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Number of results: 11
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Abstract

This is an argument with an idea that faith and religious practices are fading away, the influence of the Church on the life of society is coming to an end, and that it is a process that is inevitable and irreversible. The author shares Jose Casanova’s pro-position that the ever increasing dechristianization of the hitherto Christian societies seems to be more of a hypothesis than an empirical fact. Moreover, on the one hand, he puts forward questions about the positive sense of the process of secularization that has been wearing down European Christianity for three centuries now, and on the other, he recalls cases, described in the Bible and known in the history of the Church, of a dramatic depopulation of God’s people. And the question, whether we are to expect an increase of the secularization process, rather than its reversal, he answers with the following, specifically Polish, 17th century, formula: Fortuna variabilis, Deus mirabilis (the world goes round at random, and God is admirable!).

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Authors and Affiliations

Jacek O. Salij OP
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Abstract

For at least two centuries Europeans, in particular the political elites of Europe, have assumed that modernity and the rational character of the civilization require a marginalization of religion. A separation and juxtaposition of reason and faith, sci-ence and religion or the state and the church are regarded as almost obvious. Gradual-ly the legitimate principle of religious freedom has started to be understood as a pos-tulate of “purification” of public life from any references to sacrum and religion itself as an area of irrational and random opinions has been located in the private sphere. This has led to the conviction that religion (Christianity) does not have or should not have any significance in social life, the public order, the legal system or the widely understood political sphere . The central issue of the paper, which is the possibility of reversing the direction taken by European civilization, is conditioned not only by making the secularist policy of the West more friendly towards Christian tradition (for instance by grounding it on natural law) but still more by the revitalization of religious life of the Churches and Christian communities.

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Ks. Jan Perszon
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Abstract

Artykuł opisuje proces sekularyzacji na Malcie, który jest spowodowany przez wpływ kultury anglosaskiej, wrogiej Kościołowi katolickiemu, oraz wzrost dobrobytu. Odchodzenie od praktyk religijnych zaznacza się nade wszystko w życiu ludzi młodych i wyraża się w odrzucaniu doktryny moralnej Kościoła. Praktyka spowiedzi na Malcie jest kultywowana przez Kościół, ale wobec zanikania poczucia grzechu, staje się rzadsza i przeżywa kryzys. Artykuł opisuje inicjatywy duszpasterskie Kościoła na Malcie propagujące korzystanie z sakramentu pokuty. Do tych inicjatyw należą grupy duszpasterskie oraz zapewnianie możliwości spowiedzi w poszczególnych kościołach. Szczególnym okresem spowiedzi są dni poprzedzające święto Matki Bożej Bolesnej obchodzone w Wielkim Poście.
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Andrzej Derdziuk OFMCap
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Abstract

This paper not only clarifies the concepts of secularism and secularization, but also analyzes them, and in its final part it evaluates them. The phenomenon of secu-larism is defined as an ideological and active attitude of hostility toward everything that is Christian. In turn, secularism, quite strongly associated with the current form of culture of societies and their development, is seeking autonomy and freedom. Rad-ical (sometimes irresponsible) secularization thesis of the Protestant (R. Bultmann, K. Barth, D. Bonhoeffer, E. Fuchs, F. Gogarten, G. Vahanian, P. van Buren, W. Ham-ilton, Th . J. Alitzer, J.A.T. Robinson, D. Sölle, W. Pannenberg) mind has been adopted by most Catholic theologians with a reasonable reserve. Catholic doctrine accepts the autonomy of temporal realities and a specifically understood process of profanation of the world (constructio mundi and consecratio mundi). However, the fact that different sectors of earthly life are governed by their own relevant laws, does not mean that the created things are totally independent of God, or that man can dispose of them freely and without any relation to the Creator (K. Rahner, J. B. Metz, P. Teilhard de Chardin, M. D. Chenu, J. Danielou, G. Thils, Ch. Duquoc, J. Maritain, H. de Lubac, Y. Congar, Cz. Bartnik, A. Skowronek, A. Nossol, J. Mariański). The position of the Catholic Church on this matter is contained in the conciliar Constitution Gaudium et Spes.

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Authors and Affiliations

O. Andrzej Napiórkowski OSPPE
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Abstract

Secular processes are one of the reasons of the contemporary cultural crisis. They influence many aspects of individual and social life which is reflected in the sphere of art. Artistic activity is not only a picture of human existence, but also an expression of longing and desire for what exceeds wordliness. Great masterpieces, in spite of being created many centuries ago, confirm this, as they do not stop to delight us because their creators were inspired by the beauty of Christian faith. The contemporary depar-ture from God takes different forms – from securalizatiom which radically denies the supernatural reality to desecularization with its “new spirituality”, being quite often an indefinite spiritualism in the New Age style. In this perspective, sacred art, instead of surrendering to the secularization pressure, should find its new identity as an im-portant element of the new evangelization. Art as via pulchritudinis is to continue to fulfill its evangelizing mission for modern man who so often loses his way to God. It will then become for us a meaning full of hope which human life receives from the mystery of Christ’s redeeming love.

