Studia Religiologica
Studia Religiologica is an academic periodical committed to the study of religions. It publishes research articles, review articles and book reviews representing all areas of the study of religions.
Make a submission
Studia Religiologica is an academic periodical committed to the study of religions. It publishes research articles, review articles and book reviews representing all areas of the study of religions.
Make a submission
Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Description
Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Studia Religiologica is an academic periodical committed to the study of religions. It publishes research articles, review articles and book reviews representing all areas of the study of religions, encompassing the history of religions and comparative study of religions as well as phenomenology of religion, anthropology of religion, sociology of religion, psychology of religion, and philosophy of religion.
ISSN: 0137-2432
eISSN: 2084-4077
MNiSW points: 100
UIC ID: 200291
DOI: 10.4467/20844077SR
Editorial team
Affiliation
Jagiellonian University in Kraków
Publication date: 2024
Editor-in-Chief: Małgorzata Grzywacz, Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Czasopismo dofinansowane przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Inicjatywy Doskonałości na Wydziale Filozoficznym i Instytutu Religioznawstwa.
The publication of this volume was financed by the Jagiellonian University in Kraków – Institute of Religious Studies.
Cover design: Barbara Widłak
Ewelina Drzewiecka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 3, 2023, pp. 1 - 17
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.009.19997Daria Mazur
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 3, 2023, pp. 19 - 33
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.010.19998The article is an attempt to combine film and theological thoughts in relation to the film Wszystkie nasze strachy, in which the protagonist is modeled on the contemporary Polish visual artist Daniel Rycharski. His declarations, experience, and attitude confirm the validity of using the tropes related to the elements of the concept of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s religionless Christianity for analyzing the film. The concept provides arguments that expand the possibility to consider the film and the protagonist’s creation in the perspective of the postmodern identity discourse with the contents that correspond with the phenomena and processes inscribed in the postsecular tendencies. The interpretations presented in the article take into account the context of non-heteronormativity and the manifestations of homophobia in a small rural community presented in the story, and also focus on the category of relationality, contemplativeness, identification, and movement, as well as the antinomy of religion and faith and Christocentrism.
Matylda Ciołkosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 3, 2023, pp. 35 - 49
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.011.19999Joanna Katarzyna Puchalska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 3, 2023, pp. 51 - 69
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.012.20000Ewelina Drzewiecka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 3, 2023, pp. 1 - 17
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.009.19997Daria Mazur
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 3, 2023, pp. 19 - 33
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.010.19998The article is an attempt to combine film and theological thoughts in relation to the film Wszystkie nasze strachy, in which the protagonist is modeled on the contemporary Polish visual artist Daniel Rycharski. His declarations, experience, and attitude confirm the validity of using the tropes related to the elements of the concept of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s religionless Christianity for analyzing the film. The concept provides arguments that expand the possibility to consider the film and the protagonist’s creation in the perspective of the postmodern identity discourse with the contents that correspond with the phenomena and processes inscribed in the postsecular tendencies. The interpretations presented in the article take into account the context of non-heteronormativity and the manifestations of homophobia in a small rural community presented in the story, and also focus on the category of relationality, contemplativeness, identification, and movement, as well as the antinomy of religion and faith and Christocentrism.
Matylda Ciołkosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 3, 2023, pp. 35 - 49
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.011.19999Joanna Katarzyna Puchalska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 3, 2023, pp. 51 - 69
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.012.20000Publication date: 2023
The publication of this volume was financed by the Jagiellonian University in Kraków – Institute of Religious Studies.
Cover design: Barbara Widłak
Dorota Gil
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 2, 2023, pp. 97 - 106
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.007.19229The topic of this article is the shift in the Serbian culture model in the eighteenth century that took place not only as a result of the well-known “turn to Russia” (in fact, an adoption of the Polish-Ukrainian-Russian pattern shaped in the first Polish Republic), but also under the significant influence of the Protestant models. The importance of Protestant schools and the University of Halle, rather poorly studied, reveals a great sense of “protestantisation” in the deep transformation of Serbian culture and that of most of the other Orthodox Slavic nations and the Orthodoxy itself. This is important especially with regard to the Pietistic ideas, combined with those of the Enlightenment, promoted by these centres.
Anna Niedźwiedź
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 2, 2023, pp. 107 - 126
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.008.19230This paper discusses selected research topics developed by feminist theologians connected with the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. The Circle was established in 1989 and was led for many years by Mercy Amba Oduyoye, a Ghanaian Methodist theologian. Today the Circle attracts women theologians from three generations and various African countries. The paper refers to feminist and postcolonial theories as well as some more African-oriented topics developed in the Circle’s writings. Complex and ambiguous reinterpretations of the so-called African Traditional Religion are framed by references to inculturation and liberation theology. The final part of the paper refers to the concept of “oral theology” and theology in practice. The author’s ethnographic fieldwork in Ghana among Catholic women is mentioned to draw parallels between the theological practical approach and the anthropological concept of lived religion.
Kamila Baraniecka-Olszewska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 2, 2023, pp. 127 - 141
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.013.20324Marek M. Dziekan
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 2, 2023, pp. 143 - 166
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.014.20325The turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was a difficult period in the history of Morocco. Both the rulers, aware of their own weakness, and Muslim thinkers and scholars were aware of this. Among them, was a man partly associated with the court, but opposed to the passive politics of the sultans, Muhammad Ibn Ǧaʿfar al-Kattāni, a Salafi thinker and historian originating from the influential mystical Kattāniyya brotherhood. Many important Moroccan figures were associated with this brotherhood and to this day it plays a significant role in the social and political life of the country. In my article I will focus on the presentation of Al-Kattānī and his work Naṣīḥat ahl al-Islām (“Advice for Muslims”), first published in Fez in 1908. In it, the author points out the reasons for the weakness of Muslims that led to surrender hostile colonial forces. Characterising and analysing these reasons in depth, at the same time Al-Kattāni indicates ways to overcome them. So far, this work has not received much attention in Oriental studies, although it was a kind of guide for the Moroccan liberation movements that finally led to Morocco's independence in 1956.
Józef Majewski, Dariusz K. Sikorski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 2, 2023, pp. 167 - 182
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.015.20326Dorota Gil
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 2, 2023, pp. 97 - 106
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.007.19229The topic of this article is the shift in the Serbian culture model in the eighteenth century that took place not only as a result of the well-known “turn to Russia” (in fact, an adoption of the Polish-Ukrainian-Russian pattern shaped in the first Polish Republic), but also under the significant influence of the Protestant models. The importance of Protestant schools and the University of Halle, rather poorly studied, reveals a great sense of “protestantisation” in the deep transformation of Serbian culture and that of most of the other Orthodox Slavic nations and the Orthodoxy itself. This is important especially with regard to the Pietistic ideas, combined with those of the Enlightenment, promoted by these centres.
Anna Niedźwiedź
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 2, 2023, pp. 107 - 126
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.008.19230This paper discusses selected research topics developed by feminist theologians connected with the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. The Circle was established in 1989 and was led for many years by Mercy Amba Oduyoye, a Ghanaian Methodist theologian. Today the Circle attracts women theologians from three generations and various African countries. The paper refers to feminist and postcolonial theories as well as some more African-oriented topics developed in the Circle’s writings. Complex and ambiguous reinterpretations of the so-called African Traditional Religion are framed by references to inculturation and liberation theology. The final part of the paper refers to the concept of “oral theology” and theology in practice. The author’s ethnographic fieldwork in Ghana among Catholic women is mentioned to draw parallels between the theological practical approach and the anthropological concept of lived religion.
Kamila Baraniecka-Olszewska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 2, 2023, pp. 127 - 141
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.013.20324Marek M. Dziekan
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 2, 2023, pp. 143 - 166
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.014.20325The turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was a difficult period in the history of Morocco. Both the rulers, aware of their own weakness, and Muslim thinkers and scholars were aware of this. Among them, was a man partly associated with the court, but opposed to the passive politics of the sultans, Muhammad Ibn Ǧaʿfar al-Kattāni, a Salafi thinker and historian originating from the influential mystical Kattāniyya brotherhood. Many important Moroccan figures were associated with this brotherhood and to this day it plays a significant role in the social and political life of the country. In my article I will focus on the presentation of Al-Kattānī and his work Naṣīḥat ahl al-Islām (“Advice for Muslims”), first published in Fez in 1908. In it, the author points out the reasons for the weakness of Muslims that led to surrender hostile colonial forces. Characterising and analysing these reasons in depth, at the same time Al-Kattāni indicates ways to overcome them. So far, this work has not received much attention in Oriental studies, although it was a kind of guide for the Moroccan liberation movements that finally led to Morocco's independence in 1956.
Józef Majewski, Dariusz K. Sikorski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 2, 2023, pp. 167 - 182
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.015.20326Publication date: 2023
Issue Editor: Izabela Trzcińska
The publication of this volume was financed by the Jagiellonian University in Kraków – Institute of Religious Studies.
Cover design: Barbara Widłak
Andrzej Kasperek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 1, 2023, pp. 1 - 16
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.001.19223The article is an attempt to analyze The Willows by Algernon Blackwood in terms of the sociological concept of multiple realities. Trying to answer the question of how people experience reality, due attention will be paid to the literary description of the situation in which a human being is confronted with a reality that terrifies and disturbs. Literature in general, including horror literature, is treated here as an important, from the cognitive standpoint, platform for discussion about human experiences, which, following Sigmund Freud, can be described as uncanny. I treat Blackwood’s The Willows as a reconstruction of the dispute over the legitimacy of knowledge and the sources of cognition in the conditions of a specific epistemological (categorical) chaos in the face of experiencing the uncanny.
Diana Oboleńska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 1, 2023, pp. 17 - 31
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.002.19224The text discusses the anthroposophical proposition of a cultural model based on two interconnected elements: the thought process and spiritual development. The founder of anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, demonstrating his extensive knowledge of the then popular proposals for shaping scientific thought, especially philosophical, proposes his unique approach to the existing reality and its possible future forms of existence.
Renata Czyż
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 1, 2023, pp. 33 - 45
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.003.19225The little known legacy of Julian Ochorowicz in Cieszyn Silesia is discussed in this article. This is the region where the controversial philosopher and psychologist spent several years. The scientist conducted his research on mediumists in Wisła, where he engaged in social and scientific activities and gathered a large collection of books. The author discusses the fate of his material legacy and the endeavours of the heirs of his scientific theories. Julian Ochorowicz’s scientific achievements and thought were propagated by the people he had met personally, such as Jan Pilch and Jan Wantuła or by those associated with the esoteric centre that developed in Wisla in the interwar years (Andrzej Podżorski, Józef Chobot, Jan Hadyna). As it turns out, Julian Ochorowicz had a significant influence on teachers of folk schools who were also publishers of magazines and esoteric books in the multi-denominational Cieszyn Silesia.
Monika Rzeczycka, Urszula Patocka-Sigłowy
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 1, 2023, pp. 47 - 64
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.004.19226Research into esoteric ideas and their permeating non-esoteric social practices has revealed a curious phenomenon: the influence of anthroposophy, one of the most important European esoteric movements of the twentieth century, on Polish agriculture in the Second Polish Republic (II RP), as well as the development of modern ecological thought in Polish scientific circles before the Second World War, especially among naturalists and agronomists. This article marks an initial attempt to name the sources, origin as well as methods applied in transforming esoteric ideas, initially presented by Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) in 1924. The ideas were connected with spiritual aspects of agriculture of the future and proved to be a very attractive alternative for the development of civilisation, which inspired both Polish landowners and scientists in the 1930s.
Agata Świerzowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 1, 2023, pp. 65 - 78
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.005.19227The vegetarian diet was seen by esotericists at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as the only diet fully compliant with the laws of Nature. Adopting it was therefore treated not only as a way of staying healthy (i.e. maintaining a psycho-physical and spiritual balance) and progressing spiritually, but also as a duty towards Nature and a way to preserve its original, pure and therefore beneficial character. The aim of this paper is to analyse pro-vegetarian and – as the author claims – at the same time pro-ecological discourse developed within the Polish esoteric milieu at the turn of the twentieth century. Based on the example of Polish esoteric vegetarians, the specificity of argumentation and characteristic depiction will be presented as well as the practical implementation of the proclaimed postulates.
Izabela Trzcińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 1, 2023, pp. 79 - 95
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.006.19228Stanisław Hadyna was a versatile artist – he composed music, gave concerts on the piano, created theatre plays, and authored plenty of books. In the collective conscience, however, he remains the founder of the band “Śląsk”, which now bears his name. The aim of the article is to present his interests in spirituality, which were related to concepts of renewal – of man and the world. In Stanisław Hadyna’s search for spirituality he combined two visions of reality, which at first glance seem irreconcilable. The foundation of the first was the mythology of childhood, containing stories about happy times and glorified nature. The second vision, on the other hand, led to the darkness of a world devastated by wars and totalitarianism, where gloomy cities and machines reign; people forget about the most important values, and survival turns out to be virtually impossible. Both images, however, are integrated by a myth that combines the story of an idyllic beginning with the tragedy of the characters who are looking for freedom, despite everything that happens around them. Creating a new world, as if against all odds, also became the main message of his work in “Śląsk”.
Andrzej Kasperek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 1, 2023, pp. 1 - 16
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.001.19223The article is an attempt to analyze The Willows by Algernon Blackwood in terms of the sociological concept of multiple realities. Trying to answer the question of how people experience reality, due attention will be paid to the literary description of the situation in which a human being is confronted with a reality that terrifies and disturbs. Literature in general, including horror literature, is treated here as an important, from the cognitive standpoint, platform for discussion about human experiences, which, following Sigmund Freud, can be described as uncanny. I treat Blackwood’s The Willows as a reconstruction of the dispute over the legitimacy of knowledge and the sources of cognition in the conditions of a specific epistemological (categorical) chaos in the face of experiencing the uncanny.
Diana Oboleńska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 1, 2023, pp. 17 - 31
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.002.19224The text discusses the anthroposophical proposition of a cultural model based on two interconnected elements: the thought process and spiritual development. The founder of anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, demonstrating his extensive knowledge of the then popular proposals for shaping scientific thought, especially philosophical, proposes his unique approach to the existing reality and its possible future forms of existence.
Renata Czyż
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 1, 2023, pp. 33 - 45
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.003.19225The little known legacy of Julian Ochorowicz in Cieszyn Silesia is discussed in this article. This is the region where the controversial philosopher and psychologist spent several years. The scientist conducted his research on mediumists in Wisła, where he engaged in social and scientific activities and gathered a large collection of books. The author discusses the fate of his material legacy and the endeavours of the heirs of his scientific theories. Julian Ochorowicz’s scientific achievements and thought were propagated by the people he had met personally, such as Jan Pilch and Jan Wantuła or by those associated with the esoteric centre that developed in Wisla in the interwar years (Andrzej Podżorski, Józef Chobot, Jan Hadyna). As it turns out, Julian Ochorowicz had a significant influence on teachers of folk schools who were also publishers of magazines and esoteric books in the multi-denominational Cieszyn Silesia.
Monika Rzeczycka, Urszula Patocka-Sigłowy
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 1, 2023, pp. 47 - 64
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.004.19226Research into esoteric ideas and their permeating non-esoteric social practices has revealed a curious phenomenon: the influence of anthroposophy, one of the most important European esoteric movements of the twentieth century, on Polish agriculture in the Second Polish Republic (II RP), as well as the development of modern ecological thought in Polish scientific circles before the Second World War, especially among naturalists and agronomists. This article marks an initial attempt to name the sources, origin as well as methods applied in transforming esoteric ideas, initially presented by Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) in 1924. The ideas were connected with spiritual aspects of agriculture of the future and proved to be a very attractive alternative for the development of civilisation, which inspired both Polish landowners and scientists in the 1930s.
Agata Świerzowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 1, 2023, pp. 65 - 78
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.005.19227The vegetarian diet was seen by esotericists at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as the only diet fully compliant with the laws of Nature. Adopting it was therefore treated not only as a way of staying healthy (i.e. maintaining a psycho-physical and spiritual balance) and progressing spiritually, but also as a duty towards Nature and a way to preserve its original, pure and therefore beneficial character. The aim of this paper is to analyse pro-vegetarian and – as the author claims – at the same time pro-ecological discourse developed within the Polish esoteric milieu at the turn of the twentieth century. Based on the example of Polish esoteric vegetarians, the specificity of argumentation and characteristic depiction will be presented as well as the practical implementation of the proclaimed postulates.
Izabela Trzcińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56 Issue 1, 2023, pp. 79 - 95
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.23.006.19228Stanisław Hadyna was a versatile artist – he composed music, gave concerts on the piano, created theatre plays, and authored plenty of books. In the collective conscience, however, he remains the founder of the band “Śląsk”, which now bears his name. The aim of the article is to present his interests in spirituality, which were related to concepts of renewal – of man and the world. In Stanisław Hadyna’s search for spirituality he combined two visions of reality, which at first glance seem irreconcilable. The foundation of the first was the mythology of childhood, containing stories about happy times and glorified nature. The second vision, on the other hand, led to the darkness of a world devastated by wars and totalitarianism, where gloomy cities and machines reign; people forget about the most important values, and survival turns out to be virtually impossible. Both images, however, are integrated by a myth that combines the story of an idyllic beginning with the tragedy of the characters who are looking for freedom, despite everything that happens around them. Creating a new world, as if against all odds, also became the main message of his work in “Śląsk”.
Publication date: 11.12.2024
Secretary: Joanna Malita-Król
Editor-in-Chief: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Andrzej Szyjewski
The publication of this volume was financed by the Jagiellonian University in Kraków – Institute of Religious Studies.
Cover design: Barbara Widłak
Urszula Idziak-Smoczyńska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 1, Ahead of print
Jan Jakub Kalinowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 1, Ahead of print
Wojciech Szczerba
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 1, Ahead of print
Jerzy Rohoziński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 1, Ahead of print
Andrzej Migda
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 1, Ahead of print
Urszula Idziak-Smoczyńska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 1, Ahead of print
Jan Jakub Kalinowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 1, Ahead of print
Wojciech Szczerba
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 1, Ahead of print
Jerzy Rohoziński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 1, Ahead of print
Andrzej Migda
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 1, Ahead of print
Język Editor: Tim Churcher
Secretary: Joanna Malita-Król
Editor-in-Chief: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
The publication of this volume was financed by the Jagiellonian University in Kraków – Institute of Religious Studies.
Cover design: Barbara Widłak
Agnieszka Krzysztof-Świderska, Paweł Marian Socha, Krzysztof Krzysztof, Jacek Prusak, Adam Anczyk, Halina Grzymała-Moszczyńska, Agnieszka Chemperek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 2, Ahead of print
Krzysztof Pierzchalski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 2, Ahead of print
Krzysztof Bracha
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 2, Ahead of print
Agnieszka Krzysztof-Świderska, Paweł Marian Socha, Krzysztof Krzysztof, Jacek Prusak, Adam Anczyk, Halina Grzymała-Moszczyńska, Agnieszka Chemperek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 2, Ahead of print
Krzysztof Pierzchalski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 2, Ahead of print
Krzysztof Bracha
Studia Religiologica, Volume 57, Issue 2, Ahead of print
Secretary: Joanna Malita-Król
Editor-in-Chief: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Andrzej Szyjewski
The publication of this volume was financed by the Jagiellonian University in Kraków – Institute of Religious Studies.
Cover design: Barbara Widłak
Joana Bahia, Farlen de Jesus Nogueira
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56, Issue 4, Ahead of print
Renata Siuda-Ambroziak, Roseane L. Panini
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56, Issue 4, Ahead of print
Giovanna Capponi
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56, Issue 4, Ahead of print
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56, Issue 4, Ahead of print
Joana Bahia, Farlen de Jesus Nogueira
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56, Issue 4, Ahead of print
Renata Siuda-Ambroziak, Roseane L. Panini
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56, Issue 4, Ahead of print
Giovanna Capponi
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56, Issue 4, Ahead of print
Studia Religiologica, Volume 56, Issue 4, Ahead of print
Publication date: 2024
Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Małgorzata Grzywacz, Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Czasopismo dofinansowane przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Inicjatywy Doskonałości na Wydziale Filozoficznym i Instytutu Religioznawstwa.
Natalia Tołsty
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 4, 2022, pp. 1 - 16
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.015.19994Jakub Sadowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 4, 2022, pp. 17 - 30
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.016.19995Karolina Kaleta
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 4, 2022, pp. 31 - 44
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.017.19996Natalia Tołsty
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 4, 2022, pp. 1 - 16
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.015.19994Jakub Sadowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 4, 2022, pp. 17 - 30
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.016.19995Karolina Kaleta
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 4, 2022, pp. 31 - 44
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.017.19996Publication date: 2024
Issue Editors: Małgorzata Grzywacz, Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Czasopismo dofinansowane przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Inicjatywy Doskonałości na Wydziale Filozoficznym i Instytutu Religioznawstwa
Józef Majewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 3, 2022, pp. 1 - 17
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.012.19991Paweł Bielawski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 3, 2022, pp. 19 - 32
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.013.19992Israel Koren
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 3, 2022, pp. 33 - 53
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.014.19993Józef Majewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 3, 2022, pp. 1 - 17
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.012.19991Paweł Bielawski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 3, 2022, pp. 19 - 32
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.013.19992Israel Koren
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 3, 2022, pp. 33 - 53
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.014.19993Publication date: 2022
Issue Editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Instytutu Religioznawstwa.
Cover design: Barbara Widłak
Matylda Ciołkosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 2, 2022, pp. 103 - 117
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.007.17247This paper summarises a pilot study aiming to apply George Lakoff’s concept of moral politics in the Polish context. Based on an analysis of a corpus built from articles published in Polish rightwing weekly magazines between 2019 and 2021 and addressing the topic of the LGBTQIA+ community, the text argues that the way of formulating and expressing views regarding socio-political issues systematically depends on an implicitly applied cognitive model of morality (in this case, the strict father morality postulated by Lakoff).
* Tekst powstał w ramach projektu „Bóg, obywatel, religia i wspólnota w polskim dyskursie o LGBTQIA+” (DEC-2020/04/X/HS1/01584) finansowanego ze środków przyznanych przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki w ramach konkursu MINIATURA 4.
Ewa Górska, Marta Woźniak-Bobińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 2, 2022, pp. 119 - 135
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.008.17248There has been an academic interest in fatwas regarding abortion since the 1980s (Anees 1989; Rispler-Chaim 1993, 2003; Faúndes, Barzelatto 2006). With the globalisation of ummah – the Islamic community – and the expansion of the internet, online fatwas have started to provide normative answers to inquiries from Muslims from all over the world. Van den Branden and Broeckaert researched non-voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide expressed in English e-fatwas (2009, 2011). Using their approach and framing e-fatwas in the context of Roy’s view on the virtual Islamic community (2000, we have selected and analysed eighty English Sunni e-fatwas on abortion. On the level of structure, these e-fatwas are very similar – often rooted in the Quran and Sunna but not classical jurisprudential discussions on the subject. On the level of content, they do not deviate from Islamic jurisprudence, which does not encourage abortion but permits it in particular circumstances during specific stages of fetal development – generally, before four months or 120 days of gestation. In the light of our study, English Sunni e-fatwas on abortion constitute an important part of Islamic bioethical teachings and thus deserve further research.
Daria Mazur
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 2, 2022, pp. 137 - 152
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.009.17249This article presents an attempt at an analysis of the fictionalised documentary Czyściec by Michał Kondrat (2020) in the context of the contemporary teaching of the Church and postulate of a popcultural turn in Catholic theology, formulated by Józef Majewski. Directing strategies, topoi, and graphic metaphors from this hybrid film – the script of which refers to Stefania Horak’s mystical experiences – are interpreted in the context of a long tradition of reflections on the topic of purgatory and the key principles of the post-conciliar teachings of the Catholic Church on this subject. These analyses and interpretations enable consideration of whether the said film aims at refreshing the forms of expression of purgatory-related topics. They also let the reader explore whether the mass-culture elements included in the film can help the viewer become more spiritually mature and whether they deepen the eschatological reflection.
Jarosław Płuciennik, Marcin Hintz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 2, 2022, pp. 153 - 170
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.010.17250In this article, the authors set themselves the goal of describing the pattern of civil engagement comparable to that of Antigone in relations with the state on the case study of people associated with the “Anna Foundation,” saving the evangelical (protestant) cemetery in Gostków (Lower Silesia) from the mid-nineteenth century. The area of operation of this foundation is the local communion of multicultural influence. The research method involved reading sources, a series of qualitative interviews with activists and other subjects with “borderline experience,” a description of photographic documentation and an interpretation of the history of modernity. The article is a case study and an attempt to interpret a broader phenomenon of saving cemeteries of various denominations from destruction and oblivion in Poland after 1989. This study contributes to studies on culture and religion, and the philosophical and theological reflection of late post-modernity. In interpreting the phenomenon of civic involvement, the authors use the concepts of “disenchantment of the world,” “rationalization,” “bureaucratization” and “the garden state,” as well as “re-enchanting of the world” and “holiness in the secular age.” In the conclusions, the authors propose to correct both the definition of “world enchantment” and the definition of the inevitable secularization of the world in late (post) modernity. The authors argue that in the time of the post-pandemic crisis and the climate catastrophe, Albert Schweitzer’s “reverence for life” may be an equivalent that is appropriate for the non-rational elements of contemporary culture.
Dobrosława Wiktor-Mach, Patrycja Trzeszczyńska, Konrad Pędziwiatr
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 2, 2022, pp. 171 - 191
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.011.17251This article investigates links between religion and migration processes through a study of religious communities’ approaches towards migrants. Drawing from the religious economy perspective, the paper explores the under-researched topic of the role of migration in the dynamics of a religious field in the context of Central and Eastern Europe. The qualitative research performed in 2020 in Krakow – one of the key destinations for migrants in Poland – confirms the claims of religious economy that monopolists and quasi-monopolists are usually more reluctant to adapt to social changes. On the other hand, less-privileged but entrepreneurial religious communities are more aware of migrants’ situation, and respond to their needs in the following ways: 1) providing cosmopolitan “temporary homes”; 2) bridging cultures; 3) setting up ethno-cultural service hubs. We argue that these kinds of engagements have significant implications for the dynamics inside the religious market.
* The research behind this article was funded by the Krakow University of Economics within the project POTENCJAŁ no 32/GPM/2021/POT.
Matylda Ciołkosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 2, 2022, pp. 103 - 117
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.007.17247This paper summarises a pilot study aiming to apply George Lakoff’s concept of moral politics in the Polish context. Based on an analysis of a corpus built from articles published in Polish rightwing weekly magazines between 2019 and 2021 and addressing the topic of the LGBTQIA+ community, the text argues that the way of formulating and expressing views regarding socio-political issues systematically depends on an implicitly applied cognitive model of morality (in this case, the strict father morality postulated by Lakoff).
* Tekst powstał w ramach projektu „Bóg, obywatel, religia i wspólnota w polskim dyskursie o LGBTQIA+” (DEC-2020/04/X/HS1/01584) finansowanego ze środków przyznanych przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki w ramach konkursu MINIATURA 4.
Ewa Górska, Marta Woźniak-Bobińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 2, 2022, pp. 119 - 135
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.008.17248There has been an academic interest in fatwas regarding abortion since the 1980s (Anees 1989; Rispler-Chaim 1993, 2003; Faúndes, Barzelatto 2006). With the globalisation of ummah – the Islamic community – and the expansion of the internet, online fatwas have started to provide normative answers to inquiries from Muslims from all over the world. Van den Branden and Broeckaert researched non-voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide expressed in English e-fatwas (2009, 2011). Using their approach and framing e-fatwas in the context of Roy’s view on the virtual Islamic community (2000, we have selected and analysed eighty English Sunni e-fatwas on abortion. On the level of structure, these e-fatwas are very similar – often rooted in the Quran and Sunna but not classical jurisprudential discussions on the subject. On the level of content, they do not deviate from Islamic jurisprudence, which does not encourage abortion but permits it in particular circumstances during specific stages of fetal development – generally, before four months or 120 days of gestation. In the light of our study, English Sunni e-fatwas on abortion constitute an important part of Islamic bioethical teachings and thus deserve further research.
Daria Mazur
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 2, 2022, pp. 137 - 152
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.009.17249This article presents an attempt at an analysis of the fictionalised documentary Czyściec by Michał Kondrat (2020) in the context of the contemporary teaching of the Church and postulate of a popcultural turn in Catholic theology, formulated by Józef Majewski. Directing strategies, topoi, and graphic metaphors from this hybrid film – the script of which refers to Stefania Horak’s mystical experiences – are interpreted in the context of a long tradition of reflections on the topic of purgatory and the key principles of the post-conciliar teachings of the Catholic Church on this subject. These analyses and interpretations enable consideration of whether the said film aims at refreshing the forms of expression of purgatory-related topics. They also let the reader explore whether the mass-culture elements included in the film can help the viewer become more spiritually mature and whether they deepen the eschatological reflection.
Jarosław Płuciennik, Marcin Hintz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 2, 2022, pp. 153 - 170
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.010.17250In this article, the authors set themselves the goal of describing the pattern of civil engagement comparable to that of Antigone in relations with the state on the case study of people associated with the “Anna Foundation,” saving the evangelical (protestant) cemetery in Gostków (Lower Silesia) from the mid-nineteenth century. The area of operation of this foundation is the local communion of multicultural influence. The research method involved reading sources, a series of qualitative interviews with activists and other subjects with “borderline experience,” a description of photographic documentation and an interpretation of the history of modernity. The article is a case study and an attempt to interpret a broader phenomenon of saving cemeteries of various denominations from destruction and oblivion in Poland after 1989. This study contributes to studies on culture and religion, and the philosophical and theological reflection of late post-modernity. In interpreting the phenomenon of civic involvement, the authors use the concepts of “disenchantment of the world,” “rationalization,” “bureaucratization” and “the garden state,” as well as “re-enchanting of the world” and “holiness in the secular age.” In the conclusions, the authors propose to correct both the definition of “world enchantment” and the definition of the inevitable secularization of the world in late (post) modernity. The authors argue that in the time of the post-pandemic crisis and the climate catastrophe, Albert Schweitzer’s “reverence for life” may be an equivalent that is appropriate for the non-rational elements of contemporary culture.
Dobrosława Wiktor-Mach, Patrycja Trzeszczyńska, Konrad Pędziwiatr
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 2, 2022, pp. 171 - 191
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.011.17251This article investigates links between religion and migration processes through a study of religious communities’ approaches towards migrants. Drawing from the religious economy perspective, the paper explores the under-researched topic of the role of migration in the dynamics of a religious field in the context of Central and Eastern Europe. The qualitative research performed in 2020 in Krakow – one of the key destinations for migrants in Poland – confirms the claims of religious economy that monopolists and quasi-monopolists are usually more reluctant to adapt to social changes. On the other hand, less-privileged but entrepreneurial religious communities are more aware of migrants’ situation, and respond to their needs in the following ways: 1) providing cosmopolitan “temporary homes”; 2) bridging cultures; 3) setting up ethno-cultural service hubs. We argue that these kinds of engagements have significant implications for the dynamics inside the religious market.
* The research behind this article was funded by the Krakow University of Economics within the project POTENCJAŁ no 32/GPM/2021/POT.
Publication date: 2022
Issue Editors: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Instytutu Religioznawstwa.
Cover design: Barbara Widłak
Bożena Józefów-Czerwińska, Ewa Masłowska, Irena Shved
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 1, 2022, pp. 1 - 15
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.001.16555This article is devoted to the symbolic representation of the pendulum movement, such as rocking, swaying and swinging. The research covered Polish and East Slavic folklore, ethnographic and linguistic material. The analysis aims to reach the conceptual basis of pendulum motion developed from the physical experience of movement and related events such as magical practices and rituals. To interpret the material, pre-linguistic conceptual schemas and narrative study, it uses tools to reconstruct the procedures of rites de passage. Examining the contexts and associations accompanying the magical activities of pendulum motion led to the disclosure of archaic beliefs that go back to the myth of creation. The broad spectrum of issues related to the performative power of rocking, swaying and swinging allowed us to present an embodied conceptualisation of the primary movement experience as the universal model of cosmic rhythms.
Mieczysław Jagłowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 1, 2022, pp. 17 - 31
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.002.16556In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, numerous unorthodox Christian religious communities sprang up in many parts of the vast Brazilian interior. Their worldview basis was the belief that the present life takes place in times of cosmic and social crisis. Waiting for the day of the Last Judgement was associated with attempts to establish a just social order, consistent with Christian norms and values. These communities were led by charismatic leaders, perceived by their participants as incarnations of saints. In this article, we ask about the circumstances and reasons for this religious and social revival, and we consider them in the perspective of the meeting of European culture with the cultures of the New World, understood as the process of creating a new, common symbolic universe.
* Artykuł przygotowany przy finansowym wsparciu Narodowego Centrum Nauki – grant nr 2017/27/B/HS1/00234.
Paulina Niechciał
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 1, 2022, pp. 33 - 50
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.003.16557In this article, I approach the issue of temple visits by Zoroastrian women living in the USA. I analysed the field material in terms of the motivations and circumstances of these visits. The analysis showed that the women visit both Zarathushtrian places of worship in the immediate area, as well as those located further away, including in their old homelands, although they valorise them differently and motivate the need for such visits differently. Some perform religious practices at temples of other religions.
Artur Konopacki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 1, 2022, pp. 51 - 67
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.004.16558This article is an attempt to present the problem of abandoning the Muslim religion in favor of Christianity. The article is based on materials collected and stored in the archives of Russia (Saint Petersburg), Lithuania (Vilnius), and Belarus (Grodno). These mostly contain either surviving records of baptisms sent to the consistory or police reports. The cases of conversion among nineteenth-century Muslims in the territory of the Russian Empire cited in the article have served as the basis for this phenomenon’s typology in the Muslim Tatar community. Moreover, they have provided the basis for analyzing whether it is possible to fit them into pre-existing conversion models in social sciences. The examples quoted in the text show the kinds of life problems that prompted Muslim Tatars to abandon the religion of their ancestors, e.g., terminal illness, the issue of marriage, or the likelihood of rejection by one’s group. It should be mentioned that there had already been conversions among Muslim Tatars in the early period of their settlement. However, this trend has never taken on a mass character, as evidenced by the relatively good condition of the Muslim community living in the former territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Joanna Malita-Król
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 1, 2022, pp. 69 - 84
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.005.16559In the following article I describe ritual places used by four Kraków Neopagan groups (Native Polish Church, Group Mir, Free Rodnovers of Kraków, and Reformed Druids of Gaia Poland). The most important locations include the surroundings of Krakus Mound (along with the Liban quarry below and the ‘sacred circle’ on the opposite site of the quarry) and Grove by the Wilga river. The used sites and their context are analysed, as well as the reasons why a particular place was chosen. I focus on the perspective of my interviewees, using Kim Knott’s spatial analysis and the combination of the three approaches by Belden C. Lane. Based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews with members of the studied groups, I distinguish three categories of reasons (physical; connected to culture and tradition; metaphysical), which show the multidimensional character of the decisions made and many perspectives in which ritual places are perceived.
Tomasz Niezgoda
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 1, 2022, pp. 85 - 102
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.006.16560This text is dedicated to uncovering conditions for interpretation in the philosophy of Eric Voegelin. According to Voegelin, human existence is a matter of interpretation and its essence is constituted in tension towards the so-called divine ground of reality, i.e. nonobjective transcendence. I argue that the condition for any understanding of the human being, as well as the reorientation of human existence, is the divine presence dwelling in language, in history and in the subject itself. However, it is not a presence of some kind of object, content, or being –rather, it is a unpresentable ‘flow’or ‘flux’of presence, a flow that instils a primordial mobility in reality and orients man in his being.
* The article was written as part of the research project 2019/33/N/HS1/01868 “Filozofia religii Erica Voegelina – pomiędzy fenomenologiąa hermeneutyką”, financed by the Narodowe Centrum Nauki in Poland.
Bożena Józefów-Czerwińska, Ewa Masłowska, Irena Shved
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 1, 2022, pp. 1 - 15
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.001.16555This article is devoted to the symbolic representation of the pendulum movement, such as rocking, swaying and swinging. The research covered Polish and East Slavic folklore, ethnographic and linguistic material. The analysis aims to reach the conceptual basis of pendulum motion developed from the physical experience of movement and related events such as magical practices and rituals. To interpret the material, pre-linguistic conceptual schemas and narrative study, it uses tools to reconstruct the procedures of rites de passage. Examining the contexts and associations accompanying the magical activities of pendulum motion led to the disclosure of archaic beliefs that go back to the myth of creation. The broad spectrum of issues related to the performative power of rocking, swaying and swinging allowed us to present an embodied conceptualisation of the primary movement experience as the universal model of cosmic rhythms.
Mieczysław Jagłowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 1, 2022, pp. 17 - 31
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.002.16556In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, numerous unorthodox Christian religious communities sprang up in many parts of the vast Brazilian interior. Their worldview basis was the belief that the present life takes place in times of cosmic and social crisis. Waiting for the day of the Last Judgement was associated with attempts to establish a just social order, consistent with Christian norms and values. These communities were led by charismatic leaders, perceived by their participants as incarnations of saints. In this article, we ask about the circumstances and reasons for this religious and social revival, and we consider them in the perspective of the meeting of European culture with the cultures of the New World, understood as the process of creating a new, common symbolic universe.
* Artykuł przygotowany przy finansowym wsparciu Narodowego Centrum Nauki – grant nr 2017/27/B/HS1/00234.
Paulina Niechciał
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 1, 2022, pp. 33 - 50
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.003.16557In this article, I approach the issue of temple visits by Zoroastrian women living in the USA. I analysed the field material in terms of the motivations and circumstances of these visits. The analysis showed that the women visit both Zarathushtrian places of worship in the immediate area, as well as those located further away, including in their old homelands, although they valorise them differently and motivate the need for such visits differently. Some perform religious practices at temples of other religions.
Artur Konopacki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 1, 2022, pp. 51 - 67
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.004.16558This article is an attempt to present the problem of abandoning the Muslim religion in favor of Christianity. The article is based on materials collected and stored in the archives of Russia (Saint Petersburg), Lithuania (Vilnius), and Belarus (Grodno). These mostly contain either surviving records of baptisms sent to the consistory or police reports. The cases of conversion among nineteenth-century Muslims in the territory of the Russian Empire cited in the article have served as the basis for this phenomenon’s typology in the Muslim Tatar community. Moreover, they have provided the basis for analyzing whether it is possible to fit them into pre-existing conversion models in social sciences. The examples quoted in the text show the kinds of life problems that prompted Muslim Tatars to abandon the religion of their ancestors, e.g., terminal illness, the issue of marriage, or the likelihood of rejection by one’s group. It should be mentioned that there had already been conversions among Muslim Tatars in the early period of their settlement. However, this trend has never taken on a mass character, as evidenced by the relatively good condition of the Muslim community living in the former territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Joanna Malita-Król
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 1, 2022, pp. 69 - 84
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.005.16559In the following article I describe ritual places used by four Kraków Neopagan groups (Native Polish Church, Group Mir, Free Rodnovers of Kraków, and Reformed Druids of Gaia Poland). The most important locations include the surroundings of Krakus Mound (along with the Liban quarry below and the ‘sacred circle’ on the opposite site of the quarry) and Grove by the Wilga river. The used sites and their context are analysed, as well as the reasons why a particular place was chosen. I focus on the perspective of my interviewees, using Kim Knott’s spatial analysis and the combination of the three approaches by Belden C. Lane. Based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews with members of the studied groups, I distinguish three categories of reasons (physical; connected to culture and tradition; metaphysical), which show the multidimensional character of the decisions made and many perspectives in which ritual places are perceived.
Tomasz Niezgoda
Studia Religiologica, Volume 55 Issue 1, 2022, pp. 85 - 102
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.22.006.16560This text is dedicated to uncovering conditions for interpretation in the philosophy of Eric Voegelin. According to Voegelin, human existence is a matter of interpretation and its essence is constituted in tension towards the so-called divine ground of reality, i.e. nonobjective transcendence. I argue that the condition for any understanding of the human being, as well as the reorientation of human existence, is the divine presence dwelling in language, in history and in the subject itself. However, it is not a presence of some kind of object, content, or being –rather, it is a unpresentable ‘flow’or ‘flux’of presence, a flow that instils a primordial mobility in reality and orients man in his being.
* The article was written as part of the research project 2019/33/N/HS1/01868 “Filozofia religii Erica Voegelina – pomiędzy fenomenologiąa hermeneutyką”, financed by the Narodowe Centrum Nauki in Poland.
Publication date: 2021
Issue Editor:
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Instytutu Religioznawstwa.
Cover design: Barbara Widłak.
Ewa Linek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 4, 2021, pp. 285 - 306
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.018.17240This article introduces the concepts of honour and pudeur in the Maghreb – an area whose culture was shaped mainly by three factors: the tribal traditions of the indigenous Berber people, the customs of the Arabs who arrived there in the seventh century, and Islam. Two complementary principles mentioned in the title are among the most important regulators of all aspects of the lives of traditional Maghreb communities: social, family, individual and personal. The author tries to define both concepts, which, despite their apparent obviousness, turns out to not be an easy task. She examines the reasons for their high position in the system of values of societies living in the western part of North Africa and the ubiquitous manifestations of their impact that are visible in, for example, local customs, rituals, social structure and the organisation of space. She also explores the selected, individual consequences of living under constant pressure from the community which controls the lives of its members.
Marcin Krzyżanowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 4, 2021, pp. 307 - 325
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.019.17241This paper critically re-examines some of the prevailing narratives about the religious ideology of the early Taliban and analyses the four most common conventional concepts of it: being an oversimplified version of Islam, being born in madrasas located in Pakistan, being a local variation of Deobandism and being a Pashtun nationalist movement. The author argues that the ideology of pre-2001 Taliban is a non-static, multilayered and oversimplified interpretation of religious dogmas mixed with local tribal customs and definitely more rural fundamentalism than political Islamism. In the first section, the author provides basic definitions, such as ideology and Deobandism. The second section is a presentation of the religious context of Afghanistan and roots of the Taliban. The next section is an analysis of the Deobandi influence over Taliban religious life followed by a paragraph about Pashtunism and the Pashtunwali role in Taliban’s ideology. The next paragraph concerns the practical dimension and implementation of religious rules on the policy of Afghanistan during the first emirate.
Nedim Useinow
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 4, 2021, pp. 327 - 343
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.020.17242The socio-political movement of Crimean Tatars since the second half of the nineteenth century, aiming for political and territorial autonomy in Crimea, is traditionally associated with the name of its iconic leader Mustafa Dzhemilev. Meanwhile, a closer look at the nation’s struggle to reach its goals allows us to also see the role of women by no means reduced to the function of mothers and wives of activists. Examples can be drawn from the dawn of the movement to the present day, describing the profiles of prominent female figures whose socio-political activities have influenced the formation of the modern national and religious identity of Crimean Tatars. This publication presents a description and analysis of the role women played in the history of the nation during its independence movement. Using the example of outstanding silhouettes, the author demonstrates that Crimean Tatar women activists often performed key tasks at the most decisive moments of history, which in no small measure influenced the relatively high position of Muslim women in the social hierarchy of the nation.
Agata Nowak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 4, 2021, pp. 345 - 362
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.021.17243Meskhetian Turks are a Turkish-speaking ethnic group, which lived in Georgia until 1944. The origins of this ethnic group is a matter of academic dispute. Since their beginnings, they have been under the influence of many cultures due to their location on the borders of the Christian and the Muslim worlds. In 1944, they were forced to leave Georgia and were displaced and dispersed throughout the territory of the Soviet Union, mainly to Central Asia. There are currently around 350–600 thousand Meskhetian Turks scattered all over the world. They are the only ethnic group which did not gain permission from the Soviet authorities to return to their homeland of Georgia. The deportation is the most tragic event in the history and collective memory of Meskhetian Turks which has directly affected their traditions, their religiousness, and their religious and national identity. The aim of this paper is to analyse how these events and the present situation have influenced and reshaped religious and national identity of Meskhetian Turks as well as their traditions in the Soviet and post-Soviet period.
Tomasz Polak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 4, 2021, pp. 363 - 370
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.022.17244Recenzja: Ireneusz Ziemiński, Religia jako idolatria. Esej filozoficzny o nieuchronności elementów idolatrycznych w religii, Uniwersytet Szczeciński, „Rozprawy i Studia”, T. (MCXCVIII) 1124, Szczecin 2020, ss. 218.
Jarosław Tomasiewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 4, 2021, pp. 371 - 381
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.023.17245Recenzja: Słownik biograficzny uczestników ruchu zadrużnego w XX wieku, red. M. Dymek, T. Szczepański, „Trygław. Kwartalnik Metapolityczny”, Warszawa 2019, ss. 180.
Artur Jocz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 4, 2021, pp. 383 - 390
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.024.17246Recenzja: Polskie tradycje ezoteryczne (1890–1939), seria „Światło i Ciemność”, edycja specjalna, T. I–V, red. serii M. Rzeczycka, T. 1–IV: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, Gdańsk 2019; T. V: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego / Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Gdańsk–Warszawa 2020; [English edition: Polish Esoteric Traditions (1890–1939): Selected Issues, ed. A. Świerzowska, transl. S. Jones, Gdańsk University Press, Sopot 2019, ss. 335].
Tomasz Polak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 4, 2021, pp. 363 - 370
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.022.17244Recenzja: Ireneusz Ziemiński, Religia jako idolatria. Esej filozoficzny o nieuchronności elementów idolatrycznych w religii, Uniwersytet Szczeciński, „Rozprawy i Studia”, T. (MCXCVIII) 1124, Szczecin 2020, ss. 218.
Jarosław Tomasiewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 4, 2021, pp. 371 - 381
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.023.17245Recenzja: Słownik biograficzny uczestników ruchu zadrużnego w XX wieku, red. M. Dymek, T. Szczepański, „Trygław. Kwartalnik Metapolityczny”, Warszawa 2019, ss. 180.
Artur Jocz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 4, 2021, pp. 383 - 390
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.024.17246Recenzja: Polskie tradycje ezoteryczne (1890–1939), seria „Światło i Ciemność”, edycja specjalna, T. I–V, red. serii M. Rzeczycka, T. 1–IV: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, Gdańsk 2019; T. V: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego / Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Gdańsk–Warszawa 2020; [English edition: Polish Esoteric Traditions (1890–1939): Selected Issues, ed. A. Świerzowska, transl. S. Jones, Gdańsk University Press, Sopot 2019, ss. 335].
Ewa Linek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 4, 2021, pp. 285 - 306
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.018.17240This article introduces the concepts of honour and pudeur in the Maghreb – an area whose culture was shaped mainly by three factors: the tribal traditions of the indigenous Berber people, the customs of the Arabs who arrived there in the seventh century, and Islam. Two complementary principles mentioned in the title are among the most important regulators of all aspects of the lives of traditional Maghreb communities: social, family, individual and personal. The author tries to define both concepts, which, despite their apparent obviousness, turns out to not be an easy task. She examines the reasons for their high position in the system of values of societies living in the western part of North Africa and the ubiquitous manifestations of their impact that are visible in, for example, local customs, rituals, social structure and the organisation of space. She also explores the selected, individual consequences of living under constant pressure from the community which controls the lives of its members.
Marcin Krzyżanowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 4, 2021, pp. 307 - 325
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.019.17241This paper critically re-examines some of the prevailing narratives about the religious ideology of the early Taliban and analyses the four most common conventional concepts of it: being an oversimplified version of Islam, being born in madrasas located in Pakistan, being a local variation of Deobandism and being a Pashtun nationalist movement. The author argues that the ideology of pre-2001 Taliban is a non-static, multilayered and oversimplified interpretation of religious dogmas mixed with local tribal customs and definitely more rural fundamentalism than political Islamism. In the first section, the author provides basic definitions, such as ideology and Deobandism. The second section is a presentation of the religious context of Afghanistan and roots of the Taliban. The next section is an analysis of the Deobandi influence over Taliban religious life followed by a paragraph about Pashtunism and the Pashtunwali role in Taliban’s ideology. The next paragraph concerns the practical dimension and implementation of religious rules on the policy of Afghanistan during the first emirate.
Nedim Useinow
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 4, 2021, pp. 327 - 343
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.020.17242The socio-political movement of Crimean Tatars since the second half of the nineteenth century, aiming for political and territorial autonomy in Crimea, is traditionally associated with the name of its iconic leader Mustafa Dzhemilev. Meanwhile, a closer look at the nation’s struggle to reach its goals allows us to also see the role of women by no means reduced to the function of mothers and wives of activists. Examples can be drawn from the dawn of the movement to the present day, describing the profiles of prominent female figures whose socio-political activities have influenced the formation of the modern national and religious identity of Crimean Tatars. This publication presents a description and analysis of the role women played in the history of the nation during its independence movement. Using the example of outstanding silhouettes, the author demonstrates that Crimean Tatar women activists often performed key tasks at the most decisive moments of history, which in no small measure influenced the relatively high position of Muslim women in the social hierarchy of the nation.
Agata Nowak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 4, 2021, pp. 345 - 362
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.021.17243Meskhetian Turks are a Turkish-speaking ethnic group, which lived in Georgia until 1944. The origins of this ethnic group is a matter of academic dispute. Since their beginnings, they have been under the influence of many cultures due to their location on the borders of the Christian and the Muslim worlds. In 1944, they were forced to leave Georgia and were displaced and dispersed throughout the territory of the Soviet Union, mainly to Central Asia. There are currently around 350–600 thousand Meskhetian Turks scattered all over the world. They are the only ethnic group which did not gain permission from the Soviet authorities to return to their homeland of Georgia. The deportation is the most tragic event in the history and collective memory of Meskhetian Turks which has directly affected their traditions, their religiousness, and their religious and national identity. The aim of this paper is to analyse how these events and the present situation have influenced and reshaped religious and national identity of Meskhetian Turks as well as their traditions in the Soviet and post-Soviet period.
Publication date: 2021
Issue Editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Instytutu Religioznawstwa.
Cover design: Barbara Widłak.
Roman Husarski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 3, 2021, pp. 195 - 216
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.013.16550Visiting Hell parks is a popular pastime in contemporary Thailand. Situated near Buddhist temples, these gruesome sculpture gardens depict the Buddhist vision of Hell. These grotesque and violent sculptures are usually seen as an oddity and a form of low art. Perhaps for this reason, they are rarely studied by scholars. This article focuses on the parks as modern entertainment. Usually found in rural areas, these spots try to answer the challenges of the commercialisation and globalisation of Thai society. A detailed analysis of four Hell parks, Wang Saen Suk, Wat Pa Lak Roi, Wat Pa Non Sawan and Wat Pa Thewapithak, shows that these religious amusement parks serve not only as means of entertainment but are also places of Buddhist morality.
* This work was supported by the Jagiellonian University’s Council of Students’Academic Associations as part of the Badanie nieortodoksyjnych świątyń buddyjskich w północno-wschodniej Tajlandii i Birmie [Study of unorthodox Buddhist temples in Northeast Thailand and Myanmar] Grant.
Przemysław Skrzyński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 3, 2021, pp. 217 - 233
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.014.16551The pioneering community of Polish Buddhists called “Zen Circle”, operating in the 1970s, raised well-founded concerns of national public and administrative order bodies. This group, derived mainly from artistic and hippie environments, should be considered one of the most original and radical manifestations of an alternative and contesting culture to the reality of the People’s Republic of Poland. At the same time, the effectiveness of the activities undertaken by the community in the administrative field, led to a precedent situation in which its religious and non-religious activities were legalized. In this article, I reconstruct the administrative efforts made in the first period of community activity (1975–1978), but above all, I analyze the attitudes and motivations of the parties involved in the above-mentioned process: community members, decision-making officials and services responsible for the internal security of the country. Based both on the group’s internal materials and interviews with members, as well as on documents prepared by state bodies, I analyze the process of shaping the identity of the first Polish Buddhists.
Przemysław Skrzyński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 3, 2021, pp. 235 - 247
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.015.16552The article attempts to present the beginnings of the first Buddhist community in Poland, the „Zen Circle”, which crystallized and legalized its activity in the conditions of a state with an undemocratic political system. In the chronological aspect, it is a continuation of the content contained in the article entitled The Realization of the Buddha-dharma in the Construction of Socialist Society. On the Beginnings of the Path to the Legalization of the First Buddhist Community in the People’s Republic of Poland, focusing on the period when the painter Andrzej Urbanowicz (1938–2011) was the leader of the community. This text presents and analyzes the further efforts of Buddhists who, under the leadership of Andrzej Janusz Korbel (1946–2015), developed effective forms of religious and popularizing activity, and led to the registration of the community (1980), despite police and administrative repressions that began almost a decade earlier. In the second part of the article, I pre- sent some possible reasons for the decision taken by the Office for Religious Affairs to enter the „Zen Buddhist Community in Poland – Religious Association” into the register of associations. The lack of preserved documentation containing the formal argumentation of this decision prompts us to formule hypotheses that will be discussed in more detail in the doctoral dissertation being prepared.
Wojciech Micał
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 3, 2021, pp. 249 - 268
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.016.16553Mariusz Dobkowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 3, 2021, pp. 269 - 284
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.017.16554In the paper, the author presents Jerzy Prokopiuk’s (1931–2021) outlook on gnosis and Gnosticism. Prokopiuk was a Polish esotericist, translator, and non-academic specialist in religious studies. His views on this subject can be divided into four areas: (1) definition of gnosis; (2) the essence and de- scription of Gnosticism as a historical religious formation; (3) description and understanding of the post-Gnostic tradition; (4) gnosis and Gnosticism as a hermeneutic tool. As to (1) definition of gno- sis, the Prokopiuk presents three forms of this special kind of knowledge: escapist gnosis (know- ledge liberates the human spirit from material body and the physical world); transformational gnosis (knowledge transforms the human soul, body and earthly nature); lateral gnosis (idea of alternative worlds). Regarding (2) Gnosticism, Prokopiuk says that its source was ancient mysteries and a par- ticular type of religious experience. He sees (3) the post-Gnostic tradition as an unbroken chain of esoteric groups and figures from late antiquity to the present day. Finally, gnosis and Gnosticism are (4) a hermeneutic tool for Prokopiuk because they allow him to interpret phenomena and texts of culture (in the field of literature, cinema, psychology, and others). The paper also reflects on the usefulness of some of Prokopiuk’s ideas for contemporary humanities.
Roman Husarski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 3, 2021, pp. 195 - 216
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.013.16550Visiting Hell parks is a popular pastime in contemporary Thailand. Situated near Buddhist temples, these gruesome sculpture gardens depict the Buddhist vision of Hell. These grotesque and violent sculptures are usually seen as an oddity and a form of low art. Perhaps for this reason, they are rarely studied by scholars. This article focuses on the parks as modern entertainment. Usually found in rural areas, these spots try to answer the challenges of the commercialisation and globalisation of Thai society. A detailed analysis of four Hell parks, Wang Saen Suk, Wat Pa Lak Roi, Wat Pa Non Sawan and Wat Pa Thewapithak, shows that these religious amusement parks serve not only as means of entertainment but are also places of Buddhist morality.
* This work was supported by the Jagiellonian University’s Council of Students’Academic Associations as part of the Badanie nieortodoksyjnych świątyń buddyjskich w północno-wschodniej Tajlandii i Birmie [Study of unorthodox Buddhist temples in Northeast Thailand and Myanmar] Grant.
Przemysław Skrzyński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 3, 2021, pp. 217 - 233
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.014.16551The pioneering community of Polish Buddhists called “Zen Circle”, operating in the 1970s, raised well-founded concerns of national public and administrative order bodies. This group, derived mainly from artistic and hippie environments, should be considered one of the most original and radical manifestations of an alternative and contesting culture to the reality of the People’s Republic of Poland. At the same time, the effectiveness of the activities undertaken by the community in the administrative field, led to a precedent situation in which its religious and non-religious activities were legalized. In this article, I reconstruct the administrative efforts made in the first period of community activity (1975–1978), but above all, I analyze the attitudes and motivations of the parties involved in the above-mentioned process: community members, decision-making officials and services responsible for the internal security of the country. Based both on the group’s internal materials and interviews with members, as well as on documents prepared by state bodies, I analyze the process of shaping the identity of the first Polish Buddhists.
Przemysław Skrzyński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 3, 2021, pp. 235 - 247
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.015.16552The article attempts to present the beginnings of the first Buddhist community in Poland, the „Zen Circle”, which crystallized and legalized its activity in the conditions of a state with an undemocratic political system. In the chronological aspect, it is a continuation of the content contained in the article entitled The Realization of the Buddha-dharma in the Construction of Socialist Society. On the Beginnings of the Path to the Legalization of the First Buddhist Community in the People’s Republic of Poland, focusing on the period when the painter Andrzej Urbanowicz (1938–2011) was the leader of the community. This text presents and analyzes the further efforts of Buddhists who, under the leadership of Andrzej Janusz Korbel (1946–2015), developed effective forms of religious and popularizing activity, and led to the registration of the community (1980), despite police and administrative repressions that began almost a decade earlier. In the second part of the article, I pre- sent some possible reasons for the decision taken by the Office for Religious Affairs to enter the „Zen Buddhist Community in Poland – Religious Association” into the register of associations. The lack of preserved documentation containing the formal argumentation of this decision prompts us to formule hypotheses that will be discussed in more detail in the doctoral dissertation being prepared.
Wojciech Micał
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 3, 2021, pp. 249 - 268
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.016.16553Mariusz Dobkowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 3, 2021, pp. 269 - 284
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.017.16554In the paper, the author presents Jerzy Prokopiuk’s (1931–2021) outlook on gnosis and Gnosticism. Prokopiuk was a Polish esotericist, translator, and non-academic specialist in religious studies. His views on this subject can be divided into four areas: (1) definition of gnosis; (2) the essence and de- scription of Gnosticism as a historical religious formation; (3) description and understanding of the post-Gnostic tradition; (4) gnosis and Gnosticism as a hermeneutic tool. As to (1) definition of gno- sis, the Prokopiuk presents three forms of this special kind of knowledge: escapist gnosis (know- ledge liberates the human spirit from material body and the physical world); transformational gnosis (knowledge transforms the human soul, body and earthly nature); lateral gnosis (idea of alternative worlds). Regarding (2) Gnosticism, Prokopiuk says that its source was ancient mysteries and a par- ticular type of religious experience. He sees (3) the post-Gnostic tradition as an unbroken chain of esoteric groups and figures from late antiquity to the present day. Finally, gnosis and Gnosticism are (4) a hermeneutic tool for Prokopiuk because they allow him to interpret phenomena and texts of culture (in the field of literature, cinema, psychology, and others). The paper also reflects on the usefulness of some of Prokopiuk’s ideas for contemporary humanities.
Publication date: 2021
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Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy nr 279/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 16 lipca 2019 z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”.
Przygotowanie i wydanie w otwartym dostępie anglojęzycznych artykułów wydawanych w czasopiśmie "Studia Religiologica" w celu lepszego umiędzynarodowienia czasopisma - zadanie finansowane w ramach umowy 626/P-DUN/2019 ze środków Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego przeznaczonych na działalność upowszechniającą naukę.
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Instytutu Religioznawstwa.
Stefan Klemczak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 2, 2021, pp. 95 - 108
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.011.14202This article surveys a seemingly straightforward topic: seventeenth- and eighteenth-century deism. It is approached from a historical and philosophical standpoint, chiefly via the analyses of Wayne Hudson. An in-depth study of Hudson’s work indicates that we are dealing with an unexpected diversity of views, as outlined in works such as The English Deists. His remarks concerning various concepts which pass for deist would seem to spoil the fun of those who would seek to create simple visions of history and of a range of analytical philosophers. These investigations into deism also take a broader perspective, showing it as a characteristically modern rendition of non-religious divinity, expressed by the term “the god of philosophers”. The history of the travails of the separation of philosophical concepts of divinity from religious beliefs is important for at least two reasons. For one, it highlights a philosophical tendency to present a structure of reality independent of traditional religious imaginings, and for another it allows us to consider human historically-conditioned expectations and claims through the variety of ways of portraying “the divine”.
Marta Kudelska, Agnieszka Staszczyk, Agata Świerzowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 2, 2021, pp. 109 - 129
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.007.14198The fundraising activity initiated by the Birla family in India resulted in the construction of more than 20 Hindu temples, commonly referred to as the Birla Mandirs. Although they vary in terms of architectural forms and iconographic programs it seems, that one basic and common theme remains - to show reformed Hinduism as a religion that is the pillar of the identity of the people of New India. It is understood at the same time as separate but also higher than other great religions, yet assuring a place within its confines for all of them. It is – as the authors argue in this paper - the practical realization of the thought expressed in the Ṛgveda(I 164.46) and repeatedly referred to in the Birla temples as ‘ekam sad viprā bahudhā vadanti’, which seems to be the motto of all foundations of the Birla family.
Joanna Jurewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 2, 2021, pp. 131 - 146
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.008.14199The paper discusses cosmogony presented by Uddālaka Āruṇi attested in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (6.1-6), according to which world forms arise by giving them a name. I argue that the experience that motivates the thinking of Uddālaka is ritual, the essence of which is to give people and objects a name, thanks to which their status dramatically changes for the duration of the ritual. An analysis of a selected passage of the king’s coronation described in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (5.3.4) reveals the fundamental importance of the verses uttered during preparation of the water for the consecration. The reconstruction of an experience that influences philosophical thought makes it possible to see its coherence and depth, and the fact that this experience is a ritual, a common experience of humanity, enables it to be better understood by those who grew up in other philosophical traditions as well.
Marek M. Dziekan
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 2, 2021, pp. 147 - 163
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.009.14200In descriptions and discussions of the Muslim concept of paradise, much space is always devoted to the famous – as well as infamous – Houris.My article, however, is devoted to another paradise thread, that is, an analysis of fragments of the Koran where “immortal youths” (wildān muḫalladūn) are mentioned. These are verses 56:17-19 and 76:19. In slightly different words (ḡilmān muḫalladūn) they are also referred to in verse 52:24.This topic has not yet been sufficiently covered in the studies in the field of Arabic and Islamic studies.Christian Luxenberg devoted some space to him in his controversial work on the Syro-Aramaic reading of the Koran.Much more space has been devoted to “immortal youths” by Muslim scholars, both classical and modern, not avoiding references to the ambiguities that may arise in connection with these verses.
Wioletta Husar-Poliszuk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 2, 2021, pp. 165 - 180
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.010.14201This article presents Catalan independentism as a political religion. The main area of interest is the process of evangelisation to ensure the effectiveness of contemporary thought and the independence movement in Catalonia. The aim of the analysis is to verify the instruments and mechanisms through which an effective and permanent evangelization in the spirit of independentism is possible.
Paweł Bielawski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 2, 2021, pp. 181 - 194
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.012.14203The topic of the article is the interpretation of Christianity by Alain de Benoist, thinker of the New Right. He believes that Christianity has brought about a revolution in the world-view of European peoples. Stating that it is ‘Paganism’ that was the original and authentic basis of European spirituality, mentality, and axiology, Benoist calls Christianity the “Bolshevism of Antiquity”. The article outlines the concepts of Christian desacralisation of the world, the inaugural dissociation, and the theory of progress. The analysis showed that the foremost revolutionary trait of Christianity is the radical dualism of the created and uncreated being, which is in direct contradiction with the pre- Christian / European ontological monism.
Stefan Klemczak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 2, 2021, pp. 95 - 108
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.011.14202This article surveys a seemingly straightforward topic: seventeenth- and eighteenth-century deism. It is approached from a historical and philosophical standpoint, chiefly via the analyses of Wayne Hudson. An in-depth study of Hudson’s work indicates that we are dealing with an unexpected diversity of views, as outlined in works such as The English Deists. His remarks concerning various concepts which pass for deist would seem to spoil the fun of those who would seek to create simple visions of history and of a range of analytical philosophers. These investigations into deism also take a broader perspective, showing it as a characteristically modern rendition of non-religious divinity, expressed by the term “the god of philosophers”. The history of the travails of the separation of philosophical concepts of divinity from religious beliefs is important for at least two reasons. For one, it highlights a philosophical tendency to present a structure of reality independent of traditional religious imaginings, and for another it allows us to consider human historically-conditioned expectations and claims through the variety of ways of portraying “the divine”.
Marta Kudelska, Agnieszka Staszczyk, Agata Świerzowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 2, 2021, pp. 109 - 129
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.007.14198The fundraising activity initiated by the Birla family in India resulted in the construction of more than 20 Hindu temples, commonly referred to as the Birla Mandirs. Although they vary in terms of architectural forms and iconographic programs it seems, that one basic and common theme remains - to show reformed Hinduism as a religion that is the pillar of the identity of the people of New India. It is understood at the same time as separate but also higher than other great religions, yet assuring a place within its confines for all of them. It is – as the authors argue in this paper - the practical realization of the thought expressed in the Ṛgveda(I 164.46) and repeatedly referred to in the Birla temples as ‘ekam sad viprā bahudhā vadanti’, which seems to be the motto of all foundations of the Birla family.
Joanna Jurewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 2, 2021, pp. 131 - 146
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.008.14199The paper discusses cosmogony presented by Uddālaka Āruṇi attested in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (6.1-6), according to which world forms arise by giving them a name. I argue that the experience that motivates the thinking of Uddālaka is ritual, the essence of which is to give people and objects a name, thanks to which their status dramatically changes for the duration of the ritual. An analysis of a selected passage of the king’s coronation described in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (5.3.4) reveals the fundamental importance of the verses uttered during preparation of the water for the consecration. The reconstruction of an experience that influences philosophical thought makes it possible to see its coherence and depth, and the fact that this experience is a ritual, a common experience of humanity, enables it to be better understood by those who grew up in other philosophical traditions as well.
Marek M. Dziekan
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 2, 2021, pp. 147 - 163
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.009.14200In descriptions and discussions of the Muslim concept of paradise, much space is always devoted to the famous – as well as infamous – Houris.My article, however, is devoted to another paradise thread, that is, an analysis of fragments of the Koran where “immortal youths” (wildān muḫalladūn) are mentioned. These are verses 56:17-19 and 76:19. In slightly different words (ḡilmān muḫalladūn) they are also referred to in verse 52:24.This topic has not yet been sufficiently covered in the studies in the field of Arabic and Islamic studies.Christian Luxenberg devoted some space to him in his controversial work on the Syro-Aramaic reading of the Koran.Much more space has been devoted to “immortal youths” by Muslim scholars, both classical and modern, not avoiding references to the ambiguities that may arise in connection with these verses.
Wioletta Husar-Poliszuk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 2, 2021, pp. 165 - 180
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.010.14201This article presents Catalan independentism as a political religion. The main area of interest is the process of evangelisation to ensure the effectiveness of contemporary thought and the independence movement in Catalonia. The aim of the analysis is to verify the instruments and mechanisms through which an effective and permanent evangelization in the spirit of independentism is possible.
Paweł Bielawski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 2, 2021, pp. 181 - 194
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.012.14203The topic of the article is the interpretation of Christianity by Alain de Benoist, thinker of the New Right. He believes that Christianity has brought about a revolution in the world-view of European peoples. Stating that it is ‘Paganism’ that was the original and authentic basis of European spirituality, mentality, and axiology, Benoist calls Christianity the “Bolshevism of Antiquity”. The article outlines the concepts of Christian desacralisation of the world, the inaugural dissociation, and the theory of progress. The analysis showed that the foremost revolutionary trait of Christianity is the radical dualism of the created and uncreated being, which is in direct contradiction with the pre- Christian / European ontological monism.
Publication date: 2021
Issue editors: Małgorzata Grzywacz, Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Instytutu Religioznawstwa.
