Christian Values Research Articles

The Component of Respublica Romanorum in the Constitutional Heritage of Nobiliary Polish-Lithuanian Republic (16th through 18th Centuries)

When in the 16th century in many European states, the monarchal power began to drift toward absolutism, the Polish-Lithuanian state evolved in its constitutionalism along the Republican lines. Its monarch could be brought to accountability for the violation of the law. Likewise, he was freely elected by the nobles and held his position for life. The nation of nobles that, by the standards of the time, made up a remarkable section of the entire population of the country was protected against the monarch’s attempts against their liberties by a series of remarkable privileges. And indeed, a noble’s property was prevented from being unreasonably confiscated. Likewise, an individual of nobiliary status could not be arbitrarily imprisoned. The representatives of nobles, while sitting in the benches of the Seym, had a considerable share in exercising the state power, particularly in the area of the law-creating process and when the imposing of tax liabilities was debated. In addition, the clauses of the Henrician Articles (1573), which were a kind of Fundamental Law of the Nobiliary Republic, guaranteed the mass of the nobles’religious toleration within the Christian denominations. The spirit of this toleration in practice also applied to the non-Christians (Jews and Muslim Tartars who inhabited the Republic). The republican slogans that were responsible for forming a specific frame of mind of the nobles assumed a new dimension when the culture of Latinitas type began to be promoted. The latter started to develop on the occasion of the acceptance by the authorities of the Nobiliary Republic of the principles of the Council of Trent, which happened in the 1570s. The Republic remained within the Catholic Camp. From that time on, the young nobles used to be educated in numerous Jesuit colleges and had not only a fluent command of Latin but also a profound knowledge of the history and culture of antiquity. Hence, they looked at their state, the Respublica Polonorum as a successor of the late Respublica Romanorum with the virtues of the latter. These virtues, when filtered through the system of Christian values –pushed to the foreground the concern for the welfare of the motherland, support for the democratic ethos and egalitarian spirit within the nobiliary milieu, and also the willingness to defend the Christian world against the invasion of the barbarians (the concept of Antemurale). The republican spirit survived the era of constitutional deterioration in the country that started in the mid-17th century. With the era of reforms which began in the 1760s, the constitutional improvement reached its climax in the Constitution of 3rd May 1791. Like in the British system, king was located at the position of the monarch who could do no wrong since all his executive acts required the endorsement made by the right minister. The separation of powers was emphasized. The ministers could be brought both to their political responsibility to parliament if they lost the support of the majority in the houses and also to constitutional responsibility for their contra legem acts.

European Union’s Response to Rising Xeno-Racism in Europe

Ever since the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, Europe has experienced a huge influx of refugees, which has led to demographic and social changes and created fears about the erosion of the European civilisation and Christian values. The Continent has also experienced several Islamic terrorist attacks- like those in Paris, London, Brussels and Berlin. This, coupled with the rise of the right-wing in Europe, has led to increasing xeno-racism, particularly of an Islamophobic variety that has resulted in the creation of an environment of intolerance and exclusion. At times this has manifested itself as outright hostility towards the Muslim community through hate crimes which take the form of physical and verbal attacks on visibly identifiable and more tangible symbols of Islam like hijabs, headscarves, burkhas and mosques. Yet, most of these hate crimes remain unreported and unaddressed. The European Union (EU) is a one of a kind post-modern entity professing values of equality, democracy and human rights. Given this commitment, this paper attempts to take stock of the EU’s response to rising xeno-racism with particular attention to Islamophobia and the Member States’ attempts to grapple with the same.

Review of “What Is Sexual Capital?”

