Poznańskie Studia Teologiczne, T. 22, 2008
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Item Czy Mohyła może być dzisiaj jeszcze symbolem pojednania?(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Moskałyk, JarosławThe example of Mogila’a personal involvement in the cause of revival and reunification of Eastern Christianity in the Republic of Poland in the first half of the 17th century into one organism wins recognition among the supporters of the religious idea of unity. On the other hand, the methods that he used in the realization of his conception o f bringing the Churches together are an object of controversy among the Orthodox faithful. That is why today it is impossible to say univocally whether the Orthodox metropolitan can be a symbol of reconciliation.Item Cierpienie na drodze do zjednoczenia z Bogiem Teresy z Los Andes w świetle jej Dziennika i Listów(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Hadryś, JacekJuanita Fernandes Solar, im Kloster Teresa von Jesus genannt, erreichte schon ais Jungendliche die Hohe des mystischen Lebens. Das Leiden war eine grundlegende Dimension ihres geistigen, zur Vereinigung mit Gott fuhrenden Weges. In dem Artikel wird dieser Aspekt ihres geistigen Lebens, seine Rolle und sein Wert auf der Grundlage der Analyse des Tagebuches und der Schriften der Heiligen Teresa gezeigt. Die durchgefiihrten Untersuchungen zeigen, daB das von der Heiligen erlebte Leiden einen positiven, vieldimensionalen EinfluB auf ihr geistiges Leben und seine Entwicklung hatte. Teresa de Los Andes sah das Leiden ais eine groBe Gnade und ais ein Zeichen einer besonderen Gottesliebe, woraus folgte, daB sie sich in der Erfahrung des Kreuzes von Christus geliebt fühlte. Sie war sich dessen bewuflt, daB das Leiden eine besondere Gnade und gleichzeitig eine Chance fur die geistige Entwicklung darstellt. Dies zeigt sich im Leben der Heiligen, wo das Leiden zur Entwicklung der theologalen Tugenden beitrug. Das Leiden vereinigte Teresa mit dem leidenden Christus, sowohl wàhrend der mystischen Erfahrungen, ais auch im tàglichen Leben. Teresa de Los Andes verband mit ihrer grenzenlosen Hingabe an den Heiland auch die Nachstenliebe, die ihren Ausdruck insbesondere im Unterstiitzen der Sünder, Priester und derer, die ihr am nàchsten waren, mit ihren Opfem fand. Die besondere Verbindung der Liebe zu Gott und der Nachstenliebe fand ihren Ausdruck darin, daB sich Teresa fìir die Sünder ganzlich dem Christus selbst aufopferte. Die Heilige war ebenso tief davon überzeugt, daB sie, indem sie leidet, den Willen Gottes ihr gegeniiber erfiillt. Die besondere Gegenwartigkeit des Leidens in ihrem Leben half ihr nicht nur auf dem Weg zur Vereinigung mit Gott, sondem enthiillte auch ihren inneren Zustand. Diese Verifizierung ihres geistigen Lebens bewies, daB die heilige Teresa de Los Andes tatsàchlich auBerst tief in Christus verwurzelt war und die in ihrem Leben auftretenden mystischen Phanomene authentisch waren.Item O człowieku, cielesności i śmierci w perspektywie filozofii Emmanuela Lévinasa(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Brzózy, Nikodem ZbigniewThe article is an attempt to link the philosophy of Levinas with the bioethical issues of the beginning of human life. The author refers to those statements of Levinas in which he describes who a person is, what is human body, being male/female, fatherhood. The ethical-anthropological character of Levinas’ thought makes it a profound source for contemporary discussions on moral themes, bioethical problems included. However, certain difficulties arise on account of the philosopher’s highly individual language. The aim of the article is to confront the language o f Levinas with the traditional language of Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy and colloquial language. The text is a proposition how to build bioethics not only on Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy or utilitarian or pragmatic philosophy but also on the philosophy of Levinas, as it sheds additional light on the problem of man, existence, life and interpersonal relations.Item Pogląd chrześcijaństwa prawosławnego na religie świata(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Rus, RemusThe article presents the thought of Father Dumitru Staniloae ( t 1993), one of the most outstanding Romanian theologians of the 20th century, based on his book Poztia d-lui Lucian Blaga fata de Crestinism si Ortodoxie (The Attitude of Mr. Lucian Blaga toward Christianity and Orthodoxy) Sibiu, 1942. The author begins by expounding the general character of the universal religious phenomenon. Beyond the multiplicity of the forms and the ways in which religion is manifested there are certain common points. Fr. Staniloae distinguishes five such specific elements typical for religion: 1. a strong and steadfast faith in the truth of the things it professes; 2. the personal character of the ultimate reality; 3. there is a certain differentiation a believer makes between these ultimate realities with a clear and less clear personal character and nature - even