man.
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What we witness today is secularism in church and state relation and moral pluralism in society. The modern state separates state and church, if not on all the levels, surely on the level of separation of governmental and religious institutions. State and church relation is based on the principles of equality, liberty and neutrality. But secularism of state means not the end of religion! Before we look on a conscientious objection of individual subject in modern secular state, we try to analyze concept of common good with his historical context. If the common good is not provided for, people’s individual goods are not sure either. We can therefore see that individual goods cannot be put in opposition to the common good. St. Thomas Aquinas has shown that since every man is part of our common existence, it is impossible for any man to be good without having a good relationship towards the common good. Our aim is to find a role of Christian character of secular society and basic elements of a good secularism for a politic society and the Church in a modern time.
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In the nineteen century the Romanians from Transylvania were facing the danger of magyarization. In this huge risk, a Romanian revolutionary priest, Simion Bãrnuţiu preached the Romanian identity and patriotism at the Romanian National Assembly from Blaj in 1848. His sermon is the synthesis of all historical, cultural, educational, theological, legal, administrative, political and economic arguments for the Romanian national identity. His speech is a sermon due to its motivational, emblematic character, with special rhetoric and drama, and due to the fact that it is spoken in the church on Sunday, after the Divine Liturgy, by a clergyman, in the context of a ”feast” of the Romanian nation. Through the importance of Simion Bãrnuţiu’s preaching in the consciousness of the participants, it becomes the inspiration for the National Anthem of Romania, composed by his student, Andrei Mureşanu. And by analyzing and combating the Greek-Catholicism from a community perspective, the author highlights the issue of religious historical conflicts. At a time when nation consciousness was in formation, Simion Bãrnuţiu’s sermon is one of the pillars of affirmation of the Romanian identity and patriotism.
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In the paper, the authors focused Gregory Palamas theology regarding the divine light which he had developed during the hesychast controversy that occurred in the 14th century. Palamas entered in an intellectual debate with his adversary Barlaam with the purpose of explaining to him the fact that the man could experience a union with God and thus see the divine light, different form any other physical light or light source. This divine light represents the topic of the paper. Our research begun with reviewing theological literature of contemporary theologians like Dumitru Stãniloae, John Meyedorff, Patrícia Calvário or Florin T. Tomoioagã which had previously studied and spoked about Palamas theology. Throught the paper the authors show and explain what divine light is, its apophatic charachter and what are the means through which it could be seen. They concluded that the uncreated light is beyond words and transcend earthly realm being knowable and perceptible only in relation with God mediated by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
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During his state visit to Bulgaria in early May, the pope offered words of contemplation for the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
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This essay focuses on the theme of Jesus’ corporality in the Fourth Gospel. While Johannine studies rightly tend to underline the various ways in which John communicates Jesus’ divinity and union with the Father, this gospel is also filled with texts that stress Jesus’ humanity. From the prologue to the resurrection scenes Jesus periodically appears not only as fully human, but also as fully bodily. The introductory part of the article traces some of the occurrences of the motif of Jesus’ humanity/corporality. In the attempt to point up their significance and function, the two main parts then identify the texts which describe Jesus’ body parts and his physical postures. The essay notes John’s particular interest in drawing attention to Jesus’ body parts and postures, a feature that contributes to John’s being „a maverick Gospel“ that continues to fascinate its readers. As the Son of God in constant communion with the Father, Jesus, as portrayed in John, emerges as a fully human and bodily person.
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It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the history of philosophy from Plato to Hegel is the history of a loss of human corporality, which has destructive consequences, because human body is the most universal symbol in every culture and society. Ludwig Feuerbach is trying to return the corporality back to human beings through the rehabilitation of emotions and of the intersubjectivity based on the love between the concrete, personal, physical Me and a concrete, personal, physical You. The Christian idea of God should not be based upon the picture of human being without body, but should closely match the entire and real essence of human being that is primarily rooted in nature.
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The survey presented here shows how the German literary identity gradually took shape over more than four centuries, through influences from abroad and, at home, enterprising attempt to find new ways of expression. It is difficult to provide exact dates for the Old period, due to the relatively small number of textual sources available, but it is generally accepted that the centuries from 800 to 1100 were the highpoint of Old German literary activity. Of all the pagan poetry hardly anything has survived. The famous „Hildebrandslied“, an epic fragment narrating an episode of the Dietrich saga - the tragic combat between father and son -- was written down after 800 by two monks of Fulda, on the covers of a theological manuscript. In thisarticle light is shone on those works that have to some extent been overshadowed. Each individual work opens up intertextual „chasms” which led to digressions into the history of ideas. The result is a multi-faceted panorama, offering many insights into the mentalityof texts and their socio-cultural contexts.
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Svetlana Kujumdzieva. The Hymnographic Book of Tropologion. Sources, Liturgy and Chant Repertory. Routledge. London-New York, 2018, IX + 184 р., 10 plates (ISBN 9781315099019)
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The article demonstrates how the application of discourse theory in order to problematize the definitions of religion and public sphere may bring novel and promising results in the study of religion’s public presence. The article consists of three parts. In the first part, the existing research on the public presence of religion is briefly reviewed, with a particular focus on José Casanova’s theory of de-privatisation and public forms of religion. In the second part, it is discussed how the assumptions underlying Casanova’s theory limit our understanding of and research on public religion. In the third part, it is demonstrated that discourse theory may help to overcome these limitations and may allow for the more adequate diagnosis and interpretation of the role of religion in the public sphere.
