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Written in the pandemic times, this article reflects some of my concerns relating to the political intrusion into the internal life of the Church, which is dishonestly showed by most of the „new guard” influencers as a factor of physical and social contamination.
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Amin Maalouf, a French-Lebanese writer with a rich cultural and religious heritage, is the perfect author to study if we want to discover the importance of the tradition in the muslim society. It is a fact that the Lebanon is a tolerant country in the matters of the religion, and when we realise that the religion and the tradition go hand in hand, it is easy to see why the novels of Amin Maalouf are the best fit for this article. Therefore we propose to use in the construction of this article the following two novels ,,Leo Africanus’’ and ,,Samarkand’’, because they cover a variety of relevant topics, such as: the role of the Muslim woman and her position in the family, the discrepancies between the Islamic leaders and the believers, and the study of the Magical thinking in the oriental environment. The ancient popular beliefs, the rituals, the legends and the superstitions are the main points of interests this research, because the author relies on their pre-Arab origin to show that not even the inflexible religion of the Islam, can’t delete or alter the spirit of a nation. Unfortunately, the artistic and the creative qualities of the Muslim people are seriously affected by the faith. The author gives us some clues if we are able to read between the lines, and the conclusion is that this explosion of the occult sciences is due to the lack of freedom of the artistic expression. If the religion is the weapon of the men, consider the tradition as part of the identity of the women, and you will be able to understand why its roots are so well planted in the ground.
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After 1998, when the religious organization Aum Shinrikyo lunched the sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway system, the new religious movements were perceived with skepticism by the Western world. New religious movements in Japan appeared mostly after the end of World War II, when emperor Michinomiya Hirohito declared that he was not a god, which was the foundational myth giving legitimacy to the Imperial family. Many Japanese lost their faith in the traditional religions and were looking for a different belief system. The trend of new religious movements grew due to the industrial and economic development of Japan. It increased the Japanese need to believe in something, which enabled charismatic individuals to create new religious organizations. These were founded on the syncretism between traditional Asian religions and Christianity and fulfilled the need for religions different from the old traditions. The present paper tries to present the context for the establishment of new Japanese religious organizations culminating in the new religious movement, Aum Shinrikyo. Using Haruki Murakami’s book, we will emphasize the way in which Asahara Shoko created a dystopic society and a terrorist group, which led to the suffering of many people.
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This communicate signs up on the line of an interdisciplinary approach, which is to be taken as an demarche within the realm of theological liturgy and of philosophical thinking concerning the subject of time itself. The research seeks the critical approach of philosophical thinking concerning time as a class, which appertains existence itself, by also taking into consideration the reference of many authors, such as Martin Heidegger – alongside his notable work Sein und Zeit (Being and Time), in which it is originally approached the subject of phenomenology –, Henri Bergson, etc., capitalizing, all together, the recent researches regarding the idea of time and the experience of time. We will later approach the idea of how time is seen by the orthodox theology, especially from Father Dumitru Stăniloae position in his theological studies focused on the liturgical time, also by the most important spiritual figures that belonged in the contemporary orthodoxy. For theology and for liturgical experience, time cannot be seen self- depended from eternity. Eternity itself allows the existence of time, by also giving it value and meaning. Only the eschatological perception offers value to the ordinary time. From the liturgical and philosophical points of view, the relationship between time and eternity, and the possible meeting between them, it is what we wish to put forward via this communicate. Inside of liturgical experience, God conveys the soul-destroying time into a linear one, which is an eschatological destination. Moreover, this destination is present, updated and foretasted in the relationship with God, through particular praying but also through liturgical prayer. This is the concrete quote from Saint Maximus the Confessor, which states that everything that is created is catechized after the Cross. Even time itself is traversed by the Cross because through it we ascend to “a new paradise and new land”, but, simultaneously, that reality already exists within God Himself, like a crack from above and within the eternal life.
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The current article explores the same thematic levels as the previous article, entitled The time. Philosophical hermeneutics, theological reflection and liturgical experience. The article is located at the confluence between hermeneutics, ontology and theology, addressing multiple aspects related to these three vast fields of study. Under these conditions, the article we propose has an inter- and multi-disciplinary character.
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The human being is radically open to God. Christ's need is to have man who is loved. In Augustine's journey of conversion there is a logic, there are passages and components that go beyond personal experience and can become everyone's experience. Augustine is keen to meticulously record every moment that leads him towards the light. The conversion is his, but from the way he tells it, it can belong to everyone.
