Introduction. The article is devoted to the study of the relationship and mutual influence of theological, anthropological, ethical views of Roman Stoicism and Christianity. The purpose of this work is to conduct a comparative analysis of late Stoic and Christian theology, anthropology, ethics and to demonstrate their relationship and relevance in the modern era. Materials and methods. The research material was the works of Plato and the Roman Stoics, the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, the writings of authors of the early Christian era and early Protestantism, modern scientific research, domestic and foreign, devoted to the analysis of the views of the Roman Stoics, the first Christians, the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, representatives of the Eastern and Western Christian churches of the Middle Ages; works, analyzing the interpenetration of Stoicism and Christianity. The author relied on the civilizational and dialectical approaches, used the following methods: narrative, hermeneutic in combination with linguistic, analytical, synthetic, generalization, reconstruction, comparative-historical. Results. As a result of the work done, it was established that the basic theological, anthropological, axiological and ethical ideas of the Roman Stoics and Christians (the essence of man, the path of life and existential meanings, eschatological perspective, moral principles) were formed as a result of mutual influence. Stoicism played a huge role in the formation of Christian doctrine, actively influenced the ascetic fathers of the early Christian Eastern Church and medieval Western Christianity, and the young Protestantism of the 16th century. The Stoics, in turn, relied on Christian wisdom in their philosophy. Discussion and conclusions. The author managed to carry out a comparative analysis of Stoic and Christian doctrines. The study showed that the spiritual kinship and mutual influence of Roman Stoicism and Christianity testifies to the illusory nature of the border separating the Hellenistic and Christian metatraditions. The practice of cognitive therapy aimed at finding existential meanings and inner harmony, developed by the Roman Stoics and the ascetic fathers of the Eastern Christian Church; the eternal ethical principles of Stoicism and Christianity are relevant in the modern era of moral degradation and semantic disorientation.

This article rereads Prince Vladimir’s conversion narrative (years 986–988, Kievan Rus’) in the Primary Chronicle as a patristic mystagogy (a deliberately staged itinerary of purification, illumination and union). Using a participatory-symbolic hermeneutic grounded in Gregory of Nyssa, Dionysius the Areopagite and Maximus the Confessor, it argues that Kievan Rus’ first encountered Christianity as a philosophical way of life that unites reason and revelation and culminates in theosis. In this study, “philosopher” is defined as the one who mediates between human inquiry and divine wisdom through a life aimed at likeness to God. St. Maximus the Confessor and St. Cyril-Constantine frame it as knowing “divine and human things” in an eros-driven ascent that is verified in deeds. In the Chronicle, the unnamed “Greek Philosopher” functions precisely so. Moreover, the article shows how dialogue functions as a performative engine transforming persons and positions the Chronicle within the canon of Christian philosophy in Rus’.

This paper explores Greek patristic authors as sources for the philosophical and philological endeavors in Lorenzo de' Medici's entourage. Throughout their writings, Marsilio Ficino, Angelo Poliziano, and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola celebrate the Greek Fathers' complex and elegant synthesis of ancient philosophy and Christian wisdom. Ficino also translates and publishes texts by pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and by Athenagoras along with other Platonic undertakings. Pico's affection for and pervasive knowledge of their tradition is even greater, so much so that his zeal seems to have inspired Poliziano's tardy patristic scholarship as well as Lorenzo's relentless efforts to enlarge the Medici library.

Local wisdom refers to the cultural heritage of a community, which is derived from its cultural origins and includes a wide range of values, rituals and traditions. Ondofolo is the current paramount chief of the Sentani community in Papua province, a position that remains in effect at the moment. The local community holds Ondofolo’s leadership in high esteem and places substantial trust in it. The research aims to investigate the function of Ondofolo within religious congregations using a qualitative phenomenological design approach. Data were gathered via participatory observations, interviews with Ondofolo, leaders of prayer rooms and Islamic boarding schools and a review of literature and research conducted in the indigenous area of Sentani. The local knowledge of Sentani ‘Ondofolo’ plays a crucial role in fostering the religious community by embodying the fundamental qualities of leadership, peace, love and brotherhood found in the Bible. The preservation of wisdom in all its manifestations is imperative, as it represents an irreplaceable cultural legacy.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This study applies the interdisciplinary characteristics of contextual theology to Ondofolo’s leadership of the religious congregation in Papua, drawing on Christian wisdom. The findings positively impact the formation of religious communities in Sentani, Papua. They also present a viable leadership model specific to the local context and can be used as an option for guiding the faithful community in Indonesia.

Cynthia Bourgeault is a prolific author and workshop leader deeply committed to Christianity's apparent need to rediscover its integrity, and deep heart wisdom. This heuristic phenomenological contribution documents some of the author's personal experiences and resonances with wisdom themes from Bourgeault's books. The main theme is that Bourgeault's works reveal a transcendent level of consciousness that runs through wisdom traditions in general and Christianity in particular. This is evident in her wisdom teaching, especially through transformations of consciousness, universal heart awakening, and Centering Prayer. Her committed contribution to teaching and spreading the rediscovery of the wisdom path has valuable future implications for healing and holiness.