Agnieszka Halemba
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 1, 2021, pp. 1 - 17
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.001.13925Qualitative research on religion often overlooks its organizational aspect, even though most of religious life takes place within an organizational framework. Religious organizations are active on many levels: they educate and control religious specialists, shape religious materiality, and in many other ways influence how relationships with the sacred are conceptualized and lived out. The organization of religious life has implications that should be studied by researchers interested in lived religion, especially when they deal with such issues as religious experience, the integrative role of religion, ritual efficacy, and the transmission of practices and beliefs.
* Niniejszy artykuł powstał jako efekt rozważań będących wynikiem kilku projektów badawczych, w tym obecnie prowadzonego projektu badawczego NCN Opus 2019/33/B/HS3/02136.
Volker Leppin
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 1, 2021, pp. 19 - 29
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.002.13926The Reformation is described mostly as an upheaval. In fact, it is worth considering this period as transformation. The article is an attempt to modify the usual perception of this historical period. At the very beginning the paper discusses the idea of transformation from a sociological perspective. Then it introduces a comparison of the Reformation with other transitions and the late Middle Ages. This allows at the end to define the Reformation as a kind of consequence of medieval times and their transformation.
Filip Lipiński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 1, 2021, pp. 31 - 43
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.003.13927The roots of German nationalism among members of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland are bound with the activity of German authorities who tried to separate the German community in the occupied Kingdom of Poland during the First World War. German nationalism of the era was based on religious, social, and political factors, such as the idea of a unified German nation both within and outside of the German Reich. According to this idea, the German state was to be the defender of the German people worldwide. Such ideas woke the separatist tendencies inside the Augsburg Church. The political situation in the Second Polish Republic and spread of the national socialist ideology in the 1930s increased the separatist tendencies in the Church and led to a conflict with its pro-governmental Consistory and the General Superintendent, later Bishop Juliusz Bursche.
Marcin Grodzki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 1, 2021, pp. 45 - 62
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.004.13928The paper considers the form, status, and importance of the Qur’anic message in the first two centuries of Islam. The argument is that the term “Qur’an” could not have originally referred to the final body of revelation in a text form. Rather, the concept of the Qur’an must have functioned among the faithful as a term for oral transmission before the scripturalization of the revelation, and it is this oral function of the Qur’an that is primal to its literate function. It seems that just as in Judaism and Christianity, in Islam the process of remembering, passing on, collecting, and codifying the textus receptus, along with its stabilization and sacralization, was a centuries-long self-propelled operation shaped primarily by the oral tradition (especially in the presumed culture of illiterate people).
Marta Woźniak-Bobińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 1, 2021, pp. 63 - 80
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.005.13929This article presents a case study of a Swedish-based NGO, Assyrians Without Borders (AWB), whose priority objective is to help Middle Eastern Christians, mainly Assyrians/Syriacs, in need in their homeland. The paper argues that Assyrians/Syriacs in Sweden have developed three forms of citizenship – religious, political and democratic. All three forms are transnational and have the potential to challenge the idea of national citizenship as being the dominant model of citizenship. Participating in AWB is understood as practising democratic citizenship, a concept seen as the Swedish ideal of model citizenship. The paper claims that AWB empowers its members and helps them to construct a mutually reinforcing dual Assyrian-Swedish identity.
Piotr Zwierzchowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 1, 2021, pp. 81 - 94
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.006.13930Clergy (Kler, 2018) by Wojciech Smarzowski has aroused great controversy and many discussions about the position and role of the Catholic Church in contemporary Poland. I would like to look at the portraits of priests in the film in relation to the images previously created in Polish cinema.
I am not going to analyze particular examples, but point to selected motifs and characters in order to interpret the images of clergymen and the church in their context. I will consider both the construction of individual characters and the image of the Catholic Church as an institution.
Agnieszka Halemba
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 1, 2021, pp. 1 - 17
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.001.13925Qualitative research on religion often overlooks its organizational aspect, even though most of religious life takes place within an organizational framework. Religious organizations are active on many levels: they educate and control religious specialists, shape religious materiality, and in many other ways influence how relationships with the sacred are conceptualized and lived out. The organization of religious life has implications that should be studied by researchers interested in lived religion, especially when they deal with such issues as religious experience, the integrative role of religion, ritual efficacy, and the transmission of practices and beliefs.
* Niniejszy artykuł powstał jako efekt rozważań będących wynikiem kilku projektów badawczych, w tym obecnie prowadzonego projektu badawczego NCN Opus 2019/33/B/HS3/02136.
Volker Leppin
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 1, 2021, pp. 19 - 29
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.002.13926The Reformation is described mostly as an upheaval. In fact, it is worth considering this period as transformation. The article is an attempt to modify the usual perception of this historical period. At the very beginning the paper discusses the idea of transformation from a sociological perspective. Then it introduces a comparison of the Reformation with other transitions and the late Middle Ages. This allows at the end to define the Reformation as a kind of consequence of medieval times and their transformation.
Filip Lipiński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 1, 2021, pp. 31 - 43
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.003.13927The roots of German nationalism among members of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland are bound with the activity of German authorities who tried to separate the German community in the occupied Kingdom of Poland during the First World War. German nationalism of the era was based on religious, social, and political factors, such as the idea of a unified German nation both within and outside of the German Reich. According to this idea, the German state was to be the defender of the German people worldwide. Such ideas woke the separatist tendencies inside the Augsburg Church. The political situation in the Second Polish Republic and spread of the national socialist ideology in the 1930s increased the separatist tendencies in the Church and led to a conflict with its pro-governmental Consistory and the General Superintendent, later Bishop Juliusz Bursche.
Marcin Grodzki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 1, 2021, pp. 45 - 62
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.004.13928The paper considers the form, status, and importance of the Qur’anic message in the first two centuries of Islam. The argument is that the term “Qur’an” could not have originally referred to the final body of revelation in a text form. Rather, the concept of the Qur’an must have functioned among the faithful as a term for oral transmission before the scripturalization of the revelation, and it is this oral function of the Qur’an that is primal to its literate function. It seems that just as in Judaism and Christianity, in Islam the process of remembering, passing on, collecting, and codifying the textus receptus, along with its stabilization and sacralization, was a centuries-long self-propelled operation shaped primarily by the oral tradition (especially in the presumed culture of illiterate people).
Marta Woźniak-Bobińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 1, 2021, pp. 63 - 80
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.005.13929This article presents a case study of a Swedish-based NGO, Assyrians Without Borders (AWB), whose priority objective is to help Middle Eastern Christians, mainly Assyrians/Syriacs, in need in their homeland. The paper argues that Assyrians/Syriacs in Sweden have developed three forms of citizenship – religious, political and democratic. All three forms are transnational and have the potential to challenge the idea of national citizenship as being the dominant model of citizenship. Participating in AWB is understood as practising democratic citizenship, a concept seen as the Swedish ideal of model citizenship. The paper claims that AWB empowers its members and helps them to construct a mutually reinforcing dual Assyrian-Swedish identity.
Piotr Zwierzchowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 54 Issue 1, 2021, pp. 81 - 94
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.006.13930Clergy (Kler, 2018) by Wojciech Smarzowski has aroused great controversy and many discussions about the position and role of the Catholic Church in contemporary Poland. I would like to look at the portraits of priests in the film in relation to the images previously created in Polish cinema.
I am not going to analyze particular examples, but point to selected motifs and characters in order to interpret the images of clergymen and the church in their context. I will consider both the construction of individual characters and the image of the Catholic Church as an institution.
Publication date: 2020
Issue Editors: Małgorzata Grzywacz, Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy nr 279/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 16 lipca 2019 z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”.
Przygotowanie i wydanie w otwartym dostępie anglojęzycznych artykułów wydawanych w czasopiśmie "Studia Religiologica" w celu lepszego umiędzynarodowienia czasopisma - zadanie finansowane w ramach umowy 626/P-DUN/2019 ze środków Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego przeznaczonych na działalność upowszechniającą naukę.
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Instytutu Religioznawstwa.
Krzysztof Mech
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 4, 2020, pp. 255 - 274
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.018.13036This text begins a research project concerning those thinkers who associate the discussion about the possibility of thinking about God with the problem of difference. The main question of these considerations is this: How does God appear on the differentiated horizon, while torn by difference always conceived in a defined manner? If difference is inevitably inscribed in thought, then how is God inscribed in difference? These questions lead to another: How does difference rule in reflection on divinity? In other words: How far does the way that difference is conceived affect how we reflect upon the deity? When looking for answers to these questions, we take the first step towards Heidegger. Owing to the special status of ontological difference and the trace it leaves on thinking “on the horizon” of difference, it is with this that we begin movement toward differentiation as such. The question about God and the difference in Heidegger’s thought in this text takes the following form: How does God appear in a sphere divided by the difference between Being and beings? How does ontological difference mark the conception of God?
Marcin Hintz, Maria Urbańska-Bożek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 4, 2020, pp. 275 - 287
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.019.13037The article comprises an analysis of the concept of “courage” as an ontological and ethical principle, constituting the chief category in the philosophical theology of Paul Tillich, called “the philosopher of borderlands,” regarded as the most important thinker in the Protestant, liberal theology of the 20th century. In his philosophical theology or theological philosophy the notion of “courage to be” provides an essential point of reference in the context of spiritual development of the human individual, as well as revealing possibilities of giving sense to being, which appears itself to man as devoid of sense. In the first part, the concept of “courage to be” is itself subjected to analysis as the ontological and the ethical principle. According to Tillich, the existentially (ethically) oriented being constituted a step in the individual’s life, which is already connected with conscious life and self-affirmation. The second part discusses Tillich’s understanding of faith as the “to be or not to be” of human existence. The author of Dynamics of Faith says that the courage to be can be expressed either in individuation, that is, in the personal relationship and encounter with God, which represents the existentialist approach, or by means of participation in God’s power. Tillich proclaims that only the virtue of courage can overcome the anxiety arising from lack of sense and from doubt, which is characteristic of human life.
Urszula Idziak-Smoczyńska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 4, 2020, pp. 289 - 302
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.020.13038In this article the author follows Derrida’s deconstruction of the Babel tower parable, showing how God’s name is structured by difference, instead of identity. The story of the tower of Babel introduces not only the origin of languages and the necessity of translation, but the ultimate untranslatable – the name. God’s name, hence every name becomes for Derrida another quasi-transcendental, which conditions of possibility (identity) are concurrently conditions of impossibility (difference).
Małgorzata Grzywacz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 4, 2020, pp. 303 - 318
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.021.13039The article deals with issues related to the history of the relations between churches as institutions, and their individual clergymen, and the Nazi state. The source referred to in this article is the intimate journal of Minister Friedrich Onnasch (1881–1945), the superintendent of the Koszalin Church District and parish priest of Saint Mary’s Church in Koszalin, murdered by Soviet troops in Barlinek in February 1945. A document written on a regular basis, never published, is a detailed account (though coded, due to censorship), showing the experience of the clerical office in a time of totalitarian oppression. It shows the situation in the Evangelical Church after 1933 and the commitment of Minister Friedrich Onnasch and others, among them Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945), associated with Pomerania, in the movement of the Confessing Church. It explores the areas of Christian religion in its Evangelical topography, limited to the space of the former Prussian province of Pommern (Provinz Pommern) and Western Pomerania after 1945.
Magdalena Izabella Sacha
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 4, 2020, pp. 319 - 332
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.022.13040The article addresses representations of the Evangelical denomination at contemporary permanent museum exhibits in the region of Masuria, inhabited between 1525–1945 by a Protestant majority. Applying semiotic analysis, the author presents the outcomes of field studies in the local museums in Olsztyn, Mikołajki, Mrągowo, Ogródek, Szczytno, and in the open-air museum in Olsztynek. The principal research question is the issue of visibility and recognisability of Evangelism-related items at permanent exhibits. The author concludes that there are three types of omissions in the presentation of the history of Masurian Evangelicals. The silencing of the Protestant past of Masuria results from the cultural colonisation that took place after 1945 and from identifying Evangelicalism with Germanness in the common consciousness of the currently dominant Polish Roman Catholic community.
Renata Siuda-Ambroziak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 4, 2020, pp. 333 - 346
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.023.13041In the article the author stresses the role of the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé in health therapies, showing that, in spite of linking Candomblé mostly with Black Brazilians from lower social strata, successfully applied religious therapies based on the strategy of “refueling with axé” nowadays attract many well-educated, rich, white representatives of the local elites. These new adherents find in Candomblé ways of improving their health, but also a sense of community and support that sometimes even make these “clients,” in spite of still existing prejudice, take a decision about initiation.
Krzysztof Mech
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 4, 2020, pp. 255 - 274
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.018.13036This text begins a research project concerning those thinkers who associate the discussion about the possibility of thinking about God with the problem of difference. The main question of these considerations is this: How does God appear on the differentiated horizon, while torn by difference always conceived in a defined manner? If difference is inevitably inscribed in thought, then how is God inscribed in difference? These questions lead to another: How does difference rule in reflection on divinity? In other words: How far does the way that difference is conceived affect how we reflect upon the deity? When looking for answers to these questions, we take the first step towards Heidegger. Owing to the special status of ontological difference and the trace it leaves on thinking “on the horizon” of difference, it is with this that we begin movement toward differentiation as such. The question about God and the difference in Heidegger’s thought in this text takes the following form: How does God appear in a sphere divided by the difference between Being and beings? How does ontological difference mark the conception of God?
Marcin Hintz, Maria Urbańska-Bożek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 4, 2020, pp. 275 - 287
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.019.13037The article comprises an analysis of the concept of “courage” as an ontological and ethical principle, constituting the chief category in the philosophical theology of Paul Tillich, called “the philosopher of borderlands,” regarded as the most important thinker in the Protestant, liberal theology of the 20th century. In his philosophical theology or theological philosophy the notion of “courage to be” provides an essential point of reference in the context of spiritual development of the human individual, as well as revealing possibilities of giving sense to being, which appears itself to man as devoid of sense. In the first part, the concept of “courage to be” is itself subjected to analysis as the ontological and the ethical principle. According to Tillich, the existentially (ethically) oriented being constituted a step in the individual’s life, which is already connected with conscious life and self-affirmation. The second part discusses Tillich’s understanding of faith as the “to be or not to be” of human existence. The author of Dynamics of Faith says that the courage to be can be expressed either in individuation, that is, in the personal relationship and encounter with God, which represents the existentialist approach, or by means of participation in God’s power. Tillich proclaims that only the virtue of courage can overcome the anxiety arising from lack of sense and from doubt, which is characteristic of human life.
Urszula Idziak-Smoczyńska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 4, 2020, pp. 289 - 302
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.020.13038In this article the author follows Derrida’s deconstruction of the Babel tower parable, showing how God’s name is structured by difference, instead of identity. The story of the tower of Babel introduces not only the origin of languages and the necessity of translation, but the ultimate untranslatable – the name. God’s name, hence every name becomes for Derrida another quasi-transcendental, which conditions of possibility (identity) are concurrently conditions of impossibility (difference).
Małgorzata Grzywacz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 4, 2020, pp. 303 - 318
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.021.13039The article deals with issues related to the history of the relations between churches as institutions, and their individual clergymen, and the Nazi state. The source referred to in this article is the intimate journal of Minister Friedrich Onnasch (1881–1945), the superintendent of the Koszalin Church District and parish priest of Saint Mary’s Church in Koszalin, murdered by Soviet troops in Barlinek in February 1945. A document written on a regular basis, never published, is a detailed account (though coded, due to censorship), showing the experience of the clerical office in a time of totalitarian oppression. It shows the situation in the Evangelical Church after 1933 and the commitment of Minister Friedrich Onnasch and others, among them Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945), associated with Pomerania, in the movement of the Confessing Church. It explores the areas of Christian religion in its Evangelical topography, limited to the space of the former Prussian province of Pommern (Provinz Pommern) and Western Pomerania after 1945.
Magdalena Izabella Sacha
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 4, 2020, pp. 319 - 332
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.022.13040The article addresses representations of the Evangelical denomination at contemporary permanent museum exhibits in the region of Masuria, inhabited between 1525–1945 by a Protestant majority. Applying semiotic analysis, the author presents the outcomes of field studies in the local museums in Olsztyn, Mikołajki, Mrągowo, Ogródek, Szczytno, and in the open-air museum in Olsztynek. The principal research question is the issue of visibility and recognisability of Evangelism-related items at permanent exhibits. The author concludes that there are three types of omissions in the presentation of the history of Masurian Evangelicals. The silencing of the Protestant past of Masuria results from the cultural colonisation that took place after 1945 and from identifying Evangelicalism with Germanness in the common consciousness of the currently dominant Polish Roman Catholic community.
Renata Siuda-Ambroziak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 4, 2020, pp. 333 - 346
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.023.13041In the article the author stresses the role of the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé in health therapies, showing that, in spite of linking Candomblé mostly with Black Brazilians from lower social strata, successfully applied religious therapies based on the strategy of “refueling with axé” nowadays attract many well-educated, rich, white representatives of the local elites. These new adherents find in Candomblé ways of improving their health, but also a sense of community and support that sometimes even make these “clients,” in spite of still existing prejudice, take a decision about initiation.
Publication date: 2020
Issue Editor: Karol Zieliński
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Instytutu Religioznawstwa.
Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy nr 279/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 16 lipca 2019 roku z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”.
Przygotowanie i wydanie w otwartym dostępie anglojęzycznych artykułów wydawanych w czasopiśmie „Studia Religiologica” w celu lepszego umiędzynarodowienia czasopisma – zadanie finansowane w ramach umowy 626/P-DUN/2019 ze środków Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego przeznaczonych na działalność upowszechniającą naukę.
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 3, 2020, pp. 163 - 179
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.012.12752Since its appearance in the scientific discourse, the figure of trickster has become a subject of many controversies and a source of speculation in many research fields. Despite multiple endeavours to synthesise this topic, researchers seem to be still far from solving the “trickster problem. ”The article attempts to recall the classical arguments in the field, in order to identify the sources of puzzling issues and to find common motifs linking diverse deliberations. Researchers of different schools seem to agree on the archaic nature of trickster myths. This is indicated by the paradoxicality, ambivalence, unpredictability and multidimensionality of the trickster figure and its specific wisdom in the form of cunningness gravitating towards a shamanic complex, as well as the dispersion and chaotic character of mythical episodes.
Karol Zieliński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 3, 2020, pp. 181 - 202
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.013.12753In the Greek epic tradition associated with the Trojan cycle, the protagonists are played by Achilles and Odysseus, two heroes with contrasting characteristics. The Homeric poems endeavor to approximate the character of Odysseus to Achilles. They cannot, however, break with his traditional image in which he represents the trickster type. Both preservation of the traditional image and its reinterpretation is typical of the oral tradition. Comparison with other traditions of the oral epic reveals a connection between the trickster character and the antagonist of the hero-protagonist. Both polarized characters represent two types of behavior assessed by the listening audience in terms of their usefulness for the survival of the community. In his readiness for sacrifice, the hero represents an altruistic attitude, positively valorized as moral behavior. The trickster’s egoistic behavior moves away from moral principles, but it can also ultimately bring benefit to the whole community. Similarly to the behavior of the trickster-antagonist, that of the hero-protagonist is also ambivalent, as it brings harm to the community, which –though temporary –often takes on the dimension of a disaster.
Konrad Dominas
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 3, 2020, pp. 203 - 212
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.014.12754The goal of this article is to juxtapose the trickster model suggested by William J. Hynes in the text Mapping the Characteristics of Mythic Tricksters: A Heuristic Guide with the stories of Sisyphus and Autolycus. A philological method proposed in this article is based on a way of understanding a myth narrowly, as a narrative with a specific meaning, which can be expressed in any literary genre. According to this definition, every mythology which is available today is an attempt at presenting a story of particular mythical events and the fortunes of gods and heroes. Therefore, stories about Sisyphus and Autolycus are myths that have been transformed and which in their essence may have multiple meanings and cannot be attributed to one artist. The philological method is, in this way, based on isolating all fragments of the myth relating to the above protagonists and subsequently presenting them as a coherent narrative.
Inna Veselova
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 3, 2020, pp. 213 - 225
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.015.12755This article is based on study of the tricksters’tricks played by the heroines of the Russian epos known as bylinas. Variants of bylina plots with female protagonists have been contemplated, taking into consideration the concept by Michel de Certeau of two modes of practices – tactic and strategic –and James Scott’s concept of “the weapons of the weak.”The narrator informs the audience first about the modi operandi under various circumstances, and second about the underlying values governing the choice of this or that modus operandi. Systematic studies of variants of bylina plots confirm the fact that the narrators pay a lot of attention to the personality, appearance and agency of epic heroines. The cunning tricks, daring deceptions, bold choices and exceptional physical fortitude of the heroines surprise the singers of the tales. The activities of female characters are analysed in the social context. The story-telling is a method of teaching modes and ways of real-life behavior. The bylinas’ singers are rendering their personal experience and knowledge in fictionalized form.
Ilona Błocian
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 3, 2020, pp. 227 - 238
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.016.12756Jung dealt with the concept of the trickster archetype in many of his works. References to his interpretations of the impact of this archetype and the myths associated with this figure are also scattered in many places of his works devoted to various issues. The notion of the archetype is extremely complex in his grasp, and the ways of understanding it are evolving, similarly to the concept of the unconscious. These evolutions are related to the transition from the plan of patterns of individual human development, to the development of the species, to the recognition of the very patterns of the development of reality, so they contain references to the psychological, anthropological, and philosophical levels. According to Jung, the trickster archetype expresses –in the most general terms –the conflict of these patterns, which introduces a certain factor to the development process that is both disharmonizing and dynamizing at the same time.
Maciej Czeremski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 3, 2020, pp. 239 - 253
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.017.12757The article is aimed at presenting that the features of a myth (known from literature in the field of anthropology, semiotics, and cognitive science) are also present in marketing communication related to shaping the image of brands. However, they are used in a scattershot manner, as specific marketing messages usually use only certain selected features of a myth. The article shows techniques of brand mythologization by combining three features of myths (permanent structure of events, bricolage, counter-intuitiveness) with three possible ways of their application for marketing communication (modeling, export, import).
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 3, 2020, pp. 163 - 179
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.012.12752Since its appearance in the scientific discourse, the figure of trickster has become a subject of many controversies and a source of speculation in many research fields. Despite multiple endeavours to synthesise this topic, researchers seem to be still far from solving the “trickster problem. ”The article attempts to recall the classical arguments in the field, in order to identify the sources of puzzling issues and to find common motifs linking diverse deliberations. Researchers of different schools seem to agree on the archaic nature of trickster myths. This is indicated by the paradoxicality, ambivalence, unpredictability and multidimensionality of the trickster figure and its specific wisdom in the form of cunningness gravitating towards a shamanic complex, as well as the dispersion and chaotic character of mythical episodes.
Karol Zieliński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 3, 2020, pp. 181 - 202
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.013.12753In the Greek epic tradition associated with the Trojan cycle, the protagonists are played by Achilles and Odysseus, two heroes with contrasting characteristics. The Homeric poems endeavor to approximate the character of Odysseus to Achilles. They cannot, however, break with his traditional image in which he represents the trickster type. Both preservation of the traditional image and its reinterpretation is typical of the oral tradition. Comparison with other traditions of the oral epic reveals a connection between the trickster character and the antagonist of the hero-protagonist. Both polarized characters represent two types of behavior assessed by the listening audience in terms of their usefulness for the survival of the community. In his readiness for sacrifice, the hero represents an altruistic attitude, positively valorized as moral behavior. The trickster’s egoistic behavior moves away from moral principles, but it can also ultimately bring benefit to the whole community. Similarly to the behavior of the trickster-antagonist, that of the hero-protagonist is also ambivalent, as it brings harm to the community, which –though temporary –often takes on the dimension of a disaster.
Konrad Dominas
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 3, 2020, pp. 203 - 212
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.014.12754The goal of this article is to juxtapose the trickster model suggested by William J. Hynes in the text Mapping the Characteristics of Mythic Tricksters: A Heuristic Guide with the stories of Sisyphus and Autolycus. A philological method proposed in this article is based on a way of understanding a myth narrowly, as a narrative with a specific meaning, which can be expressed in any literary genre. According to this definition, every mythology which is available today is an attempt at presenting a story of particular mythical events and the fortunes of gods and heroes. Therefore, stories about Sisyphus and Autolycus are myths that have been transformed and which in their essence may have multiple meanings and cannot be attributed to one artist. The philological method is, in this way, based on isolating all fragments of the myth relating to the above protagonists and subsequently presenting them as a coherent narrative.
Inna Veselova
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 3, 2020, pp. 213 - 225
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.015.12755This article is based on study of the tricksters’tricks played by the heroines of the Russian epos known as bylinas. Variants of bylina plots with female protagonists have been contemplated, taking into consideration the concept by Michel de Certeau of two modes of practices – tactic and strategic –and James Scott’s concept of “the weapons of the weak.”The narrator informs the audience first about the modi operandi under various circumstances, and second about the underlying values governing the choice of this or that modus operandi. Systematic studies of variants of bylina plots confirm the fact that the narrators pay a lot of attention to the personality, appearance and agency of epic heroines. The cunning tricks, daring deceptions, bold choices and exceptional physical fortitude of the heroines surprise the singers of the tales. The activities of female characters are analysed in the social context. The story-telling is a method of teaching modes and ways of real-life behavior. The bylinas’ singers are rendering their personal experience and knowledge in fictionalized form.
Ilona Błocian
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 3, 2020, pp. 227 - 238
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.016.12756Jung dealt with the concept of the trickster archetype in many of his works. References to his interpretations of the impact of this archetype and the myths associated with this figure are also scattered in many places of his works devoted to various issues. The notion of the archetype is extremely complex in his grasp, and the ways of understanding it are evolving, similarly to the concept of the unconscious. These evolutions are related to the transition from the plan of patterns of individual human development, to the development of the species, to the recognition of the very patterns of the development of reality, so they contain references to the psychological, anthropological, and philosophical levels. According to Jung, the trickster archetype expresses –in the most general terms –the conflict of these patterns, which introduces a certain factor to the development process that is both disharmonizing and dynamizing at the same time.
Maciej Czeremski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 3, 2020, pp. 239 - 253
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.017.12757The article is aimed at presenting that the features of a myth (known from literature in the field of anthropology, semiotics, and cognitive science) are also present in marketing communication related to shaping the image of brands. However, they are used in a scattershot manner, as specific marketing messages usually use only certain selected features of a myth. The article shows techniques of brand mythologization by combining three features of myths (permanent structure of events, bricolage, counter-intuitiveness) with three possible ways of their application for marketing communication (modeling, export, import).
Publication date: 2020
Issue Editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Instytutu Religioznawstwa.
Stefan Dudra
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 2, 2020, pp. 77 - 88
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.006.12509Małgorzata Grzywacz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 2, 2020, pp. 89 - 104
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.007.12510The article concentrates on the renewal of monastic life in the European evangelical churches after 1945. The Reformation, initiated by the speech of Martin Luther (1483–1546), brought about great changes in this respect, questioning the current principles of the presence of the monk’s life in the Christian community. Criticism of religious life, formulated by the father of the Wittenberg Reformation, was undertaken by both Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531) and John Calvin. Until the 19th century, monasticism had not seen rehabilitation of the churches that emerged in the wake of the Reformation. This did not mean, however, that it was completely forgotten. Due to renewal movements, including radical Pietism, which in the 17th and 18th centuries became popular in Protestant Europe, monastic issues returned. Eminent figures in the history of Christianity were discovered. Their world of faith and personal experience was mediated through community life, based on prayer rules and practices known since the time of the original church. At the same time in France, Germany and England a return to the abandoned ways of implementing Christian life began. The article analyses the inspiring community of Grandchamp to indicate the way tradition in the churches deriving from the Reformation has been discovered and re-read.
Marzenna Jakubczak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 2, 2020, pp. 105 - 118
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.008.12511This paper discusses the phenomenon of Kāpil Maṭh (Madhupur, India), a Sāṃkhyayoga āśrama founded in the early twentieth century by the charismatic Bengali scholar-monk Swāmi Hariharānanda Ᾱraṇya (1869–1947). While referring to Hariharānanda’s writings I will consider the idea of the re-establishment of an extinct spiritual lineage. I shall specify the criteria for identity of this revived Sāṃkhyayoga tradition by explaining why and on what assumptions the modern reinterpretation of this school can be perceived as continuation of the thought of Patañjali and Īśvarakṛṣṇa. The starting point is, however, the question whether it is possible at all to re-establish a philosophical tradition which had once broken down and disappeared for centuries. In this context, one ought to ponder if it is likely to revitalise the same line of thinking, viewing, philosophy-making and practice in accordance with the theoretical exposition of the right insight achieved by an accomplished teacher, a master, the founder of a “new”revived tradition declared to maintain a particular school identity. Moreover, I refer to a monograph of Knut A. Jacobsen (2018) devoted to the tradition of Kāpil Maṭh interpreted as a typical product of the nineteenth-century Bengali renaissance.
Hanna Urbańska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 2, 2020, pp. 119 - 131
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.009.12512In the present paper an attempt will be made toward interpreting selected stanzas from the work of Nārāyaṇa Guru (1854–1928), a mystic and social reformer from Kerala. In his Malayalam work the Kuṇḍalinī Pāṭṭŭ (The Song of the Kundalini Snake), Guru depicted an ancient yogic concept of Kuṇḍalinī, a coiled power residing in the state of sleep within the subtle energy centre (mūlādhāra) situated at the base of the central body channel (suṣumnā). The very same concept appears in many other works by Nārāyaṇa Guru, including Śiva Śatakam (One Hundred Stanzas on Śiva). An analysis of these stanzas in the light of the Siddha tradition (Tirumandiram by Tirumūlar) reveals that not only has the Kuṇḍalinī concept been borrowed from the Dravidian literature, Nārāyaṇan introduces the Tamil Siddhas’style of description of mystic experiences to his philosophical works, using metaphorical-twilight language which excludes the possibility of univocal interpretation.
Tereza Huspeková
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 2, 2020, pp. 133 - 148
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.010.12513The focus of this article is on the spatial aspect of the daily temple rites of Gauḍīẏa Vaiṣṇavism. The study is a contribution to theoretical reflection on rituals and their role within religious systems. Studies on rituals as multi-media entities have tended to concentrate on “visible”aspects of ritual such as objects, actors or symbols, while ritual space has often been neglected. However, in this essay, I would like to show that ritual space may operate as an interactive “field of ritual,”which structures the conduct of practitioners and is subsequently structured by them. The text is modelled as an interpretative case-study grounded in field research performed in a Gauḍīẏa Vaiṣṇava temple in Kolkata. The goal of the article is to develop a theoretical approach appropriate for this particular set of data which, nevertheless, could serve as an inspiration for theorizing in analogical cases.
Roman Husarski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 2, 2020, pp. 149 - 162
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.011.12514For a long time, the world thought that the collapse of the USSR in 1991 would lead to a similar outcome in North Korea. Although the Kim regime suffered harsh economic troubles, it was able to distance itself from communism without facing an ideological crisis and losing mass support. The same core political myths are still in use today. However, after the DPRK left the ideas of socialist realism behind, it has become clearer that the ideology of the country is a political religion. Now, its propaganda is using more supernatural elements than ever before. A good example is the movie The Big-Game Hunter (Maengsu sanyangkkun) in which the Japanese are trying to desacralize Paektu Mountain, but instead experience the fury of the holy mountain in the form of thunderbolts. The movie was produced in 2011 by P’yo Kwang, one of the most successful North Korean directors. It was filmed in the same year Kim Chŏng-ŭn came to power. The aim of the paper is to show the evolution of the DPRK political myth in North Korean cinema, in which The Big-Game Hunter seems to be another step in the process of mythologization. It is crucial to understand how the propaganda works, as it is still largely the cinema that shapes the attitudes and imagination of the people of the DPRK.
Stefan Dudra
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 2, 2020, pp. 77 - 88
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.006.12509Małgorzata Grzywacz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 2, 2020, pp. 89 - 104
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.007.12510The article concentrates on the renewal of monastic life in the European evangelical churches after 1945. The Reformation, initiated by the speech of Martin Luther (1483–1546), brought about great changes in this respect, questioning the current principles of the presence of the monk’s life in the Christian community. Criticism of religious life, formulated by the father of the Wittenberg Reformation, was undertaken by both Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531) and John Calvin. Until the 19th century, monasticism had not seen rehabilitation of the churches that emerged in the wake of the Reformation. This did not mean, however, that it was completely forgotten. Due to renewal movements, including radical Pietism, which in the 17th and 18th centuries became popular in Protestant Europe, monastic issues returned. Eminent figures in the history of Christianity were discovered. Their world of faith and personal experience was mediated through community life, based on prayer rules and practices known since the time of the original church. At the same time in France, Germany and England a return to the abandoned ways of implementing Christian life began. The article analyses the inspiring community of Grandchamp to indicate the way tradition in the churches deriving from the Reformation has been discovered and re-read.
Marzenna Jakubczak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 2, 2020, pp. 105 - 118
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.008.12511This paper discusses the phenomenon of Kāpil Maṭh (Madhupur, India), a Sāṃkhyayoga āśrama founded in the early twentieth century by the charismatic Bengali scholar-monk Swāmi Hariharānanda Ᾱraṇya (1869–1947). While referring to Hariharānanda’s writings I will consider the idea of the re-establishment of an extinct spiritual lineage. I shall specify the criteria for identity of this revived Sāṃkhyayoga tradition by explaining why and on what assumptions the modern reinterpretation of this school can be perceived as continuation of the thought of Patañjali and Īśvarakṛṣṇa. The starting point is, however, the question whether it is possible at all to re-establish a philosophical tradition which had once broken down and disappeared for centuries. In this context, one ought to ponder if it is likely to revitalise the same line of thinking, viewing, philosophy-making and practice in accordance with the theoretical exposition of the right insight achieved by an accomplished teacher, a master, the founder of a “new”revived tradition declared to maintain a particular school identity. Moreover, I refer to a monograph of Knut A. Jacobsen (2018) devoted to the tradition of Kāpil Maṭh interpreted as a typical product of the nineteenth-century Bengali renaissance.
Hanna Urbańska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 2, 2020, pp. 119 - 131
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.009.12512In the present paper an attempt will be made toward interpreting selected stanzas from the work of Nārāyaṇa Guru (1854–1928), a mystic and social reformer from Kerala. In his Malayalam work the Kuṇḍalinī Pāṭṭŭ (The Song of the Kundalini Snake), Guru depicted an ancient yogic concept of Kuṇḍalinī, a coiled power residing in the state of sleep within the subtle energy centre (mūlādhāra) situated at the base of the central body channel (suṣumnā). The very same concept appears in many other works by Nārāyaṇa Guru, including Śiva Śatakam (One Hundred Stanzas on Śiva). An analysis of these stanzas in the light of the Siddha tradition (Tirumandiram by Tirumūlar) reveals that not only has the Kuṇḍalinī concept been borrowed from the Dravidian literature, Nārāyaṇan introduces the Tamil Siddhas’style of description of mystic experiences to his philosophical works, using metaphorical-twilight language which excludes the possibility of univocal interpretation.
Tereza Huspeková
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 2, 2020, pp. 133 - 148
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.010.12513The focus of this article is on the spatial aspect of the daily temple rites of Gauḍīẏa Vaiṣṇavism. The study is a contribution to theoretical reflection on rituals and their role within religious systems. Studies on rituals as multi-media entities have tended to concentrate on “visible”aspects of ritual such as objects, actors or symbols, while ritual space has often been neglected. However, in this essay, I would like to show that ritual space may operate as an interactive “field of ritual,”which structures the conduct of practitioners and is subsequently structured by them. The text is modelled as an interpretative case-study grounded in field research performed in a Gauḍīẏa Vaiṣṇava temple in Kolkata. The goal of the article is to develop a theoretical approach appropriate for this particular set of data which, nevertheless, could serve as an inspiration for theorizing in analogical cases.
Roman Husarski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 2, 2020, pp. 149 - 162
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.011.12514For a long time, the world thought that the collapse of the USSR in 1991 would lead to a similar outcome in North Korea. Although the Kim regime suffered harsh economic troubles, it was able to distance itself from communism without facing an ideological crisis and losing mass support. The same core political myths are still in use today. However, after the DPRK left the ideas of socialist realism behind, it has become clearer that the ideology of the country is a political religion. Now, its propaganda is using more supernatural elements than ever before. A good example is the movie The Big-Game Hunter (Maengsu sanyangkkun) in which the Japanese are trying to desacralize Paektu Mountain, but instead experience the fury of the holy mountain in the form of thunderbolts. The movie was produced in 2011 by P’yo Kwang, one of the most successful North Korean directors. It was filmed in the same year Kim Chŏng-ŭn came to power. The aim of the paper is to show the evolution of the DPRK political myth in North Korean cinema, in which The Big-Game Hunter seems to be another step in the process of mythologization. It is crucial to understand how the propaganda works, as it is still largely the cinema that shapes the attitudes and imagination of the people of the DPRK.
Publication date: 03.2020
Issue Editor: Izabela Trzcińska
Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy nr 279/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 16 lipca 2019 z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”.
Przygotowanie i wydanie w otwartym dostępie anglojęzycznych artykułów wydawanych w czasopiśmie "Studia Religiologica" w celu lepszego umiędzynarodowienia czasopisma - zadanie finansowane w ramach umowy 626/P-DUN/2019 ze środków Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego przeznaczonych na działalność upowszechniającą naukę.
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Instytutu Religioznawstwa.
Monika Rzeczycka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 1, 2020, pp. 1 - 14
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.001.12504At the beginning of the 20th century, national mythologies inscribed in the Christian tradition were held in high regard within the milieu of Polish and Russian followers of esotericism. The international anthroposophical movement initiated by the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner is a special case. Among his Russian and Polish devotees sprang the common idea of the Slavic spiritual mission in the service of Archangel Michael. The author of this article explores this idea using the example of a sculpture entitled Initiation/Archangel Michael made in 1927 by the Polish artist Amalia Luna Drexler, who belonged to the group of “first generation”anthroposophists.
Helena Čapková
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 1, 2020, pp. 15 - 31
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.002.12505Stefan Łubieński (1893–1976), composer, fine artist, diplomat, spiritual seeker, and thinker, was a Polish nobleman, follower of Anthroposophy and author of such books as Ways to Spiritual Light and Man between Microcosm and Macrocosm. With his first wife, Zina Łubieńska, he resided in Japan in the first half of the 1920s. Although Łubieński published his autobiography and the names of the two Poles were mentioned at that time, the time they spent in Japan has not yet been analysed by scholars. This article is an attempt to unravel the Łubieńskis’life in Japan and show how it is placed in the context of Japanese culture in the 1920s. Furthermore, it will document the ways the Łubieńskis operated within the transnational network of Theosophists that spread among artists, foreign and Japanese alike, as a way to meet and exchange ideas. One of the circles the Łubieńskis joined, together with Noémi and Antonín Raymond, was the Garakutashū(en. “Circle for the Study of Odd Things and Junk”), a casual setting for open discussion about passion for collecting objects, hobbies, and a shared interest in Japanese arts such as woodblock printing, calligraphy, and ink painting. The transnational method used in this article foregrounds the importance of thinking through a lens highlighting transnational networks and enables us to recognize the Łubieńskis as a part of the Theosophical Society (TS), Garakutashū, and other networks of modern Japan.
Agata Świerzowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 1, 2020, pp. 33 - 47
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.003.12506The article is an attempt to show the importance of Christianity in the reinterpretation of the Indian yoga tradition, in order to include it in a new (Polish) cultural context. Christianity allowed transformation of this culturally alien concept in such a way that it ceased to be seen as something foreign and exotic, and started to be treated as a Polish discipline –in a way specifically addressing the needs and conditions of the Polish nation. The article focusses on the approach to yoga proposed by Wincenty Lutosławski, the author of the first “Polish yoga”handbook, although other interpretations are also referred to, in order to demonstrate the widest possible approach to this discipline.
Józef Szymeczek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 1, 2020, pp. 49 - 62
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.004.12507The study shows the penetration of the Theosophical movement into Austro-Hungarian territory, highlighting this process in the Czech lands from the end of the 19th century. It also examines the development of the Theosophical movement in the territory of Czechoslovakia during the interwar period, and analyses the conflict that occurred in the Theosophical circles as the result of accepting or rejecting the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti, recognised as the manifestation of Majtreja, but also as the expected Messiah. The analysis also considers the activities of the Star Order in the East, which was founded for the purpose of spreading the teachings of Krishnamurti.
Izabela Trzcińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 1, 2020, pp. 63 - 76
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.005.12508The purpose of the article is to present the idea of a religion of the future as conceived by the esoteric community of Wisła in Cieszyn Silesia during the interwar period. Esoteric interpretations of Christianity formed its basis, inspired mainly by the Polish romantic tradition connected with Bible reading, as well as the esoteric and spiritual ideas that were popular at that time, originating from Theosophy and spiritism. An important role in this context was played by considerations on the salvational mission of Christ, albeit presented in a perennialist and Gnostic manner. The esoteric spirituality from Wisła of the interwar period later paved the way for a modern alternative spirituality in Poland.
Monika Rzeczycka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 1, 2020, pp. 1 - 14
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.001.12504At the beginning of the 20th century, national mythologies inscribed in the Christian tradition were held in high regard within the milieu of Polish and Russian followers of esotericism. The international anthroposophical movement initiated by the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner is a special case. Among his Russian and Polish devotees sprang the common idea of the Slavic spiritual mission in the service of Archangel Michael. The author of this article explores this idea using the example of a sculpture entitled Initiation/Archangel Michael made in 1927 by the Polish artist Amalia Luna Drexler, who belonged to the group of “first generation”anthroposophists.
Helena Čapková
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 1, 2020, pp. 15 - 31
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.002.12505Stefan Łubieński (1893–1976), composer, fine artist, diplomat, spiritual seeker, and thinker, was a Polish nobleman, follower of Anthroposophy and author of such books as Ways to Spiritual Light and Man between Microcosm and Macrocosm. With his first wife, Zina Łubieńska, he resided in Japan in the first half of the 1920s. Although Łubieński published his autobiography and the names of the two Poles were mentioned at that time, the time they spent in Japan has not yet been analysed by scholars. This article is an attempt to unravel the Łubieńskis’life in Japan and show how it is placed in the context of Japanese culture in the 1920s. Furthermore, it will document the ways the Łubieńskis operated within the transnational network of Theosophists that spread among artists, foreign and Japanese alike, as a way to meet and exchange ideas. One of the circles the Łubieńskis joined, together with Noémi and Antonín Raymond, was the Garakutashū(en. “Circle for the Study of Odd Things and Junk”), a casual setting for open discussion about passion for collecting objects, hobbies, and a shared interest in Japanese arts such as woodblock printing, calligraphy, and ink painting. The transnational method used in this article foregrounds the importance of thinking through a lens highlighting transnational networks and enables us to recognize the Łubieńskis as a part of the Theosophical Society (TS), Garakutashū, and other networks of modern Japan.
Agata Świerzowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 1, 2020, pp. 33 - 47
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.003.12506The article is an attempt to show the importance of Christianity in the reinterpretation of the Indian yoga tradition, in order to include it in a new (Polish) cultural context. Christianity allowed transformation of this culturally alien concept in such a way that it ceased to be seen as something foreign and exotic, and started to be treated as a Polish discipline –in a way specifically addressing the needs and conditions of the Polish nation. The article focusses on the approach to yoga proposed by Wincenty Lutosławski, the author of the first “Polish yoga”handbook, although other interpretations are also referred to, in order to demonstrate the widest possible approach to this discipline.
Józef Szymeczek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 1, 2020, pp. 49 - 62
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.004.12507The study shows the penetration of the Theosophical movement into Austro-Hungarian territory, highlighting this process in the Czech lands from the end of the 19th century. It also examines the development of the Theosophical movement in the territory of Czechoslovakia during the interwar period, and analyses the conflict that occurred in the Theosophical circles as the result of accepting or rejecting the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti, recognised as the manifestation of Majtreja, but also as the expected Messiah. The analysis also considers the activities of the Star Order in the East, which was founded for the purpose of spreading the teachings of Krishnamurti.
Izabela Trzcińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 53, Issue 1, 2020, pp. 63 - 76
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.20.005.12508The purpose of the article is to present the idea of a religion of the future as conceived by the esoteric community of Wisła in Cieszyn Silesia during the interwar period. Esoteric interpretations of Christianity formed its basis, inspired mainly by the Polish romantic tradition connected with Bible reading, as well as the esoteric and spiritual ideas that were popular at that time, originating from Theosophy and spiritism. An important role in this context was played by considerations on the salvational mission of Christ, albeit presented in a perennialist and Gnostic manner. The esoteric spirituality from Wisła of the interwar period later paved the way for a modern alternative spirituality in Poland.
Publication date: 2019
Issue Editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy nr 279/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 16 lipca 2019 z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”.
Przygotowanie i wydanie w otwartym dostępie anglojęzycznych artykułów wydawanych w czasopiśmie "Studia Religiologica" w celu lepszego umiędzynarodowienia czasopisma - zadanie finansowane w ramach umowy 626/P-DUN/2019 ze środków Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego przeznaczonych na działalność upowszechniającą naukę.
Andrzej Kasperek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 265 - 276
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.019.11626The article is aimed at presenting a particular way of developing sociological reflection upon the tradition of Western esotericism in the categories of counterculture. The author makes an attempt to indicate the significance of practicing this reflection within a separate sociological subdiscipline – the sociology of esotericism. The study consists of two parts: the first comprises a reconstruction of the sociological perspective in the research into Western esoteric tradition, while in the second, a certain way of practising sociology of esotericism is suggested, one focussing on the notions of visibility and recognition.
Maciej Potz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 277 - 291
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.020.11627The article presents political science of religion as an explanatory framework of the political role of religion, grounded in political science. It proceeds from the critique of the prevailing legal and theological approaches as being normatively overloaded and failing to grasp the actual impact of religion on power relations, to formulating metatheoretical/methodological postulates of the political science of religion as an empirical subdiscipline of social science. It then proposes a multilevel approach to the study of the political role of religion. It consists of three distinct – but integrated – theoretical perspectives: the economic or transactional approach, grounded in rational choice theory and economic theories of religion; the social movements theory (SMT) approach, looking at the internal assets, organization and dynamics of religious actors; and the cultural/humanistic approach, exploring evolutionary, psychological and sociological determinants behind individual propensity to religion-inspired political mobilization.
Olga Nowicka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 293 - 307
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.021.11628The proposed paper concerns the hitherto unstudied regional hagiographic tradition of Śaṅkara – the great Indian philosopher and founder of the pan-Indian monastic order within the Advaita Vedānta doctrine in Kerala (South India). This literary tradition is represented by a series of lesser-known texts in Sanskrit and Malayalam. The objective of this article is to examine some of the cultural and literary methods of space valorization and creation of literary cartographies. The sacred topography created through the hagiographic narrative causes the overlap of spatial religious concepts and physical geography of temples, monasteries and pilgrimage sites. Therefore, the theoretical approach applied during the examination of the hagiographic tradition in question remains informed by the method of literary cartography.
Antoni Mironowicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 309 - 324
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.022.11629Metropolitan Józef Sołtan was one of the most prominent hierarchs of the Orthodox Church in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th century. Most researchers believe that Józef Sołtan, Smolensk Orthodox Bishop (1503-1507) and later the Metropolitan of Kiev (1507-1521), was the son of Sołtan Alexandrowicz and Wasylissa Chreptowiczówna, brother of Alexander Sołtan. The findings presented in the article show that the view of the origin of the family of metropolitan Józef Sołtan from the Łohojska line is fully credible in confrontation with the names of the persons mentioned in the Supraśl book of the deceased. An analysis of the Supraśl book of the dead shows that it contains the names of people from the family of Archbishop Józef Sołtan, and that Eliasz Sołtan, a farmer from the Łohojsk region, is the same person as Metropolitan Józef Sołtan.
Rafał Łętocha
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 325 - 338
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.023.11630A universal basic income is a government guarantee that each citizen receives a minimum income. It is also called a citizen’s income, guaranteed minimum income, or basic income. The intention behind the payment is to provide enough to cover the basic costs of living and provide financial security. The concept has regained popularity as a way to offset job losses caused by technology.The incomes would be unconditional, automatic, non-withdrawable, individual, and considered a right. The main goal of the article was to consider whether the idea of universal basic oncome income is compatible with Catholic social teaching. Opinions on this matter are still divided, and there are no official statements from the Church's Magisterium on this matter.
Krzysztof Obremski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 341 - 349
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.024.11631Rec.: Jakub Bohuszewicz, Od opętania do rytuału. Pojęcie i praktyka transu w kultach vodun i katolicyzmie, „Jagiellońskie Monografie Religioznawcze”, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków 2017, ss. 276.
Włodzimierz Batóg
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 351 - 357
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.025.11632Recenzja książki: Paulina Napierała, In God We Trust. Religia w sferze publicznej USA, Księgarnia Akademicka, Kraków 2015, 318 stron
Joanna Krotofil
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 359 - 363
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.026.11633Recenzja książki: Monika Ryszewska, Polskie muzułmanki. W poszukiwaniu tożsamości, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń 2018, 328 stron
Krzysztof Obremski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 341 - 349
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.024.11631Rec.: Jakub Bohuszewicz, Od opętania do rytuału. Pojęcie i praktyka transu w kultach vodun i katolicyzmie, „Jagiellońskie Monografie Religioznawcze”, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków 2017, ss. 276.
Włodzimierz Batóg
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 351 - 357
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.025.11632Recenzja książki: Paulina Napierała, In God We Trust. Religia w sferze publicznej USA, Księgarnia Akademicka, Kraków 2015, 318 stron
Joanna Krotofil
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 359 - 363
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.026.11633Recenzja książki: Monika Ryszewska, Polskie muzułmanki. W poszukiwaniu tożsamości, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń 2018, 328 stron
Andrzej Kasperek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 265 - 276
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.019.11626The article is aimed at presenting a particular way of developing sociological reflection upon the tradition of Western esotericism in the categories of counterculture. The author makes an attempt to indicate the significance of practicing this reflection within a separate sociological subdiscipline – the sociology of esotericism. The study consists of two parts: the first comprises a reconstruction of the sociological perspective in the research into Western esoteric tradition, while in the second, a certain way of practising sociology of esotericism is suggested, one focussing on the notions of visibility and recognition.
Maciej Potz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 277 - 291
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.020.11627The article presents political science of religion as an explanatory framework of the political role of religion, grounded in political science. It proceeds from the critique of the prevailing legal and theological approaches as being normatively overloaded and failing to grasp the actual impact of religion on power relations, to formulating metatheoretical/methodological postulates of the political science of religion as an empirical subdiscipline of social science. It then proposes a multilevel approach to the study of the political role of religion. It consists of three distinct – but integrated – theoretical perspectives: the economic or transactional approach, grounded in rational choice theory and economic theories of religion; the social movements theory (SMT) approach, looking at the internal assets, organization and dynamics of religious actors; and the cultural/humanistic approach, exploring evolutionary, psychological and sociological determinants behind individual propensity to religion-inspired political mobilization.
Olga Nowicka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 293 - 307
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.021.11628The proposed paper concerns the hitherto unstudied regional hagiographic tradition of Śaṅkara – the great Indian philosopher and founder of the pan-Indian monastic order within the Advaita Vedānta doctrine in Kerala (South India). This literary tradition is represented by a series of lesser-known texts in Sanskrit and Malayalam. The objective of this article is to examine some of the cultural and literary methods of space valorization and creation of literary cartographies. The sacred topography created through the hagiographic narrative causes the overlap of spatial religious concepts and physical geography of temples, monasteries and pilgrimage sites. Therefore, the theoretical approach applied during the examination of the hagiographic tradition in question remains informed by the method of literary cartography.
Antoni Mironowicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 309 - 324
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.022.11629Metropolitan Józef Sołtan was one of the most prominent hierarchs of the Orthodox Church in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th century. Most researchers believe that Józef Sołtan, Smolensk Orthodox Bishop (1503-1507) and later the Metropolitan of Kiev (1507-1521), was the son of Sołtan Alexandrowicz and Wasylissa Chreptowiczówna, brother of Alexander Sołtan. The findings presented in the article show that the view of the origin of the family of metropolitan Józef Sołtan from the Łohojska line is fully credible in confrontation with the names of the persons mentioned in the Supraśl book of the deceased. An analysis of the Supraśl book of the dead shows that it contains the names of people from the family of Archbishop Józef Sołtan, and that Eliasz Sołtan, a farmer from the Łohojsk region, is the same person as Metropolitan Józef Sołtan.
Rafał Łętocha
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 325 - 338
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.023.11630A universal basic income is a government guarantee that each citizen receives a minimum income. It is also called a citizen’s income, guaranteed minimum income, or basic income. The intention behind the payment is to provide enough to cover the basic costs of living and provide financial security. The concept has regained popularity as a way to offset job losses caused by technology.The incomes would be unconditional, automatic, non-withdrawable, individual, and considered a right. The main goal of the article was to consider whether the idea of universal basic oncome income is compatible with Catholic social teaching. Opinions on this matter are still divided, and there are no official statements from the Church's Magisterium on this matter.
Publication date: 2019
Issue editor: Renata Siuda-Ambroziak
Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy nr 279/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 16 lipca 2019 z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”.
Przygotowanie i wydanie w otwartym dostępie anglojęzycznych artykułów wydawanych w czasopiśmie "Studia Religiologica" w celu lepszego umiędzynarodowienia czasopisma - zadanie finansowane w ramach umowy 626/P-DUN/2019 ze środków Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego przeznaczonych na działalność upowszechniającą naukę.
Bogumiła Lisocka-Jaegermann
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 3, 2019, pp. 177 - 190
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.013.11372This text presents current debates concerning gender relations in Cuban santería. After a short presentation of the santería religious system, the concepts of femininity and masculinity among the orichas are discussed. Their meaning, differing from Western ideas on manhood and womanhood, is partly attributed to original Yoruba gender concepts widely discussed in recent anthropological literature. The role of men and women in santeria organisational hierarchy and in ritual is also presented in the light of corresponding discussion on their status. The author suggests that the study of gender concepts within santería aids in the understanding of complex gender relations in Cuban society.
Renata Siuda-Ambroziak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 3, 2019, pp. 191 - 204
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.014.11373This article presents field research-based reflections on the socio-cultural contexts of religious healing practices in Brazilian folk Catholicism performed by traditional local blessing-givers (bendezeiras). Recognizing both illness and healing as socio-cultural processes and religion as an important key to understanding Brazilian culture and society, I concentrate on depicting important characteristics of the benzedeiras’ practice, concentrating on “lights” (positive aspects) and “shadows” – adverse factors limiting the possibilities of intergenerational transmission in spite of the continuing popularity and symbolic effectiveness of benzedeiras’ religious healing in Brazil.
Marta Kania
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 3, 2019, pp. 205 - 220
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.015.11374The article discusses the theme of the pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Señor de Qoyllurit’i (and his alter ego – Señor de Tayankani), one of the most important patron feast (fiesta patronal) in the central-Andean region (Perú). The first part contains an ethnographic description of the procession, its location in “sacred space” and the main social actors involved. In the following part the attention focuses on the description of the foundational legends and myths of the festivity and the debate related to the syncretic form of the worship of Señor de Qoyllurit’i, based on the fusion between religious traditions of the Andean region and Catholicism. In the end the process of changes in the structure of the ceremony is presented, related to environmental problems: the aspect of climate change and its repercussions on regional beliefs.
Marta Zuzanna Osuchowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 3, 2019, pp. 221 - 236
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.016.11375The constitution of Argentina from 1853 formally introduced the patronage of the Argentine legal system. Its foundations are to be found in the royal patronage, granted by the popes to the kings of Spain from the beginning of their presence in America. The issue of national patronage in Argentina was completed by signing the concordat in 1966. The removal of the constitutional provisions concerning patronage occurred with the constitutional reform in 1994. This institution has been the basis for the regulation of the relationship between the state and the Catholic Church throughout its application. Political proposals for its changes were the basis for the vision of the state presented by successive authorities.
*The project was financed from the funds of the National Science Center granted on the basis of decision number DEC-2017/01/X/HS5/00721 MINIATURA 1.
Elizete da Silva
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 3, 2019, pp. 237 - 249
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.017.11376With the growth of Protestantism, changes in conceptions and in political representations have provoked participation in political parties. In 1940, evangelical parliamentarians participated in the legislature. With the military coup of 1964, Protestantism divided into one sector which joined the military, and another which resisted it and built a Protestant opposition sector, The Evangelical Bench, which aligned itself to the conservative sectors in Parliament.
Amadeusz Citlak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 3, 2019, pp. 251 - 264
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.018.11377This article is an attempt to apply a psycholinguistic tools to reconstruct a linguistic image of the non-Christian Jews in chosen narratives taken from the Greek canonical Gospels of the New Testament. In this part of the analysis, I would like to use the basic and empirically confirmed thesis of the linguistic category model and attribution processes, which are crucial when analysing the language of negative stereotypes.
I will present the text analysis, results and interpretation.
Bogumiła Lisocka-Jaegermann
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 3, 2019, pp. 177 - 190
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.013.11372This text presents current debates concerning gender relations in Cuban santería. After a short presentation of the santería religious system, the concepts of femininity and masculinity among the orichas are discussed. Their meaning, differing from Western ideas on manhood and womanhood, is partly attributed to original Yoruba gender concepts widely discussed in recent anthropological literature. The role of men and women in santeria organisational hierarchy and in ritual is also presented in the light of corresponding discussion on their status. The author suggests that the study of gender concepts within santería aids in the understanding of complex gender relations in Cuban society.
Renata Siuda-Ambroziak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 3, 2019, pp. 191 - 204
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.014.11373This article presents field research-based reflections on the socio-cultural contexts of religious healing practices in Brazilian folk Catholicism performed by traditional local blessing-givers (bendezeiras). Recognizing both illness and healing as socio-cultural processes and religion as an important key to understanding Brazilian culture and society, I concentrate on depicting important characteristics of the benzedeiras’ practice, concentrating on “lights” (positive aspects) and “shadows” – adverse factors limiting the possibilities of intergenerational transmission in spite of the continuing popularity and symbolic effectiveness of benzedeiras’ religious healing in Brazil.
Marta Kania
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 3, 2019, pp. 205 - 220
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.015.11374The article discusses the theme of the pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Señor de Qoyllurit’i (and his alter ego – Señor de Tayankani), one of the most important patron feast (fiesta patronal) in the central-Andean region (Perú). The first part contains an ethnographic description of the procession, its location in “sacred space” and the main social actors involved. In the following part the attention focuses on the description of the foundational legends and myths of the festivity and the debate related to the syncretic form of the worship of Señor de Qoyllurit’i, based on the fusion between religious traditions of the Andean region and Catholicism. In the end the process of changes in the structure of the ceremony is presented, related to environmental problems: the aspect of climate change and its repercussions on regional beliefs.
Marta Zuzanna Osuchowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 3, 2019, pp. 221 - 236
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.016.11375The constitution of Argentina from 1853 formally introduced the patronage of the Argentine legal system. Its foundations are to be found in the royal patronage, granted by the popes to the kings of Spain from the beginning of their presence in America. The issue of national patronage in Argentina was completed by signing the concordat in 1966. The removal of the constitutional provisions concerning patronage occurred with the constitutional reform in 1994. This institution has been the basis for the regulation of the relationship between the state and the Catholic Church throughout its application. Political proposals for its changes were the basis for the vision of the state presented by successive authorities.
*The project was financed from the funds of the National Science Center granted on the basis of decision number DEC-2017/01/X/HS5/00721 MINIATURA 1.
Elizete da Silva
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 3, 2019, pp. 237 - 249
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.017.11376With the growth of Protestantism, changes in conceptions and in political representations have provoked participation in political parties. In 1940, evangelical parliamentarians participated in the legislature. With the military coup of 1964, Protestantism divided into one sector which joined the military, and another which resisted it and built a Protestant opposition sector, The Evangelical Bench, which aligned itself to the conservative sectors in Parliament.
Amadeusz Citlak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 3, 2019, pp. 251 - 264
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.018.11377This article is an attempt to apply a psycholinguistic tools to reconstruct a linguistic image of the non-Christian Jews in chosen narratives taken from the Greek canonical Gospels of the New Testament. In this part of the analysis, I would like to use the basic and empirically confirmed thesis of the linguistic category model and attribution processes, which are crucial when analysing the language of negative stereotypes.
I will present the text analysis, results and interpretation.
Publication date: 2019
Issue editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy nr 279/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 16 lipca 2019 z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”.
Przygotowanie i wydanie w otwartym dostępie anglojęzycznych artykułów wydawanych w czasopiśmie "Studia Religiologica" w celu lepszego umiędzynarodowienia czasopisma - zadanie finansowane w ramach umowy 626/P-DUN/2019 ze środków Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego przeznaczonych na działalność upowszechniającą naukę.
Jarosław Tomasiewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 95 - 107
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.007.11193Andrzej Huszno (1892–1939) was one of the most interesting – although marginal – clergyman in the Second Polish Republic. He tried to create an esoteric version of the Catholicism based on the allegoric interpretation of religious symbols, the cyclical idea of time and “temporalization” of eschatology. The perennialist idea of the common root of all religions determined Huszno’s interests in Slavic pagan beliefs.
Artur Rodziewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 109 - 125
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.008.11194The paper is devoted to the holy day of the Yezidis, Wednesday, and the Spring festival of Çarşemiya Sor. I propose an interpretation of the meaning of this day, pointing to the supposed relationship between the meaning of Wednesday and the description of ‘fourth day’ in the Old Testament tradition. I also show that the annual feast of Çarşemiya Sor, just like every Wednesday of the week, for the Yezidis commemorate the creation of the material world and subjecting it to the power of angels (especially to the Peacock Angel) and heavenly bodies. I rely mainly on the Yezidi sources and materials gathered during my own field research in Iraq and the South Caucasus.
Joanna Rybarczyk-Dyjewska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 127 - 139
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.009.11195The aim of the article is to present the most characteristic elements of the contemporary Russian discourse on spells. The empirical material used here was based on magical handbooks and spell collections by Natalia Ivanova Stiepanova, who calls herself (coming from a well-known house of folk healers) the Healer from Siberia. The paper explains the genesis of Russian people’s sensibility to all signs of esotericism and shows huge popularity of magical practices in contemporary Russia. The paper also highlights mutual relations between magic, science and religion taking place in these areas (nowadays and in the past). The analysis of the material has shown that Russians today are firmly convinced of the existence of charms (bad spells cast with glances or words) which may cause various misfortunes. It is equally popular among them to believe that with the help of appropriate – as suggested by Stiepanova – magical rituals, a bad spell can be undone (got rid of).
Marek Melnyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 141 - 151
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.010.11196The article presents the main directions of the ‘strategies’ of Orthodox and Protestant social communication in the Ruthenian Territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. Relations between Protestants and the Orthodox Church followed a natural and traditional course of actions aimed at protecting the confessional freedom of non-Catholics. This cooperation was taken up too late. It took place at the time of predominance of the counter-reformation camp in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 153 - 164
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.011.11197The article rises a question of the attitude towards carnality in the religious doctrine and practice of medieval dualists (Bogomils and Cathars). Its main aim is to answer the questions: why did the adherents of these heresies consider sexual intercourse as the worst of all the sins? What was the doctrinal justification of such position and how did it determine their attitude towards women, marriage and procreation? The article also shows how this severe condemnation of sexuality influenced the ways of life of the cathar perfects, and what the simple believers (credentes) thought about it.
Amadeusz Citlak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 165 - 176
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.012.11198This article is an attempt to apply a modern social psychology thesis to reproduce a linguistic image of non-Christian Jews in chosen narratives taken from the Greek canonical Gospels of the New Testament. In the first century AD, non-Christian Jews and primitive Christians found themselves in a state of growing ideological conflict resulting in marked changes in their social relations and mutual perceptions. While remaining in close connection with the usage of language and discourse creation, these changes led to the adoption of new linguistic strategies among primitive Christians, thanks to which the image of non-Christian Jews took on over the course of the following years characteristics of negative stereotypes. A structural model has been used to analyse Christian texts, allowing for consistent and uniform comparisons of available sources. The aim of this paper therefore is an attempt to recreate linguistic characteristics of Jews in primitive Christian documents. There is also an alternative proposal for the analysis of stereotypes against that which has been used for many years in the study of anti-Judaism in historical documents. I will present the theoretical context (a short historical outline) and accepted psychological theories.
Jarosław Tomasiewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 95 - 107
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.007.11193Andrzej Huszno (1892–1939) was one of the most interesting – although marginal – clergyman in the Second Polish Republic. He tried to create an esoteric version of the Catholicism based on the allegoric interpretation of religious symbols, the cyclical idea of time and “temporalization” of eschatology. The perennialist idea of the common root of all religions determined Huszno’s interests in Slavic pagan beliefs.
Artur Rodziewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 109 - 125
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.008.11194The paper is devoted to the holy day of the Yezidis, Wednesday, and the Spring festival of Çarşemiya Sor. I propose an interpretation of the meaning of this day, pointing to the supposed relationship between the meaning of Wednesday and the description of ‘fourth day’ in the Old Testament tradition. I also show that the annual feast of Çarşemiya Sor, just like every Wednesday of the week, for the Yezidis commemorate the creation of the material world and subjecting it to the power of angels (especially to the Peacock Angel) and heavenly bodies. I rely mainly on the Yezidi sources and materials gathered during my own field research in Iraq and the South Caucasus.
Joanna Rybarczyk-Dyjewska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 127 - 139
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.009.11195The aim of the article is to present the most characteristic elements of the contemporary Russian discourse on spells. The empirical material used here was based on magical handbooks and spell collections by Natalia Ivanova Stiepanova, who calls herself (coming from a well-known house of folk healers) the Healer from Siberia. The paper explains the genesis of Russian people’s sensibility to all signs of esotericism and shows huge popularity of magical practices in contemporary Russia. The paper also highlights mutual relations between magic, science and religion taking place in these areas (nowadays and in the past). The analysis of the material has shown that Russians today are firmly convinced of the existence of charms (bad spells cast with glances or words) which may cause various misfortunes. It is equally popular among them to believe that with the help of appropriate – as suggested by Stiepanova – magical rituals, a bad spell can be undone (got rid of).
Marek Melnyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 141 - 151
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.010.11196The article presents the main directions of the ‘strategies’ of Orthodox and Protestant social communication in the Ruthenian Territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. Relations between Protestants and the Orthodox Church followed a natural and traditional course of actions aimed at protecting the confessional freedom of non-Catholics. This cooperation was taken up too late. It took place at the time of predominance of the counter-reformation camp in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 153 - 164
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.011.11197The article rises a question of the attitude towards carnality in the religious doctrine and practice of medieval dualists (Bogomils and Cathars). Its main aim is to answer the questions: why did the adherents of these heresies consider sexual intercourse as the worst of all the sins? What was the doctrinal justification of such position and how did it determine their attitude towards women, marriage and procreation? The article also shows how this severe condemnation of sexuality influenced the ways of life of the cathar perfects, and what the simple believers (credentes) thought about it.
Amadeusz Citlak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 165 - 176
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.012.11198This article is an attempt to apply a modern social psychology thesis to reproduce a linguistic image of non-Christian Jews in chosen narratives taken from the Greek canonical Gospels of the New Testament. In the first century AD, non-Christian Jews and primitive Christians found themselves in a state of growing ideological conflict resulting in marked changes in their social relations and mutual perceptions. While remaining in close connection with the usage of language and discourse creation, these changes led to the adoption of new linguistic strategies among primitive Christians, thanks to which the image of non-Christian Jews took on over the course of the following years characteristics of negative stereotypes. A structural model has been used to analyse Christian texts, allowing for consistent and uniform comparisons of available sources. The aim of this paper therefore is an attempt to recreate linguistic characteristics of Jews in primitive Christian documents. There is also an alternative proposal for the analysis of stereotypes against that which has been used for many years in the study of anti-Judaism in historical documents. I will present the theoretical context (a short historical outline) and accepted psychological theories.
