The teachings of Holy Father John Paul II constantly remind us of the importance of human dignity. The anthropological focus of John Paul II is an essential element of his thoughts. The human being in the image of God, has a unique, inherent value. It was always God’s plan that men, despite being creatures, would freely participate in God’s inner life - in Love. The dignity and value of humanity is established in creation, but is fully realised and expressed in the redemption of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the author of this article presents the person who faces modern challenges, but in the light of the ministry and teaching of Pope John Paul II. This is a direct introduction to the new international scientific journal “The Person and the Challenges: The Journal of Theology, Education, Canon Law and Social Studies Inspired by Pope John Paul II”. This journal is being published at the Theology Faculty, Section in Tarnów of the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Cracow since 2011 - the year of the beatification of the Holy Father John Paul II, which also implies and guarantees, that it will become a platform for exchanging ideas, evaluations, reports and studies on the person and contemporary challenges in the light or having regard to the teaching of John Paul II.
‘Biopolitics’ is a complex discipline that comprises of various disciplines of science. Today it is discussed in the field of sociology, social, political and medical sciences as a separate notion. Its various concepts and interpretations have resulted in the last centuries in tragic phenomena with the human being seen as a subject of the dominant socio-political ideologies. The contemporary biopolitics seems to be firmly rooted in the mainstream of the postmodern thought. The biopolitics with its multiple varieties always has a certain philosophical anthropology as its foundation. The Catholic Church also has some reasons in using this notion. In many statements of the magisterium the biopolitics is not only just another interpretation of the “politics of life” but also an important antithesis against the contemporary reductionist concepts of the human being and rejection of the objective values.
Blessed John Paul II in his homilies preached in 1991 to his compatriots in the new socio-political circumstances emphasised that man is still “maturing to freedom”. The human being is created with the free will but his or her freedom needs redemption. The Risen One revealed the immensity of love which the Creator has for his creatures. It is perfected in the act of redemption. The Incarnate Son of God came to restore the fatherhood of God for people as well as the sonship of people in relation to God as the Father. The teaching and the deeds of Christ confirm the superiority of the human over the law. The life of Jesus Christ is characterised by a unique freedom. Jesus knowingly entrusted his earthly lot to the Father. The freedom of Christ has its source in His unity with the Father in the Spirit. Christ is the rock on which the edifice of truth about the world created by God and about the redeemed man stands. “He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor 1: 30). The awareness of the redemption is based on the conviction that man cannot justify himself or herself but he or she needs God’s justification. Christ is the only Righteous and this is through his obedience that “many will be made righteous” (Rom 5: 19).
Cyberspace as a virtual venue for communication and information offers its users potentials the consequences of which can be debated from different angles. The critique coming from respectable professional sources highlights some of the risks in the system. Cyberspace has accelerated a fundamental transformation in consumption and increased the use of digital services. It reinforced digital business models’ dominant position at the expense of more traditional businesses. Tech giants showed how vital is big data and inferred data derived from the Internet users’ activity. Today hardly anyone can ridicule or dismiss as bizarre stories of censorship, malevolence, manipulation, fake news, fraud or actions of distinct ideological flavour. Hardly anyone mentions the fate of the human being who has drifted into the domain of illusion.
Honesty allows man to live in the truth, that is, to know the true values and implement them in man’s life. Honesty is therefore the spiritual force in man, which allows him to properly refer to values and their hierarchy in the spirit of the constantly acquired truth. The aim of the analyses presented in the article is an attempt to show honesty in a varied splendor of truth, i.e., to show honesty as a moral condition sine qua non of learning and living the truth and at the same time revealing the truth as the foundation of being honest. We try to justify the thesis that only through inner integrity and honesty man can discover the truth about man’s human dignity and the dignity of another man and, according to this truth, shape his conscience and be guided by it.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.