Księga Ruth - w kierunku nowego biblijnego feminizmu

This study is about those Ukrainians who chose faith аs their dominant survival strategy at the beginning of the war. The multifunctionality of the religious strategy (according to K. Pargament) can manifest itself in religious behavior, which is also observed among the respondents: passive, active, in the development of personal relationships with God and interpersonal — in the middle of church communities, focused on solving problems and the emotional calm that religious practices bring — prayer and participation in divine services. A religious coping strategy helps to find hope through faith and trust in God and build a more positive vision of your future and your country. How did Ukrainians use religion to deal with the fear and trauma of war? This study shows how some Ukrainians, feeling the fear and trauma of war, turned to religion and faith not only in the traditional spiritual sense, but also in a broader interpretation as a hope and trust for a better future, victory and the forces of good. In order to identify strategies that help Ukrainians survive difficult trials, we conducted the interviews in April and May 2022 with 31 Ukrainians from different regions of Ukraine and abroad. Our research particularly highlights the spiritual experience of the Roman Catholic community of Ukraine. Religious coping mechanisms included physical activities such аs evening prayer with the family and attending church services. Metaphysical actions included communicating with God in everyday life or "giving everything to God." Religion was singled out as one of the strategies for overcoming difficulties by Ukrainians in extreme situations. Using thematic analysis, several strategic areas for dealing with stress were identified from the interview. In a brief linguistic analysis, It was noted that the word ‘faith’ appears in various meanings, not only faith in God, but also faith in victory, faith in the forces of good, faith in a better future for their children. Verbal concepts that reveal respondent’s religious worldview — faith in God (4 mentions), prayer (4), God (3), religious community (2), hope in God (4), faith (2), Lord God (2), church (1), trust in God.

Service and Advocacy: Matters of Faith?

Problem. Faith in God is a phenomenon that is difficult to define. Yet, it can be seen as an attitude of complete trust in God. As Proctor (1995) stated, faith in God is believing that there is a purpose and a power (called God) available to each of us, giving us an "inexhaustible source of evergreen inspiration" (p. xvii). Therefore, this study focused on how faith in God impacted administrative decision-making practices of three African-American Christian women administrators of higher education. Method. To achieve the purpose of this study, the literature was reviewed to identify existing theories. This descriptive multiple case study approach examined the impact of religious faith on the decision-making practices of three African-American Christian women administrators of higher education. Case study techniques used were interviews, observations, note-taking, reviewing existent documents, etc. to gain an understanding ofwhat the observed world was actually like. Different kinds of questions and analyses, derived from Spradley's (1979) developmental research sequence, were also used to enhance themethod of analyzing and interpreting the data. Findings and conclusions. Throughout this study, numerous attributes or values such as love, honesty, peace, joy, hope, intuition, etc. were engendered by faith in God. These attributes reflected anthropological, psychological, and sociological factors, thereby suggesting three theoretical models (to help understand faith-informed decisions): Fowler's stages of faith, Erikson's theory of human development; and the biblical model (Heb 11 and 1 Cor 13). According to the findings, it was the practice of the three Christian administrators in this study to ask God for help when making decisions, particularly administrative decisions. Because of their experiences, stories, and viewpoints, it was evident that their profession of faith in God was practiced overtly. The study revealed that religious faith was used as a practical approach to problem solving, conflict resolution, and decision-making practices in the lives of these administrators. Finally, the study showed that faith in God has given these Christian women strength of character to make faith-informed administrative decisions, which is the ability to use the qualities of the spiritual life intermingled with expertise and gifts from God for the good of the organization.

This chapter applies the account of trust developed hitherto in another novel area, addressing a current debate in the philosophy of religion. Many writers in recent years have argued that faith in God does not require any propositional belief, such as the belief that God exists, and of these, a number have used the notion of trust to develop a non-doxastic account of faith. This chapter addresses this debate indirectly, arguing that, by trusting in a speaking God, one normally commits oneself to believing a core of what is presented as divine speech. That is, trust in God normally has doxastic implications. This has the implication that, if faith in God involves trust, so faith is normally doxastic. Central to this claim is an argument about the rational implications of two-place trust for three-place trust relations, an argument which also has wider relevance for how to think about trust.