though sometimes the divine reality is perceived in an extremely intimate relationship with nature, each religion preserves an awareness that the divine reality is something else than nature itself; 4. the belief in the self-revelation of the divine reality - it is a universal conviction with the believers of all religions that the Divinity revealed and reveals Itself and the data about It are not a figment o f the human mind or imagination, a self-revelation o f the human spirit; 5. a certain expectance, confidence and hope with which man ties himself up to the Divinity in as far as his destiny is concerned. The universal human consciousness expects and believes in man’s salvation from under the destructive power of nature or o f certain evil forces. Expectation is a deep instinct o f the human nature; faith is the mysterious power given to man at the same time with any religion. There is also a functional interpenetration o f these elements. Faith without a personal God and without revelation cannot exist, nor without the presence o f a purpose, as that o f the salvation of existence. Their persistence reveals the existence o f a personal relationship between God and man in the interest o f his salvation, as well as man’s firm belief in the possibility o f a personal salvation and in a special communion with God and, as a result, that there is also an interest on the part of God to save man. Faith and revelation are conveyed from generation to generation, but at the same time faith is largely produced by revelation, each man experiencing in a mysterious way the pressure o f the ultimate reality upon his conscience. All kinds o f theories have been conceived which see religion as originating from the divinization o f the forces o f nature, society, or a political leader etc. In reality however religious experience distinguishes the divine from all these phenomena, even though it may have the experience o f the divine presence and o f its power in connection with them. Religious experience is an awareness o f the mysterious presence o f the Divinity and as such any religious man knows the difference. In the case o f the religious phenomenon we come across a minimal realization and participation o f the ultimate reality pertaining essentially to the faith in the Divinity, to its revelation and to the hope in a personal salvation as a common minimal background o f all religions, and as such o f the Christian Faith. Fr Staniloae draws our attention to the fact that what counts in the relation among religions is not this minimal background but the contribution of each religion. In his attempt to draw a line between Christianity and the other religions, he asserts that everything the non-Christian religions possess in addition, as a surplus, is either a jungle o f myths, or a resuscitation in different manners o f the same minimal background which make up the universal religious conviction. Myth is a human invention bom o f his endeavour to capture in image the basic fact of the Divinity and of Its revelation; hence a poetic and personalized expression of what is known through the general revelation, or a personalization o f a power in nature or of a personal attribute. Christianity differs radically from these religions, because by the surplus it asserts, it testifies to an essential increase in the divine revelation. We have in Christianity the full revelation of the Divinity, as well as the manifestation of Its personal character as God has come as a man among men. Christianity is an entirely different religion in so far as the awareness of the nearness of the divine reality is concerned, as the only religion dominated by the awareness of an increase - to the last possible extent - in the divine revelation, without imposing a new element to the general definition of religion. Moreover, Christianity is not a religion of myths. This is due to the fact that God’s presence in the world, as a perceptible and active reality, renders futile all myths: when the divine reality is so close to us and so commanding, there is no longer any place for myths. At the same time there is no attitude which embraces all parts of the Universe with so much love and appreciation as does Christianity, because all are the work of the hands God and the object of His fatherly care.Item Motyw antropologiczny w encyklice Benedykta XVI Deus caritas est(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Kiejkowski, PawełThe subject of the article is the theological anthropology which is pointed in the first encyclical „Deus caritas est” written by Pope Benedict XVI. In his encyclical the Holy Father focuses on the most essential „reality” in the Church - Love. He wrote the encyclical as a classic apologetic discourse. The pope dialogues with the non-christian thoughts - the ancient thought and the modem thought (Frederic Nietzsche and Carol Marks). The pope speaks about Love. At the same time, he presents the Christian image of man and man’s vocation. The newness and authentic of Christian love is really connected with the Christian image