Local Rural Holidays of Russian Peasants as a System of Sacred Communication (based on the materials of the Nizhny Novgorod region)

Introduction. The article proposes a worldview approach for typologizing local religious holidays of the rural population of the Nizhny Novgorod region, in which they are considered as a system of communication between the human collective and the divine. Results. The life of the Russian peasant was built up in a constant dialogue with the divine, the mediators of this dialogue were the patron saints of the community, communication with whom was carried out through local holidays established in their honor. Various forms of celebration correlated in the worldview of Russian peasants with different reasons for turning to the patron saints, which allowed the author to distinguish two types of local religious holidays that differ in their functions: petition holidays and thanksgiving holidays. Discussion and Conclusion. The system of local religious holidays was not only an accessible mechanism of religious practices for Russian peasants, but also a traditional way of life support. The holidays of supplication and the holidays of thanksgiving, complementing each other in a number of functions, were closely connected with the life of the peasant community. The former was responsible for earthly goods and united people using common natural resources in religious communication, the latter ensured the spiritual kinship of members of tribal groups united in a single veneration of their patron saint. Every significant event in the secular and spiritual life of the peasant world found its expression in the local holiday calendar.

Theological Review for Tambak Development of Batak Toba Community

Building and moving ponds or ancestral graves in the Toba Batak community, who have become Christians, is still practised today. The practice of building ponds is, of course, contrary to God's word, for that it needs to be responded to theologically and is the goal of this research. The method used is a descriptive qualitative method by reviewing the literature related to the research topic and reporting the findings in a description. The study results are as follows: First, building a pond with the motivation of asking for blessings from the ancestors is an act of sin. The gift of both physical and spiritual life comes from God and not the spirits of the ancestors. Second, moving and caring for ponds is wrong to prevent sickness and family quarrels because Christ bore all curses and diseases on the cross. Third, building a pond as a tribute to parents is wrong. The fifth commandment in Exodus 20:12 concerns respect for parents. It cannot be opposed to supporting the practice of building ponds. The substance of this verse is not only related to relations between humans but concerns God's blessing for His people to glorify God, the Creator, not ancestral spirits.

The “Cultural Archipelago” of Urban Representation in Contemporary Brazilian Novels

The dialectic of localism and cosmopolitanism, with the opposition between nationalists and cosmopolitans, since independence and perhaps even before, is an element that structured the spiritual life and the literature of a country such as Brazil, as it was pointed out by Antonio Candido. This dialectic in a globalized country which had been transformed by an extremely rapid urbanization, nowadays is perhaps stronger than ever. That could be seen in contemporary literature, on the level of the imaginary but also on the level of the representation of cities such as Manaus in the north of the country (Relato de um certo Oriente, by Milton Hatoum), Recife in the northeast (Estive lá fora, by Ronaldo Correia de Brito), or Brasilia in the central west (Cidade Livre, by João Almino). Through these three novels, this essay aims to analyze how a few years after the end of the dictatorship, at a time marked by important changes in Brazilian society, the fiction grasps the articulation between local specificities and the “globalized” city. To that extent, the reading of many urban contemporary fictions will build a kind of mosaic of Brazil and its cultural varieties, through the prism of the city.

Situating Spirituality

Spirituality is in the spotlight. While levels of religious belief and observance are declining in much of the Western world, interest in spirituality is surging. This volume advances our understanding of contemporary spirituality by highlighting its profoundly social dimensions. It demonstrates how spirituality is shaped by its religious, cultural, and political contexts; how embodied and collective spiritual practices undergird spiritual life and intersect with social characteristics (e.g., race, gender, and sexuality); and how spirituality is impacted by power relations and institutional arrangements. The contributors are leading international scholars, and their chapters address spirituality in a wide range of religious and global contexts.

Królestwo Boże (Józefa Czapskiego podróż do Hiszpanii w roku 1930)

The author of the article describes a trip to Spain made by Józef Czapski in 1930. This outstanding painter and essayist, witness to the Katyń massacre, co-creator of the Parisian magazine "Kultura" [Culture] and Polish intellectual life in exile, at the time of visiting Madrid and its nearby areas for nearly two months was still a young artist, looking for the painting poetics closest to his soul. The visits to the Prado brought him two great discoveries: the works of El Greco and Goya. For Czapski, El Greco is a captivating example of religious painting and simultaneously – fidelity to the vision, the way of seeing the world. Goya fascinated Czapski with the thematic and stylistic range of his art – from “official” court portraits to dramatic records of nearly surreal visions, reflecting the artist’s fundamental belief in human depravity. The trip to Spain also had another meaning for Czapski – it was in a way a journey in the footsteps of St. Teresa of Avila, broadly: a reflection on the role of mystical experience in the spiritual life of man. From these two perspectives: artistic and religious, the encounter with the Spanish culture appears to be one of the more important and fateful episodes in the biography of Józef Czapski.