This study aims to examine the meaning of the concepts of patience (sabr), contentment (ridha), and trust in God (tawakkul) in the Qur’an, as well as to explore their intersections and distinctions with Stoic principles. The background of this study arises from the phenomenon of contemporary Muslim spirituality, which often interprets these three concepts in a narrow sense, whereas in classical Islamic tradition they represent an active form of spirituality imbued with reflection and self-control. This research employs a qualitative approach with the thematic exegesis method (maudhu’i), combined with the ethical framework of Stoicism as an interpretative analytical tool. Thematic data analysis revealed five main themes: (1) patience as active perseverance in facing trials, (2) contentment as sincere acceptance of destiny with faith in God’s wisdom, (3) trust in God as submission of outcomes after maximal effort, (4) the synergistic relationship of the three concepts in shaping holistic spirituality, and (5) their impact on character maturity and psychological resilience. The findings indicate convergence with Stoic principles apatheia, amor fati, and prohairesis yet remain distinct in their theological dimension emphasizing submission to God.

The subject of this chapter is belief in God. In its religiously important sense belief in God, in contrast to creedal belief, is not itself propositional (even though it implies certain propositional beliefs). It is seen how many religious thinkers have emphasized the difference between a bare belief that God exists and belief in God. Belief in God in its religiously important sense is an affective belief, the core of which is trust in God. As such it creates a God-relationship for believers that is defined by trust in God. In its affective sense “belief in God,” it is observed, is synonymous with “faith in God.” The chapter includes a discussion of Martin Buber’s distinction between two types of faith, pistis and emunah.

Aim: To discuss the relationship between God as understood in philosophy and God as understood by the Christian faith in the light of the conversion of the scientist Blaise Pascal.Methods: We offered an explanation of the philosophemeattributable to Blaise Pascal, and then examined the mean-ing of the phrase God of the philosophers, with special at-tention to Plato’s and Aristotle’s theology, and then assessed the prominent features of the Christian God. The Hellenistic environment in which early Christianity spread and its influence on early Christian theology were analysed, with special emphasis on the term logos.Results: Blaise Pascal’s Christian faith was not in accordance with Catholic Church, although Pascal considered himself a Catholic. We demonstrated that term God of philosophers is ambiguous term, i.e. what that God is. It appears that most probably God of philosophers is god of Aristotle or Plato because these two philosophers had the biggest impact on the evolution of natural theology. The God of philosophersis more like an impersonal concept than a person like God of faith. We presented the essential features of the Christian God: the doctrine of the Trinity, God’s creation, God’s per-sonality and God’s incarnation, and discussed on the differ-ent understandings of the term logos, and its importance. For us, the term logos served as a point of contact between the philosophical and the Christian understanding of God. Conclusion: Christianity is a faith based on reason, i.e. in Christian God can be known through reason and not just by faith. We tried to go beyond Pascal’s radical distinction between the God of faith and the God of the philosophers, namely through the lens of the philosophical term logos and show the there is no radical difference between the God of faith and God of philosophers

The reception of the Barmen Declaration in South Africa

In the Demonstration “On Wars” Aphrahat prophetically announces the times of Christian persecution and at the same time in a secret way persuades and en­courages to place one’s faith in God’s Providence. The Persian comments on his contemporary events in a military convention, in the context of the ideals of spiri­tual struggles of the “sons of covenant”. In every difficult situation Christian “ath­letes” should see a call for conversion. A theological message of the speech “On Wars” has been included in the encouragement to interpret the persecution of the Church as a sign of God’s admonition; the Sage says nothing about God’s wrath or His punishment.

Traditional Islamic theism gives us a certain picture of the world, in which the concepts of belief, providence and eschatology are involved. According to the traditional picture, belief in God is a universal phenomenon. This is because God has providentially arranged the world in such a manner that the signs of God are everywhere and which lead to knowledge of His existence. And, because the world is ‘providentially unambiguous’, those who do not have faith in God are culpable for their lack of it, and therefore deserve eternal punishment in hell. In this paper, I argue that this traditional picture is simply false, or at the very least seriously contestable. I also explore the implications of my argument for those who might be interested in assessing the viability of some form of (Islamic) ‘revisionary theism’, in which the concepts of belief, providence and eschatology feature.