of Triune God, God who is Love. The radical newness of Christian understanding of God is the groundwork o f understanding the man and man’s vocation. This is the man who lives in - important for his identity - relation to God and another man. The man as „I” realizes in a community „we”. The man „in relation” is the image of God. In the encyclical the vision of man is through theological, christological and trinitarian. It is the vision of man who is called to live in a community (communion). And the vision realizes in the community of Church called community of love.Item Podwójne stworzenie a soteriologia Grzegorza z Nyssy(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Szczerba, WojciechGregory of Nyssa advocates the theory of a double creation, continuing, but also developing and modifying concepts sketched earlier by Philo of Alexandra and Origen. Similarly as the great Alexandrians, Nyssa finds grounds for his theory in Greek philosophy and the books of the Holy Scriptures, ascribing Gen 1,27a the first act of creatio, and the rest of the verse: „As man and woman he created them” referring to the second act of creatio, preparing human being for the coming fall. Whether Gregory resolves aporiae of his predecessors remains an open issue. However, only taking into consideration his theory of the double creation, at least as it is portrayed in the tract De hominis opifìcio, it is possible to define the place of human beings in the history of salvation both in the universal and individual sense. Soteriology in the universal sense appears in the thought of Nyssa as a general, arbitral re-creatio, and in the individual sense it takes a form of faith and hope in metanoia and return all the humans to God.Item Bóg - ״budowniczy Izraela"1 i Kościoła. Przesłanie Rdz 2,18-24 w świetle tajemnicy paschalnej Chrystusa(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Sulowski, JulianThis article aims mainly at revealing the spiritual sense o f the pericope according to wording of the Papal Biblical Commission: the spiritual sense conceived according to Christian faith, as sense expressed through biblical texts, when they are read under the influence o f Holy Spirit in the context o f paschal mystery o f Christ and the new life springing from it. JHWH is expressed in the words: It is not good fo r the man to be fo r himself (Gen. 2,18a). In BHS there is a particle of purpose 19, for, in purpose of, overlooked by exegetes in a Hebrew word hbaddó, consisting of a particle of purpose 19, a noun bad = separation, a part of, and a pronoun suffix 6. That is why the standard translation of this verse should be changed (istead to be alone, for to be fo r himself). ‘The man-Adam, being alone, not having any relation to anybody else, was not yet image o f God’ (Kiemikowski), because ‘God is love’ in the relation of the three divine persons, and because it is said in Gn 1,27 that woman and man were created together in God«s image and the word 3àdam means both man and woman (1,26). The deepest carrier of the message of the pericope is the verb banah - built, occuring here in the form of wajjiqtol wayylben. It is full of meaning that the theme of God as a builder or an architect in himself appears in the exile or post-exile texts Is 45,13; 62,5; lKgs 11,39; Jer 5,5n; 31,2-6; Ez 36,33-38; Ps 102,17; 127,1; 147,2. Biblical authors use a verb ״bnh”- to build because a conception and birth o f the man was always related to activity of God who ‘was building’ man in his mother's womb (Gn 16,2; 30,5; Ps 139,13), who was building a dynasty (2 Sm 7,27; 1 Kgs 17,25), and consequently he was building the nation and the state, (cf. Ex 1,21 Dt 25,9). The following conlusions result from this article: 1. The key to understanding the pericope is the allusion of the verse Gn 2,23a to the formula of the covenant (W. Briiggemann), which does not say about origin o f the woman in a biological sense. Exegetical tradition interpreting the text as supposedly saying about the biological origin of the woman is based on familiarization of the word ‘rib’ and with inappropriate play of words in 23b, which blurrs and misinterpretes the meaning of the text. While the main intention of the text is to emphasize solidarity o f man and woman and their mutual responsibilty for each other and for the world. 2. This solidarity is mutual but it refers both to cultivating soil - 3àdàmàh (3iSSah - 5adama11) and to observing the Law of the covenant. 3. Image of God and his bride Israel is close to the prophets.That is why Gn 2,18-24 refers to the teachings of the prophets about the covenant (H. Renckens), especially to Hos 1-3; Ez 16 i 23; Deutero- i Trito-Isaiah. This image was presented both in terms of infidelity and restored relations of the covenant. The metaphor o f marriage says about the covenant of God with Israel. However, on basis of Gn 2,23a it is clear that this marriage is not a more personal or auxiliary image of the covenant but speaks directly about permanent relations which last between God and Israel in weal and woe, in weakness and power, in faithfulness and infidelity. 