In this study, the author presents the situation of the Czech Catholicism in connection with the approaches to Jan Hus and the Hussite movement in the 19th and 20th century. Firstly, a monograph by Belgian Benedictine P. de Vooght helped to renew the attitude of Czech Catholics to Jan Hus. Secondly, the work of Czech scholars of the last four decades culminated on the Lateran symposium in 1999. Finally, the author presents forthcoming activities reminding the Czech Catholics of the 600th anniversary of death of the Czech reformer.
PL
W artykule autor prezentuje sytuację czeskiego katolicyzmu w kontekście jego odniesienia do Jana Husa i ruchu husyckiego w XIX i XX w. W pierwszym punkcie autor przypomina, że ważnym przyczynkiem do odnowy stanowiska czeskiego katolicyzmu wobec Jana Husa była monografia belgijskiego benedyktyna, P. de Vooght. W drugim prezentuje prace czeskich myślicieli z okresu ostatnich czterech dekad, które znalazły swój punkt kulminacyjny w sympozjum zorganizowanym na Lateranie w 1999 r. Ostatnia część opisuje planowane działania, mające na celu upamiętnienie przez czeskich katolików 600. rocznicy śmierci czeskiego reformatora.
The study maps the attitudes of Italian Catholic theologians publishing in the prestigious journal La Civiltà Cattolica on the issue of the evolutionary origin of the human body from 1850–1980. The strict rejection of the so-called Mivart‘s thesis lasted up to the beginning of the 1940s when things began to change gradually. It is noteworthy that German and Italian Jesuits used different strategies. The former approached Mivart‘s thesis in an increasingly liberal way as of the 1890s, while the latter remained in opposition up until the 1940s. Czech Catholic theology followed the German more closely, rather than the official Italian pattern.
This paper is part of a larger scholar project focused on Catholic theologians and scientists between 1871 and 1910 who accepted the evolutionary origin of the human body in accordance with so-called Mivart’s theory, or rejected it. The author presents the life and work of an important German Biblical scholar Johann Baptist Göttsberger (1868–1958), focusing mainly on his 1910 book Adam und Eva. Göttsberger describes the contemporary scene very well providing information about an entire range of authors who showed a great openness to the evolutionary origin of man. Surprisingly we encounter here for the first time authors who hypothesised the possibility of also applying the evolutionary model to creation – the origin of the human spirit, what is also true in some sense about Göttsberger himself. It turns out that at least in German Catholic theology, the year 1910 is a turning point, because after this date authors showing an openness to the evolutionary theory of the origin of man cannot be considered pioneers. These authors formed a numerous and still growing group.
The main contribution of this study lies in the chronologically ordered analysis of the texts in which Tomáš G. Masaryk writes about the problematics of the evolution and Darwinism. Although there are strong anticlerical motives in his work, his thoughts show surprising affinity to the contemporary Catholic theologians who were open to the possibility of the creation of the species and the human being through the evolution. Masaryk has no doubts about the key role of the Creator in the process of the origin of the species and the human being, about the immortality of the human soul which is, in his opinion, not deducible from purely evolutionary processes, about intelligent design of these processes. Inspirational sources of this stand may be only estimated, but it is very probable that confirmation of Masaryk’s invariable stands were strongly influenced by Matěj Procházka, his secondary school teacher at Brno, and Franz Brentano, an excellent professor at Vienna Faculty of Art.
This theme is processed by Catholic theologian because the question of Free Masons is connected in the Catholic world frequently with a false presumption, a superstition, that Regular Free Masons are Satanists. Combating superstition is indeed the task of a theologian. In the first and preparative part of this study, the author presents the most important facts from the history of Regular Free Masons in the world and in Czech history. In the second and scientific contributive part, the author analyses the Masaryk’s texts which are dedicated to the issue of Free Masons in their chronological succession. In the conclusion, the author states, that T. G. Masaryk was never a Free Mason, and clarifies his relationship to this organization as diplomatic respect connected with combat for the liberty of conscience and democracy. The relationship between Catholics and Regular Free Masons should take the form of interreligious or ecumenical dialogues.
The study is part of a research project focused on Catholic theologians and scholars who either accepted the evolutionary origin of the human body in accordance with Mivart’s thesis or denied it in years 1871–1910. The author presents the Padernborn exegete Norbert Peters (1863–1938) and a critical analysis of his book Glauben und Wissen im ersten biblischen Schöpfungsbericht (Gen 1:1–2:3), Paderborn: Verlag von Ferdinand Schöning, 1907. The above-mentioned author reacts to both the academic and popular writing of E. Haeckel. He argues as a biblical scholar that the description of the creation of man, as it is found in the first chapters of Genesis, is not an obstacle to openness to an evolutionary origin – the creation of the human body. Being a specialist in the Bible, however, he does not dare state whether this hypothesis is actually viable. The issue of the means of creation of the human body is, in his view, only a marginal question in theology. A methodologically highly disciplined approach can be observed, however, which is in many respects similar to the approach of contemporary Catholic theologians.