Publication date: 2019
Issue editor:
Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy nr 279/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 16 lipca 2019 z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”.
Przygotowanie i wydanie w otwartym dostępie anglojęzycznych artykułów wydawanych w czasopiśmie "Studia Religiologica" w celu lepszego umiędzynarodowienia czasopisma - zadanie finansowane w ramach umowy 626/P-DUN/2019 ze środków Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego przeznaczonych na działalność upowszechniającą naukę.
Izabela Kończak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 1 - 13
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.001.10783The believers in Islam living in the Russian Federation are conventionally divided into two groups: autochthonous and immigrants. The first group includes Tatars and Bashkirs inhabiting Tatarstan, Bashkiria, the Volga Region, southern Ural, Siberia, and Moscow. The second Muslim zone in Russia is the northern Caucasus. Migrant Muslims are mostly incoming from neighboring states, former republics of the USSR. Their presence in Russia is based on economic grounds. Along with the abovementioned ethnic Russian Muslims, there are also Russians of Slavic origin, who have converted to Islam for various reasons.
The article discusses the motivations of Russian (Slavic) females converting to Islam. The analysis is based on the quantitative and qualitative content of messages posted on two web forums: Evimturkiye.com, in a thread entitled Change of confession. I adopted Islam; and forumok.ru, in the thread A woman in Islam. The author makes an attempt to answer the question of why Russian women convert to Islam.
Andrzej Stopczyński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 15 - 26
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.002.10784The religious freedom resulting from the democratic transformation in Russia in the late 1980s and early 1990s created an opportunity for Muslim people living there to develop their own culture, educational system and administrative structure. Islam has also become one of the four traditional religions of Russia. The process of the “Islamic Renaissance” in Russia has led the Muslim community, in particular the Tatars, to look back and take advantage of the historical experience and achievements of Tatar theological thought in order to utilize it in the process of building the identity of Russian Muslims.
In recent years, the most visible element of this process has been an attempt to rethink the concept of Jadidism – the reform movement among Muslims in the Russian Empire at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. One of the most important figures of this movement was Musa Jarullah Bigiev, a religious scholar, politician, and writer. His works relate to fields such as Islamic jurisprudence, politics, history, law, and economics. The article aims to outline the political thought of Musa J. Bigiev, as expressed in his most significant work Alphabet of Islam, written in 1920.
Konrad Zasztowt
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 27 - 48
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.003.10785The aim of this article is the description of the religious, cultural, social, and political situation of the Crimean Tatar Muslims both living in Crimea and outside of the Russia-annexed territory of Crimea in mainland Ukraine. The Crimean Tatar Muslims in mainland Ukraine may be divided into two categories, those who lived there before Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and those who settled there after – internally displaced persons from Crimea. In the case of the latter, one significant reason behind their migrations is persecution against them on religious grounds. Members of the Islamic communities related to the Salafi version of Islam as well as followers of Hizb ut-Tahrir either fled from the annexed peninsula or were harshly repressed by Russian law enforcement authorities. The mainstream group of the Crimean Tatar Muslims are adherents of Sunni Islam and Hanafi Madhab. The latter is also the main Islamic religious community in Russia, which is recognized as a legitimate form of Islam by the Russian government. However, the Hanafi Crimean Muslims are also being pressured by the authorities in occupied Crimea. The leader of their religious organisation, the Crimean Muftiat, Mufti Emirali Ablayev had to declare his loyalty to the Russian state.
Magdalena Pycińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 49 - 62
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.004.10786The aim of the article is to analyse the relations between the discursive Islamic tradition and the national policy implemented in various forms by the Palestinians. I will use in this analysis the notion of the Islamic discursive tradition of Talal Asad, which emphasizes the importance of the relationship between power and knowledge. I will show how the Palestinian nationalist movement influenced the perception of the role and significance of religious tradition, and how it is experienced and practiced in different ways. Works by John O. Voll, Daniel M. Varisco, Dale F. Eickelman, James P. Piscatori and Armand Salvatore show how the current understanding of the relationship between Islam and politics is dependent on Western, top-down assumptions and political projects, and how these have distorted understanding of the processes taking place in the so-called Muslim world. My aim is to go beyond these erroneous assumptions and to reinterpret the Palestinian experience of shaping the relationship between religion and politics.
Martin Klapetek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 63 - 77
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.005.10787The issue of creating spaces dedicated to religious activities and that of the establishment of particular sections for Muslims at public cemeteries might be viewed as a single one. While researching mosques, one needs to accent the multi-functionality of the premises. The final shape of the interior and the exterior of the buildings can be understood as a result of internal and external influences. In the case of the establishment of cemetery fields, the observation of the processes of expert solutions is important. In both issues the need of community organisation is displayed. Furthermore, the long-term construction of “otherness” in the European public space is in question. The discipline of Comparative Religious studies retains the possibilities to analyse the results of the research of Muslim communities and compare them with other examples (e.g., Jewish communities, small Christian churches or new religious movements). Thus issues concerning Islam can become a part of the wider discourse concerning secularisation and the deprivatisation of religion in Europe. The paper contributes to this discussion by pointing out the interconnection of needs of the Muslim population and manifestation of uniqueness in public space.
Agata S. Nalborczyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 79 - 94
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.006.10788Researchers of Islam in the West have noticed that imams working since the 1950s in Western Europe or the United States assume far more responsibilities than their counterparts in traditional Muslim societies. Consequently, further research had to identify and specify the types of imams who perform their service in the West – their most complete typology is the one developed by Niels Valdemar Vinding. However, besides Finland where the Muslim Tatars have lived since the nineteenth century, the classification does not include imams from areas inhabited by the indigenous Muslims.
This study is an attempt to check if the Polish-Lithuanian Tatars living in Poland who have had their imams for centuries would fit into Vinding’s typology and if this typology also would work in a diachronic perspective. Literature on the subject was the basis for the research into the situation of imams in the past. Interviews with representatives of particular Muslim organizations served as the basis for the research into the present-day situation.
Izabela Kończak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 1 - 13
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.001.10783The believers in Islam living in the Russian Federation are conventionally divided into two groups: autochthonous and immigrants. The first group includes Tatars and Bashkirs inhabiting Tatarstan, Bashkiria, the Volga Region, southern Ural, Siberia, and Moscow. The second Muslim zone in Russia is the northern Caucasus. Migrant Muslims are mostly incoming from neighboring states, former republics of the USSR. Their presence in Russia is based on economic grounds. Along with the abovementioned ethnic Russian Muslims, there are also Russians of Slavic origin, who have converted to Islam for various reasons.
The article discusses the motivations of Russian (Slavic) females converting to Islam. The analysis is based on the quantitative and qualitative content of messages posted on two web forums: Evimturkiye.com, in a thread entitled Change of confession. I adopted Islam; and forumok.ru, in the thread A woman in Islam. The author makes an attempt to answer the question of why Russian women convert to Islam.
Andrzej Stopczyński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 15 - 26
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.002.10784The religious freedom resulting from the democratic transformation in Russia in the late 1980s and early 1990s created an opportunity for Muslim people living there to develop their own culture, educational system and administrative structure. Islam has also become one of the four traditional religions of Russia. The process of the “Islamic Renaissance” in Russia has led the Muslim community, in particular the Tatars, to look back and take advantage of the historical experience and achievements of Tatar theological thought in order to utilize it in the process of building the identity of Russian Muslims.
In recent years, the most visible element of this process has been an attempt to rethink the concept of Jadidism – the reform movement among Muslims in the Russian Empire at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. One of the most important figures of this movement was Musa Jarullah Bigiev, a religious scholar, politician, and writer. His works relate to fields such as Islamic jurisprudence, politics, history, law, and economics. The article aims to outline the political thought of Musa J. Bigiev, as expressed in his most significant work Alphabet of Islam, written in 1920.
Konrad Zasztowt
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 27 - 48
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.003.10785The aim of this article is the description of the religious, cultural, social, and political situation of the Crimean Tatar Muslims both living in Crimea and outside of the Russia-annexed territory of Crimea in mainland Ukraine. The Crimean Tatar Muslims in mainland Ukraine may be divided into two categories, those who lived there before Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and those who settled there after – internally displaced persons from Crimea. In the case of the latter, one significant reason behind their migrations is persecution against them on religious grounds. Members of the Islamic communities related to the Salafi version of Islam as well as followers of Hizb ut-Tahrir either fled from the annexed peninsula or were harshly repressed by Russian law enforcement authorities. The mainstream group of the Crimean Tatar Muslims are adherents of Sunni Islam and Hanafi Madhab. The latter is also the main Islamic religious community in Russia, which is recognized as a legitimate form of Islam by the Russian government. However, the Hanafi Crimean Muslims are also being pressured by the authorities in occupied Crimea. The leader of their religious organisation, the Crimean Muftiat, Mufti Emirali Ablayev had to declare his loyalty to the Russian state.
Magdalena Pycińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 49 - 62
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.004.10786The aim of the article is to analyse the relations between the discursive Islamic tradition and the national policy implemented in various forms by the Palestinians. I will use in this analysis the notion of the Islamic discursive tradition of Talal Asad, which emphasizes the importance of the relationship between power and knowledge. I will show how the Palestinian nationalist movement influenced the perception of the role and significance of religious tradition, and how it is experienced and practiced in different ways. Works by John O. Voll, Daniel M. Varisco, Dale F. Eickelman, James P. Piscatori and Armand Salvatore show how the current understanding of the relationship between Islam and politics is dependent on Western, top-down assumptions and political projects, and how these have distorted understanding of the processes taking place in the so-called Muslim world. My aim is to go beyond these erroneous assumptions and to reinterpret the Palestinian experience of shaping the relationship between religion and politics.
Martin Klapetek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 63 - 77
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.005.10787The issue of creating spaces dedicated to religious activities and that of the establishment of particular sections for Muslims at public cemeteries might be viewed as a single one. While researching mosques, one needs to accent the multi-functionality of the premises. The final shape of the interior and the exterior of the buildings can be understood as a result of internal and external influences. In the case of the establishment of cemetery fields, the observation of the processes of expert solutions is important. In both issues the need of community organisation is displayed. Furthermore, the long-term construction of “otherness” in the European public space is in question. The discipline of Comparative Religious studies retains the possibilities to analyse the results of the research of Muslim communities and compare them with other examples (e.g., Jewish communities, small Christian churches or new religious movements). Thus issues concerning Islam can become a part of the wider discourse concerning secularisation and the deprivatisation of religion in Europe. The paper contributes to this discussion by pointing out the interconnection of needs of the Muslim population and manifestation of uniqueness in public space.
Agata S. Nalborczyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 52, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 79 - 94
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.006.10788Researchers of Islam in the West have noticed that imams working since the 1950s in Western Europe or the United States assume far more responsibilities than their counterparts in traditional Muslim societies. Consequently, further research had to identify and specify the types of imams who perform their service in the West – their most complete typology is the one developed by Niels Valdemar Vinding. However, besides Finland where the Muslim Tatars have lived since the nineteenth century, the classification does not include imams from areas inhabited by the indigenous Muslims.
This study is an attempt to check if the Polish-Lithuanian Tatars living in Poland who have had their imams for centuries would fit into Vinding’s typology and if this typology also would work in a diachronic perspective. Literature on the subject was the basis for the research into the situation of imams in the past. Interviews with representatives of particular Muslim organizations served as the basis for the research into the present-day situation.
Publication date: 2018
Issue Editors: Joana Bahia, Renata Siuda-Ambroziak
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Instytutu Religioznawstwa
Amurabi Oliveira, Felipe Boin
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 4, 2018, pp. 219 - 231
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.016.10100The transformations in Afro-Brazilian religions have been the central focus of extensive literature in the fields of anthropology and sociology of religion, emphasizing both ritualistic and liturgical changes, as well as in terms of the public. In this work we analyze the phenomenon of the incorporation of elements of New Age in some Umbanda temples in the city of Florianópolis (Brazil), analyzing how this process occurs and what it reveals to us in terms of the transformations of Afro-Brazilian religions. The research demonstrates that this articulation occurs mainly with the use of alternative therapies in Umbanda temples and the substitution of some aspects of Afro-Brazilian religions, such as ritual animal sacrifice, with new elements.
Caroline Moreira Vieira, Farlen de Jesus Nogueira
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 4, 2018, pp. 233 - 246
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.017.10101The present article analyzes the career trajectories and songs from the repertoires of three popular musicians of the first half of the 20th Century. These are Patricio Teixeira (1893-1972), a radio singer; Getúlio Marinho (1889-1964), considered to be the first person to record macumba rhythms on a commercial album; and Tancredo da Silva Pinto (1904-1979), whose song “General da Banda” (General of the Band) is symbolically linked to Ogum. Each of these singers and songwriters, in his own way, sought to divulge elements of African-Brazilian rituals and religious practices in his music. Their artistic performances allow us to conclude that religion inspired some of their musical production, marking out the presence of the sacred in their professional activities and contributing to the social circulation of African-Brazilian symbologies.
Thadeus Blanchette, Ana Paula da Silva , Amanda De Lisio
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 4, 2018, pp. 247 - 263
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.018.10102Oswaldo de Andrade’s poem, “O Santeiro do Mangue” (1991 [1950]) and Ruth Landes’ ethnography
“City of Women” (2006 [1947]) both highlight how African-Brazilian religions have maintained connections to sexual practices considered to be “perverse” by Christian moralities. The present article describes the presence of the orixás in today’s brothels in Rio de Janeiro. We emphasize the use of Candomblé and Umbanda as counter-hegemonic forms of spirituality which protect women involved in the sale of sex and are used as symbolic languages criticizing a moral order that highlights female passivity. Through the language of the saints, that which cannot be said becomes public in Carioca brothels, highlighting agencies in a space nominally dominated by men.
Tatiana Golfetto
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 4, 2018, pp. 265 - 278
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.019.10150Migratory phenomena and global flows have changed the religious diversity in Europe. The resulting processes of accommodation of religions and practices within new social contexts are characterized by complex dynamics of preservation/adaptation of religious elements. This paper aims to discuss the ways Afro-Brazilian religions, specifically Candomblé Ketu, have been introduced into and adapted within an Italian context. Based on fieldwork that took place in 2013-2016, it analyzes the religious/spiritual paths of Italian practitioners in order to understand how they approach Candomblé and how their observance of both Afro-Brazilian religions and so-called therapeutic practices promote dialogues and re-significations of some religious/spiritual elements.
Roberto Motta, Renata Siuda-Ambroziak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 4, 2018, pp. 279 - 295
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.020.10151The Xangô religion of Recife is a the cult of the orixás, gods of West African (mainly Yoruba) derivation syncretized with the saints of Lusitanian popular Catholicism. The essential act of the cult consists of sacrifice and feasting: animal slaughter, during which the faithful sing, dance and experience trances. The cult characteristics imply a whole set of responses to environmental pressures of various kinds, with oppositions of a dialectical character between the community and domination; the initiate as a ritual son and the initiate as a client; the meat and the feast; and the sacrifice and the party. In other words, between the practical requirements of culture and its surplus that transpires as the feast and as the holy and the beautiful.
Amurabi Oliveira, Felipe Boin
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 4, 2018, pp. 219 - 231
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.016.10100The transformations in Afro-Brazilian religions have been the central focus of extensive literature in the fields of anthropology and sociology of religion, emphasizing both ritualistic and liturgical changes, as well as in terms of the public. In this work we analyze the phenomenon of the incorporation of elements of New Age in some Umbanda temples in the city of Florianópolis (Brazil), analyzing how this process occurs and what it reveals to us in terms of the transformations of Afro-Brazilian religions. The research demonstrates that this articulation occurs mainly with the use of alternative therapies in Umbanda temples and the substitution of some aspects of Afro-Brazilian religions, such as ritual animal sacrifice, with new elements.
Caroline Moreira Vieira, Farlen de Jesus Nogueira
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 4, 2018, pp. 233 - 246
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.017.10101The present article analyzes the career trajectories and songs from the repertoires of three popular musicians of the first half of the 20th Century. These are Patricio Teixeira (1893-1972), a radio singer; Getúlio Marinho (1889-1964), considered to be the first person to record macumba rhythms on a commercial album; and Tancredo da Silva Pinto (1904-1979), whose song “General da Banda” (General of the Band) is symbolically linked to Ogum. Each of these singers and songwriters, in his own way, sought to divulge elements of African-Brazilian rituals and religious practices in his music. Their artistic performances allow us to conclude that religion inspired some of their musical production, marking out the presence of the sacred in their professional activities and contributing to the social circulation of African-Brazilian symbologies.
Thadeus Blanchette, Ana Paula da Silva , Amanda De Lisio
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 4, 2018, pp. 247 - 263
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.018.10102Oswaldo de Andrade’s poem, “O Santeiro do Mangue” (1991 [1950]) and Ruth Landes’ ethnography
“City of Women” (2006 [1947]) both highlight how African-Brazilian religions have maintained connections to sexual practices considered to be “perverse” by Christian moralities. The present article describes the presence of the orixás in today’s brothels in Rio de Janeiro. We emphasize the use of Candomblé and Umbanda as counter-hegemonic forms of spirituality which protect women involved in the sale of sex and are used as symbolic languages criticizing a moral order that highlights female passivity. Through the language of the saints, that which cannot be said becomes public in Carioca brothels, highlighting agencies in a space nominally dominated by men.
Tatiana Golfetto
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 4, 2018, pp. 265 - 278
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.019.10150Migratory phenomena and global flows have changed the religious diversity in Europe. The resulting processes of accommodation of religions and practices within new social contexts are characterized by complex dynamics of preservation/adaptation of religious elements. This paper aims to discuss the ways Afro-Brazilian religions, specifically Candomblé Ketu, have been introduced into and adapted within an Italian context. Based on fieldwork that took place in 2013-2016, it analyzes the religious/spiritual paths of Italian practitioners in order to understand how they approach Candomblé and how their observance of both Afro-Brazilian religions and so-called therapeutic practices promote dialogues and re-significations of some religious/spiritual elements.
Roberto Motta, Renata Siuda-Ambroziak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 4, 2018, pp. 279 - 295
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.020.10151The Xangô religion of Recife is a the cult of the orixás, gods of West African (mainly Yoruba) derivation syncretized with the saints of Lusitanian popular Catholicism. The essential act of the cult consists of sacrifice and feasting: animal slaughter, during which the faithful sing, dance and experience trances. The cult characteristics imply a whole set of responses to environmental pressures of various kinds, with oppositions of a dialectical character between the community and domination; the initiate as a ritual son and the initiate as a client; the meat and the feast; and the sacrifice and the party. In other words, between the practical requirements of culture and its surplus that transpires as the feast and as the holy and the beautiful.
Publication date: 2018
Issue Editors: Joana Bahia, Renata Siuda-Ambroziak
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Instytutu Religioznawstwa
Joana Bahia
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 3, 2018, pp. 149 - 163
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.011.10095In this text, I study Afro-Brazilian religions (Candomblé and Umbanda) and the ways these adapt themselves culturally in the German context, producing hybridisms and reviving European pagan practices. In the first section of the text, I present how paisand mães de santo circulate through the artistic field, creating opportunities for them to construct ritual spaces in which religious practices are conducted and future adepts are recruited. I then analyze cases in which pais de santodo not participate in this artistic field, or even have their own terreirosor initiate filhos de santo. Finally, I consider ritual adaptations and the ways of relating to the economic and spiritual necessities of potential clients. In these cases, Afro-Brazilian religions end up being in close proximity to New Age practices currently common in European cultures.
Giovanna Capponi
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 3, 2018, pp. 165 - 177
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.012.10096This paper explores Candomblé rituals from the perspective of human-environment relations, taking into account not only human followers, but also animals, plants and artifacts that are necessary for the making of Candomblé terreiros. While this process of interaction between different realms is codified by strict rules and prescriptions, it also adapts according to the environment where the Candomblé community is located. Drawing from fieldwork data collected in a Candomblé terreiro that has been active in Italy for almost two decades, this paper aims at presenting the challenges and adaptations of the religious practice in different natural landscapes. By taking into account the spatial composition and the material culture involved in the Italian terreiro and its references in Brazil, this work re-thinks how Candomblé practitioners relate to the cultural and ecological environments.
Hippolyte Brice Sogbossi
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 3, 2018, pp. 179 - 193
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.013.10097The so-called Transatlantic Traffic imposed new linguistical and cultural configurations on the three continents involved in this tragedy: Africa, America and Europe. Such configurations acquire a complex of dynamics that, nowadays, we speak of flux and reflux of traffic, because of the intense and broad cultural and social exchange between these continents. Religion is one of the main or fundamental elements that is diluted in the cultural exchanges between Africa and America, especially those of the so called Sudanese nations, which receive various denominations: santeria, vodun, and Candomblé, among others. I will deal with the presentation of the Jeje nagô pattern in order to promote a dialogue, taking in account manifestation in Cuba, Haiti, Brazil and Benin. I will choose, describe and analyse from a comparative perspective a sample of songs and ritual lexicon (including terms of kinship) of Dahomean and Ewé-Fon origin in arará santeria, vodun in Haiti, and Mina-jeje candomblé in Brazil in one part of the study, and in the other part, with the vodun of Benin. This experience will undoubtedly shed light on the diversity and richness of meanings attributed from cultural and social relations in religious spaces and in society as a whole.
Pauline Monteiro
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 3, 2018, pp. 195 - 208
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.014.10098This article seeks to show, through an examination of music and Pretos Velhos entities, the transnationalisation and the adaptation of an Afro-Brazilian cult of possession (Umbanda) in a French, Belgian and Swiss contexts. By analysing songs, dances and rhythms, I focus on the diacritical characteristics from Pretos Velhos entities in Umbanda and on the discourses of mediums (during and after possession), to emphasize the representation of these entities in their adaptation society. The purpose of this article is to show howthe Pretos Velhos, and also music (rhythms and dances), are one strategic point of adaptation of Afro-Brazilian cults. The work of imagination (here conveyed by music), shows the transcendence of a historical symbol by a European romantic symbol (the storyteller) that will create this new area where the Umbanda can adapt to the European contexts.
Marcelo Niel
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 3, 2018, pp. 209 - 218
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.015.10099This article is an ethnography of Candomblétransnationalization to the city of New York. I describe the journeys of three Brazilian mães-de-santo (mothers-of-saints), who have carried their practices and knowledge with them from Brazil. I report how they settled in the city, the dialog with urban space in a megalopolis, the changes that have occurred in the rituals, and the potential transpositions to this new space, their clientele and motivations. It aims to comprehend the importance of the Candomblé itinerary as one of the main components responsible for its maintenance, establishment and expansion in Brazil and in other parts of the world. The connecting points of this article were the stories of three Brazilian mothers-of-saints who moved to New York City, carrying with them Candomblé rituals practiced in Brazil, transposing them to this new place, having to discuss and rethink their practices in the North American context, reinventing traditional religious settings or, rather, inventing traditions, and dialoging with the concept of reinvention of tradition, as proposed by Roy Wagner (1975). An important topic found in this reinvention process is a change of hierarchy, as a more horizontal interaction system is adopted by the mothers-of-saints with their devotees and clients, as opposed to the more vertical model which prevails in the Brazilian terreiros (places of worship). Following the work of the three mothers-of-saints, aiming to transpose religion to a new context, I describe their encounters with their devotees, who seek health care and well-being through the use of plants and prayers during rituals and religious ceremonies.
Joana Bahia
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 3, 2018, pp. 149 - 163
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.011.10095In this text, I study Afro-Brazilian religions (Candomblé and Umbanda) and the ways these adapt themselves culturally in the German context, producing hybridisms and reviving European pagan practices. In the first section of the text, I present how paisand mães de santo circulate through the artistic field, creating opportunities for them to construct ritual spaces in which religious practices are conducted and future adepts are recruited. I then analyze cases in which pais de santodo not participate in this artistic field, or even have their own terreirosor initiate filhos de santo. Finally, I consider ritual adaptations and the ways of relating to the economic and spiritual necessities of potential clients. In these cases, Afro-Brazilian religions end up being in close proximity to New Age practices currently common in European cultures.
Giovanna Capponi
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 3, 2018, pp. 165 - 177
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.012.10096This paper explores Candomblé rituals from the perspective of human-environment relations, taking into account not only human followers, but also animals, plants and artifacts that are necessary for the making of Candomblé terreiros. While this process of interaction between different realms is codified by strict rules and prescriptions, it also adapts according to the environment where the Candomblé community is located. Drawing from fieldwork data collected in a Candomblé terreiro that has been active in Italy for almost two decades, this paper aims at presenting the challenges and adaptations of the religious practice in different natural landscapes. By taking into account the spatial composition and the material culture involved in the Italian terreiro and its references in Brazil, this work re-thinks how Candomblé practitioners relate to the cultural and ecological environments.
Hippolyte Brice Sogbossi
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 3, 2018, pp. 179 - 193
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.013.10097The so-called Transatlantic Traffic imposed new linguistical and cultural configurations on the three continents involved in this tragedy: Africa, America and Europe. Such configurations acquire a complex of dynamics that, nowadays, we speak of flux and reflux of traffic, because of the intense and broad cultural and social exchange between these continents. Religion is one of the main or fundamental elements that is diluted in the cultural exchanges between Africa and America, especially those of the so called Sudanese nations, which receive various denominations: santeria, vodun, and Candomblé, among others. I will deal with the presentation of the Jeje nagô pattern in order to promote a dialogue, taking in account manifestation in Cuba, Haiti, Brazil and Benin. I will choose, describe and analyse from a comparative perspective a sample of songs and ritual lexicon (including terms of kinship) of Dahomean and Ewé-Fon origin in arará santeria, vodun in Haiti, and Mina-jeje candomblé in Brazil in one part of the study, and in the other part, with the vodun of Benin. This experience will undoubtedly shed light on the diversity and richness of meanings attributed from cultural and social relations in religious spaces and in society as a whole.
Pauline Monteiro
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 3, 2018, pp. 195 - 208
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.014.10098This article seeks to show, through an examination of music and Pretos Velhos entities, the transnationalisation and the adaptation of an Afro-Brazilian cult of possession (Umbanda) in a French, Belgian and Swiss contexts. By analysing songs, dances and rhythms, I focus on the diacritical characteristics from Pretos Velhos entities in Umbanda and on the discourses of mediums (during and after possession), to emphasize the representation of these entities in their adaptation society. The purpose of this article is to show howthe Pretos Velhos, and also music (rhythms and dances), are one strategic point of adaptation of Afro-Brazilian cults. The work of imagination (here conveyed by music), shows the transcendence of a historical symbol by a European romantic symbol (the storyteller) that will create this new area where the Umbanda can adapt to the European contexts.
Marcelo Niel
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 3, 2018, pp. 209 - 218
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.015.10099This article is an ethnography of Candomblétransnationalization to the city of New York. I describe the journeys of three Brazilian mães-de-santo (mothers-of-saints), who have carried their practices and knowledge with them from Brazil. I report how they settled in the city, the dialog with urban space in a megalopolis, the changes that have occurred in the rituals, and the potential transpositions to this new space, their clientele and motivations. It aims to comprehend the importance of the Candomblé itinerary as one of the main components responsible for its maintenance, establishment and expansion in Brazil and in other parts of the world. The connecting points of this article were the stories of three Brazilian mothers-of-saints who moved to New York City, carrying with them Candomblé rituals practiced in Brazil, transposing them to this new place, having to discuss and rethink their practices in the North American context, reinventing traditional religious settings or, rather, inventing traditions, and dialoging with the concept of reinvention of tradition, as proposed by Roy Wagner (1975). An important topic found in this reinvention process is a change of hierarchy, as a more horizontal interaction system is adopted by the mothers-of-saints with their devotees and clients, as opposed to the more vertical model which prevails in the Brazilian terreiros (places of worship). Following the work of the three mothers-of-saints, aiming to transpose religion to a new context, I describe their encounters with their devotees, who seek health care and well-being through the use of plants and prayers during rituals and religious ceremonies.
Publication date: 2018
Issue Editor: Piotr Zwierzchowski
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Instytutu Religioznawstwa
Marek Lis
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 2, 2018, pp. 83 - 92
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.005.9503Natalia Różalska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 2, 2018, pp. 93 - 102
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.006.9504Daria Mazur
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 2, 2018, pp. 103 - 113
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.007.9505Mariola Marczak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 2, 2018, pp. 115 - 128
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.008.9506Piotr Zwierzchowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 2, 2018, pp. 129 - 138
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.009.9749Łucja Demby
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 2, 2018, pp. 139 - 148
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.010.9750Marek Lis
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 2, 2018, pp. 83 - 92
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.005.9503Natalia Różalska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 2, 2018, pp. 93 - 102
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.006.9504Daria Mazur
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 2, 2018, pp. 103 - 113
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.007.9505Mariola Marczak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 2, 2018, pp. 115 - 128
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.008.9506Piotr Zwierzchowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 2, 2018, pp. 129 - 138
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.009.9749Łucja Demby
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 2, 2018, pp. 139 - 148
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.010.9750Publication date: 2018
Issue Editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Marek M. Dziekan
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 1, 2018, pp. 1 - 10
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.001.9490Renata Siuda-Ambroziak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 1, 2018, pp. 11 - 32
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.002.9491Emilia Wieliczko-Paprota
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 1, 2018, pp. 33 - 45
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.003.9492Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 1, 2018, pp. 47 - 65
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.004.9493Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 1, 2018, pp. 67 - 82
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.005.9494Marek M. Dziekan
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 1, 2018, pp. 1 - 10
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.001.9490Renata Siuda-Ambroziak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 1, 2018, pp. 11 - 32
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.002.9491Emilia Wieliczko-Paprota
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 1, 2018, pp. 33 - 45
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.003.9492Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 1, 2018, pp. 47 - 65
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.004.9493Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 1, 2018, pp. 67 - 82
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.005.9494Publication date: 2018
Issue Editors: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Jan N. Bremmer
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 291 - 309
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.018.8459In my contribution I trace the transformations of the descent into the underworld from ancient Assyria via Greece and Rome to the world of Christian Late Antiquity. My aim is to analyse the evolution of a pagan and Jewish hellscape into a Christian one. First, I will briefly discuss the earliest known literary descent, that by Enkidu, which almost certainly influenced the poet of the Odyssey (§ 1), who, in turn, paved the way for the famous descent of Orpheus (§ 2). Subsequently, we will return to Assyria, and from there move to Israel and Rome during the early Imperial period (§ 3), before concluding with Christian Late Antiquity (§ 4). In my argument I will concentrate on the interplay of pagan and Christian traditions, as well as to the nature of the sinners in the various hellscapes.
Ołena Łucyszyna
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 311 - 319
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.019.8460The aim of this research is to clarify the view of classical Sāṁkhya on the relationship between the Vedas and its own teaching. Sāṁkhya is regarded by the Hindu tradition as a school of philosophy which recognizes the authority of the Vedas (āstika), but what is the real Sāṁkhya attitude towards the Vedas? My study is based on all the extant texts of classical Sāṁkhya. The textual analysis allowed me to distinguish four different tendencies (lines of thought) that constitute the classical Sāṁkhya view on the status of the Vedic revelation (śruti) in relation to its own doctrine: 1) the Vedas are an authoritative source of knowledge, but they do not play an important role in the grounding of the Sāṁkhya doctrine; 2) Sāṁkhya is authoritative because it is based on śruti; 3) Sāṁkhya is śruti, that is, it is identical to the quintessence (i.e., the highest teaching) of the Vedas set forth in the Upaniṣads; 4) Sāṁkhya is higher than the Vedas. Taking into account the results of my analysis, it is possible to say that the Sāṁkhya view on the status of the Vedas is no less ambiguous than the general Hindu attitude to them.
Tatiana G. Skorokhodova
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 321 - 334
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.020.8461The influences of the phenomena of religious consciousness on the thinking and philosophy of Modern India are described in the article, based on the Bengal Renaissance works of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially those of the inaugurator Rammohun Roy. He created the basic foundations of Neo-Vedanta philosophy predominantly owing to the special phenomena of religious consciousness. The basic phenomena are primordial religious experience and the experience of contemplation and understanding of an Other religion (Islam and Christianity). Derivative phenomena are “monotheistic revolution” (term by G. Pomerants) and dialogue of religions in personal consciousness. Opening the resemblance of Vedanta and other religious traditions’ meanings to dialogue helped to achieve a new interpretation of the darśana. The novelty of Neo-Vedantism lies in the appearance of mighty ethical and social vectors of thinking. The combination of the aforesaid phenomena created the method of philosophising – free dialogue between one’s own tradition and another in order to enrich indigenous thought.
Anna M. Maćkowiak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 335 - 344
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.021.8462The distinction between religion and spirituality can be observed in the travel and tourism industry. The term “religion” is associated with institution, uniformity, and group. Spirituality, on the contrary, is individual, subjective, and experience-based. This opposition overlaps with the disparity between travelling and tourism. The content analysis was inspired by an article by Siv Ellen Kraft. My aim was to verify her statement in the contexts of Lonely Planet’s guidebooks to Indonesia and Thailand, Eastern countries popular among foreigners charmed by their religious and spiritual otherness. I examined the images of religions delivered by Lonely Planet and studied the context and the frequency of application of the following terms: “religion,” “spirituality,” “belief.”
Romina Rossi
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 345 - 357
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.022.8756Andrzej Kasperek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 359 - 372
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.023.8757Jarosław Tomasiewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 373 - 391
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.024.8758Rafał Łętocha
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 393 - 399
Review: Maciej Potz, Teokracje amerykańskie. Źródła i mechanizmy władzy usankcjonowanej religijnie (“American Theocracies. Sources and Mechanisms of Religiously Sanctioned Power”), Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2016, 395 pp.
Paweł Jasnowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 401 - 408
Jan N. Bremmer
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 291 - 309
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.018.8459In my contribution I trace the transformations of the descent into the underworld from ancient Assyria via Greece and Rome to the world of Christian Late Antiquity. My aim is to analyse the evolution of a pagan and Jewish hellscape into a Christian one. First, I will briefly discuss the earliest known literary descent, that by Enkidu, which almost certainly influenced the poet of the Odyssey (§ 1), who, in turn, paved the way for the famous descent of Orpheus (§ 2). Subsequently, we will return to Assyria, and from there move to Israel and Rome during the early Imperial period (§ 3), before concluding with Christian Late Antiquity (§ 4). In my argument I will concentrate on the interplay of pagan and Christian traditions, as well as to the nature of the sinners in the various hellscapes.
Ołena Łucyszyna
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 311 - 319
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.019.8460The aim of this research is to clarify the view of classical Sāṁkhya on the relationship between the Vedas and its own teaching. Sāṁkhya is regarded by the Hindu tradition as a school of philosophy which recognizes the authority of the Vedas (āstika), but what is the real Sāṁkhya attitude towards the Vedas? My study is based on all the extant texts of classical Sāṁkhya. The textual analysis allowed me to distinguish four different tendencies (lines of thought) that constitute the classical Sāṁkhya view on the status of the Vedic revelation (śruti) in relation to its own doctrine: 1) the Vedas are an authoritative source of knowledge, but they do not play an important role in the grounding of the Sāṁkhya doctrine; 2) Sāṁkhya is authoritative because it is based on śruti; 3) Sāṁkhya is śruti, that is, it is identical to the quintessence (i.e., the highest teaching) of the Vedas set forth in the Upaniṣads; 4) Sāṁkhya is higher than the Vedas. Taking into account the results of my analysis, it is possible to say that the Sāṁkhya view on the status of the Vedas is no less ambiguous than the general Hindu attitude to them.
Tatiana G. Skorokhodova
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 321 - 334
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.020.8461The influences of the phenomena of religious consciousness on the thinking and philosophy of Modern India are described in the article, based on the Bengal Renaissance works of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially those of the inaugurator Rammohun Roy. He created the basic foundations of Neo-Vedanta philosophy predominantly owing to the special phenomena of religious consciousness. The basic phenomena are primordial religious experience and the experience of contemplation and understanding of an Other religion (Islam and Christianity). Derivative phenomena are “monotheistic revolution” (term by G. Pomerants) and dialogue of religions in personal consciousness. Opening the resemblance of Vedanta and other religious traditions’ meanings to dialogue helped to achieve a new interpretation of the darśana. The novelty of Neo-Vedantism lies in the appearance of mighty ethical and social vectors of thinking. The combination of the aforesaid phenomena created the method of philosophising – free dialogue between one’s own tradition and another in order to enrich indigenous thought.
Anna M. Maćkowiak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 335 - 344
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.021.8462The distinction between religion and spirituality can be observed in the travel and tourism industry. The term “religion” is associated with institution, uniformity, and group. Spirituality, on the contrary, is individual, subjective, and experience-based. This opposition overlaps with the disparity between travelling and tourism. The content analysis was inspired by an article by Siv Ellen Kraft. My aim was to verify her statement in the contexts of Lonely Planet’s guidebooks to Indonesia and Thailand, Eastern countries popular among foreigners charmed by their religious and spiritual otherness. I examined the images of religions delivered by Lonely Planet and studied the context and the frequency of application of the following terms: “religion,” “spirituality,” “belief.”
Romina Rossi
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 345 - 357
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.022.8756Andrzej Kasperek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 359 - 372
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.023.8757Jarosław Tomasiewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 373 - 391
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.024.8758Rafał Łętocha
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 393 - 399
Review: Maciej Potz, Teokracje amerykańskie. Źródła i mechanizmy władzy usankcjonowanej religijnie (“American Theocracies. Sources and Mechanisms of Religiously Sanctioned Power”), Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2016, 395 pp.
Paweł Jasnowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 4, 2017, pp. 401 - 408
Publication date: 13.12.2017
Issue Editors: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Ondrej Filipec
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 3, 2017, pp. 189 - 201
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.012.7745Despite the almost 1500 years of coexistence between Islam and Judaism, both religions play a dominant role in the Palestine-Israeli conflict. Besides religion, this conflict has its territorial dimension which dominates the relationship between Israel and Palestine, or rather between Jews and Arabs. This article explores the concept of territoriality within Judaism and Islam and its implications for the Israeli-Palestine conflict. It posits the question: is there any space for peaceful territorial coexistence by two antagonist religions, or just the promise of violent struggle based on different perceptions of territoriality?
Martin Klapetek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 3, 2017, pp. 203 - 220
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.013.7746Konrad Pędziwiatr
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 3, 2017, pp. 221 - 239
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.014.7747Magdalena Lubańska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 3, 2017, pp. 241 - 265
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.015.7937This paper presents the findings of ethnographic field research focusing on the worship of the Christ Child as practised by female members of a Fraternity of the Infant Jesus in the main church (kościół farny) in the city of Rzeszów in south-eastern Poland. Based on anthropological analysis of secondary sources and primary data collected through interviews, I try to answer the question of why the women choose to worship God as a Child, and how their choice is connected with their spiritual path. What kind of figures do they embrace as spiritual role models, and why? What is it about the worship of the Child Jesus that they find attractive, and how do they maintain, and contribute to, that form of worship? I will connect these aspects of the worship to women’s strong need for “giving/protecting life” as well as for sensual relationship with the sacred. I treat this need as a self-embraced development strategy combining a fulfilled feminine identity with a religious life as worshippers of Christ
Shoshana Ronen
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 3, 2017, pp. 267 - 277
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.016.7938Jewish prayers and holy texts of religious rituals contain messages which are, from a contemporary point of view, highly exclusive and discriminating. However, Judaism treats its texts as sacred, bestowed directly from God, and therefore, unchangeable. Jewish Orthodoxy refuses to alter even one letter in the traditional texts. Nevertheless, since the reformation of Judaism in the mid-19th century in Germany, and particularly since the mid-20th century in the USA, liberal and progressive Jewish communities have come to the conclusion that human dignity is more important than faithfulness to old texts, and therefore some changes have to be made. These have usually been slight alterations which eliminated exclusive and belittling meanings from the original text. Today, even Orthodox Jews feel unease with this situation, and are considering different solutions. The article deals with the case of the morning prayer “Blessed are You, Lord, for Not Having Made Me a Woman” and its interpretations and modifications from the Middle Ages to modern times.
Stanisław Obirek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 3, 2017, pp. 279 - 290
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.017.7939The impact of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution on religious thinking is beyond dispute. Darwin published his most important work on general biological evolution (On the Origins of Species) in 1859, and in 1871 he applied this theory to the origin of man (The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex). From the beginning, most Christian churches rejected Darwin’s view, but most scientists accepted it as the most convincing explanation of the mechanisms of life. A new chapter in this controversy was opened by Richard Dawkins in 2006 with the publication of The God Delusion, in which he not only vigorously defended Darwin’s theory but also rejected any religious dimension of biological reality. An interesting alternative to Dawkins’s theory was elaborated by John F. Haught in his trilogy: God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution (2000); Making Sense of Evolution: Darwin, God, and The Drama of Life (2010); and Resting on the Future: Catholic Theology for an Unfinished Universe (2015), in which he elaborated a theology of evolution wherein he reconciled the theory of evolution with Christian-Catholic theology. The aim of this essay is to ask to what extent this attempt is successful.
Ondrej Filipec
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 3, 2017, pp. 189 - 201
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.012.7745Despite the almost 1500 years of coexistence between Islam and Judaism, both religions play a dominant role in the Palestine-Israeli conflict. Besides religion, this conflict has its territorial dimension which dominates the relationship between Israel and Palestine, or rather between Jews and Arabs. This article explores the concept of territoriality within Judaism and Islam and its implications for the Israeli-Palestine conflict. It posits the question: is there any space for peaceful territorial coexistence by two antagonist religions, or just the promise of violent struggle based on different perceptions of territoriality?
Martin Klapetek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 3, 2017, pp. 203 - 220
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.013.7746Konrad Pędziwiatr
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 3, 2017, pp. 221 - 239
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.014.7747Magdalena Lubańska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 3, 2017, pp. 241 - 265
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.015.7937This paper presents the findings of ethnographic field research focusing on the worship of the Christ Child as practised by female members of a Fraternity of the Infant Jesus in the main church (kościół farny) in the city of Rzeszów in south-eastern Poland. Based on anthropological analysis of secondary sources and primary data collected through interviews, I try to answer the question of why the women choose to worship God as a Child, and how their choice is connected with their spiritual path. What kind of figures do they embrace as spiritual role models, and why? What is it about the worship of the Child Jesus that they find attractive, and how do they maintain, and contribute to, that form of worship? I will connect these aspects of the worship to women’s strong need for “giving/protecting life” as well as for sensual relationship with the sacred. I treat this need as a self-embraced development strategy combining a fulfilled feminine identity with a religious life as worshippers of Christ
Shoshana Ronen
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 3, 2017, pp. 267 - 277
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.016.7938Jewish prayers and holy texts of religious rituals contain messages which are, from a contemporary point of view, highly exclusive and discriminating. However, Judaism treats its texts as sacred, bestowed directly from God, and therefore, unchangeable. Jewish Orthodoxy refuses to alter even one letter in the traditional texts. Nevertheless, since the reformation of Judaism in the mid-19th century in Germany, and particularly since the mid-20th century in the USA, liberal and progressive Jewish communities have come to the conclusion that human dignity is more important than faithfulness to old texts, and therefore some changes have to be made. These have usually been slight alterations which eliminated exclusive and belittling meanings from the original text. Today, even Orthodox Jews feel unease with this situation, and are considering different solutions. The article deals with the case of the morning prayer “Blessed are You, Lord, for Not Having Made Me a Woman” and its interpretations and modifications from the Middle Ages to modern times.
Stanisław Obirek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 3, 2017, pp. 279 - 290
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.017.7939The impact of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution on religious thinking is beyond dispute. Darwin published his most important work on general biological evolution (On the Origins of Species) in 1859, and in 1871 he applied this theory to the origin of man (The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex). From the beginning, most Christian churches rejected Darwin’s view, but most scientists accepted it as the most convincing explanation of the mechanisms of life. A new chapter in this controversy was opened by Richard Dawkins in 2006 with the publication of The God Delusion, in which he not only vigorously defended Darwin’s theory but also rejected any religious dimension of biological reality. An interesting alternative to Dawkins’s theory was elaborated by John F. Haught in his trilogy: God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution (2000); Making Sense of Evolution: Darwin, God, and The Drama of Life (2010); and Resting on the Future: Catholic Theology for an Unfinished Universe (2015), in which he elaborated a theology of evolution wherein he reconciled the theory of evolution with Christian-Catholic theology. The aim of this essay is to ask to what extent this attempt is successful.
Publication date: 30.11.2017
Issue Editors: Matylda Ciołkosz, Suzanne Newcombe, Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Karl-Stéphan Bouthillette
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 2, 2017, pp. 103 - 115
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.006.7337Could the presuppositions behind the distinction between theory and practice in the realm of yoga be misguided, if not misleading? To approach this question, this paper drafts a meta-perspective gleaned from the thought of three thinkers credited with the earliest Indian doxographies, namely the sixth-century philosopher of Madhyamaka Buddhism, Bhāviveka, the seventh-century Jaina logician Haribhadra Sūri, and the eighth-century Advaita-Vedānta philosopher Śaṅkarācārya. The paper examines the notion of “view” entertained in Indian thought, and suggests that yoga is particularly interested in shaping views. It draws a distinction between the notions of “practice” and “praxis,” arguing that the latter best captures the “yoga” of our authors. The paper then discusses the transformative role of hermeneutics and how, when combined with dialectic, it captures the essence of “scholastic praxis.” Finally, it presents a traditional framework to elucidate the interplay of hermeneutic praxis and soteriology within Buddhism, with brief references to similar patterns in the work of our two non-Buddhist authors. The self-transformative aspect of hermeneutics has so far received little attention and requires further research. This paper is an attempt in that direction.
Hanna Urbańska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 2, 2017, pp. 117 - 129
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.007.7338This paper attempts to interpret selected stanzas from the work of Nārāyaṇa Guru (1854–1928), a South Indian philosopher and social reformer from Kerala. The ancient yogic concept of kuṇḍalinī śakti presented by Guru in his short poem the Kuṇḍalinī Pāṭṭ (The Song of the Kundalini Snake) also appears in Svānubhava Gīti – Lyric of Ecstatic Self-Experience (among others in stanza 41 and 42) – the Malayalam hymn which represents the nirguṇa-poetry describing the mystical experience. An analysis of each motif included in the stanzas mentioned above in the light of Tamil Śaiva tradition (among others Tirumantiram by Tirumūlar) shows that not only the kuṇḍalinī concept could have been adopted from Tamil tradition; Nārāyaṇa Guru seems to apply the very same style of presentation of yogic experiences to his works by means of the twilight language. A comparative analysis ofSvānubhava Gīti and Tirumantiram allows us to better understand the concept of the Śiva-Śakti relations presented by Guru.
Matylda Ciołkosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 2, 2017, pp. 131 - 143
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.008.7339The aim of the paper is to consider the implications of applying the enactive approach to cognition within the study of religions. This approach is discussed as an alternative to the classical, cognitivist stance predominant among the proponents of cognitive science of religion (CSR). The most popular model within CSR is that of cognition as manipulation of concepts. The key assumptions of this model limit the understanding of religion to a system of beliefs. Applying an alternative model – of cognition as enaction – may contribute to creating a more comprehensive model of religion, taking into consideration its pre-conceptual origins. Using the category of representation as the departure point, the author juxtaposes the cognitivist and the enactive stance, showing how substituting the former with the latter necessarily changes the construal of religious activity and thinking.
Jarosław Zapart
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 2, 2017, pp. 145 - 161
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.009.7340This article undertakes the issue of the Mahāyāna Buddhist concept of tathāgatagarbha, seen as a form of selfhood. Its task lies in outlining the methods employed to disclose tathāgatagarbha as a “true” and “original” – but also utterly Buddhist – form of self. In the first part of the article I demonstrate the stance of sūtras from the Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra group, in which tathāgatagarbha is bluntly termed ātman, and which posit that all ideas of selfhood are derivatives of the notion of tathāgatagarbha. In the second part, where the Śrīmālādevī-sūtra is taken under consideration, I introduce an interpretative strategy that shows how this scripture establishes tathāgatagarbha as an enduring self. This is done mainly by assigning the tathāgatagarbha a function of sustaining the diachronic coherence of sentient beings in saṃsāra. Consequently, tathāgatagarbha can be viewed as a “prototype” for the idea of “base consciousness” (ālayavijñāna). The final part of the article is built around the question of why Śrīmālādevī-sūtra warns against ascribing the label ātman to tathāgatagarbha.
Olga Nowicka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 2, 2017, pp. 163 - 171
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.010.7341According to Kerala legends, around the 9th century, direct disciples of the philosopher Śaṅkara established four Advaita Vedānta Maṭhas in Trichur in Kerala, thereafter appointing Nambudiri Saṃnyāsins as heads of these religious institutions. What is peculiar about these monasteries is the prescription according to which Trichur Maṭhas were, and still are, intended only for Nambudiri Brahmins, and moreover only for Nambudiris from specific families who keep the Vedic sacrificial tradition. However, the Advaita Vedānta doctrine was not a current concept among Nambudiri Brahmins. Presumably, in the medieval period it was the mīmāṃsā schools of Bhāṭṭa and Prābhākara which were favoured among Nambudiris. Nevertheless, the appropriation of the Śaṅkaric model of monasticism somehow seemed to be an alluring modus operandi for the aristocracy of the Nambudiri community to gain considerable power.
Agata Świerzowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 2, 2017, pp. 173 - 188
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.011.7342The study of the history of yoga in Poland has only just begun, and knowledge about the earliest stages of the reception of the idea in thi country is so far negligible. This paper is an attempt to broaden the current state of knowledge on yoga in Poland in the interwar period. It focuses on the interpretation/understanding of yoga presented by Eugeniusz Polończyk (?–1932), a medical doctor, social activist and esotericist. Polończyk’s interpretation of yoga forms an integral part of his socio-political views. It may be seen as an attempt to strengthen his synarchist beliefs as well as a way to introduce them into the practice of social life in order to enable the revival of the Polish nation and create an ideal (utopian) state. The paper also highlights the most characteristic features of interpretations of yoga in Poland in the interwar period – patriotic, messianic, Christian and esoteric.
Karl-Stéphan Bouthillette
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 2, 2017, pp. 103 - 115
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.006.7337Could the presuppositions behind the distinction between theory and practice in the realm of yoga be misguided, if not misleading? To approach this question, this paper drafts a meta-perspective gleaned from the thought of three thinkers credited with the earliest Indian doxographies, namely the sixth-century philosopher of Madhyamaka Buddhism, Bhāviveka, the seventh-century Jaina logician Haribhadra Sūri, and the eighth-century Advaita-Vedānta philosopher Śaṅkarācārya. The paper examines the notion of “view” entertained in Indian thought, and suggests that yoga is particularly interested in shaping views. It draws a distinction between the notions of “practice” and “praxis,” arguing that the latter best captures the “yoga” of our authors. The paper then discusses the transformative role of hermeneutics and how, when combined with dialectic, it captures the essence of “scholastic praxis.” Finally, it presents a traditional framework to elucidate the interplay of hermeneutic praxis and soteriology within Buddhism, with brief references to similar patterns in the work of our two non-Buddhist authors. The self-transformative aspect of hermeneutics has so far received little attention and requires further research. This paper is an attempt in that direction.
Hanna Urbańska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 2, 2017, pp. 117 - 129
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.007.7338This paper attempts to interpret selected stanzas from the work of Nārāyaṇa Guru (1854–1928), a South Indian philosopher and social reformer from Kerala. The ancient yogic concept of kuṇḍalinī śakti presented by Guru in his short poem the Kuṇḍalinī Pāṭṭ (The Song of the Kundalini Snake) also appears in Svānubhava Gīti – Lyric of Ecstatic Self-Experience (among others in stanza 41 and 42) – the Malayalam hymn which represents the nirguṇa-poetry describing the mystical experience. An analysis of each motif included in the stanzas mentioned above in the light of Tamil Śaiva tradition (among others Tirumantiram by Tirumūlar) shows that not only the kuṇḍalinī concept could have been adopted from Tamil tradition; Nārāyaṇa Guru seems to apply the very same style of presentation of yogic experiences to his works by means of the twilight language. A comparative analysis ofSvānubhava Gīti and Tirumantiram allows us to better understand the concept of the Śiva-Śakti relations presented by Guru.
Matylda Ciołkosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 2, 2017, pp. 131 - 143
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.008.7339The aim of the paper is to consider the implications of applying the enactive approach to cognition within the study of religions. This approach is discussed as an alternative to the classical, cognitivist stance predominant among the proponents of cognitive science of religion (CSR). The most popular model within CSR is that of cognition as manipulation of concepts. The key assumptions of this model limit the understanding of religion to a system of beliefs. Applying an alternative model – of cognition as enaction – may contribute to creating a more comprehensive model of religion, taking into consideration its pre-conceptual origins. Using the category of representation as the departure point, the author juxtaposes the cognitivist and the enactive stance, showing how substituting the former with the latter necessarily changes the construal of religious activity and thinking.
Jarosław Zapart
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 2, 2017, pp. 145 - 161
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.009.7340This article undertakes the issue of the Mahāyāna Buddhist concept of tathāgatagarbha, seen as a form of selfhood. Its task lies in outlining the methods employed to disclose tathāgatagarbha as a “true” and “original” – but also utterly Buddhist – form of self. In the first part of the article I demonstrate the stance of sūtras from the Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra group, in which tathāgatagarbha is bluntly termed ātman, and which posit that all ideas of selfhood are derivatives of the notion of tathāgatagarbha. In the second part, where the Śrīmālādevī-sūtra is taken under consideration, I introduce an interpretative strategy that shows how this scripture establishes tathāgatagarbha as an enduring self. This is done mainly by assigning the tathāgatagarbha a function of sustaining the diachronic coherence of sentient beings in saṃsāra. Consequently, tathāgatagarbha can be viewed as a “prototype” for the idea of “base consciousness” (ālayavijñāna). The final part of the article is built around the question of why Śrīmālādevī-sūtra warns against ascribing the label ātman to tathāgatagarbha.
Olga Nowicka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 2, 2017, pp. 163 - 171
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.010.7341According to Kerala legends, around the 9th century, direct disciples of the philosopher Śaṅkara established four Advaita Vedānta Maṭhas in Trichur in Kerala, thereafter appointing Nambudiri Saṃnyāsins as heads of these religious institutions. What is peculiar about these monasteries is the prescription according to which Trichur Maṭhas were, and still are, intended only for Nambudiri Brahmins, and moreover only for Nambudiris from specific families who keep the Vedic sacrificial tradition. However, the Advaita Vedānta doctrine was not a current concept among Nambudiri Brahmins. Presumably, in the medieval period it was the mīmāṃsā schools of Bhāṭṭa and Prābhākara which were favoured among Nambudiris. Nevertheless, the appropriation of the Śaṅkaric model of monasticism somehow seemed to be an alluring modus operandi for the aristocracy of the Nambudiri community to gain considerable power.
Agata Świerzowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 2, 2017, pp. 173 - 188
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.011.7342The study of the history of yoga in Poland has only just begun, and knowledge about the earliest stages of the reception of the idea in thi country is so far negligible. This paper is an attempt to broaden the current state of knowledge on yoga in Poland in the interwar period. It focuses on the interpretation/understanding of yoga presented by Eugeniusz Polończyk (?–1932), a medical doctor, social activist and esotericist. Polończyk’s interpretation of yoga forms an integral part of his socio-political views. It may be seen as an attempt to strengthen his synarchist beliefs as well as a way to introduce them into the practice of social life in order to enable the revival of the Polish nation and create an ideal (utopian) state. The paper also highlights the most characteristic features of interpretations of yoga in Poland in the interwar period – patriotic, messianic, Christian and esoteric.
Publication date: 26.06.2017
Issue Editors: Joanna Grela
Maria Miduch
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 1 - 12
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.001.6521The article raises the question of Jewish presence in the pagan world, as well as the impact of the institution of the synagogue on the population not belonging to the Chosen People. While analysing the diaspora of the Roman domination in the Middle East, it is also important to draw attention to the non-Jewish supporters gathered around Jewish communities. Who were these pagans remaining connected to the synagogue? Were they on the way to proselytism? Did they accept only the chosen commands of the Law of Moses, not intending to become full members of the synagogue community? Drawing from literary and archeological sources, the article examines the issues related to the group called the “God-fearers” in the subject literature.
Kamil Nowak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 13 - 23
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.002.6522The article discusses the connection between Chan Buddhism and the study of the Sutras and Śastras. The first part shows the prevalent view according to which Chan negates the value of texts, focusing only on the direct experience. The author then shows the historical dependence of this view and its lack of compatibility with many Chan Buddhist schools. In the later part, the author discusses the Wenzi Chan current and, based on its postulates, carries out an analysis of the texts belonging to the early Chan tradition. This aims to prove that, contrary to the view presented at the beginning of the article, one can demonstrate the existence of a highly influential movement in which the Sutras are valued equally to the direct insight.
Piotr Kłodkowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 25 - 51
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.003.6523The text focuses on the issues of political interpretation of Buddhism in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, as well as on its role as an element of diplomatic soft power in bilateral Indo-Chinese relationship. The author analyses the problems of self-immolation, non-violence vs violence policies and national identity building in the context of re-defining Buddhism in the political realities of selected Asian countries.
Tomasz Niezgoda
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 53 - 73
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.004.6524The aim of this article is to investigate philosophical Christology in the works of Eric Voegelin. It seems that for Voegelin, in the person of Jesus Christ the so-called metaleptical structure of consciousness along with divine reality became luminous as present in every human being. What is more, divine reality (self-)revealed in the event of Christ as an eschatological movement of transfiguration. But the Voegelinian Christ is not the hypostatic union of God and man, but the full presence of divine reality in the consciousness of a man named Jesus. I conclude that Voegelinian Christology points to conditions of God’s revelation: the appearance of God is limited by the metaleptical structure of consciousness and his own transcendence.
Marta Łukaszewicz, Zuzanna Bogumił
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 75 - 101
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.005.6525The paper analyses the concept of “the new martyrdom” functioning today in the Russian Orthodox Church. Through this prism, presented on the icon of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russian Church, we examine the official Orthodox perception of the Soviet past, especially the period of persecutions in 1917–1937. Attention is paid to the way the historical facts are shown and to the narrative which is thus created. The authors conclude that the icon and its official description create a glorious vision of history, emphasising the uniqueness of new martyrs’ testimony and abolishing questions about the cause of the revolution and the persecutors. The huge number of martyrs becomes evidence of the spiritual greatness of Russia, whereby victims are treated instrumentally, to give a spiritual meaning to the persecutions, perceived as a part of the eternal struggle between good and evil.
Maria Miduch
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 1 - 12
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.001.6521The article raises the question of Jewish presence in the pagan world, as well as the impact of the institution of the synagogue on the population not belonging to the Chosen People. While analysing the diaspora of the Roman domination in the Middle East, it is also important to draw attention to the non-Jewish supporters gathered around Jewish communities. Who were these pagans remaining connected to the synagogue? Were they on the way to proselytism? Did they accept only the chosen commands of the Law of Moses, not intending to become full members of the synagogue community? Drawing from literary and archeological sources, the article examines the issues related to the group called the “God-fearers” in the subject literature.
Kamil Nowak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 13 - 23
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.002.6522The article discusses the connection between Chan Buddhism and the study of the Sutras and Śastras. The first part shows the prevalent view according to which Chan negates the value of texts, focusing only on the direct experience. The author then shows the historical dependence of this view and its lack of compatibility with many Chan Buddhist schools. In the later part, the author discusses the Wenzi Chan current and, based on its postulates, carries out an analysis of the texts belonging to the early Chan tradition. This aims to prove that, contrary to the view presented at the beginning of the article, one can demonstrate the existence of a highly influential movement in which the Sutras are valued equally to the direct insight.
Piotr Kłodkowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 25 - 51
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.003.6523The text focuses on the issues of political interpretation of Buddhism in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, as well as on its role as an element of diplomatic soft power in bilateral Indo-Chinese relationship. The author analyses the problems of self-immolation, non-violence vs violence policies and national identity building in the context of re-defining Buddhism in the political realities of selected Asian countries.
Tomasz Niezgoda
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 53 - 73
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.004.6524The aim of this article is to investigate philosophical Christology in the works of Eric Voegelin. It seems that for Voegelin, in the person of Jesus Christ the so-called metaleptical structure of consciousness along with divine reality became luminous as present in every human being. What is more, divine reality (self-)revealed in the event of Christ as an eschatological movement of transfiguration. But the Voegelinian Christ is not the hypostatic union of God and man, but the full presence of divine reality in the consciousness of a man named Jesus. I conclude that Voegelinian Christology points to conditions of God’s revelation: the appearance of God is limited by the metaleptical structure of consciousness and his own transcendence.
Marta Łukaszewicz, Zuzanna Bogumił
Studia Religiologica, Volume 50 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 75 - 101
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.17.005.6525The paper analyses the concept of “the new martyrdom” functioning today in the Russian Orthodox Church. Through this prism, presented on the icon of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russian Church, we examine the official Orthodox perception of the Soviet past, especially the period of persecutions in 1917–1937. Attention is paid to the way the historical facts are shown and to the narrative which is thus created. The authors conclude that the icon and its official description create a glorious vision of history, emphasising the uniqueness of new martyrs’ testimony and abolishing questions about the cause of the revolution and the persecutors. The huge number of martyrs becomes evidence of the spiritual greatness of Russia, whereby victims are treated instrumentally, to give a spiritual meaning to the persecutions, perceived as a part of the eternal struggle between good and evil.
Publication date: 20.03.2017
Issue editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
David Higgins
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 4, 2016, pp. 305 - 323
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.021.6514This study (published in two successive articles) examines how Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507‒1554), the Eighth Karma pa of the Karma Bka' brgyud lineage, articulates and defends a key distinction between consciousness (rnam shes) and wisdom (ye shes). The first article outlined the author’s clarification of the distinction both as an accurate account of the nature and structure of human consciousness and as an indispensable principle of Buddhist soteriology. He argued that human beings have two “concurrent but nonconvergent” modes of awareness, conditioned and unconditioned. The second article – part two – focuses on the author’s vindication and further clarifications of the distinction between consciousness and wisdom in response to certain rival Tibetan views which in his view has tended to elide their differences and thus confuse the ever-present ground and goal of the Buddhist path (innate wisdom) with what has to be abandoned along the way (adventitious consciousness).
Robert Czyżykowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 4, 2016, pp. 325 - 339
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.022.6515The historical Bengal is spread throughout the north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. From the perspective of religious studies, this region is a very interesting field of research. In the Bengal area we find the activity of the main religious traditions of South-East Asia, namely Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Their mutual interactions brought into existence many original and syncretic religious phenomena. They are characterised by archaic schemes of thinking and practices which are relatively stable; however, the symbolism and meanings correlated with them are invariant. Tantric practices – visualisations, mantras and Yogic control of the body – are elements of this very persistent system.
Rafał Marcin Leszczyński, Agnieszka Teresa Tys
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 4, 2016, pp. 341 - 351
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.023.6516The article reconstructs the views of Pawel Hulka-Laskowski, a prewar evangelical specialist in religious studies. In his opinion, the legally privileged position of the Roman Catholic Church in the Second Polish Republic resulted in the discrimination of religious minorities. In his works Hulka fought against the stereotype of the Polish Catholic, emphasising the contribution of evangelicals to Polish culture. He saw the full bloom of Poland in the 16th century as being strongly connected to the development of reformation in the country, as Evangelicalism is a religion stimulating cultural progress. Therefore, if certain Protestant ideals were applied in contemporary Polish Catholicism, it, together with the Polish culture, could be raised to a higher level.
Tomáš Bubík
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 4, 2016, pp. 353 - 367
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.024.6517Despite its emphasis on objectivity, like other disciplines, religious studies permanently deals with cultural, ethnic, political, economic and especially worldview ideas. This generates a fundamental problem concerning the theoretical elements of the discipline and the extent to which religious studies is tied with and dependent on non-scientific postulates. From the Czech perspective, the formation of the democratic system during interwar Czechoslovakia can be considered as very fruitful for the discipline’s development. Democratic society’s emphasis on pluralism of values, its respect to different lifestyles, religious freedom, and positive acceptance of secular worldview have become key to the secular understanding of humanities and sciences in general. Later, during the communist period, the attitude was opposite, characterised primarily by a close link of sciences and humanities with worldview, i.e. with the philosophy of Marxism-Leninism. Striving to maintain the objectivity of scientific research was considered a “fable of bourgeois ideology” and a “harmful assumption”. Otakar Pertold, one of the most outstanding Czech figures in the field of religious studies, can be seen as a good example of a scholar cultivating both the objective and the engaged (ideological) ways of comprehending religion and religious studies as a discipline. His life confirms the very close conjunction of the state ideology with personal belief and their significant effect on the formation of an academic study of religion. Therefore the article alerts the reader to the dependence of scientific inquiry on personal and political philosophy promoted by modern forms of state.
Jarosław Tomasiewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 4, 2016, pp. 371 - 382
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.025.6518Robert Czyżykowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 4, 2016, pp. 383 - 391
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.026.6519Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 4, 2016, pp. 393 - 404
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.027.6520Jarosław Tomasiewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 4, 2016, pp. 371 - 382
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.025.6518Robert Czyżykowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 4, 2016, pp. 383 - 391
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.026.6519Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 4, 2016, pp. 393 - 404
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.027.6520David Higgins
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 4, 2016, pp. 305 - 323
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.021.6514This study (published in two successive articles) examines how Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507‒1554), the Eighth Karma pa of the Karma Bka' brgyud lineage, articulates and defends a key distinction between consciousness (rnam shes) and wisdom (ye shes). The first article outlined the author’s clarification of the distinction both as an accurate account of the nature and structure of human consciousness and as an indispensable principle of Buddhist soteriology. He argued that human beings have two “concurrent but nonconvergent” modes of awareness, conditioned and unconditioned. The second article – part two – focuses on the author’s vindication and further clarifications of the distinction between consciousness and wisdom in response to certain rival Tibetan views which in his view has tended to elide their differences and thus confuse the ever-present ground and goal of the Buddhist path (innate wisdom) with what has to be abandoned along the way (adventitious consciousness).
Robert Czyżykowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 4, 2016, pp. 325 - 339
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.022.6515The historical Bengal is spread throughout the north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. From the perspective of religious studies, this region is a very interesting field of research. In the Bengal area we find the activity of the main religious traditions of South-East Asia, namely Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Their mutual interactions brought into existence many original and syncretic religious phenomena. They are characterised by archaic schemes of thinking and practices which are relatively stable; however, the symbolism and meanings correlated with them are invariant. Tantric practices – visualisations, mantras and Yogic control of the body – are elements of this very persistent system.
Rafał Marcin Leszczyński, Agnieszka Teresa Tys
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 4, 2016, pp. 341 - 351
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.023.6516The article reconstructs the views of Pawel Hulka-Laskowski, a prewar evangelical specialist in religious studies. In his opinion, the legally privileged position of the Roman Catholic Church in the Second Polish Republic resulted in the discrimination of religious minorities. In his works Hulka fought against the stereotype of the Polish Catholic, emphasising the contribution of evangelicals to Polish culture. He saw the full bloom of Poland in the 16th century as being strongly connected to the development of reformation in the country, as Evangelicalism is a religion stimulating cultural progress. Therefore, if certain Protestant ideals were applied in contemporary Polish Catholicism, it, together with the Polish culture, could be raised to a higher level.
