The pontificate of Pope Francis, both in documents and in practice, takes on a pastoral character, emphasizing the evangelizing dimension. The encyclical Veritatis gaudium likewise presents the educational and academic mission of the Church from the same perspective. This paper provides a presentation of the Pope’s postulates understood as a new paradigm for Church education, resulting from a new cultural and social context. Pope Francis’ project is set in the more than fifty-year perspective of the reforms introduced by the Second Vatican Council, in particular Sapientia christiana, the document which has been governing the activities of theological faculties since 1979. Four criteria that ecclesial studies should demonstrate are indicated: a) the Christocentric kerygma building the ecclesial community, with an option for the poor, b) encounter and dialogue, characterized by authentic interaction on the level of religions and cultures, c) inter- and transdisciplinarity, which provide a tool for linking the academic achievements of all disciplines in the perspective of the transcendent Christian revelation, d) integration of academic centers which practice ecclesiastical studies and their collaboration with institutions of different religious and cultural traditions, with a view to an adequate diagnosis of global world problems and their resolution.

For many ethicists, natural law no longer seems to be relevant as a model for the motivation of norms. At the same time, moral theology after Vatican II strives for renewal which, on the one hand, distances itself from radical autonomous thinking and, on the other hand, overcomes certain narrownesses of the past. It happens in the context of a cultural upheaval between modernity and postmodernity, in which universalistic ethical concepts are regarded critically anyway. Nevertheless, the increasing ethical challenges of the present, especially those in the bioethical field, call for universally valid solutions in the globalized world. In this context, natural law thinking can and should be used again. However, it would have to be suitably presented. An ethical understanding beyond cultural and temporal boundaries is possible, but requires an agreement on the binding character of human nature.

The author of the article presents the arguments quoted by Benedict XVI in his speeches attesting that theology has a future. The future of theology is related to the future of faith since faith needs theology and theology needs faith. Faith, on the other hand, is a response to the longing for truth, goodness, and beauty inherent in human nature, which can only be found in God. The question about God is the key question which depends on the discovery of the meaning of life and the world. Theology along with philosophy – obviously not a positivistic one that resigns from the study of the transcendence of being – searches for the full truth about human being and maintains human sensitivity to the full truth. Theology, as a fully-fledged science among other sciences, indicates that scientific truth participates in the Divine Truth, originates from the same source, from Logos, whose work is creation. When nowadays the search for truth is abandoned or ignored, theology discovers the resulting threats to the European culture. Theology teaches about God who spoke to the people, and not about someone who would only be a postulation of human thought. Therefore, the primary task of theology is to penetrate the revealed Word. Thus, theology developed on the basis of the principles and norms resulting from the Revelation of faith has a future, and is not solely based on criteria and norms common within other sciences, or based on patterns taken from the humanities.

In the search for the critical functions of theology, we can find a growing number of dilemmas, which come from the theology itself and from the modern knowledge about the world, which theology has to face, not only offering expected answers, but also formulating its own Christian doctrine proper for contemporary times and consistent with the Tradition of faith. The only way to present such a broad and difficult problem in a short paper is through a general perspective. The key to the systematization of the problem is by observing that the tasks of theology can be seen from four different perspectives, according to the distinction ad extra – ad intra. Astrong emphasis is put on the encounter between theology and science. The attempt to make predictions about the future is based on analysis of the contemporary situation in theology and on the extrapolation of existing trends for the near future.

The Apocalypse of St. Jana delights with the richness of eschatological content. However, the eschatological themes of the Apocalypse are not a frequent subject of scientific study. The reflections contained in this article take the form of methodological guidelines. They concern the process of interpreting the eschatology of Apocalypse. The Apocalypse should not be interpreted in isolation from historical and literary research. It should also not be interpreted in isolation from ethical research. It should also take into account the specific nature of prophetism of the Apocalypse. Eschatological contents contain an important place in this book. In order to interpret them properly, it is necessary to note i.a.: eschatological dynamics of the Apocalypse; the ambiguity of some symbols; the relation of eschatology to christology and ecclesiology.