4. The same imagery is used by St. Paul in Eph 5,21-33. The relation between Christ and Church was built on the community o f fate, loyalty and responsibility which has a guarantee to survive in any lot. Christ and Church are one body. This is a formula of the covenant repeated by Paul from Gn 2,24. The words of St. Paul His purpose fo r dying fo r all was that men, while still in life, should cease to live fo r themselves, and and should live fo r him, who fo r their sake died and was raised to life (2C0r 5,15) are found as a prolongation of Gn 2,18 It is not good fo r the man to be fo r himself. 5. The text does not suggest any superiority o f male element over female or justifies sexual intercourses since such a problem did not exist in Israel. Marriage was based on community of fate, loyalty and commitment which ought to be treated seriously. It is neither light nor accidental, grounded on mood or feeling. It is based on an oath of solidarity. Its general aim is not to find mutual joy, though not excluded, but it is the job of cultivating soil and obeying the Law of the covenant. Thus, human relations were grasped in context o f solidarity and responsibility for people and the world.Item Metamorfozy neoplatonizmu(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Kunzmann, PeterDer Neuplatonismus, so die leitende These, tragt in das abendlandische Denken eine entscheidende Figur ein: Dass nàmlich das Prinzip der Welt nicht in ihr selber liegt. Dieses Thema wird vermittelt und eben variiert vor allem durch die drei Griindungsfiguren der mittelalterlichen Philosophie und Theologie: Dionysios Areopagita, der den Überstieg zu diesem Prinzip ais Gipfel seiner mystischen Theologie feiert, in der die Sprache verstummt; Boethius, fur den der Lenker der Welt eben dieser Welt iiberlegen ist und natiirlich Augustinus, der die kürzeste Formel fur die scheinbar paradoxe Konstellation vom Einen zum Vielen, von Gott und Welt findet: Das góttliche Prinzip ist „in” all Dingen und zugleich „über” ihnen. Damit legt der Neuplatonismus ein Modeli vor, das dem christlichen Denken hochwillkommen war und aus der westlichen Metaphysik nicht wegzudenken bis hin zu A. N. Whitehead.Item ON JEST. Metafizyka a język. Parmenides - Wittgenstein - Barańczak(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Wiertlewska, MałgorzataThe aim o f this article is to look from an existential point of view at the metaphysical argument from language to reality. The main questions are as follows: does language reflect the structure of reality? or is it rather a tool that enables us to perform certain actions, like the action of proving a thesis? and can we, by investigating the nature of language arrive at truths about extralinguistic reality? Those issues are taken up with respect to insights gained by Parmenides, Wittengenstein and Barańczak, a contemporary Polish poet and translator. For Parmenides language is not an autonomous domain but is conjugated with external reality, so by discovering the rules that govern the attribution of meaning to linguistic utterances we can reach beyond phenomena towards the nature of the world as such. Contradictory statements are then seen to result from the aspectuality of particular accounts, whereas in being conceived in its entirety there is no self-contradiction but only degrees of properties. Parmenidean metaphysics is of interest to us here in connection with his concept of the relationship between a word and its referent, whereby it is possible to infer the essence of the thing picked out by a word from the established rules of its correct usage. Ludwig Wittgenstein is a philosopher whose impact on thinking about the metaphysical consequences of language is not to be overlooked. His position concerning the very possibility of metaphysical claims splits into two standpoints, expressed in his two basic works: Tractatus logico- philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations. Tractatus is Parmenidean in its presupposed isomorphism between the structure of language and the world, as well as in assuming that the substance of the world determines the logical space of all possibilities and that it is eternal and unchangeable. On the other hand, however, we do not have an access to the comprehensive state of things denoted as «the world» in its material mode, and therefore we have no basis for deciding which metaphysical statements are its true formal representations. That is why on the level of logic people can arrive at mutually exclusive metaphysical claims, as shown by Plato in the ending of his Parmenides. In Philosophical Investigations Wittgenstein considers, among others, the role of prototypes in the process o f transmitting/learning the meaning of words whereby the objects of experience can be categorized. He also reflects on language as an act governed by autonomous rules which are accepted by users, a theory which he called language games. What underlies both these issues is the question of an element o f identity between language and extralingustic