This paper is part of an academic project focused on Catholic theologians and scholars who either adopted the origin of the human body according to Mivart’s thesis in 1871–1910 or declined it. The author presents the forgotten Austrian apologist K. Hasert (1851–1923) and reconstructs elementary data about his biography on the basis of research into certain sources. The analysis of two monographs by the author demonstrates the openness to Mivart’s thesis with, however, certain reservations. It is rare evidence of the fact that the Catholic world was not divided predominantly between extreme advocates and opponents of Mivart’s thesis. It is probable that many were attracted by Mivart’s thesis, though they were also aware of its problems and waited for more solid data from contemporary palaeography.
This study presents the life and work of the French Catholic theologian M. D. Leroy (1828–1905) regarding the issue of the evolutionary origin of humans. His book, published in 1891, met with harsh reactions from the side of transformism opponents, after which it was followed by the process of the Sacred Congregation of the Index. The work was condemned and the author was reprimanded. Leroy formally submitted himself to the Congregation’s decision. The implicit dualism was the basic problem of the so-called Mivart thesis. Leroy claims that the human body can be called human, if the body is united with its essential form only, ergo its immortal soul. By means of the evolution, the creator could prepare a certain pre-human species, the substrate of the creation of a human body by the infusion of the immortal soul. The study by Leroy contains a number of new elements: an explanation of the apparently contradictory attitudes of Pope Leo XIII, a reference to the views of the remarkable French apologist F. Duilhé. Although he did not accept Leroy’s point of view, he did take sides on the right for liberal research in this area for Catholic theologians in 1897. There are essential links of the detection in between, as to what was the French and Czech natural science point-of-view in relation to Darwinism at this period. Leroy’s thesis is still relevant as it corrects the implicit dualism in the area of anthropology, which is implicitly presented in the widespread solution of the Catholic world today. The human body, in his view, came into being through evolution and was provided with a human soul at a certain moment.
The author of the study criticises the unusual length of the document, and therefore tries to present it in short to those interested. The fundamental shortcomings of the text are in methodology: both, the goal and concept of anthropology, are not defined; important documents of the International Theological Commission dealing with anthropology are not mentioned; for some passages, it was obligatory to recall the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. Methodological vagueness is the reason for the endless description of the biblical content. However, in particular parts of the document, there is a great deal of interesting information and suggestions to which the author draws attention to in the last part of his study.
This paper is part of a larger scholar project focused on Catholic theologians and scholars between 1871 and 1910 who accepted the evolutionary origin of the human body in accordance with the so called Mivart theory, or rejected it. The author presents the life and writings of the French theologian and biblical scholar F. E. Gigot, who was active mainly in the USA. He then analysed the relevant parts of the first section of his special introduction to the Old Testament (1901), where he interprets the first and second chapter of the book of Genesis and demonstrates a more or less open attitude to the theory of the evolutionary origin of man. The name of this biblical scholar, internationally recognized in his day, is not recalled in contemporary literature in connection with the reception of the evolutionary origin of humankind in Catholic theology at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. The discoveries help to correct the rooted conviction that the Catholic theologians of this period had an exclusively negative attitude towards the fact of evolution and the evolutionary origin of the human body. The study also includes an analysis of one passage of Augustine’s writing De Genesi ad litteram, where the author finds formulations which look like an offered hand across the ages to those who in 1871−1910, and also later, sought to theologically adopt the theory of the evolutionary origin – creation of man.
This study presents the life and work of the Belgian geologist and professor of dogmatic theology Henry de Dorlodot (1855–1929). The author of this study presents the life of this thinker and highlights his active participation in the World Darwinist Congress in Cambridge in 1909. Dorlodot published his work about the evolution of fauna and flora from the point of view of Catholic Orthodoxy in 1921. This was the reason for an investigation by the Pontifical Biblical Commission, followed by one from the Holy Office. Dorlodot did not publish this intended book about human evolution during his lifetime. After the discovery of the original manuscript, the book came out in 2009. This work contains a number of inspirational ideas. Dorlodot’s thoughts are based on the Tomistic concept of the relationship between the soul and the human body. Based on this theory, he argues that the fetus has been ensouled during the process of evolution at a certain moment in the body of the still inhuman mother, and thus the first human was born. His thesis wherein the first man was an ancestor for both, today’s humans and the Neanderthals, is also of interest. Dorlodot´s case probably entailed a breaking point, since at this time no one had been investigated by the Vatican authorities for having an open minded attitude to the evolution of the human body.