Reviewed by: Paulus als Philosoph: Das Ethos des Apostels vor dem Hintergrund antiker Populärphilosophie by Kristin Divjanović James Swetnam kristin divjanović, Paulus als Philosoph: Das Ethos des Apostels vor dem Hintergrund antiker Populärphilosophie (NTAbh n.F. 58; Münster: Aschendorff, 2015). Pp. viii + 434. €58. This work is basically the published version of a dissertation presented by Kristin Divjanović to the Catholic Faculty of the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main in March of 2015. It is a carefully written, highly informative work that enables the reader to get a less imperfect insight into one of the great saints of Christian history by setting him among the "philosophers" of his time. To begin with, after working his way through the book, this reviewer suggests that the title should be "Paul among the Philosophers" (Paulus unter den Philosophen?). D. makes clear that she does not regard Paul as such a philosopher (taken in the meaning of the times) but as a person analogous to a philosopher. See p. 403, among other places, where she notes at the end of her exhaustive study that Paul distances himself from human wisdom to speak rather God's wisdom. The subtitle of the book is right: "The Ethos of the Apostle against the Background of Ancient Popular Philosophy." The work is divided into an introduction, a main part, and a summary of results. For an initial grasp of what the book offers the reader is advised to go to the summary of results. But for the reader interested in details mentioned in the summary, the main part is carefully divided into subsections that are clearly identified in the table of contents. Everywhere there is abundant use of primary and secondary sources. The former, in Greek or Latin, are always translated into German. The latter are mainly in German and English. But such citations are made for the sake of illustrating a point and not, as happens at times in published dissertations, for the sake of disgorging all information resulting from research. This reviewer found part 4 of the main section the most illuminating. There D. writes about the "peristasen" that are the part of every human's life—that is, those challenges to the equilibrium that human beings instinctively desire as the milieu of their existence. After discussing these circumstances that "stand around," as viewed by some philosophers, D. analyzes seven passages from Paul's letters: 1 Cor 4:8-16; 2 Cor 4:7-12; 6:4-10; 11:23-29; 12:9-10; Phil 4:11-13; and Rom 8:31-35. [End Page 521] Romans 8:31-35 was of special interest to the reviewer because of the allusion in v. 32 to Genesis 22 and Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son Isaac, the son who metaphorically and prophetically died and rose from the dead as a foreshadowing of the real death and rising from the dead of Christ Jesus. The generosity of Abraham thus foreshadows the generosity of God for "us," that is, all those for whom God's own son died and rose. Then the a fortiori inference: if God did not spare his only son, he will surely grant the blessings to all nations (i.e., including the gentiles) that he promised would be given to Abraham through his seed because of the faith of Abraham (and of Christ Jesus!), testified to by their works (v. 33). It is God who justifies Abraham and Christ Jesus and thus will confute any charge made against us who put our faith in God through belief in Abraham and Christ Jesus. Who condemns if Christ intercedes? (v. 34). (Here Paul is undoubtedly thinking of all the Jewish and gentile enemies of himself and his fellow Christians. All this has been prepared for in Rom 1:16-17.) Then comes the real profundity: all the above is a sign of God's love for us, which Paul then places in contrast to the challenging peristasen he personally has experienced (vv. 35-37). Here is the configuration of the interior life of Paul to the interior life of the God for whom the apostle has been called to dedicate his life...