reality. The answer that this element consists in the logical form of an utterance whereby reality is supposed to be mapped by a sentence becomes problematic in the light o f the discovery o f the ambiguity of an image when it is placed in two different contexts that contain different prototypes of reference for the sign under consideration. In reading a particular notation as a mapping of a specific state of things, one’s knowledge of the rules of notation plays an important role as it enables one to recognize the content that one already knows. The rules that impose interpretation on reality constitute a broadly understood grammar. They are autonomous relative to reality so when we utter a sentence the words obtain their meaning depending on how they are used. This does not translate into a referentially understood meaning, because what turns out to be important is the sense of the word, i.e. the way in which it is used by the speaker. Self-aware poetry seeks sense in links between the word and the world, not just within the domain of language itself. Conscious of grammatical rules, it employs them as a tool in overcoming the autonomy of language. This approach is analyzed on the example of an essay on the essence of poetry titled Tablica z Macondo [The Macondo License Plate] by Stanisław Barańczak. He talks in it about a personalized license plate he would devise for himself in order not to forget the most vital truth that enables him to navigate his life. Such a plate would read in Polish ON JEST [HE IS], where - owing to the specificity of the Polish grammar - the third person masculine singular pronoun can stand for the reader (or more generally “the other”), the world, and God (or transcendence). The intended ambiguity of this pronoun makes us realize that although pronouns are substitutes for the noun phrase in a sentence, they are in fact a sort of mental abbreviations that encapsulate more abundant content than a mere 1:1 correspondence with a single noun. Of the two basic functions of pronouns in interpersonal communication: anaphoric and deictic, the latter proves to be more basic as it introduces new objects into the universe of discourse shared by the participants of a conversation. One cannot speak about the meaning o f the pronoun «he», but about the sense in which it is used, and this sense pertains to extralinguistic reality indicated directly by the speaker. The sentence HE IS does not tell us anything about reality unless reality itself is included into the utterance as one of its constituent elements. The triple encounter (the other, the world, transcendence) spelled out by Barańczak in terms of an inclusive unity of experience represented by a single sentence is a manifestation of the metaphysical.Item Rytuały a teksty sakralne. Ku instytucjonalizacji tekstów w judaizmie(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Stanek, TeresaThe article deals with the problem of formation of the canon of the Hebrew Bible on the level of correlation between the cultic institutions that formed the basis of ancient Near Eastern religions and the theological concepts inscribed into the text of the Hebrew Bible. The proposed approach is an attempt to find a new paradigm in the discussion on the uniqueness of the religion of ancient Israel. Recognition of theological concepts inscribed into sacred writings that finally substitute some of the functions of cultic institutions might provide an explanation o f the peculiarities o f the contents and form of the canon, both on the level of the whole scripture as well as particular stories. This article is part of a wider project whose aim is to describe the connection between the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament and the religion of Israel in biblical times. The idea of the project embraces multiple directions of research: the problem of formation and transmitting of the texts of the canons; the reasons why the stories, as well as the Bible as one whole, were written and transmitted in this particular content and form; the rules o f writing the text and transmitting it in the written version; multiplicity o f canons and their connections with the communities; the specifics o f the Hebrew canon against the Old Testament canon; the issue o f continuity between the religion of ancient Israel, Judaism of the Second Temple period, Christianity and rabbinic Judaism. The proposed approach underscores the fact that a canon does not exist without a community which is responsible for its creation and cultivation, therefore, it cannot be interpreted apart from it. On the other hand, it is the canon that protects the identity of the community, therefore, its hermeneutics must comply with the community’s self understanding.Item Holocaust. Horyzont Nowego myślenia(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Rogóż, DominikThe twentieth century philosophy of dialog created by such eminent thinkers as Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber and Emmanuel Lévinas, has its roots not only in the dispute with the Cartesian concept