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The author of the article "Evolutionism from a Biblical Perspective: An Analysis of Dennis Alexander's Book: Creation or Evolution: Should We Choose?"1 discusses the relationship between creation and evolution, explained in the book mentioned above. There will be addressed issues related to the biblical hermeneutics proposed by Alexander, who intend to reconciliate those two hypotheses. We will agree that the method proposed is part of the traditional hermeneutics, used in interpreting the sacred text. The biblical perspective on Creation is also discussed from the perspective of Alexander, who states that Scripture is not interested in how it all began, but in why things exist, and that religious truths and scientific truths do not belong to the same field. The symbolic interpretation proposed for the biblical passages, such as John 3 and John 6, ignore the real world described by the same sacred texts. The article evaluates also the assertion from the book regarding the accommodation of biblical authors to the worldview of their time, trying to show that this is a reductionist assertion. The book says that by all methods of dating, the earth is much older than creationists claim. In this article, there are suggested alternative explanations for supporting a young universe. It is argued that the universal Flood from Genesis, can be taken as an alternative explanation to the so-called scientific natural selection theory.
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The Orthodox Romanian deanery of Chişinău-Criş is one of the historic tracts within the Eparchy of Arad. Attested by documents in the second half of the 18th century, for two hundred years it will contribute to the development and good running of church, social and even national-political life. Taking into account the multi-ethnic, multicultural and multi-confessional challenges in these parts of the country we will realize that the effort made in this regard was colossal. Endowed by God, through the diocesan authorities, with capable Archpriests and vocational priests, the Chişinău-Criş Archdiocese will endure the hardships of the times, including after the establishment of the communist regime in Romania. However, shortly after its bicentennial, in 1968 it will be abolished. Thus ends the existence of one of the oldest and most dynamic deaneries that has shaped the history of the Arad's Episcopate for two centuries.
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Today’s Orthodox Christian parents insist on giving priority to the religious education, even if their limited time obstructs them from participating in the service of a church as much as they would prefer. The Orthodox Christian communities lack the practice of getting together for purposes connected with specific parental interests. Early childhood is the most important period for a person’s development. Preschool time necessitates the maximum attention from the parents. The model provided by the close adults is absorbed by children thanks to the rapid evolvement of the brain till the age of five. Parents’ religious life influences the connection between the child and the living God. The parents’ involvement in the activity of a parochial church contributes enormously to the child’s emotional development. Social abilities are easily acquired when preschoolers enjoy multifold opportunities to interact with other children. The dynamics of an Orthodox Christian family is endorsed by its devotion to the religious aspect of life. Staying close to God and fulfilling His commandments changes the entire life.
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Even if the book of Genesis (chap. 2), proposes monogamous marriage as the only one that corresponds to God's will, the relationship between the spouses of the Old Testament family has a number of deviations from the idea of the primordial family. One deviation of this type is polygamy. According to the book of Genesis the first polygamist that the Holy Scripture mentions was Lamech, a descendant of Cain, who took two wives (Gen 4: 19). The patriarchs of the Jews themselves, not only kept several legitimate wives at the same time, but also had concubines (Gen 22: 17;12: 3). Although the Holy Gospels do not give us any direct words of the Saviour against polygamy, it is absolutely clear that it could not have a place in His high conception of marriage (Matt 19: 4-6).
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Illness and its consequences, as an integral part of human life, are often presented in biblical accounts. The Bible, however, puts the main focus of interest not on the depiction of the dramatic experience of the individual but rather on the theological interpretation of disease as a righteous punishment for sin. Hence, except for the Book of Job, the description of man’s suff ering is one-sided, concise and laconic. Descriptions of isolation are another matter. The examples analysed in this article — Job, King David, Jesus of Nazareth, st. Elizabeth, the anonymous daughter of Jephthah, John the Baptist and the Hebrews during their journey to Canaan — illustrate various models of experiencing the phenomenon of isolation. They can be assigned to three paradigms: isolation–alienation, isolation–integration, as well as isolation–crisis–rebellion. Due to the specifi c nature of the literary genre, this paper is based on the narrative books of the Bible. The Book of Psalms and prophetic books were excluded from this analysis.
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This study aims to investigate the promotion of digital transformation in Umrah and Visitation through the management of smartphone applications (such as Tawakkalna and Nusuk) in light of COVID-19. The research measures the impact of digital transformation on visits during COVID-19, in light of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 statement, in terms of pilgrims’ and visitors’ satisfaction with the services provided in Madinah. The study relied on the descriptive analytical approach to collect and analyse primary and secondary data as the basis for research findings. An electronic questionnaire was designed and distributed to pilgrims and visitors in Madinah. The study found a positive significant impact of digital transformation on visits during COVID-19 in light of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 statement and pilgrims’ and visitors’ satisfaction with the services provided to them. The study recommends that decision-makers and employers emphasize the need to use Smartphone applications in Hajj and Umrah visits even after the end of the Corona crisis. Applications were found to be critically important in limiting the spread of the virus. There is a need for continuous improvements in digital transformation in Hajj, Umrah and visits.