Tomáš Bubík
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 4, 2016, pp. 353 - 367
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.024.6517Despite its emphasis on objectivity, like other disciplines, religious studies permanently deals with cultural, ethnic, political, economic and especially worldview ideas. This generates a fundamental problem concerning the theoretical elements of the discipline and the extent to which religious studies is tied with and dependent on non-scientific postulates. From the Czech perspective, the formation of the democratic system during interwar Czechoslovakia can be considered as very fruitful for the discipline’s development. Democratic society’s emphasis on pluralism of values, its respect to different lifestyles, religious freedom, and positive acceptance of secular worldview have become key to the secular understanding of humanities and sciences in general. Later, during the communist period, the attitude was opposite, characterised primarily by a close link of sciences and humanities with worldview, i.e. with the philosophy of Marxism-Leninism. Striving to maintain the objectivity of scientific research was considered a “fable of bourgeois ideology” and a “harmful assumption”. Otakar Pertold, one of the most outstanding Czech figures in the field of religious studies, can be seen as a good example of a scholar cultivating both the objective and the engaged (ideological) ways of comprehending religion and religious studies as a discipline. His life confirms the very close conjunction of the state ideology with personal belief and their significant effect on the formation of an academic study of religion. Therefore the article alerts the reader to the dependence of scientific inquiry on personal and political philosophy promoted by modern forms of state.
Publication date: 17.11.2016
Issue editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Maciej Potz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 3, 2016, pp. 203 - 218
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.014.5872Fryderyk Kwiatkowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 3, 2016, pp. 219 - 230
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.015.5873The paper examines representations of robots in several films: Bicentennial Man (1999), Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) and Chappie (2015) in the light of the Christian concept of imago Dei. According to Victoria Nelson, in the last 50 years artificial intelligence in pop-culture works has frequently been presented as holiness. Her interpretation can be linked with the outcome of research of scholars, who revealed that the Euro-American view on technology is deeply rooted in Christian thought. The author’s main line of argument is embedded in Noreen Herzfeld’s observation, which demonstrated the striking similarities between the relational approach to research into artificial intelligence and the relational interpretation of the notion of imago Dei by Karl Barth. Herzfeld suggests that the robots in the examined films can be viewed through a relational approach to the concept of imago Dei, which entails a relational definition of intelligence.
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 3, 2016, pp. 231 - 250
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.016.5874The article examines the significance of the relationship between the Rainbow Serpent and fire in the rituals of the Warramunga (Warumungu) devoted to the Serpent Wollunqua. The myth of the passage of the Wollunqua is closely related to that of the first lighting of fire. The ritual cycle observed by B. Spencer and F. J. Gillen encodes the exchangeability of the two halves (moieties): Kingilli and Uluuru in the organisation of rituals, associating them with the transition from the domination of the symbolism of water (Wollunqua) to that of fire (Mountain Devil). The symbols of the transition are characteristic paraphernalia: the Mini-imburu mound and the Kingilli Miniurka, made from wands. The wintari pole, buried in the land by representatives of the eastern quoll clan, is associated in myth with the Wollunqua’s rearing into a vertical position, between walking on the surface of the land and digging into it. According to the myth, the Wollunqua, raised into the sky, saw a great fire and had to escape to its home. As a result, the rituals of the Wollunqua designate a fundamental cyclical change: rainy season ↔ dry season.
Kamil Nowak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 3, 2016, pp. 251 - 262
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.017.5875The paper elaborates on the meaning of the meditation techniques described by Zhiyi in the field of Chan Buddhist studies. In order to show the importance of considering these techniques in the study of Chan Buddhism, in the first part of the paper the author discusses the historical connections between the Tiantai and Chan schools, presenting the influence of Tiantai on the development of Chan Buddhism. In the second part the author presents a contextual analysis of the main meditation practice of the Caodong school, that is silent illumination technique, based on the technique described by Zhiyi and called six wondrous dharma gates. The aim of the analysis is the show the usefulness of considering Zhiyi’s works in Chan studies methodology. This usefulness results from the ability to clarify the obscure, metaphor-laden, poetical sentences typical of Chan, based on Zhiyi’s precise language.
Joanna Malita-Król
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 3, 2016, pp. 263 - 276
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.018.5876The history of Wicca in Poland equals the history of Wicca on the Polish internet – and this equation alone shows the importance of the World Wide Web for Polish believers. The number of websites, discussion lists and forums has been rising since the mid-1990s, representing the development and growing popularity of this Neopagan religion. The article, based on field research, presents the history of Wicca on the internet and the present situation in Poland, as well as the institution of cybercovens. Wicca on the internet (mainly American) is considered as a broader context, along with Helland’s distinction between religion online and online religion (including, especially, online rituals and covens). The article is based on analysis of the content published online by Polish believers and the author’s field research among Polish Traditional Wiccans.
Joanna Gruszewska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 3, 2016, pp. 277 - 286
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.019.5877The presented paper reflects on the perspective of the field of Buddhist studies/Buddhology relating to research on gender roles, especially female roles in Buddhist traditions within the scope of textual study of sources. After briefly introducing the discipline and the history of research on gender within Buddhist studies, the article concentrates on the main shortcomings and also the current perspectives and postulates of contemporary research on gender roles in Buddhism.
Daniel Kalinowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 3, 2016, pp. 287 - 303
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.020.5878The article provides a description of Polish musicians active today who have marked their work with their relationship with Buddhism (Tomek Lipiński, Tymon Tymański, Robert Brylewski, Maciej Magura Góralski). By examining interviews with them, their recollections and autobiographies I was able to conclude that their fascination with Buddhism are as much personal as belonging to the style of behaviours developed as early as the 1960s in the USA (the Beatnik generation). Owing to the peculiarities of Polish rock music and musicians’ involvement in various types of cultural actions alternative to the European tradition, since the 1990s Buddhist motifs have been increasingly evident on the rock scene. Today’s Polish Buddhist rock star is a socially engaged artist who does not shirk making confessional avowals on stage to audiences numbering many thousands or holding forth on spirituality in high-circulation publications featuring extended interviews. The Buddhism espoused by Polish rock stars is characterised by the space of freedom of beliefs and private spirituality. At the same time, though, it is a religious act of maturity, in which one searches for a way to experience everyday life to its fullest.
Maciej Potz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 3, 2016, pp. 203 - 218
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.014.5872Fryderyk Kwiatkowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 3, 2016, pp. 219 - 230
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.015.5873The paper examines representations of robots in several films: Bicentennial Man (1999), Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) and Chappie (2015) in the light of the Christian concept of imago Dei. According to Victoria Nelson, in the last 50 years artificial intelligence in pop-culture works has frequently been presented as holiness. Her interpretation can be linked with the outcome of research of scholars, who revealed that the Euro-American view on technology is deeply rooted in Christian thought. The author’s main line of argument is embedded in Noreen Herzfeld’s observation, which demonstrated the striking similarities between the relational approach to research into artificial intelligence and the relational interpretation of the notion of imago Dei by Karl Barth. Herzfeld suggests that the robots in the examined films can be viewed through a relational approach to the concept of imago Dei, which entails a relational definition of intelligence.
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 3, 2016, pp. 231 - 250
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.016.5874The article examines the significance of the relationship between the Rainbow Serpent and fire in the rituals of the Warramunga (Warumungu) devoted to the Serpent Wollunqua. The myth of the passage of the Wollunqua is closely related to that of the first lighting of fire. The ritual cycle observed by B. Spencer and F. J. Gillen encodes the exchangeability of the two halves (moieties): Kingilli and Uluuru in the organisation of rituals, associating them with the transition from the domination of the symbolism of water (Wollunqua) to that of fire (Mountain Devil). The symbols of the transition are characteristic paraphernalia: the Mini-imburu mound and the Kingilli Miniurka, made from wands. The wintari pole, buried in the land by representatives of the eastern quoll clan, is associated in myth with the Wollunqua’s rearing into a vertical position, between walking on the surface of the land and digging into it. According to the myth, the Wollunqua, raised into the sky, saw a great fire and had to escape to its home. As a result, the rituals of the Wollunqua designate a fundamental cyclical change: rainy season ↔ dry season.
Kamil Nowak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 3, 2016, pp. 251 - 262
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.017.5875The paper elaborates on the meaning of the meditation techniques described by Zhiyi in the field of Chan Buddhist studies. In order to show the importance of considering these techniques in the study of Chan Buddhism, in the first part of the paper the author discusses the historical connections between the Tiantai and Chan schools, presenting the influence of Tiantai on the development of Chan Buddhism. In the second part the author presents a contextual analysis of the main meditation practice of the Caodong school, that is silent illumination technique, based on the technique described by Zhiyi and called six wondrous dharma gates. The aim of the analysis is the show the usefulness of considering Zhiyi’s works in Chan studies methodology. This usefulness results from the ability to clarify the obscure, metaphor-laden, poetical sentences typical of Chan, based on Zhiyi’s precise language.
Joanna Malita-Król
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 3, 2016, pp. 263 - 276
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.018.5876The history of Wicca in Poland equals the history of Wicca on the Polish internet – and this equation alone shows the importance of the World Wide Web for Polish believers. The number of websites, discussion lists and forums has been rising since the mid-1990s, representing the development and growing popularity of this Neopagan religion. The article, based on field research, presents the history of Wicca on the internet and the present situation in Poland, as well as the institution of cybercovens. Wicca on the internet (mainly American) is considered as a broader context, along with Helland’s distinction between religion online and online religion (including, especially, online rituals and covens). The article is based on analysis of the content published online by Polish believers and the author’s field research among Polish Traditional Wiccans.
Joanna Gruszewska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 3, 2016, pp. 277 - 286
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.019.5877The presented paper reflects on the perspective of the field of Buddhist studies/Buddhology relating to research on gender roles, especially female roles in Buddhist traditions within the scope of textual study of sources. After briefly introducing the discipline and the history of research on gender within Buddhist studies, the article concentrates on the main shortcomings and also the current perspectives and postulates of contemporary research on gender roles in Buddhism.
Daniel Kalinowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 3, 2016, pp. 287 - 303
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.020.5878The article provides a description of Polish musicians active today who have marked their work with their relationship with Buddhism (Tomek Lipiński, Tymon Tymański, Robert Brylewski, Maciej Magura Góralski). By examining interviews with them, their recollections and autobiographies I was able to conclude that their fascination with Buddhism are as much personal as belonging to the style of behaviours developed as early as the 1960s in the USA (the Beatnik generation). Owing to the peculiarities of Polish rock music and musicians’ involvement in various types of cultural actions alternative to the European tradition, since the 1990s Buddhist motifs have been increasingly evident on the rock scene. Today’s Polish Buddhist rock star is a socially engaged artist who does not shirk making confessional avowals on stage to audiences numbering many thousands or holding forth on spirituality in high-circulation publications featuring extended interviews. The Buddhism espoused by Polish rock stars is characterised by the space of freedom of beliefs and private spirituality. At the same time, though, it is a religious act of maturity, in which one searches for a way to experience everyday life to its fullest.
Publication date: 01.01.1970
Issue editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 2, 2016, pp. 99 - 117
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.007.5228
The article presents one of the most controversial issues in the history of the medieval heresies – the issue of the eleventh-century heresies – those discovered in Aquitaine (1016–1018), Orléans (1022), Arras (1025), Monteforte (1028–1040), Châlons-sur-Marne (1043–1048) and Goslar (1051). Their origins and character have been highly controversial since the middle of the 20th century. The article presents the conceptions of scholars, adherents of the two main streams of interpretation. The first of them was started by the works of the French Dominican historian Antoine Dondaine, who claimed that these heresies were dualistic in nature and were seriously influenced by the eastern heresies of this kind, mainly Bogomilism. The second one was created by the Italian Medievalist Raffaello Morghen, who believed that eleventh-century heresies were a genuine invention of the Westerners, trying to revive early, pure Christianity, based on the testimony of the New Testament. He and his followers deny their dualistic character. Besides these two streams, the article also presents the conceptions of the scholars belonging to the deconstructionist school, which has recently become more and more popular. Its adherents completely deny the existence of the eleventh-century heresies, claiming that in fact they were invented by the Church authors, trying to discredit the innocent reformers.
All the conceptions mentioned above are compared with the testimonies of the sources describing the eleventh-century heresies. Their information concerning heretical beliefs and practices are strikingly similar to the analogous eastern (Bulgarian and Byzantine) sources about the Bogomils, which is a strong argument for the traditional interpretation of Dondaine and his followers.
Mariusz Dobkowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 2, 2016, pp. 119 - 131
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.008.5229Many specialists in Manichaeism wrote after World War II about the religious Manichaean narrative as a myth or a mythology. In this paper I examine whether the Manichaean narrative actually meets the criteria of definition of myth. This question is also worth asking because some scholars emphasise the monosemic character of the mentioned narrative. The definition of myth which I use is that of Andrzej Wierciński (1930–2003), a Polish anthropologist of religion. Among my reasons for choosing this is because it includes as many as nine features of myth and also refers to scientific narrative, which by its nature has one level of meaning. I refer this definition, above all, to Manichaean evidence in the Coptic language, but when the need arises I also invoke other sources, both polemical and apologetic.
Marcin Składanowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 2, 2016, pp. 133 - 143
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.009.5230The article shows the main issues in the dispute over marriage within contemporary Catholicism. It also presents possibilities and limitations of the attempts at reinterpretation of traditional Catholic doctrinal formulations. These attempts, which are related to the assemblies of the Synod of Bishops in 2014 and 2015, are aimed at greater openness of the Catholic Church towards the divorced and remarried. They are also intended to maintain unity within the Catholic dogmatic, ethical and canonical tradition as a justified expression of its development. Firstly, the article presents the main issues of the ongoing dispute in the Church. Secondly, it describes the language of this dispute. Thirdly, it shows Walter Kasper’s proposals and their criticism from the point of view of the conservative wing in the Church.
Marcin Rzepka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 2, 2016, pp. 145 - 159
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.010.5231The Islamic Revolution had a great impact on defining the position of religious minorities in Iran. Christians belonging to ethnic churches – Armenians and Assyrians – obtained constitutional rights. Others, especially Anglicans, conducting missionary activity, faced restrictions and persecution such as confiscation of property and arrests caused by the revolutionary authorities.
The article presents Anglicans’ attitudes toward the Islamic Revolution, taking into account the international context of events related to the imprisonment of British citizens in 1980 – employees of the Anglican Diocese of Iran. It tries to prove, in fact, profound changes, both quantitative and qualitative, within Christianity in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Dominika Górnicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 2, 2016, pp. 161 - 178
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.011.5232In recent decades, there has been increasing criticism of the dichotomy which is deeply rooted in research on religion and Judaism, namely the dichotomy between linear and cyclical notion of time with categories of history and myth respectively related to them. The aim of this article is to point out how in one religious tradition different models of time can coexist and be inextricably intertwined. The text which supports this idea is the anonymous kabbalistic treatise entitled Sefer ha-Temunah, probably composed in the mid-14th century within areas of the Byzantine Empire. The main topic of this treatise is the kabbalistic doctrine of cosmic cycles (shemittot and yovel), which is an idea of worlds periodically created and returning into a state of chaos. In this work I adapt Moshe Idel’s view, according to which the elementary structure of time in Judaism in its ritual dimension is based not on relations between precisely defined events, but on the central role played by the number seven and the process of counting to seven itself. The paper examines what role is played by the number seven and the system of associations constructed over it in the cyclical concept of time presented in Sefer ha-Temunah. I also adopt the assumptions of theory of ritual by Roy A. Rappaport to indicate that the source of the idea of cyclical time in cosmic scale is the experience of repeatability of events in ritual. This view is confirmed on the basis of the hermeneutics of Sefer ha-Temunah and allows a better understanding of this text.
Katarzyna Kornacka-Sareło
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 2, 2016, pp. 179 - 192
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.012.5233The Powerless Godhead and Wandering Souls. The Dybbuk’s Divine Paradigm in the Russian Original of Between Two Worlds by S. An-sky
In this paper I demonstrate the concept of the Jewish godhead as presented in the drama Between Two Worlds: The Dybbuk by S. An-sky (Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport), and analyses the phenomenon of a dybbuk, which was very popular in the culture of Hasidim. It should be mentioned that the research subject became the Russian original of the text of An-sky’s drama. The text was found in St Petersburg in 2001. The original differs significantly from its Yiddish and Hebrew versions: the Russian version ofThe Dybbuk is preceded by a long “Prologue”, where the play’s author suggests its most important ideas to the viewers. Thus, the reinterpretation of An-sky’s drama, seen from a philosophical perspective, enables one to justify the thesis that theauthor was conscious of some incoherency intrinsically present in the realm of the religious beliefs of Hasidic communities, where both the God of Biblical and Talmudic narratives, and the impersonal godhead of Kabbalah were, simultaneously, worshipped. What is more: the author also focuses on the weakness of the godhead, as he or she has been deprived of his or her primordial, male-female, unity. At the same time, while analysing An-sky’s text, I draw attention to the fact that in this play a dybbuk, an evil spirit existing in a living person’s body, is portrayed as a much better entity: An-sky’s dybbuk is a soul of a man who died prematurely, and who is wandering and missing his earthly lover, similarly to Shekhinah, who is missing her lover in heaven, and is wandering in exile, together with the Jewish nation.
Daria Dulok
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 2, 2016, pp. 193 - 202
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.013.5234The aim of the article is to analyse the representation of Rama in Indian commercial cinema and to identify its social impact. In mythological films, Rama is presented as a ruler and as a protector of dharma (eternal moral law and the main principle of social order). Because of their specific form, mythological films allow spectators to contemplate the image of Rama and to commune with the god. In turn, films which put Ramayana’s story in a present-day context present Rama as a modern-day hero. Rama is no longer depicted as a god, but as a man or a super hero. His image is more human and more attractive, which in consequence satisfies the audience and its needs.
Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 2, 2016, pp. 99 - 117
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.007.5228
The article presents one of the most controversial issues in the history of the medieval heresies – the issue of the eleventh-century heresies – those discovered in Aquitaine (1016–1018), Orléans (1022), Arras (1025), Monteforte (1028–1040), Châlons-sur-Marne (1043–1048) and Goslar (1051). Their origins and character have been highly controversial since the middle of the 20th century. The article presents the conceptions of scholars, adherents of the two main streams of interpretation. The first of them was started by the works of the French Dominican historian Antoine Dondaine, who claimed that these heresies were dualistic in nature and were seriously influenced by the eastern heresies of this kind, mainly Bogomilism. The second one was created by the Italian Medievalist Raffaello Morghen, who believed that eleventh-century heresies were a genuine invention of the Westerners, trying to revive early, pure Christianity, based on the testimony of the New Testament. He and his followers deny their dualistic character. Besides these two streams, the article also presents the conceptions of the scholars belonging to the deconstructionist school, which has recently become more and more popular. Its adherents completely deny the existence of the eleventh-century heresies, claiming that in fact they were invented by the Church authors, trying to discredit the innocent reformers.
All the conceptions mentioned above are compared with the testimonies of the sources describing the eleventh-century heresies. Their information concerning heretical beliefs and practices are strikingly similar to the analogous eastern (Bulgarian and Byzantine) sources about the Bogomils, which is a strong argument for the traditional interpretation of Dondaine and his followers.
Mariusz Dobkowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 2, 2016, pp. 119 - 131
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.008.5229Many specialists in Manichaeism wrote after World War II about the religious Manichaean narrative as a myth or a mythology. In this paper I examine whether the Manichaean narrative actually meets the criteria of definition of myth. This question is also worth asking because some scholars emphasise the monosemic character of the mentioned narrative. The definition of myth which I use is that of Andrzej Wierciński (1930–2003), a Polish anthropologist of religion. Among my reasons for choosing this is because it includes as many as nine features of myth and also refers to scientific narrative, which by its nature has one level of meaning. I refer this definition, above all, to Manichaean evidence in the Coptic language, but when the need arises I also invoke other sources, both polemical and apologetic.
Marcin Składanowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 2, 2016, pp. 133 - 143
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.009.5230The article shows the main issues in the dispute over marriage within contemporary Catholicism. It also presents possibilities and limitations of the attempts at reinterpretation of traditional Catholic doctrinal formulations. These attempts, which are related to the assemblies of the Synod of Bishops in 2014 and 2015, are aimed at greater openness of the Catholic Church towards the divorced and remarried. They are also intended to maintain unity within the Catholic dogmatic, ethical and canonical tradition as a justified expression of its development. Firstly, the article presents the main issues of the ongoing dispute in the Church. Secondly, it describes the language of this dispute. Thirdly, it shows Walter Kasper’s proposals and their criticism from the point of view of the conservative wing in the Church.
Marcin Rzepka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 2, 2016, pp. 145 - 159
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.010.5231The Islamic Revolution had a great impact on defining the position of religious minorities in Iran. Christians belonging to ethnic churches – Armenians and Assyrians – obtained constitutional rights. Others, especially Anglicans, conducting missionary activity, faced restrictions and persecution such as confiscation of property and arrests caused by the revolutionary authorities.
The article presents Anglicans’ attitudes toward the Islamic Revolution, taking into account the international context of events related to the imprisonment of British citizens in 1980 – employees of the Anglican Diocese of Iran. It tries to prove, in fact, profound changes, both quantitative and qualitative, within Christianity in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Dominika Górnicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 2, 2016, pp. 161 - 178
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.011.5232In recent decades, there has been increasing criticism of the dichotomy which is deeply rooted in research on religion and Judaism, namely the dichotomy between linear and cyclical notion of time with categories of history and myth respectively related to them. The aim of this article is to point out how in one religious tradition different models of time can coexist and be inextricably intertwined. The text which supports this idea is the anonymous kabbalistic treatise entitled Sefer ha-Temunah, probably composed in the mid-14th century within areas of the Byzantine Empire. The main topic of this treatise is the kabbalistic doctrine of cosmic cycles (shemittot and yovel), which is an idea of worlds periodically created and returning into a state of chaos. In this work I adapt Moshe Idel’s view, according to which the elementary structure of time in Judaism in its ritual dimension is based not on relations between precisely defined events, but on the central role played by the number seven and the process of counting to seven itself. The paper examines what role is played by the number seven and the system of associations constructed over it in the cyclical concept of time presented in Sefer ha-Temunah. I also adopt the assumptions of theory of ritual by Roy A. Rappaport to indicate that the source of the idea of cyclical time in cosmic scale is the experience of repeatability of events in ritual. This view is confirmed on the basis of the hermeneutics of Sefer ha-Temunah and allows a better understanding of this text.
Katarzyna Kornacka-Sareło
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 2, 2016, pp. 179 - 192
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.012.5233The Powerless Godhead and Wandering Souls. The Dybbuk’s Divine Paradigm in the Russian Original of Between Two Worlds by S. An-sky
In this paper I demonstrate the concept of the Jewish godhead as presented in the drama Between Two Worlds: The Dybbuk by S. An-sky (Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport), and analyses the phenomenon of a dybbuk, which was very popular in the culture of Hasidim. It should be mentioned that the research subject became the Russian original of the text of An-sky’s drama. The text was found in St Petersburg in 2001. The original differs significantly from its Yiddish and Hebrew versions: the Russian version ofThe Dybbuk is preceded by a long “Prologue”, where the play’s author suggests its most important ideas to the viewers. Thus, the reinterpretation of An-sky’s drama, seen from a philosophical perspective, enables one to justify the thesis that theauthor was conscious of some incoherency intrinsically present in the realm of the religious beliefs of Hasidic communities, where both the God of Biblical and Talmudic narratives, and the impersonal godhead of Kabbalah were, simultaneously, worshipped. What is more: the author also focuses on the weakness of the godhead, as he or she has been deprived of his or her primordial, male-female, unity. At the same time, while analysing An-sky’s text, I draw attention to the fact that in this play a dybbuk, an evil spirit existing in a living person’s body, is portrayed as a much better entity: An-sky’s dybbuk is a soul of a man who died prematurely, and who is wandering and missing his earthly lover, similarly to Shekhinah, who is missing her lover in heaven, and is wandering in exile, together with the Jewish nation.
Daria Dulok
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49 Issue 2, 2016, pp. 193 - 202
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.013.5234The aim of the article is to analyse the representation of Rama in Indian commercial cinema and to identify its social impact. In mythological films, Rama is presented as a ruler and as a protector of dharma (eternal moral law and the main principle of social order). Because of their specific form, mythological films allow spectators to contemplate the image of Rama and to commune with the god. In turn, films which put Ramayana’s story in a present-day context present Rama as a modern-day hero. Rama is no longer depicted as a god, but as a man or a super hero. His image is more human and more attractive, which in consequence satisfies the audience and its needs.
Publication date: 17.05.2016
Issue Editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Leszek Augustyn
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2016, pp. 1 - 19
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.001.4901Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadayev (1794–1856), the author of the famous Philosophical Letters, is usually regarded as a “paradoxical” conservative, a representative of historiosophy and a social thinker. In the present paper Chaadayev is discussed from the perspective of the philosophy of religion with special emphasis put on the following issues: tradition vs religion (the traditionalist’s standpoint), history vs religion, freedom vs religion, and an outline of the proposed philosophy of religion (or religious philosophy). The paper also touches upon typically Russian issues: Russian identity facing the West, and primarily religious Occidentalism, which was the position taken and elaborated by Chaadayev.
Grzegorz Libor
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2016, pp. 21 - 31
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.002.4902The purpose of the article is to present the religious situation of Welsh society based on data from the censuses conducted in 2001 and 2011. On the basis of selected reports, the problem of discrimination on the grounds of religion and belief is also raised, as well as the issue of the existence and functioning of denominational schools in Wales. The analysis reveals the important role of religion in the process of creating the Welsh national identity, apart from, and often in conjunction with, such elements as even the Welsh language.
Marek Lis
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2016, pp. 33 - 43
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.003.4903Although biblical movies could be considered an almost defunct genre, television and cinema audiences in the first years of the 21st century are discovering a new interest of producers, motivated more by the desire for profit than by religious reasons. Among films, modern audiovisual apocrypha, we can observe new tendencies: animated feature films aimed at large family audiences, the appearance of a “professional Jesus” (Bruce Marchiano), and the tendency to put the figure of historical Jesus in modern ahistorical situations and in racial contexts (black Jesus).
Magdalena Kozub-Karkut, Dagmara Głuszek-Szafraniec
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2016, pp. 45 - 64
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.004.4904
The aim of the article is to present the public discourse on the presence of a cross in the Polish parliament, which began after the parliamentary elections in 2011. At this time a group of the party Ruch Poparcia Palikota (RPP) submitted to the Marshal of the Sejm a request for its removal from the chamber. The article presents selected topics from the debate, focusing mainly on the arguments presented in the proposal and expertise of the Parliamentary Research Bureau and the arguments formulated in “Gazeta Wyborcza” newspaper, where they are presented as a continuation of the debate only initiated in the parliament, and then transferred to the media. Parliamentary debate took place only in one area – the political rivalry between the parties – while in the media appeared topics initiated by other institutions than the parties, i.e. educational institutions, public administration institutions and private individuals.
Agata S. Nalborczyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2016, pp. 65 - 84
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.005.4905
Islam in some EU countries is a traditional religion, which has existed in their territories for centuries, while in other it constitutes a new phenomenon. In countries where there is a traditional Muslim presence, Islam is officially recognised by the state and its functioning is defined by the law concerning traditional religions. The functioning patterns differ from country to country due to different models of state–church relations, confessional laws and legal traditions. Sometimes Islam as a religion and its spiritual functionaries are financed by the state (e.g. in Romania), but there are countries where the state funding of religion is prohibited by law (e.g. in Poland). This paper collects some characteristic cases of the legal situation of Muslims in various European states and presents the extent to which the Muslim religion is financed, or the lack of such financing resulting from the legal system.
Zbigniew Łagosz, Agata Świerzowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2016, pp. 85 - 97
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.006.4906The article is a comprehensive attempt at demonstrating the entry of the concept of the Indian Tantric Left-Hand Path into the Western esoteric tradition. Based on selected examples such as Wicca, Satanism and Thelema, the authors show the ways in which this idea has been reinterpreted and absorbed by the Western esoteric milieu.
Leszek Augustyn
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2016, pp. 1 - 19
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.001.4901Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadayev (1794–1856), the author of the famous Philosophical Letters, is usually regarded as a “paradoxical” conservative, a representative of historiosophy and a social thinker. In the present paper Chaadayev is discussed from the perspective of the philosophy of religion with special emphasis put on the following issues: tradition vs religion (the traditionalist’s standpoint), history vs religion, freedom vs religion, and an outline of the proposed philosophy of religion (or religious philosophy). The paper also touches upon typically Russian issues: Russian identity facing the West, and primarily religious Occidentalism, which was the position taken and elaborated by Chaadayev.
Grzegorz Libor
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2016, pp. 21 - 31
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.002.4902The purpose of the article is to present the religious situation of Welsh society based on data from the censuses conducted in 2001 and 2011. On the basis of selected reports, the problem of discrimination on the grounds of religion and belief is also raised, as well as the issue of the existence and functioning of denominational schools in Wales. The analysis reveals the important role of religion in the process of creating the Welsh national identity, apart from, and often in conjunction with, such elements as even the Welsh language.
Marek Lis
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2016, pp. 33 - 43
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.003.4903Although biblical movies could be considered an almost defunct genre, television and cinema audiences in the first years of the 21st century are discovering a new interest of producers, motivated more by the desire for profit than by religious reasons. Among films, modern audiovisual apocrypha, we can observe new tendencies: animated feature films aimed at large family audiences, the appearance of a “professional Jesus” (Bruce Marchiano), and the tendency to put the figure of historical Jesus in modern ahistorical situations and in racial contexts (black Jesus).
Magdalena Kozub-Karkut, Dagmara Głuszek-Szafraniec
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2016, pp. 45 - 64
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.004.4904
The aim of the article is to present the public discourse on the presence of a cross in the Polish parliament, which began after the parliamentary elections in 2011. At this time a group of the party Ruch Poparcia Palikota (RPP) submitted to the Marshal of the Sejm a request for its removal from the chamber. The article presents selected topics from the debate, focusing mainly on the arguments presented in the proposal and expertise of the Parliamentary Research Bureau and the arguments formulated in “Gazeta Wyborcza” newspaper, where they are presented as a continuation of the debate only initiated in the parliament, and then transferred to the media. Parliamentary debate took place only in one area – the political rivalry between the parties – while in the media appeared topics initiated by other institutions than the parties, i.e. educational institutions, public administration institutions and private individuals.
Agata S. Nalborczyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2016, pp. 65 - 84
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.005.4905
Islam in some EU countries is a traditional religion, which has existed in their territories for centuries, while in other it constitutes a new phenomenon. In countries where there is a traditional Muslim presence, Islam is officially recognised by the state and its functioning is defined by the law concerning traditional religions. The functioning patterns differ from country to country due to different models of state–church relations, confessional laws and legal traditions. Sometimes Islam as a religion and its spiritual functionaries are financed by the state (e.g. in Romania), but there are countries where the state funding of religion is prohibited by law (e.g. in Poland). This paper collects some characteristic cases of the legal situation of Muslims in various European states and presents the extent to which the Muslim religion is financed, or the lack of such financing resulting from the legal system.
Zbigniew Łagosz, Agata Świerzowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2016, pp. 85 - 97
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.16.006.4906The article is a comprehensive attempt at demonstrating the entry of the concept of the Indian Tantric Left-Hand Path into the Western esoteric tradition. Based on selected examples such as Wicca, Satanism and Thelema, the authors show the ways in which this idea has been reinterpreted and absorbed by the Western esoteric milieu.
Publication date: 14.12.2015
Issue Editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 271 - 289
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.020.4759This article concentrates on the view of the soul-body compound as presented by Didymus the Blind in his Commentary on Genesis, and also on some characteristic traits of Neoplatonic psychology which can be found in this text. A closer inspection of Commentary on Genesis reveals that what Didymus presents as the soul-body compound can be understood equally well as the compound of the superior intellectual soul conceived as a transcendent essence of the soul, and the ensouled body which is already a compound of the material body and the inferior irrational soul acting similarly to the body’s immanent form. Therefore, it seems plausible to surmise that it is this kind of solution to the soul-body problem which Henry Blumenthal called the marriage of dualism and hylomorphism, and which left its mark not only on later Platonic tradition, but presumably also on Didymus.
Tomasz Sikora
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 291 - 299
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.021.4760With beginnings probably dating back to the end of the Middle Palaeolithic period, shamanism seems to be predominantly connected with the use of hallucinogenic agents and the experiences resulting therefrom. For this reason it is worth asking how the shamanistic cultural complex could function over such a long period of time in adaptive terms if the substance of its practice and ideology included the processing of information based on hallucinations. In the light of contemporary nomenclature, the latter are understood as inadequate erroneous perceptions. Accepting such a concept of hallucinations, it is possible to explain the long currency of shamanism on the basis of evolutionary cognitive error management theory, costly signalling theory, or evolutionary psychiatric group-splitting theory. However, the dominant approach to the phenomenon of hallucination may be questioned, and it is conceivable that at least some of its contents constitute a mediated projection of subliminal percepts preceding an experience of hallucinations or co-occurring with them. Transformations of hallucinations preceding their entry to the field of consciousness may be governed by the rules of association described by Herbert Silberer’s theory of self-symbolisation and those brought to light by such researchers on subliminal perception as Otto Pötzl, Charles Fisher, or Norman Dixon. From this new perspective, a new definition of hallucination must be developed – a definition that will take the actual cognitive value of this phenomenon into consideration and be more adequate for providing a description of the full cognitive dynamics of the shamanistic complex.
Hans Van Eyghen
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 301 - 312
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.022.4761In this paper, I examine the relationship between social cognition and religious cognition. Many cognitive theories of religion claim that these two forms are somehow related, but the details are usually left unexplored and insights from theories of social cognition are not taken on board. I discuss the three main (groups of) theories of social cognition, namely the theory-theory, the simulation theory and enactivist theories. Secondly, I explore how these theories can help to enrich a number of cognitive theories of religion. The theories I discuss are Stewart Guthrie’s anthropomorphism, Justin Barrett’s hyperactive agency detection device, Jesse Bering’s existential theory of mind, Pascal Boyer’s minds with full strategic access and Tanya Luhrmann’s porous theory of mind. Finally, I look at how enrichment with insights from social cognition can help to combine different existing theories of religious cognition into a unified framework.
Konrad Szocik, Philip L. Walden
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 313 - 326
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.023.4762Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) suggests the naturalness of religion. Religious beliefs are viewed as natural because they are intuitive and cognitively effortless. They are also inevitable and more obvious than atheism. In consequence, atheism is an unnatural phenomenon which requires special cultural and social support. However, this naturalness of religion hypothesis seems overestimated. Here we show that atheism is more natural than religion and religious beliefs in the cognitive sense because it meets the criteria appropriate for natural selection in the sense of ultimate explanation. Religion and religious beliefs require cultural inputs. Without cultural support, they seem unnatural.
Matylda Ciołkosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 327 - 340
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.024.4763The aim of the paper is to discuss the possible role of sensorimotor synchronisation in Modern Postural Yoga (MPY) āsana ritual. The hypothesis is that such synchronisation contributes to the subjective efficacy of MPY practice and facilitates the transmission of doctrinal concepts related to it.
Grounding the discussion in the enactive paradigm, the author describes the phenomenon of sensorimotor synchronisation and the mechanisms responsible for its emergence. The ritual character of MPY āsana practice is then accounted for, based on McCauley and Lawson’s theory of ritual competence. A discussion of forms of synchronisation occurring during āsana ritual follows, with a special focus on Iyengar Yoga. The author then suggests the possible influence of such synchronisation on the perceived effectiveness of the practice and on the acceptance of certain religio-philosophical notions.
David Higgins
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 341 - 362
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.026.4868This study examines how Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507‒1554), the Eighth Karma pa of the Karma Bka’ brgyud lineage, articulates and defends a key distinction between consciousness (rnam shes) and wisdom (ye shes). The first paper focuses on the author’s clarification of the distinction both as an accurate account of the nature and structure of human consciousness and as an indispensable principle of Buddhist soteriology. Arguing that human beings have two “concurrent but nonconvergent” modes of awareness, conditioned and unconditioned, Mi bskyod rdo rje urges the practitioner to discern amidst the adventitious flux of dichotomic thoughts an innate nondual mode of awareness that is regarded as the ground and goal of the Buddhist path. That the recognition of their difference is the key to realizing their underlying unity is central to the Karma pa’s response to the perennial Buddhist problem of reconciling two divergent Buddhist models of reality: [1] a differentiation model based on robust distinctions between conventional and ultimate truths or realities (saṃvṛtisatya versus paramārthasatya) and their associated modes of cognition and [2] an identification (yuganaddha) model of the two realities (satyadvaya : bden gnyis) which emphasizes their underlying unity. This article concludes with an annotated translation and critical edition of a short text by the Karma pa on the subject entitled “Two minds in one person? A Reply to the Queries of Bla ma Khams pa” (bla ma khams pa’i dris lan mi gcig sems gnyis).
Marek Hałaburda
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 363 - 368
Rec. Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska, Triuno. Instytucje we wspólnocie Lasek 1911–1961, Kraków 2015, Wydawnictwo Libron – Filip Lohner, ss. 277
Joanna Gruszewska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 369 - 370
Recenzja: Małgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba, Fierce Feminine Divinities of Eurasia and Latin America: Baba Yaga, Kālī, Pombagira and Santa Muerte, wydawnictwo Palgrave Macmillan 2015, s. 188
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 271 - 289
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.020.4759This article concentrates on the view of the soul-body compound as presented by Didymus the Blind in his Commentary on Genesis, and also on some characteristic traits of Neoplatonic psychology which can be found in this text. A closer inspection of Commentary on Genesis reveals that what Didymus presents as the soul-body compound can be understood equally well as the compound of the superior intellectual soul conceived as a transcendent essence of the soul, and the ensouled body which is already a compound of the material body and the inferior irrational soul acting similarly to the body’s immanent form. Therefore, it seems plausible to surmise that it is this kind of solution to the soul-body problem which Henry Blumenthal called the marriage of dualism and hylomorphism, and which left its mark not only on later Platonic tradition, but presumably also on Didymus.
Tomasz Sikora
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 291 - 299
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.021.4760With beginnings probably dating back to the end of the Middle Palaeolithic period, shamanism seems to be predominantly connected with the use of hallucinogenic agents and the experiences resulting therefrom. For this reason it is worth asking how the shamanistic cultural complex could function over such a long period of time in adaptive terms if the substance of its practice and ideology included the processing of information based on hallucinations. In the light of contemporary nomenclature, the latter are understood as inadequate erroneous perceptions. Accepting such a concept of hallucinations, it is possible to explain the long currency of shamanism on the basis of evolutionary cognitive error management theory, costly signalling theory, or evolutionary psychiatric group-splitting theory. However, the dominant approach to the phenomenon of hallucination may be questioned, and it is conceivable that at least some of its contents constitute a mediated projection of subliminal percepts preceding an experience of hallucinations or co-occurring with them. Transformations of hallucinations preceding their entry to the field of consciousness may be governed by the rules of association described by Herbert Silberer’s theory of self-symbolisation and those brought to light by such researchers on subliminal perception as Otto Pötzl, Charles Fisher, or Norman Dixon. From this new perspective, a new definition of hallucination must be developed – a definition that will take the actual cognitive value of this phenomenon into consideration and be more adequate for providing a description of the full cognitive dynamics of the shamanistic complex.
Hans Van Eyghen
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 301 - 312
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.022.4761In this paper, I examine the relationship between social cognition and religious cognition. Many cognitive theories of religion claim that these two forms are somehow related, but the details are usually left unexplored and insights from theories of social cognition are not taken on board. I discuss the three main (groups of) theories of social cognition, namely the theory-theory, the simulation theory and enactivist theories. Secondly, I explore how these theories can help to enrich a number of cognitive theories of religion. The theories I discuss are Stewart Guthrie’s anthropomorphism, Justin Barrett’s hyperactive agency detection device, Jesse Bering’s existential theory of mind, Pascal Boyer’s minds with full strategic access and Tanya Luhrmann’s porous theory of mind. Finally, I look at how enrichment with insights from social cognition can help to combine different existing theories of religious cognition into a unified framework.
Konrad Szocik, Philip L. Walden
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 313 - 326
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.023.4762Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) suggests the naturalness of religion. Religious beliefs are viewed as natural because they are intuitive and cognitively effortless. They are also inevitable and more obvious than atheism. In consequence, atheism is an unnatural phenomenon which requires special cultural and social support. However, this naturalness of religion hypothesis seems overestimated. Here we show that atheism is more natural than religion and religious beliefs in the cognitive sense because it meets the criteria appropriate for natural selection in the sense of ultimate explanation. Religion and religious beliefs require cultural inputs. Without cultural support, they seem unnatural.
Matylda Ciołkosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 327 - 340
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.024.4763The aim of the paper is to discuss the possible role of sensorimotor synchronisation in Modern Postural Yoga (MPY) āsana ritual. The hypothesis is that such synchronisation contributes to the subjective efficacy of MPY practice and facilitates the transmission of doctrinal concepts related to it.
Grounding the discussion in the enactive paradigm, the author describes the phenomenon of sensorimotor synchronisation and the mechanisms responsible for its emergence. The ritual character of MPY āsana practice is then accounted for, based on McCauley and Lawson’s theory of ritual competence. A discussion of forms of synchronisation occurring during āsana ritual follows, with a special focus on Iyengar Yoga. The author then suggests the possible influence of such synchronisation on the perceived effectiveness of the practice and on the acceptance of certain religio-philosophical notions.
David Higgins
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 341 - 362
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.026.4868This study examines how Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507‒1554), the Eighth Karma pa of the Karma Bka’ brgyud lineage, articulates and defends a key distinction between consciousness (rnam shes) and wisdom (ye shes). The first paper focuses on the author’s clarification of the distinction both as an accurate account of the nature and structure of human consciousness and as an indispensable principle of Buddhist soteriology. Arguing that human beings have two “concurrent but nonconvergent” modes of awareness, conditioned and unconditioned, Mi bskyod rdo rje urges the practitioner to discern amidst the adventitious flux of dichotomic thoughts an innate nondual mode of awareness that is regarded as the ground and goal of the Buddhist path. That the recognition of their difference is the key to realizing their underlying unity is central to the Karma pa’s response to the perennial Buddhist problem of reconciling two divergent Buddhist models of reality: [1] a differentiation model based on robust distinctions between conventional and ultimate truths or realities (saṃvṛtisatya versus paramārthasatya) and their associated modes of cognition and [2] an identification (yuganaddha) model of the two realities (satyadvaya : bden gnyis) which emphasizes their underlying unity. This article concludes with an annotated translation and critical edition of a short text by the Karma pa on the subject entitled “Two minds in one person? A Reply to the Queries of Bla ma Khams pa” (bla ma khams pa’i dris lan mi gcig sems gnyis).
Marek Hałaburda
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 363 - 368
Rec. Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska, Triuno. Instytucje we wspólnocie Lasek 1911–1961, Kraków 2015, Wydawnictwo Libron – Filip Lohner, ss. 277
Joanna Gruszewska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 369 - 370
Recenzja: Małgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba, Fierce Feminine Divinities of Eurasia and Latin America: Baba Yaga, Kālī, Pombagira and Santa Muerte, wydawnictwo Palgrave Macmillan 2015, s. 188
Publication date: 20.10.2015
Issue editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Dariusz Łukasiewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 189 - 200
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.014.3785The article presents the main philosophical explanations for the existence of evil and suffering in the world which have been suggested in the current debate taking place in philosophy of religion. All these explanations assume as a basic fact the existence of a God who is a Creator of the world in which evil and suffering take place. However, the explanations of evil and suffering are not simply presented, but critically discussed. The most important and popular explanation for the fact of evil and suffering in our world, discussed in the paper, is a rationalist theory that God has different kinds of reasons for allowing evils to exist in the world. The other explanation which is mentioned in the paper, the a-rational or probabilistic one, claims that many evil events and sufferings in the world happen which have no reason or explanation. Such evil events are not any part of a divine mind or plan. However – and this is the main conclusion of the paper – the existence of chance evil events does not have to be incompatible with the existence of a God and a Creator of the world.
Tomasz Niezgoda
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 201 - 216
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.015.3786This article considers the phenomenon of eschatological violence present in the messianic works of the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. Eschatological violence is a conception according to which the eschaton can be created by means of war and violence. For Mickiewicz, alongside self-sacrifice and suffering, violence is one of the two forms of creation of the millenaristic kingdom of everlasting freedom and peace. Polish pilgrims are those who, after sanctification and purification, are destined to unleash the final war – as a result, all the demonic enemies of freedom revealed by Christ will die and there will be no more war.
Ilona Błocian
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 217 - 227
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.016.3787Jung’s concept of myth combines philosophical and psychological aspects. He was inspired by Schelling’s ideas, including the relationship between myth and the process of development of reality. Myth not only refers to the human mind, but reflects the dynamism of reality processes. This is the meaning of the relationship between myth and the unconscious in Jung’s grasp, because he understood the latter as a basis and matrix of reality. The psychological and psychoanalytical aspects of his conception of myth relate to patterns of human experience, which are also contained in myths. Thus, through the concept of myth is expressed the relationship of man and the world, the experience and the reality in which it happens.
Bogumił Chmiel
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 229 - 244
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.017.3788The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the idea of the cosmic order and sacrificial rites associated with ritual violence, which can be found in many different mythologies and religions. The whole analysis is based on René Girard’s theory of primordial force as a fundamental factor that cultivates culture.
According to the consideration, the concentration of rapidly exploding violence (caused by natural disasters or social conflicts) on a victim not only re-establishes an order between agents (through concentration of aggression on one point), but also leads to an idea of universal harmony, which can be disturbed by “evil” deeds and restored through the repetition of sacrifice.
Marcin Grodzki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 245 - 257
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.018.3789The article briefly presents the scholarly theory on the historical and dogmatic origins of Islam by the modern French researcher Bruno Bonnet-Eymard, with an attempt to classify its place in the modern field of Islamic studies. The result of over thirty years of Bonnet-Eymard’s work is his translation of the first five Qur’anic suras into French, with their comprehensive critical edition, prepared on the basis of his own philological, historical and theological exegesis. Bonnet-Eymard, who belonged to the Islamicist sceptical school, attempts to read the Arabic Qur’anic text also from the perspective of other Semitic languages – mainly Hebrew and Syriac. Regardless of the flaws and merits of Bonnet-Eymard’s exegesis, it is surely a valuable source of scholarly insights, conclusions and linguistic remarks that cannot be overstated for modern critical studies of the Qur’anic text.
Joanna Wacławek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 259 - 270
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.019.3790The aim of this article is to explore the perceptions and understanding of the term kejawen, not only in academic publications (from Geertz to Mulder), but first and foremost in terms of changes to Indonesian law and society. Kejawen, traditional Javanese beliefs and traditions, are officially not recognised in Indonesia as a “true” religion (agama). This paper discusses the definitions as well as the interpretations of religion in contemporary Indonesia in the context of religious discrimination, especially “non-official” religions and beliefs in the world’s largest Muslim – but formally still not Islamic – state.
Dariusz Łukasiewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 189 - 200
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.014.3785The article presents the main philosophical explanations for the existence of evil and suffering in the world which have been suggested in the current debate taking place in philosophy of religion. All these explanations assume as a basic fact the existence of a God who is a Creator of the world in which evil and suffering take place. However, the explanations of evil and suffering are not simply presented, but critically discussed. The most important and popular explanation for the fact of evil and suffering in our world, discussed in the paper, is a rationalist theory that God has different kinds of reasons for allowing evils to exist in the world. The other explanation which is mentioned in the paper, the a-rational or probabilistic one, claims that many evil events and sufferings in the world happen which have no reason or explanation. Such evil events are not any part of a divine mind or plan. However – and this is the main conclusion of the paper – the existence of chance evil events does not have to be incompatible with the existence of a God and a Creator of the world.
Tomasz Niezgoda
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 201 - 216
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.015.3786This article considers the phenomenon of eschatological violence present in the messianic works of the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. Eschatological violence is a conception according to which the eschaton can be created by means of war and violence. For Mickiewicz, alongside self-sacrifice and suffering, violence is one of the two forms of creation of the millenaristic kingdom of everlasting freedom and peace. Polish pilgrims are those who, after sanctification and purification, are destined to unleash the final war – as a result, all the demonic enemies of freedom revealed by Christ will die and there will be no more war.
Ilona Błocian
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 217 - 227
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.016.3787Jung’s concept of myth combines philosophical and psychological aspects. He was inspired by Schelling’s ideas, including the relationship between myth and the process of development of reality. Myth not only refers to the human mind, but reflects the dynamism of reality processes. This is the meaning of the relationship between myth and the unconscious in Jung’s grasp, because he understood the latter as a basis and matrix of reality. The psychological and psychoanalytical aspects of his conception of myth relate to patterns of human experience, which are also contained in myths. Thus, through the concept of myth is expressed the relationship of man and the world, the experience and the reality in which it happens.
Bogumił Chmiel
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 229 - 244
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.017.3788The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the idea of the cosmic order and sacrificial rites associated with ritual violence, which can be found in many different mythologies and religions. The whole analysis is based on René Girard’s theory of primordial force as a fundamental factor that cultivates culture.
According to the consideration, the concentration of rapidly exploding violence (caused by natural disasters or social conflicts) on a victim not only re-establishes an order between agents (through concentration of aggression on one point), but also leads to an idea of universal harmony, which can be disturbed by “evil” deeds and restored through the repetition of sacrifice.
Marcin Grodzki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 245 - 257
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.018.3789The article briefly presents the scholarly theory on the historical and dogmatic origins of Islam by the modern French researcher Bruno Bonnet-Eymard, with an attempt to classify its place in the modern field of Islamic studies. The result of over thirty years of Bonnet-Eymard’s work is his translation of the first five Qur’anic suras into French, with their comprehensive critical edition, prepared on the basis of his own philological, historical and theological exegesis. Bonnet-Eymard, who belonged to the Islamicist sceptical school, attempts to read the Arabic Qur’anic text also from the perspective of other Semitic languages – mainly Hebrew and Syriac. Regardless of the flaws and merits of Bonnet-Eymard’s exegesis, it is surely a valuable source of scholarly insights, conclusions and linguistic remarks that cannot be overstated for modern critical studies of the Qur’anic text.
Joanna Wacławek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 259 - 270
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.019.3790The aim of this article is to explore the perceptions and understanding of the term kejawen, not only in academic publications (from Geertz to Mulder), but first and foremost in terms of changes to Indonesian law and society. Kejawen, traditional Javanese beliefs and traditions, are officially not recognised in Indonesia as a “true” religion (agama). This paper discusses the definitions as well as the interpretations of religion in contemporary Indonesia in the context of religious discrimination, especially “non-official” religions and beliefs in the world’s largest Muslim – but formally still not Islamic – state.
Publication date: 12.05.2015
Issue editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Raffaele Torrela
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 2, 2015, pp. 101 - 115
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.008.3554Jarosław Zapart
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 2, 2015, pp. 117 - 130
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.009.3555Marcin Składanowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 2, 2015, pp. 131 - 141
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.010.3556The inclusive language issue is an important element of Christian reflection on Church involvement for gender equality. The article focuses on American Protestant communities and their attitude towards inclusive (non-exclusive and non-discriminatory) language, although tendencies to make the Church’s language more inclusive are also present in some Catholic circles. The article begins with an attempt to define the Christian understanding of inclusive language. It then presents the positions of North American Protestant communities towards this kind of religious language. It also shows the difficulties related to this issue, using the example of the inclusive baptismal formula.
Wojciech Kosior
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 2, 2015, pp. 143 - 154
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.011.3557Although the apotropaic qualities of tefillin have been generally recognised, there is one additional aspect that needs some further attention. The main purpose of this paper is therefore to present the connection between tefillin and Deuteronomy 28:10 that is drawn in the early Rabbinic literature. The said verse reads: “and all the nations of the land will see that the name of Yahveh is called upon you and will be afraid of you” and in itself bears the meaning of distinction, provision and protection. Yet, despite this verse’s interpretative potential, it is referred to just eleven times in the scope of both Talmuds and Midrash R. Seven of these references are clustered in the Babylonian Talmud: one (Berakhot 56a) interprets the passage as a metaphor of fame, whereas the remaining six (Berakhot 6a, 57a; Megillah 16b; Sotah 17a; Menahot 35b; Hullin 89a) explicitly state that the words “the name of Yahveh is called upon you” refer to head-tefillin. Meanwhile, the other four mentions (Exodus R. 15:6, 17; Deuteronomy R. 1:25; JT Berakhot 5:1 37b–38a) portray Israel as an earthly representative of Yahveh respected and feared by the heathens, despite the military supremacy of the latter. This indirect connection between tefillin and the idea of godly provision is supported by BT Menahot 36b and Mekhilta de-rabbi Ishmael to Exodus 12:23, 14:29, which explain the power of tefillin as stemming from the sacred names contained therein. This explanation fits the broader context of the apotropaic power of divine appellations.
Leszek Augustyn
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 2, 2015, pp. 155 - 170
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.012.3558The article considers the religious nature of the creative life of Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852) from a philosophical point of view. The writer’s creative life is understood as a struggle (bodily and spiritual) between God and the world, life and death. This struggle builds a kind of stage on which the writer’s life unfolds. In addition, the article takes up the perception and understanding of reality as “banality” (Rus. pošlost’), the demonism and atheism that are connected with it, the religious function of art, and the ways of seeking salvation (at various levels of experience and under different guises: the salvation of the world, salvation outside the world, and the salvation of oneself). Finally, the problem of religious alienation is considered, seen through the prism of the life and creative experience of Gogol.
Marcin Lisak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 2, 2015, pp. 171 - 188
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.013.3559The Council of Trent defined what the Eucharistic conversion is, and classified some liturgical questions concerning the order of Holy Mass and its sacrificial nature. Regarding this, groups of traditionalist Catholics claim that such definitions must be treated as a perfect, crowning, and unalterable way of orthodoxy. Nonetheless, an in-depth analysis shows that the Tridentine doctrine and discipline are far more “open” than “hermetically sealed”. The Eucharistic Tridentine terminology, however, is predominantly symbolical, that is characteristic of communication in religion, but not only abstract or strictly metaphysical. Furthermore, the disciplinary research solutions are rather historical and apologetic than universal or unchangeable. In consequence, the article proves that a hermeneutical approach is essential in analysis of Christian tradition and doctrine.
Raffaele Torrela
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 2, 2015, pp. 101 - 115
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.008.3554Jarosław Zapart
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 2, 2015, pp. 117 - 130
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.009.3555Marcin Składanowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 2, 2015, pp. 131 - 141
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.010.3556The inclusive language issue is an important element of Christian reflection on Church involvement for gender equality. The article focuses on American Protestant communities and their attitude towards inclusive (non-exclusive and non-discriminatory) language, although tendencies to make the Church’s language more inclusive are also present in some Catholic circles. The article begins with an attempt to define the Christian understanding of inclusive language. It then presents the positions of North American Protestant communities towards this kind of religious language. It also shows the difficulties related to this issue, using the example of the inclusive baptismal formula.
Wojciech Kosior
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 2, 2015, pp. 143 - 154
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.011.3557Although the apotropaic qualities of tefillin have been generally recognised, there is one additional aspect that needs some further attention. The main purpose of this paper is therefore to present the connection between tefillin and Deuteronomy 28:10 that is drawn in the early Rabbinic literature. The said verse reads: “and all the nations of the land will see that the name of Yahveh is called upon you and will be afraid of you” and in itself bears the meaning of distinction, provision and protection. Yet, despite this verse’s interpretative potential, it is referred to just eleven times in the scope of both Talmuds and Midrash R. Seven of these references are clustered in the Babylonian Talmud: one (Berakhot 56a) interprets the passage as a metaphor of fame, whereas the remaining six (Berakhot 6a, 57a; Megillah 16b; Sotah 17a; Menahot 35b; Hullin 89a) explicitly state that the words “the name of Yahveh is called upon you” refer to head-tefillin. Meanwhile, the other four mentions (Exodus R. 15:6, 17; Deuteronomy R. 1:25; JT Berakhot 5:1 37b–38a) portray Israel as an earthly representative of Yahveh respected and feared by the heathens, despite the military supremacy of the latter. This indirect connection between tefillin and the idea of godly provision is supported by BT Menahot 36b and Mekhilta de-rabbi Ishmael to Exodus 12:23, 14:29, which explain the power of tefillin as stemming from the sacred names contained therein. This explanation fits the broader context of the apotropaic power of divine appellations.
Leszek Augustyn
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 2, 2015, pp. 155 - 170
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.012.3558The article considers the religious nature of the creative life of Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852) from a philosophical point of view. The writer’s creative life is understood as a struggle (bodily and spiritual) between God and the world, life and death. This struggle builds a kind of stage on which the writer’s life unfolds. In addition, the article takes up the perception and understanding of reality as “banality” (Rus. pošlost’), the demonism and atheism that are connected with it, the religious function of art, and the ways of seeking salvation (at various levels of experience and under different guises: the salvation of the world, salvation outside the world, and the salvation of oneself). Finally, the problem of religious alienation is considered, seen through the prism of the life and creative experience of Gogol.
Marcin Lisak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 2, 2015, pp. 171 - 188
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.013.3559The Council of Trent defined what the Eucharistic conversion is, and classified some liturgical questions concerning the order of Holy Mass and its sacrificial nature. Regarding this, groups of traditionalist Catholics claim that such definitions must be treated as a perfect, crowning, and unalterable way of orthodoxy. Nonetheless, an in-depth analysis shows that the Tridentine doctrine and discipline are far more “open” than “hermetically sealed”. The Eucharistic Tridentine terminology, however, is predominantly symbolical, that is characteristic of communication in religion, but not only abstract or strictly metaphysical. Furthermore, the disciplinary research solutions are rather historical and apologetic than universal or unchangeable. In consequence, the article proves that a hermeneutical approach is essential in analysis of Christian tradition and doctrine.
Publication date: 12.02.2015
Issue editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Paweł Filek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2015, pp. 1 - 19
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.001.3130Oskar Goldberg’s hermeneutical approach eliminates from the text of the Pentateuch concepts crucial for its traditional – “rabbinic” – understanding. Based on deep etymological analysis, apathetical theory of language leads the German scholar to the conclusion that the idea of “sin” – among many others – was alien to the ancient Hebrews, who knew only the concept of “objective mistake”. Taking a diametrically different approach to the language of the Five Books of Moses, Aramaic translators develop the idea of “sin” as transgression and personal responsibility. This disagreement stems not only from two different visions of language of the Scripture, but is also determined by contrasting visions of god, man and their mutual relations.
Katarzyna Kornacka-Sareło
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2015, pp. 21 - 33
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.002.3131Olga Nowicka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2015, pp. 35 - 47
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.003.3132The institutionalisation of the Vedic śrauta fire ritual in ancient India was strictly connected with the priest class’s establishment of a systematic theory of ritual. However, the pivot of ritualists’ reflections turned out to be not the gods receiving the fire oblations but the human being. As Taittirīya Saṃhitā states: man is commensurate with the sacrifice (TS.5.2.5). The first activity just after fixing the proper area for conducting the Vedic ritual was taking the sacrificer’s measurements. Then, using the units of measure modelled on the dimensions of man, the ritual enclosure was meted out and built. The origin of the mentioned procedure of taking human dimensions as units of measure can be traced to the Vedic passage of Taittirīya Saṃhitā: with man’s measure he metes out(TS.5.2.5). The constructed ritual enclosure therefore belonged to the sacrificer in a strict sense – it was his altar.
Marek Szymański
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2015, pp. 49 - 69
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.004.3133The movement of siddhas selectively drawing upon Buddhist tradition was a very important component of early Vajrayāna. One of the vital features of siddhas’ religion was violation of social standards in the course of rituals. Ritual transgression was a means to enter the amorphous and anormative state of being that was understood as the source of all things and the potential to transform a novice. The learnings of siddhas expressed cultural trends, so they captured the attention of Buddhist monks. The adaptation of siddhas’ learning to monastic circles consisted in serious reduction of transgressive activities, interpretation of ritual transgression in accordance with traditional Buddhist soteriology, and rationalising of transgressive behaviour. The synthesis of siddhas’ learnings and monastic tradition achieved a dominant position among Indian Buddhists.
Michał Spurgiasz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2015, pp. 71 - 81
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.005.3134The goal of this paper is to introduce Japanese demonology. The paper focuses on the spirits known as yōkai, providing answers from the incredibly scarce publications in Polish covering issues related to Japanese demonology. The article examines the origin of the term yōkai and thedifferences in meaning between yōkai, mononoke and ayakashi. It goes on to explain the difference between yōkai and kami, as well as introducing a categorisation of spirits to explain how new yōkai are generated
Maria Rogińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2015, pp. 83 - 99
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.006.3135The article summarises 50 in-depth interviews with Polish physicists and biologists, focusing on the relationship between science and religion. The conflict paradigm is rejected by the majority of respondents. The author makes an attempt to reconstruct the argumentation strategies they use to justify their worldview.
Paweł Filek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2015, pp. 1 - 19
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.001.3130Oskar Goldberg’s hermeneutical approach eliminates from the text of the Pentateuch concepts crucial for its traditional – “rabbinic” – understanding. Based on deep etymological analysis, apathetical theory of language leads the German scholar to the conclusion that the idea of “sin” – among many others – was alien to the ancient Hebrews, who knew only the concept of “objective mistake”. Taking a diametrically different approach to the language of the Five Books of Moses, Aramaic translators develop the idea of “sin” as transgression and personal responsibility. This disagreement stems not only from two different visions of language of the Scripture, but is also determined by contrasting visions of god, man and their mutual relations.
Katarzyna Kornacka-Sareło
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2015, pp. 21 - 33
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.002.3131Olga Nowicka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2015, pp. 35 - 47
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.003.3132The institutionalisation of the Vedic śrauta fire ritual in ancient India was strictly connected with the priest class’s establishment of a systematic theory of ritual. However, the pivot of ritualists’ reflections turned out to be not the gods receiving the fire oblations but the human being. As Taittirīya Saṃhitā states: man is commensurate with the sacrifice (TS.5.2.5). The first activity just after fixing the proper area for conducting the Vedic ritual was taking the sacrificer’s measurements. Then, using the units of measure modelled on the dimensions of man, the ritual enclosure was meted out and built. The origin of the mentioned procedure of taking human dimensions as units of measure can be traced to the Vedic passage of Taittirīya Saṃhitā: with man’s measure he metes out(TS.5.2.5). The constructed ritual enclosure therefore belonged to the sacrificer in a strict sense – it was his altar.
Marek Szymański
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2015, pp. 49 - 69
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.004.3133The movement of siddhas selectively drawing upon Buddhist tradition was a very important component of early Vajrayāna. One of the vital features of siddhas’ religion was violation of social standards in the course of rituals. Ritual transgression was a means to enter the amorphous and anormative state of being that was understood as the source of all things and the potential to transform a novice. The learnings of siddhas expressed cultural trends, so they captured the attention of Buddhist monks. The adaptation of siddhas’ learning to monastic circles consisted in serious reduction of transgressive activities, interpretation of ritual transgression in accordance with traditional Buddhist soteriology, and rationalising of transgressive behaviour. The synthesis of siddhas’ learnings and monastic tradition achieved a dominant position among Indian Buddhists.
Michał Spurgiasz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2015, pp. 71 - 81
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.005.3134The goal of this paper is to introduce Japanese demonology. The paper focuses on the spirits known as yōkai, providing answers from the incredibly scarce publications in Polish covering issues related to Japanese demonology. The article examines the origin of the term yōkai and thedifferences in meaning between yōkai, mononoke and ayakashi. It goes on to explain the difference between yōkai and kami, as well as introducing a categorisation of spirits to explain how new yōkai are generated
Maria Rogińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2015, pp. 83 - 99
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.006.3135The article summarises 50 in-depth interviews with Polish physicists and biologists, focusing on the relationship between science and religion. The conflict paradigm is rejected by the majority of respondents. The author makes an attempt to reconstruct the argumentation strategies they use to justify their worldview.
Publication date: 11.12.2014
Issue Editors: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska, Małgorzata Sacha
Marzenna Czerniak-Drożdżowicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 253 - 262
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.018.3119The text concerns the Tantric traditions of India, especially the South Indian Vaiṣṇava Pāñcarātra. It addresses some issues connected with the relationship between canonical literature and actual religious practice as well as the reasons for doctrinal and ritualistic changes. Among these reasons were the activity of the great religious teachers and philosophers, but also the changing historical, social and economic situation of the community of followers and of the region in which the tradition was developing. Other reasons for these changes were the controversies as well as the rivalry of the groups representing different sects and priests’ families active in the temples
Matylda Ciołkosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 263 - 273
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.019.3120The objective of the paper is to draw attention to the possible relevance of the categories of cognitive linguistics for the structural analysis of ritual. Taking the Iyengar Yoga āsana practice as an example, the author proposes to treat it as a quasi-linguistic phenomenon and analyses the symbolic structure of its elements (single āsanāni). The tools applied in this pursuit are the basic categories of Langacker’s cognitive grammar. By pointing to the key tenets of cognitive linguistics, including the claim concerning the symbolic (and, thus, semantic) nature of grammar, the author attempts to rephrase Staal’s thesis concerning the meaninglessness of ritual to accommodate it to the cognitive (or, more precisely, enactive) paradigm. She suggests a possible relationship between the schematic symbolic nature of ritual and the specific symbolic nature of doctrine. After some of the most salient linguistic phenomena within Iyengar Yoga āsana practice are described, their coherence with certain doctrinal interpretations is briefly discussed.
Aleksander Gomola
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 275 - 284
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.020.3121The article addresses the problem of the Christian discourse, and more specifically conceptual blends with “shepherd”, “sheep” and related concepts in an input space in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch, St Augustine, Cyprian of Carthage and others. The analysis of selected blends shows their importance in Christian discourse and their role in the creation of the doctrine and practice of the early Church. The article shows that conceptual blends are a flexible tool for conceptualising different notions in accordance with the aims of their authors. The overall objective of this article is to show the role of language in the formation of the Christian identity and doctrine, and the usefulness of the blending theory in the description of these phenomena.
Sonia Kamińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 285 - 294
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.021.3122There are two types of philosophy of mind in Brentano: (A) Aristotelian, and (B) genuinely Brentanian. The former (A) is to be found in the Aristotelica series; and by (B) I understand the content of Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint. The manuscripts for its unwritten parts and Brentano’s lectures on God and immortality of the soul surprisingly fall into A . These lines of thought are so different that it can be astonishing that they were authored by one person. In my paper I will try to show the roots of this dichotomy as well as to check whether there is a conflict between these theories, and, if so, whether they can be reconciled. These are not only two different philosophical theories, but at least one of them is a manifestation of a world view, and a key to it can be found in Brentano’s biography.
Katarzyna Filutowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 295 - 305
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.022.3123The paper concerns the problem of the mythological origins of narrative and narrative identity. Referring to works of such narrative researchers as D. Carr, B. Williams and K. Atkins and to F.W.J. Schelling’s conception of a mythological consciousness, I prove that 1. ina narration – personal as well as collective (in a tale which constitutes given culture) – the type of necessity is similar to that which occurs in nature as well as in mythology (its higher potential) and which is responsible for a perfect story coherence that is unavailable in normal life and characteristic rather of art than of a usual experience; 2. although our personal narratives are shaped on the basis of a collective myth, they assume a first-person, reflective perspective, and this is the reason why an individual may in spite of such to some extent “untrue” origins keep personal freedom and autonomy.
Maciej Potz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 307 - 320
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.023.3124Through analysis of doctrine, cult, social and political organisation and the relations with the outside world, the article traces a dual development in the history of Shakerism, an American communitarian religious group: its rise and decline as a religion that has led to its almost complete extinction, and the accompanying process of its absorption into the mainstream of American culture. This became possible when, in the 20th century, Shakers – celibate communitarian pacifists – ceased to be perceived as a serious challenge to the American values of individualism, private property and the traditional model of family. Instead, their image was romanticised and material aspects of their culture emphasised, thus making Shakerism a sort of antiquarian curiosity, despite the survival of a small community of believers.
Konrad Szocik
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 321 - 329
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.024.3125Sam Harris, one of the new atheists, believes that science is an authority in moral issues. Science can help us understand what our moral duties are, and what is right and wrong in a moral sense. However, the cultural and historical diversity of human behaviors, especially history of wars and conflicts, suggests that it is difficult to show one, common and universal kind of morality. Here we show that Harris’s moral theory is a particular project which could not be “scientifically” justifiable.
