The celebrant of the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. Rules and canonical norms of the Orthodox Church

Author(s): Cătălina Mititelu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2014

This review presents the canonical legislation text of the Orthodox Church, from the rst millennium – corroborated with the text of the typiconal guidelines made and published over the centuries in this part of this ecumenical Christian world – concerning the cel- ebration of the Divine Sacrament of the Eucharist and, ipso facto, its celebrant. Thus an opportunity is created to o er to the reader (canonist or theologian) some eloquent testi- monies of the liturgical-canonical Tradition of this Church, which is part of the common liturgical-canonicalheritageoftheecumenicalChurchof the rstmillennium.

A Historical Perspective on Inclusivism as the Prevailing Paradigm in the Christian Theology of Religions

Author(s): Krzysztof Grzelak / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

The article first explains various perspectives on the world religions. Its main focus is on the inclusivist perspective as the most common approach in the debate on religions. Here special attention is given to the development of the Christocentric model in the Catholic Church referring first to the early Church Fathers and afterwards to Logos theology. The analysis shows that the theology of the Logos was always present in Catholic attitudes towards other believers throughout history alongside the exclusivist axiom extra ecclesiam nulla salus (outside the Church no salvation). Later, this inclusivist theology was echoed in the „fulfilment theory” of Jean Danielou, „anonymous Christianity” of Karl Rahner, the Second Vatican Council’s stand on other faiths, and in the post-conciliar official Church teaching. The article ends with evaluation of the complexity, challenges and unavoidable shortcomings of the Christocentric approach to other religions.

Iconicità della Chiesa nell’Eucaristia secondo Ioannis Zizioulas

Author(s): Adam Pastorczyk / Language(s): Italian Issue: 1/2018

We dedicate our work to deepen the Iconic aspect of the Church in the Eucharist which even today is forgotten and for this, always missing.Because of the Iconoclastic controversy, the fathers of the Nicene Council II (787) have put in relief the concept of the Icon as sacred image and have recognized its doctrinal legitimacy. For us, such resolution of problem will become the starting point for the presentation of the Ioannis Zizioulas. Our theologian, keeping in mind the conciliar argumentations, will present the concept of the Icon through the Eucharistic. As a consequence, we, together with him, will speak of the liturgical manifestation of the Truth (eschaton).To live iconomically during the Eucharist means to live symbolically and to present in such a way the live presence of the person who is true and ontological. Zizioulas wishes that we recognize the pneumetological and eschatological dimensions of the Church, the treasure, still missing for many and, all the way, the fundamental element that can, as the orthodox theology indicates us, again, „to find oneself in the square of the heavenly Jerusalem, dressed in golden light”.

Pedagogika mass mediów w Wyższym Seminarium Duchownym

Author(s): Adam Lepa / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/1996

After the political turn of 1989, the postulate of elaborating, in a global way, the pedagogy of the mass-media is maturing in Poland. At the time of communist totalitarianism such an enterprise was impossible. The author, basing himself on ecclesiatic texts, shows that, in the context of seminary studies, courses dealing with the mass media should have a pedagogical aspect. This is the case of the Łodz Major Seminary, where, since 1975, such lectures have been given. Master's theses on this subject are also written. The article contains the list of the main groups of questions studied in the course of the mass media pedagogy courses.

Obietnica nadziei czy kamień obrazy? Kilka uwag ogólnych o przesłaniu Katechizmu Kościoła Katolickiego nt. Rodziny

Author(s): Sławomir Szczyrba / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/1995

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, whose publication has become an important event for the lives of Catholics as well as for the life of all humanity, constitutes, according to the author, a powerful provocation. Given the experience born of adherence to Christ-God Incarnate, we must make the choice. This adherence is always realized in the mystery of the Church (Mystical Body of Christ). What constitutes an alternative to this membership are the harmful tendencies aimed even at the conception of marriage and the family as well as certain practical steps that one wants to legitimize. Given such a status quo, the Catechism message about the family makes people excite different feelings. It deviates an important landmark ensuring the epoir which allows the man to define himself.

