The dream of Pencho Slaveykov and the metamorphosis of poet’s idea

After the middle of the 19th century, secular culture and literature were constituted, which separated them from Christianity. The poet’s figure is developed in the cultural field. In Petko Slaveykov's lyrics, the poet serves his fellows, dedicating himself and his “singing” to the collective and the national idea. In the age of modernism, subjectivism and anthropocentrism dominate. In Pencho Slaveykov’s view, the poet must follow his personal, individual, unique, unrepeated soul path in wandering, in trouble, in solitude. He does not think of earthly glory but of life after death. Through the categories of modernism, Pencho Slaveykov reconsiders and resemantizes the poet’s figure and behavior. The poet is a leader. He serves the others while following his path of the chosen one, of the prophet of a moral ideal.

Hijacking History

Hijacking History analyzes world history textbooks for high school students produced by the three most important publishers of Christian educational materials—Abeka Books, Bob Jones University Press, and Accelerated Christian Education. Initially intended for Christian schools, they now are also widely used for homeschooling. They have already been used by several generations. According to these textbooks, historians, informed by their faith, tell the story of God’s actions interpreted through the Bible. History becomes a weapon to judge and condemn civilizations that did not accept the true God or adopt “biblical” social and political positions. In their treatment of the modern world, these textbooks identify ungodly ideas to be vanquished—evolution, humanism, biblical modernism, socialism, and climate science among them. These curricula’s judgments, as Hijacking History documents, are rooted in the history of American evangelicals and fundamentalists and the battles they fought with secular culture. These curricula’s use of history has important civic ramifications. They assume that God sanctions their positions on social, political, and economic issues. Thus God’s providential relationship with American Christians entails that America should be a Christian nation advancing evangelical Christianity and capitalism throughout the world; American foreign policy and military interventions are invariably virtuous. Christianity, as these textbooks present it, is proselytizing but intolerant of other religions and Christian groups, hegemonic, and unquestionably anchored to the political right. As Hijacking History argues, the ideas these world histories promote resonate in contemporary debates about religion, politics, and education; reinforce cultural divisions; and challenge civic values of a pluralistic democracy.

Orthodox joke as a phenomenon of modern Orthodox culture

The purpose of the article is to reveal the specifics of the Orthodox joke as a phenomenon of modern Orthodox culture. Methodology. In the context of the culturological approach, the method of comparative analysis, induction, deduction, typology, and classification was used. Scientific Novelty. For the first time the phenomenon of the Orthodox joke was investigated in the context of cultural studies; assumptions were made regarding the time and reasons for its appearance; its sources are highlighted, the typology of the Orthodox joke is proposed; supplemented with data on the cultural specificity of this phenomenon. Conclusions. In secular and folk culture, a joke is a form of uncensored folk art, a sphere of dissent. The Orthodox joke, by contrast, is one of the ways of preachingand does not oppose the official church line. A parable in the form of a joke is more understandable and acceptable to the cultural consciousness of a modern person. The following types of Orthodox jokes are distinguished: curious cases from the history of the church, the life of individual parishes, or pastoral practice; «Children's perception of religion»; «In front of Paradise doors»; «Dialogue between a believer and an unbeliever»; self-irony of Orthodox monks and laity. The development of the genre of the Orthodox joke testifies to the processes of adaptation of the Orthodox culture, which exists under the prevailing secular culture.

The bilingual nature of the Russian literary language in scientific polemics and verbal culture of XVIII century

The bilingual nature of the Russian literary language and its reflection in the scientific polemics and literary practice of the XVIII century are considered. Special attention is paid to the complexity of the language situation caused by the change in the vector of bilingualism: the change of Russian-Church Slavonic bilingualism to Russian-European in the era of historical changes. The increasing role of the semantics of European languages in the formation of the Russian literary language of the secular period is noted. The authors emphasize that the conflict trends in the XVIII century were determined by a number of factors: the transformation of public consciousness, historically determined features of the structure of the Russian literary language, ideological priorities and the life position of reformers (Lomonosov, Trediakovsky, Sumarokov, etc.). It is said that by the end of the XVIII century the French language is fixed as an intermediary between two cultural worlds — Russia and France. It becomes the most popular language in literature and everyday communication of representatives of secular culture. The authors of the article cite facts showing the rejection of mechanical Francophonie by Russian educators in the scientific polemics of the XVIII century. The rivalry of European languages (German, French) in determining the nature of bilingualism of so-called New period is revealed and analyzed. The conclusion is made about the contradictory nature of the process of europeanization of the Russian elite, which perceived Russian-French bilingualism as the key to world culture, and the emerging national consciousness in its appeal to the origins of the Russian-Church Slavonic bilingualism of pre-Peter Rus. The practical significance of the research is to extrapolate the experience of historical bilingualism of the Russian literary language to the study and assessment of changes taking place in the ethnic and linguistic consciousness of modern society, and the formation of multicultural tolerance.