Adam Anczyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 331 - 335
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.025.3126Book Review:
Steven J. Sutcliffe, Ingvild Sælid Gilhus, New Age Spirituality: Rethinking Religion, Acumen Publishing Limited, Durham 2014, 298 stron
Magdalena Debita
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 337 - 339
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.026.3127Book Review:
Relacja nauka – wiara. Nowe ujęcie dawnego problemu, J. Golbiak, M. Hereć (red.),Wydawnictwo KUL, Lublin 2014, s.254
Stanisław Obirek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 341 - 345
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.027.3128Book Review
John Crook, Kryzys światowy a humanizm buddyjski. Ostateczna rozgrywka: upadek albo odnowa cywilizacji, tłum. P. Listwan, Warszawa 2014
Magdalena Lubańska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 347 - 356
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.007.3136Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 347 - 366
Bibliografia prac opublikowanych w „Studia Religiologica” w latach 1977–2014
Marzenna Czerniak-Drożdżowicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 253 - 262
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.018.3119The text concerns the Tantric traditions of India, especially the South Indian Vaiṣṇava Pāñcarātra. It addresses some issues connected with the relationship between canonical literature and actual religious practice as well as the reasons for doctrinal and ritualistic changes. Among these reasons were the activity of the great religious teachers and philosophers, but also the changing historical, social and economic situation of the community of followers and of the region in which the tradition was developing. Other reasons for these changes were the controversies as well as the rivalry of the groups representing different sects and priests’ families active in the temples
Matylda Ciołkosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 263 - 273
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.019.3120The objective of the paper is to draw attention to the possible relevance of the categories of cognitive linguistics for the structural analysis of ritual. Taking the Iyengar Yoga āsana practice as an example, the author proposes to treat it as a quasi-linguistic phenomenon and analyses the symbolic structure of its elements (single āsanāni). The tools applied in this pursuit are the basic categories of Langacker’s cognitive grammar. By pointing to the key tenets of cognitive linguistics, including the claim concerning the symbolic (and, thus, semantic) nature of grammar, the author attempts to rephrase Staal’s thesis concerning the meaninglessness of ritual to accommodate it to the cognitive (or, more precisely, enactive) paradigm. She suggests a possible relationship between the schematic symbolic nature of ritual and the specific symbolic nature of doctrine. After some of the most salient linguistic phenomena within Iyengar Yoga āsana practice are described, their coherence with certain doctrinal interpretations is briefly discussed.
Aleksander Gomola
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 275 - 284
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.020.3121The article addresses the problem of the Christian discourse, and more specifically conceptual blends with “shepherd”, “sheep” and related concepts in an input space in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch, St Augustine, Cyprian of Carthage and others. The analysis of selected blends shows their importance in Christian discourse and their role in the creation of the doctrine and practice of the early Church. The article shows that conceptual blends are a flexible tool for conceptualising different notions in accordance with the aims of their authors. The overall objective of this article is to show the role of language in the formation of the Christian identity and doctrine, and the usefulness of the blending theory in the description of these phenomena.
Sonia Kamińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 285 - 294
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.021.3122There are two types of philosophy of mind in Brentano: (A) Aristotelian, and (B) genuinely Brentanian. The former (A) is to be found in the Aristotelica series; and by (B) I understand the content of Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint. The manuscripts for its unwritten parts and Brentano’s lectures on God and immortality of the soul surprisingly fall into A . These lines of thought are so different that it can be astonishing that they were authored by one person. In my paper I will try to show the roots of this dichotomy as well as to check whether there is a conflict between these theories, and, if so, whether they can be reconciled. These are not only two different philosophical theories, but at least one of them is a manifestation of a world view, and a key to it can be found in Brentano’s biography.
Katarzyna Filutowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 295 - 305
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.022.3123The paper concerns the problem of the mythological origins of narrative and narrative identity. Referring to works of such narrative researchers as D. Carr, B. Williams and K. Atkins and to F.W.J. Schelling’s conception of a mythological consciousness, I prove that 1. ina narration – personal as well as collective (in a tale which constitutes given culture) – the type of necessity is similar to that which occurs in nature as well as in mythology (its higher potential) and which is responsible for a perfect story coherence that is unavailable in normal life and characteristic rather of art than of a usual experience; 2. although our personal narratives are shaped on the basis of a collective myth, they assume a first-person, reflective perspective, and this is the reason why an individual may in spite of such to some extent “untrue” origins keep personal freedom and autonomy.
Maciej Potz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 307 - 320
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.023.3124Through analysis of doctrine, cult, social and political organisation and the relations with the outside world, the article traces a dual development in the history of Shakerism, an American communitarian religious group: its rise and decline as a religion that has led to its almost complete extinction, and the accompanying process of its absorption into the mainstream of American culture. This became possible when, in the 20th century, Shakers – celibate communitarian pacifists – ceased to be perceived as a serious challenge to the American values of individualism, private property and the traditional model of family. Instead, their image was romanticised and material aspects of their culture emphasised, thus making Shakerism a sort of antiquarian curiosity, despite the survival of a small community of believers.
Konrad Szocik
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 321 - 329
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.024.3125Sam Harris, one of the new atheists, believes that science is an authority in moral issues. Science can help us understand what our moral duties are, and what is right and wrong in a moral sense. However, the cultural and historical diversity of human behaviors, especially history of wars and conflicts, suggests that it is difficult to show one, common and universal kind of morality. Here we show that Harris’s moral theory is a particular project which could not be “scientifically” justifiable.
Adam Anczyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 331 - 335
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.025.3126Book Review:
Steven J. Sutcliffe, Ingvild Sælid Gilhus, New Age Spirituality: Rethinking Religion, Acumen Publishing Limited, Durham 2014, 298 stron
Magdalena Debita
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 337 - 339
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.026.3127Book Review:
Relacja nauka – wiara. Nowe ujęcie dawnego problemu, J. Golbiak, M. Hereć (red.),Wydawnictwo KUL, Lublin 2014, s.254
Stanisław Obirek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 341 - 345
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.027.3128Book Review
John Crook, Kryzys światowy a humanizm buddyjski. Ostateczna rozgrywka: upadek albo odnowa cywilizacji, tłum. P. Listwan, Warszawa 2014
Magdalena Lubańska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 347 - 356
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.007.3136Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 347 - 366
Bibliografia prac opublikowanych w „Studia Religiologica” w latach 1977–2014
Publication date: 01.12.2014
Issue Editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Márton Bársony
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 3, 2014, pp. 153 - 161
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.011.2905There was a time when priests started cracking jokes, telling anecdotes, speaking in an obscene manner to entertain their audience and raise a laugh. Their indecent buffooneries transformed Easter celebrations into carnivals – some of which took on quite extreme shapes. Later, the Church persecuted those involved in this practice, but traces of it still remain in Eastern Orthodox traditions. We cannot find a single link to risus paschalis in the Scriptures, nor in the writings of the Apostles, nor even a clue in the religious practices of the first Christian generations. We laugh at the transgression of the dying and rising Christ in the same way as we laugh at the clown thrown on the ground and jumping up again. Still, the cultural history of the clown rituals is an even more contested issue. What does Christ have to do with this tradition? What epistemological qualities bind them together?
Małgorzata Grzywacz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 3, 2014, pp. 163 - 177
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.012.2906In the context of the notion of mnemotopos as the memory matrix related to a place and its dynamics, the article analyses the autobiographic materials recorded by the Evangelical religious clergy. Among others, it examines the autobiography of Reverend C. Gottlieb Rehsener, of Pomeranian origin, working in the area of so-called Lithuania Minor near Klaipeda. The mnemotopic reconstruction permits revival of the forgotten cultural areas that had been present in the history of Europe till around 1945.
Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 3, 2014, pp. 179 - 196
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.013.2907The Order of the Franciscan Sisters, Servants of the Cross was founded by Mother Elizabeth Roza Czacka in 1918. The official date of its origin is recognised as 1 December 1918, although we know that the congregation existed on an informal basis previous to this. The order’s main objective was to bring aid to blind people. It was to work closely with the Society for the Care of the Blind, which had been formed, also thanks to Roza Czacka, in 1911. The Order of the Franciscan Sisters, Servants of the Cross was the first female monastic order to be founded in the Polish lands after Poland regained independence. After a long period in which the partitioning power imposed drastic restrictions on monastic life and secret congregations had formed, there were few models for an order of nuns to follow. The source documents preserved in three archives in Laski – the Archive of the Franciscan Sisters, Servants of the Cross, the Archive of the Society for the Care of the Blind, and the Archive of Father Wladyslaw Korniłowicz – show the interesting way in which the founder developed the new order.
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 3, 2014, pp. 197 - 210
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.014.2908This article examines the symbolism of fire in the Gadjari higher initiation ceremonies and Jardiwanpa ceremonies among the Warlpiri. Fire is used in these ceremonies in three forms: high flame torches called witi/wanbanbirri, wandabi projectiles made out of bark, and djindjimirimbasticks. The analysis of the myths connected to fire reveals that the Warlpiri associate it with the motif of cosmic catastrophe in which their ancestors, manipulating high, sacred paraphernalia, cut through the Milky Way. The result of the separation of the stars is a huge bush fire. According to the myth, the sight of a flame falling from the sky forced the ancestors to conduct initiation ceremonies. The patron of these ceremonies is associated with the Coalsack Dark Nebula in the Milky Way, and the wanigi paraphernalia used with the Southern Cross. Fire is of ambivalent significance for the Warlpiri – on the one hand it brings death and destruction, and on the other it provides cleansing and brings to life that which is dead.
Antonina Kozyrska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 3, 2014, pp. 211 - 223
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.015.2909During “Euromaidan” – sometimes also called Eurorevolution – in Ukraine in late 2013 and early 2014, religious rhetoric was widely used. An attachment to the ideas and language of religion appeared in the expressions and slogans of protesters and their opponents, including representatives of the “old” regime, in statements, interviews, speeches of representatives of religious organizations, public figures, and intellectuals, in articles by columnists, and in the analytical evaluation of theologians and experts on religion. Religious interpretation of the events of the revolution and demands of demonstrators was often focused on religious justification for the feasibility of Ukrainians’ peaceful struggle to have a say in their country’s development, the rule of law, democracy and their rights and dignity.
Zbigniew Łagosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 3, 2014, pp. 225 - 236
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.016.2910The Martinist ideas movement, perceived as a mystical-esoteric branch of Christianity, emerged in the 18th century. The three original founders (Martines de Pasqually, Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, Jean-Baptiste Willermoz) brought different elements to it, moulding the final shape of the doctrine. Martinism owes its modern revival and popularity to another esotericist. Gerard Encausse (1865-1916) brought fresh spirit to the inheritance of his antecedents and gave it its final architecture. The present text describes the birth of this movement, with special attention to the role of Encausse in its formation.
Anna Niedźwiedź
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 3, 2014, pp. 237 - 252
This article is based on ethnographic field research conducted in the central part of Ghana, in the Brong Ahafo region. It gives a description of two yam festivals performed in 2010 in the small town of Jema and the nearby village of Kokuma. The author depicts the meanings associated with yams in traditional indigenous cultures and vernacular religions in Ghana as well as within the broader region of the Gulf of Guinea. Contemporary yam festivals are interpreted in relation to the old symbolic and sacred meanings of the yam as “the king of crops” as well as in relation to the contemporary circumstances of African societies which are becoming modernised and less dependent on traditional agriculture. A special focus is placed on the position of chiefs, royal attributes (stools) and involvement of people from different religious backgrounds (Christians, Muslims, “traditionalists”). The concept of “sensational forms” proposed by Birgit Meyer is discussed in relation to yam festivals, which are treated here as performances generating a specific religious “style” shared by contemporary Ghanaians irrespective of their religious affiliations.
Márton Bársony
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 3, 2014, pp. 153 - 161
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.011.2905There was a time when priests started cracking jokes, telling anecdotes, speaking in an obscene manner to entertain their audience and raise a laugh. Their indecent buffooneries transformed Easter celebrations into carnivals – some of which took on quite extreme shapes. Later, the Church persecuted those involved in this practice, but traces of it still remain in Eastern Orthodox traditions. We cannot find a single link to risus paschalis in the Scriptures, nor in the writings of the Apostles, nor even a clue in the religious practices of the first Christian generations. We laugh at the transgression of the dying and rising Christ in the same way as we laugh at the clown thrown on the ground and jumping up again. Still, the cultural history of the clown rituals is an even more contested issue. What does Christ have to do with this tradition? What epistemological qualities bind them together?
Małgorzata Grzywacz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 3, 2014, pp. 163 - 177
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.012.2906In the context of the notion of mnemotopos as the memory matrix related to a place and its dynamics, the article analyses the autobiographic materials recorded by the Evangelical religious clergy. Among others, it examines the autobiography of Reverend C. Gottlieb Rehsener, of Pomeranian origin, working in the area of so-called Lithuania Minor near Klaipeda. The mnemotopic reconstruction permits revival of the forgotten cultural areas that had been present in the history of Europe till around 1945.
Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 3, 2014, pp. 179 - 196
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.013.2907The Order of the Franciscan Sisters, Servants of the Cross was founded by Mother Elizabeth Roza Czacka in 1918. The official date of its origin is recognised as 1 December 1918, although we know that the congregation existed on an informal basis previous to this. The order’s main objective was to bring aid to blind people. It was to work closely with the Society for the Care of the Blind, which had been formed, also thanks to Roza Czacka, in 1911. The Order of the Franciscan Sisters, Servants of the Cross was the first female monastic order to be founded in the Polish lands after Poland regained independence. After a long period in which the partitioning power imposed drastic restrictions on monastic life and secret congregations had formed, there were few models for an order of nuns to follow. The source documents preserved in three archives in Laski – the Archive of the Franciscan Sisters, Servants of the Cross, the Archive of the Society for the Care of the Blind, and the Archive of Father Wladyslaw Korniłowicz – show the interesting way in which the founder developed the new order.
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 3, 2014, pp. 197 - 210
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.014.2908This article examines the symbolism of fire in the Gadjari higher initiation ceremonies and Jardiwanpa ceremonies among the Warlpiri. Fire is used in these ceremonies in three forms: high flame torches called witi/wanbanbirri, wandabi projectiles made out of bark, and djindjimirimbasticks. The analysis of the myths connected to fire reveals that the Warlpiri associate it with the motif of cosmic catastrophe in which their ancestors, manipulating high, sacred paraphernalia, cut through the Milky Way. The result of the separation of the stars is a huge bush fire. According to the myth, the sight of a flame falling from the sky forced the ancestors to conduct initiation ceremonies. The patron of these ceremonies is associated with the Coalsack Dark Nebula in the Milky Way, and the wanigi paraphernalia used with the Southern Cross. Fire is of ambivalent significance for the Warlpiri – on the one hand it brings death and destruction, and on the other it provides cleansing and brings to life that which is dead.
Antonina Kozyrska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 3, 2014, pp. 211 - 223
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.015.2909During “Euromaidan” – sometimes also called Eurorevolution – in Ukraine in late 2013 and early 2014, religious rhetoric was widely used. An attachment to the ideas and language of religion appeared in the expressions and slogans of protesters and their opponents, including representatives of the “old” regime, in statements, interviews, speeches of representatives of religious organizations, public figures, and intellectuals, in articles by columnists, and in the analytical evaluation of theologians and experts on religion. Religious interpretation of the events of the revolution and demands of demonstrators was often focused on religious justification for the feasibility of Ukrainians’ peaceful struggle to have a say in their country’s development, the rule of law, democracy and their rights and dignity.
Zbigniew Łagosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 3, 2014, pp. 225 - 236
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.016.2910The Martinist ideas movement, perceived as a mystical-esoteric branch of Christianity, emerged in the 18th century. The three original founders (Martines de Pasqually, Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, Jean-Baptiste Willermoz) brought different elements to it, moulding the final shape of the doctrine. Martinism owes its modern revival and popularity to another esotericist. Gerard Encausse (1865-1916) brought fresh spirit to the inheritance of his antecedents and gave it its final architecture. The present text describes the birth of this movement, with special attention to the role of Encausse in its formation.
Anna Niedźwiedź
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 3, 2014, pp. 237 - 252
This article is based on ethnographic field research conducted in the central part of Ghana, in the Brong Ahafo region. It gives a description of two yam festivals performed in 2010 in the small town of Jema and the nearby village of Kokuma. The author depicts the meanings associated with yams in traditional indigenous cultures and vernacular religions in Ghana as well as within the broader region of the Gulf of Guinea. Contemporary yam festivals are interpreted in relation to the old symbolic and sacred meanings of the yam as “the king of crops” as well as in relation to the contemporary circumstances of African societies which are becoming modernised and less dependent on traditional agriculture. A special focus is placed on the position of chiefs, royal attributes (stools) and involvement of people from different religious backgrounds (Christians, Muslims, “traditionalists”). The concept of “sensational forms” proposed by Birgit Meyer is discussed in relation to yam festivals, which are treated here as performances generating a specific religious “style” shared by contemporary Ghanaians irrespective of their religious affiliations.
Publication date: 30.09.2014
Issue Editor : Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Aleksander Gomola
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 2, 2014, pp. 77 - 88
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.006.2379This article discusses selected examples of English and Polish translations of the myth of the creation of man in Genesis 2, 18–23. Its purpose is to present various translations of the Hebrew text resulting from the polysemic character of the Hebrew terms adam and ezer kenegedo and how they may lead to different versions of the Christian anthropology and male-female relationships. The article presents the feminist interpretations of Genesis 2, 18–23 as well as its two different contemporary Polish Catholic translations resulting in two different versions of the Christian anthropology. In the conclusions, the author points to the role of translation as a factor inevitably modifying (warping) the original text.
Rafał Marcin Leszczyński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 2, 2014, pp. 89 - 104
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.007.2380Stanisław Radoń
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 2, 2014, pp. 105 - 123
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.008.2381The aim of this study is to present the phenomena of possession and related exorcism rituals in the light of anthropological (analysis of the possessed people) and neurological research (systematic investigation of people with disorders that are similar to possession states such as epilepsy, dissociative identity disorder, meditation and mystical experiences). The research studies show that we have two different forms of possession: positive (controlled, enriching the life of the individual, i.e. shaman, exorcist) and negative (uncontrolled, diminishing the life of the individual). Women, male homosexuals, epilepsy patients, and people with dissociative identity disorder, heightened religiosity, experienced in meditation and with mystical experiences, are more likely to become possessed. The neurological mechanism which appears to be primarily responsible for spirit-possession phenomena is reduced asymmetry of brain activity (hemispheric synchronisation increases risk for possession). The implications for diagnosis and treatment of “possessed” people are presented (exorcists and deliverance ministers often succeed where psychiatry fails, but faith healers should be discouraged from exercising violent attempts at exorcism, because misconceptions such as possession by demons are still believed to be a cause of mental illness).
Katarzyna Bajka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 2, 2014, pp. 125 - 140
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.009.2382This article focuses on both cyclical and linear qualities of time in superhero-themed comic books, and confronts them with various theories of myth, stressing some major similarities and some interesting differences. It also gives a brief insight into the history and evolution of superhero narratives and explains their cultural impact and influence on consecutive generations of readers. The article aims to establish and validate a new position of superhero narratives as a modern myth material and a complete cosmology.
Jakub Osiecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 2, 2014, pp. 141 - 151
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.010.2383On the eve of sovietisation, Armenian Catholics were a visible and active minority in the South Caucasus. However, the socio-political situation changed rapidly after the implementation of Soviet authority in Tbilisi and Yerevan. The Armenian Catholic Church as institution and its clergy became allegedly one of the main enemies of the Communists’ policy of secularisation and collectivisation. On this political background Catholics in Armenia were very often attacked by Soviet antireligious propaganda (newspapers: “Anastvats”, “Bezbozhnik Gruzii”) and were strongly supervised and persecuted by the Soviet secret police. In the 1930s, the Catholic Church of the Armenian rite was declared illegal and damaged.
Aleksander Gomola
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 2, 2014, pp. 77 - 88
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.006.2379This article discusses selected examples of English and Polish translations of the myth of the creation of man in Genesis 2, 18–23. Its purpose is to present various translations of the Hebrew text resulting from the polysemic character of the Hebrew terms adam and ezer kenegedo and how they may lead to different versions of the Christian anthropology and male-female relationships. The article presents the feminist interpretations of Genesis 2, 18–23 as well as its two different contemporary Polish Catholic translations resulting in two different versions of the Christian anthropology. In the conclusions, the author points to the role of translation as a factor inevitably modifying (warping) the original text.
Rafał Marcin Leszczyński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 2, 2014, pp. 89 - 104
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.007.2380Stanisław Radoń
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 2, 2014, pp. 105 - 123
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.008.2381The aim of this study is to present the phenomena of possession and related exorcism rituals in the light of anthropological (analysis of the possessed people) and neurological research (systematic investigation of people with disorders that are similar to possession states such as epilepsy, dissociative identity disorder, meditation and mystical experiences). The research studies show that we have two different forms of possession: positive (controlled, enriching the life of the individual, i.e. shaman, exorcist) and negative (uncontrolled, diminishing the life of the individual). Women, male homosexuals, epilepsy patients, and people with dissociative identity disorder, heightened religiosity, experienced in meditation and with mystical experiences, are more likely to become possessed. The neurological mechanism which appears to be primarily responsible for spirit-possession phenomena is reduced asymmetry of brain activity (hemispheric synchronisation increases risk for possession). The implications for diagnosis and treatment of “possessed” people are presented (exorcists and deliverance ministers often succeed where psychiatry fails, but faith healers should be discouraged from exercising violent attempts at exorcism, because misconceptions such as possession by demons are still believed to be a cause of mental illness).
Katarzyna Bajka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 2, 2014, pp. 125 - 140
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.009.2382This article focuses on both cyclical and linear qualities of time in superhero-themed comic books, and confronts them with various theories of myth, stressing some major similarities and some interesting differences. It also gives a brief insight into the history and evolution of superhero narratives and explains their cultural impact and influence on consecutive generations of readers. The article aims to establish and validate a new position of superhero narratives as a modern myth material and a complete cosmology.
Jakub Osiecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 2, 2014, pp. 141 - 151
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.010.2383On the eve of sovietisation, Armenian Catholics were a visible and active minority in the South Caucasus. However, the socio-political situation changed rapidly after the implementation of Soviet authority in Tbilisi and Yerevan. The Armenian Catholic Church as institution and its clergy became allegedly one of the main enemies of the Communists’ policy of secularisation and collectivisation. On this political background Catholics in Armenia were very often attacked by Soviet antireligious propaganda (newspapers: “Anastvats”, “Bezbozhnik Gruzii”) and were strongly supervised and persecuted by the Soviet secret police. In the 1930s, the Catholic Church of the Armenian rite was declared illegal and damaged.
Publication date: 23.07.2014
Issue Editor : Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Rafał Marcin Leszczyński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 1, 2014, pp. 1 - 15
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.001.2374The notion of spirituality in the Evangelical Reformed Churches is seldom used because it is associated with the teaching and religious observances of the Roman Catholic Church. Instead, the word “piety” tends to be used. With reference to the Reformers’ spirituality, such terms as Calvinistic spirituality should not be used, owing to the fact that many theologians besides John Calvin had an influence on its formation. The most important features of the Reformers’ spirituality are: 1) underlining the qualitative difference between God and God’s creatures; 2) the teaching that God may only be recognised by His Word included in the Bible, not in natural or mystical ways; 3) the conviction that humans are not able to establish any doctrine unerringly; 4) an aspiration for the utmost simplicity of the Liturgy; 5) the thesis that a tangible proof of the Christian faith authenticity is work, performed in a solid way and service, rendered for the sake of the political and economic propitiousness of the society.
Tomasz Niezgoda
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 1, 2014, pp. 17 - 31
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.002.2375This article applies the conceptual blending theory designed by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner to an analysis of Adam Mickiewicz’s early messianic ideas, presented in Dziady (Forefathers’ Eve) and Księgi narodu i pielgrzymstwa polskiego”(The Book and the Pilgrimage of the the Polish Nation). The article concentrates on the influences from christian concepts of passion and the messianism presented in the bible which is understood as one of the input spaces. The author claims that messianism created by Mickiewicz is not poetic fiction, but rather a religious statement about the true nature of Polish nation. Furthermore the fate of Poland has an eschatological meaning for the history of the world because Poland is seen as an agent completing the eschatological work of Jesus Christ. Therefore creating a millenaristic kingdom within history is Poland’s final destination.
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 1, 2014, pp. 33 - 47
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.003.2376During fire ceremonies in various Australian communities, long torches constructed from poles wrapped in flammable leaves are used. For the Warlpiri, their significance is associated with the symbolism of fire, contrasted with water represented by the form of the rainbow serpent. The founding myths of the ceremony are based on using fire to limit the power of water by way of bloodshed. Various forms of the use of fire and the connected symbolism for the Warlpiri point to reference to dancers, and the torches they hold to the Milky Way (Yiwarra). The main symbol of this in the ritual is a sacred construction in the form of a cross, known as wanigi.
Jakub Zielina
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 1, 2014, pp. 49 - 65
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.004.2377Georges Dumézil distinguished several structures present independently in the myths of many Indo-European peoples. One of them is the “one-handed and one-eyed” structure. Our goal is to determine whether this was also present in Slavic folklore
Kamila Pawełczyk-Dura
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 1, 2014, pp. 67 - 75
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.005.2378Until the end of 1980s, the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate was the only legitimate press organ of the Russian Orthodox Church. The publication of this journal was resumed after a break of nearly eight years on 12 September 1943, the day of the enthronement of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Sergius (Stragorodsky). Stalin’s consent to publish the religious journal showed the Church’s limited capacity to function in the political space of the Soviet state, assured to it at the end of World War II. Appreciating this gesture, the Orthodox clergy published several articles devoted to Stalin in the Journal. No other communist ever received such praise and interest from the Church either earlier or later.
Rafał Marcin Leszczyński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 1, 2014, pp. 1 - 15
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.001.2374The notion of spirituality in the Evangelical Reformed Churches is seldom used because it is associated with the teaching and religious observances of the Roman Catholic Church. Instead, the word “piety” tends to be used. With reference to the Reformers’ spirituality, such terms as Calvinistic spirituality should not be used, owing to the fact that many theologians besides John Calvin had an influence on its formation. The most important features of the Reformers’ spirituality are: 1) underlining the qualitative difference between God and God’s creatures; 2) the teaching that God may only be recognised by His Word included in the Bible, not in natural or mystical ways; 3) the conviction that humans are not able to establish any doctrine unerringly; 4) an aspiration for the utmost simplicity of the Liturgy; 5) the thesis that a tangible proof of the Christian faith authenticity is work, performed in a solid way and service, rendered for the sake of the political and economic propitiousness of the society.
Tomasz Niezgoda
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 1, 2014, pp. 17 - 31
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.002.2375This article applies the conceptual blending theory designed by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner to an analysis of Adam Mickiewicz’s early messianic ideas, presented in Dziady (Forefathers’ Eve) and Księgi narodu i pielgrzymstwa polskiego”(The Book and the Pilgrimage of the the Polish Nation). The article concentrates on the influences from christian concepts of passion and the messianism presented in the bible which is understood as one of the input spaces. The author claims that messianism created by Mickiewicz is not poetic fiction, but rather a religious statement about the true nature of Polish nation. Furthermore the fate of Poland has an eschatological meaning for the history of the world because Poland is seen as an agent completing the eschatological work of Jesus Christ. Therefore creating a millenaristic kingdom within history is Poland’s final destination.
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 1, 2014, pp. 33 - 47
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.003.2376During fire ceremonies in various Australian communities, long torches constructed from poles wrapped in flammable leaves are used. For the Warlpiri, their significance is associated with the symbolism of fire, contrasted with water represented by the form of the rainbow serpent. The founding myths of the ceremony are based on using fire to limit the power of water by way of bloodshed. Various forms of the use of fire and the connected symbolism for the Warlpiri point to reference to dancers, and the torches they hold to the Milky Way (Yiwarra). The main symbol of this in the ritual is a sacred construction in the form of a cross, known as wanigi.
Jakub Zielina
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 1, 2014, pp. 49 - 65
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.004.2377Georges Dumézil distinguished several structures present independently in the myths of many Indo-European peoples. One of them is the “one-handed and one-eyed” structure. Our goal is to determine whether this was also present in Slavic folklore
Kamila Pawełczyk-Dura
Studia Religiologica, Volume 47, Issue 1, 2014, pp. 67 - 75
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.14.005.2378Until the end of 1980s, the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate was the only legitimate press organ of the Russian Orthodox Church. The publication of this journal was resumed after a break of nearly eight years on 12 September 1943, the day of the enthronement of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Sergius (Stragorodsky). Stalin’s consent to publish the religious journal showed the Church’s limited capacity to function in the political space of the Soviet state, assured to it at the end of World War II. Appreciating this gesture, the Orthodox clergy published several articles devoted to Stalin in the Journal. No other communist ever received such praise and interest from the Church either earlier or later.
Publication date: 11.04.2014
Issue Editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Josiah R. Baker, Steven A. Tuch, William V. D’Antonio
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 235 - 250
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.018.2091
In this study we examine whether, and if so how, the confluence of religion and party has impacted voting in the U.S Congress over the past half century. We address two primary questions: first, has
religion contributed to the growing political partisanship among members of Congress over this period, and second, if so, are these cleavages reflected in congressional voting patterns? We answer both questions in the affirmative.
Roman Poplavsky
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 251 - 262
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.019.2092The article deals with the contemporary study of religiosity. The author addresses two core questions of the sociology of religion: what methods are appropriate for the study of religiosity, and what factors affect religiosity? Regarding the first question, contemporary multidimensional studies are described. The author emphasises the limitations of the quantitative method of scales and analyses the criteria of religiosity used in those studies. Considering the factors that affect religiosity and based on Robert Bellah’s theory of religious evolution and Peter Berger’s biographical approach, the author suggests that the historical, cultural, sociopolitical and biographical context should be taken into account in order to better understand the phenomenon of religiosity. Considering the limitations of quantitative methods, it is suggested that they be combined with qualitative methods. Special attention is paid to the studies carried out in the former Soviet Union.
Ireneusz Ziemiński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 263 - 273
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.020.2093This article presents philosophy of religion as a specific branch of religious studies. The main philosophical problems of religion are the possibility of defi ning religion, the truthfulness of religion, the nature of God (as the main object of religious worship), the existence of God, and the rationality (or irrationality) of religious behaviour. In every problem you can be a sceptic, because we have no rational method guaranteeing the successful definition of religion (every definition is subjective and either too narrow or too large). Unfortunately, we are not able to defi ne God (or Holiness) as the object of religion; every defi nition is only partial or incoherent. Therefore, we do not have any proof of God’s existence or nonexistence, and because of this neither can we say that religious behaviour is rational or irrational (and especially which religious behaviour). This means that philosophy of religion, which tries to resolve the essential problem of religion, is the best way to religious scepticism.
Radosław Lis
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 275 - 291
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.021.2094This article aims to provide a hermeneutic reconstruction of the figure of the biblical Babel’s mysterious protagonist and a negative cultural protagonist, Nimrod. An interpretative discourse is undertaken on the basis of the rich source data: biblical, apocryphal and pseudoepigraphical texts, and rabbinic literature, extracted by M.J. Bin Gorion (Berdyczewski) and L. Ginzberg, to mention the two most important compilers of Jewish legends and Hebrew myths. The concept of dread of the empire, found in rabbinic literature and elucidated by José Faur, appears to be crucial for understanding the complex figure of Nimrod. The reconstruction is performed with the aid of Andrzej Wierciński’s Antipersona category.
Zbigniew Łagosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 293 - 306
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.022.2095This paper attempts to show the unknown life story of Robert Walter (1908–1981). Walter was one of the best-known Polish esotericist, and yet the most forgotten, as well as the leader of the Memphis-Misraim Order, who also used the pseudonym “Waltari”. His story remains unknown to this day, including the time of being imprisoned by the Offi ce of Public Security (UB). Based on the documentation kept in the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), agential reports indicate he raised interest on two levels: the first was his connections in esoteric and academic circles, and the second – the more important – his acquaintance with Boris Smyslovsky during the years of the occupation.
Jakub Zielina
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 307 - 315
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.023.2096This article tackles the topic of comparative Indo-European studies, for which the starting point is the work of Georges Dumézil. In his book Mithra-Varuna – Essai sur deux Representations indoeuropéennes de la Souveraineté (1940, FAC), the French historian compared the eponymous Vedic dvandva to numerous structures present in the myths of other peoples – for example, the Scandinavian pair Tyr-Odin and Baldur-Hodur, the Roman pair Mucius Scaevola and Horatius Cocles, the Celtic pair Nuada and Lugh, and many others. A signifi cant detail is the attribution of the gods – the first is often lacking a hand (or both hands), and the other is one-eyed (or blind).
Zbigniew Pasek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 317 - 326
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.024.2097This article discusses the Bible and its place in Protestants’ daily lives. The study was made within the anthropology of things or anthropology of objects, a type of refl ection focusing on analysis of the behaviours associated with objects. It is assumed that such a study reveals the non-discursive (occurring outside of verbal declarations) beliefs related to a given thing, in this case the Bible. For Protestants it is the Word of God, a material record of the voice of God Himself, directed to the faithful and setting rules to live by. Although, as Max Weber said, Protestantism in the history of European culture means the “disenchantment” of religious attitudes, the examples cited in the article demonstrate the lively presence the remnants of archaic religious attitudes retain in the popular mentality. A declarative respect for the book sometimes conceals belief in its sanctity
Mariusz Dobkowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 327 - 334
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.025.2098Recenzja książki: Piotr Czarnecki, Kataryzm włoski, Historia i doktryna, Kraków 2013, 418 stron
Leszek Augustyn
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 335 - 337
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.026.2099Recenzja książki: Janusz Dobieszewski, Absolut i historia. W kręgu myśli rosyjskiej, TAiWPN Universitas, Kraków 2012, 342 strony
Jarosław Tomasiewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 339 - 349
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.027.2100Recenzja książki: Modern Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Central and Eastern Europe, Kaarina Aitamurto, Scott Simpson (eds.), Durham 2013, 358 stron
Mariusz Dobkowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 327 - 334
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.025.2098Recenzja książki: Piotr Czarnecki, Kataryzm włoski, Historia i doktryna, Kraków 2013, 418 stron
Leszek Augustyn
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 335 - 337
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.026.2099Recenzja książki: Janusz Dobieszewski, Absolut i historia. W kręgu myśli rosyjskiej, TAiWPN Universitas, Kraków 2012, 342 strony
Jarosław Tomasiewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 339 - 349
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.027.2100Recenzja książki: Modern Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Central and Eastern Europe, Kaarina Aitamurto, Scott Simpson (eds.), Durham 2013, 358 stron
Josiah R. Baker, Steven A. Tuch, William V. D’Antonio
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 235 - 250
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.018.2091
In this study we examine whether, and if so how, the confluence of religion and party has impacted voting in the U.S Congress over the past half century. We address two primary questions: first, has
religion contributed to the growing political partisanship among members of Congress over this period, and second, if so, are these cleavages reflected in congressional voting patterns? We answer both questions in the affirmative.
Roman Poplavsky
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 251 - 262
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.019.2092The article deals with the contemporary study of religiosity. The author addresses two core questions of the sociology of religion: what methods are appropriate for the study of religiosity, and what factors affect religiosity? Regarding the first question, contemporary multidimensional studies are described. The author emphasises the limitations of the quantitative method of scales and analyses the criteria of religiosity used in those studies. Considering the factors that affect religiosity and based on Robert Bellah’s theory of religious evolution and Peter Berger’s biographical approach, the author suggests that the historical, cultural, sociopolitical and biographical context should be taken into account in order to better understand the phenomenon of religiosity. Considering the limitations of quantitative methods, it is suggested that they be combined with qualitative methods. Special attention is paid to the studies carried out in the former Soviet Union.
Ireneusz Ziemiński
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 263 - 273
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.020.2093This article presents philosophy of religion as a specific branch of religious studies. The main philosophical problems of religion are the possibility of defi ning religion, the truthfulness of religion, the nature of God (as the main object of religious worship), the existence of God, and the rationality (or irrationality) of religious behaviour. In every problem you can be a sceptic, because we have no rational method guaranteeing the successful definition of religion (every definition is subjective and either too narrow or too large). Unfortunately, we are not able to defi ne God (or Holiness) as the object of religion; every defi nition is only partial or incoherent. Therefore, we do not have any proof of God’s existence or nonexistence, and because of this neither can we say that religious behaviour is rational or irrational (and especially which religious behaviour). This means that philosophy of religion, which tries to resolve the essential problem of religion, is the best way to religious scepticism.
Radosław Lis
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 275 - 291
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.021.2094This article aims to provide a hermeneutic reconstruction of the figure of the biblical Babel’s mysterious protagonist and a negative cultural protagonist, Nimrod. An interpretative discourse is undertaken on the basis of the rich source data: biblical, apocryphal and pseudoepigraphical texts, and rabbinic literature, extracted by M.J. Bin Gorion (Berdyczewski) and L. Ginzberg, to mention the two most important compilers of Jewish legends and Hebrew myths. The concept of dread of the empire, found in rabbinic literature and elucidated by José Faur, appears to be crucial for understanding the complex figure of Nimrod. The reconstruction is performed with the aid of Andrzej Wierciński’s Antipersona category.
Zbigniew Łagosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 293 - 306
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.022.2095This paper attempts to show the unknown life story of Robert Walter (1908–1981). Walter was one of the best-known Polish esotericist, and yet the most forgotten, as well as the leader of the Memphis-Misraim Order, who also used the pseudonym “Waltari”. His story remains unknown to this day, including the time of being imprisoned by the Offi ce of Public Security (UB). Based on the documentation kept in the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), agential reports indicate he raised interest on two levels: the first was his connections in esoteric and academic circles, and the second – the more important – his acquaintance with Boris Smyslovsky during the years of the occupation.
Jakub Zielina
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 307 - 315
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.023.2096This article tackles the topic of comparative Indo-European studies, for which the starting point is the work of Georges Dumézil. In his book Mithra-Varuna – Essai sur deux Representations indoeuropéennes de la Souveraineté (1940, FAC), the French historian compared the eponymous Vedic dvandva to numerous structures present in the myths of other peoples – for example, the Scandinavian pair Tyr-Odin and Baldur-Hodur, the Roman pair Mucius Scaevola and Horatius Cocles, the Celtic pair Nuada and Lugh, and many others. A signifi cant detail is the attribution of the gods – the first is often lacking a hand (or both hands), and the other is one-eyed (or blind).
Zbigniew Pasek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 317 - 326
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.024.2097This article discusses the Bible and its place in Protestants’ daily lives. The study was made within the anthropology of things or anthropology of objects, a type of refl ection focusing on analysis of the behaviours associated with objects. It is assumed that such a study reveals the non-discursive (occurring outside of verbal declarations) beliefs related to a given thing, in this case the Bible. For Protestants it is the Word of God, a material record of the voice of God Himself, directed to the faithful and setting rules to live by. Although, as Max Weber said, Protestantism in the history of European culture means the “disenchantment” of religious attitudes, the examples cited in the article demonstrate the lively presence the remnants of archaic religious attitudes retain in the popular mentality. A declarative respect for the book sometimes conceals belief in its sanctity
Publication date: 12.2013
Issue editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Studia Religiologica is an academic periodical committed to the study of religions. It publishes research articles, review articles and book reviews representing all areas of the study of religions, encompassing the history of religions and comparative study of religions as well as phenomenology of religion, anthropology of religion, sociology of religion, psychology of religion, and philosophy of religion
Adam Anczyk, Matouš Vencálek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 161 - 171
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.013.1601The so-called “homecoming” is one of the most (if not the most) popular ways of depicting the process of becoming a follower of Neo-Paganism found in literature, from Margot Adler’s classical Drawing Down the Moon (1979) to contemporary authors, like Graham Harvey. It is interesting that “homecoming” simultaneously occurs in Neo-Pagan literature, as the common way of becoming Pagan, seen as opposite to the process of conversion (usually as a rapid change of religious beliefs). The critique of the “homecoming” defined in the academic field concentrates on showing that there is a possibility it may be more a theological notion, rather than a model of religious change to contemporary Paganism. The broad definition of religious conversion, understood as change in religious behaviour and beliefs, does include “homecoming” as one of the possible conversion narratives. Therefore, we may speak of a “coming home experience” as one of the main themes – but certainly not the only one – that is present in the histories of conversion to contemporary Paganism.
Ewa Kwiatkowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 173 - 185
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.014.1602The article presents the idea of the active image in culture connected with the approach to image cultures as reservoirs and ways of constructing collective imagination spheres. This view makes it possible to present the issue of mythical image as a particular kind of cultural image. The mythical image in the context of the traditions of Warburg and Benjamin may be recognised thanks to its actions in culture characteristic of mythical expressions. The second part of the article deals with the premises of the iconological use of Walter Benjamin’s reflections in the context of his concept of the myth and dialectical image
Stanisław Radoń
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 187 - 191
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.015.1603The aim of this article is to present the literature with the purpose of exploring the spiritual elements of mindfulness as they may be integrated into practice. Mindfulness meditation can foster an increased sense of spirituality by disengaging from a narrow self-focus, and engaging a much broader view of interconnectedness in which oneself is not seen as separate from other people and the world. Integrative theoretical framework of self-awareness, -regulation, and -transcendence (S-ART) explains the mechanisms of mindfulness. The proposed framework informs research in the contemplative sciences about definition, typology, structure, function, correlates and dynamics of spirituality, meditation, contemplation and mystical experiences
Moritz Deecke
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 201 - 215
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.016.1604The article emphasises the necessity of an integral approach for theorising ecstasy and makes a suggestion for how this could be achieved. Although at first it seemed that the compelling sociological theory of ecstasy by I.M. Lewis and the psychological theories by proponents such as Abraham Maslow, Martin Buber or Theresa of Avila contradicted each other and could not both be true at the same time, it now turns out that these two sets of theories have different scopes of application that hardly overlap. They are thus not conflicting, but incommensurable and useful in different contexts. A very elegant and simple model for demonstrating this is the quadrant model by the integral theorist Ken Wilber, as it makes the diverging applicability compellingly visual. Adapting it for the academic study of ecstasy, it can thus be understood that, while sociological theories apply mostly to the occurrence of ecstasy in hierarchical societies among individuals who identify strongly with their group bespeaking their socio-material desires, psychological theories are best employed with individuals who do not strongly identify with group norms and whose ecstatic states cannot be connected with upward social mobility or means to acquire material gain.
Justyna Pilarska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 217 - 234
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.017.1605This article tackles the issue of the attitudes of Bosnian Muslims towards wahhabism as a concept questioning the multi-confessional order in contemporary Bosnia-Herzegovina. The general outline of Bosnian Sunnism as well as the theological foundations of wahhabism, introduced to the world of values constituting the confessional identity of Bosnian Muslims, were subject to a pilot, qualitative study. The respondents not only reconstructed the basis of the values Bosnian Muslims identify with, but also revealed their attitudes towards the fundamental contents of the Bosnian Islamic discourse. Upon processing the gathered material, it was possible to formulate preliminary conclusions that are worthy of further empirical exploration.
Adam Anczyk, Matouš Vencálek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 161 - 171
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.013.1601The so-called “homecoming” is one of the most (if not the most) popular ways of depicting the process of becoming a follower of Neo-Paganism found in literature, from Margot Adler’s classical Drawing Down the Moon (1979) to contemporary authors, like Graham Harvey. It is interesting that “homecoming” simultaneously occurs in Neo-Pagan literature, as the common way of becoming Pagan, seen as opposite to the process of conversion (usually as a rapid change of religious beliefs). The critique of the “homecoming” defined in the academic field concentrates on showing that there is a possibility it may be more a theological notion, rather than a model of religious change to contemporary Paganism. The broad definition of religious conversion, understood as change in religious behaviour and beliefs, does include “homecoming” as one of the possible conversion narratives. Therefore, we may speak of a “coming home experience” as one of the main themes – but certainly not the only one – that is present in the histories of conversion to contemporary Paganism.
Ewa Kwiatkowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 173 - 185
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.014.1602The article presents the idea of the active image in culture connected with the approach to image cultures as reservoirs and ways of constructing collective imagination spheres. This view makes it possible to present the issue of mythical image as a particular kind of cultural image. The mythical image in the context of the traditions of Warburg and Benjamin may be recognised thanks to its actions in culture characteristic of mythical expressions. The second part of the article deals with the premises of the iconological use of Walter Benjamin’s reflections in the context of his concept of the myth and dialectical image
Stanisław Radoń
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 187 - 191
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.015.1603The aim of this article is to present the literature with the purpose of exploring the spiritual elements of mindfulness as they may be integrated into practice. Mindfulness meditation can foster an increased sense of spirituality by disengaging from a narrow self-focus, and engaging a much broader view of interconnectedness in which oneself is not seen as separate from other people and the world. Integrative theoretical framework of self-awareness, -regulation, and -transcendence (S-ART) explains the mechanisms of mindfulness. The proposed framework informs research in the contemplative sciences about definition, typology, structure, function, correlates and dynamics of spirituality, meditation, contemplation and mystical experiences
Moritz Deecke
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 201 - 215
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.016.1604The article emphasises the necessity of an integral approach for theorising ecstasy and makes a suggestion for how this could be achieved. Although at first it seemed that the compelling sociological theory of ecstasy by I.M. Lewis and the psychological theories by proponents such as Abraham Maslow, Martin Buber or Theresa of Avila contradicted each other and could not both be true at the same time, it now turns out that these two sets of theories have different scopes of application that hardly overlap. They are thus not conflicting, but incommensurable and useful in different contexts. A very elegant and simple model for demonstrating this is the quadrant model by the integral theorist Ken Wilber, as it makes the diverging applicability compellingly visual. Adapting it for the academic study of ecstasy, it can thus be understood that, while sociological theories apply mostly to the occurrence of ecstasy in hierarchical societies among individuals who identify strongly with their group bespeaking their socio-material desires, psychological theories are best employed with individuals who do not strongly identify with group norms and whose ecstatic states cannot be connected with upward social mobility or means to acquire material gain.
Justyna Pilarska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 217 - 234
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.017.1605This article tackles the issue of the attitudes of Bosnian Muslims towards wahhabism as a concept questioning the multi-confessional order in contemporary Bosnia-Herzegovina. The general outline of Bosnian Sunnism as well as the theological foundations of wahhabism, introduced to the world of values constituting the confessional identity of Bosnian Muslims, were subject to a pilot, qualitative study. The respondents not only reconstructed the basis of the values Bosnian Muslims identify with, but also revealed their attitudes towards the fundamental contents of the Bosnian Islamic discourse. Upon processing the gathered material, it was possible to formulate preliminary conclusions that are worthy of further empirical exploration.
Publication date: 11.2013
Issue Editors: Dominika Górnicz, Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Studia Religiologica is an academic periodical committed to the study of religions. It publishes research articles, review articles and book reviews representing all areas of the study of religions, encompassing the history of religions and comparative study of religions as well as phenomenology of religion, anthropology of religion, sociology of religion, psychology of religion, and philosophy of religion
Marcin Rzepka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, issue 2, 2013, pp. 79 - 94
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.007.1410Conversions to Christianity in Iran before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, being an evident result of the missionary activity conducted in this area from the 19th century, could be studied as part of the history of Christianity among Iranians. Conversions to Christianity, rather rare in the period analysed, are connected to the social and political changes in the whole country. There are two moments which seem to have given the best opportunity for spreading Christianity among Iranian people: 1) the political transformation starting in the 1920s – the end of the Qajar dynasty and the beginning of the reign of Reza Pahlavi, before he started to implement his national policy and 2) the 1960s – the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Among all Christian churches existing in Iran at that time, only the Anglican Church was focused mainly on proselytising and turning Iranian Muslims, Jews or Zoroastrians to the Christian faith. However, the statistics indicate that, in spite of such activity, the total number of converts prior to the revolution did not exceed 1000.
Łukasz Borowiecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, issue 2, 2013, pp. 95 - 105
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.008.1411This paper investigates different accounts of the distance between religious and nonreligious persons, postulated by Wittgenstein in his Lectures on Religious Belief: the hypothesis that religious and nonreligious language is incommensurable, the supposition about “ordinary” and “extraordinary” uses of word “belief,” and the non-cognitive approach to religious language. I argue (after Cora Diamond) that none of these accounts can be regarded as sufficient, because the text of Lectures does not contain any general theory of disagreement between believer and nonbeliever. Instead of that, Wittgenstein offers a picture of several different relationships that may occur between them.
Tomasz Ponikło
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, issue 2, 2013, pp. 107 - 118
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.009.1412The theme of this article is the problem of private revelations presented on the Internet, and it is based on the example of Vassula Ryden. Ryden has been a visionary for two decades. Although the visions she presents are addressed primarily to Catholics, the Roman Catholic Church consistently refuses to accept her revelations as real ones. Despite this, Ryden is active in promoting her revelations in the real and the virtual world. The article shows two main contexts which influence research on private revelations on the Web: religious and communicative. It focuses on the communication aspect (the way the Internet is used) and the religious aspect (which is in permanent conflict with the doctrine of the Church to which she refers). Modern spirituality inspired by private revelations can be built individually on the basis of the main traditional religions. This not only reflects the changes to today’s spirituality, but in this way also builds it.
Maria Rogińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, issue 2, 2013, pp. 119 - 134
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.010.1413This paper aims at reconstruction of the main fear patterns that have arisen as a side effect of scientific achievements. We try to show that a significant number of them refer to the image of the world as inanimate mechanism. To relieve these fears and integrate scientific claims into a coherent worldview, one must use other types of rationality, such as the theological one, or rely on a nonrational response. These processes, however, are deeply embedded in the social context. The analysis focuses on the internet discursive practices of the three important actors (science, parascience and traditional religion) competing for their expert monopoly to define the world and offering their own answers to science-based fears. We learn that the boundaries of the discourses are closely guarded, while the tension appears where they are violated explicitly. This fact probably explains why “orthodox” authors (science and religion) treat parascience so aggressively. In trying to be “native” in each discourse, everywhere parascience remains “heretic,” the one threatening the status quo, the disturbing and annoying Stranger.
Krystian Mesjasz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, issue 2, 2013, pp. 135 - 142
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.011.1414This article describes the process of forming traditions in Slavic neopagan religious groups as a fundamental element constituting the identity of the community’s members. The lack of source materials means that modern Slavic rituals and ceremonies are often more ideas and variations on a theme than actual reconstructions of pagan festivities. Imagined communities (Hobsbawm), which include neopagan movements, are involved in practices of a symbolic and ritual nature which aim to create historical continuity. In this case, tradition (Shils) is treated instrumentally. Its various parts are preserved not because of their supposed ancientness, but because they are seen as deserving of the name of tradition. In this way, tradition is continued, transformed and applied to the dimensions of modern life.
Andrzej Gołąb
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, issue 2, 2013, pp. 143 - 159
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.012.1415The hope of universal salvation is the view that all people will one day be saved. A study of 573 people aged 13–86 showed that the greater the frequency of their religious practices, the more likely they were to have a decidedly positive attitude towards the hope of universal salvation. Women were more in favour of this idea than men, and people aged 60 more than those under 30. In the second study it turned out that the declared attitude of students towards the hope of universal salvation is influenced by the information transmitted to them. Subjects (N = 115) to whom two sentences from the Catechism of the Catholic Church were quoted – “God desires the salvation of all people” and “Everything is possible with God” – expressed a positive attitude to this idea considerably more often than those (N = 119) who were informed that Fr Wacław Hryniewicz, who propagates this idea in Poland, was disappointed with Benedict XVI’s statements on Christian hope.
Marcin Rzepka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, issue 2, 2013, pp. 79 - 94
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.007.1410Conversions to Christianity in Iran before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, being an evident result of the missionary activity conducted in this area from the 19th century, could be studied as part of the history of Christianity among Iranians. Conversions to Christianity, rather rare in the period analysed, are connected to the social and political changes in the whole country. There are two moments which seem to have given the best opportunity for spreading Christianity among Iranian people: 1) the political transformation starting in the 1920s – the end of the Qajar dynasty and the beginning of the reign of Reza Pahlavi, before he started to implement his national policy and 2) the 1960s – the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Among all Christian churches existing in Iran at that time, only the Anglican Church was focused mainly on proselytising and turning Iranian Muslims, Jews or Zoroastrians to the Christian faith. However, the statistics indicate that, in spite of such activity, the total number of converts prior to the revolution did not exceed 1000.
Łukasz Borowiecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, issue 2, 2013, pp. 95 - 105
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.008.1411This paper investigates different accounts of the distance between religious and nonreligious persons, postulated by Wittgenstein in his Lectures on Religious Belief: the hypothesis that religious and nonreligious language is incommensurable, the supposition about “ordinary” and “extraordinary” uses of word “belief,” and the non-cognitive approach to religious language. I argue (after Cora Diamond) that none of these accounts can be regarded as sufficient, because the text of Lectures does not contain any general theory of disagreement between believer and nonbeliever. Instead of that, Wittgenstein offers a picture of several different relationships that may occur between them.
Tomasz Ponikło
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, issue 2, 2013, pp. 107 - 118
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.009.1412The theme of this article is the problem of private revelations presented on the Internet, and it is based on the example of Vassula Ryden. Ryden has been a visionary for two decades. Although the visions she presents are addressed primarily to Catholics, the Roman Catholic Church consistently refuses to accept her revelations as real ones. Despite this, Ryden is active in promoting her revelations in the real and the virtual world. The article shows two main contexts which influence research on private revelations on the Web: religious and communicative. It focuses on the communication aspect (the way the Internet is used) and the religious aspect (which is in permanent conflict with the doctrine of the Church to which she refers). Modern spirituality inspired by private revelations can be built individually on the basis of the main traditional religions. This not only reflects the changes to today’s spirituality, but in this way also builds it.
Maria Rogińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, issue 2, 2013, pp. 119 - 134
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.010.1413This paper aims at reconstruction of the main fear patterns that have arisen as a side effect of scientific achievements. We try to show that a significant number of them refer to the image of the world as inanimate mechanism. To relieve these fears and integrate scientific claims into a coherent worldview, one must use other types of rationality, such as the theological one, or rely on a nonrational response. These processes, however, are deeply embedded in the social context. The analysis focuses on the internet discursive practices of the three important actors (science, parascience and traditional religion) competing for their expert monopoly to define the world and offering their own answers to science-based fears. We learn that the boundaries of the discourses are closely guarded, while the tension appears where they are violated explicitly. This fact probably explains why “orthodox” authors (science and religion) treat parascience so aggressively. In trying to be “native” in each discourse, everywhere parascience remains “heretic,” the one threatening the status quo, the disturbing and annoying Stranger.
Krystian Mesjasz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, issue 2, 2013, pp. 135 - 142
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.011.1414This article describes the process of forming traditions in Slavic neopagan religious groups as a fundamental element constituting the identity of the community’s members. The lack of source materials means that modern Slavic rituals and ceremonies are often more ideas and variations on a theme than actual reconstructions of pagan festivities. Imagined communities (Hobsbawm), which include neopagan movements, are involved in practices of a symbolic and ritual nature which aim to create historical continuity. In this case, tradition (Shils) is treated instrumentally. Its various parts are preserved not because of their supposed ancientness, but because they are seen as deserving of the name of tradition. In this way, tradition is continued, transformed and applied to the dimensions of modern life.
Andrzej Gołąb
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, issue 2, 2013, pp. 143 - 159
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.012.1415The hope of universal salvation is the view that all people will one day be saved. A study of 573 people aged 13–86 showed that the greater the frequency of their religious practices, the more likely they were to have a decidedly positive attitude towards the hope of universal salvation. Women were more in favour of this idea than men, and people aged 60 more than those under 30. In the second study it turned out that the declared attitude of students towards the hope of universal salvation is influenced by the information transmitted to them. Subjects (N = 115) to whom two sentences from the Catechism of the Catholic Church were quoted – “God desires the salvation of all people” and “Everything is possible with God” – expressed a positive attitude to this idea considerably more often than those (N = 119) who were informed that Fr Wacław Hryniewicz, who propagates this idea in Poland, was disappointed with Benedict XVI’s statements on Christian hope.
Publication date: 19.06.2013
Issue Editors: Dominika Motak, Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Christopher F. Silver, Ralph W. Hood, Jr., W. Paul Williamson
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 1 - 15
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.001.1222While serpent symbolism is common in many religious traditions, few traditions have including the actual handling of serpents that can maim and kill in their rituals. Two exceptions are various Manasa sects common in India and the serpent handlers of Appalachia in America. We presented brief descriptions of each of these traditions along with videos of the handling of serpents in each tradition under three degrees of risk, video with no serpents, video with serpents but no bites, video with serpents and bites. Under a fourth condition only for the Appalachian handlers, the video showed a handler dying from a bite. American, largely Christian participants rated assessed each condition for ritual quality and perceived legitimacy. As predicted, serpent handling in America was perceived as less legitimate than serpent handling in India. No differences were found between perceived legitimacy and level of risk except in the condition where a handler was seen dying from a bite.
Marta Trzebiatowska, Steve Bruce
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 17 - 33
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.002.1223Women’s disproportionate involvement in religion has been the subject of debate in the sociology of religion for some time. In particular, the gender gap in New Age spiritualities appears considerably greater than that found in the congregational sphere of mainstream religion. This article argues that there is nothing in being a woman per se that may attract an individual to certain spiritual activities but rather, that it is the elective affinity between women as a group and such activities that creates the impression of a direct appeal. Much of the holistic spirituality milieu is designed by women for women, not least the most popular elements concerned with healing and well-being. It is therefore possible that the initial gap between men and women is small but it becomes subsequently reinforced and widened due to the gendered nature of alternative spirituality courses, workshops and treatments.
Zhuo Chen, Nima Ghorbani, Paul J. Watson, Naser Aghababaei
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 35 - 44
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.003.1224Investigations into Muslim psychology sometimes rely on measures emphasizing religious attitudes, with the Muslim Attitudes toward Religion (MAR) scale being an example. To capture the experiential aspects of Islamic religiosity, a recently developed Muslim Experiential Religiousness (MER) scale recorded an experienced submission to, love of, and closeness to God that define an ideal in Muslim religious consciousness. In a sample of 299 students from the University of Tehran and the Qom Islamic Seminary School, this study administered the MAR and MER, along with scales assessing mysticism, religious orientations, depression, anxiety, and satisfaction with life. Results demonstrated incremental validity of the MER over the MAR in predicting most of these religious and psychological adjustment variables. The MER also mediated and moderated some MAR relationships with religious and psychological outcomes. These data pointed toward a dissociation of the attitudinal and experiential features of Muslim psychology and confirmed the MER as a valuable index of Muslim religious experience.
Moritz Deecke
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 45 - 53
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.004.1225In this article a number of approaches toward ecstasy or ecstatic spirit possession are explored that take a decisively non-sociological approach to the subject. They stress the importance of acknowledging ecstasy and related phenomena not as by-products of social struggle but as actual experiences that are events with meaning and importance in the biographies of those who experience them. Some of these are psychological theories (exemplified by Abraham Maslow), some are theological (Teresa of Ávila), and some stand in between (Martin Buber). These psycho-theological theories contribute to understanding ecstasy and have to be taken into account. Emphasised at the end of the article is the need to reconcile these views with the seemingly contradictory theories of ecstasy such as that of Lewis.
Mariusz Dobkowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 55 - 63
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.005.1226The author examines the scope and sources of St Augustine’s knowledge of Manichaeism. He mostly follows the thesis of J.K. Coyle, that as a Christian and anti-Manichaean polemicist, Augustine obtained additional information about the “Religion of Light”. To illustrate Augustine-the-Manichaean and Augustine-the-polemicist’s knowledge of the religion of Mani, the author includes two lengthy excerpts from his writings: from the 7th book of Confessiones and the treatise De natura boni, which features a quotation from the Manichaean work Treasure. The author provides a special comment on this extract.
Marcin Rzepka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 65 - 78
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.006.1227
The development of Pentecostal Christianity in Iran in the years 1908-1916 was connected above all to the activity of the Assyrians living in the south-western part of the country, and especially the area surrounding the city of Urmia. At the turn of the 20th century, this relatively small area became the subject of numerous Christian missions – Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican and Orthodox – which had a significant influence on the region’s religious structure. On top of its religious activity, the thriving and very active Presbyterian mission, founded in 1835, contributed to the region’s cultural revival by establishing a network of schools. It also offered the opportunity for continued education in the USA, something which Andrew Urshan benefited from in the early 20th century. Having connected with the Pentecostal movement during his stay in the USA, he founded the Persian Pentecostal Mission in Chicago, giving himself the task of propagating Pentecostal experiences among Assyrians in Iran. As early as 1908, Urshan’s associates travelled to Iran, whereas he followed several years later, in 1914. However, the political situation connected with the outbreak of the First World War and military actions in northern Iran meant that missionary work was impossible. The mission broke up, and ceased to operate in 1916. It was significant particularly for its attempt to combine Pentecostal experiences with the history of the Assyrians themselves – as Urshan’s writings testify – and for its efforts to remind them of, or rather restore, the apostolic legacy.
Christopher F. Silver, Ralph W. Hood, Jr., W. Paul Williamson
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 1 - 15
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.001.1222While serpent symbolism is common in many religious traditions, few traditions have including the actual handling of serpents that can maim and kill in their rituals. Two exceptions are various Manasa sects common in India and the serpent handlers of Appalachia in America. We presented brief descriptions of each of these traditions along with videos of the handling of serpents in each tradition under three degrees of risk, video with no serpents, video with serpents but no bites, video with serpents and bites. Under a fourth condition only for the Appalachian handlers, the video showed a handler dying from a bite. American, largely Christian participants rated assessed each condition for ritual quality and perceived legitimacy. As predicted, serpent handling in America was perceived as less legitimate than serpent handling in India. No differences were found between perceived legitimacy and level of risk except in the condition where a handler was seen dying from a bite.
Marta Trzebiatowska, Steve Bruce
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 17 - 33
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.002.1223Women’s disproportionate involvement in religion has been the subject of debate in the sociology of religion for some time. In particular, the gender gap in New Age spiritualities appears considerably greater than that found in the congregational sphere of mainstream religion. This article argues that there is nothing in being a woman per se that may attract an individual to certain spiritual activities but rather, that it is the elective affinity between women as a group and such activities that creates the impression of a direct appeal. Much of the holistic spirituality milieu is designed by women for women, not least the most popular elements concerned with healing and well-being. It is therefore possible that the initial gap between men and women is small but it becomes subsequently reinforced and widened due to the gendered nature of alternative spirituality courses, workshops and treatments.
Zhuo Chen, Nima Ghorbani, Paul J. Watson, Naser Aghababaei
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 35 - 44
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.003.1224Investigations into Muslim psychology sometimes rely on measures emphasizing religious attitudes, with the Muslim Attitudes toward Religion (MAR) scale being an example. To capture the experiential aspects of Islamic religiosity, a recently developed Muslim Experiential Religiousness (MER) scale recorded an experienced submission to, love of, and closeness to God that define an ideal in Muslim religious consciousness. In a sample of 299 students from the University of Tehran and the Qom Islamic Seminary School, this study administered the MAR and MER, along with scales assessing mysticism, religious orientations, depression, anxiety, and satisfaction with life. Results demonstrated incremental validity of the MER over the MAR in predicting most of these religious and psychological adjustment variables. The MER also mediated and moderated some MAR relationships with religious and psychological outcomes. These data pointed toward a dissociation of the attitudinal and experiential features of Muslim psychology and confirmed the MER as a valuable index of Muslim religious experience.
Moritz Deecke
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 45 - 53
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.004.1225In this article a number of approaches toward ecstasy or ecstatic spirit possession are explored that take a decisively non-sociological approach to the subject. They stress the importance of acknowledging ecstasy and related phenomena not as by-products of social struggle but as actual experiences that are events with meaning and importance in the biographies of those who experience them. Some of these are psychological theories (exemplified by Abraham Maslow), some are theological (Teresa of Ávila), and some stand in between (Martin Buber). These psycho-theological theories contribute to understanding ecstasy and have to be taken into account. Emphasised at the end of the article is the need to reconcile these views with the seemingly contradictory theories of ecstasy such as that of Lewis.
Mariusz Dobkowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 55 - 63
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.005.1226The author examines the scope and sources of St Augustine’s knowledge of Manichaeism. He mostly follows the thesis of J.K. Coyle, that as a Christian and anti-Manichaean polemicist, Augustine obtained additional information about the “Religion of Light”. To illustrate Augustine-the-Manichaean and Augustine-the-polemicist’s knowledge of the religion of Mani, the author includes two lengthy excerpts from his writings: from the 7th book of Confessiones and the treatise De natura boni, which features a quotation from the Manichaean work Treasure. The author provides a special comment on this extract.
Marcin Rzepka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 46, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 65 - 78
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.13.006.1227
The development of Pentecostal Christianity in Iran in the years 1908-1916 was connected above all to the activity of the Assyrians living in the south-western part of the country, and especially the area surrounding the city of Urmia. At the turn of the 20th century, this relatively small area became the subject of numerous Christian missions – Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican and Orthodox – which had a significant influence on the region’s religious structure. On top of its religious activity, the thriving and very active Presbyterian mission, founded in 1835, contributed to the region’s cultural revival by establishing a network of schools. It also offered the opportunity for continued education in the USA, something which Andrew Urshan benefited from in the early 20th century. Having connected with the Pentecostal movement during his stay in the USA, he founded the Persian Pentecostal Mission in Chicago, giving himself the task of propagating Pentecostal experiences among Assyrians in Iran. As early as 1908, Urshan’s associates travelled to Iran, whereas he followed several years later, in 1914. However, the political situation connected with the outbreak of the First World War and military actions in northern Iran meant that missionary work was impossible. The mission broke up, and ceased to operate in 1916. It was significant particularly for its attempt to combine Pentecostal experiences with the history of the Assyrians themselves – as Urshan’s writings testify – and for its efforts to remind them of, or rather restore, the apostolic legacy.
Publication date: 13.02.2013
Issue Editors: Dominika Motak, Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Arnold Lebeuf
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 255 - 265
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.020.0973Sexuality and alimentation are related in many ways. In this paper only one of the social aspects of these relations is presented. Cannibal wars and human sacrifi ce are structurally bound to the rules of marriage in various societies. The comparative study presented is limited to only two very different primitive societies living in completely different ecosystems, showing the various ways in which they articulate their respective solutions to these basic human needs.
Ewa Kwiatkowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 267 - 281
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.021.0974
This article concerns the issue exploring myth in the context of the iconic turn. Iconic turn, opposed to formulating images as texts, signs or illustrations, treats both images and imagery as categories of cultural phenomena analysis. Attributing theory-cognitive status to images, the article explores the relation between cognition, imagination, image and myth. Considering the differentia specifica of mythical thinking – imagery, we can say that the assumptions of iconic turn are at the very heart of myth knowledge issues, especially the issues of myth and mythopoiesis. They also reach the problems of separating basic mythical images as cultural images, image acts as constituting myths and the relation between the imagery and textuality of myth.
Moritz Deecke
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 283 - 292
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.022.0975This article provides the first step of a threefold argument on why an integrative model for theorizing ecstasy is necessary and how this could be accomplished. This article sets out with some preliminary epistemological remarks on normativity and religious experience as a legitimate object of inquiry that have to be made in order to prepare the larger argument. Afterwards I.M. Lewis’s sociological theory of ecstasy will be outlined and its numerous advantages pointed out. The strength of the theory lies mainly in explaining ecstasy in highly hierarchical societies and in those cases where it occurs in connection with material gain. It fails however to be applicable in situations when the subjects do not achieve or aim at achieving improvement of their material or societal statuses, but quite contrarily (and gladly) give up possessions and positions. The same applies for social structures where a high degree of equality has been achieved and ecstasy or ecstatic spiritpossession does not have to function as a releasing remedy for social tensions. These cases of ecstasy can better be explained by theories that could be called “psychological”, or even “psychotheological”, that will be discussed in the next paper.
