Authors:Julian Ignacio López Abstract: Discussions on Mircea Eliade’s contributions to the study of religion are often focus on his controversial notion of the sacred, mainly deployed in his work The sacred and the Profane (1959). However, it is often disregarded that Eliade understands the sacred as closely related with another key notion: the homo religiosus. Because this notion has been overlooked and understudied, the purpose of this writing is to reconsider the value of the ‘homo religiosus’ and advocate for its legitimacy through a two-step argumentation. Firstly, departing from Eliade’s understanding of the homo religiosus, its meaning and implications will be briefly exposed. Secondly, a justification of the validity of this expression will be attempted through a subject-object approach and the application of the philosophical principle of operari sequitur esse. While the former means that the homo religiosus (subject) is always understood as operating in relation with something else (object), the latter allows to account for the implications of this expression through its effects, as this principle states that every being operates according to its ontological constitution. This paper proposes six ways in which the validity of the homo religiosus can be justified through this reasoning: while three of them are alternative approaches from different disciplines, the other three are paradoxically based on the anti-religious argumentations of Nietzsche, Marx and Freud. PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Aura-Elena Schussler Abstract: The early 21st century climate crisis and environmental degradation has brought environmentalism closer to religion and postmodern feminist theories, in the paradigm of ecofeminist theology and philosophical posthumanist thinking. This era we live in, that of the Anthropocene—which asserts itself through the normativity of a hierarchical and dominant structure of man over non-human others/nature—is about to bring us to the threshold of the Sixth Extinction. This means that ecofeminist theology focuses both on the ecological health of Earth and on that of the dissolution of masculine(culture)–feminine(nature) binary oppositions, but especially regaining the sacred dimension of Earth. This aspect requires a rethinking of the current condition of life, from the perspective of posthumanist and Deleuzian deconstructivist theories of “becoming”, within the transversal, multilayered and nondualistic limits of differences—a paradigm in which the Earth and all human/non-human others are seen, symbolically, materially and spiritually, as being rhizomatic living agents. Thus, the general objective of the paper follows an approach from the ecofeminist theology perspective, regarding the dimension of nondualist spirituality as an alternative method of rethinking man’s spiritual relationship with the Earth. The theoretical objective focuses on the symbolic-cultural deconstruction of zoē–bios dualism, from the perspective of Rosi Braidotti and Francesca Ferrando’s posthumanist philosophical theories, in a Zoē-centered way of thinking—an aspect that leads to a rhizomatic and transversal relationship with the “vital materiality”, in a post-anthropocentric and post-dualist paradigm. PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Pavlína Bakošová, Juraj Odorčák Abstract: Posthumanism is a philosophy that is based on the critique of the negative consequences of humanism and the correct conceptualization about the possibility of the posthuman. This study takes these posthuman claims at face value by elaborating a subsequent connection of posthumanism to the problem of the meaning of the possibility of human extinction. Historically, the demise of the world and humanity has been formulated in relation to the problem of the apocalypse. Thus, the first part of the study is dedicated to the description of two basic posthuman narratives (posthuman ecologies) about the end of the man. The second part of the study is focused on a critical analysis of the posthuman approach to the convergent problem of human species extinction. We will argue, that some types of posthumanism fail, rather paradoxically, to properly grasp and solve the problem of the meaning of the world after (post) humanity. PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Marcin Hintz, Jarosław Płuciennik Abstract: The 16 year old Swedish girl from Stockholm in the year 2019 was created by media as a suitable candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize and recognized as one of the most influential people of the year 2019. Her ecological message focusing on global climate changes is one of the most exciting phenomena in socio-political life in the European context of the second decade of the 21st century. She grew up in influential, artistic but also a typical Swedish family, deeply rooted in the Swedish tradition. Greta becomes a symbol of the climatological movement; she arranges a climate protest called School strike for climate, Fridays for Climate or Fridays for Future (FFF). The article describes the Lutheran patterns and the roots of Greta Thunberg’s ecological activity. We analyze the imagery tied to her public appearances and interpret the analysis with a protestant ideology in the background. First, we try to understand why Greta Thunberg is sometimes called a prophetess: even the prime archbishop of Sweden Antje Jeckelen called her attitude prophetic. We will argue that there are some traces of apocalyptic imagery and rhetoric behind her statements. We compare them with some public appearances of her parents Malena Ernman and Svante Thunberg as well as Naomi Klein. Then we trace the family background of Greta which is rooted in Swedish patterns of the Protestant ”vita activa”. The last part is a review of the criticism of modernity present in the Greta’s speeches and writings as well as her parents’ writings. We will indicate some precedents in music and film framing this analysis with the musical family roots of 17-years old Greta. PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Mark Omorovie Ikeke Abstract: The reality that there is an environmental crisis confronting the planet and her peoples is indisputable. The crisis can be seen in the forms of climate change, atmospheric and marine pollution, deforestation, desertification, drought and famine, resource wars and conflicts, etc. In spite of the many governmental efforts, scientific and technological progress of humankind, the crisis continues unabated. This paper