The aim of the paper is to shed light on the theoretical background of the inclusion of health in the standard of living studies, and the use of two of its specifi c measures — life expectancy at birth and body height. Hence, the article describes the idea of capabilities and functionings developed by Amartya Sen as a proposed solution to the limitations of the classic measurement of the standard of living.
University and the Church need each other. Following the example of Christ incarnated, Christianity “incarnates” the spiritual. The Church and theology need university and cooperation with other sciences to be able to “incarnate” Christ’s issue into our world. Th e university, on the other hand, needs the Church and theology because otherwise it would be deprived of cultural and spiritual foundation: there is no alternative to a discussion about Christ (God and a human). Theology is sometimes defined as scientia fidei; it is determined by the mind and faith. It’s a discussion about God, but due to the Christ event it is also a discussion about mankind. Th erefore it has the form of a dialogue, a discussion. The dialogue is always held in a specific context (nowadays postmodern), in which theology not only has to ask but also answer the question about the meaning. In this sense it is wisdom. Theology as a discussion has to approach the most urgent human problems. These include agnosticism towards which Benedict XVI suggests the “veluti si Deus daretur” rule, relativism in case of which theology cannot stop asking about truth, despair in case of which theology reminds about God, in whom there is no darkness.
The Meaning of Life by Yevgeny Trubetskoy (1863–1920) is one of the most important works of the religious-philosophical renaissance in Russia. The book addresses the issue of value of human life despite the evidence of evil, violence and moral decline. In order to achieve his aim the Russian thinker referred to the philosophy of all-unity and the category of revelation. However, he understood the latter category in two ways: broad and narrow. In the broad sense the higher meaning of revelation (all-unity) is constantly revealed to humans, which allows them to cognize and develop. In the narrow sense revelation came from Jesus Christ who has revealed the deepest sense of life by means of His paschal mystery. Every human being has a choice to accept or reject the content of the narrow revelation. Such things as collective consciousness, community-based experience, living within church, eucharist, and common responsibility not only for the fellow believers, but also for the whole creation – can help to accept the narrow revelation. The following article discusses also the aspects of natural revelation, revelation in non-christian religions, conditions and characteristics of christian revelation.