More and more, “capital” is deployed for conceptualizing and theorizing around the many aspects of the self that can be leveraged for profit. In What Is Sexual Capital? Dana Kaplan and Eva Illouz take on the titular form of capital to examine how sexuality, as it has historically progressed from traditional religious morals through a more secular modernity and entered the neoliberal era, has become inextricable from capitalist social structures. Although sexual capital is a relatively new term, it is not specific to our current era. Kaplan and Illouz demonstrate the historical connection between sexuality and its monetary consequences by examining how traditional Christian values tethered women’s chastity to their subordinate economic position. They discuss how the institutionalization of Victorian sexual mores restricted women’s sexual freedom and coupled with their inability to accumulate their own wealth, such that desirability and its corresponding access to wealth vis-á-vis men depended on women’s ability to position themselves in the Victorian sexual field as chaste. Here, sexual capital relied on women’s lack of sexual experience.

Christian values in portuguese children's and youth literature

The present article outlines a non-exhaustive overview of the presence of Christian values, and other aspects related to Christianism, in contemporary Portuguese writing for childhood and youth. Different modalities/genres (narrative, poetry, drama) are considered and some of the most relevant voices in this domain, such as Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Luísa Dacosta, Nuno Higino, Alice Vieira and others, are highlighted. The author acknowledges the strong presence, and recurrence, in this literature, of values and themes of Christian inspiration, regardless of the confession of faith and the Christian conviction of the authors in appreciation.

Freedom As and Against Democracy

Freedom As and Against Democracy

Religion and law: relationships in conditions of war

Both practical and theoretical issues of the connection between religion and law, especially in the context of a full-scale war in Ukraine, have a significant impact on the existence of the entire state mechanism.
 A comprehensive study of the interaction of institutions of law and religion, primarily determined by the fact that, despite the different purposes of their existence, religion and law act as value-normative systems in the process of regulating relations in society. Considering the law as a regulator, it should be recognized that its mission in society is to approve the regulatory framework, the regulatory legal impact on public relations. The law regulates social relations in interaction with other norms, an element of the system of social regulation. One of such elements is religion in relation to its values and regulations.
 At the same time, in conditions of war, it is the Christian religion, being a moral and normative system, influences the formation and implementation of secular legal norms. There is a kind of implementation of them in law, as a result, we use the law, in fact, resorting to the help of Christianity. It is impossible to completely separate seemingly purely religious norms from secular ones; for all their remoteness from worldly problems, they actually play a significant role in shaping lawful human behavior, producing a stable system of values that is not indifferent to law. These values can act as motives for socially positive behavior. However, today the basic Christian values (first of all such category as “don’t kill”), their embodiment in the current legislation of our state and practical application take place. We are convinced that a new concept of the relationship between the state and the church, law and religion awaits us in the near future, not only at the national but also at the international level.

Religion and law: theoretical and methodological principles of the relationship

Both practical and theoretical issues of the connection between religion and law, especially in the context of a full-scale war in Ukraine, have a significant impact on the existence of the entire state mechanism.A comprehensive study of the interaction of institutions of law and religion, primarily determined by the fact that, despite the different purposes of their existence, religion and law act as value-normative systems in the process of regulating relations in society. Considering the law as a regulator, it should be recognized that its mission in society is to approve the regulatory framework, the regulatory legal impact on public relations. The law regulates social relations in interaction with other norms, an element of the system of social regulation. One of such elements is religion in relation to its values and regulations.At the same time, in conditions of war, it is the Christian religion, being a moral and normative system, influences the formation and implementation of secular legal norms. There is a kind of implementation of them in law, as a result, we use the law, in fact, resorting to the help of Christianity. It is impossible to completely separate seemingly purely religious norms from secular ones; for all their remoteness from worldly problems, they actually play a significant role in shaping lawful human behavior, producing a stable system of values that is not indifferent to law. These values can act as motives for socially positive behavior. However, today the basic Christian values (first of all such category as “don’t kill”), their embodiment in the current legislation of our state and practical application take place. We are convinced that a new concept of the relationship between the state and the church, law and religion awaits us in the near future, not only at the national but also at the international level.