Naming God

Author(s): Piotr Popiołek / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

Who is He, to Whom we address words God, Theos, Deus, etc.? How far goespossibility for adaptation of religious and philosophical language from other (non-Western) cultures? Do  people, by  using certain words and terms, denote being of God, or are they just conventional names? Those questions were raised quite early in theological debates in early stages of Christianity, and answers were given by such prominent Church Fathers as Gregory of Nyssa and Basil the Great. The problem resurfaced millennium later, when Western missionaries encountered nations and people whose religious and philosophical concepts were far different from their own. Should they accommodate local terms to fit the Christian concept of God, or should they introduce Western terminology? This translational and linguistic problem leads to the question: are there universal concepts which (despite of cultural affiliation, based on thecommon human experience) could communicate the Christian idea of God? Findings of Wierzbicka, and her own claim is: yes – there are semantic primes, through which we  can translate our ideas (with minor imperfections). But this last question goes beyond the reach of mere secular linguistics, and enters the domain of theology. For it is theological claim that in our human nature we are capable of addressing Triune God.

Wpływ hellenizmu na chrystologię

Author(s): Piotr Liszka / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 1/2018

Hellenism held that man had no worth in relation to God; it recognised the worth of human deeds, and it assumed them to be ultimately determined by the Absolute. Within the scope of doctrine, it was Christology that was most important; it held Christ combined in one person two natures: the divine and the human. Hellenism looked upon man as part of matter that happened to be enlivened by spirit. This led to the conclusion that the incarnation of God’s son could not have a redeeming function.Hellenism directly and indirectly influenced the life of Christians. Indirectly through the way of expressing the essence of the faith that shaped the mode of activities, and directly through the environment in which Christians lived.The struggle of the Church with Hellenism, which negated the worth of man as a being in relation to God, lasted over a long time or, to be exact, it has lasted ever since. Contemporary historical and exegetic research are often influenced by a Hellenistic and Gnostic way of thinking. The hypotheses put forward by present-day scholars make sometimes an impression that it is not the first Christians but the scholars themselves who make up their own Christology, divergent from the one preached by the Magisterium of the Church.

Biblijne i dogmatyczne podstawy nauki o szatanie oraz współczesne kryteria jej oceny

Author(s): Piotr Jaskóła / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 1/2018

In the ancient East one used to assign personal character to thousands of mysterious powers, whose presence one used to link to every kind of evil haunting man. The Bible does not only mention good spiritual beings – the angels – as described, but ones that also harm people, bring illness and cause temptation towards evilness are also spoken about. These spirits were called demons, and their commander was called Satan or the devil. The article depicts four points taken from biblical teachings about demons and Satan. The main development trends of this teaching in the history of Christian thought and the criteria applied in contemporary hermeneutics are looked at and linked to biblical texts about demons and Satan.

Marriage and Family in Life Projects of Contemporary Youth

Author(s): Wojciech Świątkiewicz / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2017

Contemporary culture is dominated by the conviction that an incessant and multidirectional change is necessary, that identity is lost for the sake of transformation and extreme network decentralization. It is believed that the specificity of contemporary cultural transformations lies in the fast pace of changes, unprecedented in the history of mankind, as well as the multidirectionality of their axiological references and symbolic interpretations, for which I use a metaphor of axiological warpedness. We are experiencing a crisis of the family as a sustainable social group and as an institution. The so-called alternative forms of marriage and family are becoming widely accepted by the society. Despite the fact that both a successful marriage, family, having children and personal happiness are still values that are strongly emphasized by young Poles, there is a tendency to expose the category of personal happiness more strongly, and a successful marriage as a declared value does not necessarily involve the expectation of having children. Every fifth young Pole claims that marriage is an outdated institution. It is common in youth circles to accept informal relationships as “a check out,” or simply as a way of life. Marriage appears in the images of young people as an institution that adapts more to the individual, egocentric needs and expectations of the partners rather than to the functions and roles expected by society. An imaginary family should deepen intimacy, self-knowledge, self-development and self-fulfillment. The trivialization of divorces enables the perceived deficits in this area to find quick solutions in making divorce decisions. Pro-family movements centred around the Catholic Church or pro-life movements legitimized by Christian axiology, to a large extent gathering also young people, create socio-cultural conditions for restoring the family’s privileged place in Polish society. The preservation and creative development of Polish cultural and religious identity largely depend on the family’s ability to interpret and integrate national and religious values into everyday life.

The Challenges of Becoming a Woman

Author(s): Stanisława Mielimąka,Michał Mielimąka / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2017

Reflections on the challenges of development of the woman’s personality have been included in this article. The contemporary model that differentiates sex and gender has been described. Some doubts about the validity of this model have been clearly voiced. In the process of acquiring abilities to cope with various challenges in the life of a woman, the role of integration and disintegration processes has been underlined. This development has been described using phases introduced by E. Erickson (including tasks and developmental crises characteristic for this model). In each phase coping strategies available for a woman to undertake while dealing with everyday tasks have been described. Sometimes the disturbances in personality or psychiatric disorders impede or even block the realization of developmental tasks in the adult life. A brief description of the disturbances that have higher prevalence in women has been provided. In the last part of the article characteristics of a woman with mature personality have been outlined and discussed.