I and II Esdras is Volume 42 in the Anchor Bible series of new book-by-book translations of the Old and New Testaments and Apocrypha, each by a preeminent scholar. Jacob M. Myers is Professor of Old Testament at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg and the author of three earlier volumes in the series: I Chronicles and II Chronicles and Ezra, Nehemiah. The present work constitutes the first English commentary on I Esdras in sixty years and the first on II Esdras in forty. Written about 10 BCE, I Esdras is a history ranging from the pious reign of Josiah to the religious reforms of Ezra. For this period Josephus follows I Esdras in his Antiquities of the Jews. An apocalyptic work, written 250 years later, II Esdras seeks to offer strength, courage, and hope to those whose faith was severely shaken in the gloom and despondency that followed upon the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Its chief purpose was to inspire trust in God and the ultimate triumph of righteousness, if not in this world, then in the world to come. “Tracts for the times such as II Esdras,” writes Dr. Myers in his preface, “have a message for us who in a revolutionary age are obsessed with the impatience reflected by Ezra; it was not that he lacked faith in God but that he, like Job, questioned his ways and the delay, perhaps seeming inactivity, in the face of what appeared to the prophet to be terrible urgencies. The questions posed are still asked in the context of our age.” Eight photographs of ancient Near Eastern sculpture and coins help the reader visualize both the events recounted in I Esdras and the apocalyptic imagery in II Esdras. Each book has its own introduction and bibliography.

Psalm 35 is one of the most popular, widely read and used Psalm among the African indigenous churches (Yoruba) in Nigeria. This article investigates why and how Psalm 35 vv. 1-3 is used as a plea for vengeance among the Yoruba Christians in African indigenous churches in Nigeria. The article explores how the plea for vengeance is understood and expressed in the African traditional context. African biblical hermeneutics with the view of providing a useful lens to reread biblical text in African context was adopted for the study. It was discovered that as early as the 3rd-century Christian era, the book of Psalms was used in the liturgy of the church. The notion of vengeance as found in Psalm 35 vv. 1-3 is a recurrent theme in African indigenous churches in Nigeria. This Psalm is used among the Yoruba Christians in African indigenous churches as a plea for divine intervention against their enemies. Through a synthesis of biblical and traditional African sources, this article demonstrates how the plea for vengeance is expressed in the cultural practices and beliefs of African indigenous churches. The plea for vengeance in this Psalm is a reflection of African indigenous churches’ understanding of key social issues such as justice, relationships between individuals and groups, and the need to maintain social integrity. Psalm 35 is usually read, sung, memorised, inscribed on parchment, and chanted by African christians and non-christians as expression of faith in God to intervene in the issues confronting them as he did for the Psalmist.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The Yoruba Christian readers of Psalm 35vv. 1-3 appeal to God for intervention against their enemies. The article emphasises that Christians should not take laws into their hands but trust in God for justice.

We tested the hypothesis that religiosity (ie, seeking God's help, having faith in God, trusting in God, and trying to perceive God's will in the disease) is associated with improved survival in patients with end-stage liver disease who have undergone orthotopic liver transplantation. We studied a group of 179 candidates for liver transplantation who responded to a questionnaire on religiosity during the pretransplant psychological evaluation and underwent transplantation between 2004 and 2007. The demographic data, educational level, employment status, clinical data, and results of the questionnaire were compared with the survival of patients during follow-up, regardless of the cause of any deaths. Factorial analysis of responses to the questionnaire revealed 3 main factors: searching for God (active), waiting for God (passive), and fatalism. The consistency of the matrix was very high (consistency index = 0.92). Eighteen patients died during follow-up (median time = 21 months). In multivariate analysis, only the searching for God factor [hazard ratio (HR) = 2.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.05-8.32, χ(2) = 4.205, P = 0.040] and the posttransplant length of stay in the intensive care unit (HR = 1.05, 95% CI = 1.01-1.08, χ(2) = 8.506, P = 0.035) were independently associated with survival, even after adjustments for the waiting for God factor, fatalism, age, sex, marital status, employment, educational level, viral etiology, Child-Pugh score, serum creatinine level, time from the questionnaire to transplantation, donor age, and intraoperative bleeding. Patients who did not present the searching for God factor were younger than those who did, but they had shorter survival times (P = 0.037) and a 3-fold increased relative risk of dying (HR = 3.01, 95% CI = 1.07-8.45). In conclusion, religiosity is associated with prolonged survival in patients undergoing liver transplantation.

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