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Ks. Jacek Bramorski
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Abstract

In analyzing selected aspects of the debate over offending religious feelings, the author discusses Saby Mahmood’s argument that religiousness in public discourses of the Western world is basically perceived as a speculative phenomenon concerning the sphere of abstract beliefs. It is assumed therefore that the harm that can be produced by the publication of a blasphemous illustration is lesser and less palpable than in the case of hate speech directed toward a race or sexual orientation. The author’s analysis, which is undertaken from a Durkheim perspective, shows that, for example, the caricaturized presentation of a religious symbol constitutes not so much an act of undermining the abstract image as—in the affective perspective of the religious—an act violating the sense of ontological security of a given moral community which that symbol represents. At the same time, the Durkheim perspective facilitates an understanding of why religious symbolic resources can be ambivalently used in processes of legitimating social actions, beginning with constructive forms of civil public religions to extreme fundamentalist movements making use of violence and the discourses of political extremism.

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Rafał Smoczyński
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Abstract

After having clarified the concept of secularization and outlined its problems, the author gives an overview of the different causes of secularization and points out that the forces driving the process of secularization have Christian origins. On this basis, in the third part of the article, the author describes and lays the foundation for a new attitude for the Church towards secularization, necessary both for being able to convert herself to the gospel and to evangelize people in the world today. One of the most important parts of this attitude is respect for the autonomy of every human person, intrinsically related to respect for the dignity of every person. The end of the article, looking to the future, points out the consequences of such an attitude towards the discussion of some burning questions in the Church.

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Gerhard Kruip
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Abstract

Artykuł stanowi próbę wglądu socjologicznego w problematykę imaginarium społecznego na przecięciu nauki i religii, jest głosem w dyskusji na temat roli nauki w procesach sekularyzacji. Kontynuując tradycję socjologiczną zgłębiającą rozumienie kulturowej roli nauki poprzez badania akademii, Autorka opiera analizę na materiale 100 wywiadów pogłębionych z fizykami oraz biologami z Polski i Ukrainy. Poświęca uwagę w szczególności imaginarium dotyczącemu miejsca człowieka we wszechświecie. Celem artykułu jest pokazanie istotnego zróżnicowania w tym zakresie między populacjami uczonych z Polski i Ukrainy oraz ustalenie konsekwencji, jakie ma ono dla utraty lub zachowania ich religijności. Uzyskane dane pozwalają dostrzec, że wpływ nauki jako wiedzy obiektywnej na religijność uczonych nie jest uniwersalny, lecz silnie zapośredniczony kulturowo. Zamiast poszukiwania jednej formuły tego wpływu warto zatem mówić o wielu jego kulturowo zależnych konfiguracjach.

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Maria Rogińska
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Abstract

The presented paper describes the phenomenon of secularisation and secularism in the culture of Western Europe, and attempts to identify its sources. The first point of the paper, The meaning of secularization and secularism, explains secularisation as a social process in which religion or, more strictly, religious institutes, religious behaviour, and religiously inspired conscience, are gradually losing their control over many fields of social activity such like education, arts or politics. Secularisation can be labelled as a philosophy of life “as if there were no God”, or a kind of ideology that tries to justify not only the very fact of secularisation but declares it a source and norm for human progress and demands the proclamation of man’s absolute autonomy in shaping his own destination. Among many philosophers who have influenced development of secularisation and secularism two stand out: R. Descartes (second point) and F. Nietzsche (third point). In the philosophy of Descartes one can identify at least four sources of modern secularism. These are: his concept of philosophy, theory of cognition with the resulting departure from classical concepts of truth and rationality and development of alternative ones, Cartesian metaphysics and the arguments for the existence of God and his concept of the nature of God evolving from those arguments. The last part of the article presents Nietzsche’s move away from the faith in Christian God and his turn to atheism. At least three fundamental causes for Nietzsche’s radical autosecularisation can be discerned: the emotional religion of his home, his disbelief in the authenticity of the Bible and his growing familiarity with the philosophy of Schopenhauer.

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Authors and Affiliations

Ks. Paweł Mazanka
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Abstract

This article analyses the first traces of postsecular turn in historical theory, arguing that they first emerged in Dominick LaCapra’s book History and Its Limits: Human, Animal, Violence (2009) and in Allan Megill’s subsequent polemic with that work. The author claims that what prevails in LaCapra’s narrative is the rhetoric of “resisting apocalypse”, thus demonstrating how he inscribes postsecular themes with the issue of trauma, together with its religious connotations. The discussion between LaCapra and Megill is treated here as a point of departure for considering the forms that the postsecular can take in historical theory.

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Authors and Affiliations

Tomasz Wiśniewski
ORCID: ORCID
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Abstract

The basic mission of the Church is to lead man to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Broadly understood evangelization is to serve this purpose. It is frequently pointed out that the Church is currently in crisis. It seems that the phenomenon of secularization has been taking the greatest toll so far. At the same time, the opposite can be observed. Thousands of people in Poland and all over the world find themselves again in the Church. This is undoubtedly due to the new evangelization which is the fruit of the Second Vatican Council. A special role in this work is played by spiritual gifts called charisms, which are given by the Holy Spirit. Along with them there is a noticeable charismatic service that gathers large numbers of people in need and seeking God’s Presence and God’s action. We are now experiencing the revival of the Church thanks to this service and due to the great role of new communities.
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Authors and Affiliations

Ks. Paweł Władysław Brożyna
1
ORCID: ORCID

  1. Papieski Wydział Teologiczny we Wrocławiu

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