Cormac McCarthy: Conservative Novelist

Where some critics see only dystopia and misanthropy in the violent novels of Cormac McCarthy, sociologist Alexander Riley notices a “distinct moral core” in McCarthy’s best-known fiction, drawing from both conservative and Christian values.

Access, usage and influence of mass media on students’ academic performance: A private university experience

Previous studies on the influence of mass media on students’ academics are common, but none relating to private missionary schools with core values such as these has been rigorously evaluated. To determine the medium of media accessible to students, examine the purpose of media usage and media influence on students’ academic performance triangulated research design was adopted with the use of quantitative data through questionnaire and qualitative data through in-depth interview. The sampling technique adopted was stratified random sampling. The framework utilized to examine the data is the Uses & Gratifications theory. A number of significant findings firstly access to media mediums and contents are influenced by the University Christian values. Secondly, almost all of the respondents perceived the internet as the most useful communication medium to connect with their friends and families. Thirdly, a significant number of students were dependent solely on the internet contents for academic purpose. Finally, students also perceived media had an important influence in their academic performance. Students should develop good reading habits; mass media access and usage should be designed in line with academic needs, interests, aspirations and values of both the audience (students) and the society (university). Another contribution is that educational institutions, academicians as well as enterprises should familiarize with changing technologies, develop policy that will impact on student access and usage of mass media mediums as it affects their academics.

Primate Wyszyński’s Message to Students

The subject of the article is the teaching of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, the Primate of Poland, addressed to young people, especially students of the Catholic University of Lublin. The analyses are based on the selected texts of speeches (and other documents) that Wyszyński addressed to the community of the Catholic University of Lublin, starting in 1946, when he was appointed bishop of Lublin, and ending in 1980, just before his death. As a result of the philological analysis of Wyszyński’s most important statements, it should be concluded that his message to students is an original pedagogy: full of heart, goodness, kindness and faith in other people. Wyszyński’s attitude is of a concerned and demanding father who really wishes for his “children” (“a tribe of new people”) to get not only a reliable education, but also life wisdom, and strong moral backbone, so that they can serve their neighbours and the homeland. In his teaching, Wyszyński presents a holistic vision of a young person – a student. This vision includes both their education and upbringing – understood as an integral combination of natural values (abilities, talents, qualities of spirit and body) with supernatural values, i.e. self-improvement for the sake of The One who should always be the Way, the Truth and the Life for young people and for all humanity. Wyszyński believed that the diplomas obtained by young people would wisely serve their homeland for a long time. Due to moral relativism, the crisis in the education of children and young people and the abandonment of Christian values, his speeches take on special significance today. Therefore, based on a solid, humanistic foundation, on the lasting categories of truth, good, beauty, solidarity and usefulness, the Primate’s educational message can be of use to the teacher who will effectively reach the hearts and minds of his students. He will equip them with complete knowledge and bring them closer to spiritual values and the Truth.

Mykola Kostomarov’s historiosophical views on Ukrainian history: formation and evolution

