This paper presents the image of St. Joseph in one of the sermons preached by Joseph Ratzinger on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of religious vows by two sisters from the Congregation of Our Lady of Sorrows. The special character of this approach lies in the fact that the main source of inspiration for the Bavarian Theologian is a relief from the Baroque altar located in a specific and largely unknown church in Portugal. The preacher – thanks to the reading of certain elements contained in the sculpture of St. Joseph – was able to emphasize aspects that had so far remained invisible: a readiness to do God’s will, going on a pilgrimage in faith or resignation from one’s own plans made to the point of heroism. Ratzinger’s interpretation, reinforced with references to Sacred Scripture, confirms the value of the presence of a work of art among theological topics.

Lessing’s question about knowing God (the Absolute) in history has been a con-stant challenge for modern theology. The article collates views of Joseph Ratzinger and Walter Kasper on this subject. A clear difference was noticed: Kasper decidedly gives priority to history and revelation in it, whereas Ratzinger puts stress on the idea of the priority of God and in its light interprets revelation and history. Two different types of theology emerge here. They manifest themselves in different ways of present-ing Christology. The former originates from the historical witness to Jesus and on this basis strives to construct a coherent picture of the incarnated Son of God’s identity. The latter originates from – resulting from the Church’s faith – an assumption about the unity of the Scripture and presents in this light the witness of the Gospel to Jesus. A thesis is proposed that both types of theology need each other, although it is not possible to harmonize them.

Joseph Ratzinger warns about a multitude of trials to superficially undertake the subject of religion. In this diverse world of religion, he sees some common points. The first step in the history of religion was to transcend the primitive, moving into myth. Second, most important step, was to leave the myth behind. This leaving is threefold – which is represented by three irreducible shapes of religion: the identity mysticism, the monotheistic revolution and the enlightenment. An expression of the first two are, respectively: the identity mysticism and the personal love mysticism. The fact that religions are affecting each other must not be omitted, either. The place of Christianity in the history of religion – nota bene gained by both, the dialogue with other religions and standing against them – defines standing with the God of faith and the God of the philosophers, and the decisive choice of faith and mind together with the truth and the cult. In his thoughts concerning the dialogue of religions, J. Ratzinger points out two types: the mystical and theist, of the religion. Along them walks as a temptation the pragmatic type, in which the question about the truth is ignored. The result of the dialogue of the religions will not be a unification of all religions. In this dialogue, the truth cannot be ignored. At last, it cannot be forgotten that there is a religio vera, and that it is Christianity.

German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, is one of the great-est Catholic theologians of the 20th and 21st century. The main field of his theological activity is fundamental theology, which is perceived by him as the area of a broadly understood dialogue on the credibility of Christianity in the modern world. This article attempts to analyze the views of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI on the Christian identity of Europe. The various issues of this study are as follows: Europe as a phenomenon of cultural interaction; Right to the place of Christianity in the Europe of tomorrow; European crisis of values; European Homo oeconomicus and the Gospel; Dismissing former Eurocentrism; Courage in the struggles of the new face of Chris-tian Europe. In the conclusion the author emphasizes validity of Joseph Ratzinger’s/Benedict XVI’s thoughts on the future of Europe in the context of the ongoing changes in the European Union and the migration crisis.

The most prevalent popular and critical images of Bruno Schulz present a Polish-Jewish writer and artist who turned away from politics and history in his creative work only to be devoured by the most violent political and historical forces in his life. This article attempts to reinsert Schulz’s writings into the social and political history of his day and age, focusing on an interpretation of his novella Spring (Wiosna). It argues that Schulz viewed the meaning and progression of history and politics in mythical terms. Accordingly, his stories contain ironic mythologizations of social, political and historical events. In Spring, Schulz captures, or rather constructs, the mythological essence of the disintegration of the Habsburg Empire, producing his own imaginative and contradictory commentary on the history of his native region during his own lifetime.

This article discusses Benedict the XVI’s charting of the formation and history of Europe around a mission to reign as a sacred duty for the sake of Human Dignity in the light of Edith Stein’s insights into the relationship between community formation and objective values. First, an account of Ratzinger’s understanding of Europe as a concept of political geography is given. Secondly is discussed the mission at the heart of the formation of Europe according to Ratzinger, and how such a mission would, according to Stein, be particularly suited for shaping a people and a continent. The third section discusses Ratzinger’s understanding of Human Dignity in the light of Stein’s understanding of values.

