The main objective of the paper is to show original theological emphasis on Peter the Apostle. Chapter 21 is considered to be a later addition to the Gospel of John. It is necessary to pay a special attention to related issues of editorial text. Despite its seemingly simple structure John 21: 15-19 poses other challenges. One of them is a puzzling variation of terminology. It is therefore necessary to draw attention to possible variants of critical-literary assessment of the biblical text. In John 21: 15-19 Peter is presented as a shepherd. This par-ticular mission is given to him by the Risen Jesus. The flock, which he has to feed, remains Jesus’ property. John 21:18-19 associated the ministry of Peter with his martyrdom. The entire passage has an ecumenical significance. The delegation of pastoral authority can be treated as a one-off event. The historical context of John 21 indicates the unifying character of the ministry of Peter the Apostle. Proper reading of the text can facilitate dialogue on the nature of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome.
Claude Carloman de Rulhière was a French diplomat and writer who was sent to Russia in 1762 as a secretary to the French ambassador. During his stay in St. Petersburg, he eye-witnessed the coup d’état staged by the future Catherine II to dethrone Peter III and to seize the imperial power. Upon his return to Paris, Rulhière publicized his testimony of the event. It soon became notorious and provoked controversy, splitting French elites into supporters and detractors of Catherine II. The agents of the empress attempted to persuade him not to divulge his text, but Rulhière did not succumb to their financial offers and resolved to reveal the truth.
Exegesis of Matthew 16:13-20, made in the light of historical and doctrinal terms occurred after 70 years in Judea, in which the evangelist Matthew was presented with its Judeo-Christian Church, indicates clearly existing in the text emphasis and related them to universalist objectives . They primarily guided him to define the saving message of Jesus the Risen of being Christological and Ecclesiological, in the final version edited by himself, in the Gospel of the Kingdom at the turning point for the fate of the Palestinian Church. The scene from Caesarea Philippi is edited in a manner which allows Peter to run his church in the Hellenistic world in order to gain complete doctrinal confidence that the same power of binding and resolving in heaven and on earth which he received from Jesus Simon Barjon to exercise it in the land of Israel, is also possessed by Simon Peter to celebrate it with the same saving efficiency in the lands of the heathen. Without this doctrinal certainty, it would probably be impossible to guarantee its further Judeo-Christian existence in the world of ethnochristians and gentiles.
As we know the idea of papacy defined during the First Vatican Council is one of the biggest problems for the unity of Christian Churches. The author of this article attempts to re-interpret the statements of the Council relating to this matter. It will be done against the background of the theology of faith that definitely relates the content of faith (fides quae) to the fides qua. In this way, certain statements regarding faith, also referring to the pope, are relativized, but not in the sense of elimination, but in the sense of their intense reference to the center of biblical faith. We have also the possibility to give every time a new shape of papacy, understood as a “ministry of unity”.
This article is devoted to a diplomatic (formal) analysis of 13 documents, including 12 originals issued by Russian tsars between 1576 and 1707, which are kept at the Kórnik Library. Among them, there are two original letters by Tsar Michael of Russia dating to 1634 and 1645 and four documents by Tsar Alexis of Russia from 1645 and 1668–1669. The collection also includes Peter the Great’s mandate of 1707 given to Russian negotiators for talks with representatives of the Sandomierz confederation, two extremely interesting documents (in the form of scrolls) of border-related negotiations dating to 1634 and 1645, as well as a notebook of 40 pages containing the Russian party’s proposals presented to Polish envoys during negotiations in Moscow at the turn of 1671 and 1672. The article is enriched with an analysis of the content of four well-preserved tsar’s seals applied to the documents in question.