The aim of the article is to study the formation and further evolution of Mykola Kostomarov’s historiosophical views on Ukrainian history, to determine the essence of his historiosophical concept. Research methods are historiosophical analysis and synthesis. Sources of the article: autobiographical, scientific, journalistic, polemical and historical works of M. I. Kostomarov, archival materials, the latest works of modern historians. The main results: the author analyzes the historiosophical heritage of the thinker from the first half of the 1840s to the mid of the 1880s. The article proves that in the second dissertation M. I. Kostomarov approved his credo as a historian of the romantic and patriotic trend, put the past of the people in the context of their linguistic and cultural heritage, their consciousness, spiritual, historical and social life. It is emphasized that romantic and patriotic ideas led the intellectual to comprehending the national character and the national ideal and to understanding the national idea as a core in the historical process. It is shown that in the mid-1840s Kostomarov’s historiosophical views were based on the ideas of Ukrainian patriotism, historical romanticism, Christocentrism, utopian socialism, messianism, republicanism, Cossack and Slavic love. During the period of activity of the Cyril and Methodius Society, the thinker went beyond national culture and joined the socio-political issues. M. I. Kostomarov was aware of the past and present of the Ukrainian people through the prism of democracy and freedom, and he represented the future of Ukraine in the democratic federation of sovereign Slavic peoples. After the defeat of the Cyril and Methodius Society, his arrest, imprisonment and exile, the scholar continued to assert the Ukrainian national principle in history, which he opposed to autocratic despotism. In the early 1860s the thinker outlined the concept of the Rus people, which was embodied in two nationalities. This was the evidence of double loyalty phenomenon and identity in his self-consciousness. At the same time, he did not think about the present and historical future of Ukraine outside the empire, although he advocated the preservation of Ukrainian ethnocultural identity, emphasizing the manifestations of the federalist principle in the past. With the rise of Russification and conservative-protective tendencies in the domestic policy of the tsarist regime, he was forced to make significant concessions, speaking of the necessity for “close merging and interaction” of the Ukrainian and Russian nationalities. However, the Ukrainian figure did not betray the idea of national and cultural revival of Ukrainians. Brief conclusions. In essence, Kostomarov’s historiosophical conception represented a synthesis of the ideas of historical romanticism, Ukrainian patriotism, and Christian values, and it was patriotic, federalist, dualistic in the sense of national consciousness and identity. However, it contributed to the ideological separation of the Ukrainian historical process from the Polish and Russian ones in time and space. The practical significance of the article: it can be of interest to historians, young scientists and students in the process of studying Ukrainian historiosophy. The originality of the article is in understanding the insufficiently studied aspects of the intellectual heritage of M. I. Kostomarov. Scientific novelty: the original interpretation of the formation and evolution of historiosophical ideas of M. I. Kostomarov. Article type: analytical.

Semantic Potential of the Word: by the Material of the Mythologem of the Holy Marriage of Heaven and Earth

The study of the initial semantics of the word and its further development in the history of the language and its speakers, undoubtedly, belongs to the number of topical problems of modern semasiology. Of particular research interest is the disclosure of the historical and etymological origins of the word, which largely predetermine its further development. The focus of this article is the East Slavic mythologeme of the sacred marriage of Heaven-father and Earthmother, the semantics of which has absorbed the sacred mode of pagan existence and Christian value ideas. The material of the study was the myths and proverbs of closely related Belarusian, Rusyn, Russian and Ukrainian languages, which go back to the East Slavic mythologeme of the sacred marriage of Heaven-father and Earth-mother and preserve a common cultural and semantic memory. The undertaken consideration of this mythologeme against the background of the Greek myths about the “beginning of the world” made it possible to characterize its original historical, etymological, ethical and aesthetic features. As a result, an appeal to the history of the word from the standpoint of the concept of evolving consciousness G.G. Shpet led to the conclusion about the special role of cultural memory, which accumulates the accumulated experience of the existence of the word and thereby increases its semantic potential.

Neighbourhood associations may promote belonging, but for whom?

ABSTRACT Much has been written about how neighbourhoods provide a context for socially supportive relationships that contribute to belonging. Within neighbourhoods, people can find close-to-home sources of social support and connection. Neighbourhood associations (NAs) are common forms of mobilization through which neighbours work toward neighbourhood improvement. This study explored perceptions of NA leaders within a mid-sized Canadian city regarding the functions of their NAs. A particular focus of the study was on ways NA-organized recreation and leisure initiatives may promote a sense of belonging among neighbours. Findings suggest NA leaders describe belonging in terms of mutually supportive relationships as well as comfort and fit. Findings also suggest that while promoting belonging is an explicit goal of NAs, other NA goals may complicate the realization of neighbourhood belonging. For example, while NA initiatives include neighbourhood-wide leisure events geared toward enhancing belonging, these events often exclusively target toward young families and encompass traditional Christian settler-colonial themes and values. There is minimal effort to involve or connect people of different ages, racial identities, and cultural backgrounds. We discuss the implications these findings can have on the sense of belonging and politics of belonging within neighbourhoods.