of subjectivity, ego cogito, but also - and this is the fundamental thesis of this paper - in the horrendous experience of the Holocaust. Philosophy of dialog is not a fruit of pure and abstract speculation characteristic of university faculties; it is a fruit of an authentic experience of cruelty and hatred to The Other. The Holocaust - according to philosophers of dialog - was not only a terrible result of modem technocracy, but primarily a poisoned fruit of the European transcendental tradition o f thinking. Pioneering works o f philosophy of dialog that nowadays are recognized as classical, were written in the turmoil of The First World War - at war front and in Stalag. The transcendence of The Other, according to the philosophy of dialog, in the tradition of modem thinking was reduced to the immanence of subjectivity, Cartesian cogito. Consequently, this modem gesture of detranscendentalization repeated and reinforced in the age of philosophical idealism, has become one of the fundamental reasons for horrible and irrational expansion of cruelty in the twentieth century. The answer, unlike many others, to the Holocaust given by the philosophy of dialog was clear: the first vocation of philosophy is to guard the transcendence of The Other, who never can be reduced to the order o f thinking. The Other, understood as the other person, always exceeds any ideas and concepts, within which a subject tries to categorize him. Therefore New thinking inaugurated by philosophy of dialog, finds its foundation not in ego cogito, but in the unconditional recognition of the reality of the other person. New thinking begins with respect for the mystery of manhood.Item Spis treści(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008)Item Filozofia sensu jako odpowiedź na kryzys metafizyki. W stronę nowej „filozofii pierwszej"(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Śnieżyński, KrzysztofThe desire to validate one’s existence which we call the ultimate and overall sense of life is an inalienable meta-physical experience specific to all humans in their everyday lives. Even if we only speak about the concept of the sense of life, it is always in close relation to a metaphysical experience of validating life as a whole. Such a validation also seeks to express itself in philosophical thinking and that is why the basic question that underpins considerations presented in the paper is as follows: What problem-shape could “first philosophy” assume if it is engaged in the attempt to answer the question that ultimately concerns each of us: the question about the sense of our own existence? Asking about the “problem-shape” of such a philosophy we mean reflection on the philosophy of sense directed to its meta-physical source and not to the formal shape that it could assume. We are not interested in constructing philosophy for philosophy’s sake but our concern is to reflect critically on the “metaphysics-creating experience” which builds and develops the philosophy of the sense of life. The philosophy of sense as a new „first philosophy” will no longer be a philosophy of „being as being” (substance), where that which is most important, „what is first”, pertains either to essence or existence or universal principles of what is labeled as „being”. This new philosophy purports to engage in the most vital problem of life, that is why its task will be, among others, a critical separation o f sense and end, thematization o f the sense of life in man’s relation to the world, a quest for sense outside a unilateral objectivization (the category of being), reflection on human life in all its manifestations, historical changeability and dramatism, sense as seeking hope greater than “being”, nonidentity of the ultimate sense o f life with the ultimate “Safeguardian of Sense” - i.e. God.Item Ojcowskie pouczenie mądrościowe w Księdze Przysłów (1,8-9)(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Nawrot, JanuszProv 1:8-9 is an admonition to listen to and receive as one’s own the instruction that follows from parental experience. Its value is compared to a magnificent wreath on one’s head and to jewellery which lend splendour and glory to their owner. Wisdom, similarly to material goods, is worth desiring. However, the author encourages his audience to direct one’s desire for possessions toward wisdom which will never deteriorate or lose its lustre.Item O matriarchacie, bogini-matce i Babie Jadze, czyli najkrótsza historia ludzkości. Na marginesie książki Zygmunta Krzaka(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Ziółkowski, AdamThe paper examines a new attempt to resuscitate the matriarchy theory by Zygmunt Krzak. The author endeavours to outline what he considers the main line of development of the human society: the birth of matriarchy in the late Palaeolithic, its neolithic apogee, the rise of patriarchy at the turn from the Chalcolitic to the early Bronze, the relics of matriarchy in the subsequent epochs and the “new era” patriarchy of the last two millennia. The matriarchy hypothesis of Bachofen, Morgan and