The Sacrament of Confirmation as a Call to the Evangelization Directed towards Young People

Author(s): Zbigniew Janczewski / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2017

Along with the baptism the faithful accept the duty of professing the faith received from the Creator. In a passive sense, of admitting to the faith and the personal life according to the faith. In the case of Confirmation, young people receiving it are called to a faithful duty of actively propagating the faith among other people. The gift of the Holy Spirit, resulting from the Sacrament of Confirmation, strengthens those who receive it in a special way. Such a special embeddedness is necessary while running an evangelizing mission, through more excellent joining with the Church and deeper inclusion in Her. The Christian duty of promoting the faith by words and acts after accepting Confirmation is more binding and, one may dare to say, more desired by the Church. The said duty can be carried out not only on the macro-scale, but it also translates into day-to-day meetings between people. His completion is possible on the micro-scale by becoming a godfather or a witness to Confirmation of a particular person. Moreover, obtaining Confirmation makes person legitimate for receiving the Holy Orders, being entrusted with the evangelizing mission within a community that entrusted the priest its faithful. A lot of monks and nuns go to different continents as missionaries in order to evangelize. The Confirmation is also a requirement before a religious marriage officiated by the Church. The received gifts of the Holy Spirit are supposed to help young people at first on the mutual evangelization, especially when one of them is a non-believer, his or her faith is weak, or practices other religion. It also relates to an upcoming challenge of raising their offspring in faith.

Obraz uchodźstwa w Biblii jako impuls etyczny dla Kościołów dzisiaj

Author(s): Marcin Hintz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 10/2016

The problem of global exile belongs to the most discussed challenge of the recent generation. There were more than 46 mln people in the world in status of migrant in the year 2014.The article is an attempt to find a biblical perspective and answers for one of the vital geopolitical issue of the present-day civilization. There are some topos-persons in the books of the Old Testament who could be de-scribed as migrants and pilgrims. The most important of them are Moses and King David as well as prophets Elijah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. In the New Testament, the most famous image of exile could be found in the story of Jesus’ Childhood.The postmodern human being is often described as homo viatorum, but the real need of millions of people is to find their own home, the place on the earth when they can feel safe. The biblical impulse for the recent ethical debate is based on the Semitic prescription of hospitality. To be in solidarity with migrants is an ethical claim for European citizens.

Bibliografia zawartości czasopisma „Polonia Sacra” za lata 1918–2017

Author(s): Barbara Bonar / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2018

Negation as Infinite Affirmation

Author(s): Grigore Dinu Moş / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

The purpose of this paper is to identify the meaning of negation in Dionysius the Areopagite’s apophatism: how and towards which reality does it orient contemplation and what does it actually say about God who reveals Himself? My fundamental thesis is that, in fact, the ​apophatic negation in Dionysius the Areopagite’s teachings, as well as in those of other Eastern fathers conceals a super-affirmation, it indicates an infinite affirmation, beyond any determination. The meaning of the apophatic negation can be grasped at the confluence of three specific supra-intelligible terms: the alterity, the transcendence and the excess (the infinity).

Theo-Phenomenology of Love in Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae’s Thought

Author(s): Nicolae Turcan / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

In reading Father Dumitru Stăniloae, it is obvious that love and divine-human communion have a prominent role in his theology. This text aims to approach this topic from a phenomenological point of view: it analyzes the implicit reductions working in Stăniloae’s texts, the presence of the intentionality, the role of the ego and its limits, as well as the problem of the reciprocity of love (raised by Jean-Luc Marion). We will try to argue not only that there are phenomenological influences in Stăniloae’s understanding of love, but also that such a topic requires a phenomenology that synthesizes the phenomenology of the world (Husserl and Heidegger) and the phenomenology of life (M. Henry). Because love, in its perfection, is a gift of the Holy Spirit, both types of phenomenology must be complemented with a dialogical and paradoxical one, a theo-phenomenology of love, where the Given can be invisible, living, eternally saturated, and never reducible to an object or to a concept.