In this paper, the author presents Pietro Caterini, who ranked among the important opponents of Mivert´s thesis among Catholic theologians in the 1870s and 1880s in Italy. He published 37 anti-darwinian studies in La Civiltà Cattolica and then a nearly 400 page long book with the same content. The author analyses in detail the above-mentioned book and discovers that not everything in Catherini´s argumentation can be viewed as unacceptable. We encounter bright places, e.g. the resolute refusal of racism, but also dark places, e.g. the unacceptable extent of the competence of the biblical message, which is sometimes understood in a nearly fundamentalist way.
In this paper, the author discusses Darwinism and evolutionism in an Italian context. It also presents two personages of Catholic thinking in Italy in the 1890s who were open to the idea of the evolutionary origin of man. Antonio Fogazzaro (1842–1911), a Catholic writer, anticipated in his vision what can later be found in the work of P. Teilhard de Chardin. Bishop Geremia Bonomelli (1831–1914) accepted the thesis of the American pioneer of the Catholic concept of the evolutionary origin of man, John Augustine Zahm. It is of interest that none of the above mentioned authors mentions Raffaello Caverni, who spoke in the same spirit as early as 1877. G. Mivart, an English pioneer in the Catholic reception of the evolutionary origin of man, is also not recalled. Fogazzaro does point out, however, the heritage of Antonio Rosmini, who anticipated in some way the possibility of the evolutionary origin of man in the first half of the nineteenth century. Although Fogazzaro and Bonomelli did not have any influence on the Czech theological scene at the turn of the twentieth century, the literary works of Fogazzaro were widely translated into Czech.
The author of the article presents and at the same time critically evaluates the main contributions of Philip G. Zimbardo’s monograph The Lucifer Effect. The influence of the system, rules, and group on the thinking and actions of the individual is approved. The author of the study does not agree, however, with the unilaterally negative evaluation of obedience, and also with the statements about the “banality” of the good. In the second part, the author of the study demonstrates that a healthy Christian faith is an excellent strategy for dealing with harmful social influences on one’s personality and moral integrity.
Based on a critical analysis of the periodicals Svobodný zednář and Die drei Ringe, the authors of the article examine the attitudes of Czechoslovak Free Masons towards the question of the evolutionary origins of the human being and towards Darwinism in the period of 1925‒1938. Czech Free Masons had no interest in this issue. A clear rejection of Social Darwinism and racism can be found. German Free Masons, living in this country, consequently accepted the evolutionary origins of humans and naturally stood up against Social Darwinism, especially from 1933 on. The Darwinist concept of human origins was not used in even one case against the Bible, Christianity, or the Catholic Church. Taking into account the faith of regular Free Masons in God the Creator – the Great Architect and in the immortality of the human soul, one can quite easily speculate as to their closeness to the theistic interpretation of the evolutionary origins of humans which is typical for Christian thinkers.
The authors of this study have researched an internal periodical of the German Free Masons Die Drei Ringe which was published from the year 1925 until 1938. Their interest focuses on the attitude of the German Free Masons towards the figure of T. G. Masaryk in the First Czechoslovak Republic. There are neither positive nor negative expressions of interest towards the first President until the year 1929. An increasing number of references and a growing intensity of expressed esteem are apparent as of 1930. German Free Masons in Bohemia and Moravia were especially attracted to Masaryk’s concept of humanity, democracy and equality of nations. Much less focus is given to the religious dimension of Masaryk’s thinking, probably only from the side of the German professor of philosophy Oscar Kraus who presents Masaryk’s practical monotheist religiosity, naturally very understandable and attractive for the Free Masons. It is evident, however, that German Free Masons hold a strongly positive attitude towards Czechoslovakia, the country in which they lived, so they could be paradoxically referred to as true "Czechoslovakians".
The volumes of the internal periodical of the Czech Free Masons 1933‒1938 make many references to T. G. Masaryk who was becoming an increasingly symbolic figure, shielding democratic Czechoslovakia at the time of enforced totalitarianism in neighbouring countries, especially in Germany. Czech Free Masons took Masaryk’s criticism about their organisation, expressed in his publication in 1905, extremely badly. It provoked heated discussions in their Lodges. It was especially Grand Master K. Weigner who often highlighted the religious dimension of Masaryk’s legacy. In general, there was a visible bond between Free Masonry and democracy which naturally led to the veneration of the President Liberator. Czech Free Masons had similar hopes in E. Beneš which was also true about German and Hungarian Free Masons in Czechoslovakia.
The authors focus on an internal periodical of Czech Free Masons from 1925 till 1932, i.e. until the year of Hitler’s taking over power in Germany. They find out that the relationship of the Free Masons to T. G. Masaryk was gradually being intensified. While the periodical never mentioned him in the period 1925‒1927, from the following year on, occurrences of his name and expressions of honour towards him increased in number and in intensity. From the year 1931 onwards, his title “Mason without Apron” became official. Czech Free Masons also accepted Masaryk’s religious legacy which was contrary to what the majority in the society held.
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