A ‘learning community’ as a social justice model for Catholic education in Thailand

Inspired by Paul VI’s Octogesima Adveniens regarding the Church’s urgent response to social issues, in his speech to Jesuit alumni in Valencia in July 1973, Fr. Pedro Arrupe reflected on the concept of ‘social justice’ and its implications for Jesuit schools. He spoke about how Jesuit education could assist students to become ‘men and women for others’, men and women who can bring about change for the better in their societies. Since then, promoting ‘social justice’ has become one of the Jesuit educational priorities and has brought about significant reform within Jesuit educational institutions worldwide. This includes the newly established institution of a ‘learning community’ that addresses educational inequality for poor indigenous students in Thailand. This research paper reflects on how this institution can be a model that promotes justice in education and forms our students to become ‘agents of change.’ This paper begins by revisiting Fr. Arrupe’s concept of ‘social justice’ and philosophically analyses the learning formation of a new Jesuit institution, called the Xavier Learning Community (XLC). Drawing from this analysis, I argue that the model of ‘learning community’ may also inspire other Catholic schools to address common social issues in Thailand based on the Christian values of continual conversion, fraternal and sororal relationship, and discernment.

THE THEME OF GOSPEL LOVE IN P. I. MELNIKOV-PECHERSKY’S “V LESAKH” (“IN THE FORESTS”) AND “NA GORAKH” (“ON THE HILLS”) DILOGY

The topic of gospel love is considered the main leitmotif that defines the artistic concept of the novels “V lesakh” (“In the Forests”) (1871–1874) and “Na gorakh” (“On the Hills”) (1875–1881), which comprise a dilogy. It was the result of the reflections of P. I. Melnikov-Pechersky not only about the Old Believers, but also his religious and philosophical contemplations about a person, his spiritual and moral components, national and cultural, spiritual values, the search for true faith and the highest sense of human existence. The religious and philosophical problems of dilogy, its connection with national life, spiritual and moral ideals, traditions of ancient Russian culture, the reflection of Orthodox values in the artistic concept of dilogy allow us to talk about cultural traditionalism and include Melnikov-Pechersky’s creative work in the general literary process of the 19th century. From this point of view, the article considers the motifs of spiritual self-sacrifice, self-denial, serving your neighbor as the highest degree of manifestation of the gospel love. This theme permeates the artistic space of the dilogy and is expressed at different levels in the text structure — in an image-motivated system, plot organization, in quotes and reminiscences. The words of one of the main heroes, the Old Believer merchant Patap Maksimych Chapurin, about serving and self-sacrifice for the sake of his neighbor, representing an inaccurate quote from the Gospel (John 15:13), are the key to uncovering the theme of gospel love. The intentionally positive images of the heroes of dilogy (both Old Believers and representatives of the Orthodox Church) are focused on Christian values, have an Orthodox vision, the essential principle of which is the principle of mutual love in Christ. The example of the heroes of Melnikov-Pechersky shows that love for one’s neighbor is understood as active love, the result of earthly “doing,” be it heroic self-sacrifice or humble asceticism. Love in Christ elevates and transforms the personalities of heroes, leading to unity, sobornost’, a sense of responsibility to each other.