argues that in combating the environmental crisis, the role which philosophy of ecology and religion can play should not be overlooked. Philosophy of ecology and religion may not be the only panacea to the environmental crisis, but they can make contribution. The paper uses critical analysis and hermeneutic methods. Hermeneutics will be used to interpret the concepts. There was also a rational analysis of the role of philosophy of ecology and religion in resolving the environmental crisis. The paper finds that there is an environmental crisis taking place on planet earth. The paper concludes that philosophy of ecology and religion has a role to play in resolving the crisis. With this done, there will be a more ecologically sustainable planet. PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Hochul Kwak Abstract: This article proposes an epistemology of concrete others as a foundation for solidarity of others, which is to protect the vulnerable who are experiencing economic, political, and cultural exploitation in a globalizing world. The vulnerable are exposed to two kinds of violence: one is violence from the absolutization of otherness, transcendence, difference; the other is from the absolutization of solidarity, immanence, or homogeneity. While the absolutization of solidarity justifies oppression of others, the absolutization of difference enervates resistance of those who are oppressed others. In order to resist against oppression and violence, the oppressed people need to have solidarity with others. To work toward solidarity of others, one should sublate both the absolutization of solidarity and the absolutization of otherness, since absolutization of each has justified injustice, indifference, and oppression. Sublation of both the absolutization of solidarity (an epistemology of homogeneity) and the absolutization of otherness (an epistemology of difference) leads to a dialectic epistemology: an epistemology of concrete others. An epistemology of concrete others is based on the two-nature Christology and the Trinitarianism, which confirms the hypostatic union between humanity and divinity, transcendence and immanence, particularity and universality, and the like. An epistemology of concrete others emphasizes both otherness and homogeneity, transcendence and immanence, and difference and commonness. An epistemology of concrete others necessitates and suffices for solidarity with others, with which the vulnerable can resist oppression and indifference caused by absolutization of solidarity and difference, respectively. PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Joanna Rak Abstract: This article aims to explore the political mythology created by the Polish government and its subservient organizations with an aim to legitimize quasi-militant democracy as a new form of sacred in the populist discourse during the pandemic. Drawing on theories of political myths and on intertextual qualitative document analysis, the research shows that the sacred appeared in political myths which proved to be an efficient means of gaining public support for all sorts of efforts that undermine democracy. The conspiracy myth established social divisions and produced effects along with the interrelated myths of the savior, unity, and the golden age. The government took on the role of a savior whose mission was to deliver Poles “the people” from the hostile “others” that put their lives and health at risk. Those who desire social and economic help and do not want to be excluded from the community, must submit to the yoke of the savior. The unity myth rested on the vision of Poles as the government’s followers who exposed and reported transgressions for the good of the community. All the limitations to which Poles complied and the denunciatory actions they took were oriented towards the golden age of a strong state, providing social and economic security unique in the post-pandemic world. PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Özgür Olgun Erden Abstract: This paper deals with the AKP’s religious-political propaganda in the 7 June and the 1 November election processes. It forms a frame for this propaganda by focusing on some ideological-political formulations appearing in Turkish political history. It argues that these formulations are the product of two significant political interventions by the Turkish right-politics, including the 1960s and 1970s’ nationalist-conservative composition and the post-1980s’ Turkish-Islam synthesis. From a historical-political standpoint, it introduces how they have shaped and framed religion as an instrument of political propaganda. For this, the paper concentrates on the 7 June and 1 November elections hold in 2015 in Turkey, and discusses the AKP case to have put such propaganda into practice in the elections mentioned, by quoting the statements and views by the leading political actors of the party (AKP). It presents a historical-political framework, and tries to unveil the historical-political line of the AKP’s religious-political propaganda within this framework. Taking into account all of these, it examines a religious-political propaganda special to Turkey interwoven with the state, the Turkish nation, and nationalism, and asserts how important this propaganda becomes for the right-wing politics, and thus the AKP, to come out of the elections with victory in Turkey. PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Sorin Șipoș Abstract: After rereading the documentary sources and their interpretation in a modern manner, several new elements that bring originality to our endeavor of research stand out. In our research, we have focused on the origin and intellectual formation of the travelers that crossed the Romanian space. These two aspects are important for the scientific value of the information in the documentary sources made by the voyagers. Also, the directions of entry of the travelers to the Romanian space were identified and their destination was established, for capturing the state of mind of the voyagers in relation with the places they entered through to the Romanian Principalities. The reconstitution of the travel route was done from the border to the capitals of the Principalities, taking into account the so-called witnesses of the borders between the West and East. Another direction of analysis focused on the types of documentary sources that the foreign travelers had left. All these interpretations can form models of analysis of the travel reports in the Romanian space and what we