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Following Latvia’s military occupation in 1940 by the Soviet Union, the destruction of the Latvian State and Army, the nation’s last remaining resistance structure was the National Partisan movement, that waged a guerrilla warfare against the Soviet regime in 1941 and 1944–1956, along with non-violent dissidents and the Church, the latter two groups being active up until the demise of the occupation regime. The Communist regime’s attitude towards the Church during the occupation of Latvia is precisely characterised by the words of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic’s chief atheist ideologist Zigmunds Balevics (1933–1987): “in a developed socialist society, religion is the only legal and yet, still rather influential form of ideological opposition”.
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In this paper we will consider some ritual ceremonies that are made for bread, which we have registered in the areas of Tetova and Gostivar with the surrounding area. Bread and other dough processing represent the oldest way to prepare this food. In this regard, we will present material collected from the field, which are inherited from paganism to this day. These rituals that are made with bread and are done to bread, follow the human from birth to death. We have found it present in Muslim and Christian Albanians, and they accompany every religious and family celebration.
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The first Jesuits permanently settled in Courland in the second half of the 17th century. It was the ‘third wave’ of the establishment of the Society of Jesus in the Latvian lands. At first, the short-lived college of Rīga and residence of Cēsis (1582–1625) served as a basis for the Jesuit activities in Vidzeme. Later on, the foundation of the residence in Daugavpils in 1630 (elevated to the rank of college in 1761) with numerous missionary stations attached to it was a starting point of long and continuous presence (until 1820) of the Society in Latgale. The first Jesuit community to be founded in Courland was the mission in Skaistkalne (in 1660). Subsequently, Jesuits settled in Jelgava (residence since 1690, united with the mission in Skaistkalne), and a residence in Ilūkste was opened in 1690. After the division of the Lithuanian Jesuit Province in mid-18th century, in 1761 residence of Ilūkste was elevated to the rank of a college, and both Jesuit communities in Jelgava and Skaistkalne started functioning as two independent residences.
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Although the Spiritual Exercises by Ignatius Loyola are popular among representatives of various denominations, the exercise contemplating on the appearance of Jesus to his Mother after the resurrection sometimes contributes to confusion. [218] 1The first Contemplation. How Christ Our Lord Appeared to Our Lady [299] [219] 1… after Christ died on the cross, his body remained separated from his soul but always united with his divinity. His blessed soul, also united with his divinity, descended to hell. Then, releasing the souls of the just from there, returning to the sepulchre, and rising again, he appeared in body and soul to his Blessed Mother. The fact that such an event is not mentioned in the canonical gospels gives rise to the following questions: (1) what is the oldest evidence reflecting the traditional view that Jesus appeared to his Mother after his resurrection; (2) what literary sources inspired Ignatius to include this scene in the Spiritual Exercises; and (3) how does understanding of the genre of the Spiritual Exercises help realise the sense of the above contemplation, and is this sense equally topical for Christians of all denominations.
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This painting is invaluable in the general picture of sacral art in Latvia. In 1936 the picture was described by a priest and art historian Kazimirs Jasens. He indicates that the painting is located in the chapel at Jelgava Roman Catholic graveyard. The artefact was considered to be destroyed during World War II, but luckily it was found in 2013 far away from its original place, in Kaunata, Southeast Latvia.
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The history of the Roman Catholic faith in Latvia during the last three hundred years does not display pronounced tendency to develop institutions of exclusively “holy life”. This phenomenon is explicable by the fact that the Tsarist Russia, in whose territory Latvia was incorporated, did not foster the monastic way of life for the Catholic believers. After the Polish uprisings ( in 1830 – 1831, and in 1862 –1864) the Tsarist administration implemented the policy of closure of Roman Catholic monasteries. Ideas about alternative forms of religious life, except Through the offices of pastoral service did not take hold in lay or popular priestly imagination. Paradoxically, however, the Society of Jesus is thankful to the Tsarist regime, for permitting its activities within the Empire at a time when the rest of European monarchies were enforcing the regula of Pope Clement XIV (1769–1774) about the closure of the Order of Jesuits (1773). Therefore the return of the Order of Jesuits to Latvia in the thirties of the 20th century is to be taken as a renewal and revitalization of Jesuit activities there, thus ensuring the continuity of the spiritual tradition.
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The article represents the theoretical or conceptual description of the phenomenon of charisma, which is related to social work as professional activity and is focused in social worker, who is the leader in his / her professional activity. So why it is accentuated that personal charisma of a social worker is a constellation of complex social and emotional skills that allows charismatic individuals to influence others at deep emotional levels, communicate effectively with them, and build strong interpersonal relationships. Authors of the article discuss the possible answers to the following research question: How to recognize, accept and (self)develop personal charisma in social work? In the article the interdisciplinary pont of view is provided and amotional and social skills are discussed in relation to social worker‘s charisma. Authors conclude that Some of charisma-related skills are born innate, others are perfected over time, but the most important is proper application of skills. Charisma of a social worker is related to emotional intelligence, which consists of self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. Different social work situations require differently developed skills, which msut be developed through long life education, in which the self-managed learning through interactions and within the professional environment must be the priority.
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