The object of the essay is prophecy in the Qur’ān, through the stories of the prophets and the language they use. Specifically, the Qur’ānic narrative and Joseph’s speeches have been systematically examined, with the intention of introducing a symmetrical reading of the story between incidents and the specific language. Emphasis has been placed on the philological aspects, by focusing the analysis on the Arabic version of the Qur’ān, in order to try to draw up a personal profile of Joseph and, at the same time, to attempt to counter an approach that claims to see all the Qur’ānic envoys only in their instrumental function in the mission of Muḥammad.

For the Mariology of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI it is fundamental that the Mother of the Lord is not viewed in isolation, but is seen in the totality of the Christian faith. To the Marian texts of the New Testament he added the lines of the great feminine saviour figures of the Old Testament, which have drawn down the power of God by their faith and inspired salvific histories. In Mary these women are revisited, in her “Fiat” the people of Israel experience a concrete personification. Ratzinger traces Maria as a “church in the origin”, in her the church receives a personal centre with corresponding consequences. His Marian dogmatics is based on his own biblical theological approach, and especially gives the teachings of the recent church history its own well-comprehensible depth structure.

The article describes the functioning of British consulate in Szczecin, paying special attention to activities undertaken by the heads of the consulate (vice-consuls), namely Joseph Walters, David Garnett Mitchell and Henry Francis Bartlett who were knowledgeable and competent officials delegated from the Foreign Office in London. Nevertheless, what had a negative effect on the work they carried out in the city on the Odra river was internal and external invigilation by the Security Service (SB) and the fact they were isolated and had hardly any contact with Polish institutions or the local community. Duties performed by the vice-consuls included not only standard administrative procedures (e.g. granting visas) or attention for their few compatriots, but most of all the observation of processes and events taking place in West Pomerania. Information function, which the British consulate fulfilled by submitting reports to their supervisors, was performed through reading local newspapers, asking people for their opinion, listening to the local community and “the hubbub of the street“. While at the very beginning the vice-consuls placed an emphasis on economic or socio-demographic issues, since the end of the 1940’s they paid special attention to political matters in their reports, which had to do with changes arising from the socialisation of life in Poland. The reports submitted by the British consulate confirmed the Foreign Office in their opinion about the presence of Polish people in West Pomerania. Needless to say, it was rather negative. The communist administration and new inhabitants of the former German lands were often criticized for the walking pace of the reconstruction and development of particular areas of economy which, according to the British, did not guarantee the adequate development of the region. Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Service, which questioned the belonging of Szczecin and the adjacent area to Poland and at the same time officially honoured the Potsdam agreement, postponed adopting their stance on the Polish-German border by the time another peace conference was organized. Nevertheless, it is worth noticing that by applying to Polish authorities for permission to establish vice-consulate in Szczecin, Great Britain recognized formally that Polish authorities did administer West Pomerania.

In the third decade of the twenty-first century, the “cathedral” of Catholic theology has suffered some structural assaults and the way forward is a contemporary “hot topic”. This paper argues against the idea, common among Catholics of the millennial generation, that we simply need to “reboot” the system to 1959 and restore the framework of “Strict Observance Neo-Scholasticism”. Instead, it suggests that attention needs to be given to the structure itself, to issues in fundamental theology, and the relationships or “joints” in the framework of Catholic theology, along the lines recommended by Joseph Ratzinger and others in his theological circle.

The reconstruction of Francis’ gestures, behaviors, and words in terms of his understanding of the Church is fraught with considerable difficulties. On the one hand, the ecclesiological concept he introduced attracts crowds of followers, but on the other, it provokes many individuals to criticize and to adopt the attitude of rejection. In order to understand his teaching on the Church without any distortions, one needs to refer to the Aparecida Document of Latin American Bishops (2007) and to his papal exhortation Evangelii gaudium (2014). The battered Church of Jorge Mario Bergoglio is located primarily on the outskirts of Christianity and grows out of the Argentinian option that encompasses various types of excluded people. Hence, such a community imprudently exposes itself to the accusations, which are not groundless, of promoting religious syncretism, weakening the uniqueness and oneness of Jesus Christ, and questioning ecclesiastical sacramentality.

Intellectual and spiritual formation of Joseph Ratzinger - Pope Benedict XVI - requires talk about the process of his development. The article refers to the most overlooked phase of the young Ratzinger, who moves from the position of a progres-sive and sometimes irresponsible theorizing academic theologian to the position of a thinker grounded in the community of faith, becoming the guardian and teacher of Christian doctrine in line with the spirit and tradition of the Church. A lot of light on the change in the attitude of the German professor sheds the preparatory phase to the Second Vatican Council and its debates, as well as the unpleasant experience of the student revolt in 1968, which finds our professor in Tübingen. And in this way the liberal German theologian grows into to an outstanding Catholic theologian of the universal Church.