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The religion of our ancestors, the Geto-Dacians, interests us because we are talking about the spiritual field in which Christianity has embedded its roots on our lands. The small amount of sources makes it difficult to present this theme and at the same time leads to endless discussions regarding the polytheism or monotheism of the Geto-Dacians. Written testimonies from the Geto-Dacians did not remain, and the archeological discoveries did not bring enough elements for the reconstitution of this religion. However, from the Greek and Latin writers there were precious information about the doctrine, the rites, the sacrifices, the structure of the priestly corps, the religious reforms, the sacred architecture, the similarities between the religion of the Dacians and the religions of the neighboring peoples, the religious transformations and adaptations after the Roman conquest. We learn about the supreme god named Zamolxis, his role as high priest, his commandments or forebodings. The Geto-Dacians believed in the immortality of the soul. This faith explains the bravery and heroism they show on the battlefield, but also the conviction that their souls will go to the god and much more, their austere life and the power to give up any earthly good for the attainment of the immortality of the soul. The belief in the immortality of the soul imprinted a deep seal upon their entire life.
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Religious persecution in the modern world no longer takes the form of negation of a religion and particular religious beliefs. Instead, believers are subject to harassment for being religious at all. This new form of persecution points to the need for a concern for religious freedom which would enable the cultural presence of religion to be restored. Analyses of religious freedom are usually made from a legal and political perspective. The present article, however, addresses problems of metaphysical, anthropological, and theological justifi cations of religious freedom. The stages of incorporating freedom into religion are shown by describing the passage from the attitude of hostility towards it, to the idea of tolerance, to the implementation of religious freedom. The author also presents transformation of the ideas of God, man, and truth which occurs when freedom becomes a religious category
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The Holy Apostle Paul expresses his attitude towards death with the help of the image of the sacrifice, a sacrificial offering out of love for God, considering that the time of his departure from this world has arrived, like a ship returning to its homeland. The apostle, now on the threshold of eternity, casts a glance over his past and summarizes, in a few words, all his mission and the faithfulness with which he fulfilled it, then he looks to the future and joyfully contemplates the glory that awaits him. With the help of other images such as fighting, running, the crown, taken from the sports field of the respective times and frequently used by the Apostle, the athletic aspect of Christianity is emphasized, a true celebration of faith. The apostle fought the good fight for the defense and propagation of the Gospel like a strong athlete. He reached the end of the race, that is, he completed the apostolic work that was entrusted to him. St. Paul often uses these similes, borrowed from the public games, to explain how the life of true disciples of Jesus Christ should be. He kept his faith, that is, he was faithful in the performance of his duties and above all in keeping the depository of the truths of the Gospel. These feelings of the Apostle don’t come from an attitude, but from a good conscience and a firm hope. The apostle, in his capacity as a preacher, didn’t betray the deposit of truth entrusted by the Lord.
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Through the concept of intersectionality, this paper examines the marginalisation, exclusion and disciplining by dominant institutions and systems, of Muslim women in Bosnia and Herzegovina who wish to wear the headscarf in the country’s public service. It contributes to the conceptualisation of a larger situational framework that captures the complex positions and lived experiences of Bosniak Muslim women, through the case of Emela Mujanović Kapidžija of the Armed Forces of Bosna and Herzegovina. Mujanović Kapidžija’s repeated requests to wear the headscarf while in uniform triggered reactions that revealed the underlying Islamophobic and sexist culture that has long dominated the country’s social, political, legal and psychological spheres.
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This text and this approach seek to draw attention to the forms of human mediation of the idea of God; to the death of the media in which God has revealed himself, which coincides with the loss of confidence in the idea of God, which is too human. In this sense, there is talk of an ‘earthly God’ who serves various interest groups as an excuse to act or not act. The idea of God returned to his barbaric presence in the lives of our peoples. The sky is divided. God has become an excuse for idols and their institutions, gods among men. It is up to the true believers to try to unite heaven and try to hear heaven with some new medium.
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The article analyses two research problems related to media representations (digital lexicons of emotions) and visual metaphors of emotions in the Internet materials concerning religions during the pandemic. For the analyses two research techniques were used: analysis of the content and analysis of visual metaphors. Using the key words ‘religion’ and ‘coronavirus’ yielded 100 natural search engine results from Google Search (organic search), coming from all over the world, e.g. UK, USA, Poland, Canada, India, Israel, Iran, Qatar, North Korea, subject to content analysis. The research material employed in the study of metaphors are selected illustrations listed in an international catalogue of photographs and illustrations involving religious motifs, available during the COVID-19 pandemic. The metaphor analysis covered the illustrations selected from the study data, with the richest visual semantics and meeting at least one of the definition requirements for a visual metaphor. On the basis of the analyses of virtual lexicons of the emotions of fear (and accompanying distrust), anger/wrath, happiness/joy (and accompanying: hope, trust, satisfaction, mental balance, peace of mind, closeness, solidarity, compassion, care, solace), and sadness/uncertainty, a general conclusion was formulated about the enrichment of the emotional media culture with new contexts of language use. The described examples of visual metaphors of emotions allowed for the reading of compositional techniques, symbolism, colours, contrast and elements taken from the original metaphors. The results contribute to the studies of the social concept of emotions presented in the digital media and of new contexts of their media representations. They point to the adjustment forms of the organization of social life on the Internet initiated by religious practices that are, by their nature, emotional. The media representations and visual metaphors of emotions contribute to the creation of universal lexicons of emotions.