have called the symbolism of the border. PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Marin Ilieș, Grigore Herman, Nicolaie Hodor, Ștefan Baias, Alexandru Ilieș Abstract: The fall of the socialist system in Romania in December 1989 and the establishment of a democratic political system was a process with major effects on the ethnic components aș well as denominational ones. The homogeneity or heterogeneity of the ethno-confessional models on the Romanian territory are the result of some historical events that determined, depending on the political administration, voluntary or forced combinations between ethnic groups and denominations. On a background of Romanian majority (89.5%), religious proselytism changed in certain historical periods the confessional structure of the main ethnic groups. In this study, the Romanian community is analyzed, based on data from post-socialist censuses (1992, 2002 and 2011), in terms of spatial distribution, dynamics and ethno-confessional structure. Correlated with the demographic trend at Romanian country level, the Romanians experienced differentiated evolutions at the level of confessional communities with implications on the spatial distribution and in the proportions of these communities in the group confessional structure and in Romania.Download PDF PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Eugenia Ciocoiu, Eniko Bodea, Mădălina Dan, Ioan Chirilă Abstract: In life, decisions are not only taken by considering logical reasoning, but they are influenced by images, symbols, and myths. Moreover, in our multicultural and multiracial societies, we must express ourselves with attention, to use careful comparisons and especially neutral expressions. Symbols multiply the effect of words, and consequently, the risk of saying something wrong is increased. Also, if each person one discusses with will know how to decode your words is a wrong assumption. The symbols mentioned are also influenced by other factors, and they are part of a more comprehensive concept, namely the imaginary. This study is a conceptual review of the imaginary concept. There are many disciplines that study the imaginary, and many definitions for it, given by researchers coming from all fields, but there are few papers that explain how the imaginary is formed and how it influences our lives. By reviewing the literature, we have identified major limitations of the theories and models that treat the imaginary. Studying all those studies was useful for us because from the beginning we wanted to understand how the imaginary is formed and how it can be decoded, so we developed our own framework. The key conclusion of this paper is that symbols are a useful concept for understanding imaginary, since they can be seen both as forms of communication of the intangible culture, but also as productions of the imaginary. By settling symbols in the middle of our conceptual model, imaginary can be easier understood and further used in other scientific investigations. PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Mateusz Rafal Potoczny Abstract: Like any other science theology has a specific language which should express and clarify its essentials. Because most of the subjects of theological research are immeasurable scientific language has to operate using images and theoretical terms. Of course there are many methodologies of theological discourse. Among them one can find the methodology developed by Church Fathers especially those belonging to both West and East Syriac Traditions. Since their mentality was close to the Semitic roots they started to use in the theological treatises a very specific kind of explanation which could be well understood by the people of Middle East. It was a language of analogy. Thanks to the use of tangible images the Fathers invented a direct language which enabled them to explain truths that could not be clarified using ordinary language. In this paper we try to explain the importance of analogy in theological debate. The explanation will be supported by some examples taken from the writings of the prominent Syriac Fathers regarding the baptismal analogies and the typology “Mary – Eve”, seen as an example of the theological explanation of the divine truth. In the final part of this study we attempt to outline the accommodation of analogical language to contemporary theological discussion and liturgical practice. PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Noel Christian Aljecera Moratilla Abstract: History is replete with examples of how literature can be a critical strategy for calling out abuses, exposing forms of oppression, and envisioning democratic futures. Two poets of note—South Korea’s Kim Chi Ha and the Philippines’ Amado Hernandez—served as their respective societies’ conscience for their unequivocal commitment to justice and equality. Both suffered incarceration for their political and literary activities, but are now vindicated, their works considered timeless paeans to genuine freedom and democracy. In this paper, I analyze the poems of these two important literary figures through the lens of Liberation Theology, in particular the notion of resistance as the fusion of the discourses of critique and possibility, of denunciation and annunciation. This suggests that while some poems can be read as powerful execrations against oppression and injustice, there are also poems expressing that more humanizing conditions are possible. The paper concludes that this dialectic of Liberation Theology may be employed in interrogating other cultural forms and practices. PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Wieslaw Luzynski Abstract: In the interpretation of Joseph Ratzinger, the identity of Jesus Christ is important in determining the relationship between the Church and the state. Tempted at the beginning of his public activity, he does not reduce his mission to social or political activity. During the trial before Pilate, he confesses that His kingdom is not of this world, and is based on the power of truth. In accordance with the principle of religious-political dualism, religious and political authority must be distinguished. Nonetheless, the secular state needs the Church as a reservoir of values relevant to the public order, which for centuries matured on the basis of the Christian faith. Thus, healthy secularity manifests itself in the separation of the state and the Church, and at the same time within religious freedom and the presence of the Church in the public sphere of life.
