scholarly journals The Church and Social Dimension of the Personality

2020 ◽  
pp. 48-65
Author(s):  
Михаил Степанович Иванов

Поводом к написанию статьи послужил наблюдающийся в последнее время возросший научный интерес к человеческой личности. Поскольку одним из главных условий становления личности является ее пребывание в общении, в статье рассматриваются условия и возможности такого общения в церковной общине и в светском обществе. Одновременно анализируются характерные черты обеих общественных структур, особенности церковного и светского понимания личности и возможности взаимодействия Церкви и общества в решении проблем воспитания подлинной личности. The reason for writing this article was the growing scientific interest in the human person observed recently. Since one of the main conditions for the formation of a personality is its stay in communication, the article examines the conditions and possibilities of such communication in the church community and in secular society. At the same time, the author analyzes the characteristic features of both social structures, the peculiarities of the ecclesiastical and secular understanding of the individual and the possibility of interaction between the church and society in solving the problems of educating a true personality.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 327-341
Author(s):  
Dmitry Tsyplakov ◽  

The subject of this article is the concept of the Church in the context of the contemporary Russian religious situation and the understanding of the concept by the Russian philosophical ecclesiology. The current religious situation could be described as post-secular. The Church, which survived two waves of secularization in Russia, retained its social subjectivity. The description of the Church as a conglomerate of believers does not correspond with the self-understanding of the Church in Christian thought. The article reveals the ontological self-understanding of the Church in the works of S.L. Frank, A.S. Homjakov, Russian theologians. The mystical reality of the Church could be combined with the empirical expression of it as a social institution. V.S. Soloviev considered the Church as a part of his theocratic utopia. In it he reduced the Church to a simple political social force. And at present, communities of Christians are expected to be embedded in a certain social functional. Meanwhile, arch-presbyter Nicolas Afanasiev pointed to eschatological reality: to the Church as an eschatological subject, as to the City of God (according to St. Augustine) only dwelling in the city of the earth. It forms the social Church ontology on the basis of the Church and society interaction. The social subjectivity of the Church is implicitly present in the framework of social activity in interaction with secular society. The concept of social subjectivity helps to reveal in the social analysis the essence of the dualistic nature of the Church. As an eschatological subject, it is the Body of Christ and at the head of it is the Christ. Therefore, the Church is a divine-human unity. But in the temporal order of things, in the secular aspect, the Church appears as an organization that performs certain social functions, or as one of the parts of the social institution of religion. The article points out the risk of institutionalization for the Church in which it may lose the social dimension of its subjectivity, which does not correspond to the mystical self-consciousness. The risk is that the Church will fulfill the requests of society but will not be able to reveal its main function of being the “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). The article summarizes that in modern Russian society the Church must have its own social subjectivity in order to pass this point of choice and create a working model of interaction with society, including secular society. The subjectivity of the Church is one of the conditions for its sustainable existence in modern Russia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 132
Author(s):  
Irene Febriani Berimau ◽  
Jacob Daan Engel ◽  
Yulius Ranimpi

Each region certainly has its own past stories in the early church. In this case, the individual or group begins to remember something that happened in themselves and he can do memory activities while talking, listening and many other ways of remembering. Congregations in the current era, in understanding the meaning of togetherness in allied life, have begun to erode and fade. The purpose of this study is to describe the collective memory heritage of the congregation and to develop a counselling approach to promote congregational development. This study uses a qualitative approach with a descriptive-analytical pattern. From the results of the research, the authors see that the church today is in dire need of counselling assistance in church development. The integrity of a congregation is highly expected for every individual and group through fellowship that is carried out within the scope of the church and society in increasing harmonious and peaceful life. AbstrakSetiap daerah tentu memiliki cerita-cerita masa lalu tersendiri pada jemaat mula-mula. Dalam hal ini, individu atau kelompok mulai mengingat-ingat sesuatu yang terjadi dalam diri pribadinya dan ia dapat melakukan aktivitas mengingat-ingat ketika sedang berbicara, mendengarkan dan masih banyak lagi cara mengingat-ingat lainnya. Jemaat di era saat ini, dalam memahami arti kebersamaan dalam hidup bersekutu sudah mulai terkikis dan memudar. Tujuan penelitian ini untuk mendeskripsikan warisan memori kolektif jemaat Adang dan mengembangkan pendekatan konseling untuk meningkatkan pembangunan jemaat Adang. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode pendekatan kualitatif dengan pola deskriptif-analitis. Dari hasil penelitian penulis melihat bahwa jemaat Adang saat ini sangat membutuhkan pendampingan konseling dalam pembangunan jemaat. Keutuhan suatu jemaat sangat di harapkan bagi setiap individu maupun kelompok melalui persekutuan yang dilakukan dalam lingkup gereja maupun masyarakat dalam meningkatkan hidup rukun dan damai.