Methodological Innovations for the Study of Spirituality

One of the most important decisions in any study of spirituality is the method used to collect information about spiritual life. This methodological choice frames later conceptual analysis—making possible some types of conclusions but preventing others. Accordingly, methodological innovation in the study of spiritualty holds the promise of conceptual innovation. This chapter puts forth three methodological innovations available to spirituality researchers. They are (1) using smartphones to collect experience-sampling method data about day-to-day spiritual experiences, (2) conducting field experiments in which spiritual experiences are randomly assigned, and (3) analyzing big data to observe societal-wide trends and patterns in spiritual expressions. Each of these methods promises to produce rich and novel data that hold the potential for conceptual breakthroughs in our understanding of spiritual processes.

SEMANTIC AND LINGUOCULTURAL SPECIFICITY OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS WITH COMPONENTS HEN, CHICKEN IN THE MODERN UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE

The article deals with the study of ornithonyms "hen", "chicken", which are part of the phraseology of the modern Ukrainian language. The object of phraseology is considered in a broad sense of the word – this intermediate level includes both idioms and proverbs, sayings, idiomatic figurative comparisons, and so on. It is found that phraseological units with the names «hen», «chicken» are widely represented in the Ukrainian language and are actively used by speakers to enhance the figurative characteristics of man, the situation, quite fully and conceptually represent different areas of material and spiritual life. The semantic and linguistic-cultural peculiarities of idiomatic expressions with ornithonyms "hen", "chicken" are analyzed. It is determined that the semantic structures of the studied phrases contain a significant number of metaphorical meanings used to denote a person. It is established that the majority of idioms with studied components describe human traits: positive (caring, diligence, observation, humility, gentleness) and negative (cunning, foolishness, carelessness, talkativeness, greed, meanness, deceit, indecision, dirtiness, etc). In addition, constant expressions that characterize emotional states (joy, sadness, fussiness, anger, loneliness, etc.), social statuses (wealth, poverty, family relationships), physical characteristics (poor eyesight, hunger), appearance are given in the article. Phraseological units related to the main function of a hen (laying eggs), chicken feed (cereals) and predators (fox), which pose a danger to hens, are also widely represented in the Ukrainian language. Symbolism, existing signs, beliefs associated with these birds are studied. The examples of functioning the analyzed ornithophraseologisms in literary and publicist texts are given. The typical conception that exists in the collective consciousness of Ukrainians about the names "hen", "chicken" is also highlighted.

Historical-philosophical views of V. I. Zasulich (On the example of the work “Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The experience of characteristics of his social ideas”)

The article is devoted to the work of the Russian revolutionary, writer and Marxist theorist V. I. Zasulich. The subject of consideration is the historical and philosophical views of the thinker, which are analyzed on the basis of her study devoted to the work of J.-J. Rousseau – “Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The experience of characteristics of his social ideas”, which previously remained almost without the attention of researchers. The purpose of the work is to analyze the basic principles of the approach of V. I. Zasulich to the study of philosophical thought: the desire to recreate the historical situation and the mental situation, the focus on the selection of socio-political and ideological determinants of the views of a particular thinker, the selection of unique and innovative thoughts compared to contemporaries and predecessors, the influence of the thinker on contemporaries and descendants. The research methodology is the system analysis, and reconstruction of the works by V. I. Zasulich on the problems of research. The work of V. I. Zasulich is a full-fledged scientific research: it analyzes the works of the thinker, refers to other researchers of his work. It identifies the determinants of the direction of his works, the thinker’s innovation and contribution to philosophy, as well as his influence on the further development of spiritual life, that is, adheres to the Marxist methodology of historical and philosophical research (and largely forms this methodology for Russian scientists).

Troska o człowieka i ojczyznę – drogowskazy Kardynała Augusta Hlonda z lat 1945–1948

Concern about the People and the Mother Country: The Beacons of Cardinal August Hlond from 1945–1948 The life and the activity of Primate Cardinal August Hlond (1881–1948) continuously inspires the search, analysis, and discovery of the meaning of his teachings and his mission within the Church and the society. The return of Cardinal August Hlond to Poland on July 20th1945 was expected to strengthen the nation’s spirit and religious belief in the new post-war reality. His concern about the revival of the mother country and about building state governance on the basis of moral principles and human rights can be seen in all his undertakings. He offered education and care to families and young people. The Christian upbringing of young people, the growth of Catholic youth organizations, the presence of Christian values in school curricula and in secular organizations involved in education –these were the matters he supported and fostered. He was focused on the development of various forms of spiritual life. He responded to the then current problems of religious and community life. As he pursued various measures to these ends, despite the difficulties he encountered, he believed in a mature society of well-educated citizens. Therefore, it seems reasonable to interpret the thoughts of Cardinal Hlond regarding the human being –within the period from 1945 to 1948 –as a person open to transcendence, to infinity (personal subjectivity and their spiritual life), to a person within a family (a family as a community of individuals) and within the society (the national community).