Engels is treated as a historical fact, decisively corroborated - he adds - by Gimbutas. Like her, he finds the corroborating material in artefacts depicting nude females or female genitals, and in the “evidence” on the so-called Mother-cult, the alleged neolithic worship of a supreme female principle of life and fertility, said to be reflected in goddesses of pagan pantheons and female figures of legend and folklore. One obsolete phantasy drives another, with total disregard of both the state o f our knowledge and the rules of the scholarly argument. Eg. the author does not bother about the legitimacy of reconstructing the features of the postulated neolithic Magna Mater on the basis of the epiphany of Isis in Apuleius the Platonist’s Golden Ass, written six thounsand years after the putative heyday of the pretended archetype of that new Roman deity in the guise of an old Egyptian goddess, one of the main vehicles of syncretic tendencies of the age. Neither does he explain why the overtly erotic images of women, made by men for men, should be treated as evidence for the cult of a supreme fertility goddess, nay, for matriarchy. No wonder that, judging by quotations, his main allies are - apart from Gimbutas - Jung, Fromm and their likes, and the occultists.Item The Oldest Translations of Biblical Texts into Kashubian(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Sikora, Adam RyszardThis paper discusses translations o f biblical passages into Kashubian which originated in Evangelical circles between the 16lh and 19th centuries. Although the tradition o f translation dates back to the 16th century, translation o f the entire Bible, or at least one complete biblical book, which would have originated in this particular environment has not been preserved. Presumably it never existed. The oldest translations o f biblical texts into Kashubian were generally based on the German language. The first printed book with texts in Kashubian included, among others, eleven works defined as Psalms and a range o f short passages originating both from the Old Testament and the New Testament. This very book was the Simon Krofey’s Hymnal published in Gdańsk in 1586. Translation o f The Small Catechism o f Martin Luther came out approximately half a century later, and similarly to the Krofey’s Hymnal it included many biblical passages. However, the biggest collection o f biblical texts which has survived is dated for the turn o f the 17th and 18* centuries. These texts are found in the so-called Smoldzinian Perikopes, containing lessons and Gospels for all Sundays and church holidays. Many smaller passages o f the older translation o f biblical texts represent only occasional translations o f biblical passages incorporated in other religious texts. The first intended and methodical translation o f texts from the Sacred Scripture into Kashubian was the collection o f so-called Smoldzinian Perikopes. Research conducted on these translations allows to conclude that although authors o f these translations did not translate from original texts, but in most cases from the German language, their translations o f the Bible are characterised by a high degree of faithfulness to the thought o f original texts. Moreover, accuracy and efforts to make the texts comprehensible and literary beautiful grant their authors the best testimony.Item Geneza wyboru zasadniczego z perspektywy tradycji chrześcijańskiej(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Torończak, EdwardTheologians of the so-called new moral theology aiming to renew moral theology developed a theory of a fundamental option identifying it as the ‘new’ paradigm o f morality. They accused the moral theology’s tradition, to a certain extent rightly, of too strong an emphasis on the objective dimension of the moral action ignoring its subjective dimension on which, in their opinion, the quality of choices a person makes depends. However, reflections upon the origins of the fundamental choice from the perspective of Christian tradition demonstrated that St. Augustine, St. Thomas, St. Alphonsus Liguori in their writings pointed out the subjective dimension of morality, emphasising the importance of conscience, freedom and moral decision in the Christian life. The moral and theological reflections o f these authors contain references to a deeply personal aspect of moral activity since, in fact, a moral act ‘is bom’ deep within a person and is directed towards the ultimate aim. It is in the fundamental moral decision, understood as the life’s essential direction towards God, where a relation towards subjective not only objective dimension of the moral order is clear, since such a decision ultimately comes from the depths of the acting person’s freedom.Item Bonum sacramenti w nauce św. Augustyna o małżeństwie(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Swoboda, AntoniIl presente articolo intitolato „Bonum sacramenti” nella dottrina di S. Agostino sul matrimonio” è composto di tre capitoli. Nella prima parte fu presentato l’insegnamento del Vescovo di Ippona sulla bontà