The Ethics of the Syrian Migration Crisis

The Syrian migration crisis is one of the biggest social crises of the modern era. This is evidenced by the geographical spread of the consequences, the number of refugees in each of the host countries and other bare statistics. In the context of this crisis, the governments of the host countries are making efforts to solve many problems related to the political status of refugees, their psychological adaptation to new surroundings, economic challenges for the host countries, along with issues connected with the integration and socialization of migrants. However, not many of us think about the ethical side of the migration process. Moreover, sometimes such aspects as the violation of human rights, confrontation between the ethical principles of Islam and the secular culture of Europe, and confrontation between Christian and Islamic values are simply ignored. Nevertheless, all these “inconvenient” topics are breeding grounds for concentrating misunderstandings and developing zero tolerance towards migrants, and which have an impact on the overall outcome. The migration crisis is not a temporary “inconvenience,” not a desperate measure, it is a process of transformation of European society. We consider this process as a social evolution that can be in the best interest of all participants. However, this process is impossible without reaching a compromise on ethical issues. This article is devoted to examining the ethical dilemma of the migration crisis and finding ways of solving it.

Structural and functional types of lexical units, their expressiveness

At the present stage of development of linguistic science and in context of global trends towards constant cooperation in various fields and spheres of activity, there is a need for comparative typological studies aimed at a comprehensive and large-scale study of various linguistic categories. First of all, this is explained by the fact that it is in these categories, as in a mirror, that the peculiarities of the mentality, history and secular culture of the speakers of a particular language are reflected. The object of language sciences consists of two series of phenomena: on the one hand, it is made up of everything that is inherent in human language, that is to say language as such in its relation to thought and to reality; on the other hand, we are talking about the specifics and the variety of properties and categories of each language compared to another. Researchers' attention has largely shifted from the question of how the language of speakers of a particular language works. Research plays an important role in the study of the specificities of the nominative means of the language. Contrastive linguistics has the great advantage that the practical areas of its application are clearly visible. These are mainly the methodology and methodology of foreign language teaching, bilingual lexicography, theory and practice of translation.

The ERDs: Part One – The Social Mission of Catholic Health Care Services

The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs) exist to guide administrators, providers, and patients regarding the Church’s principles for maintaining human dignity while providing ethical patient care. A brief history of the document itself is presented followed by a discussion of selected portions of Part One of the ERDs, which relate directly to the mission of Catholic healthcare and why this is important as the secular culture becomes increasingly hostile to religious beliefs.

REVITALIZATION OF MISSION IN MILLENIAL GENERATION

Millennials are the generation that was born between 1980 - 1990 or early 2000 and they are the generation who are technologically literate and very closely interact with social media and the internet, therefore as a church, we have a total or total task of the church of Jesus Christ is to reach the soul with the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, especially for these Millennials. In dealing with this situation, Ron Luce, an evangelist and founder of Teen Mania, a Christian youth organization, provides solutions for parents and the church, namely having to build a culture that focuses on Christ in a home that is stronger than a secular culture that destroys children. it’s hard for them to go to hell. Provide a way for them to go to heaven.In an effort to frame the title of this paper, there are seven dimensions in an effort to contextualize authentic and relevant evangelical reporting for millennials, namely: 1) world view - how to understand the world; 2) cognitive processes - ways of thinking; 3) linguistic forms - ways of expressing ideas; 4) behavior patterns - ways of acting; 5) communication media - how to channel news; 6) social structure - how to get along; and 7) sources of motivation - how to make decisions.

“And the Word was made flesh?” – Exploring young people’s situated learning in leadership and spirituality in a secular context

This article explores the situated learning found among 18 young volunteers taking part in an education programme about leadership and Christian spirituality in the Church of Sweden. Focus group interviews and observations are analysed in the framework of situated learning, using legitimate peripheral participation as a lens. The study shows how the young people, through the education programme, formed a safe community where new identities were shaped through participating in new ways of worship, making pilgrimages, engaging in peer dialogue, and in reflection. They also gained new perspectives and models for volunteering. The young people´s experience of living in a secular culture presents challenges to their identity formation and to their ongoing spiritual practice and development. The use of situated learning provides a deeper understanding of the process of learning in spirituality and of the problems associated with conflicting communities of practice.

Autoanalysis, with particular reflections on sociology

This article aims to contribute to a sociology of knowledge via an autoanalysis of a marginalised member of the British upper-middle class, who moved first from the South to the North of England and then from England to Scottish society as an immigrant: a ‘stranger who stayed’. Written in the first person, Bridget Fowler’s reflections move between different religious and political worlds, focusing especially on her reception of conflicting sociological theories and her own development through these. Influenced by five exceptionally learned and lucid sociologists – John Rex, Herminio Martins, Raymond Williams, Pierre Bourdieu and Terry Lovell – she has spent her sociological career contributing to the demystification of power in various forms. In particular she has focused on the significance of secular culture – notably literature – in creating hegemonic domination. She has also analysed the role of symbolic revolutions in social transformation, avoiding in this respect falling either into idealism or simplistic class reductionism. Arguing that sociological theory still needs to teach Marx, Weber and Durkheim, these founding figures should not be seen as creating – in social scientific terms – a unified architectural construction, but should be read with and against one another; further, they need also to be combined with other, more contemporary, influences. Finally whilst noting the existential salience of movements around identity – nation, gender, sexuality and disability – she argues that the discipline must continue to reach out ‘beyond the fragments’, to address social totalities more broadly, including wider issues of social space and structures of power.