Human's internal experience like beauty can help the human being to open for the otherworldly reality. Nowadays many people not only do not consider themselves as believers, but they even fail to ponder upon the spiritual dimension of their life and do not feel the need for religion in their life. So the publication of Jaroslaw Wozniak regarding performances of old Polish religious theatre is very important for christian evangelization, catechesis and pastoral theology. It can help to open to the pursuit of God and christian faith.
The Synod of the Lutheran Church in Poland has proclaimed the year 2011-year of the Pastoral Care. That is the reason why the article focuses on the pastoral care one of the most important missions of the Protestant Church. The author shows first the place of the ecclesiological approach in current Polish theological discussion among protestants, and then discusses the subject in the light of the Symbolical Books of Lutheranism, i.e. the Book of Concordia from 1580, especially the Augsburg Confession. The understanding of the Church is one of the most important subject of the early Reformation theology, but the pastoral care is almost absent in the records of confessional books of the 16th century. The author concludes that the pastoral dimension of the Church is rather more of practical than a theoretical nature. In fact the pastoral care is a particularly challenging task of the whole Christianity.
Passing on the faith is a pastoral priority in the majority of parishes and Christian communities in European countries. A crisis is strongly felt in this process of passing on the Christian heritage to the next generation. Biblical stories tell us about the beginning of a religious tradition which used the contemporary cultural background to communicate its message. Multiple changes in the postmodern society, on one hand, deepen the crisis of passing on the faith and, on the other hand, render a better communication possible. The better communication is visible on the side of the agents and listeners, and in the content as well. The process of passing on the faith has important features, in which laymen can make their own contribution to the depth and vitality of the message. Particular attention is paid to family, school, Christian communities and parish. Along with these places, one should also pay attention to means such as catechesis, liturgy, popular devotion and mass media, which seem to be the best ones suited for the objective. In spite of numerous and serious difficulties which we encounter in the process of handing over our faith, the Church will find the key to the new revival of its mission at the feet of its Lord and Master.
The text deals with the history of pastoral theology, within the period on the turn of the 19th and the 20th century. During that time, Antonin Skocdopole, the teacher at the Theological Institute in Ceske Budejovice, had written the textbook of pastoral theology. The text of this article documents the characteristics of that given period, as formulated by other authors mainly on the basis of the German textbooks. The text shows how Antonin Skocdopole's textbook reflected these given characteristics, while at the same time defying some components. The article shows, that Diacony and Charity have not the right place in Skocdopole's textbook. At the same time, we can see in specific areas of diaconal service, how this service preceded the contemporary social work.
The study elaborates on the relationship between practical theology and sociology of religion. It is based on the concept of the relationship between theology and other sciences presented in the documents of the Second Vatican Council. Apart from reflecting on both fields, mainly among Czech authors, it formulates the potentials and limits of this relationship.
Blessed Michael Sopocko was a specialist in pastoral theology and a priest. He acquired his pastoral knowledge at the seminary in Vilnius. His lecturer was Rev. John Uszyllo, the graduate of the Roman Catholic Spiritual Academy at St. Petersburg. The basic pastoral theology manual used in those days was M. Schenkl’s Theologiae Pastoralis systema. The then books in the subject wereinl uenced by the Enlightenment and the policy of Emperor Joseph II.
Effectivity of this research is based on social and pastoral work and the reflection of values and life-style changes in the society. This paper analyses the religiosity in Slovakia and neighbour countries based on the “Aufbruch” survey done at the University of Vienna. Research measures religiosity of people in 14 countries. Values of religiosity are divided into three dimensions, namely personal religiosity, contents of faith and relationship with the Church. In the paper, we compare some chosen values from the research in the year 1997 and 2007. Based on the survey results, it is possible to create three groups of people with different religiosity status: orthodox-religious, cultural-religious and seculars. The chapter “Short historical excurse” continues with analysis of some historical facts in the Slovak society after the political changes in 1989 and their influence at the religiosity. The development of Slovak society and the Catholic Church in Slovakia is described by following periods of personal development: childhood, puberty, teenager and post-teenager period. The last part of the paper concludes some opportunities for pastoral theology to work with actual topics in the “adult time” of society and the Church. The most important result tends to be the necessity for Church to be a strong discussion partner in the Europa-values discussion, and the wish to remain the “Agency of hope” also for people who do not see themselves as members of any religion.
Pastoral theology is different from other theological disciplines, as it has an existential and practical orientation. It is also a normative discipline, forming rules, theological models and directives for actions, which should guide the Church, ecclesial communities and their representatives in various domains and on various levels of ecclesial activity. The normative and practical dimensions of scholarly cognition are a compact whole in pastoral theology. Both mentioned dimensions of theological-pastoral reflection not only do not oppose each other, but they are complementary, indeed they are necessary for each other, since in this reflection the point is that the same reality should be understood that is the mystery of God in his transcendence and historical immanence. Today the key issue is taking into consideration in today's theological-pastoral reflection both the normative and practical dimensions. This question is connected with a better understanding of the theory and practice in pastoral theology today, and with the cooperation of pastoral theology with humanities and praxiological disciplines dealing with man's activity. Adequately to the normative and practical dimension of theological-pastoral reflection, pastoral theology should be marked by a holistic (problem-functional) approach, using both empirical and normative methods within the paradigm of the analysis of pastoral theology.
In 2007 the Department of Sociology of the Philosophical faculty of the University of Trnava together with the support of the Theology faculty of the same university held the first Slovak- wide representative research of catholic religiosity in Slovakia. The purpose was to improve the quality of pastoral theology lectures at all the Theology faculties in Slovakia. The sociological analysis is followed by our pastoral-theological reflections based on the research. The research showed that the life of Slovak Catholics is on the one hand strongly sacramentalised but on the other hand this is not adequately transformed into life in their community. Parochial community does not always fulfil its role to be the dense fibre of inter-human and true communal relationships where the life of faith is reflected in common thinking and where the daily practice is the real expression of faith and of freedom. Consequently as a result of the research some improvements of pastoral theology as well as pastoral practice must follow. Parochial communities should not have more than five thousand residents so that people could walk to their Church. It is very important to have an intensive cooperation with the laity in place in order to achieve a better reception of the Christian initiation sacraments which in turn will improve the life of parochial community. Especially when we consider various activities for small children, youth and family groups, that are not closed in themselves but have their own apostolic dynamism expressed especially in parochial charity. The support for the apostolic mission of the Church within a parochial community is a sign of mature Christianity in that community.
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