del matrimonio. Essa deriva dal fatto che Dio abbia creato il matrimonio. Il fonte di questo bene, considerato da parte del uomo, è amicizia che lega dei sposi e una communità naturale la quale compie l’ordine della carità stabilito da Dio. Il matrimonio è un bene perche’ costituisce una communità fedele e indissolubile fra donna e uomo ed ha anche un valore sociale perche’ crea una cellula fondamentale della società. Nessun dei beni matrimoniali (fides, proles, sacramentum) era causa di passagio del peccato originale agli uomini. Grazia di questi beni matrimonio non perde la sua bontà anche dopo questo peccato. Matrimonio come un bene è un fonte della grazia, una via per la santità e un modo di realizare l’amore verso il uomo. Così la familia cristiana può realizzare il suo compito salvifico e santificante. Nella seconda parte ci presentiamo l’insegnamento del Vescovo sul sacramento del matrimonio. Per lui il matrimonio è un sacramento, un segno visibile e santificante della realtà creata da Dio la quale offre una grazia agli sposi. Per Agostino il sacramento del matrimonio di cui essenza è la indissolubilità, è un sacramento particolare nel suo genere. Questo vienie confermato con tale espressioni come: quoddam / aliguod sacramentum; quiddam coniugale, sacramentum connubii; sacramentum nuptiarum e sacramentum matrimonii. Per Vescovo di Ippona indissolubile unione fra Christo e la Chiesa è un modello per matrimonio fra maschio e femina. Cosi il sacramento di matrimonio non è soltanto un segno, ma prima di tutto una realtà ontologica. Questa mistica unione fra Christo e la Chiesa (sacramentum magnum) costituisce per Agostino un modello e un ideale del matrimonio cristiano (sacramentum minimum) il quale partecipa in tale unione. In questo modo indissolubilità che deriva dal diritto naturale è stata rinforzata e innalzata alla dignità del sacramento. Per quanto riguarda del matrimonio dei pagani Vescovo di Ippona ci insegna che esso non può essere considerato come sacramentum = sacrum signum perche’ non ha riferimenti al Christo e alla Chiesa. Esso è un sacramento in un certo modo quando conserva dei elementi principali del matrimonio e per indicare la unità di Christo con la Chiesa. Nella terza parte viene esaminato un aspetto escatologico del sacramento del matrimonio. Secondo Agostino il matrimonio dovrebbe causare la crescità della Civitas Dei ed anche dovrebbe aiutare la gente nel ottenere una communità con Dio e con gli angeli nella eternità. Per Agostino il matrimonio indissolubile è un segno della commune unità di tutti uomini sottomessi al Signore nella Città di Dio. Per ottenere questo scopo occorre pratticare le virtù così come castità, santità e bontà.Item Partia komunistyczna walcząca z religią i państwo komunistyczne gwarantujące wolność religijną jako teoretyczne podstawy marksizmu-leninizmu w walce z religią i Kościołem katolickim w krajach realnego socjalizmu(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Jędraszewski, MarekMarek Jędraszewski in his article The Communist Party fighting with religion and the communist state guaranteeing religious freedom, as theoretic background for Marxism-Leninism in fight against religion and Catholic Church in the countries o f real socialism, presents philosophical and ideological principles, which direct the course of politic of communists states in the battle against religion and Church, especially Catholic Church. The author shows sources of that in antireligious thoughts of the modem Europe: deism of Enlightenment and philosophy of Feuerbach for whom the sole condition of substantial human freedom was appreciation of radical atheism. Next, author presents the Marxist conception of religion as the “opiate of the masses” and “opiate for the masses”. On the end, is presenting Lenin’s distinction between antireligious program of party and worldview neutrality of state, which was the ground for cutthroat war against religion, both in the Soviet Union and other countries of People’s democratic so-called the Ostblock) in the period 1944-1989. Author resemble the main thesis of the Pius XI encyclical Divini Redemptoris from 1939, which shows antihumanistic, furthermore felon face of “godless communism”. The best example giving by the author, for the rightness of popes words, is abatement of the Catholic Church by the communist party in the Poland in the times of Polish People’s Republic. As a conclusion author is citing words of pope John Paul II from encyclical Centesimus annus: “Marxism had promised to uproot the need for God from the human heart, but the results have shown that it is not possible to succeed in this without throwing the heart into turmoil” (CA, 24).Item Defying Rationality: Florensky and Frank(Wydział Teologiczny UAM, 2008) Drozdek, AdamSome philosophers and theologians state that there is a limit to rational reasoning beyond which experience or intuition should be used. Forceful arguments for the limitation of some logical principles are presented by Florensky and Frank. Some of their arguments are investigated in the present paper.