2020 ◽  
pp. 127-150
Author(s):  
Valentin Siniy

Abstract: The article analyzes the features of the doctrine of the church of the outstandingProtestant theologian of the early XXI century Miroslav Volf. Volf's understanding of the church as a reality that preceded the emergence of the individual as a Christian means a radical break with liberal Protestant ideas of the church community as created by the voluntary decision of individuals. But Volf does not share the collectivist idea of ​​the church as an organism in which the individual is completely subjugated to the whole. It is established that Volf creates a communitarian model of the church, in which the church community is understood as the unity of diversity. Unity itself has the character of interpersonal relations. Individuals with different charisms in the community interact with each other like the fellowship of the Three in God. Communitarianism in Volf's ecclesiology as a "middle way" between liberal individualism and total collectivism has all the hallmarks of postliberal theological theory. It is proved that Volf's communitarianism became a creative development of Christian personalism of the XX century with its emphasis on the existential freedom of the individual and the importance of interpersonal relations. Volf succeeded in building ecclesiological communitarianism not so much because of his many specific speculations about the organization of church communities, but because of his vision of personalism. Namely, as we noted above, Volf combines the idea of ​​personality as dependent on its relations with other personalities (here he develops Ratzinger's theory) with the vision of personality as an apophatic secret that is higher than all its properties and charisma (here he creatively interprets the theory Zizioulas). Accordingly, a personality that exists in absolute openness to the influences of other personalities on the one hand, and is absolutely unique on the other, makes possible the existence of a communitarian church community. Volf emphasizes that the catholicity (completeness and completeness) of the individual Christian personality is as necessary as the catholicity of the whole church community. The characterization of the individual as a conciliar presupposes not only the traditional ideal of the integrity of all faculties and the charisma of the individual in his intention to communicate with God, but also the vision of the legitimacy of the inner diversity of the individual. The possible complexity of the identity of the individual is almost infinite, and the willingness to accept it in the community - the main feature of Volf's communitarianism. Similarly, every ecclesial community must be ready to accept as Christian all other ecclesial communities, whatever the peculiarities of their identity. It is clear that such an understanding of catholicity is possible only in Protestantism. As Volf rightly points out, Catholicism presupposes that the ecclesial community must be the local embodiment of the common ecclesial identity of the whole structure, and Orthodoxy emphasizes that a separate community is necessarily identical in identity to the common identity of the church through the Eucharist. Volf's communitarianism allows us to describe church communities and their associations as network structures in which all individuals are active actors whose abilities and charisms are important for the constitution of communities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Janse van Rensburg

Scripture use and Scriptural authority in the postmodernist context. This article focused on the burning issue of the authority of Scripture and the way that it is currently used in the Christian and theological community. The research was necessitated by the gap between academic epistemology and the use of the Bible in religious activity. The research illustrated how a different understanding of the authority and interpretation of the Bible caused a clear division in church and society, particularly in the Reformed churches. The aim of the research was to illustrate the current abuse of the Bible in religious debate to legitimise pre-conceived convictions on theological and ethical issues. It was found that, even within the Reformed tradition, the opposing use of Scripture has caused diversity in the church community; thereby causing a serious break in the unity of the church. During the research process, it became clear that a radical new approach to Scriptural interpretation opposed the traditional Reformed understanding of the application of the Bible as per the three main confessions of the Reformed faith. What influenced such a radical new way of Scriptural authority? It was found that an analysis of philosophical systems, leading to the postmodern era, clearly prepared the way for an approach to search for the so-called true meaning of the text behind the text. This new approach was juxtaposed against the Reformed use of Scripture in the immanent text of the Bible and application thereof in the Reformed confession.Contribution: All over the world and also in South Africa, the church community seems to be drawn into a battle for survival. Many church members have lost their faith, abandoned the church membership or moved on to other religions, mainly due to the way Scripture is currently viewed and applied. Unless the confusion in the understanding of the Bible is cleared, the process will deteriorate rapidly. In particular, the theological training of ministers and pastors needs careful consideration. Some academics have denounced their faith in the existence of God in favour of a post-theistic conviction. Students are taught that the Bible is not the Word of God, but human words about God. Such convictions have caused great confusion in church communities. It is envisioned that this research, published in a scientific journal, will underline the urgent need for the church, in general, and the Reformed faith, in particular, not to ignore the seriousness of the matter.


Kairos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-252
Author(s):  
Sorinel Pătcaș

Many theologians and sociologists claim that in order to restore the social and postmodern man’s original image and resemblance to God, turning him into a “complete person,” with spiritual, religious, or cultural needs, a complex theological approach is needed. This approach, known as Social Theology, includes both a social dimension and a theological one in a Chalcedonian unity and morally regulates the relationship between man and society, between Church and modern and postmodern secular society. By means of this term, the Orthodox Church and Theology want to recover the social, just as “secularized culture experiences the recovery of religion, which it has transferred to the private sphere of people’s life;” it summons the social to dialogue, collaboration and mutual responsibility, in order to recover the “contemporary individual.”


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-329
Author(s):  
Ciprian Streza

Abstract The post-modern secular society is questioning all traditional Christian values in an attempt to create a new kind of religious life and through the transformation of old religious elements in something else than religion. This new “religious life” is characterized by a process of an overall re-shaping of the whole human world through re-absorption, re-melting and re-elaboration of everything it ever carried in it for thousands of years of Christianity legacy. In such a situation and context, in order to be relevant and survive in a secularist and pluralist society, the Church must first and foremost concentrate on its liturgical life, on its rich Christian spiritual tradition. Only if the Liturgy becomes again the source of all theological expression, as well as of the individual life of each Christian, then the response of the Church to all the problems of modernity will be a living, profound, personal and relevant one.