Victorian Coral Islands of Empire, Mission, and the Boys’ Adventure Novel, by Michelle Elleray

Reviewed by: Victorian Coral Islands of Empire, Mission, and the Boys' Adventure Novel by Michelle Elleray Melissa Free (bio) Victorian Coral Islands of Empire, Mission, and the Boys' Adventure Novel, by Michelle Elleray. London and New York: Routledge, 2020, $160.00, $41.60 ebook. The primary subject of Michelle Elleray's Victorian Coral Islands of Empire, Mission, and the Boys' Adventure Novel is the mid-nineteenth-century boys' adventure novel set in the South Pacific. But, like "minute coral polyps," living organisms that "in building a coral structure" make recognizable "the barely visible," Elleray's generic focus brings more to the surface. "Collating pervasive but apparently small and minor references—to the formation of coral islands, the British child's missionary fundraising, the pious sailor, and the Pacific Islander Christian"—Elleray makes "visible the latent connections between missionary culture" and a popular, if specialized, literary genre (166). Elleray contends that not only was "awareness of the South Pacific and its missionary links … assumed knowledge for the mid-Victorian reader," but also that Victorians were fascinated by coral polyps (30). The subject of both scientific investigation and popular discourse, coral polyps signified "the accretive possibilities of small acts" (46), "the generative capacity of the ordinary individual" (39), "the value of work in the service of a greater [social] good" (43), and "God's divine order" (42). Mobilized by evangelicals in juvenile missionary periodicals and mid-century boys' adventure fiction set in the South Pacific, the cultural narrative of the coral polyp "enable[d] agency to be transposed to the child, the working-class sailor, [and] the Pacific Islander convert." This agency, however, was "constrain[ed] … to approved goals through the operations of adult supervision, class authority, and imperial control" (167). Elleray's interesting if overdetermined analogy between the coral polyp and the "socially marginal" organizes her reading of the Juvenile Missionary Magazine (1844–87), published by the London Missionary Society (LMS), and fiction by Frederick Marryat, R. M. Ballantyne, W. H. G. Kingston, and Robert Louis Stevenson (3). Her chapters consistently and smoothly build on each other. In addition to developing material in her introduction, chapter 1 demonstrates the ways in which the LMS established an "affective connection" between the child reader and the Pacific Islander (53); encouraged the child's investment in the sailor's spiritual welfare; and "enjoin[ed]" the child's "spiritual self-reflection" (58), since salvation was not "inherent in … ethnicity or nationality" (61). Marryat does these things as well, we learn in chapter 2, which explores evangelical mobilizations of "the globally mobile sailor" to better understand his importance in Masterman Ready (1841) (68). As the subject of evangelical outreach known as the Seaman's Cause, the sailor played an important role in the South Pacific. His "state of grace (or not) often formed Pacific Islanders' first interactions with Westerners, and [End Page 320] thus the perceived value (or not) of Christianity" (75). Though her focus is on Ready, Elleray notes that he is "led … to Christianity" by another sailor (82) and that a formerly enslaved African woman now working as a servant "transition[s] from nominal Christian to a person of deep and abiding faith" (90). From these working-class characters, the middle-class Seagraves learn "submission to God's will," which validates their position as "the appropriate administrators of imperial rule" (93). While this line of argument is convincing, Elleray's claim that the text "attempts the management of class tensions within Britain" that manifest in Chartism is less well developed (68). The "spiritual status of the working-class sailor" is also an important theme of chapters 3 and 4 (131). Reading Ballantyne's The Coral Island (1857) alongside "British documentary accounts of … Pacific Islander missionaries" and juvenile missionary periodicals, chapter 3 focuses on the often-overlooked second half of the novel (102). There, "the teacher," a Pacific Islander convert, "offers a model of muscular Christianity" (111), while Bloody Bill and his compeers illustrate "piratical savagery" (105). "The message" for the novel's "British sailor boys" and its "British child reader[s]" (115) alike is that "physical activity" must be balanced with "spiritual contemplation" (129), "humankind's propensity towards violence" must be managed "through a...