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The objective of the study was to investigate the topic of forgiveness, conceptualized as a personality trait and understood from several perspectives. In a wealth of meanings commonly found in universal scientific discourse, the religious and psychological approaches to forgiveness could be revealed, making the understanding of this mechanism more comprehensive. More than that, we can assume a complementary view of forgiveness, initially perceived as a religious ritual, where people wished to receive forgiveness from the deity, and then by extending the concept to the interpersonal level, where people manifested a need for mutual forgiveness for aggressions suffered. The latter approach shifted the idea of forgiveness from a divine concept to one present at the psychological level, which allowed the identification of several models, dimensions and measurement tools of forgiveness. Not least, the paper aimed to glimpse the explanatory factors of forgiveness present in the psychological narrative. In this regard, it seems that loneliness, machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy and perfectionism play an important role in explaining forgiveness as a personality structure.
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Aşık Veysel is an important representative of the minstrel tradition in the context of Turkish thought. Looking at the philosophical depth of his poems, it is possible to see a philosophy of life. The subject of this study is to analyse the meaning of the image/metaphor of the act of pouring trouble in one of his poems and to determine how this image is effective in the healing process in spiritual support and guidance. In other words, it is to examine the effect of cultural codes on people in an anthropological context. In this sense, it is an applied study. The study was carried out in a tent city in Adıyaman, one of the provinces damaged by the earthquake that occurred in 11 provinces on 6 February 2023. The study was conducted in two different time periods. Four different groups were studied. In this study, the impact of spiritual support and guidance activities on "adults" was presented. In summary, when we look at the effect of cultural codes on the healing process, it can be seen that it contributes greatly to the search for meaning in such extraordinary moments of crisis.
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The Odes of Solomon, a collection of Christian prayers from a Syriac or Hebraic environment, are an extremely valuable document, able to portrait the first century theology of Christian communities around Holy Land. Dated around the end of the first century until the middle of the second century A.D., the Odes of Solomon were in the first millennium in the Canon of the Scripture, cited by the Holy Fathers, containing the most important doctrines of the Church and, above all, a beautiful poetry of devotion that is the foundation of mystical theology of the Church of Christ.
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The Saint or the christophoric man and his iconic reflection. Man has been a leitmotif of most religions, philosophical systems and ideologies from the dawn of creation to the present moment, and anthropology has acquired varied dimensions over time depending on the socio-spiritual branch, conceptions, perspectives and subjective interests. The anthropos, not being inspired (divinely favored) or even revealed (directly involved in divine discovery), knows nothing (cf. Alexandre François Malbranche); he seeks, but does not discover, but is revealed to him and receives, as he neither creates, but only imitates. ”Man does nothing but reflect in letters, in music or in philosophy patches of transcendence”, and art in general, and iconography in particular, becomes a vehicle of transcendence, a true” Jacob's ladder” of the man-God theandry through the intercession of the God-Man – Jesus Christ. Man – ”image and likeness of God” – regains the likeness of God through regeneration, imitating the appointed Son of God through asceticism and mysticism, and this fact is sublimely captured and illustrated by the icon. The icon thus defines itself as an aesthetic x-ray of holiness and personal theosis, a mirror of transcendence cast over the immanence of human nature. The present study, without exhaustive claims, wants to summarize the Christian anthropology reflected in the iconography.