The object of the article is the “dying process” of a dear one, as lived by himself, his family, and the medical personnel, and as described and analyzed by the psychologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. First, the patient’s reactions to death were presented: denial and isolation, anger and rebellion, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The next part describes the reactions of the family in the face of the prospect of death: the stage of rejection and isolation, the stage of anger and rebellion, the stage of compromise and making pacts, the stage of experiencing depression, and the stage of acceptance. At the end of our reflection, we indicated the essential elements of an “end of life ethics”, which would permit us to approach, in a more conscious and responsible manner, “our” mysterium mortis at a personal level, in the family and in hospital. These elements are: the attitude of listening, valuing the past as a legacy for the future, the mediation function in and through the reactions of the sick person, the attitude of respect towards the person’s choices of values in the face of death, understanding the sick world, help and pastoral service, and acceptance of failures.

The article’s subject discusses Stefan Wyszyński’s personalist concept of Christians’ involvement in culture. In this context, the author’s attention was drawn to how the extent to which a personalist’s main assumptions may constitute to the basis for shaping culture, especially when regarding contemporary cultural reality. The analysis of culture carried out in the above article presents the discussed issues regarding a calling addressed to every human being. Placing it with the “realities of earthly life” emphasizes that in creative cultural activity, one should see the proper way of realizing the fullness of the human personality in the temporal and supernatural dimensions. Moreover, highlighting such elements as the human person, family, Nation, state, the international community, culture, economy, and politics understood in an integral way, as well as the Church proclaiming the universal message of salvation, the personalist concept of culture displays a praxeological character, rooted in a particular human existence and oriented towards the creative-redeeming dimension of human life.

Conducting Mariology in context is one of the original elements of contemporary Polish theology. Its methodological and theological justification is through the mystery of the Triune God and not the constantly changing culture. Researching the image of God in Mariological doctrine is one manner of verifying theological hypotheses or conclusions. The image of Mary is dependent on the image of God. Whenever the history of salvation was perceived as the work of the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit, Mary was presented as a participant (or a recipient) and a witness of the activities of God. The more Divine Providence was valued, the more frequent was the encouragement to worship it as Mother of Jesus did in her Magnificat. Some theses from the analyzed sources are especially inspirational. We need to notice the invitations to reflect on the mediatorship of Jesus (per Jesum ad Mariam) and the Holy Spirit (per Spiritum ad Mariam) as well as reflect on the soteriological model of receptio.

This paper studies the cooperation of theology in the new evangelization in societies of ancient Christian tradition which are suffering an advanced process of secularization. It begins with Spain, where a recent debate on the influence of Christian intellectuals on social life suggests the ineffectiveness of ecclesiastical resources in transmitting the rich Catholic doctrinal heritage. The author then deals with the idiosyncrasy of contemporary man, which lies near one of the immediate future’s of man: an uprooted subject who does not believe that life has any meaning, deeply marked by emotivism and attaches little significance to truth. The theology of tomorrow cannot feed this emotivism but must be proactive in its own way. The proclamation of the Gospel is not different from the exposition of the Church’s doctrine. To detach evangelization from the teaching of Christian doctrine cannot help the experience with Christ. In order to succeed in transmitting this doctrine by making it suggestive, theologians should work together with experts in communication.

Jesus has definitely conquered the world, but our history is continuous. The one who is called in the Bible as the Devil, Satan, and Deceiver of all the earth (cf. Rev 12:9), though already defeated, is still at work in the world. The essence of Satan’s action is to pretend that he is the true Savior of man. In Revelation 13 there is a dragon (the devil) that summons
the first beast and the second beast (a false prophet) and thus they form the diabolical triad. The well-known saying that the devil is simia Dei could be paraphrased and at the same time clarified that the devil is simia Trinitatis. In fact, Satan imitates and mocks, like the monkey, the Holy Trinity to deceive people. When tempting Jesus in the desert, the goal of the evil spirit was not only to tempt Jesus, the Incarnate Son, but the Trinity as a whole. The devil tries to challenge the Trinitarian relations, i.e., the mutual relationship of the Son and the Father in the Holy Spirit. This is the reason why Jesus defies the attacks of the devil not referring to His Divinity but by pointing to the Father and His will. The juxtaposition of the dynamics of the action of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, with the dynamics of the action of the triad, the dragon and his two beasts, allows us to capture the essential features of, on the one hand, the community in the Trinity, and on the other hand, the corrupt synergy of the triad assigning the Divine features to themselves.