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The article has systematized and analyzed the digital indicators of the evolution of the eparchial women’s colleges, which existed in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries on the basis of the reports of the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod. This made it possible to distinguish the main characteristics of the women’s education level, both secular and religious, as well as to go far beyond the study of the history of separate educational institutions of the spiritual ministry, to avoid a regional approach to the coverage of eparchial women’s education. The analysis of the digital indicators and the corresponding calculations gave the possibility to reveal the dynamics of the increase in the number of women’s colleges in eparchies throughout the country and the increase in the number of students in eparchial colleges. The general development of women’s religious education has shown that the Kyiv eparchy had the highest rates in this sphere. Furthermore, eparchial women’s colleges in Kyiv were more open to representatives of other social classes.
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The study examines the role of religious experience and faith in human life. It draws primarily upon the thought of Romano Guardini. The aim is to find the reason why, despite the secularization efforts in recent decades, we observe a return to spirituality and to religious experience. The starting point is the human being and its constitutive openness to something transcendent, to the sacrum, which enables him to live a religious experience. Then the study pays attention to the sources, subject and object of religious experience. The last section deals with the status and importance of revelation and faith for human life.
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The article presents a certain type of icons found on the territory of our country, especially in the Russian old believers communities. Bronze icons are on their own, as individual objects, but also as components of complex creations, they are usually positioned centrally, in spaces specially designed for their insertion in the main support of the object usually it is made of wood. The article describes the bronze icon but also the restoration operations performed to save it. The object presented is connected to certain customs of one of the existing ethnic groups in Dobrogea, an ethnic group that coexisted in harmony with other nationalities, this land washed by the waters of the Danube and the Black Sea being known for its varied interethnic mosaic.
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Father Raniero Cardinal Cantalamessa presents four periods of evangelization that have taken place in the history of the Church. He refers to them as „waves of evangelization”, indicating that these extraordinary periods of evangelization are reminiscences of the beginnings of the Church. Their appearance is related to the emergence of a new group of recipients unfamiliar with the message of the Gospel. Cantalamessa’s analysis indicates that the actual content conveyed to them is the kerygma. Appropriate pastoral reflection is also required by the choice of a keryx who is to effectively reach the recipients with the message of salvation. The four „waves of evangeliza- tion” are, according to the Italian theologian, a return to kerygmatic evangelization.
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Christian missions in Cameroon were quite closely related to European colonization. It came with noble slogans of bringing civilization and freedom. But it had primarily economic and political goals. Although missionary activity was born from other motives, it was nolens volens entangled in the politics of the colonial states. The Cameroonian coast nominally belonged for centuries to Portugal. At the end of the 18th century the missionary activity in Africa had almost completely disappeared. The beginnings of the mission in Cameroon were entangled in the intricate politics of England, Germany, and France in particular. Without this political dimension it is impos- sible to fully understand the contemporaneity of the various Christian denominations in Cameroon.
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The presented article takes up the issue of missionary accommodation on the example of the Church in Cuba. It is shown in both theoretical (theology, conciliar teaching, papal teach- ing with special reference to Pope Francis) and practical (consultation with missionaries and the author’s own experience) assumptions. The purpose of the article is to reflect pastorally on the involvement of missionaries in pastoral ministry and to identify the essential accommodative ways used by them. The final conclusions point to the need for missionaries to be creative and open-minded in their search for new ways to evangelize, and to overcome obstacles in the way of proclaiming the Good News.
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Review of: SUZANNA IVANIČ, Cosmos and Materiality in Early Modern Prague, Oxford 2021, Oxford University Press, 244 s., ISBN 978-0-19-289898-2
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The birth as a Romanian and Christian people, in a concomitant manner and time, gave rise to in-depth research on both the national origin and especially the apostolic origin of the Romanian people’s faith. Exacerbated nationalism and the phyletism of exaggerated faith still give rise to verbal disputes. Moreover, the idea of an ethnic messianity and the search for a true leader who must be strong, with intact morality, semi-authoritarian, but at the same time gentle and understanding, become increasingly hot topics in the syncretic space of Byzantine symphony (religious and political).
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This text presents the findings of a contextual analysis of Artapanos’ writing On the Jews. The peculiarity of this Alexandrian writer lies in his vivid depiction of the image of the Diaspora, which is unprecedented elsewhere. Artapanos tries to convince his reader of the closeness of Jewish culture to both the Egyptian heritage and Hellenistic culture. His Moses, shaped in the fashion of a hero, is shown as the greatest benefactor of mankind and, as such, mainly as the hero of Egypt. Of the various possible interpretations of the phenomenon of Artapanos’ work, this study points to a plausible thesis of a syncretic orientation of some part of the Alexandrian Diaspora. This would include the Jews, who lived in the conviction of being faithful to their tradition, while at the same time absorbing Hellenistic culture and relating with kindness to the Egyptians.
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The aim of this article is to show the spirituality and Marian devotion among Christians who belong to the Bantu ethnic group, living in most parts of East Africa. It turns out that many customs and traditions of the biblical chosen people, from whom Jesus and Mary came, still find their references and parallels among African tribes today. It is worth mentioning only such values as respect for life, love of family, protection of children and the elderly, remembrance of the achievements and traditions of ancestors, and interpersonal solidarity, especially in the face of suffering. These timeless values create a family and tribal community in Africa, and in the spiritual sense, a community of faith and the Church of Christ. Christianity, therefore, with all the richness of its values, has found good ground for growth and expansion. Respect for the mother and family as well as tribal ancestors is one of the most important values that African people cherish. Hence the great reverence for Mary, the Mother of Jesus, whom believers also consider their spiritual Mother. Africans have accepted Mary as their Mother, who consoles and gives hope in suffering and intercedes with her Son, Jesus.
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