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Research on religiosity in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) and former Yugoslavia during the socialist period consistently shows that the majority of inhabitants (70–80%) identify as not religious. In the 1990s, many things changed in B&H, the most important definitely being the fall of the socialist system, expansion of ethnic awareness among all three dominant peoples (Bosniaks, Serbs, Croats), and ethnic war. These social circumstances were followed by changes in the relationship towards religion. Religion has become a very important and socially desirable ideology. In this survey, we review psychological surveys and investigate to what extent young people in the post-socialist context of B&H are religious, and we examine the relationship between religiosity and other social, psychological, and demographic variables. The results of close to 50 empirical surveys have been analysed. Papers were written in the period from 2000 to 2022. All papers included samples from B&H. The paper with the smallest sample had 163 respondents, while the biggest sample amounted to 7,000 respondents. The majority of papers had 300–550 respondents. All surveys encompassed young people between 15 and 25 years of age. The instruments used in most of the cases were the religiosity scales that rely on Allport’s concept of religious orientation, and they imply the existence of intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions (subscales) of religiosity. The results of most of the research show that around 70–90% of participants identify as religious. People in Bosnia and Herzegovina are keen on identifying as religious, but that is much less accompanied by adequate and concrete religious attitudes and behaviours. Socio-demographic variables can be important for expressing religiosity, but those correlations are not consistent. Religiosity almost regularly correlates with conformity, authoritarianism, and conservatism. There is a tendency that religiosity can be a determinant of personal well-being. Correlation is found with better family relations, altruism, lower anti-social behaviours, and, in some research, greater satisfaction with life and optimism. In contrast to that, religiosity can be connected with certain realistically or potentially problematic constructs such as social and ethnic distances, authoritarianism, dogmatism, and ethnocentrism. In the future, it is necessary to work on the development of religiosity, which is a factor of internal and social well-being, and not of intergroup disputes.
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Churches and religious societies, despite the suppression of their importance, mission and results of their pastoral and educational activities in Slovak society since the second half of the 20th century and their temporary radical revival after 1990, are in the currently ideologically enforced corporate-liberal social environment again subject to recognition, condemnation and suppression. It also applies to their representatives, their believers, their membership base. It is obvious that, on the basis of the ecumenical program born during the Second Vatican Council, even in Slovak society, the dominant Roman Catholic Church has clearly stepped out of its historical socio-paternalistic attitudes. The current policy of the Slovak particular Roman Catholic Church leads all its members and adherents to religious tolerance. Despite this, manifestations of religious tolerance in the current secularizing Slovak national community are accepted by a certain part of the so-called modernist population with a considerable amount of animosity. This opens up a vast and fragmented political space for the Slovak state authorities to regulate and eliminate the currently more aggressive manifestations of the currently living intolerance. Especially radically directed against the views of the "backward", so-called the worldview of the archaic, i.e. religiously oriented, majority of the Slovak population. The task of the current state power becomes the reduction of anti-religious and anti-church activities, rooted in and based on a destructive ideological and ideological platform that negatively affects the value orientation of the emerging West European so-called liberal-modernist generation.
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In writing this study on „Decree No 177 of 4 August 1948 for the general regime of religious cults”, drawn up on the basis of the provisions of principle of the Constitution of the Romanian People’s Republic promulgated on 13 April 1948, I have taken into account two indispensable realities, namely: a) the fact that few of the Romanian theologians, jurists, sociologists, political scientists and historians - who have commented on its content - have had an interdisciplinary training that would allow them to examine and evaluate it through such an approach; b) the fact that some provisions of the text of this Decree-Law - to which some amendments were made after 1990, imposed by the socio-political guidelines and realities of the post-december epoch - were in force until 2006, when a new Law on Religious Cults was promulgated, namely Law no. 489 of 2006. Taking these two realities into account, through the text of this study we have been able to bring to the reader’s attention some clarifications and precisions of juridical and canonical doctrine that could be of real help for a better understanding of the text of the provisions of this Decree. Unfortunately, by some of its statements, Decree no. 177 of 1948 has survived in the text of Law no. 489 of 2006, although some of them, such as article 7, should have been taken over in their entirety, since the new law provides that the religious establishments are organized „according to their own ... canonical codes” (Art. 14 para. 2 Law no. 489/2006), and not according to „their canons and traditions”, as provided in article 7 of Decree no. 177 of 4 August 1948.
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The introductory section discusses the concept of guilt in the context of contemporary political theory. It is established that the subjects of policy on the eve of the 21st century have become powerful countries and international institutions, "groups" and not individuals. Guilt of nations and other collective identities have been replaced the concept of individual guilt based on morality and the principles of liberal rule of law. Individal freedom, individual responsibility and individual guilt that can be «atone» again needed in a modern democratic discourse and they may find deeply rooted in literature and social thought of Dostoyevsky and Franz Kafka. The second part presents the concept of guilt, as well as social theory of Dostoevsky based on the principles of Christian Orthodox collectivity. It is established that guilt – is guilt of the individual, sin in the Christian sense. So, a just society called christian socialism is based on personal repentance, admission of guilt and personal transformation. Finally, the understanding of guilt in the context of literary works of Franz Kafka is presented. His understanding of guilt is essentially autobiographical and psychoanalytic, based on a negative experience with his father. Guilt is his formula for survival and bare existence. However, his work goes beyond the maze of biographical experience. For, although his heroes roam the endless maze of their struggle, they reveals the value of authentic human personality. Although hopeless, they unconsciously rising against totalitarianism which still has the same metodology, such as guilt and shame.
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