Stary Testament jest wyraźnie mieszanką mitów i prawdziwych postaci historycznych z ich wydarzeniami. Nie ma wątpliwości co do wkładu mitologii, ponieważ większość Księgi Rodzaju została utworzona na podstawie wspólnych mitologicznych relacji z całego starożytnego Bliskiego Wschodu. Opowieści o stworzeniu, pierwszej parze, ogrodzie Eden, Kainie i Ablu, wielkim potopie i wiele innych są znane w narracjach całego regionu. Chociaż relacje te są mitologiczne, nie oznacza to, że nie zostały ukształtowane przez prawdziwe wydarzenia. Specjaliści spekulują o wielkiej powodzi, która miała miejsce na Bliskim Wschodzie w wyniku podniesienia się poziomu wody pod koniec ostatniej epoki lodowcowej (około 5000 lat przed Chr.). Zbiegło się to w czasie z rewolucją rolniczą, która opanowała Żyzny Półksiężyc i Egipt. Różne ludy Lewantu przyjęły mitologiczne narracje i przeformułowały je, aby stworzyć własne, unikalne i oryginalne opowieści. Niektóre z głównych postaci biblijnych, jak Adam i Ewa, Noe, Lot, wreszcie patriarchowie (Abraham, Izaak i Jakub), były własnymi kompozycjami, ale jak widać na przykładzie patriarchy Abrahama, który nie był postacią wyjątkową wśród narodu hebrajskiego, jego nawrócenie na monoteizm jest jednak czymś charakterystycznym dla duchowej twórczości Żydów. Tu, podobnie jak w Nowym Testamencie, archeologia jest niezbędną pomocą w zlokalizowaniu rzeczywistości i prawdy historii sakralnej i religijnej oraz jej rozwoju w dziejach ludzkości.

The problem of mutual relations between philosophy and theology has been a challenge since Christian antiquity and disputes about the role of pagan philosophy in theological deliberations. In the Middle Ages, a model of creative cooperation between the two sciences was developed, but in modern times, as a result of the progressing processes of secularization, philosophy began to oppose theology. In contemporary times, the references of philosophical sciences to theology are not easy and escape unambiguousness. The article reflects on the contemporary relationship between philosophy and theology and asks what conditions must be met for a creative dialogue between the two sciences to take place. When does theology become interesting for a philosopher, and when is it a relic of its former glory, with nothing to offer it today? The analysis undertaken in the article contributes to the title problem, important both from the point of view of contemporary theology and humanistic culture.

Observing current trends in moral theology, especially in the field of bioethics, has long raised both the methodological and meritorious problem of obscuring or even removing the boundaries between good and evil. Divergence and contradiction have become a strange scientific standard in theological-moral discourse in the derivation of Hegel’s synthesis on fundamental moral questions. Depositum fidei morale, which is based on the Decalogue, Lex aeterna, and lex naturalis, seems to be giving way to post-Christian Wittgenstein language-games, in which the clear line between good and evil (including truth and falsehood), determined by the transcendent Authority of God, has been relativized. The reflection of the relationship between the norm and conscience, as well as the relationship between good and evil, in the light of the Thomistic philosophical-theological patrimony, seeks to point to the need of accepting an adequate logical re-examination of the ethical analysis of a human act. Without this, it is impossible to continue not only in Traditio, but also in finding a universal reference point for distinguishing between good and evil in the complicated world of contemporary bioethics, which responds to revolutionary biotechnologies in the field of biomedicine.