Delimiting Religion

Delimiting Religion

Church Divorce Reduction Dynamics: A Case of the Anglican Church, Siaya County, Kenya

Divorce is a critical matter that affects society today including the church membership, particularly the Anglican Church members in Bondo Siaya County. This happens notwithstanding the church's teaching and policies on marriage as a permanent union. This necessitated the study on church divorce reduction dynamics that was carried out with a sample size of 450 respondents. The study was anchored on the functional theory of religion by Emile Durkheim, which helps to look at the role of the church in enhancing marital stability, and critical theory, which critically relooked, and church reduction divorce dynamics. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data that was later analyzed using content and thematic analysis. The study advocated for the stability of marriage and family union founded upon Christian values and principles. The findings revealed that the church was averagely involved in two dynamic areas; conducting pastoral and family ministry marital programs and comprehensive community marriage services and pre-marital and post-marital counseling to Christian families and lowly involved in the organization of marital seminars, training, and workshops and initiating marriage fellowships and provision of marriage and family journals newsletters and other reading materials to the couples and Christian community.

Bocheński’s Minima Moralia

Late in life, Józef Maria Bocheński set out to examine the age-old preoccupation with the question “how to live as well and as long as possible?” A traditional answer has been, “live wisely.” In his Handbook of Worldly Wisdom (2020), Bocheński analyzes this answer arguing that, conceptually, living wisely is distinct from obeying moral commandments, prescribing ethical rules, and recognizing authority (e.g., piety, free submission to divine authority). He claims that ethics consists solely in what moral philosophers label as “metaethics” — a theoretical discipline interested in the conceptual status of moral discourse qua discourse. However, Bocheński remains silent about a substantive ethics — that is, how a life led one way or another subscribes to some guiding value-set. As regards wisdom, therefore, the consequence of this position is that Bocheński’s account is ethically neutral. I argue that such a position entails a tension and dichotomy between, on the one hand, prudential rationality concerned with getting on in the moment — that is, wisdom — and, on the other hand, unconditional moral commandments. For his part, Bocheński does not recommend living according to wisdom’s precepts as he analyses them; his own path through life, he tells us, has been a commitment to Christian values, piety abetted by observance of moral commandments, a perspective that, I submit, is not ethically neutral: on the contrary, it entails thick, substantive value-choice. Bocheński’s avowal suggests a second dichotomy and tension, that between the worldly conduct of life, with moderate acknowledgment of moral principles, and an extra-worldly perspective (the “folly of the Cross”). Bocheński does not attempt to resolve either dichotomy, to seek a possible point of their convergence and integration, for instance by inquiring into moral psychology (i.e., the construction of self, the nature of the will, etc.). I believe that this set of views stems from conclusions Bocheński reached in advance of producing the Handbook that bear on, first, how philosophy should be conducted — as logical analysis hostile to grandiloquent speculation and synthesis (“worldviews”); and second, his utter dismissal as nefarious of anthropocentric views. Indeed, Bocheński asserts, without a blush, that almost everything “we” have come to believe about ourselves is superstition writ large. I trace what I consider to be difficulties with Bocheński’s account of wisdom — in relation to his take on morality, (meta-)ethics, and piety — to these idiosyncratic views.

Human Rights and Christian Values in a Digital Society. Selected Issues

The subject of this study is the analysis of the contact between Christian values and human rights or the concept of human rights in the context of the dynamic development of IT technology and the shaping of not only global but digital society. The new organization of society is characterized by a multiplicity of value systems which interpenetrate each other. In the area of Western culture, the human rights system occupies a central place, which has become a kind of new decalogue. The aim of this study is an attempt to define the place of traditional Christian values in a digital society. The research hypothesis was the statement that Christian values are not only timeless, but also universal and perfectly fit into the functioning of the digital society. The study uses the method of legal and dogmatic analysis of legal provisions and judgments as well as the analysis of cases of conflicts between Christian values and human rights. In my conclusions, I state that the confrontation of these two systems of values leads to the need to rebuild the organization of Christians. An ideal model may be the diaspora life of people who not only preach but also practice these values.