Authors:Mansoureh Ebrahimi, Kamaruzaman Yusoff Abstract: Muslims have responded to modernism with various forms of revivalism that emphasized social development. Malaysia’s response began in 1955: “The supreme law of the country, the Federal Constitution, the Constitution, or the State Constitution, declared Islam the official religion in Malaysia” (Razak 2016, 5). The government built two roads to pluralism: (1) the socio-political highway (e.g., teachers of Islam were licensed by an official religious department); (2) understanding Islam with official approaches to al-Qur’an and al-Hadith. This paper attempts to answer two questions: (1) What reality rather than interpretation of pluralism guided their social institutions' and (2) What socio-political dimensions and Islamic movements influenced and/or reinforced ‘Malaysian’ versus ‘Malay Muslim’ identity' The author explores perceptions of radicalism vs. moderation (wasatiyyah) by highlighting intellectual frameworks demonstrate elements of radical-political Islam in support of moderation leading to Islamic revivalism. PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Michał Wyrostkiewicz Abstract: Contemporary scientific research on corruption is increasingly confined to the economic dimension. This narrow point of view has led some scholars to see corruption as a factor contributing to social progress. Progress itself is equated with economic improvement and an increase in wealth. Such reasoning, however, appears incomplete and, consequently, does not correspond to the truth about society and man, especially his natural and deepest needs. A broader view of corruption, meaning one that goes beyond what is "quantifiable" and takes into account philosophical and theological arguments, clearly indicates that corruption is evil. This evil causes a corrupt person to ignore transcendent values and God. As a consequence, it is the cause of a man’s depersonalization, their "integral regression." In the light of the research carried out, the statement that corruption destroys the "social fabric" not only means the loosening of social relationships, but mainly destroys the person who is the basic unit of this "social fabric." Corruption destroys man and society. Recognizing it as a social good is the result of an "anthropological error." As a result, a theory built on the basis of such erroneous premises has the hallmarks of an ideology. PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Iuliu-Marius Morariu Abstract: Review of Ioan C. Teşu, Ortodoxia, în dialog [Orthodoxy, in dialogue], (Iaşi: Editura Sfântul Mina, 2019). PubDate: 2020-11-25 Issue No:Vol. 19 (2020)
Authors:Sandu Frunza Abstract: We are setting off here on a quest for the ethical subject and the metamorphoses of its positioning in the context of subject assertion and intersubjectivity development in postmodern ethics. Our main concern is with the way in which the ethical subject (agent) may be identified and delineated in the time of lay ethics and postmodern human condition. To do so, we firstly looked at how religious traditions provided firm grounds for identity and ethical subject assertion by integrating it into a dynamics of the divine and human having a special force to transfigure the person. We have relied in this sense on the use of the Cosmic Tree symbolism as a centre organizing the symbolic universe of human being. Secondly, our analyses aimed for the ultimate support of human being, that enables our approach of the moral subject as operating within the responsibility to oneself and to the multiple forms that alterity may take. We therefore begin with the premise that understanding self-esteem mechanisms may be the starting point in a harmonious construction of the self. Finally, we identify the moral self as the fundamental structure in the ethical reconstruction of the human being, understood as subject of ethical creation and moral perfection. Issue No:Vol. 19
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