Sławomir Cebula
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 293 - 300
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.023.0976
Article 196 of the Polish Penal Code regulating questions of insulting religious feelings is still a matter under discussion and the cause of differences in interpretation. There are several reasons for this. First, the sphere of religious feelings is very diverse and depends on the subjective sensitivity of each believer. This is the basis of the postulate of the research on the predominant social assessment of decisions concerning infringement of the law. Secondly, defi ning what the subject of religious veneration is requires references to specifi c religious groups, which in turn may indicate the different categories of the objects (material, personal, dogmatic, ritual), and this may then cause the problem of distinguishing “the object of religious veneration” and “the objects intended for religious veneration” not specified in the Penal Code. Thirdly, the limits of conflicting freedoms, as a result of their evolution and cultural changes, still arouse new controversies, as the restrictions on freedoms under the law are not suffi cient to resolve all doubts.
Elżbieta Wnuk-Lisowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 301 - 310
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.024.0977
Khadir, or Khwaja Khadir (Khizr, Khezr, Arabic: “green”, “greenish”), Green Prophet (green symbolising “freshness” and new life) is a popular and familiar fi gure across Arabic countries, Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, India and the Far East. The complex and mysterious fi gure of Khezr is connected with Idris, Elijah, Enoch, Saint George, and Skanda, and is associated with the water, cave, and immortality (he lives on an island or upon a green carpet in the heart of the sea, or else in the far northern country called Yuh, which seems to be an earthly paradise). Khezr is reputedly the only soul who has gained life immortal from tasting the Fountain of Life. He is still alive and continues to guide those who invoke his name. In popular Islamic lore Green Prophet is also the mysterious guide, an angel, the immortal saint and the hidden initiator of those who walk the mystical path. He appears in Sura 18, 66 (Al Kalf, “The Cave”) where together with Moses he goes on a long journey to a point where two rivers met. But his wisdom surpasses that of Moses, and has rather a tinge of gnosis, the character of divine wisdom imparted by God to the Prophet Muhammad and the Prophet Khidr.
Marta Kołodziejska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 311 - 314
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.025.0978
Recenzja książki: Bryan S. Turner, Religion and modern society,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2011, 372 strony
Maciej Czeremski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 315 - 318
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.026.0979
Recenzja książki: Aleksander Gomola, Bóg kobiet.
Studium językoznawczo-teologiczne, Wydawnictwo Biblos, Tarnów 2010, 304 strony
Mateusz Dąsal
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 319 - 322
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.027.0980
Recenzja książki: Maciej Czeremski i Jakub Sadowski, Mit i utopia,
Libron, Kraków 2010, 218 stron
Jakub Sadowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 323 - 326
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.028.0981Recenzja książki: Peter Burke, Historia kulturowa, tłum. Justyn Hunia, WUJ, Kraków 2012, 200 stron
Marta Kołodziejska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 311 - 314
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.025.0978
Recenzja książki: Bryan S. Turner, Religion and modern society,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2011, 372 strony
Maciej Czeremski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 315 - 318
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.026.0979
Recenzja książki: Aleksander Gomola, Bóg kobiet.
Studium językoznawczo-teologiczne, Wydawnictwo Biblos, Tarnów 2010, 304 strony
Mateusz Dąsal
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 319 - 322
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.027.0980
Recenzja książki: Maciej Czeremski i Jakub Sadowski, Mit i utopia,
Libron, Kraków 2010, 218 stron
Jakub Sadowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 323 - 326
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.028.0981Recenzja książki: Peter Burke, Historia kulturowa, tłum. Justyn Hunia, WUJ, Kraków 2012, 200 stron
Arnold Lebeuf
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 255 - 265
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.020.0973Sexuality and alimentation are related in many ways. In this paper only one of the social aspects of these relations is presented. Cannibal wars and human sacrifi ce are structurally bound to the rules of marriage in various societies. The comparative study presented is limited to only two very different primitive societies living in completely different ecosystems, showing the various ways in which they articulate their respective solutions to these basic human needs.
Ewa Kwiatkowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 267 - 281
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.021.0974
This article concerns the issue exploring myth in the context of the iconic turn. Iconic turn, opposed to formulating images as texts, signs or illustrations, treats both images and imagery as categories of cultural phenomena analysis. Attributing theory-cognitive status to images, the article explores the relation between cognition, imagination, image and myth. Considering the differentia specifica of mythical thinking – imagery, we can say that the assumptions of iconic turn are at the very heart of myth knowledge issues, especially the issues of myth and mythopoiesis. They also reach the problems of separating basic mythical images as cultural images, image acts as constituting myths and the relation between the imagery and textuality of myth.
Moritz Deecke
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 283 - 292
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.022.0975This article provides the first step of a threefold argument on why an integrative model for theorizing ecstasy is necessary and how this could be accomplished. This article sets out with some preliminary epistemological remarks on normativity and religious experience as a legitimate object of inquiry that have to be made in order to prepare the larger argument. Afterwards I.M. Lewis’s sociological theory of ecstasy will be outlined and its numerous advantages pointed out. The strength of the theory lies mainly in explaining ecstasy in highly hierarchical societies and in those cases where it occurs in connection with material gain. It fails however to be applicable in situations when the subjects do not achieve or aim at achieving improvement of their material or societal statuses, but quite contrarily (and gladly) give up possessions and positions. The same applies for social structures where a high degree of equality has been achieved and ecstasy or ecstatic spiritpossession does not have to function as a releasing remedy for social tensions. These cases of ecstasy can better be explained by theories that could be called “psychological”, or even “psychotheological”, that will be discussed in the next paper.
Sławomir Cebula
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 293 - 300
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.023.0976
Article 196 of the Polish Penal Code regulating questions of insulting religious feelings is still a matter under discussion and the cause of differences in interpretation. There are several reasons for this. First, the sphere of religious feelings is very diverse and depends on the subjective sensitivity of each believer. This is the basis of the postulate of the research on the predominant social assessment of decisions concerning infringement of the law. Secondly, defi ning what the subject of religious veneration is requires references to specifi c religious groups, which in turn may indicate the different categories of the objects (material, personal, dogmatic, ritual), and this may then cause the problem of distinguishing “the object of religious veneration” and “the objects intended for religious veneration” not specified in the Penal Code. Thirdly, the limits of conflicting freedoms, as a result of their evolution and cultural changes, still arouse new controversies, as the restrictions on freedoms under the law are not suffi cient to resolve all doubts.
Elżbieta Wnuk-Lisowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 301 - 310
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.024.0977
Khadir, or Khwaja Khadir (Khizr, Khezr, Arabic: “green”, “greenish”), Green Prophet (green symbolising “freshness” and new life) is a popular and familiar fi gure across Arabic countries, Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, India and the Far East. The complex and mysterious fi gure of Khezr is connected with Idris, Elijah, Enoch, Saint George, and Skanda, and is associated with the water, cave, and immortality (he lives on an island or upon a green carpet in the heart of the sea, or else in the far northern country called Yuh, which seems to be an earthly paradise). Khezr is reputedly the only soul who has gained life immortal from tasting the Fountain of Life. He is still alive and continues to guide those who invoke his name. In popular Islamic lore Green Prophet is also the mysterious guide, an angel, the immortal saint and the hidden initiator of those who walk the mystical path. He appears in Sura 18, 66 (Al Kalf, “The Cave”) where together with Moses he goes on a long journey to a point where two rivers met. But his wisdom surpasses that of Moses, and has rather a tinge of gnosis, the character of divine wisdom imparted by God to the Prophet Muhammad and the Prophet Khidr.
Publication date: 21.01.2013
Issue Editors: Dominika Motak, Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Jakub Gomułka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 165 - 172
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.013.0966In my article I present a conceptual model of classification of philosophical and theological conceptions of religion within Western philosophy and the Christian religious tradition. The model has four independent dimensions: the factual, the metaphysical, the ethical and the apophatic. The first and the second dimensions are cognitive, while the third and the fourth are non-cognitive. The fourth dimension should not be identified with the old tradition of apophatic theology because, according to the model, the latter is a mixture of two (or even more) dimensions. The second part of my paper is devoted to the Wittgensteinian philosophy of religion developed by the members of the so-called Swansea School. My thesis is that, despite of their self-characterisation as philosophers, they present an extreme version of apophatic theology because their view on religion is, in the light of my conceptual model, one-dimensional.
Sonia Kamińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 173 - 182
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.014.0967This text aims to show that the core of human divinity according to Aristotle is exercising the divine mind for its own sake. Being happy and thus divine is auto-teleological, and must not be reduced to any sort of instrumental value. This reading of Aristotle excludes the theist interpretations of Prime Mover as well as the attempts at identifying the human mind with God, mainly because both these (different) interpretations seem to make auto-teleological bios theoretikos impossible. The first do this by introducing the divine provision which makes people act for God’s sake and not for their own sake. The others reduce the special status of humans by taking away the divine part, in my opinion being the sine qua non condition of the concept of human divinity. All the interpretations of human divinity which I have presented above can be useful nowadays in the ethical, (bio)ethical, social or even political discourse. This shows that the history of philosophy is not only about the past, but also about the future.
Paul Shrell-Fox
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 183 - 201
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.015.0968The present paper proposes a paradigm to understand the evolution of religious behaviour specifically Jewish religious practice. The theoretical framework rests upon a combination of reciprocal altruism, costly signal theory and cognitive dissonance. It assumes evolutionary theory in general and mimetic evolution in particular. It is unique to the degree that it is authored by an evolutionary psychologist who is also a rabbi. We present the foundations of the three bio-psychological theories; and address Dawkins’ and Dennett’s theories of the scientific study of religion as well as some of the reservations. Finally, we examine briefly certain Jewish rituals in light of the model presented.
Zofia Grudzińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 203 - 213
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.016.0969In religious studies, prayer has been extensively researched. Psychological studies use survey methods, so low-educated respondents often cannot comprehend the items. A projective method is presented, based on the Thematic Apperception Test by A. Murray and Ch. Morgan. Data collected in semi-structured interviews are used for qualitative research and for statistical analysis. Quantitative analysis of the references to prayer in narratives has yielded certain results, confirming the usefulness of the test. Qualitative analysis has revealed specificity of the petition and intercession prayer and has called attention to association of location to specific types of prayer.
Jakub Bohuszewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 227 - 235
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.018.0971A shamanic trance ritual begins with the introductory part, which can be defined as invocation of shamanic spirits. The formal structure of this invocation assumes playing a role, which in the practice of the ritual means imitation of the types of behaviour characterising a given spirit. Entering a trance is synonymous with the loss of the cognitive barrier dividing the persona of the shaman from the persona of the portrayed spirit; the shaman becomes the spirit. The conceptions of evolutionary psychologists are insufficient to explain this situation. The theoretical model proposed instead describes the transition from inductive actions to a trance state in terms of disinhibition of the system preventing repetition of an action recorded at the level of the mirror neurons.
Kamila Pawełczyk-Dura
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 227 - 235
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.018.0971
The elimination of religion was a fundamental ideological goal of the communist state. According to Marxist theory, religion was a product of material conditions. Working from this premise, militant atheism initially considered that religion would disappear on its own through the coming of the new society system. After the revolution the Bolsheviks started a massive persecution. When it became clear that religion was not dying out on its own, the USSR began general antireligious campaigns. One of the lesser known campaigns was confiscation of saints’ relics, carefully preserved for the purposes of veneration or as a touchable or tangible memorial.
Antynomiczne dyrektywy radykalnego sabataizmu jako wyraz etyki „odwróconej” według Gershoma Scholema
Dorota Izabela Brylla
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 237 - 254
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.019.0972This article presents the radical wing of sabbataism (sabbatianism) – the messianic-mystical movement of heterodox Judaism which arose in the 17th century and flourished in the Ottoman Empire, founded by Sabbatai Zevi. This is done according to the works of Gershom Scholem and from the point of view of the ethical principles in their dimension directed to sexual life which the sabbataistic extremists, mainly from the Dönmeh group, had chosen as binding and obligatory ones. The distinctive feature of these directives compared to conventionally dominant ones was their “upturned” character. Therefore, the article will discuss the antinomism of which – as a tendency being opposed to the normative comprehension of the rules, established here by the Jewish law (nomos) on the basis of the Torah – the radical ma’aminim are an exemplification. Nevertheless, this sabbataistic reversal in the formulation of the issues concerning carnality reveals the profound doctrinal base in the form of the kabbalistic writings and on their pages introduced mystical conceptual categories (taken up in the present article) – the groundwork from which is determined by the dichotomy Torah de-’Atzilut–Torah de-Beri’ah – and to which the sabbataists attributed the peculiar “upturned” modus of interpretation.
Jakub Gomułka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 165 - 172
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.013.0966In my article I present a conceptual model of classification of philosophical and theological conceptions of religion within Western philosophy and the Christian religious tradition. The model has four independent dimensions: the factual, the metaphysical, the ethical and the apophatic. The first and the second dimensions are cognitive, while the third and the fourth are non-cognitive. The fourth dimension should not be identified with the old tradition of apophatic theology because, according to the model, the latter is a mixture of two (or even more) dimensions. The second part of my paper is devoted to the Wittgensteinian philosophy of religion developed by the members of the so-called Swansea School. My thesis is that, despite of their self-characterisation as philosophers, they present an extreme version of apophatic theology because their view on religion is, in the light of my conceptual model, one-dimensional.
Sonia Kamińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 173 - 182
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.014.0967This text aims to show that the core of human divinity according to Aristotle is exercising the divine mind for its own sake. Being happy and thus divine is auto-teleological, and must not be reduced to any sort of instrumental value. This reading of Aristotle excludes the theist interpretations of Prime Mover as well as the attempts at identifying the human mind with God, mainly because both these (different) interpretations seem to make auto-teleological bios theoretikos impossible. The first do this by introducing the divine provision which makes people act for God’s sake and not for their own sake. The others reduce the special status of humans by taking away the divine part, in my opinion being the sine qua non condition of the concept of human divinity. All the interpretations of human divinity which I have presented above can be useful nowadays in the ethical, (bio)ethical, social or even political discourse. This shows that the history of philosophy is not only about the past, but also about the future.
Paul Shrell-Fox
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 183 - 201
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.015.0968The present paper proposes a paradigm to understand the evolution of religious behaviour specifically Jewish religious practice. The theoretical framework rests upon a combination of reciprocal altruism, costly signal theory and cognitive dissonance. It assumes evolutionary theory in general and mimetic evolution in particular. It is unique to the degree that it is authored by an evolutionary psychologist who is also a rabbi. We present the foundations of the three bio-psychological theories; and address Dawkins’ and Dennett’s theories of the scientific study of religion as well as some of the reservations. Finally, we examine briefly certain Jewish rituals in light of the model presented.
Zofia Grudzińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 203 - 213
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.016.0969In religious studies, prayer has been extensively researched. Psychological studies use survey methods, so low-educated respondents often cannot comprehend the items. A projective method is presented, based on the Thematic Apperception Test by A. Murray and Ch. Morgan. Data collected in semi-structured interviews are used for qualitative research and for statistical analysis. Quantitative analysis of the references to prayer in narratives has yielded certain results, confirming the usefulness of the test. Qualitative analysis has revealed specificity of the petition and intercession prayer and has called attention to association of location to specific types of prayer.
Jakub Bohuszewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 227 - 235
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.018.0971A shamanic trance ritual begins with the introductory part, which can be defined as invocation of shamanic spirits. The formal structure of this invocation assumes playing a role, which in the practice of the ritual means imitation of the types of behaviour characterising a given spirit. Entering a trance is synonymous with the loss of the cognitive barrier dividing the persona of the shaman from the persona of the portrayed spirit; the shaman becomes the spirit. The conceptions of evolutionary psychologists are insufficient to explain this situation. The theoretical model proposed instead describes the transition from inductive actions to a trance state in terms of disinhibition of the system preventing repetition of an action recorded at the level of the mirror neurons.
Kamila Pawełczyk-Dura
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 227 - 235
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.018.0971
The elimination of religion was a fundamental ideological goal of the communist state. According to Marxist theory, religion was a product of material conditions. Working from this premise, militant atheism initially considered that religion would disappear on its own through the coming of the new society system. After the revolution the Bolsheviks started a massive persecution. When it became clear that religion was not dying out on its own, the USSR began general antireligious campaigns. One of the lesser known campaigns was confiscation of saints’ relics, carefully preserved for the purposes of veneration or as a touchable or tangible memorial.
Antynomiczne dyrektywy radykalnego sabataizmu jako wyraz etyki „odwróconej” według Gershoma Scholema
Dorota Izabela Brylla
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 237 - 254
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.019.0972This article presents the radical wing of sabbataism (sabbatianism) – the messianic-mystical movement of heterodox Judaism which arose in the 17th century and flourished in the Ottoman Empire, founded by Sabbatai Zevi. This is done according to the works of Gershom Scholem and from the point of view of the ethical principles in their dimension directed to sexual life which the sabbataistic extremists, mainly from the Dönmeh group, had chosen as binding and obligatory ones. The distinctive feature of these directives compared to conventionally dominant ones was their “upturned” character. Therefore, the article will discuss the antinomism of which – as a tendency being opposed to the normative comprehension of the rules, established here by the Jewish law (nomos) on the basis of the Torah – the radical ma’aminim are an exemplification. Nevertheless, this sabbataistic reversal in the formulation of the issues concerning carnality reveals the profound doctrinal base in the form of the kabbalistic writings and on their pages introduced mystical conceptual categories (taken up in the present article) – the groundwork from which is determined by the dichotomy Torah de-’Atzilut–Torah de-Beri’ah – and to which the sabbataists attributed the peculiar “upturned” modus of interpretation.
Publication date: 04.12.2012
Issue Editors: Dominika Motak, Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Kevin L. Ladd
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 77 - 92
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.006.0822Long recognized as a defining feature of religion, prayer, paradoxically, has received only sporadic empirical attention. Recent investigations in the U.S. and the Netherlands have sought to address this gap by exploring the topic of prayer in programmatic fashions, significantly advancing the state of the art in terms of measurement of the practice of private prayer. The present paper first offers one way to integrate and expand the contemporary prayer literature using a conceptual analysis of religion. Second, challenges and possibilities associated with moving from this synthetic definition to neuroimaging work are examined within the framework of social cognitive neuroscience.
Frans Jespers
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 93 - 108
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.007.0823In the Netherlands a two-hour spiritual television show called Astro TV is broadcast daily on a commercial channel. I analyse the power and gender relations in and underlying this programme on the basis of my anthropological observations with reference to the theories of Bourdieu, Wood, Woodhead and others. In the show clients can call in and have a short consultation with a “spiritual specialist”, usually a psychic. On the surface such shows are very much like the presentations that psychics held at paranormal fairs in the 1990s. Both in the television show and in real consultations the psychics do dominate somewhat because of their claim to channel special signs or messages from “beyond” –they act like magicians. However, clients can reject the message or debate its meaning. Backstage a large and obscure pool of psychics, alternative healers and counsellors, publishers and businesspeople use divination programmes and other mass media presentations to supply a large public with holistic spirituality. On this second level real power is exerted more or less anonymously and commercially. Nevertheless, the divination practice appears to offer psychological support to the mainly working-class women who participate in it. Besides, both clients and psychics enjoy such practices, for instance as entertainment. Although religious symbolism is frequently used in such divinations, they should not be seen as a form of religion (because they lack worship), but as secular spirituality.
Dominika Motak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 109 - 115
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.008.0824
Religion was a recurrent theme in Georg Simmel’s thought. Despite this fact, and despite the current rediscovery of Simmel’s ideas, his insights into religion remain relatively neglected. The task of integrating Simmel’s legacy into the current study of religion remains a continuing challenge. This paper, based on an on-going study of Simmel’s work (involving a close reading of his writings in the original version), reflects on his conceptualisation of the relationship between religion understood as an objective, social and historical phenomenon and subjective religiosity.
In Simmel’s view, the religious perspective – a “particular spiritual quality” or “attitude of the soul”, a way of looking at the world as a whole – constitutes a kind of pre-stage of religion. This particular perspective of a religion-like (religioid) character makes up an individual foundation for religion, but it can also express itself in other cultural pursuits, like science or art. It only becomes religion after it assumes a specific form in human interaction. Simmel claims that many human relations have a religious character; faith, which is regarded as the substance of religion, is first a relationship between individuals. Out of the subjective faith-process there develops an object for that faith: the idea of God, who is “the absolute object of human faith”. For Simmel, the idea of God (conceived of as the unity of existence, the coincidentia oppositorum) is constitutive for religion.
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 117 - 124
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.009.0825This paper discusses the ambiguity of sex identity within Aboriginal mythology. Male/female relations are the main point of the well-known Wawilag Sisters myth from Arnhem Land, based on a series of equivalent mythical unions: the penis in the vagina (male in female) ≡the serpent in the hut (male in female) ≡Wawilag sisters pregnancy (male in female) ≡Wawilag sisters devoured by the serpent (female in male) ≡subincised penis (female in male). The effect of such equivalencies may be compared to a “matryoshka”doll: the male (child) is in the female (sisters) which is in the male (serpent), which in a way also renders the male symbols female (this is why the serpent is called “pregnant”). The basis of such a construction may be understood as the creation of a series of transformations male>female>male>female etc., which eventually leads to realisation of the exchange of female with male blood; their equipoise is necessary for initiation ceremonies.
Jakub Bohuszewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 125 - 135
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.010.0826To begin with, a hypothesis is made regarding the possibility of treating imitation as a key mechanism in the induction of trance states. The author argues that this thesis can be justified convincingly on the basis of empirical material collected by researchers of shamanism. The theories of religion formulated by evolutionary psychologists place emphasis on the origins of religious concepts. However, they leave aside the question of ritual, and also do not permit a more thorough study of the mechanisms generating a ritual trance state. In order to analyse the cognitive aspects of trance, it is therefore necessary to construct a different theoretical model.
Zofia Grudzińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 137 - 145
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.011.0827In religious studies, prayer has been extensively researched. Psychological studies use survey methods, so low-educated respondents often cannot comprehend the items. A projective method is presented, based on the Thematic Apperception Test by A. Murray and Ch. Morgan. Data collected in semi-structured interviews are used for qualitative research and for statistical analysis. Quantitative analysis of the references to prayer in narratives has yielded certain results, confirming the usefulness of the test. Qualitative analysis has revealed specificity of the petition and intercession prayer and has called attention to association of location to specific types of prayer.
Elżbieta Wnuk-Lisowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 147 - 163
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.012.0828Philosophical discourse in Islam revolves around God, and God’s manifestation in the world. This article attempts to describe the philosophical concept, and especially the Sufi concept, of God. For Muslim philosophers the question “how does unity give rise to multiplicity?”had a crucial meaning. In Islam God is One, and everything else is two or more. The Oneness of being remains inaccessible to people. However, Sufi s tried to give an answer to the question “What is Reality? What is the ‘face of God’, and what does this notion really mean?”And also “what veils separate Him from His creation?”Sufi s tried to find the answer to all these questions not in the calm of a library but in deep religious experience. Because God in His mercy revealed the Laws in order that people would be able to make choices which lead directly to their felicity in the next stage of their experience. This was a difficult and dangerous process, and it required from neophytes a love of God. In their searches, the Sufi s try to answer the question of what one sees when one throws off the inhibiting shackles of the mind and senses, what does one feel when one crosses the border of the phenomenal world? What kind of world does one observe when one wakes up from a dream which is life? What does one see in the state of illumination?
Kevin L. Ladd
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 77 - 92
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.006.0822Long recognized as a defining feature of religion, prayer, paradoxically, has received only sporadic empirical attention. Recent investigations in the U.S. and the Netherlands have sought to address this gap by exploring the topic of prayer in programmatic fashions, significantly advancing the state of the art in terms of measurement of the practice of private prayer. The present paper first offers one way to integrate and expand the contemporary prayer literature using a conceptual analysis of religion. Second, challenges and possibilities associated with moving from this synthetic definition to neuroimaging work are examined within the framework of social cognitive neuroscience.
Frans Jespers
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 93 - 108
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.007.0823In the Netherlands a two-hour spiritual television show called Astro TV is broadcast daily on a commercial channel. I analyse the power and gender relations in and underlying this programme on the basis of my anthropological observations with reference to the theories of Bourdieu, Wood, Woodhead and others. In the show clients can call in and have a short consultation with a “spiritual specialist”, usually a psychic. On the surface such shows are very much like the presentations that psychics held at paranormal fairs in the 1990s. Both in the television show and in real consultations the psychics do dominate somewhat because of their claim to channel special signs or messages from “beyond” –they act like magicians. However, clients can reject the message or debate its meaning. Backstage a large and obscure pool of psychics, alternative healers and counsellors, publishers and businesspeople use divination programmes and other mass media presentations to supply a large public with holistic spirituality. On this second level real power is exerted more or less anonymously and commercially. Nevertheless, the divination practice appears to offer psychological support to the mainly working-class women who participate in it. Besides, both clients and psychics enjoy such practices, for instance as entertainment. Although religious symbolism is frequently used in such divinations, they should not be seen as a form of religion (because they lack worship), but as secular spirituality.
Dominika Motak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 109 - 115
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.008.0824
Religion was a recurrent theme in Georg Simmel’s thought. Despite this fact, and despite the current rediscovery of Simmel’s ideas, his insights into religion remain relatively neglected. The task of integrating Simmel’s legacy into the current study of religion remains a continuing challenge. This paper, based on an on-going study of Simmel’s work (involving a close reading of his writings in the original version), reflects on his conceptualisation of the relationship between religion understood as an objective, social and historical phenomenon and subjective religiosity.
In Simmel’s view, the religious perspective – a “particular spiritual quality” or “attitude of the soul”, a way of looking at the world as a whole – constitutes a kind of pre-stage of religion. This particular perspective of a religion-like (religioid) character makes up an individual foundation for religion, but it can also express itself in other cultural pursuits, like science or art. It only becomes religion after it assumes a specific form in human interaction. Simmel claims that many human relations have a religious character; faith, which is regarded as the substance of religion, is first a relationship between individuals. Out of the subjective faith-process there develops an object for that faith: the idea of God, who is “the absolute object of human faith”. For Simmel, the idea of God (conceived of as the unity of existence, the coincidentia oppositorum) is constitutive for religion.
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 117 - 124
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.009.0825This paper discusses the ambiguity of sex identity within Aboriginal mythology. Male/female relations are the main point of the well-known Wawilag Sisters myth from Arnhem Land, based on a series of equivalent mythical unions: the penis in the vagina (male in female) ≡the serpent in the hut (male in female) ≡Wawilag sisters pregnancy (male in female) ≡Wawilag sisters devoured by the serpent (female in male) ≡subincised penis (female in male). The effect of such equivalencies may be compared to a “matryoshka”doll: the male (child) is in the female (sisters) which is in the male (serpent), which in a way also renders the male symbols female (this is why the serpent is called “pregnant”). The basis of such a construction may be understood as the creation of a series of transformations male>female>male>female etc., which eventually leads to realisation of the exchange of female with male blood; their equipoise is necessary for initiation ceremonies.
Jakub Bohuszewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 125 - 135
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.010.0826To begin with, a hypothesis is made regarding the possibility of treating imitation as a key mechanism in the induction of trance states. The author argues that this thesis can be justified convincingly on the basis of empirical material collected by researchers of shamanism. The theories of religion formulated by evolutionary psychologists place emphasis on the origins of religious concepts. However, they leave aside the question of ritual, and also do not permit a more thorough study of the mechanisms generating a ritual trance state. In order to analyse the cognitive aspects of trance, it is therefore necessary to construct a different theoretical model.
Zofia Grudzińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 137 - 145
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.011.0827In religious studies, prayer has been extensively researched. Psychological studies use survey methods, so low-educated respondents often cannot comprehend the items. A projective method is presented, based on the Thematic Apperception Test by A. Murray and Ch. Morgan. Data collected in semi-structured interviews are used for qualitative research and for statistical analysis. Quantitative analysis of the references to prayer in narratives has yielded certain results, confirming the usefulness of the test. Qualitative analysis has revealed specificity of the petition and intercession prayer and has called attention to association of location to specific types of prayer.
Elżbieta Wnuk-Lisowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 147 - 163
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.012.0828Philosophical discourse in Islam revolves around God, and God’s manifestation in the world. This article attempts to describe the philosophical concept, and especially the Sufi concept, of God. For Muslim philosophers the question “how does unity give rise to multiplicity?”had a crucial meaning. In Islam God is One, and everything else is two or more. The Oneness of being remains inaccessible to people. However, Sufi s tried to give an answer to the question “What is Reality? What is the ‘face of God’, and what does this notion really mean?”And also “what veils separate Him from His creation?”Sufi s tried to find the answer to all these questions not in the calm of a library but in deep religious experience. Because God in His mercy revealed the Laws in order that people would be able to make choices which lead directly to their felicity in the next stage of their experience. This was a difficult and dangerous process, and it required from neophytes a love of God. In their searches, the Sufi s try to answer the question of what one sees when one throws off the inhibiting shackles of the mind and senses, what does one feel when one crosses the border of the phenomenal world? What kind of world does one observe when one wakes up from a dream which is life? What does one see in the state of illumination?
Publication date: 19.09.2012
Issue Editors: Dominika Motak, Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Marcin Lisak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 1, 2012, pp. 7 - 19
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.001.0793This paper reflects, from a sociological perspective, on the nature of authority in the Church and on the modes of governance and character of the internal self-organisation of the institution of Roman Catholicism. Historically there are no restrictions to democratisation of the Catholic church. On the other hand, at the time of a credibility crisis the necessity for accountability strengthens the trend towards wider forms of democracy. The efficiency and integrity of Catholicism demand transparency of structures and accountability of leaders, who have frequently, especially in Ireland, failed in their supervision by mishandling and covering up abuse cases.
Robert Czyżykowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 1, 2012, pp. 21 - 36
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.002.0794The main theme of the article is the conviction that there is no single pan-Indian concept of the subtle or mystical body. All these phenomena are closely connected with the local ecosystem and culture, and appear as an effect of the collective influence of the religions active in a particular region. There is no doubt that some differences appear because of the varieties of individual vision experiences. This paper is a presentation of the doctrine of the body in the tradition of Vaishnava Sahajiya. This doctrine is the effect of synthesis of different elements which reflect the complex and various cultural landscape of Bengal (Vaishnava, Siddhas, Tantric Buddhism, Śaktism). Generally we can distinguish yogic and mythological elements (the Vaishnava tradition of Caitanya). The system of the subtle body centres (vessels –sarovara) and the net of internal channels (nadi) is in agreement rather with the Buddhist (sahajiya) scheme of four chakras than with the Hindu Tantric model of six chakras.
Arnold Lebeuf
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 1, 2012, pp. 37 - 56
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.003.0795Megalithic remnants have been the subject of numerous studies and constitute one of the most controversial subjects in archaeology. The problem of their function is still a point of disagrement among scholars. Archaeologists are usually very careful or critical about any interpretations concerning their religious, social or ritual meanings. The same scientific caution has generally led to ignoring of practices and beliefs found in modern folklore, let alone the biblical text. This is unfortunate, because the Bible is one of the very rare written sources informing us directly about prehistoric or proto-historical periods. Biblical references to the constructions and functions of megalithic monuments are numerous, and if authors have sometimes mentioned them, this has been merely as a simple list of verses without further comment or analysis. But in many places the Bible mentions the construction of megalithic monuments and gives precious information regarding their functions. Why not take them into consideration? The semantic contexts may also lead to further interpretations. I do not need to confess that the presentation only proposes a first approach to the problem, and quotations of the text will most unfortunately have to be reduced drastically.
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 1, 2012, pp. 57 - 66
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.004.0796The social structure and gender relations in Aboriginal societies clearly indicate that the male domain is favoured in contact with the sacred. Nevertheless, male-female relations are not as unequivocally established as they are thought to be within Aboriginal mythology. The sex of sacred characters such as the Rainbow Serpent or Cannibal Monster is extremely flexible even within the same version of a myth. The general character of male/female relations tends to be one of exchange, where male sacred power is a derivative of the female power of fertility. The most sacred values, belonging to the sacred-secret realm, are established by the tension between male and female principles, marked by moving those elements that belong to one gender to the domain of the other. This construct also establishes the threat of desacralisation, connected with moving the object back to the domain it came from.
Katarzyna Bajka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 1, 2012, pp. 67 - 76
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.005.0797Socially imprinted death is a concept introduced by Marcel Mauss and related to many different phenomena, one of which is the ritual death by fasting still present in contemporary Jainism. Sallekhana is a traditional ritual once performed by chiefs, kings, brave warriors and holy monks, and is therefore linked to bravery, strength, salvation, and makes the person who performs it a hero. On the other hand, by the letter of the law sallekhana is merely suicide, extreme violence against the self, and as it requires the professional guidance of a monk and is performed mostly by elderly people it is often seen as an act of euthanasia. Both of these acts are forbidden by Indian law and should be perceived as something far from heroic. This article explains various layers of the paradox of sallekhana, as a phenomenon having opposite meanings at the same time –like being violent and being against all violence, and dealing with many obstacles when it comes to social practice. It also investigates several ways such a death is embedded in and accepted by both the society and religion, and how it interprets and pushes to its limits the general rules and the complex ideology of Jainism.
Marcin Lisak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 1, 2012, pp. 7 - 19
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.001.0793This paper reflects, from a sociological perspective, on the nature of authority in the Church and on the modes of governance and character of the internal self-organisation of the institution of Roman Catholicism. Historically there are no restrictions to democratisation of the Catholic church. On the other hand, at the time of a credibility crisis the necessity for accountability strengthens the trend towards wider forms of democracy. The efficiency and integrity of Catholicism demand transparency of structures and accountability of leaders, who have frequently, especially in Ireland, failed in their supervision by mishandling and covering up abuse cases.
Robert Czyżykowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 1, 2012, pp. 21 - 36
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.002.0794The main theme of the article is the conviction that there is no single pan-Indian concept of the subtle or mystical body. All these phenomena are closely connected with the local ecosystem and culture, and appear as an effect of the collective influence of the religions active in a particular region. There is no doubt that some differences appear because of the varieties of individual vision experiences. This paper is a presentation of the doctrine of the body in the tradition of Vaishnava Sahajiya. This doctrine is the effect of synthesis of different elements which reflect the complex and various cultural landscape of Bengal (Vaishnava, Siddhas, Tantric Buddhism, Śaktism). Generally we can distinguish yogic and mythological elements (the Vaishnava tradition of Caitanya). The system of the subtle body centres (vessels –sarovara) and the net of internal channels (nadi) is in agreement rather with the Buddhist (sahajiya) scheme of four chakras than with the Hindu Tantric model of six chakras.
Arnold Lebeuf
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 1, 2012, pp. 37 - 56
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.003.0795Megalithic remnants have been the subject of numerous studies and constitute one of the most controversial subjects in archaeology. The problem of their function is still a point of disagrement among scholars. Archaeologists are usually very careful or critical about any interpretations concerning their religious, social or ritual meanings. The same scientific caution has generally led to ignoring of practices and beliefs found in modern folklore, let alone the biblical text. This is unfortunate, because the Bible is one of the very rare written sources informing us directly about prehistoric or proto-historical periods. Biblical references to the constructions and functions of megalithic monuments are numerous, and if authors have sometimes mentioned them, this has been merely as a simple list of verses without further comment or analysis. But in many places the Bible mentions the construction of megalithic monuments and gives precious information regarding their functions. Why not take them into consideration? The semantic contexts may also lead to further interpretations. I do not need to confess that the presentation only proposes a first approach to the problem, and quotations of the text will most unfortunately have to be reduced drastically.
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 1, 2012, pp. 57 - 66
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.004.0796The social structure and gender relations in Aboriginal societies clearly indicate that the male domain is favoured in contact with the sacred. Nevertheless, male-female relations are not as unequivocally established as they are thought to be within Aboriginal mythology. The sex of sacred characters such as the Rainbow Serpent or Cannibal Monster is extremely flexible even within the same version of a myth. The general character of male/female relations tends to be one of exchange, where male sacred power is a derivative of the female power of fertility. The most sacred values, belonging to the sacred-secret realm, are established by the tension between male and female principles, marked by moving those elements that belong to one gender to the domain of the other. This construct also establishes the threat of desacralisation, connected with moving the object back to the domain it came from.
Katarzyna Bajka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 45, Issue 1, 2012, pp. 67 - 76
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.12.005.0797Socially imprinted death is a concept introduced by Marcel Mauss and related to many different phenomena, one of which is the ritual death by fasting still present in contemporary Jainism. Sallekhana is a traditional ritual once performed by chiefs, kings, brave warriors and holy monks, and is therefore linked to bravery, strength, salvation, and makes the person who performs it a hero. On the other hand, by the letter of the law sallekhana is merely suicide, extreme violence against the self, and as it requires the professional guidance of a monk and is performed mostly by elderly people it is often seen as an act of euthanasia. Both of these acts are forbidden by Indian law and should be perceived as something far from heroic. This article explains various layers of the paradox of sallekhana, as a phenomenon having opposite meanings at the same time –like being violent and being against all violence, and dealing with many obstacles when it comes to social practice. It also investigates several ways such a death is embedded in and accepted by both the society and religion, and how it interprets and pushes to its limits the general rules and the complex ideology of Jainism.
Publication date: 31.12.2010
Editor-in-Chief: Andrzej Szyjewski
Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Issue Editor: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 7 - 33
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.001.0245The huge number of interpretations and approaches to religious experiences makes discourse in the scientific studies of religion on the scope and significance of these phenomena extremely difficult. Especially misleading is the identification of them with mystical experiences, as well as attempts to depreciate these types of experience that are alien to researchers. A possible solution is the introduction of a differentiated scale of religious experiences in which mystical experiences constitute their „climactic”, emotionally and cognitively most intensive form. Acknowledging Otto’s definition of sensus numinis, the content of the experience and its cognitive, motivational and physiological components become a problem. In this situation most promising is on the one hand the classical conception of Joachim Wach, which orders the discourse and proposes recognising research on religious experiences with one of the main disciplines of religious studies, and on the other Abraham Maslow’s concept of „peak experiences”and „plateau experiences”. Therefore, (1) religious experience is graded; (2) it is not exclusively the sense itself (sensus numinis), since it brings cognitive and volitional effects, (3) it need not have a personal character and (4) experiencing it usually leads to various, more or less successful attempts to express it, and this then happens by means of symbols and is organised in the form of myths.
Halina Grzymała-Moszczyńska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 35 - 47
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.002.0246This article presents the cultural factors which contribute to understanding psychological health and pathology. The definitions of understanding psychological health and ways of approaching treatment were analysed, with particular emphasis on the role of religion. Understanding health and pathology was analysed from the perspective of the distinction between illness and disease. Four academic disciplines tackling this topic –psychology of religion, cultural psychology, indigenous psychology and clinical psychology –were presented as specific ways of approaching a conceptualisation of the above problems.
Piotr Michalik
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 49 - 57
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.003.0247In the scientific study of religion the concept of ecstasy is connected to many phenomena, among them Shaman initiation journeys, ritual intoxication, the state of possession, as well as erotic and aesthetic rapture. All of these are present in the ritual practice and beliefs of the Indian school Yoginīkaula, developing in the sphere of the tantric Shaktist-Shaivist (śaktāśajva) currents. The core of the ritual-mythical system of the Kaulas was the cult of the yogini –threatening goddesses bestowing disciples with knowledge and power.
Robert Czyżykowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 59 - 69
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.004.0248In the religions of Bengal ecstasy is the culmination and test of religious maturity and the state of adulthood, the external expression of unio mystica and the effect of possession by a deity. Ecstasy confirms and provides meaning to religious practices, and the exceptional bodily states that accompany it provide religion with the marks of authenticity –one might say that ecstasy is the actualisation of the myth and model of the perfect person that can be found in Bengali culture. The ecstatic usually fulfils the function of guru –the verification of the authenticity of his bhava (ecstatic state) works as a legitimisation of his status as a religious teacher. Ecstasy can be induced by ritual means, asceticism and discipline –such ecstasy can be called ritual. In the other case it has the nature of spontaneous experience, and in this case it is perceived as a sign of the particular blessing of the deity. This understanding of the phenomenon of ecstasy is convergent with the concept of religion as a mystical state providing meaning as well as offering a person exceptional visionary experiences that are not present in ordinary life. In this way ecstasy would be the realisation of the innate human potential to enter altered states of consciousness (ASC), which constitute an integral component of traditional cultures. Such states are experienced by the participants of a given community in accordance with the model operating in that culture, and are the legitimisation of the knowledge passed on according to tradition. On the other hand, these states continually verify that model, and sometimes go beyond it, introducing new elements into the culture and specific religious tradition.
Grzegorz Wita
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 71 - 84
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.005.0249The Ashanti people of Ghana call the phenomenon of spiritual possession akom. This fulfils the role of sign of calling and authentication of the function of specialist in rituals. The possession of a person by the spirit of his/her ancestor or a deity is at the foundations of his/her fulfilment of the cultic mission of medium, bringing others closer to the will of supernatural beings. It is therefore perceived as a positive and expected phenomenon. It must be correctly recognised and exploited, however. Akom makes divinative and healing practices possible. Possession is perceived by the Ashantis as individual as well as collective, prophylactic and therapeutic cultic activity. It becomes an occasion for integration of the community and renewal of the social order through unification, song and dance. The ecstasy of the traditional priest, which most often takes place during rituals, reflects and fulfils the dependence, connection and communication of the person with supernatural beings.
Agata Świerzowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 85 - 94
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.006.0250This text presents the concept of the five (and not, as in European tradition, four) elements in Indian thought, concentrating in particular on the philosophy and practices of yoga, whose aim is to use the elements on a path ultimately meant to lead to liberation. Earth (prithiwi), water (ap), fi re (agni), air (wata), ether (akasha), known in Sanskrit as bhuta or mahabhuta (terms which only overlap to a limited degree with the English terms like „element”), come from original materials, and mix together in given proportions. In this way they not only become the basis of the existence of the reality surrounding us, but also form, describe and to a certain degree determine the nature and functioning of the person. These fundamental elements, although they remain concealed and are not available for direct understanding, manifest their existence in many various ways: thanks to these it is possible for the five senses to work, constituting a determinant of the division of the human body into five parts, are at the basis of the five pranas of life and the so-called humours of the body (dosha). Lastly, they are manifested in the various chakras, the concept of which is so often invoked and even more often deformed in popular Western literature. Thanks to these subtle manifestations, it is possible for the various elements to be influenced in a given way, controlled, until complete enthralment –and this is not only in the microcosmic dimension (the person) but also macrocosmic (reality). The gradual enthralment of the elements designates the various degrees of the ecstatic journey towards ultimate liberation. The article is opened by a short description of the individual elements, and then the following are shown: the mechanism, selected ascetic-mystical practices (asana, pranayama, meditation of elements), the effects of transformation of elements and their role in achieving ecstatic states.
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 95 - 107
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.007.0251The starting point of the article is a critical analysis of the possible interpretations of the famous excerpt of Enn. IV 8[6],1,1–11, on the basis of which the image of the ecstasy of Plotinus as a momentary rapture, which Plotinus apparently experienced a certain number of times in his life, was formed. In the next part of the article this analysis becomes a pretext for considering, on the one hand, the elements which show the closely philosophical, rational character of the Plotinian system, yet on the other hand the irrational elements appearing in the text of Enneads. The author also tackles the problem of the continuity of the irrational component of Neoplatonic tradition. In this way she tries to answer the question whether Postplotinian Neoplatonism –sinking to irrationalist positions –broke with the rationalist premises of the philosophy of Plotinus, or, on the contrary, has its basis in certain philosophical assumptions which develop Plotinus’views.
Marta Höffner
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 109 - 120
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.008.0252In this article the author, based on selected early-monastic texts (apophtegmata, biographies of monks and historical/travel reports), analyses issues of visions and ecstasy at the beginning of early Christian monasticism. The main problem tackled in the text is the approach of monks to the phenomenon of ecstasy and visions. This issue is inseparably linked with the socio-geographical context of the lives of the fi rst monks, who mostly lived in the desert. Ecstasy is something which goes beyond the established order of affairs, and the visions sent by Satan to the monks are tests, the next stages on the way to the transformation of the human being, but also stigmata of holiness.
Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 121 - 133
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.009.0253This article is an attempt to analyse the Orthodox monastic tradition of contemplative (hesychastic) prayer, the goal of which was to achieve an ecstatic unification with God and the divinisation (theosis) of human nature. Until the 11th century the practice of this kind of prayer was passed on orally, preserving the spiritual father-disciple relation. However, some of its elements can be found in the writings of some of the Fathers of the Church –e.g. Athanasius of Alexandria, the Cappadocian Fathers –Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus –as well as in the works of Evagrius of Pontus and John Climacus. The continuation of this tradition includes the works of the leading Byzantine theologist of the 11th century St Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022). However, it was not until the 14th century, as a result of the dispute caused by the statements of the Byzantine monk Barlaam of Calabria, that there was a systematic approach to hesychasm in Byzantine writings. In response, St Gregory Palamas (1296–1359), based on the book of the fathers of the Church, systematically described the doctrine of hesychasm in three treatises (triads) entitled In Defence of the Holy Hesychasts, and written in the years 1338–1341. This doctrine, sometimes known as palamism after St Gregory Palamas, was recognised as an authentic expression of Orthodox faith at the council in Constantinople in 1351. The article analyses the most important elements of the hesychastic method and descriptions of the visions experienced during the practice of it.
Stanisław Grodź
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 135 - 146
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.010.0254Phenomena observable during African Christian prayer session, which usually hardly ever is short, quiet and devoid of externally expressed emotions, will not be unanimously described as „ecstatic”by researchers but at least some of those praying strive towards attaining a kind of ecstatic experience or state. African Traditional Religions are not „ecstatic religions”but ecstatic elements form an integral part of the African experiential religiosity that found its way into the Christian expressions of religiosity. After a period of suppression, these experiences are being sought after at present, especially in the Neo-Pentecostal movements, and contribute to a new dynamism of Christianity in Africa. The article, after some clarifications concerning terminology, highlights some of the ecstatic elements in the religiosity of contemporary Ghanaians.
Małgorzata Kowalczyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 147 - 159
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.011.0255Andrzej Towiański (1799–1878), philosopher, Messianist and religious leader, is one of the most interesting figures of 19th-century Polish emigre circles. As a result of the religious revelation he apparently experienced, he began to propagate the need for a Christian revolution for the authentic imitation of Christ. In 1840 he left for France, where he attracted many supporters to his ideas, including Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki. In Paris in 1841 they founded the Circle of God’s Cause, also known as the Circle of Towiańskiites. The author of this paper analyses the influence of the idea of mesmerism on Towiański’s concepts, although he himself firmly denied these influences. The author suggests that Towiański understood magnetism in much broader terms than his contemporaries, and did not want to be associated with the picture of magnetism popular in the social circles of the time; for him it was a practice leading solely to awakening of loving exaltation.
Jakub Bohuszewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 161 - 184
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.012.0256The aim of the text is to examine the performance theories of ritual from the point of view of their usefulness in analysing the ceremonial life of Shaman hunter-gatherer communities. The main thesis of the article states that whereas the performance concept of ritual shines an accurate light on selected aspects of the ritual life of hunter-gatherers, the methods used by such luminaries of performance studies as Richard Schechner and Erving Goffman are not sufficient to grasp the crux of the ceremonial life of a community whose religion is concentrated around the figure of the shaman. Using selected examples, the author attempts to explain the cause of this state of affairs, pointing to trance as above all a characteristic defining the model shaman ritual. The culminating moment of the trance is the end of the opposition analysed by proponents of performance studies between the individual and the stage. This fact forces us to revise some of the key premises postulated by the representatives of this paradigm.
Doświadczenie religijne w opisie i interpretacji antropologicznej – między emocjami a racjonalizacją
Inga Kuźma
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 187 - 195
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.013.0257The author discusses the problem in defining the scope and determining the meaning of the concept of „religious experience”in cultural anthropology. She identifies an individual religious experience which can cause particular difficulties to ethnographers seeking to interpret and describe it. These considerations are illustrated using a selected example from her field research.
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 7 - 33
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.001.0245The huge number of interpretations and approaches to religious experiences makes discourse in the scientific studies of religion on the scope and significance of these phenomena extremely difficult. Especially misleading is the identification of them with mystical experiences, as well as attempts to depreciate these types of experience that are alien to researchers. A possible solution is the introduction of a differentiated scale of religious experiences in which mystical experiences constitute their „climactic”, emotionally and cognitively most intensive form. Acknowledging Otto’s definition of sensus numinis, the content of the experience and its cognitive, motivational and physiological components become a problem. In this situation most promising is on the one hand the classical conception of Joachim Wach, which orders the discourse and proposes recognising research on religious experiences with one of the main disciplines of religious studies, and on the other Abraham Maslow’s concept of „peak experiences”and „plateau experiences”. Therefore, (1) religious experience is graded; (2) it is not exclusively the sense itself (sensus numinis), since it brings cognitive and volitional effects, (3) it need not have a personal character and (4) experiencing it usually leads to various, more or less successful attempts to express it, and this then happens by means of symbols and is organised in the form of myths.
Halina Grzymała-Moszczyńska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 35 - 47
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.002.0246This article presents the cultural factors which contribute to understanding psychological health and pathology. The definitions of understanding psychological health and ways of approaching treatment were analysed, with particular emphasis on the role of religion. Understanding health and pathology was analysed from the perspective of the distinction between illness and disease. Four academic disciplines tackling this topic –psychology of religion, cultural psychology, indigenous psychology and clinical psychology –were presented as specific ways of approaching a conceptualisation of the above problems.
Piotr Michalik
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 49 - 57
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.003.0247In the scientific study of religion the concept of ecstasy is connected to many phenomena, among them Shaman initiation journeys, ritual intoxication, the state of possession, as well as erotic and aesthetic rapture. All of these are present in the ritual practice and beliefs of the Indian school Yoginīkaula, developing in the sphere of the tantric Shaktist-Shaivist (śaktāśajva) currents. The core of the ritual-mythical system of the Kaulas was the cult of the yogini –threatening goddesses bestowing disciples with knowledge and power.
Robert Czyżykowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 59 - 69
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.004.0248In the religions of Bengal ecstasy is the culmination and test of religious maturity and the state of adulthood, the external expression of unio mystica and the effect of possession by a deity. Ecstasy confirms and provides meaning to religious practices, and the exceptional bodily states that accompany it provide religion with the marks of authenticity –one might say that ecstasy is the actualisation of the myth and model of the perfect person that can be found in Bengali culture. The ecstatic usually fulfils the function of guru –the verification of the authenticity of his bhava (ecstatic state) works as a legitimisation of his status as a religious teacher. Ecstasy can be induced by ritual means, asceticism and discipline –such ecstasy can be called ritual. In the other case it has the nature of spontaneous experience, and in this case it is perceived as a sign of the particular blessing of the deity. This understanding of the phenomenon of ecstasy is convergent with the concept of religion as a mystical state providing meaning as well as offering a person exceptional visionary experiences that are not present in ordinary life. In this way ecstasy would be the realisation of the innate human potential to enter altered states of consciousness (ASC), which constitute an integral component of traditional cultures. Such states are experienced by the participants of a given community in accordance with the model operating in that culture, and are the legitimisation of the knowledge passed on according to tradition. On the other hand, these states continually verify that model, and sometimes go beyond it, introducing new elements into the culture and specific religious tradition.
Grzegorz Wita
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 71 - 84
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.005.0249The Ashanti people of Ghana call the phenomenon of spiritual possession akom. This fulfils the role of sign of calling and authentication of the function of specialist in rituals. The possession of a person by the spirit of his/her ancestor or a deity is at the foundations of his/her fulfilment of the cultic mission of medium, bringing others closer to the will of supernatural beings. It is therefore perceived as a positive and expected phenomenon. It must be correctly recognised and exploited, however. Akom makes divinative and healing practices possible. Possession is perceived by the Ashantis as individual as well as collective, prophylactic and therapeutic cultic activity. It becomes an occasion for integration of the community and renewal of the social order through unification, song and dance. The ecstasy of the traditional priest, which most often takes place during rituals, reflects and fulfils the dependence, connection and communication of the person with supernatural beings.
Agata Świerzowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 85 - 94
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.006.0250This text presents the concept of the five (and not, as in European tradition, four) elements in Indian thought, concentrating in particular on the philosophy and practices of yoga, whose aim is to use the elements on a path ultimately meant to lead to liberation. Earth (prithiwi), water (ap), fi re (agni), air (wata), ether (akasha), known in Sanskrit as bhuta or mahabhuta (terms which only overlap to a limited degree with the English terms like „element”), come from original materials, and mix together in given proportions. In this way they not only become the basis of the existence of the reality surrounding us, but also form, describe and to a certain degree determine the nature and functioning of the person. These fundamental elements, although they remain concealed and are not available for direct understanding, manifest their existence in many various ways: thanks to these it is possible for the five senses to work, constituting a determinant of the division of the human body into five parts, are at the basis of the five pranas of life and the so-called humours of the body (dosha). Lastly, they are manifested in the various chakras, the concept of which is so often invoked and even more often deformed in popular Western literature. Thanks to these subtle manifestations, it is possible for the various elements to be influenced in a given way, controlled, until complete enthralment –and this is not only in the microcosmic dimension (the person) but also macrocosmic (reality). The gradual enthralment of the elements designates the various degrees of the ecstatic journey towards ultimate liberation. The article is opened by a short description of the individual elements, and then the following are shown: the mechanism, selected ascetic-mystical practices (asana, pranayama, meditation of elements), the effects of transformation of elements and their role in achieving ecstatic states.
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 95 - 107
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.007.0251The starting point of the article is a critical analysis of the possible interpretations of the famous excerpt of Enn. IV 8[6],1,1–11, on the basis of which the image of the ecstasy of Plotinus as a momentary rapture, which Plotinus apparently experienced a certain number of times in his life, was formed. In the next part of the article this analysis becomes a pretext for considering, on the one hand, the elements which show the closely philosophical, rational character of the Plotinian system, yet on the other hand the irrational elements appearing in the text of Enneads. The author also tackles the problem of the continuity of the irrational component of Neoplatonic tradition. In this way she tries to answer the question whether Postplotinian Neoplatonism –sinking to irrationalist positions –broke with the rationalist premises of the philosophy of Plotinus, or, on the contrary, has its basis in certain philosophical assumptions which develop Plotinus’views.
Marta Höffner
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 109 - 120
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.008.0252In this article the author, based on selected early-monastic texts (apophtegmata, biographies of monks and historical/travel reports), analyses issues of visions and ecstasy at the beginning of early Christian monasticism. The main problem tackled in the text is the approach of monks to the phenomenon of ecstasy and visions. This issue is inseparably linked with the socio-geographical context of the lives of the fi rst monks, who mostly lived in the desert. Ecstasy is something which goes beyond the established order of affairs, and the visions sent by Satan to the monks are tests, the next stages on the way to the transformation of the human being, but also stigmata of holiness.
Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 121 - 133
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.009.0253This article is an attempt to analyse the Orthodox monastic tradition of contemplative (hesychastic) prayer, the goal of which was to achieve an ecstatic unification with God and the divinisation (theosis) of human nature. Until the 11th century the practice of this kind of prayer was passed on orally, preserving the spiritual father-disciple relation. However, some of its elements can be found in the writings of some of the Fathers of the Church –e.g. Athanasius of Alexandria, the Cappadocian Fathers –Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus –as well as in the works of Evagrius of Pontus and John Climacus. The continuation of this tradition includes the works of the leading Byzantine theologist of the 11th century St Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022). However, it was not until the 14th century, as a result of the dispute caused by the statements of the Byzantine monk Barlaam of Calabria, that there was a systematic approach to hesychasm in Byzantine writings. In response, St Gregory Palamas (1296–1359), based on the book of the fathers of the Church, systematically described the doctrine of hesychasm in three treatises (triads) entitled In Defence of the Holy Hesychasts, and written in the years 1338–1341. This doctrine, sometimes known as palamism after St Gregory Palamas, was recognised as an authentic expression of Orthodox faith at the council in Constantinople in 1351. The article analyses the most important elements of the hesychastic method and descriptions of the visions experienced during the practice of it.
Stanisław Grodź
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 135 - 146
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.010.0254Phenomena observable during African Christian prayer session, which usually hardly ever is short, quiet and devoid of externally expressed emotions, will not be unanimously described as „ecstatic”by researchers but at least some of those praying strive towards attaining a kind of ecstatic experience or state. African Traditional Religions are not „ecstatic religions”but ecstatic elements form an integral part of the African experiential religiosity that found its way into the Christian expressions of religiosity. After a period of suppression, these experiences are being sought after at present, especially in the Neo-Pentecostal movements, and contribute to a new dynamism of Christianity in Africa. The article, after some clarifications concerning terminology, highlights some of the ecstatic elements in the religiosity of contemporary Ghanaians.
Małgorzata Kowalczyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 147 - 159
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.011.0255Andrzej Towiański (1799–1878), philosopher, Messianist and religious leader, is one of the most interesting figures of 19th-century Polish emigre circles. As a result of the religious revelation he apparently experienced, he began to propagate the need for a Christian revolution for the authentic imitation of Christ. In 1840 he left for France, where he attracted many supporters to his ideas, including Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki. In Paris in 1841 they founded the Circle of God’s Cause, also known as the Circle of Towiańskiites. The author of this paper analyses the influence of the idea of mesmerism on Towiański’s concepts, although he himself firmly denied these influences. The author suggests that Towiański understood magnetism in much broader terms than his contemporaries, and did not want to be associated with the picture of magnetism popular in the social circles of the time; for him it was a practice leading solely to awakening of loving exaltation.
Jakub Bohuszewicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 161 - 184
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.012.0256The aim of the text is to examine the performance theories of ritual from the point of view of their usefulness in analysing the ceremonial life of Shaman hunter-gatherer communities. The main thesis of the article states that whereas the performance concept of ritual shines an accurate light on selected aspects of the ritual life of hunter-gatherers, the methods used by such luminaries of performance studies as Richard Schechner and Erving Goffman are not sufficient to grasp the crux of the ceremonial life of a community whose religion is concentrated around the figure of the shaman. Using selected examples, the author attempts to explain the cause of this state of affairs, pointing to trance as above all a characteristic defining the model shaman ritual. The culminating moment of the trance is the end of the opposition analysed by proponents of performance studies between the individual and the stage. This fact forces us to revise some of the key premises postulated by the representatives of this paradigm.
Doświadczenie religijne w opisie i interpretacji antropologicznej – między emocjami a racjonalizacją
Inga Kuźma
Studia Religiologica, Volume 44 , 2011, pp. 187 - 195
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.11.013.0257The author discusses the problem in defining the scope and determining the meaning of the concept of „religious experience”in cultural anthropology. She identifies an individual religious experience which can cause particular difficulties to ethnographers seeking to interpret and describe it. These considerations are illustrated using a selected example from her field research.
Publication date: 24.10.2010
Issue Editors: Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska, Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Orbis Christianus. Studia ofiarowane Profesorowi Janowi Drabinie
Wincenty Myszor
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 29 - 34
In Judeo-Christian theology, as in Hellenistic Christianity, the cross of Jesus was a fundamental problem. Until the time of Constantine in the Imperial community it was a sign of disgrace. For Christians the cross was a sign of salvation. The theological problem was caused by the inclusion of the cross as a positive symbol in a general and religious sense. In Judeo-Christian theology a method of typology was used which was known also in Jewish exegesis. The cross as a symbol of salvation was predicted among others by ”Jacob’s ladder” (cf. Genesis 28,12). Christians understood it as a cosmic cross on which Logos (the Son of God) had descended to earth, and as a path to salvation for people ascending to heaven. From ”Jacob’s ladder” only certain details were chosen for the
exegesis: ”the wood of the ladder/cross”, the motif of descent and ascent. In this way the typology of the ”ladder of the cross” allowed the meaning of the cross as a symbol of the shame of Jesu’s death sentence to win out
Bogusław Górka
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 35 - 56
The whole of the sixth chapter of the Gospel According to John is permeated by the motif of food. This is dominated especially by discourse on bread (John 6,25–58/59). Scholars generally opt for a Christological or Eucharistic interpretation of this discourse. A new light is thrown on this in a way eternal dilemma by this article, with an interpretation using a formula of initiation.
According to this interpretation bread is interpreted in the whole of the sixth chapter in a way conditioned by the gradual exposition of the titles of Jesus. Jesus as a teacher gives the bread of learning, as a prophet miraculously multiplies the „bread of symbols” (loaves of bread and fish), as the Messiah he is the true bread, as the Son of God he gives his body and blood as food. The Eucharist, then, is shown as the last type of bread. It is given to the inductees to eat at the end of the process of initiation in the Person of Jesus.
In terms of the specifics of the discourse on bread itself, John maintains it essentially on a messianic level, anticipating this way and that, as it were, the stage of initiation of the Son, and then returning to the pre-messianic stage. In the middle of the reference to the anticipation and retrospection we find Jesus as the Messiah, who is the food of the Christian (the catechumen)
Tomasz Dekert
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 57 - 75
In the writings of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus we encounter the conviction that the Hebrew and Aramaic term satan is translated into Greek as apostates. From the point of view of the meanings of this word in the compass of first languages this is an incorrect assumption. This text develops the hypothesis of the explanation of this issue which I gave in the article „The problem of the relations between Satan and the apostasy in the work of Irenaeus” (Studia Religiologica 39/2006), based on additional source texts. In my opinion the semantic identity of the terms satan and apostates is rooted in the Jewish mythology of the angel rebellion, based on the demonological interpretation of the 14th chapter of the Book of Isaiah, which received its written form in apocryphal texts, especially Vita Adae et Evae and the 2 Enoch 29,2–5; 31,3–6. They present Satan and his deeds in a way which permitted him to be described in Greek as an apostate, which in turn was the start of this epithet being identified with the name of the fallen angel.
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 77 - 92
The aim of this article is to present a review of the late antique sources showing that Didymus the Blind was a master of the Christian Alexandrian school and to examine them in the context of research on the phenomenon of this school. The author analyses three basic sources with information on the place and role of Didymus in the Alexandrian didaskaleion, i.e. Historia Ecclesiastica by Rufinus of Aquileia (XI 7), Historia Ecclesiastica by Sozomen (III 15), and Christianike Historia by Philip of Side.
The author polemicises with the interpretation of the key source of Rufinus of Aquileia proposed by R. Layton, with which she contrasts her own interpretation founded on the research current of the socalled Alexandrian school. Referring to the history of research on the Alexandrian didaskaleion, the author considers whether and to what extent the designation of Didymus as scholae ecclesiasticae doctor (contained in the writings of Rufinus of Aquileia) might refer to the fact that Didymus operated his own, comparatively independent exegetical school, which as a result of the character of Didymus’ ideas could only be perceived as a continuation of the Alexandrian school led earlier by Clement and Origen.
Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 93 - 112
This article raises the issue of the religious doctrine which developed at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries in one of the Italian Cathar Churches in Concorezzo, near Milan. This original doctrinal conception, concerning the question of the origin of evil, constituted a combination of moderate with radical dualism; it assumed that, other than the good principle – of God the creator – there is also an evil principle – an eternal four-faced spirit which does not have the power to create and is therefore not a god. A radical dualism of two principles not previously encountered therefore results, which attempts to remain moderate by force through retaining the idea of one God. Although this doctrine has been known to scholars since the 1940s, nobody has previously conducted a careful analysis of it. This article therefore attempts to explain the origin of this conception in the light of the events of the early history of Italian Catharism, separating the inspirations of the former dualistic doctrines from the original input of the Italian perfecti, to understand the motives of its creation and also to establish its place among the forms of dualism which we know.
Wiktor Szymborski
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 113 - 122
The aim of this article was to show the medieval indulgences granted to churches, guilds and the hospital functioning in the town of Wieliczka. To this end all the indulgences granted in the area of Małopolska (Lesser Poland) starting from the 13th century and until 1525 were charted. A comparative analysis of the entire source material collated revealed that Wieliczka was one of the few places on the map of medieval Małopolska which figured highest in terms of numbers of indulgences granted.
The first indulgences given to Wieliczka date back to the 14th century. Among 92 granted for the whole of Małopolska, Wieliczka received some seven. In comparison Krakow received 34 at this time, Kazimierz 10, but the Cistercian Monastery in Mogiła, at the time a rapidly developing religious centre, only gained four. In the next century the processes begun in the 14th century intensified. For the whole of Małopolska at this time 327 indulgence documents were issued to 78 centres, of which 13 or 14 concerned Wieliczka. The fact that some of these mentions do not have a date of issue and can be ascribed to ordinaries of the diocese living in both the 14th and the 15th centuries means that it is difficult to state this number equivocally. It is important to emphasise particularly that the largest number of indulgences granted to the congregation residing in Wieliczka concerned the fraternity which functioned there. The first indulgence document for Wieliczka was also the fi rst document to award with an indulgence the faithful participating in brothers’ masses and supporting the fraternity financially. The Wieliczka fraternity received five indulgences in a space of just 23 years, which is testimony to their rich development as well as the fact that its members were making concerted efforts to receive further indulgences. The inhabitants of Wieliczka were able to gain the graces of an indulgence not only by participating in the brothers’ masses but also by supporting the paupers staying in the hospital which had been founded in the 14th century by King Casimir III the Great.
Renata Czyż
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 123 - 134
This article, constituting a contribution to the history of dogmatic theology and religious polemic in the Polish Republic of the 16th century, is devoted to the dispute of the Jesuit priest Jacob Wujek and the Calvinist minister Gregory of Żarnowiec. Subjected to analysis were the texts of sermons from Marian feast days found in the authors’ postillas as well as their polemical works praising or defending theses stated earlier. Mariology, as one of the subjects of religious polemic, was examined in terms of both dogmatic theology and religious practices.
In the dispute in question Wujek attacked the Protestant articles of faith announced by Mikołaj Rej and taught Catholic learning on Mary. Gregory of Żarnowiec responded in defence of the views of Rej and his postillas, sharply opposing the interpretation of Catholic theologists of certain passages from the Bible referring to the Mother of Christ. In their dispute, mostly based on the Bible, the adversaries availed themselves of quotations from the works of Doctors and Fathers of the Church, as well as other sources. The patristic argument, however, was subordinate in relation to the biblical one, although in the field of Mariology it appeared often, especially in Wujek’s work.
The polemic took in the whole of the Mariological teaching of the Church. The Calvinist minister questioned the legitimacy of the majority of the titles granted to Mary as well as the celebration of certain feasts, such as the Nativity, Sacrifice and Assumption of Mary. He also condemned Catholic religious customs and practices. His radical view and the Christology in his sermons on Marian feast days contradict the theses of some historians and theologists on the submissive tolerance of Polish Protestants concerning the Marian cult in the 16th century.
Stefan Klemczak
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 135 - 156
This article is devoted to ways of exploring the mythical strains in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Previous research has managed to extrapolate the classical myths and their medieval variants from Dante’s work. However, the theory of myth developed by Hans Blumenberg opens a broader perspective for interpretation, revealing not only the myths’ anthropological and historical background, but also demonstrating the way they function within a literary work. The „world image” presented in the Divine Comedy can be explored in three stages of interpretation. At the most basic level, the article refers to the „catalogue” of classical and Christian myths contained in Dante’s poem. Further analysis of mythical subject-matter allows us to distinguish periodical variants of myths from Antiquity to our time. Finally, „the working of the myth” is considered at the most general level, with the help of „bsolute metaphors”, epitomizing the key images dominating the worldview at every historical period. Being devoted to the central myth of Christianity, Dante believed to have connected „earth and heaven” with the bridge of his art. The new approach to the subject of myth in Dante’s poem, using anthropologically-based concepts, allows us to better understand the construction and functions of Dante’s poetic „journey” in European culture.