Między Konstantynopolem a Moskwą: korzenie sporu wokół ukraińskiej autokefalii

Author(s): Tadeusz Kałużny / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2019

The present article aims at presenting the roots of the controversy between Constantinople and Moscow around Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The topic has been viewed from three perspectives: a historical, theological-and-canonical, and political one. First of all, the controversy between Constantinople and Moscow results from their differences in interpreting the history of the Kiev Metropolia, and, consequently, from the arising differences in attributing it to the jurisdiction of the one or the other Patriarchate. From the theological and canonical point of view, the problem consists in a lack of a common position in contemporary Orthodoxy concerning a procedure of establishing autocephaly. Finally, a political factor can be clearly perceived in the controversy around Ukrainian autocephaly, namely, the strict bond between Church issues and political interests of both the Kremlin and Ukrainian political elites.

La synaxis liturgica nella coscienza della Chiesa primitiva sulla base della rilettura di Ioannis Zizioulas

Author(s): Adam Pastorczyk / Language(s): Italian Issue: 1/2019

The subject of our work is to examine the concept of liturgical syntax in the consciousness of early Church based on the relecture of the Scripture and Tradition by Ioannis Zizioulas. With regard to the Scriptures, our study will be based primarily on the relecture of the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians. The interpretation of biblical content in the author’s optics will allow us to distinguish two basic aspects of the ancient Eucharistic community (geographical and eschatological), shaping the ecclesiological-eucharistic concept of the liturgical syntax in the first centuries of Christianity. In the patristic, according to Zizioulas’research, the liturgical dimensions of the syntax of early Church will be sought by Ignatius of Antioch in his Episcopal Bishop model of the Church, with Justin Martyr, an eyewitness of the Eucharistic community of the second century, and Maximus the Confessor, presenting the iconic perspective of living liturgical community.

Sprawozdanie z sympozjum naukowego Na progu słowa. Odkryć na nowo sens milczenia, Kraków, 25 maja 2019 roku

Author(s): Leszek Poleszak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2019

W dniu 25 maja 2019 roku w Krakowie odbyło się sympozjum zorganizowane przez Katedrę Ekumenizmu Wydziału Teologicznego Uniwersytetu Papieskiego Jana Pawła II w Krakowie oraz przez Wyższe Seminarium Misyjne Księży Sercanów w Stadnikach, poświęcone tematowi: Na progu słowa. Odkryć na nowo sens milczenia.

KYIV THEOLOGICAL ACADEMY IN 1869-1884: AN ATTEMPT TO COMBINE THEOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL EDUCATION

Author(s): Tetiana Tverdokhlib / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

The article reveals the history of Kyiv Theological Academy – the only higher educational institution of Orthodox Church. It functioned on Ukrainian lands of the Russian Empire. Based on the analysis of historical and pedagogical literature, archive materials and documents placed in periodicals, the paper depicts theological education at Kyiv Theological Academy in general and focuses on pedagogical training that was organized there within 1869-84. Study of Pedagogy as a compulsory subject and taking special practical classes on the 4th year are considered to be main components of pedagogical education at higher theological educational institution. The paper reveals the content of Pedagogy, forms and methods of teaching Pedagogy and peculiarities of staffing. The article focuses on the attempt of lecturers of Kyiv Theological Academy to organize students’ pedagogical practice at local seminary, advantages and disadvantages of pedagogical education at Kyiv Theological Academy and the level of education there compared with universities.

Opracowanie Księdza Profesora Rektora Mariana Rechowicza na temat diakonatu stałego z 1961 roku

Author(s): Michał Białkowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 26/2019

The restoration of a permanent diaconate in the Catholic Church was one of the issues extensively discussed during the preparations for Vatican II. In 1961, Rev. Prof. Marian Rechowicz (1910–1983), at that time the rector of the Catholic University of Lublin, prepared a study on this subject. The document Zagadnienie instytucji diakonatu z punktu widzenia sytuacji i potrzeb Kościoła w Polsce (The Institution of Diaconate in Terms of the Situation and Needs of the Church in Poland) was published in German one year later. It has been unknown to a wider audience so far; therefore, it is worth recalling the most important theses. The author notices many problems that would appear, if this kind of ministry were established in the Church in Poland. He indicates a lack of tradition of the permanent diaconate in Poland, a high rate of priestly vocations, and the problems of the costs related to a deacon and his family support, taking into account the limited financial capabilities of a parish. However, he recommends implementation of a ministry of deaconesses – nuns, whose tasks would include: teaching of religion, charity activities, distribution of Holy Communion to ill parishioners, and leading of non-liturgical services. Thus, the recommendation of Rev. Prof. Marian Rechowicz significantly differs from the doctrinal solutions approved by Vatican II.