2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 788-809
Author(s):  
Mary Kate Holman

During his Parisian “exile” from 1942 to 1954, Marie-Dominique Chenu’s experiences with worker communities transformed his vision of the church–world relationship. This article highlights the overlooked social dimension of Chenu’s pre-conciliar thought, tracing his shift from a “New Christendom” ecclesiology towards a church in a state of mission and his growing call for ecclesial structural change in light of changing social structures. These life experiences would lead him to advocate for a church that reads and responds to the “signs of times.”


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10) ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Valeriy HEYETS ◽  

Self-realization of the individual in the conditions of using the policy of “social quality” as a modern tool of public administration in a transitional society is largely related to overcoming the existing limitations of the individual in acting in such a society and economy transitioning to a market character. Given that, in particular, in Ukraine the market is hybrid (and this is especially important), the existing limitations in self-realization of the individual must be overcome, including, and perhaps primarily, through transformations in the processes of socialization, which differ from European practices and institutions that ensure its implementation. Thus, it is a matter of overcoming not only and not so much the natural selfish interests of the individual, but the existing gap in skills, which are an invisible asset to ensure the endogenous nature of economic growth. It is shown that there is an inverse relationship between the formation of socialization and the policy of “social quality”, which is characterized by the dialectic of interaction between the individual and the group and which is a process of increasing the degree of socialization. The latter, due to interdependence, will serve to increase the effectiveness of interaction between the individual and the group, which expands the possibilities of self-realization of the individual in terms of European policy of “social quality” as a tool of public administration, whose successful application causes new challenges and content of the so-called secondary sociology. The logic of Ukraine's current development shows that new approaches are needed to achieve the social development goals set out in the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union and to minimize the potential risks and threats that accompany current reforms in Ukrainian society. They should introduce new forms of public administration to create policy interrelationships of all dimensions, as proposed, in particular, by the social quality approach to socialization, the nature of which has been revealed in the author's previous publications. As a result, the socio-cultural (social) dimension will fundamentally change, the structure of which must include the transformational processes of socialization of a person, thanks to which they will learn the basics of life in the new social reality and intensify their social and economic interaction on the basis of self-realization, thereby contributing to the success of state policy of social quality and achieving stable socio-economic development.


2013 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-356
Author(s):  
Dolores Pesce

In the preface to his Septem sacramenta (1878–1884), Franz Liszt acknowledged its stimulus — drawings completed in 1862 by the German painter J. F. Overbeck (1789–1869). This essay explores what Liszt likely meant by his and Overbeck’s “diametrically opposed” approaches and speculates on why the composer nonetheless acknowledged the artist’s work. Each man adopted an individualized treatment of the sacraments, neither in line with the Church’s neo-Thomistic philosophy. Whereas the Church insisted on the sanctifying effects of the sacraments’ graces, Overbeck emphasized the sacraments as a means for moral edification, and Liszt expressed their emotional effects on the receiver. Furthermore, Overbeck embedded within his work an overt polemical message in response to the contested position of the pope in the latter half of the nineteenth century. For many in Catholic circles, he went too far. Both works experienced a problematic reception. Yet, despite their works’ reception, both Overbeck and Liszt believed they had contributed to the sacred art of their time. The very individuality of Overbeck’s treatment seems to have stimulated Liszt. True to his generous nature, Liszt, whose individual voice often went unappreciated, publicly recognized an equally individual voice in the service of the Church.


Author(s):  
Inna Andriivna Semenets-Orlova ◽  
Yaroslava Yaroslavivna Kyselova

The article is devoted to the analysis of the process of generating social meanings on the area of European civilization. Authors assign a separate place to the research of the tendency of increasing social activity in local communities, which accompanies decentralization processes in modern Ukraine. The article analyzes the characteristic features of non-tribes, based on the M. Maffesoli’s concept of “neo-tribalism”, and traces the tendency of reactualization a partly transformed communal way of life of modern tribes. The authors investigate the retrieval of the request for a valuable education in society. It is emphasized on the growing tendency of the filling of the meaning of the professional activity of public administrators, according to the significant request of providing public interests and collective goals by citizens. The authors singled out a new role of public administration — providing public education. In the context of this problem, the authors substantiate the critical need for a successful completion of the authority decentralization reform in Ukraine. Proceeding from the process of neo-tribalism that covers modern Europe, the authors predict the emergence of a new collective identities on the European area. The authors point to a characteristic tendency: Ukrainians are deeply embedded in solving internal problems of society, which manifests in the correction of gaps in cultural and educational policies of past years, self-organization (through volunteer and volunteer movements), civil responsibility for the welfare of their communities, and participation in the management of local affairs. According to the authors, this tendency influences the dominant type of future sociality (it is not the individual “Me”, but “Me as a part of community”).


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