Rafał Łętocha
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 157 - 168
Bishop Stanisław Adamski was one of the most important activists and social thinkers of the Polish Catholic Church of the first half of the 20th century. He devoted the majority of his activity to organizing a cooperative movement and to propagating this kind of solution on Polish soil. For years he fulfilled the function of member of the board, and then chairman of the Union of Earnings and Economic Cooperatives, which was the headquarters of all Polish cooperatives in the Prussian partition. After Poland gained independence he saw in the cooperative movement an excellent way of creating a strong middle class in Poland, the third estate the lack of which had apparently had such an effect on the earlier fortunes of the country. In his work he also emphasised strongly the moral basis and psychological effects of this movement, stressing that it would be favourable to the development of various desired characteristics, attitudes and behaviours, and therefore fulfil an educational role.
Małgorzata Grzywacz
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 169 - 182
The assumption of power by the Nazis in Germany initiated a series of changes which radically changed the situation of the Christian Churches. A role of no small importance in this process was played by the structures and contents that were the result of the Protestant development of the German Christians movement. This theology, pointed towards Nazism, contributed significantly to the reception of völkisch thought, which was gradually and effectively to replace the basic doctrinal elements of the Evangelical Churches with a new message whose meaning was adjusted to the state ruled by Hitler and his supporters. This text constitutes an attempt to present the realisation of the theological contents of the Deutsche Christen movement with reference to sacred architecture and the Bible.
Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 183 - 200
Text is devoted to Sister Katarzyna (Zofia) Steinberg (1898–1977), a nun of the Congregation of Franciscan Sisters of the Servants of the Cross in Laski, a doctor and eminent social activist of Jewish origin. Before her conversion she was known in Warsaw as a member of the Polish Socialist Party, and then as one of the participants in the most creative Catholic circle of the inter-war period – a group of intellectual concentrated around the eminent theologist and priest, Father Władysław Korniłowicz, and Mother Elżbieta (Róża) Czacka – the founder of the Society for Care of the Blind as well as the Congregation of Franciscan Sisters of the Servants of the Cross. Although Sister Katarzyna did not leave any theological texts behind, the scope of her social activity is the best mark left by the environment from which she came, as well as evidence of the complicated relations between the Catholic Church and the Communist authorities in the People’s Republic of Poland
Dominika Motak
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 201 - 218
An effect of the revision of the secularisation thesis is an array of conceptions attempting to capture the essence of the modern transformations of religions and the shape of non-traditional forms of religiosity. The concept of „(new) spirituality”, which is supposed to signal a new religious megatrend, today aspires to the role of „universal key” to contemporary analysis of religion. The aim of this article is to attempt to clarify the meaning of this term by reconstructing the origins of spirituality – the phenomenon itself as well as the term used to describe it. The concepts used to describe this subject are ordered in the sequence religion – religiosity – spirituality, which also corresponds to the direction of religious transformations in the West. The course of these changes is presented in a three-phase model of the origins of new spirituality based on the metaphor of change of the concentration of religious material: from the solid body, via fluid form to a gaseous state. This model is diachronic in character, but is also a reflection of synchronic order (the spectrum whose poles correspond to traditional religion and new spirituality).
Józef Lipiec
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 219 - 229
Starting from the judgement of Parmenides that there is existence but non-existence is not, the author discusses the issues of existence in Parmenides. This subject is examined not only as an ontological problem (what is existence per se), but also as an epistemological problem. Using Parmenides’ thesis of the cognisability of „non-existence”, the author considers the problem of the legitimacy of the concept of „non-existence” (how is it possible to perceive something which is not there), making use of the conception of modi existentiae (real existence, intentional existence). The problem of the complexity and simplicity of existence is also considered. Alongside the perception of existence as that which is absolutely simple, he also considers as possible the equally gentle, emergent and organicistic interpretation of the conception of existence according to Parmenides. At the same time, the contemplations in the article aim to show in what way the problem of existence as formulated by Parmenides has for centuries inspired philosophy and continues to do so.
Jerzy Ochmann
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 233 - 244
W historii etyki polskiej pojawiło się kilka interesujących poglądów. Jednymi z najcenniejszych były koncepcje etyczne Witolda Rubczyńskiego (1864–1938), który głosił trzy oryginalne tezy: energetyzm duchowy (energizm etyczny), melioryzm oraz waloryzację małych bohaterów. Szczególnie cennym tematem był melioryzm. Rubczyński wypracował jego podłoże filozoficzne, psychologiczne i cywilizacyjne oraz zwrócił uwagę na podmiotowe czynniki postępu kultury. Głównym dziełem etycznym Rubczyńskiego na temat melioryzmu był Zarys etyki (1916).
Izabela Trzcińska, Łukasz Trzciński
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 245 - 246
Świadomość biegu czasu taka, by stała się dla kogoś historią, nie jest czymś powszechnym. W pierwotnych i tradycyjnych społecznościach czas stanowił wymiar organicznego, uduchowionego kosmosu i nie oddzielał się od świata zdarzeń uformowanych w abstrakcyjne następstwo chwil, układających się w linię biegnącą od nieskończenie oddalonego początku w stronę nieskończenie dalekiej przyszłości. Był postrzegany raczej jako forma rosnącego „drzewa” świata, którą bardzo trudno oddzielić od jej zawartości. W tym kontekście pytanie o tożsamość człowieka to pytanie o jego miejsce w świecie, bowiem to ono stanowi szczególny wymiar podmiotowości. Organiczność wszechświata w pierwotnym światopoglądzie to także jego dynamika, a jej dwoma wy znacznikami (idąc za antropolingwistami) jest to, co możliwe, i to, co zrealizowane. Swoją względną stałość taki świat uzyskuje w perspektywie niezmiennych praw magii, jakie nim rządzą. Być może ta właśnie stałość magicznych praw pozwalała na ukonstytuowanie się światopoglądu zdolnego do dalszej, już religijnej ewolucji.
Jerzy Ochmann
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 233 - 244
W historii etyki polskiej pojawiło się kilka interesujących poglądów. Jednymi z najcenniejszych były koncepcje etyczne Witolda Rubczyńskiego (1864–1938), który głosił trzy oryginalne tezy: energetyzm duchowy (energizm etyczny), melioryzm oraz waloryzację małych bohaterów. Szczególnie cennym tematem był melioryzm. Rubczyński wypracował jego podłoże filozoficzne, psychologiczne i cywilizacyjne oraz zwrócił uwagę na podmiotowe czynniki postępu kultury. Głównym dziełem etycznym Rubczyńskiego na temat melioryzmu był Zarys etyki (1916).
Izabela Trzcińska, Łukasz Trzciński
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 245 - 246
Świadomość biegu czasu taka, by stała się dla kogoś historią, nie jest czymś powszechnym. W pierwotnych i tradycyjnych społecznościach czas stanowił wymiar organicznego, uduchowionego kosmosu i nie oddzielał się od świata zdarzeń uformowanych w abstrakcyjne następstwo chwil, układających się w linię biegnącą od nieskończenie oddalonego początku w stronę nieskończenie dalekiej przyszłości. Był postrzegany raczej jako forma rosnącego „drzewa” świata, którą bardzo trudno oddzielić od jej zawartości. W tym kontekście pytanie o tożsamość człowieka to pytanie o jego miejsce w świecie, bowiem to ono stanowi szczególny wymiar podmiotowości. Organiczność wszechświata w pierwotnym światopoglądzie to także jego dynamika, a jej dwoma wy znacznikami (idąc za antropolingwistami) jest to, co możliwe, i to, co zrealizowane. Swoją względną stałość taki świat uzyskuje w perspektywie niezmiennych praw magii, jakie nim rządzą. Być może ta właśnie stałość magicznych praw pozwalała na ukonstytuowanie się światopoglądu zdolnego do dalszej, już religijnej ewolucji.
Wincenty Myszor
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 29 - 34
In Judeo-Christian theology, as in Hellenistic Christianity, the cross of Jesus was a fundamental problem. Until the time of Constantine in the Imperial community it was a sign of disgrace. For Christians the cross was a sign of salvation. The theological problem was caused by the inclusion of the cross as a positive symbol in a general and religious sense. In Judeo-Christian theology a method of typology was used which was known also in Jewish exegesis. The cross as a symbol of salvation was predicted among others by ”Jacob’s ladder” (cf. Genesis 28,12). Christians understood it as a cosmic cross on which Logos (the Son of God) had descended to earth, and as a path to salvation for people ascending to heaven. From ”Jacob’s ladder” only certain details were chosen for the
exegesis: ”the wood of the ladder/cross”, the motif of descent and ascent. In this way the typology of the ”ladder of the cross” allowed the meaning of the cross as a symbol of the shame of Jesu’s death sentence to win out
Bogusław Górka
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 35 - 56
The whole of the sixth chapter of the Gospel According to John is permeated by the motif of food. This is dominated especially by discourse on bread (John 6,25–58/59). Scholars generally opt for a Christological or Eucharistic interpretation of this discourse. A new light is thrown on this in a way eternal dilemma by this article, with an interpretation using a formula of initiation.
According to this interpretation bread is interpreted in the whole of the sixth chapter in a way conditioned by the gradual exposition of the titles of Jesus. Jesus as a teacher gives the bread of learning, as a prophet miraculously multiplies the „bread of symbols” (loaves of bread and fish), as the Messiah he is the true bread, as the Son of God he gives his body and blood as food. The Eucharist, then, is shown as the last type of bread. It is given to the inductees to eat at the end of the process of initiation in the Person of Jesus.
In terms of the specifics of the discourse on bread itself, John maintains it essentially on a messianic level, anticipating this way and that, as it were, the stage of initiation of the Son, and then returning to the pre-messianic stage. In the middle of the reference to the anticipation and retrospection we find Jesus as the Messiah, who is the food of the Christian (the catechumen)
Tomasz Dekert
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 57 - 75
In the writings of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus we encounter the conviction that the Hebrew and Aramaic term satan is translated into Greek as apostates. From the point of view of the meanings of this word in the compass of first languages this is an incorrect assumption. This text develops the hypothesis of the explanation of this issue which I gave in the article „The problem of the relations between Satan and the apostasy in the work of Irenaeus” (Studia Religiologica 39/2006), based on additional source texts. In my opinion the semantic identity of the terms satan and apostates is rooted in the Jewish mythology of the angel rebellion, based on the demonological interpretation of the 14th chapter of the Book of Isaiah, which received its written form in apocryphal texts, especially Vita Adae et Evae and the 2 Enoch 29,2–5; 31,3–6. They present Satan and his deeds in a way which permitted him to be described in Greek as an apostate, which in turn was the start of this epithet being identified with the name of the fallen angel.
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 77 - 92
The aim of this article is to present a review of the late antique sources showing that Didymus the Blind was a master of the Christian Alexandrian school and to examine them in the context of research on the phenomenon of this school. The author analyses three basic sources with information on the place and role of Didymus in the Alexandrian didaskaleion, i.e. Historia Ecclesiastica by Rufinus of Aquileia (XI 7), Historia Ecclesiastica by Sozomen (III 15), and Christianike Historia by Philip of Side.
The author polemicises with the interpretation of the key source of Rufinus of Aquileia proposed by R. Layton, with which she contrasts her own interpretation founded on the research current of the socalled Alexandrian school. Referring to the history of research on the Alexandrian didaskaleion, the author considers whether and to what extent the designation of Didymus as scholae ecclesiasticae doctor (contained in the writings of Rufinus of Aquileia) might refer to the fact that Didymus operated his own, comparatively independent exegetical school, which as a result of the character of Didymus’ ideas could only be perceived as a continuation of the Alexandrian school led earlier by Clement and Origen.
Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 93 - 112
This article raises the issue of the religious doctrine which developed at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries in one of the Italian Cathar Churches in Concorezzo, near Milan. This original doctrinal conception, concerning the question of the origin of evil, constituted a combination of moderate with radical dualism; it assumed that, other than the good principle – of God the creator – there is also an evil principle – an eternal four-faced spirit which does not have the power to create and is therefore not a god. A radical dualism of two principles not previously encountered therefore results, which attempts to remain moderate by force through retaining the idea of one God. Although this doctrine has been known to scholars since the 1940s, nobody has previously conducted a careful analysis of it. This article therefore attempts to explain the origin of this conception in the light of the events of the early history of Italian Catharism, separating the inspirations of the former dualistic doctrines from the original input of the Italian perfecti, to understand the motives of its creation and also to establish its place among the forms of dualism which we know.
Wiktor Szymborski
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 113 - 122
The aim of this article was to show the medieval indulgences granted to churches, guilds and the hospital functioning in the town of Wieliczka. To this end all the indulgences granted in the area of Małopolska (Lesser Poland) starting from the 13th century and until 1525 were charted. A comparative analysis of the entire source material collated revealed that Wieliczka was one of the few places on the map of medieval Małopolska which figured highest in terms of numbers of indulgences granted.
The first indulgences given to Wieliczka date back to the 14th century. Among 92 granted for the whole of Małopolska, Wieliczka received some seven. In comparison Krakow received 34 at this time, Kazimierz 10, but the Cistercian Monastery in Mogiła, at the time a rapidly developing religious centre, only gained four. In the next century the processes begun in the 14th century intensified. For the whole of Małopolska at this time 327 indulgence documents were issued to 78 centres, of which 13 or 14 concerned Wieliczka. The fact that some of these mentions do not have a date of issue and can be ascribed to ordinaries of the diocese living in both the 14th and the 15th centuries means that it is difficult to state this number equivocally. It is important to emphasise particularly that the largest number of indulgences granted to the congregation residing in Wieliczka concerned the fraternity which functioned there. The first indulgence document for Wieliczka was also the fi rst document to award with an indulgence the faithful participating in brothers’ masses and supporting the fraternity financially. The Wieliczka fraternity received five indulgences in a space of just 23 years, which is testimony to their rich development as well as the fact that its members were making concerted efforts to receive further indulgences. The inhabitants of Wieliczka were able to gain the graces of an indulgence not only by participating in the brothers’ masses but also by supporting the paupers staying in the hospital which had been founded in the 14th century by King Casimir III the Great.
Renata Czyż
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 123 - 134
This article, constituting a contribution to the history of dogmatic theology and religious polemic in the Polish Republic of the 16th century, is devoted to the dispute of the Jesuit priest Jacob Wujek and the Calvinist minister Gregory of Żarnowiec. Subjected to analysis were the texts of sermons from Marian feast days found in the authors’ postillas as well as their polemical works praising or defending theses stated earlier. Mariology, as one of the subjects of religious polemic, was examined in terms of both dogmatic theology and religious practices.
In the dispute in question Wujek attacked the Protestant articles of faith announced by Mikołaj Rej and taught Catholic learning on Mary. Gregory of Żarnowiec responded in defence of the views of Rej and his postillas, sharply opposing the interpretation of Catholic theologists of certain passages from the Bible referring to the Mother of Christ. In their dispute, mostly based on the Bible, the adversaries availed themselves of quotations from the works of Doctors and Fathers of the Church, as well as other sources. The patristic argument, however, was subordinate in relation to the biblical one, although in the field of Mariology it appeared often, especially in Wujek’s work.
The polemic took in the whole of the Mariological teaching of the Church. The Calvinist minister questioned the legitimacy of the majority of the titles granted to Mary as well as the celebration of certain feasts, such as the Nativity, Sacrifice and Assumption of Mary. He also condemned Catholic religious customs and practices. His radical view and the Christology in his sermons on Marian feast days contradict the theses of some historians and theologists on the submissive tolerance of Polish Protestants concerning the Marian cult in the 16th century.
Stefan Klemczak
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 135 - 156
This article is devoted to ways of exploring the mythical strains in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Previous research has managed to extrapolate the classical myths and their medieval variants from Dante’s work. However, the theory of myth developed by Hans Blumenberg opens a broader perspective for interpretation, revealing not only the myths’ anthropological and historical background, but also demonstrating the way they function within a literary work. The „world image” presented in the Divine Comedy can be explored in three stages of interpretation. At the most basic level, the article refers to the „catalogue” of classical and Christian myths contained in Dante’s poem. Further analysis of mythical subject-matter allows us to distinguish periodical variants of myths from Antiquity to our time. Finally, „the working of the myth” is considered at the most general level, with the help of „bsolute metaphors”, epitomizing the key images dominating the worldview at every historical period. Being devoted to the central myth of Christianity, Dante believed to have connected „earth and heaven” with the bridge of his art. The new approach to the subject of myth in Dante’s poem, using anthropologically-based concepts, allows us to better understand the construction and functions of Dante’s poetic „journey” in European culture.
Rafał Łętocha
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 157 - 168
Bishop Stanisław Adamski was one of the most important activists and social thinkers of the Polish Catholic Church of the first half of the 20th century. He devoted the majority of his activity to organizing a cooperative movement and to propagating this kind of solution on Polish soil. For years he fulfilled the function of member of the board, and then chairman of the Union of Earnings and Economic Cooperatives, which was the headquarters of all Polish cooperatives in the Prussian partition. After Poland gained independence he saw in the cooperative movement an excellent way of creating a strong middle class in Poland, the third estate the lack of which had apparently had such an effect on the earlier fortunes of the country. In his work he also emphasised strongly the moral basis and psychological effects of this movement, stressing that it would be favourable to the development of various desired characteristics, attitudes and behaviours, and therefore fulfil an educational role.
Małgorzata Grzywacz
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 169 - 182
The assumption of power by the Nazis in Germany initiated a series of changes which radically changed the situation of the Christian Churches. A role of no small importance in this process was played by the structures and contents that were the result of the Protestant development of the German Christians movement. This theology, pointed towards Nazism, contributed significantly to the reception of völkisch thought, which was gradually and effectively to replace the basic doctrinal elements of the Evangelical Churches with a new message whose meaning was adjusted to the state ruled by Hitler and his supporters. This text constitutes an attempt to present the realisation of the theological contents of the Deutsche Christen movement with reference to sacred architecture and the Bible.
Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 183 - 200
Text is devoted to Sister Katarzyna (Zofia) Steinberg (1898–1977), a nun of the Congregation of Franciscan Sisters of the Servants of the Cross in Laski, a doctor and eminent social activist of Jewish origin. Before her conversion she was known in Warsaw as a member of the Polish Socialist Party, and then as one of the participants in the most creative Catholic circle of the inter-war period – a group of intellectual concentrated around the eminent theologist and priest, Father Władysław Korniłowicz, and Mother Elżbieta (Róża) Czacka – the founder of the Society for Care of the Blind as well as the Congregation of Franciscan Sisters of the Servants of the Cross. Although Sister Katarzyna did not leave any theological texts behind, the scope of her social activity is the best mark left by the environment from which she came, as well as evidence of the complicated relations between the Catholic Church and the Communist authorities in the People’s Republic of Poland
Dominika Motak
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 201 - 218
An effect of the revision of the secularisation thesis is an array of conceptions attempting to capture the essence of the modern transformations of religions and the shape of non-traditional forms of religiosity. The concept of „(new) spirituality”, which is supposed to signal a new religious megatrend, today aspires to the role of „universal key” to contemporary analysis of religion. The aim of this article is to attempt to clarify the meaning of this term by reconstructing the origins of spirituality – the phenomenon itself as well as the term used to describe it. The concepts used to describe this subject are ordered in the sequence religion – religiosity – spirituality, which also corresponds to the direction of religious transformations in the West. The course of these changes is presented in a three-phase model of the origins of new spirituality based on the metaphor of change of the concentration of religious material: from the solid body, via fluid form to a gaseous state. This model is diachronic in character, but is also a reflection of synchronic order (the spectrum whose poles correspond to traditional religion and new spirituality).
Józef Lipiec
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 43, 2010, pp. 219 - 229
Starting from the judgement of Parmenides that there is existence but non-existence is not, the author discusses the issues of existence in Parmenides. This subject is examined not only as an ontological problem (what is existence per se), but also as an epistemological problem. Using Parmenides’ thesis of the cognisability of „non-existence”, the author considers the problem of the legitimacy of the concept of „non-existence” (how is it possible to perceive something which is not there), making use of the conception of modi existentiae (real existence, intentional existence). The problem of the complexity and simplicity of existence is also considered. Alongside the perception of existence as that which is absolutely simple, he also considers as possible the equally gentle, emergent and organicistic interpretation of the conception of existence according to Parmenides. At the same time, the contemplations in the article aim to show in what way the problem of existence as formulated by Parmenides has for centuries inspired philosophy and continues to do so.
Publication date: 2009
Edited by: Jana Drabiny
Lech Trzcionkowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 11 - 27
The article discusses some selected problems in analysis of ritual in the religion of ancient Greeks. Part one presents the history of study of the relationship between myth and ritual, focusing on principal ideas which appeared in the late 19th century. A turn toward ritual in studying ancient religion meant a shift in emphasis away from mythology. Nonetheless, questions about links between mythological texts and rituals still remain part of research scope. In the 1960’s, scholars’ attention focused on sacrificial ritual, with various interpretative methods being used. Walter Burkert proposed a pre-agrarian origin of blood sacrifices, tracing them to the behavior of Paleolithic hunters. Jean-Pierre Vernant (with associates) used structuralist methods to interpret offerings as a symbolic expression of man’s status as between gods and beasts. Thus Burkert’s theory explains myths as a cultural interpretation of inherited rituals which may be reduced to biologically programmed behavior, while Vernant’s theory sees myth and ritual as two forms expressing the anthropological concepts of Greek Man. In part two, the article contains translations of key source texts, proving that, on close reading, they render great theories less than obvious.
Andrzej Wypustek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 29 - 49
The author discusses the Greek funerary verse-inscriptions as the primary sources for the study of Greek burial rituals (Classical, Hellenistic, Greek-Roman). Funerary epigrams constitute an invaluable source, as funeral, an ordinary event of daily life did not draw enough attention of ancient writers. Archaeological sources, on the other hand, are too often ambiguous and fragmentary. As a result, epigrams help us most to determine the way funerary rites in Greek antiquity were performed; moreover, they give us also first-hand accounts of these practices, which is unparalleled by any of the extant literary testimonies. The importance of funerary rites as ta nomizomena in verse inscriptions is noticeable; most important elements of burial are well documented, starting with prothesis, ritual lamentation, procession, interment or cremation, funeral offerings, and concluded with lustrations, funeral banquet and subsequent visitations of the tombs.
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 51 - 65
Deriving the etymology of the term theourgia, which is probably made up of the words „god” (theos) and „work” (ergon), the article attempts to explain the role played in theurgy by „work”. The author asks a question about what, and, more importantly, whose action it is that is meant in theurgy and investigates three possible answers: acting on the gods, the gods’ actions, and creating the gods. The analysis is based on a Neoplatonic interpretation of the theurgic ritual as shown in De mysteriis, where Iamblichus questions Porphyry’s view in which theurgists claim a right to influence the gods. The article investigates the concept of theurgic ritual which Iamblichus formulated in response to Porphyry’s accusations. The author concentrates on Iamblichus’ main point which is that active in theurgy is not man, but the gods, who take control over ritual and use it as an instrument to influence men in order to enable them to achieve salvation. She also examines the meaning of ritual techniques performed by men as she addresses invocations intoned by the priest which served as a technique of attainment divine condition.
Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 67 - 84
The article addresses the controversial problem of the meaning of doctrine in interpreting the dualist sacrament of baptism of the Holy Spirit. Some researchers into Catharism downgrade the role of doctrinal differences in medieval dualism, believing that they were of secondary importance while all dualists agreed about a single, salvation-giving sacrament of baptism of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. In analyzing the doctrines of various schools of medieval dualism, the article demonstrates that the sacrament of baptism of the Holy Spirit, while identical in form, meant widely different things to radical dualists and for moderates, what with their profound differences in soteriology, Trinitarian theology, and eschatology. Such distinctions in meaning between radical and moderate dualism may supply a significant argument for the doctrinal change made by the Saint-Felix-De-Caraman Synod.
Małgorzata Grzywacz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 85 - 94
The Reformation altered the understanding of and attitude to the sacraments as had developed since the beginnings of Christianity. As in other religions, most of them were associated with a religious contribution to pivotal points in the lives of individuals and referred to a person’s specific biographic situation. In this respect, sacraments may be understood as a central point in rites of passage whereby an individual’s life acquires an aspect of order and is merged with a broadly understood community. The article traces the formative process of confirmation as a rite of initiation into Christian adulthood as seen from a Protestant perspective. Confirmation, or a strengthening in faith, derives directly from what was originally part of the ceremony of baptism. The article casts more light on the understanding and practice of baptism and the gradual emergence from it in the Western Church by the end of the 9th century of a separate sacrament known as confirmation.
As Reformation theologians departed from a sacramental understanding of confirmation, a process began whereby former confirmation was transformed into a ceremony marking a person’s maturity to participate in church life. Based on church teaching and catechization, a custom of public confession of faith and of „strengthening” a person in such confession became a major ceremony in churches rooted in the Reformation. The article focuses on an early stage in the changes which had, by the 16th century, been adopted as customary practice common to Lutherans, Anglican or reformed communities. The confirmation ceremony was most helped to spread by pietism in which desires for an individual to internalize faith led to increased appreciation of confirmation as being also important to the community which granted an individual rights to partake fully not only in church life (such as in Lord’s Supper), but also in elective, decision-making bodies in Evangelical churches (e.g. in elections of parish councils, diocesan synod, and national synod).
Marcin Karas
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 95 - 107
The article uses characteristic examples to present a hierarchic order of reality as seen in gestures, acts, and prayers of the Catholic Tridentine Mass ritual, which was in use from the early Middle Ages (when it had developed this form in Western Church) until Paul VI’s reforms of 1969. This liturgy, recently (2007) appreciated by pope Benedict XVI and cleared for free use by priests as an „extraordinary form of the Roman rite”, expresses with great force, using a number of complex symbols, the Catholic vision of the natural and supernatural world. The various aspects of the ritual were grounded in acts of the Magisterium and in theologians’ writings as cited in notes.
Tomasz Mames
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 109 - 117
The history of the French Province of the Old Catholic Mariavite Church has so far earned no more than contributory remarks from scholars and still remains a largely unexplored territory to researches into the movement. The present article is an attempt to shine more light on how French Mariavites celebrate the Eucharist. The history of Mariavitism in France makes for a backdrop for a liturgical and dogmatic-focused discussion. It is particularly surprising that the French province of the Mariavite church uses two rites, both different from the missal rite celebrated in Poland.
Paweł Perka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 119 - 130
The article aims to explain the rite of enthronement of Jesus the King using terminology borrowed from, among others, the anthropological inquiries by Roy A. Rappaport and from a sociological analysis of religion made by Peter L. Berger. Emphasis is placed on explaining the adaptive role of the ritual in establishing and maintaining a convention which offers to individuals a coherent narrative system to organize their perceptions. On the example of the enthronement ritual of Jesus the King, created by the Polish mystic Rozalia Celakówna, the author tries to show how performative acts of speech form a distinct space in social life.
Kajetana Fidler
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 133 - 137
Jan Drabina
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 139 - 140
Izabela Trzcińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 141 - 143
Tomasz Dekert
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 145 - 153
Marta Höffner
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 155 - 157
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 159 - 164
Waldemar Gembalik
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 165 - 167
Paweł Perka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 169 - 171
Lech Trzcionkowski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 11 - 27
The article discusses some selected problems in analysis of ritual in the religion of ancient Greeks. Part one presents the history of study of the relationship between myth and ritual, focusing on principal ideas which appeared in the late 19th century. A turn toward ritual in studying ancient religion meant a shift in emphasis away from mythology. Nonetheless, questions about links between mythological texts and rituals still remain part of research scope. In the 1960’s, scholars’ attention focused on sacrificial ritual, with various interpretative methods being used. Walter Burkert proposed a pre-agrarian origin of blood sacrifices, tracing them to the behavior of Paleolithic hunters. Jean-Pierre Vernant (with associates) used structuralist methods to interpret offerings as a symbolic expression of man’s status as between gods and beasts. Thus Burkert’s theory explains myths as a cultural interpretation of inherited rituals which may be reduced to biologically programmed behavior, while Vernant’s theory sees myth and ritual as two forms expressing the anthropological concepts of Greek Man. In part two, the article contains translations of key source texts, proving that, on close reading, they render great theories less than obvious.
Andrzej Wypustek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 29 - 49
The author discusses the Greek funerary verse-inscriptions as the primary sources for the study of Greek burial rituals (Classical, Hellenistic, Greek-Roman). Funerary epigrams constitute an invaluable source, as funeral, an ordinary event of daily life did not draw enough attention of ancient writers. Archaeological sources, on the other hand, are too often ambiguous and fragmentary. As a result, epigrams help us most to determine the way funerary rites in Greek antiquity were performed; moreover, they give us also first-hand accounts of these practices, which is unparalleled by any of the extant literary testimonies. The importance of funerary rites as ta nomizomena in verse inscriptions is noticeable; most important elements of burial are well documented, starting with prothesis, ritual lamentation, procession, interment or cremation, funeral offerings, and concluded with lustrations, funeral banquet and subsequent visitations of the tombs.
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 51 - 65
Deriving the etymology of the term theourgia, which is probably made up of the words „god” (theos) and „work” (ergon), the article attempts to explain the role played in theurgy by „work”. The author asks a question about what, and, more importantly, whose action it is that is meant in theurgy and investigates three possible answers: acting on the gods, the gods’ actions, and creating the gods. The analysis is based on a Neoplatonic interpretation of the theurgic ritual as shown in De mysteriis, where Iamblichus questions Porphyry’s view in which theurgists claim a right to influence the gods. The article investigates the concept of theurgic ritual which Iamblichus formulated in response to Porphyry’s accusations. The author concentrates on Iamblichus’ main point which is that active in theurgy is not man, but the gods, who take control over ritual and use it as an instrument to influence men in order to enable them to achieve salvation. She also examines the meaning of ritual techniques performed by men as she addresses invocations intoned by the priest which served as a technique of attainment divine condition.
Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 67 - 84
The article addresses the controversial problem of the meaning of doctrine in interpreting the dualist sacrament of baptism of the Holy Spirit. Some researchers into Catharism downgrade the role of doctrinal differences in medieval dualism, believing that they were of secondary importance while all dualists agreed about a single, salvation-giving sacrament of baptism of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. In analyzing the doctrines of various schools of medieval dualism, the article demonstrates that the sacrament of baptism of the Holy Spirit, while identical in form, meant widely different things to radical dualists and for moderates, what with their profound differences in soteriology, Trinitarian theology, and eschatology. Such distinctions in meaning between radical and moderate dualism may supply a significant argument for the doctrinal change made by the Saint-Felix-De-Caraman Synod.
Małgorzata Grzywacz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 85 - 94
The Reformation altered the understanding of and attitude to the sacraments as had developed since the beginnings of Christianity. As in other religions, most of them were associated with a religious contribution to pivotal points in the lives of individuals and referred to a person’s specific biographic situation. In this respect, sacraments may be understood as a central point in rites of passage whereby an individual’s life acquires an aspect of order and is merged with a broadly understood community. The article traces the formative process of confirmation as a rite of initiation into Christian adulthood as seen from a Protestant perspective. Confirmation, or a strengthening in faith, derives directly from what was originally part of the ceremony of baptism. The article casts more light on the understanding and practice of baptism and the gradual emergence from it in the Western Church by the end of the 9th century of a separate sacrament known as confirmation.
As Reformation theologians departed from a sacramental understanding of confirmation, a process began whereby former confirmation was transformed into a ceremony marking a person’s maturity to participate in church life. Based on church teaching and catechization, a custom of public confession of faith and of „strengthening” a person in such confession became a major ceremony in churches rooted in the Reformation. The article focuses on an early stage in the changes which had, by the 16th century, been adopted as customary practice common to Lutherans, Anglican or reformed communities. The confirmation ceremony was most helped to spread by pietism in which desires for an individual to internalize faith led to increased appreciation of confirmation as being also important to the community which granted an individual rights to partake fully not only in church life (such as in Lord’s Supper), but also in elective, decision-making bodies in Evangelical churches (e.g. in elections of parish councils, diocesan synod, and national synod).
Marcin Karas
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 95 - 107
The article uses characteristic examples to present a hierarchic order of reality as seen in gestures, acts, and prayers of the Catholic Tridentine Mass ritual, which was in use from the early Middle Ages (when it had developed this form in Western Church) until Paul VI’s reforms of 1969. This liturgy, recently (2007) appreciated by pope Benedict XVI and cleared for free use by priests as an „extraordinary form of the Roman rite”, expresses with great force, using a number of complex symbols, the Catholic vision of the natural and supernatural world. The various aspects of the ritual were grounded in acts of the Magisterium and in theologians’ writings as cited in notes.
Tomasz Mames
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 109 - 117
The history of the French Province of the Old Catholic Mariavite Church has so far earned no more than contributory remarks from scholars and still remains a largely unexplored territory to researches into the movement. The present article is an attempt to shine more light on how French Mariavites celebrate the Eucharist. The history of Mariavitism in France makes for a backdrop for a liturgical and dogmatic-focused discussion. It is particularly surprising that the French province of the Mariavite church uses two rites, both different from the missal rite celebrated in Poland.
Paweł Perka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 119 - 130
The article aims to explain the rite of enthronement of Jesus the King using terminology borrowed from, among others, the anthropological inquiries by Roy A. Rappaport and from a sociological analysis of religion made by Peter L. Berger. Emphasis is placed on explaining the adaptive role of the ritual in establishing and maintaining a convention which offers to individuals a coherent narrative system to organize their perceptions. On the example of the enthronement ritual of Jesus the King, created by the Polish mystic Rozalia Celakówna, the author tries to show how performative acts of speech form a distinct space in social life.
Kajetana Fidler
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 133 - 137
Jan Drabina
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 139 - 140
Izabela Trzcińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 141 - 143
Tomasz Dekert
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 145 - 153
Marta Höffner
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 155 - 157
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 159 - 164
Waldemar Gembalik
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 165 - 167
Paweł Perka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 42, 2009, pp. 169 - 171
Publication date: 2007
Ed. by: Jana Drabiny
Wincenty Myszor
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 11 - 19
Cathar religiousness was not regulated top-down, by any central institution as in the Church. Distinct, particular forms of religiousness were revealed in respective writings. What united them was dualism, what set them apart was reliance on apocryphal which generally expressed folk attitudes in medieval religiousness. A more systematic approach to Cathar teachings is better seen in accounts by Church polemics than in original Cathar writings. Medieval religiousness manifested itself in the apocryphal Interrogatio Iohannis. The text was used by Bogomils and Cathars alike. The dualism in the Interrogatio is not as radical as anti-Cathar polemics show it. In the Interrogatio, it is seen in an opposition between Christ, the Son of God, and satan, also „a son of God.” Satan created the world by the consent of God, his Father. Dualism was also marked in rigorous attitudes toward marriage and material goods. The Cathars of the Interrogatio Iohannis rejected institutional Church and its sacraments, baptism and the Eucharist, attributing to them a spiritualistic or eschatological sense. The folk origin of the text’s character reveals influences of apocryphal literature, but also of Church teaching and New Testament themes, including those opposed to Cathar logic.
Stanisław Bylina
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 21 - 36
The article investigates the religiousness of radical followers of the Hussite movement at its early, revolutionary stage (the early 1420’s). It therefore treats about Taborites active in provincial Czechia, and adherents to a party created around Jan Želivský, a Prague-based preacher and people’s tribune.
The whole Hussite movement centered on a fundamental return to Christian basics: Scripture (with emphasis on the New Testament) and the Eucharist. While mainstream Hussites recognized the primacy of Scripture in matters of faith, to Taborites this authority was sole and exclusive (they effectively rejected the entire church tradition). Radical Hussites enthusiastically believed in a true understanding of the gospels which was denied to unworthy priests of the Roman Church. This belief imposed on them a duty of universal preaching the Word of God and legitimized armed struggle for realization of „God’s truth” (i.e., Hussite faith).
Receiving Communion in two forms by laymen (with radicals, even by little children) was seen as a supreme ideal, a necessary condition for salvation. The Hussite „Chalice” was a symbol to fight and die for.
Hussites thought of themselves as belonging to the elect, a community of the best Christians who, once the Antichrist was defeated, would restore sinful humanity and establish a new church. Even during the Czech civil war, Taborites concentrated their religious program on forcefully propagated Chiliastic prophecies based chiefly on the Apocalypse and Old Testament prophetic writings. The prophecies, which made a deep impression in provincial Czechia, centered on the faith in Christ actually descending onto Czech soil, but not before apocalyptic disasters and destruction of all the unrighteous. Once that was done, a blessed era of God’ Millenarian Kingdom would embrace the earth.
The religious doctrine of radical Hussitism rejected all that did not directly relate to the worship of One God. Cult of St. Mary was rejected (with some moderation), that of other saints categorically renounced, as of persons elevated by men. Nor did Taborites accept the cult of Hussite martyrs, Jan Hus and Jerome of Prague, both burned at the stake in Constance, which was promoted by moderate Prague Hussites called Utraquists. Further, they violently condemned, to the point of destruction, any worship of religious-related paintings and statues.
Taborites’ extremely simplifi ed liturgy, celebrated by a non-chasubled priests with a congregation, was reduced to a joint saying of Our Father, a blessing of bread and wine, and reception of Hussite communion.
The exemplary ethics of radical Hussite groups involved strict moral rigor. Of the Four Articles of Prague (the fundamental Hussitic principles), the fourth was introduced by Taborites and provided for punishment by civil authorities of all openly committed mortal sins. Indeed, in cities governed by Taborites, banned activities included crafts serving luxury, entertainment, dancing, profane singing, and sale of alcoholic beverages.
Jan Drabina
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 37 - 54
In the Middle Ages, the deanery of Bytom, created between 1328 and 1334, had 28 parish churches, excluding chapels and churches other than the seats of curates.
A study revealed a large differentiation in their patronage. Most often, in six cases, churches were dedicated to Virgin Mary (a half of those to Her Birth). Five times the patron was St. Nicholas, twice each were John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, Stanislaus, All Saints, Catherine, Martin, Peter and Paul, Jacob, and Bartholomew, with only one church each invoking Holy Trinity, Lawrence, Norbert, Hedwig, Michael, Holy Cross, Corpus Christi, Steven, Bernardino, Albert, and Adalbert.
Similar proportions are discernible in the entire Kraków diocese, to which the deanery belonged until 1821. Predominant were dedications to St. Mary. The most popular among remaining saints was St. Nicholas: his name was given to 74 churches (8.3%).
A look at the neighbouring Wrocław diocese, which grouped remaining Silesian deaneries, for any infl uences on Bytom deanery suggests that those were weaker than the impact exerted by Kraków (e.g., adjacent Gliwice deanery with 22 parishes had three St. Nicholas churches, but only one St. Mary’s church).
Krzysztof Pilarczyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 55 - 68
Synagogical liturgy is integral primarily to the institution of synagogue, and is besides linked with two others: the Jerusalem Temple and chavura (hebr. for community).
The article offers a synthetic account of the origins and structure of synagogical liturgy at its various stages of development. It fi rst shows its historical background from the socalled second temple to local synagogical rites in the early modern period (the Middle Ages saw its greatest formative processes), then the role of the Torah and its interpretations in synagogical liturgy, and fi nally its transformations infl uenced by haskalah (Jewish enlightenment) from the second half of the 18th century.
Mikołaj Krawczyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 69 - 79
The text presents the prophetic kabbalistic mystical techniques described in ’Ocar ‘Eden ha-Ganuz [The Hidden Treasure of Eden] by the 13th-century Sephardic kabbalist Abraham Abulafia (1240– 1292?). Composed in Messina in 1285 for a disciple named Saadia, the book is considered as a mature explanation of the mystical system. Together with his ’Or ha-Sekhel [Light of the Mind] and Chayye ha-‘Olam ha-Ba [Life of the World to Come], it constitutes one of the essential texts of Abulafi an kabbalah and prophetic kabbalah as such. The article includes, for the first time in Polish translation, a large fragment of Abraham Abulafia’s book concerning an explication of mystical practice of one of the ways of chochmat ha-ceruf (“wisdom of combination”) and descriptions of Abulafia’s mystical experiences.
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 83 - 103
The article tries to explain the problem of the number of souls as brought up by St. Augustine in his De quantitate animae 32, 69. Considering that De quant. anim. represents an early stage in Augustine’s thought in which was infl uenced by Platonism, the author discusses two possible ways of interpreting De quant. anim. 32, 69. One assumes that Augustin is referring to the relation occurring between the world soul and the individual soul. In the other, the author proposes that the text may apply to the structure of individual soul. Seen in this light, Augustin’s statement („unam simul et multas”) may express the notion that the plural powers with which the soul splits between many forms of its activity does not contradict its oneness and simplicity. Such an understanding of De quant. anim. 32, 69 may be implied by (1) concurrent arguments for complexity of the soul by Augustin and Plato (Rp. 436 B–C); and (2) similarity linking Augustine’s („unam simul et multas”) to Plotinus’ formula: („[...] Πολλή ή ψυχή και η μία”) (Enn. VI 9, 1)
Marcin Karas
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 104 - 110
The article discusses chief aspects of religious inspiration of the views of St. Thomas on science. The main tenets of the Christian religion provided the Dominican scholar with an opportunity for critical assessment of various views of Aristotle and other Greek thinkers. As he built his system of metaphysical knowledge, Aquinas often spoke on subjects of nature and scientific methodology. His discussions reveal multiple religious influences and a religious inspiration to expand the fi eld of the human vision of the world while preserving the autonomy of respective sciences. Study of his views helps place the distinguished 13th-century author in the history of scientific development in Western thought.
Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 111 - 138
The article touches upon the poorly source-documented issue of Slavic dualism, a heresy which existed in the 12th-to-15th centuries in Dalmatia and Bosnia. The dearth of vernacular sources makes it difficult to trace either the history or the doctrine of Slavic dualists. On the other hand, Inquisition sources concerning Italian Cathari mention an „ordo Sclavoniae,” next to „ordo Bulgarie” and „ordo Drugonthiae,” as one of three main dualist currents to inspire Western heretics. The article tries to determine the identity of the Slavic version of the dualist heresy by inquiring into its origin and doctrinal peculiarities which distinguished it from its contemporary variants of dualism. In order to cast a fuller light on the subject, it is worth bringing together what laconic Slavic or Byzantine sources are available and the Inquisition’s comprehensive documentation covering especially Italy, including its Cathari, who were described as Slavs.
Teresa Wolińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 141 - 156
Among persons exercising authority or holding high offices, gifts served many purposes, some important. They were part of respective ceremonial, won favors, broadened influences, persuaded donees, or won desired concessions. They could be helpful in propagating the giver’s ideas. Types of gifts and channels of delivery may be studied in official and private accounts of participants in gift giving.
All this was clear to pope Gregory I the Great (590-604). With carefully chosen gifts, he knew how to secure the support of barbarian Western rulers (queen Theodolinda of the Lombards and her son, queen Brunhilda of the Franks, the Visigothic king Reccared, king Ethelbert of Kent). Among such gifts predominated relics (in particular, pieces of St. Peter’s shackles) and books by Gregory himself. There were also other items such as garments.
Many recipients of his gifts were people he had met when he was papal apocrisiary in Constantinople. It is all the more surprising, therefore, that he refused to send relics to empress Constantina, the wife of Mauricius.
The pope was very careful in using the instrument of gift giving. Sometimes he used it to thank people to whom he owed something, but did not try to use it to win concessions he thought important. No gifts are on record to imperial officials in Italy or other Western lands, such as to exarchs, praetors of Sicily, prefects of the preatorium of Italy and Carthage. His frequent gifts of relics of St. Peter’s shackles helped spread the cult of this saint in all of Europe.
Even more cautious was Gregory in receiving presents, perhaps fearing that they might be thought a form of bribery. He readily accepted gifts from friends and donations for the freeing of prisoners or assisting the poor, but steadfastly refused anything that might look suspicious. Among those rejected were gifts from Felix, bishop of Messina, or Januarius, bishop of Caralis.
Wiktor Szymborski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 157 - 165
The article studies an early 16th-century manuscript No. 7044 I, kept in the Jagiellonian Library, containing a list of indulgences granted to the Order of the Holy Spirit. Originally conferred on the Order’s Holy Spirit Hospital in Rome, they were extended by pope Sixtus IV on Nov. 7, 1483, to apply to the Kraków hospital operated by the same order. Mention is also made of indulgences bestowed on confraternities run by Holy Spirit monks. The arrangement of the manuscript’s contents is reminiscent of similar pilgrim’s guides to indulgences available elsewhere, such as in Rome or Wrocław. It seems to be Kraków’s oldest guide to indulgences, predating by decades a 1603 compendium of loca sacra in the city.
Jan Stradomski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 167 - 182
The Kiev metropolitan Grigorij Camblak is an interesting figure in the Slavic Middle Ages. Formed spiritually and creatively by the Tyrnovo literary circle, he was compelled to leave Turkish-occupied Bulgaria and search for a more favorable environment in other Orthodox countries. Wherever he went (Byzantium, Mount Athos, Serbia, Moldavia, Poland [„Crown”], and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), he left behind him traces of political and Orthodox-religious involvement, and literary works of extraordinary beauty. The latter became unquestionable models of Old-Church-Slavonic hesichastic writing and assured Grigorij Camblak a permanent place in the history of national literatures of Orthodox Slavs. He was involved in reinvigorating the idea of a union of Christian states which would aim to drive islam out of Europe and to liberate Balkan Slavs from Turkish subjugation. After he controversially rose to the rank of metropolitan (1415-1420), Camblak became engaged in building a distinctive image of the Kievan Orthodox Church through close contacts with southern Slavdom on the plane of spirituality, religious literature, and worship of saints. Instructed by the Grand Duke Withold of Lithuania and Polish king Władysław II Jagiełło, Grigorij Camblak took part in the Council of Constance in 1418, charged with the difficult task of forging a church union. Distinct traces of his political, literary, and religious work are seen in more than a dozen sources from the period (15th-16th centuries), which offer first-hand evidence in any attempt to reconstruct the biography of this remarkable man. The article discusses the picture of the Kiev metropolitan as arises out of accounts by his contemporary observers and commentators.
Anna Olszewska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 183 - 199
The text inquires into the function and meaning of two miniatures in the 12th-century manuscript Chronicon Zwiefaltense Minus (Stuttgart, W.L.B., MS. Hist. Fol. 415; 1138–1147). They are two page-sized compositions on cosmological subjects printed on a single leaf in the manuscript (folio 17). They are a picture of the creation of the world and a complex image of time rendered in cycles. I study the composition of both miniatures and relative placement of their elements. Then I analyze their iconography based on a Medieval alegoresis of visions of the world. These interpretations lead to the conclusion that both pictures make up a thematic and formal whole. They are an example of an extraordinarily refi ed use of visual forms conveying a theological commentary to Genesis. It is possible to verify this interpretation by considering what purpose the diptych might have served inserted in a short compilation of texts on astronomy, which is the subject of the last part of the article. I point to the notions figura and formatione with which both miniatures are introduced in the text of Chronicon Zwiefaltense Minus and go on to quote some examples of how such references were understood in the writings of Hugo of St. Victor and Honorius of Autun. In this light, the diptych appears to be an attempt to visualize not so much the figures of time or of creation, but the forming process of universal order. Both images were created to replace a verbal expression as was the case in texts like De Arca Noe Mystica by Hugo of St. Victor. This time, the chosen medium was a picture employing special personifications to combine inscriptions, iconographic themes, all appropriately spaced respective to the rest.
The cosmological diptych in question may be treated as an instrument in the open process of conceptualizing, modeling, and forming a vision of the world. The miniatures are not figures, or representations of observable processes such as alternating seasons. This twin vision consists of a number of figures and inscriptions arranged to produce a new whole – a condensed record of the natural order forming of the world and the Ecclesia at the moment of creation. In this light, a field opens for further reflection on Medieval designations for visual forms such as imago, typus, or the technical pictura. Associating them with specific images may lead to an interesting reevaluation of the role of images in Medieval sources.
Marta Höffner
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 201 - 215
Katarzyna Suwada
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 217 - 220
Leonard J. Pełka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 221 - 223
Paweł Perka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 225 - 228
Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 229 - 235
Marek Przybylski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 1 - 1
Anna Podobińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 241 - 242
Małgorzata Grzywacz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 243 - 246
Justyna Figas, Agnieszka Glapa, Dominika Górnicz, Agata Koim, Magdalena Schuster, Zuzanna Szczerbanowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 247 - 258
Wincenty Myszor
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 11 - 19
Cathar religiousness was not regulated top-down, by any central institution as in the Church. Distinct, particular forms of religiousness were revealed in respective writings. What united them was dualism, what set them apart was reliance on apocryphal which generally expressed folk attitudes in medieval religiousness. A more systematic approach to Cathar teachings is better seen in accounts by Church polemics than in original Cathar writings. Medieval religiousness manifested itself in the apocryphal Interrogatio Iohannis. The text was used by Bogomils and Cathars alike. The dualism in the Interrogatio is not as radical as anti-Cathar polemics show it. In the Interrogatio, it is seen in an opposition between Christ, the Son of God, and satan, also „a son of God.” Satan created the world by the consent of God, his Father. Dualism was also marked in rigorous attitudes toward marriage and material goods. The Cathars of the Interrogatio Iohannis rejected institutional Church and its sacraments, baptism and the Eucharist, attributing to them a spiritualistic or eschatological sense. The folk origin of the text’s character reveals influences of apocryphal literature, but also of Church teaching and New Testament themes, including those opposed to Cathar logic.
Stanisław Bylina
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 21 - 36
The article investigates the religiousness of radical followers of the Hussite movement at its early, revolutionary stage (the early 1420’s). It therefore treats about Taborites active in provincial Czechia, and adherents to a party created around Jan Želivský, a Prague-based preacher and people’s tribune.
The whole Hussite movement centered on a fundamental return to Christian basics: Scripture (with emphasis on the New Testament) and the Eucharist. While mainstream Hussites recognized the primacy of Scripture in matters of faith, to Taborites this authority was sole and exclusive (they effectively rejected the entire church tradition). Radical Hussites enthusiastically believed in a true understanding of the gospels which was denied to unworthy priests of the Roman Church. This belief imposed on them a duty of universal preaching the Word of God and legitimized armed struggle for realization of „God’s truth” (i.e., Hussite faith).
Receiving Communion in two forms by laymen (with radicals, even by little children) was seen as a supreme ideal, a necessary condition for salvation. The Hussite „Chalice” was a symbol to fight and die for.
Hussites thought of themselves as belonging to the elect, a community of the best Christians who, once the Antichrist was defeated, would restore sinful humanity and establish a new church. Even during the Czech civil war, Taborites concentrated their religious program on forcefully propagated Chiliastic prophecies based chiefly on the Apocalypse and Old Testament prophetic writings. The prophecies, which made a deep impression in provincial Czechia, centered on the faith in Christ actually descending onto Czech soil, but not before apocalyptic disasters and destruction of all the unrighteous. Once that was done, a blessed era of God’ Millenarian Kingdom would embrace the earth.
The religious doctrine of radical Hussitism rejected all that did not directly relate to the worship of One God. Cult of St. Mary was rejected (with some moderation), that of other saints categorically renounced, as of persons elevated by men. Nor did Taborites accept the cult of Hussite martyrs, Jan Hus and Jerome of Prague, both burned at the stake in Constance, which was promoted by moderate Prague Hussites called Utraquists. Further, they violently condemned, to the point of destruction, any worship of religious-related paintings and statues.
Taborites’ extremely simplifi ed liturgy, celebrated by a non-chasubled priests with a congregation, was reduced to a joint saying of Our Father, a blessing of bread and wine, and reception of Hussite communion.
The exemplary ethics of radical Hussite groups involved strict moral rigor. Of the Four Articles of Prague (the fundamental Hussitic principles), the fourth was introduced by Taborites and provided for punishment by civil authorities of all openly committed mortal sins. Indeed, in cities governed by Taborites, banned activities included crafts serving luxury, entertainment, dancing, profane singing, and sale of alcoholic beverages.
Jan Drabina
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 37 - 54
In the Middle Ages, the deanery of Bytom, created between 1328 and 1334, had 28 parish churches, excluding chapels and churches other than the seats of curates.
A study revealed a large differentiation in their patronage. Most often, in six cases, churches were dedicated to Virgin Mary (a half of those to Her Birth). Five times the patron was St. Nicholas, twice each were John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, Stanislaus, All Saints, Catherine, Martin, Peter and Paul, Jacob, and Bartholomew, with only one church each invoking Holy Trinity, Lawrence, Norbert, Hedwig, Michael, Holy Cross, Corpus Christi, Steven, Bernardino, Albert, and Adalbert.
Similar proportions are discernible in the entire Kraków diocese, to which the deanery belonged until 1821. Predominant were dedications to St. Mary. The most popular among remaining saints was St. Nicholas: his name was given to 74 churches (8.3%).
A look at the neighbouring Wrocław diocese, which grouped remaining Silesian deaneries, for any infl uences on Bytom deanery suggests that those were weaker than the impact exerted by Kraków (e.g., adjacent Gliwice deanery with 22 parishes had three St. Nicholas churches, but only one St. Mary’s church).
Krzysztof Pilarczyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 55 - 68
Synagogical liturgy is integral primarily to the institution of synagogue, and is besides linked with two others: the Jerusalem Temple and chavura (hebr. for community).
The article offers a synthetic account of the origins and structure of synagogical liturgy at its various stages of development. It fi rst shows its historical background from the socalled second temple to local synagogical rites in the early modern period (the Middle Ages saw its greatest formative processes), then the role of the Torah and its interpretations in synagogical liturgy, and fi nally its transformations infl uenced by haskalah (Jewish enlightenment) from the second half of the 18th century.
Mikołaj Krawczyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 69 - 79
The text presents the prophetic kabbalistic mystical techniques described in ’Ocar ‘Eden ha-Ganuz [The Hidden Treasure of Eden] by the 13th-century Sephardic kabbalist Abraham Abulafia (1240– 1292?). Composed in Messina in 1285 for a disciple named Saadia, the book is considered as a mature explanation of the mystical system. Together with his ’Or ha-Sekhel [Light of the Mind] and Chayye ha-‘Olam ha-Ba [Life of the World to Come], it constitutes one of the essential texts of Abulafi an kabbalah and prophetic kabbalah as such. The article includes, for the first time in Polish translation, a large fragment of Abraham Abulafia’s book concerning an explication of mystical practice of one of the ways of chochmat ha-ceruf (“wisdom of combination”) and descriptions of Abulafia’s mystical experiences.
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 83 - 103
The article tries to explain the problem of the number of souls as brought up by St. Augustine in his De quantitate animae 32, 69. Considering that De quant. anim. represents an early stage in Augustine’s thought in which was infl uenced by Platonism, the author discusses two possible ways of interpreting De quant. anim. 32, 69. One assumes that Augustin is referring to the relation occurring between the world soul and the individual soul. In the other, the author proposes that the text may apply to the structure of individual soul. Seen in this light, Augustin’s statement („unam simul et multas”) may express the notion that the plural powers with which the soul splits between many forms of its activity does not contradict its oneness and simplicity. Such an understanding of De quant. anim. 32, 69 may be implied by (1) concurrent arguments for complexity of the soul by Augustin and Plato (Rp. 436 B–C); and (2) similarity linking Augustine’s („unam simul et multas”) to Plotinus’ formula: („[...] Πολλή ή ψυχή και η μία”) (Enn. VI 9, 1)
Marcin Karas
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 104 - 110
The article discusses chief aspects of religious inspiration of the views of St. Thomas on science. The main tenets of the Christian religion provided the Dominican scholar with an opportunity for critical assessment of various views of Aristotle and other Greek thinkers. As he built his system of metaphysical knowledge, Aquinas often spoke on subjects of nature and scientific methodology. His discussions reveal multiple religious influences and a religious inspiration to expand the fi eld of the human vision of the world while preserving the autonomy of respective sciences. Study of his views helps place the distinguished 13th-century author in the history of scientific development in Western thought.
Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 111 - 138
The article touches upon the poorly source-documented issue of Slavic dualism, a heresy which existed in the 12th-to-15th centuries in Dalmatia and Bosnia. The dearth of vernacular sources makes it difficult to trace either the history or the doctrine of Slavic dualists. On the other hand, Inquisition sources concerning Italian Cathari mention an „ordo Sclavoniae,” next to „ordo Bulgarie” and „ordo Drugonthiae,” as one of three main dualist currents to inspire Western heretics. The article tries to determine the identity of the Slavic version of the dualist heresy by inquiring into its origin and doctrinal peculiarities which distinguished it from its contemporary variants of dualism. In order to cast a fuller light on the subject, it is worth bringing together what laconic Slavic or Byzantine sources are available and the Inquisition’s comprehensive documentation covering especially Italy, including its Cathari, who were described as Slavs.
Teresa Wolińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 141 - 156
Among persons exercising authority or holding high offices, gifts served many purposes, some important. They were part of respective ceremonial, won favors, broadened influences, persuaded donees, or won desired concessions. They could be helpful in propagating the giver’s ideas. Types of gifts and channels of delivery may be studied in official and private accounts of participants in gift giving.
All this was clear to pope Gregory I the Great (590-604). With carefully chosen gifts, he knew how to secure the support of barbarian Western rulers (queen Theodolinda of the Lombards and her son, queen Brunhilda of the Franks, the Visigothic king Reccared, king Ethelbert of Kent). Among such gifts predominated relics (in particular, pieces of St. Peter’s shackles) and books by Gregory himself. There were also other items such as garments.
Many recipients of his gifts were people he had met when he was papal apocrisiary in Constantinople. It is all the more surprising, therefore, that he refused to send relics to empress Constantina, the wife of Mauricius.
The pope was very careful in using the instrument of gift giving. Sometimes he used it to thank people to whom he owed something, but did not try to use it to win concessions he thought important. No gifts are on record to imperial officials in Italy or other Western lands, such as to exarchs, praetors of Sicily, prefects of the preatorium of Italy and Carthage. His frequent gifts of relics of St. Peter’s shackles helped spread the cult of this saint in all of Europe.
Even more cautious was Gregory in receiving presents, perhaps fearing that they might be thought a form of bribery. He readily accepted gifts from friends and donations for the freeing of prisoners or assisting the poor, but steadfastly refused anything that might look suspicious. Among those rejected were gifts from Felix, bishop of Messina, or Januarius, bishop of Caralis.
Wiktor Szymborski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 157 - 165
The article studies an early 16th-century manuscript No. 7044 I, kept in the Jagiellonian Library, containing a list of indulgences granted to the Order of the Holy Spirit. Originally conferred on the Order’s Holy Spirit Hospital in Rome, they were extended by pope Sixtus IV on Nov. 7, 1483, to apply to the Kraków hospital operated by the same order. Mention is also made of indulgences bestowed on confraternities run by Holy Spirit monks. The arrangement of the manuscript’s contents is reminiscent of similar pilgrim’s guides to indulgences available elsewhere, such as in Rome or Wrocław. It seems to be Kraków’s oldest guide to indulgences, predating by decades a 1603 compendium of loca sacra in the city.
Jan Stradomski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 167 - 182
The Kiev metropolitan Grigorij Camblak is an interesting figure in the Slavic Middle Ages. Formed spiritually and creatively by the Tyrnovo literary circle, he was compelled to leave Turkish-occupied Bulgaria and search for a more favorable environment in other Orthodox countries. Wherever he went (Byzantium, Mount Athos, Serbia, Moldavia, Poland [„Crown”], and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), he left behind him traces of political and Orthodox-religious involvement, and literary works of extraordinary beauty. The latter became unquestionable models of Old-Church-Slavonic hesichastic writing and assured Grigorij Camblak a permanent place in the history of national literatures of Orthodox Slavs. He was involved in reinvigorating the idea of a union of Christian states which would aim to drive islam out of Europe and to liberate Balkan Slavs from Turkish subjugation. After he controversially rose to the rank of metropolitan (1415-1420), Camblak became engaged in building a distinctive image of the Kievan Orthodox Church through close contacts with southern Slavdom on the plane of spirituality, religious literature, and worship of saints. Instructed by the Grand Duke Withold of Lithuania and Polish king Władysław II Jagiełło, Grigorij Camblak took part in the Council of Constance in 1418, charged with the difficult task of forging a church union. Distinct traces of his political, literary, and religious work are seen in more than a dozen sources from the period (15th-16th centuries), which offer first-hand evidence in any attempt to reconstruct the biography of this remarkable man. The article discusses the picture of the Kiev metropolitan as arises out of accounts by his contemporary observers and commentators.
Anna Olszewska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 183 - 199
The text inquires into the function and meaning of two miniatures in the 12th-century manuscript Chronicon Zwiefaltense Minus (Stuttgart, W.L.B., MS. Hist. Fol. 415; 1138–1147). They are two page-sized compositions on cosmological subjects printed on a single leaf in the manuscript (folio 17). They are a picture of the creation of the world and a complex image of time rendered in cycles. I study the composition of both miniatures and relative placement of their elements. Then I analyze their iconography based on a Medieval alegoresis of visions of the world. These interpretations lead to the conclusion that both pictures make up a thematic and formal whole. They are an example of an extraordinarily refi ed use of visual forms conveying a theological commentary to Genesis. It is possible to verify this interpretation by considering what purpose the diptych might have served inserted in a short compilation of texts on astronomy, which is the subject of the last part of the article. I point to the notions figura and formatione with which both miniatures are introduced in the text of Chronicon Zwiefaltense Minus and go on to quote some examples of how such references were understood in the writings of Hugo of St. Victor and Honorius of Autun. In this light, the diptych appears to be an attempt to visualize not so much the figures of time or of creation, but the forming process of universal order. Both images were created to replace a verbal expression as was the case in texts like De Arca Noe Mystica by Hugo of St. Victor. This time, the chosen medium was a picture employing special personifications to combine inscriptions, iconographic themes, all appropriately spaced respective to the rest.
The cosmological diptych in question may be treated as an instrument in the open process of conceptualizing, modeling, and forming a vision of the world. The miniatures are not figures, or representations of observable processes such as alternating seasons. This twin vision consists of a number of figures and inscriptions arranged to produce a new whole – a condensed record of the natural order forming of the world and the Ecclesia at the moment of creation. In this light, a field opens for further reflection on Medieval designations for visual forms such as imago, typus, or the technical pictura. Associating them with specific images may lead to an interesting reevaluation of the role of images in Medieval sources.
Marta Höffner
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 201 - 215
Katarzyna Suwada
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 217 - 220
Leonard J. Pełka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 221 - 223
Paweł Perka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 225 - 228
Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 229 - 235
Marek Przybylski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 1 - 1
Anna Podobińska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 241 - 242
Małgorzata Grzywacz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 243 - 246
Justyna Figas, Agnieszka Glapa, Dominika Górnicz, Agata Koim, Magdalena Schuster, Zuzanna Szczerbanowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 41, 2008, pp. 247 - 258
Publication date: 2006
Ed. by: Jana Drabiny
Aleksander Naumow
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 9 - 20
The author of the article discusses the political aspect of the cult of the most worshipped images of Our Lady in the Russian Orthodox Church, namely: Our Lady of Vladimir, Our Lady of Tichvin and her replica Our Lady of Narva, Our Lady of Kazan, Our Lady of the Don River, Our Lady of Pskov, Our Lady of Smolensk and others. He raises the issue of taking advantage of the icons to ensure assistance to the country or its individual cities, in the situation of a military threat. The measure which was resorted to most often was the practice of processions going round an endangered area; in contemporary times, this measure is also supported by the use of airplanes or helicopters. One gets the impression that over centuries, this particular aspect of Russian religiousness has not changed; a good example of this sort of conduct is the decision to declare Virgin Mary – Empress of Russia, the use of icons during World War II, or during the riots in Moscow in the autumn of 1993. In several cases, the author draws attention to the considerable significance of Polish motifs and anti-Western attitudes.
Maria Schnitter
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 21 - 30
Object of the study are contemporary manifestations of religious fundamentalism at the Balkans under conditions of concurrent eurointegration (the case of Bulgaria is considered in particular). Followed are the major synchronous and diachronous factors determining the specificity of fundamentalist phenomena in the context of the Balkans, Orthodoxy, and Europe. The conclusion is that both historical merits and current regulatory and legal realities suggest rather a peaceful picture of interconfessional communication. An attempt is made at getting behind the curtain of official political discourse where alarming trends toward religious intolerance are found both on the part of Islam and of the Orthodox Church.
Secularism which is always inherent in the European talking on religious phenomena is conceived as inadequate and futureless in the interpretation of realities stageably existing in the „presecularity” of premodern time – like the Orthodoxy and Islam at the Balkans.
Agnieszka Adamczak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 31 - 47
The purpose of the article is to interpret the meaning of the Muslim headscarf from the perspective of the constructivist theory of James Beckford, whose methodological assumptions were presented by the author at the beginning. The author starts with a presentation of the reasons why at the institutional level of the French state, the scarf is identified as an instrument of oppression and subjugation of women. Subsequently, the author characterizes the main stages in the evolution of Islam within the French religious landscape, beginning with attempts to fight Islam under colonial rule, up to the recognition of Muslims as a separate religious category, equal to other denominations. In confrontation with the state monopoly on the political interpretation of higab, the author presents (in a historical perspective) the spectrum of cultural and religious interpretative possibilities of the practice of covering up the body. Emphasis was laid on showing the connection between perceiving the scarf as a cultural strategy and the secularist tendencies observable within the French Islam. The author is trying to prove that the headscarf may serve as an instrument of the auto-reflective process of constructing both the individual and communal Muslim identity, in connection with the need to redefine one’s attitude towards religion.
In opposition to the „Islam-culture” trend, the author presents an alternative proposition of interpreting the practice of wearing headscarves which has been put forward by the women activists of the „Islam-Action” movement. According to the author, quoting religious reasons as the basis of the practice of covering up the body, points out not only to a different way of defining higab, but to a whole new program of revival of Islam, under the slogan of a struggle with its symbolic enemies. The author emphasizes the importance of shame as a category testifying to a modern character of shaping one’s identity by the women members of „Islam-Action” who have a critical attitude towards the legacy of the Western feminist trends resulting in the reification of the woman’s body or the obliteration of differences between the sexes. In the final section of the paper, the author characterizes other elements, apart from the headscarf, which testify to the specific character of the „Islam-Action” movement.
Marzanna Kuczyńska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 49 - 62
In the article, the author presents the cults of nine saints, citizens of the Polish-Lithuanian state, who were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church: Dimitri of Rostov (Tuptalo), Innokentiy of Irkutsk (Kulchitsky), Job of Pochayiv, Theodosius of Chernigov (Polonitsky-Uglitsky), Philophey of Tobolsk (Leshchinsky), John of Tobolsk (Maximovich), Arseny of Rostov (Matssevich), Paul of Tobolsk (Koniushkevich), Anthony of Tobolsk (Stahovsky). Moreover, Russia recognizes the saints canonized by the Kiev Caves Lavra.
The religious significance of the above cults is constantly increasing; at the present moment, the saints who came from the Polish-Lithuanian territories are gaining the same rank and significance as the most important Russian (Great Russian) saints. The scope of their spiritual patronage is gradually widening; they are worshipped as the apostles the enlighteners of the nation, guardians and defenders of the state, the Church, faith and religious unity. The Orthodox Church takes advantage of the cult of these saints to symbolically underscore the canonical bonds that unite the Russian Church with even the most remote of the Ukrainian provinces.
Małgorzata Grzywacz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 63 - 75
It would be difficult to imagine contemporary German-language Protestantism without cyclical meetings organized bi-annually within the so called German Evangelical Church Day (Evangelischer Kirchentag). Sometimes these meetings attract well over a million people and they offer to the participants a unique opportunity to get acquainted with and experience the inner variety and wealth of the Churches, associations and initiatives belonging to the evangelical denomination. Since the year 1949, the above meetings took on an organized form and they belong to one of the most important ways of articulating the presence of Protestantism in the European culture. The inventor and spiritual father of these meetings was Reinold von Thadden-Trieglaff (1891–1976), an heir of a Pomeranian estate Trieglaff (Trzygłów). After World War II the family estate of the von Thadden family lay within the territory of the Polish state and it currently belongs to the joint German and Polish cultural legacy of the West-Pomeranian Province. Reinold von Thadden belonged to the leading representatives of German Protestantism in the 20th century. From the very beginning of his public activity, he became involved and assisted in various Church initiatives whose aim was to revive and strengthen the activity of the Evangelical laity, on both the central and local (Pomeranian) plane. The goal of von Thadden’s activity was, among others, a return to the sources of the Reformation and a new up-to-date interpretation of the principle of the universal ministry of all faithful, which has not been applied in practice. The historically-shaped model of the Pastors’ church which strengthened the position of the alliance between the lay and church authorities (the ruler as the summus episcopus), was sealed by the Old Prussian Church Union (1817) which introduced uniformity into the functioning of the parishes which were subordinated to the clergy and where parish councils enjoyed but minimal competence. It was only the territories subject to the intense expansion of the Pietist (XVIII c.) and community movements (XIX c.) that were able to retain their independence and sovereignty. Among these territories, there was among others Pomerania, whose eastern part (east of the Oder river – the so called Rear Pomerania) was inhabited by many noble families (among others von Kleist, von Zitzewitz, von Thadden), who were opposed to the religious policy of the Prussian kings and its theological consequences. A part of the Pomeranian church province, situated between Szczecin and Słupsk, extending to the Gdansk Pomerania in the north, was characterized by a high degree of church integrity and by traditional evangelical religiosity. In his initial attempts to stimulate the activity of the laity, von Thadden drew on the traditions of his family home as well as on the historical experiences of the entire region; it was a meeting held in Szczecin in the year 1932 that was to be the precursor of the later days of the Church. Its goal was to overcome the domination of the pastors, focus the devoted evangelicals on the idea of the renewal of individual and parish life. The main emphasis of this renewal was to be the message contained in the gospel. Yet, the above goals were attained only partially and the rapidly developing propaganda and the activity of the Nazis directed against the church circles, put a halt on further development of this initiative. However Reinold von Thadden’s public work did bring about his decisive protest against the policy of Hitler and the Nazis, whose aim was total subjugation and subsequently, complete elimination of Christianity from public life. One of the main creators of the Professing Church (Bekennende Kirche) which stood in opposition to the Nazi activities, was precisely Reinold von Thadden. His experiences dating back to the years 1933–1939 allowed him to participate actively in the post-war renewal of Germany, whose expression is the institution of the Church Day and its specific kind of spirituality – based on the Bible and the broadlyunderstood human needs.
Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 77 - 98
The article constitutes an attempt to describe the functioning of religion in the Internet, and particularly of the religious practices which are conducted online. The authoresses of the article trace the transformations which have taken place in the use of the Internet as an instrument employed to conduct types of practices, beginning with the simplest communicators, through the use of videoconfer ences, up to the use of three-dimensional techniques. Special attention was devoted to virtual temples, that is those Internet sites where one can make a virtual sacrifice to a deity. In the article, the authoresses also draw attention to the ways of conducting these types of rituals and they present the views thanks to which the participants of these events may have an impression that they are actually taking part in religious practices, rather than just participating in a game. The article closes with an analysis of the ways of functioning of religion in the virtual worlds, with particular attention being drawn to the Second Life, which has become immensely popular in recent times. Apart from traditional religions which open up their sites of worship in Second Life, there also arise new cults in this world which are characteristic exclusively of ritualistic reality. The fundamental problem which has to be faced here by scholars is an attempt to answer the question, to what extent these are really new religious movements and to what extent they constitute an element of internet games and instruments which these games make use of.
Tomasz Mames
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 99 - 106
The article constitutes a reflection on the issue of the ordination of women, in the context of a different interpretation of the role of a priest in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, with a simultaneous reference of this issue to the practice of the Old Catholic Churches. A gradual widening of the scope of the liturgical competence of the laity (first of men, and subsequently women) and the reinterpretation of the concept of ordination of the presbyterate made it possible to entrust women with certain liturgical functions which up until recently were performed by the deacons. In this way, besides the hierarchical deaconate (traditionally reserved for men, due to ordination), there emerges a de facto non-hierarchical (folk) deaconate which is accessible also to women.
Ryszard Kasperowicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 107 - 117
More or less since the middle of the 18th century, there appeared a conviction that the experience of a work of art, if suitably prepared and separated off from other types of experience, may, thanks to its intensity and exclusivity as well as its totality, match or even supplant a religious experience. This process of sky-high adoration of art and the apotheosis of art as the highest form of cognition, reaches out with its roots to Shaftesbury’s aesthetics; whereas thanks to Winckelmann and his successors, it became deeply rooted in the 18–19 century culture, contributing to the rise of aesthetically-tinged anthropology, if only within the concept of the so called „beautiful man” in Germany at the turn of the century (Schiller, Goethe). The myth of the religion of art, which was so readily nurtured by the Romantics, was also incorporated by them into various historiosophic conceptions as well as dreams about a perfect language of art which is able to express directly the personality of the artist and his characteristic way of cognizing the world. In the second half of the 19th century, Jacob Burckhardt, one of the most original historians of culture and art, wished to base his conception of historical cognition and a historian’s freedom, among others, on the idea of communing with works of art. And although Burckhardt seemed at times to allude to the Romantic ideas of the religion of art, in point of fact, he never accepted its fundamental assumptions. The present article indicates the ambiguity of the very idea of the „religion of art” as well as to Burckhardt’s ambivalent reactions to its consequences.
Mikołaj Krawczyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 119 - 133
The aim of the article is to present the semantic wealth concealed in the Jewish legend about “golem”, which became popularized in the 19th and 20th centuries. The author presents a semantic analysis of the Hebrew stem g-l-m as well as of its derivatives. He discusses the most important sources which treat about golem – beginning with the Bible, the Talmud, Midrashic literature and ending with the selected writings belonging to the Ashkenazi Chassidism and the ecstatic cabala. In the article the author lays emphasis on revealing the mystical background of the described rituals relating to the creation and destruction of the figure of golem and the multi-layered structure of meanings associated with this process, in the context of halachic and cabalistic assessments of this type of religiousmagical activity.
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 135 - 169
The aim of the article is an attempt to answer the question whether under the influence of changes in the very subject-matter of anthropological research (a shift from traditional religions to great traditions perceived in different scales), there occurred any changes in the approach to religion and what consequences this could have had on the general religious reflection. The main effect of this convergence of the subject-matter of research is the superposition of anthropology of religion on religious studies, which is visible particularly in the methodological reflection: the bulk of the discourse concerning the methodology of religious studies is taking place within and on the circumference of anthropology. In view of the division within religious studies, into essential trends which treat religion as a phenomenon sui generis and particular trends which explore each religion as a separate phenomenon, the first problem that seems to confront scholars is the very definition of religion; the second one is to do with establishing a suitable comparative methodology. Anthropologists tend to define religion in terms of the Wittgenstein concept of „family resemblance”, and consequently, they look for instruments that would make it possible for them to carry our comparative studies; in doing so, they create holistic theories of religion. Reductionist theories, such as Stewart Guthrie’s neoanimism and memetics, are on the one hand burdened with ideological anti-religious assumptions, and on the other, they treat religion too narrowly, without taking advantage of the principle of „family resemblance”; that is why, their conclusions do not have a universal character, in spite of the fact that they assume to have it. The more extended cognitive theories (Pascal Boyer, Scott Atran) operate on a wider spectrum of religiogenous factors, beginning with semiotic and ending with neurological ones; what is problematic in them is the transition from the level of individual to social experience which is worked out within biogenetic structuralism or ritual studies. The evolution which has taken place within the ecology of religion, from the determinist conceptions of Steward or Harris, through cultural ecology of the early Rappaport and Vayda, to the uniform conception of working out comparative religious studies on the basis the ecology of Hultkranz, turned it into a promising, though limited research tool. An important attempt aimed at recognizing the relation between the ecosystem and man’s cultural activity, is Rappaport’s most recent proposition which leads to attributing a religious function to ecosystems. Rappaport’s theory of religion has a synthetic character combining within it the achievements of cultural ecology, ritualistic studies and semiological research.
The fruit of the discourse on Eliade’s legacy in religious studies, within the „hermeneutics of suspiciousness” proposed by Jonathan Smith, was turning attention to the empirical verification of such universal assumptions as sacrum, uranic hierophany, deus otiosus, or center. On the basis of the criti cism of the morphology of sacrum, Smith suggests mapping as a fundamental research technique. On the other hand, American neo-comparatists (Smith, Lawrence Sullivan, Sam Gill, Bruce Lincoln) suggest focusing on the meaning of religious ideas, associated with human orientation in time and space, which creates religious symbols. As an exemplification of the hermeneutics of suspiciousness, Sam Gill suggests a method of tracing successive interpretations, that is storytracking. In turn Lawrence Sullivan proposes a return to the assumptions of the typological-cognitive school. Yet another attempt to create a theory of religion based on essentialist principles, is the conception of the sacred self which is present in the research on the ego, soul, magic and the conception of the person among the Papuans (Gilbert Herdt, Michele Stephen, Fitz Poole, Jane C. Goodale) or on T. Csordas’ charismatic movements. The above conception found its fullest expression in the theory of Jacob Pandian. The essentialist attitude assuming an unchangeable nucleus of religion, is recognized to be closely associated with the phenomenology of religion and consequently with the comparative method, perceived here as its synonym. Yet in point of fact, comparative methods are „quite neutral from the point of view of the world-view”. Within the anthropology of religion, scholars rely most frequently on comparative methodology, worked out by biological sciences, which does not seem to be the best solution, due to the „family” and not „species”-based character of religion. Consequently, textbooks which describe this method of research usually contain more reservations than positive conclusions. The post-modernist critique of the classics, based on negative interpretation, usually contributes to sharpening the methodological sensitivity, yet it also leads to the phenomenon of too hasty and premature condemnation of everything that has arisen up till now. Reverting to the big questions which troubled scholars of religion from the very birth of this discipline of knowledge, the anthropologists of religion, relying on the cultural relativism, are critical of the achievements of their own discipline and in a sense, oppose the hypotheses concerning the impossibility to construct big narrations, in the sense of holistic theories of religion.
Stefan Klemczak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 171 - 216
The issue of secularization became a „Bermuda triangle” of debates concerning the origin and development of modernity. In some theories, the concept which originated within the sphere of canon law, has grown to the rank of the main historiosophic category which establishes the order of the times. In its semantic, though not phonic translatio, it has undergone a transformation from its Roman original, through the narrow semantic scope in the 16th c., denoting „transition” from the clerical to the lay state, through the 17th c. broadening of the meaning to denote the transfer of church property to the state, up to the 19th c. „description” of the historical transition between the Middle Ages and the Modern era. The present article tries to introduce order and present the various meanings of the concept and at the same time, answer the question: whether the category of „secularization” is a descriptive concept which reveals the process of modern „disenchantment of the world” or quite the opposite: whether it constitutes the process of „enchanting” modernity?
Thanks to G.W.F. Hegel, who used among others the metaphor of „enworlding” (Verweltlichung), the topic of secularization became one of the main „defining” categories of modernity. Within a system recounting the advance of the „spirit” throughout history, the author juxtaposes the mediaeval world to the modern one by means of the category of secularization, understood as a historical necessity. In the post-Hegelian philosophy, the theme of secularization became very popular in the materialistic, or else spiritualistic visions of history; it was treated either as an expression of historical progress, or else as a description of „crisis”, or „dissent”.
Another author who exerted an influence on the rank and importance of this category was M. Weber. His conception of historical evolution assumed a transition within European culture from Judaism to the modern social forms best expressed in capitalism. One of the main descriptive categories in this process is the category of secularization, which is used interchangeably with the metaphor of the „disenchantment of the world” (Entzauberung der Welt). At times, Weber used the metaphor in the narrow sense to denote disenchanting, or else in the broad sense, to denote the main concept of shaping modernity. Following Hegel and Weber, in the 20th century, the above category became a sort of theoretical rut, which is used in a variety of senses and theories which often contradict or oppose each other.
The first philosopher who not so much noticed the problems associated with this term, but who undermined the very foundations of the concept of secularization, was H. Blumenberg. In his book entitled: The Legitimacy of the Modern Age (Die Legitimität der Neuzeit) of 1966, he pointed out to a few fundamental difficulties associated with using this category. First of all, the acceptance of the assumption that: modernity is a derivative of the Middle Ages in the sense of secularizing its main categories, and endowing this concept with substantive content is theological and not historical in character. Secondly, he drew attention to the fact that the created ordo temporis lead to recognizing the modern age as an era that is not truly valid. Yet, the most important consequence of using this term, according to Blumenberg, is refusing the modern man the right to self-assertion. Taking into consideration both good and bad, the above theory assumes that the modern man has committed a historical hybris by undertaking the effort of „self-assertion” (Selbestbehauptung).
The article consists of three parts: the first one presents the history of the concept, the second looks at the ways of constructing historical orders and at the historical debate concerning their establishment, the third is devoted to the duel of the dwarfs (two metaphors of the dwarf in the history of philosophy of W. Benjamin and in the medieval philosophy of Bernard of Chartres); the article tries to capture the „unsinkable” character of the concept of „secularization”. On the one hand, the author juxtaposes the climbing of the dwarfs on the shoulders of the giants, so as „to see further” within the critically justified knowledge, and on the other, he presents the concealed game of theology which manipulates the major theoretical categories. The „duel of the dwarfs” was triggered by an attempt to define the sense of history in the context of a confrontation with the limitations of our cognition.
Krzysztof Mech
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 217 - 223
The author of the essay attempts to answer the question concerning the future of religion. Will religion survive in any form in the next millennium? The above question leads him to yet another query, this time concerning the very foundations of religion within man. Searching for the sources of human religiosity the author analyzes two literary figures which describe man’s condition – namely the metaphor of a cave, and the story of Job. On the basis of these two figures, he formulates a hypothesis concerning the connection between man’s religiosity and some negative experiences – such as the experience of a lack, the experience of evil etc. The non-removable character of these experiences is conducive to a hypothesis concerning the nonremovability of religion from man’s life. In the light of these analyses, the author formulates a hypothesis that in religion one is able to realize one’s striving after good which is the opposite of the experienced evil. Such an interpretation of religion, leads the author to the final conclusion that as long as man remains a being who is constantly under threat, and a being that experiences evil in a variety of its different forms, religion is not in danger of a sudden disappearance.
Jan Drabina
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 225 - 229
Daria Szymańska-Kuta, Joanna Duda, Izabela Meyza, Eliza Tomalak, Magdalena Schuster
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 231 - 252
Elżbieta Lubelska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 254 - 261
BÓG – HIPOTEZA NAUKOWA? RICHARD DAWKINS, BÓG UROJONY, TŁUM. PIOTR SZWAJCER (WYDAWNICTWO CIS, WARSZAWA 2007)
Tomasz Dekert
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 263 - 269
WSPÓŁCZESNA LITERATURA HEREZJOLOGICZNA – STUDIUM CIĘŻKIEGO PRZYPADKU JEAN VAQUIÉ, OKULTYZM A WIARA KATOLICKA. PODSTAWOWE MOTYWY GNOSTYCKIE, TŁUM. ALEKSANDRA GONDEK, POLWEN, RADOM 2007, SS. 65
Małgorzata Zawiła
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 271 - 274
O ŚWIĘTOŚCI UMIERANIA – ŚMIERĆ I UMIERANIE W PERSPEKTYWIE RELIGIOZNAWCZEJ I RELIGIJNEJ J.L. FRANCZYK, BRAMA ŚMIERCI. PYTANIA O SPRAWY OSTATECZNE, KRAKÓW 2007, WAM, SS. 104 I K.P. KRAMER, ŚMIERĆ W RÓŻNYCH RELIGIACH ŚWIATA, TŁUM. MAREK CHOJNACKI, KRAKÓW 2007, WAM, SS. 332
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 275 - 277
JACEK BOLEWSKI SJ, DALEKI WSCHÓD NA ZACHODZIE. OD REINKARNACJI DO REGENERACJI (WAM, KRAKÓW 2006), SS. 310
Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 279 - 283
HANS-PETER HASENFRATZ, RELIGIE ŚWIATA STAROŻYTNEGO A CHRZEŚCIJAŃSTWO, TŁUM. URSZULA POPRAWSKA, KRAKÓW 2006, WAM, SS. 174
Renata Furman
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 285 - 287
ROLLIN ARMOUR, ISLAM, CHRZECIJAŃSTWO I ZACHÓD. BURZLIWE DZIEJE WZAJEMNYCH RELACJI, TŁUM. IVONNA NOWICKA, KRAKÓW 2004, WAM, SS. 310
Hubert Bożek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 289 - 291
HENRI DE LUBAC, DRAMAT HUMANIZMU ATEISTYCZNEGO, TŁUM. ARKADIUSZ ZIARNECKI, WSTĘP MAREK WÓJTOWICZ SJ, KRAKÓW 2005, WAM, S. 423
Andrzej Mrozek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 293 - 297
GIOVANNI ODASSO, BIBLIA I RELIGIE. BIBLIJNE PERSPEKTYWY TEOLOGII RELIGII, TŁUM. STANISŁAW OBIREK, KRAKÓW 2005, WAM, SS. 336.
Agnieszka Piskozub-Piwosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 299 - 303
ROBERT J. WOŹNIAK, PRZYSZŁOŚĆ, TEOLOGIA, SPOŁECZEŃSTWO, MYŚL TEOLOGICZNA T. 56, KRAKÓW 2007, WAM, S. 186
Paweł Perka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 305 - 308
FRANZ-XAVER KAUFMANN, CZY CHRZEŚCIJAŃSTWO PRZETRWA?, KRAKÓW 2004, WAM, SS. 163.
Aleksander Naumow
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 9 - 20
The author of the article discusses the political aspect of the cult of the most worshipped images of Our Lady in the Russian Orthodox Church, namely: Our Lady of Vladimir, Our Lady of Tichvin and her replica Our Lady of Narva, Our Lady of Kazan, Our Lady of the Don River, Our Lady of Pskov, Our Lady of Smolensk and others. He raises the issue of taking advantage of the icons to ensure assistance to the country or its individual cities, in the situation of a military threat. The measure which was resorted to most often was the practice of processions going round an endangered area; in contemporary times, this measure is also supported by the use of airplanes or helicopters. One gets the impression that over centuries, this particular aspect of Russian religiousness has not changed; a good example of this sort of conduct is the decision to declare Virgin Mary – Empress of Russia, the use of icons during World War II, or during the riots in Moscow in the autumn of 1993. In several cases, the author draws attention to the considerable significance of Polish motifs and anti-Western attitudes.
Maria Schnitter
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 21 - 30
Object of the study are contemporary manifestations of religious fundamentalism at the Balkans under conditions of concurrent eurointegration (the case of Bulgaria is considered in particular). Followed are the major synchronous and diachronous factors determining the specificity of fundamentalist phenomena in the context of the Balkans, Orthodoxy, and Europe. The conclusion is that both historical merits and current regulatory and legal realities suggest rather a peaceful picture of interconfessional communication. An attempt is made at getting behind the curtain of official political discourse where alarming trends toward religious intolerance are found both on the part of Islam and of the Orthodox Church.
Secularism which is always inherent in the European talking on religious phenomena is conceived as inadequate and futureless in the interpretation of realities stageably existing in the „presecularity” of premodern time – like the Orthodoxy and Islam at the Balkans.
Agnieszka Adamczak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 31 - 47
The purpose of the article is to interpret the meaning of the Muslim headscarf from the perspective of the constructivist theory of James Beckford, whose methodological assumptions were presented by the author at the beginning. The author starts with a presentation of the reasons why at the institutional level of the French state, the scarf is identified as an instrument of oppression and subjugation of women. Subsequently, the author characterizes the main stages in the evolution of Islam within the French religious landscape, beginning with attempts to fight Islam under colonial rule, up to the recognition of Muslims as a separate religious category, equal to other denominations. In confrontation with the state monopoly on the political interpretation of higab, the author presents (in a historical perspective) the spectrum of cultural and religious interpretative possibilities of the practice of covering up the body. Emphasis was laid on showing the connection between perceiving the scarf as a cultural strategy and the secularist tendencies observable within the French Islam. The author is trying to prove that the headscarf may serve as an instrument of the auto-reflective process of constructing both the individual and communal Muslim identity, in connection with the need to redefine one’s attitude towards religion.
In opposition to the „Islam-culture” trend, the author presents an alternative proposition of interpreting the practice of wearing headscarves which has been put forward by the women activists of the „Islam-Action” movement. According to the author, quoting religious reasons as the basis of the practice of covering up the body, points out not only to a different way of defining higab, but to a whole new program of revival of Islam, under the slogan of a struggle with its symbolic enemies. The author emphasizes the importance of shame as a category testifying to a modern character of shaping one’s identity by the women members of „Islam-Action” who have a critical attitude towards the legacy of the Western feminist trends resulting in the reification of the woman’s body or the obliteration of differences between the sexes. In the final section of the paper, the author characterizes other elements, apart from the headscarf, which testify to the specific character of the „Islam-Action” movement.
Marzanna Kuczyńska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 49 - 62
In the article, the author presents the cults of nine saints, citizens of the Polish-Lithuanian state, who were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church: Dimitri of Rostov (Tuptalo), Innokentiy of Irkutsk (Kulchitsky), Job of Pochayiv, Theodosius of Chernigov (Polonitsky-Uglitsky), Philophey of Tobolsk (Leshchinsky), John of Tobolsk (Maximovich), Arseny of Rostov (Matssevich), Paul of Tobolsk (Koniushkevich), Anthony of Tobolsk (Stahovsky). Moreover, Russia recognizes the saints canonized by the Kiev Caves Lavra.
The religious significance of the above cults is constantly increasing; at the present moment, the saints who came from the Polish-Lithuanian territories are gaining the same rank and significance as the most important Russian (Great Russian) saints. The scope of their spiritual patronage is gradually widening; they are worshipped as the apostles the enlighteners of the nation, guardians and defenders of the state, the Church, faith and religious unity. The Orthodox Church takes advantage of the cult of these saints to symbolically underscore the canonical bonds that unite the Russian Church with even the most remote of the Ukrainian provinces.
Małgorzata Grzywacz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 63 - 75
It would be difficult to imagine contemporary German-language Protestantism without cyclical meetings organized bi-annually within the so called German Evangelical Church Day (Evangelischer Kirchentag). Sometimes these meetings attract well over a million people and they offer to the participants a unique opportunity to get acquainted with and experience the inner variety and wealth of the Churches, associations and initiatives belonging to the evangelical denomination. Since the year 1949, the above meetings took on an organized form and they belong to one of the most important ways of articulating the presence of Protestantism in the European culture. The inventor and spiritual father of these meetings was Reinold von Thadden-Trieglaff (1891–1976), an heir of a Pomeranian estate Trieglaff (Trzygłów). After World War II the family estate of the von Thadden family lay within the territory of the Polish state and it currently belongs to the joint German and Polish cultural legacy of the West-Pomeranian Province. Reinold von Thadden belonged to the leading representatives of German Protestantism in the 20th century. From the very beginning of his public activity, he became involved and assisted in various Church initiatives whose aim was to revive and strengthen the activity of the Evangelical laity, on both the central and local (Pomeranian) plane. The goal of von Thadden’s activity was, among others, a return to the sources of the Reformation and a new up-to-date interpretation of the principle of the universal ministry of all faithful, which has not been applied in practice. The historically-shaped model of the Pastors’ church which strengthened the position of the alliance between the lay and church authorities (the ruler as the summus episcopus), was sealed by the Old Prussian Church Union (1817) which introduced uniformity into the functioning of the parishes which were subordinated to the clergy and where parish councils enjoyed but minimal competence. It was only the territories subject to the intense expansion of the Pietist (XVIII c.) and community movements (XIX c.) that were able to retain their independence and sovereignty. Among these territories, there was among others Pomerania, whose eastern part (east of the Oder river – the so called Rear Pomerania) was inhabited by many noble families (among others von Kleist, von Zitzewitz, von Thadden), who were opposed to the religious policy of the Prussian kings and its theological consequences. A part of the Pomeranian church province, situated between Szczecin and Słupsk, extending to the Gdansk Pomerania in the north, was characterized by a high degree of church integrity and by traditional evangelical religiosity. In his initial attempts to stimulate the activity of the laity, von Thadden drew on the traditions of his family home as well as on the historical experiences of the entire region; it was a meeting held in Szczecin in the year 1932 that was to be the precursor of the later days of the Church. Its goal was to overcome the domination of the pastors, focus the devoted evangelicals on the idea of the renewal of individual and parish life. The main emphasis of this renewal was to be the message contained in the gospel. Yet, the above goals were attained only partially and the rapidly developing propaganda and the activity of the Nazis directed against the church circles, put a halt on further development of this initiative. However Reinold von Thadden’s public work did bring about his decisive protest against the policy of Hitler and the Nazis, whose aim was total subjugation and subsequently, complete elimination of Christianity from public life. One of the main creators of the Professing Church (Bekennende Kirche) which stood in opposition to the Nazi activities, was precisely Reinold von Thadden. His experiences dating back to the years 1933–1939 allowed him to participate actively in the post-war renewal of Germany, whose expression is the institution of the Church Day and its specific kind of spirituality – based on the Bible and the broadlyunderstood human needs.
Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 77 - 98
The article constitutes an attempt to describe the functioning of religion in the Internet, and particularly of the religious practices which are conducted online. The authoresses of the article trace the transformations which have taken place in the use of the Internet as an instrument employed to conduct types of practices, beginning with the simplest communicators, through the use of videoconfer ences, up to the use of three-dimensional techniques. Special attention was devoted to virtual temples, that is those Internet sites where one can make a virtual sacrifice to a deity. In the article, the authoresses also draw attention to the ways of conducting these types of rituals and they present the views thanks to which the participants of these events may have an impression that they are actually taking part in religious practices, rather than just participating in a game. The article closes with an analysis of the ways of functioning of religion in the virtual worlds, with particular attention being drawn to the Second Life, which has become immensely popular in recent times. Apart from traditional religions which open up their sites of worship in Second Life, there also arise new cults in this world which are characteristic exclusively of ritualistic reality. The fundamental problem which has to be faced here by scholars is an attempt to answer the question, to what extent these are really new religious movements and to what extent they constitute an element of internet games and instruments which these games make use of.
Tomasz Mames
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 99 - 106
The article constitutes a reflection on the issue of the ordination of women, in the context of a different interpretation of the role of a priest in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, with a simultaneous reference of this issue to the practice of the Old Catholic Churches. A gradual widening of the scope of the liturgical competence of the laity (first of men, and subsequently women) and the reinterpretation of the concept of ordination of the presbyterate made it possible to entrust women with certain liturgical functions which up until recently were performed by the deacons. In this way, besides the hierarchical deaconate (traditionally reserved for men, due to ordination), there emerges a de facto non-hierarchical (folk) deaconate which is accessible also to women.
Ryszard Kasperowicz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 107 - 117
More or less since the middle of the 18th century, there appeared a conviction that the experience of a work of art, if suitably prepared and separated off from other types of experience, may, thanks to its intensity and exclusivity as well as its totality, match or even supplant a religious experience. This process of sky-high adoration of art and the apotheosis of art as the highest form of cognition, reaches out with its roots to Shaftesbury’s aesthetics; whereas thanks to Winckelmann and his successors, it became deeply rooted in the 18–19 century culture, contributing to the rise of aesthetically-tinged anthropology, if only within the concept of the so called „beautiful man” in Germany at the turn of the century (Schiller, Goethe). The myth of the religion of art, which was so readily nurtured by the Romantics, was also incorporated by them into various historiosophic conceptions as well as dreams about a perfect language of art which is able to express directly the personality of the artist and his characteristic way of cognizing the world. In the second half of the 19th century, Jacob Burckhardt, one of the most original historians of culture and art, wished to base his conception of historical cognition and a historian’s freedom, among others, on the idea of communing with works of art. And although Burckhardt seemed at times to allude to the Romantic ideas of the religion of art, in point of fact, he never accepted its fundamental assumptions. The present article indicates the ambiguity of the very idea of the „religion of art” as well as to Burckhardt’s ambivalent reactions to its consequences.
Mikołaj Krawczyk
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 119 - 133
The aim of the article is to present the semantic wealth concealed in the Jewish legend about “golem”, which became popularized in the 19th and 20th centuries. The author presents a semantic analysis of the Hebrew stem g-l-m as well as of its derivatives. He discusses the most important sources which treat about golem – beginning with the Bible, the Talmud, Midrashic literature and ending with the selected writings belonging to the Ashkenazi Chassidism and the ecstatic cabala. In the article the author lays emphasis on revealing the mystical background of the described rituals relating to the creation and destruction of the figure of golem and the multi-layered structure of meanings associated with this process, in the context of halachic and cabalistic assessments of this type of religiousmagical activity.
Andrzej Szyjewski
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 135 - 169
The aim of the article is an attempt to answer the question whether under the influence of changes in the very subject-matter of anthropological research (a shift from traditional religions to great traditions perceived in different scales), there occurred any changes in the approach to religion and what consequences this could have had on the general religious reflection. The main effect of this convergence of the subject-matter of research is the superposition of anthropology of religion on religious studies, which is visible particularly in the methodological reflection: the bulk of the discourse concerning the methodology of religious studies is taking place within and on the circumference of anthropology. In view of the division within religious studies, into essential trends which treat religion as a phenomenon sui generis and particular trends which explore each religion as a separate phenomenon, the first problem that seems to confront scholars is the very definition of religion; the second one is to do with establishing a suitable comparative methodology. Anthropologists tend to define religion in terms of the Wittgenstein concept of „family resemblance”, and consequently, they look for instruments that would make it possible for them to carry our comparative studies; in doing so, they create holistic theories of religion. Reductionist theories, such as Stewart Guthrie’s neoanimism and memetics, are on the one hand burdened with ideological anti-religious assumptions, and on the other, they treat religion too narrowly, without taking advantage of the principle of „family resemblance”; that is why, their conclusions do not have a universal character, in spite of the fact that they assume to have it. The more extended cognitive theories (Pascal Boyer, Scott Atran) operate on a wider spectrum of religiogenous factors, beginning with semiotic and ending with neurological ones; what is problematic in them is the transition from the level of individual to social experience which is worked out within biogenetic structuralism or ritual studies. The evolution which has taken place within the ecology of religion, from the determinist conceptions of Steward or Harris, through cultural ecology of the early Rappaport and Vayda, to the uniform conception of working out comparative religious studies on the basis the ecology of Hultkranz, turned it into a promising, though limited research tool. An important attempt aimed at recognizing the relation between the ecosystem and man’s cultural activity, is Rappaport’s most recent proposition which leads to attributing a religious function to ecosystems. Rappaport’s theory of religion has a synthetic character combining within it the achievements of cultural ecology, ritualistic studies and semiological research.
The fruit of the discourse on Eliade’s legacy in religious studies, within the „hermeneutics of suspiciousness” proposed by Jonathan Smith, was turning attention to the empirical verification of such universal assumptions as sacrum, uranic hierophany, deus otiosus, or center. On the basis of the criti cism of the morphology of sacrum, Smith suggests mapping as a fundamental research technique. On the other hand, American neo-comparatists (Smith, Lawrence Sullivan, Sam Gill, Bruce Lincoln) suggest focusing on the meaning of religious ideas, associated with human orientation in time and space, which creates religious symbols. As an exemplification of the hermeneutics of suspiciousness, Sam Gill suggests a method of tracing successive interpretations, that is storytracking. In turn Lawrence Sullivan proposes a return to the assumptions of the typological-cognitive school. Yet another attempt to create a theory of religion based on essentialist principles, is the conception of the sacred self which is present in the research on the ego, soul, magic and the conception of the person among the Papuans (Gilbert Herdt, Michele Stephen, Fitz Poole, Jane C. Goodale) or on T. Csordas’ charismatic movements. The above conception found its fullest expression in the theory of Jacob Pandian. The essentialist attitude assuming an unchangeable nucleus of religion, is recognized to be closely associated with the phenomenology of religion and consequently with the comparative method, perceived here as its synonym. Yet in point of fact, comparative methods are „quite neutral from the point of view of the world-view”. Within the anthropology of religion, scholars rely most frequently on comparative methodology, worked out by biological sciences, which does not seem to be the best solution, due to the „family” and not „species”-based character of religion. Consequently, textbooks which describe this method of research usually contain more reservations than positive conclusions. The post-modernist critique of the classics, based on negative interpretation, usually contributes to sharpening the methodological sensitivity, yet it also leads to the phenomenon of too hasty and premature condemnation of everything that has arisen up till now. Reverting to the big questions which troubled scholars of religion from the very birth of this discipline of knowledge, the anthropologists of religion, relying on the cultural relativism, are critical of the achievements of their own discipline and in a sense, oppose the hypotheses concerning the impossibility to construct big narrations, in the sense of holistic theories of religion.
Stefan Klemczak
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 171 - 216
The issue of secularization became a „Bermuda triangle” of debates concerning the origin and development of modernity. In some theories, the concept which originated within the sphere of canon law, has grown to the rank of the main historiosophic category which establishes the order of the times. In its semantic, though not phonic translatio, it has undergone a transformation from its Roman original, through the narrow semantic scope in the 16th c., denoting „transition” from the clerical to the lay state, through the 17th c. broadening of the meaning to denote the transfer of church property to the state, up to the 19th c. „description” of the historical transition between the Middle Ages and the Modern era. The present article tries to introduce order and present the various meanings of the concept and at the same time, answer the question: whether the category of „secularization” is a descriptive concept which reveals the process of modern „disenchantment of the world” or quite the opposite: whether it constitutes the process of „enchanting” modernity?
Thanks to G.W.F. Hegel, who used among others the metaphor of „enworlding” (Verweltlichung), the topic of secularization became one of the main „defining” categories of modernity. Within a system recounting the advance of the „spirit” throughout history, the author juxtaposes the mediaeval world to the modern one by means of the category of secularization, understood as a historical necessity. In the post-Hegelian philosophy, the theme of secularization became very popular in the materialistic, or else spiritualistic visions of history; it was treated either as an expression of historical progress, or else as a description of „crisis”, or „dissent”.
Another author who exerted an influence on the rank and importance of this category was M. Weber. His conception of historical evolution assumed a transition within European culture from Judaism to the modern social forms best expressed in capitalism. One of the main descriptive categories in this process is the category of secularization, which is used interchangeably with the metaphor of the „disenchantment of the world” (Entzauberung der Welt). At times, Weber used the metaphor in the narrow sense to denote disenchanting, or else in the broad sense, to denote the main concept of shaping modernity. Following Hegel and Weber, in the 20th century, the above category became a sort of theoretical rut, which is used in a variety of senses and theories which often contradict or oppose each other.
The first philosopher who not so much noticed the problems associated with this term, but who undermined the very foundations of the concept of secularization, was H. Blumenberg. In his book entitled: The Legitimacy of the Modern Age (Die Legitimität der Neuzeit) of 1966, he pointed out to a few fundamental difficulties associated with using this category. First of all, the acceptance of the assumption that: modernity is a derivative of the Middle Ages in the sense of secularizing its main categories, and endowing this concept with substantive content is theological and not historical in character. Secondly, he drew attention to the fact that the created ordo temporis lead to recognizing the modern age as an era that is not truly valid. Yet, the most important consequence of using this term, according to Blumenberg, is refusing the modern man the right to self-assertion. Taking into consideration both good and bad, the above theory assumes that the modern man has committed a historical hybris by undertaking the effort of „self-assertion” (Selbestbehauptung).
The article consists of three parts: the first one presents the history of the concept, the second looks at the ways of constructing historical orders and at the historical debate concerning their establishment, the third is devoted to the duel of the dwarfs (two metaphors of the dwarf in the history of philosophy of W. Benjamin and in the medieval philosophy of Bernard of Chartres); the article tries to capture the „unsinkable” character of the concept of „secularization”. On the one hand, the author juxtaposes the climbing of the dwarfs on the shoulders of the giants, so as „to see further” within the critically justified knowledge, and on the other, he presents the concealed game of theology which manipulates the major theoretical categories. The „duel of the dwarfs” was triggered by an attempt to define the sense of history in the context of a confrontation with the limitations of our cognition.
Krzysztof Mech
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 217 - 223
The author of the essay attempts to answer the question concerning the future of religion. Will religion survive in any form in the next millennium? The above question leads him to yet another query, this time concerning the very foundations of religion within man. Searching for the sources of human religiosity the author analyzes two literary figures which describe man’s condition – namely the metaphor of a cave, and the story of Job. On the basis of these two figures, he formulates a hypothesis concerning the connection between man’s religiosity and some negative experiences – such as the experience of a lack, the experience of evil etc. The non-removable character of these experiences is conducive to a hypothesis concerning the nonremovability of religion from man’s life. In the light of these analyses, the author formulates a hypothesis that in religion one is able to realize one’s striving after good which is the opposite of the experienced evil. Such an interpretation of religion, leads the author to the final conclusion that as long as man remains a being who is constantly under threat, and a being that experiences evil in a variety of its different forms, religion is not in danger of a sudden disappearance.
Jan Drabina
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 225 - 229
Daria Szymańska-Kuta, Joanna Duda, Izabela Meyza, Eliza Tomalak, Magdalena Schuster
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 231 - 252
Elżbieta Lubelska
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 254 - 261
BÓG – HIPOTEZA NAUKOWA? RICHARD DAWKINS, BÓG UROJONY, TŁUM. PIOTR SZWAJCER (WYDAWNICTWO CIS, WARSZAWA 2007)
Tomasz Dekert
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 263 - 269
WSPÓŁCZESNA LITERATURA HEREZJOLOGICZNA – STUDIUM CIĘŻKIEGO PRZYPADKU JEAN VAQUIÉ, OKULTYZM A WIARA KATOLICKA. PODSTAWOWE MOTYWY GNOSTYCKIE, TŁUM. ALEKSANDRA GONDEK, POLWEN, RADOM 2007, SS. 65
Małgorzata Zawiła
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 271 - 274
O ŚWIĘTOŚCI UMIERANIA – ŚMIERĆ I UMIERANIE W PERSPEKTYWIE RELIGIOZNAWCZEJ I RELIGIJNEJ J.L. FRANCZYK, BRAMA ŚMIERCI. PYTANIA O SPRAWY OSTATECZNE, KRAKÓW 2007, WAM, SS. 104 I K.P. KRAMER, ŚMIERĆ W RÓŻNYCH RELIGIACH ŚWIATA, TŁUM. MAREK CHOJNACKI, KRAKÓW 2007, WAM, SS. 332
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 275 - 277
JACEK BOLEWSKI SJ, DALEKI WSCHÓD NA ZACHODZIE. OD REINKARNACJI DO REGENERACJI (WAM, KRAKÓW 2006), SS. 310
Piotr Czarnecki
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 279 - 283
HANS-PETER HASENFRATZ, RELIGIE ŚWIATA STAROŻYTNEGO A CHRZEŚCIJAŃSTWO, TŁUM. URSZULA POPRAWSKA, KRAKÓW 2006, WAM, SS. 174
Renata Furman
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 285 - 287
ROLLIN ARMOUR, ISLAM, CHRZECIJAŃSTWO I ZACHÓD. BURZLIWE DZIEJE WZAJEMNYCH RELACJI, TŁUM. IVONNA NOWICKA, KRAKÓW 2004, WAM, SS. 310
Hubert Bożek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 289 - 291
HENRI DE LUBAC, DRAMAT HUMANIZMU ATEISTYCZNEGO, TŁUM. ARKADIUSZ ZIARNECKI, WSTĘP MAREK WÓJTOWICZ SJ, KRAKÓW 2005, WAM, S. 423
Andrzej Mrozek
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 293 - 297
GIOVANNI ODASSO, BIBLIA I RELIGIE. BIBLIJNE PERSPEKTYWY TEOLOGII RELIGII, TŁUM. STANISŁAW OBIREK, KRAKÓW 2005, WAM, SS. 336.
Agnieszka Piskozub-Piwosz
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 299 - 303
ROBERT J. WOŹNIAK, PRZYSZŁOŚĆ, TEOLOGIA, SPOŁECZEŃSTWO, MYŚL TEOLOGICZNA T. 56, KRAKÓW 2007, WAM, S. 186
Paweł Perka
Studia Religiologica, Volume 40, 2007, pp. 305 - 308
FRANZ-XAVER KAUFMANN, CZY CHRZEŚCIJAŃSTWO PRZETRWA?, KRAKÓW 2004, WAM, SS. 163.
Publication date: 2005
Ed. by: Jana Drabiny
Jan Słomka
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 9 - 21
Christianity was born among the Jewish circles. In a natural, though not unpremeditated way, the Young Church derived its inspiration from the religious heritage of Judaism. For instance, from the very beginning, it definitely rejected the literal observation of the Jewish Law. Another important element of the Judaic tradition were the prophets. As those who spoke out directly on God’s behalf, they admonished the people of Israel as well as its rulers and proclaimed the message of hope, but above all, they announced the coming of the Messiah. The prophetic tradition had been taken over in the very first phase of the Church’s life. This is best borne out by the numerous testimonies from the Act of the Apostles, St. Paul’s Letters as well as by the testimonies contained in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, above all the Didache and the Shepherd, though not exclusively. By the end of the first century, in the vicinity of Antioch and Asia Minor, the prophets played an important role in the structures of church „offices”; in other words, they also participated in the daily administering of the churches. Afterwards, their institutional role disappears, yet the prophets themselves continue to be present in the church communities and prophesying continues to enjoy spiritual authority. It is recognized as significant for the Church’s authenticity. It seems that ultimately it was the argument over Montana who declared himself to be a new prophet, that put an end to this tradition. Under the influence of the discussion concerning the authenticity of Montana’s prophetic gift, it was definitely announced in Rome that „The Holy Spirit spoke through the prophets” and this statement had gradually become one of the fundamental tenets of faith. The past tense used in this declaration signifies that the time of the prophets came to an end at the moment of Jesus’ coming, similarly as the apostolic time had definitely ended at the moment of death of the last of the Apostles.
Krzysztof Pilarczyk
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 23 - 34
The subject of the article is the recently discovered and published copy of a Coptic version of an apocryphal Gospel of Judas (the Greek original was written in the middle of the II century) recovered from The Codex Tchacos dating back to III-IV century. The author describes in a synthetic way, the history of its discovery and presents the results of the research that has gone into its edition; he pre-sents its content and gives its rough interpretation; he also defines its literary genre and the religious circles which gave rise to it. The author classifies the text as belonging to the early pseudepigraphic Gnostic writings which arose in the Cainite sect (Judaites). The discovery of the gospel authenticated the existence of this sect which was known from the writings of some Christian heresiologists and whose existence was being questioned by certain scholars; it provided an insight into its doctrine which was sometimes regarded as an invention of the ancient anti-Gnostic polemicists. Right now, the group of Cainites „had spoken with its own voice”.
Tomasz Dekert
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 35 - 56
In the present article I am trying to analyze the relation between the figure of Satan and the cate-gory of apostasy which occurs in the writings of St. Irenaeus of Lyon. Apart from the fact that the author of Adversus haereses refers to Satan as an „apostate” or „angel apostate”, he also refers to Satan as a „leader of apostasy” (¢ρcηγÕςτÁς¢ποστασίας) or the „cause of apostasy” (causa ab-scessionis). At the same time, Irenaeus treats apostasy as something similar to an autonomous strength which has dominion over man. Such a use of the term ¢ποστασίαbecame the basis of an interpretation which treated apostasy in Irenaeus’ writings as a specific type of synonym of Satan in the sense of a personification of evil. However, such interpretations do not seem to be correct for a number of reasons, to mention just the fact that expressions of the type „the leader of apostasy” sug-gest in a direct way that Satan and apostasy are two different things. A preliminary distinction be-tween the two is provided by the Greek language itself (which was used by the bishop of Lyon), where the term ¢ποστασίαdenoting the state of apostasy and assuming the idea of apostasy (¢ποστάτης) is distinguished from the term ¢πόστασιςsignifying the very act of apostasy. Satan committed an act of apostasy which turned him into an apostate, thereby initiating the existence of the state of ¢ποσταία. Thus, in order to understand the very nature of the relation between Satan and the state of ¢ποστασίαin Irenaeus’ writings, one should take a closer look at how he describes the very act of the diabolic ¢πόστασις. Most likely, Irenaeus’ conception of Satan as an apostate had in its background the Jewish myth concerning the rebellion of the angels, in which Satan is presented, on the one hand, as a rebel who wishes to take God’s place, and on the other, as an offender who opposes God’s laws relating to the natural order in the universe. On the basis of the apocryphal corps of the Books of Adam and Eve, the Bishop of Lyon develops the concept of Satan’s envy in relation to man (caused by the fact that man was created in the image and likeness of God) as the nucleus of Satan’s ¢πόστασις. By envying man (and in this way, also God), he became an apostate of the Divine law which determined his permanent position as man’s subject in the hierarchy of creation. By contradict-ing this Divine law, he introduced profound chaos into the structure of the creation and by infecting man out of revenge with his own envy in relation to God, he had led to the situation in which man and the world became cut off from the Creator. This state of being cut off, shared by Satan and the people who through their own apostasy became Satan’s slaves, is what Irenaeus defines by the term ¢ποστασία.
Henryk Pietras
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 57 - 79
We know today that the so called „Arian controversy” began with a certain theological dispute; the dispute was initiated by bishop Alexander and presbyter Arius. The argument concerned the inter-pretation of a certain fragment of the Holy Scripture. It is not known when exactly the dispute took place, but in all likelihood, it occurred at the beginning of the twenties of the IV century. In the artic-le, the author analyzes the three texts which are fundamental to the above controversy, namely: Arius’ Letter to Alexander in which he presents his own credo, Alexander’s Letter to All the Bishops, from which we learn about the condemnation of Arius and his followers by the synod which had gathered specially for this end in Alexandria, and finally Arius’ Letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia. In his letter, Arius appeals to his followers for support in his dispute with the bishop. In the article, the author draws our attention to the fact that the above controversy could not have been the real reason for calling the Nicene Council as Emperor Constantine tended to ignore its significance which is best borne out by his letter to Alexander and Arius sent in the autumn of A.D. 324 and delivered in person by bishop Hosius of Cordoba. When the emperor had learnt about the fiasco of Hosius’ mission, it was already too late to invite the bishops to Nice for July 325, as they would not have received the invitation in time to be able to travel to Nice and attend the Council.
Marta Höffner
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 81 - 100
The paper raises one of the issues which are present in the writings of Gregory of Nyssa, namely that of the relation between body and soul. The above issue is closely associated with the anthropo-logy of the bishop of Nyssa which is based on a fragment of the book of Genesis that treats about man being created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:27). Contrary to Philon and Orygenes who refer the act of dual creation to both Gen 1:27 and Gen :7, Gregory of Nyssa bases his conception of dual creation exclusively on the above-mentioned verse. In the conception of the bishop of Nyssa, the first creation relates to man understood as the humankind and it is a creation in the image and like-ness, whereas the second creation is a division into sexes (God introduces this division foreseeing man’s inclination to sin). With an act of free will, man selects sin and together with the original sin the biological sphere becomes activated. In spite of continuing in this state, the corporeal nature of man is not perceived in a negative way. In the second part of the article, the author raises the issue in what way the body and soul create a unity in man, at the same time being differentiated in the sphere of its nature. The conception presented by Gregory of Nyssa is clearly anchored in neo-Platonism. The text shows in what way the soul displays its varied activity through the body and in what way the body itself is adjusted through its constitution to the needs of the soul. Through the relation of body and soul, Gregory presents the conception of man as a dynamic and exceptional being as the two orders – the spiritual and the bodily one are united in man.
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 101 - 112
The subject of the article is the idea of a subtle perception which is present in the late-antique tra-dition. The starting point is an attempt to capture the original meaning of the Christian conception of the inner senses in the theory of Origen and placing it in a wider historical, cultural, and above all theoretical context. The article takes up the various points of reference of the conception of the inner senses: 1) the problem of subtle perception in the shape adopted in the Neoplatonist tradition against the background of the development of the idea of the subtle body, and also 2) the issue of cognitive presentation (φαντασίακαταλυτική) in the sense of the Stoical theory of perception. The analysis carried out mainly from the perspective of the research conducted by R. Sorabji and E.R. Dodds shows that an analogous conception of subtle senses was developed by the particularly mature Neo-platonist tradition. Whereas the Christian conception which developed in monastic circles was influ-enced, to some extent by the stoical solutions.
Andrzej Uciecha
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 113 - 126
Polémique dans les oeuvres d’Aphraat et d’Ephrem
Dans cet article on se limite sur l’aspect formel de la polémique laquelle on peut discerner dans les Éxposés d’Aphraat et dans les certaines oeuvres de saint Ephrem (Prose Refutations of Mani, Marcion, and Bardaisan, hymnes De fide et Contra haereses). Le Sage Persan discutait avec le judaisme, tandis que le Diacre d’Edesse niait la valeur des doctrines hérétiques. Les deux Syriens constatent que faute de cohérence logique dans l’argumentation des hérétiques et des rabbins juifs leurs méthodes d’analyse et leurs conlusions sont fausses; en plus emprisonnés par la subjectivité épistémologique ils ne peuvent que l’inventer un monde de fiction qui n’a rien avoir avec un monde réel. Caricature et invective ce sont des instruments formels avec lesquels Aphraat et Ephrem ont essayé de défendre l’ortodoxie chrétienne.
Agnieszka Piskozub-Piwosz
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 127 - 140
The article discusses the references to Marcion of Pont as well as to Marcionites contained in Origenes’ commentary to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans. It was particularly those places where the commentator mentions the heresiarch by name that were taken into consideration; on this basis the views ascribed to the Marcianites are analyzed. Moreover, the author quotes those fragments of the text which though do not mention Marcion directly, yet which contain remarks directed against certain unspecified heresies; the latter may also be regarded as part of Marcion’s teaching. The analyzed fragments of the commentary point out, above all, to the most important element of Marcion’s heresy , in Origenes’ view, namely to his insistence on the literal interpretation of the Holy Scripture which had led this preacher from Pont to a rejection of the whole of the Old and a conside-rable part of the New Testament. Also the interpretation of those writings of St. Paul’s which Marcion regards as inspired turns out to be erroneous precisely due to the author’s failure to use an allegorical exegesis. In the conclusions, the author points out that although Origenes presents Marcion’s views, he does not devote a lot of attention to refuting them. Nevertheless, he points out emphatically that in order to assure the correct theological interpretation of the Holy Scripture, one needs to recognize both the literal and the allegorical sense of it.
Izabela Trzcińska
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 141 - 156
The problem of Logos constitutes one of the main motifs of the classical philosophical and theo-logical reflection at the beginning of our era. In the article the author discusses the meaning of Logos in the hermetic treatise „Poimandres”, and compares it with other presentations of this problem (above all in Christianity and Gnosticism). The operation of the hermetic Logos consists in giving sense to existence, thanks to which the world emerges out of chaos. Logos is continually present in the world and as such, it can also be experienced directly, and may therefore have a sensual character. The hermetic Logos has a paradoxical character: it remains concealed throughout the whole time, and at the same time, it is open; it is elusive and incarnate; it is an expression of transcendence and at the same time of immanence. Consequently, the process of getting to know the world, becomes the pro-cess of getting to know Logos, and ultimately – God himself. In Poimandres, all of these issues were described by means of a vivid language of myth. Whereas Gnostic Logos always remains beyond the world and beyond language, becoming revealed exclusively in the inner experience leading to the highest illumination. And it seems that from the point of view of the Christian interpretation of Logos, Poimandres did not play any major role in the classical times, in spite of the many convergences and similarities between the two conceptions. Yet at the threshold of modern times, the logos of this myth once again became an up-to-date interpretation of Logos and as such, it exerted an important influen-ce on the character of the entire European civilization.
Piotr Majdanik
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 157 - 177
The end of the classical era marks the period of the expansion of Christianity in the Greek-Roman world which owes its success to the missionary activities combined with religious universalism. In the same period, Judaism formulates a universalistic moral message based on the oral tradition which it addresses to the non-Jews – the so called seven Noahite commandments. It is also a period of consolidation of the oral tradition of Judaism in Talmud, in which one may find a story relating to the Noahite laws. A sizable part of the article is taken up with a translation accompanied by commentary of a fragment of gemara of the Sanhedrin treatise 56a–57a from the Babylon Talmud. The above fragment constitutes the first part of the so called „Noahite digression” and is devoted to a rabbinical debate devoted to the catalog and sources of the Noahite commandments. According to a commonly accepted view, the commandments in question consist of seven laws: a ban to indulge in idolatry, blasphemy, murder, sexual promiscuity, robbery and consumption of any part of a living animal, as well as an injunction to create a legal system. It is commonly assumed that the biblical source of the above commandments is a verse in the Book of Genesis: „Then Yahweh God gave the man this admonition: »You may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden«” (Gn 2:16).
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 179 - 183
Acta Synodalia ab anno 50 ad annum 381 (Synodi et Collectiones legum vol. I) – Dokumenty synodów od 50 do 381 roku (Synody i Kolekcje Praw tom 1), układ i opracowanie Arkadiusz Baron i Henryk Pietras SJ, Kraków 2006 (Wydawnictwo WAM, „Źródła Myśli Teologicznej” 37), ss. 356.
Stefan Klemczak
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 185 - 186
PORFIRIUSZ Z TYRU, GROTA NIMF, TŁUM. PIOTR ASHWIN-SIEJKOWSKI, KRAKÓW 2006
Stefan Klemczak
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 187 - 188
AREJOS DIDYMOS, PODRĘCZNIK ETYKI, TŁUM. MICHAŁ WOJ-CIECHOWSKI, KRAKÓW 2006
Mikołaj Krawczyk
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 189 - 190
PORFIRIUSZ Z TYRU, PRZECIW CHRZEŚCIJANOM, PRZEKŁAD, WSTĘP I KOMENTARZ: PIOTR ASHWIN-SIEJKOWSKI KRAKÓW 2006, ss. 159
Jan Drabina
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 191 - 193
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 179 - 183
Acta Synodalia ab anno 50 ad annum 381 (Synodi et Collectiones legum vol. I) – Dokumenty synodów od 50 do 381 roku (Synody i Kolekcje Praw tom 1), układ i opracowanie Arkadiusz Baron i Henryk Pietras SJ, Kraków 2006 (Wydawnictwo WAM, „Źródła Myśli Teologicznej” 37), ss. 356.
Stefan Klemczak
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 185 - 186
PORFIRIUSZ Z TYRU, GROTA NIMF, TŁUM. PIOTR ASHWIN-SIEJKOWSKI, KRAKÓW 2006
Stefan Klemczak
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 187 - 188
AREJOS DIDYMOS, PODRĘCZNIK ETYKI, TŁUM. MICHAŁ WOJ-CIECHOWSKI, KRAKÓW 2006
Mikołaj Krawczyk
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 189 - 190
PORFIRIUSZ Z TYRU, PRZECIW CHRZEŚCIJANOM, PRZEKŁAD, WSTĘP I KOMENTARZ: PIOTR ASHWIN-SIEJKOWSKI KRAKÓW 2006, ss. 159
Jan Drabina
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 191 - 193
Jan Słomka
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 9 - 21
Christianity was born among the Jewish circles. In a natural, though not unpremeditated way, the Young Church derived its inspiration from the religious heritage of Judaism. For instance, from the very beginning, it definitely rejected the literal observation of the Jewish Law. Another important element of the Judaic tradition were the prophets. As those who spoke out directly on God’s behalf, they admonished the people of Israel as well as its rulers and proclaimed the message of hope, but above all, they announced the coming of the Messiah. The prophetic tradition had been taken over in the very first phase of the Church’s life. This is best borne out by the numerous testimonies from the Act of the Apostles, St. Paul’s Letters as well as by the testimonies contained in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, above all the Didache and the Shepherd, though not exclusively. By the end of the first century, in the vicinity of Antioch and Asia Minor, the prophets played an important role in the structures of church „offices”; in other words, they also participated in the daily administering of the churches. Afterwards, their institutional role disappears, yet the prophets themselves continue to be present in the church communities and prophesying continues to enjoy spiritual authority. It is recognized as significant for the Church’s authenticity. It seems that ultimately it was the argument over Montana who declared himself to be a new prophet, that put an end to this tradition. Under the influence of the discussion concerning the authenticity of Montana’s prophetic gift, it was definitely announced in Rome that „The Holy Spirit spoke through the prophets” and this statement had gradually become one of the fundamental tenets of faith. The past tense used in this declaration signifies that the time of the prophets came to an end at the moment of Jesus’ coming, similarly as the apostolic time had definitely ended at the moment of death of the last of the Apostles.
Krzysztof Pilarczyk
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 23 - 34
The subject of the article is the recently discovered and published copy of a Coptic version of an apocryphal Gospel of Judas (the Greek original was written in the middle of the II century) recovered from The Codex Tchacos dating back to III-IV century. The author describes in a synthetic way, the history of its discovery and presents the results of the research that has gone into its edition; he pre-sents its content and gives its rough interpretation; he also defines its literary genre and the religious circles which gave rise to it. The author classifies the text as belonging to the early pseudepigraphic Gnostic writings which arose in the Cainite sect (Judaites). The discovery of the gospel authenticated the existence of this sect which was known from the writings of some Christian heresiologists and whose existence was being questioned by certain scholars; it provided an insight into its doctrine which was sometimes regarded as an invention of the ancient anti-Gnostic polemicists. Right now, the group of Cainites „had spoken with its own voice”.
Tomasz Dekert
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 35 - 56
In the present article I am trying to analyze the relation between the figure of Satan and the cate-gory of apostasy which occurs in the writings of St. Irenaeus of Lyon. Apart from the fact that the author of Adversus haereses refers to Satan as an „apostate” or „angel apostate”, he also refers to Satan as a „leader of apostasy” (¢ρcηγÕςτÁς¢ποστασίας) or the „cause of apostasy” (causa ab-scessionis). At the same time, Irenaeus treats apostasy as something similar to an autonomous strength which has dominion over man. Such a use of the term ¢ποστασίαbecame the basis of an interpretation which treated apostasy in Irenaeus’ writings as a specific type of synonym of Satan in the sense of a personification of evil. However, such interpretations do not seem to be correct for a number of reasons, to mention just the fact that expressions of the type „the leader of apostasy” sug-gest in a direct way that Satan and apostasy are two different things. A preliminary distinction be-tween the two is provided by the Greek language itself (which was used by the bishop of Lyon), where the term ¢ποστασίαdenoting the state of apostasy and assuming the idea of apostasy (¢ποστάτης) is distinguished from the term ¢πόστασιςsignifying the very act of apostasy. Satan committed an act of apostasy which turned him into an apostate, thereby initiating the existence of the state of ¢ποσταία. Thus, in order to understand the very nature of the relation between Satan and the state of ¢ποστασίαin Irenaeus’ writings, one should take a closer look at how he describes the very act of the diabolic ¢πόστασις. Most likely, Irenaeus’ conception of Satan as an apostate had in its background the Jewish myth concerning the rebellion of the angels, in which Satan is presented, on the one hand, as a rebel who wishes to take God’s place, and on the other, as an offender who opposes God’s laws relating to the natural order in the universe. On the basis of the apocryphal corps of the Books of Adam and Eve, the Bishop of Lyon develops the concept of Satan’s envy in relation to man (caused by the fact that man was created in the image and likeness of God) as the nucleus of Satan’s ¢πόστασις. By envying man (and in this way, also God), he became an apostate of the Divine law which determined his permanent position as man’s subject in the hierarchy of creation. By contradict-ing this Divine law, he introduced profound chaos into the structure of the creation and by infecting man out of revenge with his own envy in relation to God, he had led to the situation in which man and the world became cut off from the Creator. This state of being cut off, shared by Satan and the people who through their own apostasy became Satan’s slaves, is what Irenaeus defines by the term ¢ποστασία.
Henryk Pietras
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 57 - 79
We know today that the so called „Arian controversy” began with a certain theological dispute; the dispute was initiated by bishop Alexander and presbyter Arius. The argument concerned the inter-pretation of a certain fragment of the Holy Scripture. It is not known when exactly the dispute took place, but in all likelihood, it occurred at the beginning of the twenties of the IV century. In the artic-le, the author analyzes the three texts which are fundamental to the above controversy, namely: Arius’ Letter to Alexander in which he presents his own credo, Alexander’s Letter to All the Bishops, from which we learn about the condemnation of Arius and his followers by the synod which had gathered specially for this end in Alexandria, and finally Arius’ Letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia. In his letter, Arius appeals to his followers for support in his dispute with the bishop. In the article, the author draws our attention to the fact that the above controversy could not have been the real reason for calling the Nicene Council as Emperor Constantine tended to ignore its significance which is best borne out by his letter to Alexander and Arius sent in the autumn of A.D. 324 and delivered in person by bishop Hosius of Cordoba. When the emperor had learnt about the fiasco of Hosius’ mission, it was already too late to invite the bishops to Nice for July 325, as they would not have received the invitation in time to be able to travel to Nice and attend the Council.
Marta Höffner
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 81 - 100
The paper raises one of the issues which are present in the writings of Gregory of Nyssa, namely that of the relation between body and soul. The above issue is closely associated with the anthropo-logy of the bishop of Nyssa which is based on a fragment of the book of Genesis that treats about man being created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:27). Contrary to Philon and Orygenes who refer the act of dual creation to both Gen 1:27 and Gen :7, Gregory of Nyssa bases his conception of dual creation exclusively on the above-mentioned verse. In the conception of the bishop of Nyssa, the first creation relates to man understood as the humankind and it is a creation in the image and like-ness, whereas the second creation is a division into sexes (God introduces this division foreseeing man’s inclination to sin). With an act of free will, man selects sin and together with the original sin the biological sphere becomes activated. In spite of continuing in this state, the corporeal nature of man is not perceived in a negative way. In the second part of the article, the author raises the issue in what way the body and soul create a unity in man, at the same time being differentiated in the sphere of its nature. The conception presented by Gregory of Nyssa is clearly anchored in neo-Platonism. The text shows in what way the soul displays its varied activity through the body and in what way the body itself is adjusted through its constitution to the needs of the soul. Through the relation of body and soul, Gregory presents the conception of man as a dynamic and exceptional being as the two orders – the spiritual and the bodily one are united in man.
Daria Szymańska-Kuta
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 101 - 112
The subject of the article is the idea of a subtle perception which is present in the late-antique tra-dition. The starting point is an attempt to capture the original meaning of the Christian conception of the inner senses in the theory of Origen and placing it in a wider historical, cultural, and above all theoretical context. The article takes up the various points of reference of the conception of the inner senses: 1) the problem of subtle perception in the shape adopted in the Neoplatonist tradition against the background of the development of the idea of the subtle body, and also 2) the issue of cognitive presentation (φαντασίακαταλυτική) in the sense of the Stoical theory of perception. The analysis carried out mainly from the perspective of the research conducted by R. Sorabji and E.R. Dodds shows that an analogous conception of subtle senses was developed by the particularly mature Neo-platonist tradition. Whereas the Christian conception which developed in monastic circles was influ-enced, to some extent by the stoical solutions.
Andrzej Uciecha
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 113 - 126
Polémique dans les oeuvres d’Aphraat et d’Ephrem
Dans cet article on se limite sur l’aspect formel de la polémique laquelle on peut discerner dans les Éxposés d’Aphraat et dans les certaines oeuvres de saint Ephrem (Prose Refutations of Mani, Marcion, and Bardaisan, hymnes De fide et Contra haereses). Le Sage Persan discutait avec le judaisme, tandis que le Diacre d’Edesse niait la valeur des doctrines hérétiques. Les deux Syriens constatent que faute de cohérence logique dans l’argumentation des hérétiques et des rabbins juifs leurs méthodes d’analyse et leurs conlusions sont fausses; en plus emprisonnés par la subjectivité épistémologique ils ne peuvent que l’inventer un monde de fiction qui n’a rien avoir avec un monde réel. Caricature et invective ce sont des instruments formels avec lesquels Aphraat et Ephrem ont essayé de défendre l’ortodoxie chrétienne.
Agnieszka Piskozub-Piwosz
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 127 - 140
The article discusses the references to Marcion of Pont as well as to Marcionites contained in Origenes’ commentary to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans. It was particularly those places where the commentator mentions the heresiarch by name that were taken into consideration; on this basis the views ascribed to the Marcianites are analyzed. Moreover, the author quotes those fragments of the text which though do not mention Marcion directly, yet which contain remarks directed against certain unspecified heresies; the latter may also be regarded as part of Marcion’s teaching. The analyzed fragments of the commentary point out, above all, to the most important element of Marcion’s heresy , in Origenes’ view, namely to his insistence on the literal interpretation of the Holy Scripture which had led this preacher from Pont to a rejection of the whole of the Old and a conside-rable part of the New Testament. Also the interpretation of those writings of St. Paul’s which Marcion regards as inspired turns out to be erroneous precisely due to the author’s failure to use an allegorical exegesis. In the conclusions, the author points out that although Origenes presents Marcion’s views, he does not devote a lot of attention to refuting them. Nevertheless, he points out emphatically that in order to assure the correct theological interpretation of the Holy Scripture, one needs to recognize both the literal and the allegorical sense of it.
Izabela Trzcińska
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 141 - 156
The problem of Logos constitutes one of the main motifs of the classical philosophical and theo-logical reflection at the beginning of our era. In the article the author discusses the meaning of Logos in the hermetic treatise „Poimandres”, and compares it with other presentations of this problem (above all in Christianity and Gnosticism). The operation of the hermetic Logos consists in giving sense to existence, thanks to which the world emerges out of chaos. Logos is continually present in the world and as such, it can also be experienced directly, and may therefore have a sensual character. The hermetic Logos has a paradoxical character: it remains concealed throughout the whole time, and at the same time, it is open; it is elusive and incarnate; it is an expression of transcendence and at the same time of immanence. Consequently, the process of getting to know the world, becomes the pro-cess of getting to know Logos, and ultimately – God himself. In Poimandres, all of these issues were described by means of a vivid language of myth. Whereas Gnostic Logos always remains beyond the world and beyond language, becoming revealed exclusively in the inner experience leading to the highest illumination. And it seems that from the point of view of the Christian interpretation of Logos, Poimandres did not play any major role in the classical times, in spite of the many convergences and similarities between the two conceptions. Yet at the threshold of modern times, the logos of this myth once again became an up-to-date interpretation of Logos and as such, it exerted an important influen-ce on the character of the entire European civilization.
Piotr Majdanik
Studia Religiologica, Voumel 39, 2006, pp. 157 - 177
The end of the classical era marks the period of the expansion of Christianity in the Greek-Roman world which owes its success to the missionary activities combined with religious universalism. In the same period, Judaism formulates a universalistic moral message based on the oral tradition which it addresses to the non-Jews – the so called seven Noahite commandments. It is also a period of consolidation of the oral tradition of Judaism in Talmud, in which one may find a story relating to the Noahite laws. A sizable part of the article is taken up with a translation accompanied by commentary of a fragment of gemara of the Sanhedrin treatise 56a–57a from the Babylon Talmud. The above fragment constitutes the first part of the so called „Noahite digression” and is devoted to a rabbinical debate devoted to the catalog and sources of the Noahite commandments. According to a commonly accepted view, the commandments in question consist of seven laws: a ban to indulge in idolatry, blasphemy, murder, sexual promiscuity, robbery and consumption of any part of a living animal, as well as an injunction to create a legal system. It is commonly assumed that the biblical source of the above commandments is a verse in the Book of Genesis: „Then Yahweh God gave the man this admonition: »You may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden«” (Gn 2:16).