The monastic author of the Saxon Imperial abbey of Gandersheim, Hrotsvit of Gandersheim was a notable woman playwright during the reign of Otto I, who had been crowned Roman emperor by the Pope in 962. Hrotsvit subverts notoriously misogynistic medieval literature and the negative literary depiction of women in her plays composed in the middle of the 10th century. She substitutes the masculine tradition and pagan writers’ themes of shameless indecency of lascivious women with saintly women who verbally and intellectually defeat the male oppressors. Transfiguring the earlier depictions, she is devoted to evangelizing of the world and committed to reorienting the dramatic representation of women. Furthermore, she identifies herself with an educator and moralist and discloses an assertion of intention to constructs a didactic persona. This study analyzes Hrotsvit’s plays Dulcitius and Sapientia by discussing the ways in which Hrotsvit defies the literary conventions in male-authored narratives through her female characters, who simultaneously defy and subvert the male authority through rhetorical skills, moral and intellectual ability, and Christian wisdom. The aim of this study is to show that Hrotsvit elevates the depiction of women and to serve God and spiritual ends by writing.

This paper aims to study the characters in Elif Shafak’s The Forty Rules of Love in the context of Sufism. It primarily examines what Aziz and Ella represent beyond the text. Parallels are drawn between the eponymous characters, Rumi, and other mystics of the time. Sufi philosophy is studied through symbolic significance of the elements fire and water. The Christian wisdom present is also observed. Allusions to the Masnavi, Rumi’s magnum opus, is inferred to be present in the novel. Ella and Aziz grow and change. This growth is examined through the four stages of Sufism.

Management goes beyond simply knowledge and information and must reflect various social demands such as ethics, leadership, and social responsibility in corporate management. Wisdom in management studies can be an alternative to the demands of the times in that it includes these elements. there is. In conceptualizing wisdom management, philosophy and Christianity are studies that present a perspective on the world through human exploration, so they provide excellent validity as materials that provide an academic foundation. From a philosophical perspective, the truth called theoretical knowledge and the activities called practical knowledge are all related in a causal relationship, and it is believed that happiness can be achieved only by pursuing both. This is the practice of the mean spoken by Socrates and Aristotle. From a philosophical perspective, the concept that wisdom can be known to pursue management as a practice of morality and ethics toward the public good through the realization of ignorance about oneself has the same direction as the practical aspect of wisdom management. Christian wisdom is also wisdom that humans obtain through long-term observation and practice between their own lives and the existence of God through Chokmah in the Old Testament. In business administration, this means that managers themselves recognize or reflect on their own ignorance. It is consistent with the ability to apply high-level knowledge along with existing management knowledge to the management field. It is accepted as an important practical element of wisdom to clearly recognize the wise way of life obtained through the relationship with God that Paul spoke of, to change oneself through practice, and to spread this good influence throughout the community. It is a very similar concept to practical knowledge, which is one of the characteristics of wisdom from a perspective.
 This study can be said to be of great significance in examining the wisdom of managers from a philosophical and Christian perspective and enabling it to be applied as practical wisdom to individual managers.

The article tells about one of the brightest religious exponents of Russian thought, “the Ascetic of the Russian Land”, the Orthodox Christian Nikolay Pestov (1892–1982). The integrity of his Christian worldview arouses a genuine interest in him. The theological works by Nikolay Pestov should be undoubtedly considered in inextricable connection with the study of his life journey. Therefore, special attention is paid to the biography of the thinker based on documentary sources and autobiography. The article observes Nikolay Pestov’s spiritual rebirth, his transformation from the external to the internal, “...from Saul to Paul...”. This approach allows to appreciate the significance of his own experience of Orthodox piety and to see the true value of his gift of writing. Focusing on modern readers, who might encounter difficulties in perception and understanding of literary forms typical for the fourth century, Nikolay Pestov managed to “write without saying anything new, but saying everything as if in a new way instead”. All this becomes possible thanks to the amazing bread th in quoting the “source of eternal truth — the Holy Scriptures”, the works by ascetics of piety of the late 19th–20th centuries, writers, philosophers, teachers, poets, as well as examples from the lives of saints. It is quite difficult to find an equally proper niche for Pestov’s guide in religious literature, since spiritual books were created primarily by monastics describing their own experience. Being a layman himself, Nikolay Pestov wrote a book for lay people, for those who are ready to perform a Christian feat in their family, in education, in friendship, at work, during the day, in conversations and in silence. Nikolay Pestov’s two-volume book shows the way to Christ. It would be a mistake to think that Nikolay Pestov only indicates “the way of salvation” for his readers. He himself is a wanderer, a fellow traveler, a companion on the way. He himself continues his spiritual ascent. The theologian called his series of books “a thesis research” on the topic “Experience of Building a Christian Worldview”. Today this work is called The Modern Practice of Orthodox Piety. The author Nikolay Pestov signed his works with ГБР (GBR) abbreviation meaning the Sinful Servant of God in Russian. The article attempts to show the eternity of Christian wisdom by repeated address to theological works by Nikolay Pestov.

The Hungarian Jesuit Gábor (Gabriel) Hevenesi’s emblem book Succus prudentiae (The Seed of Wisdom) was published in 1690 in Vienna and then in 1701 in Nagyszombat (Trnava, Slovakia), containing fifty emblems. He compiled a collection of Christian wisdom and virtues with the help of quotations and paraphrases from the Stoic philosopher Seneca. In this article, I present two instances of applied emblematic reception of the emblems of Hevenesi’s Succus prudentiae in Transylvanian buildings. The first example is the painted decoration of a room in the castle of Nagyvárad (Oradea, Romania). The program survived only in fragments, yet, three emblems could still be identified. The use of a Jesuit emblem book points towards the conception of the decorative program during the Habsburg occupation of the castle during the first half of the eighteenth century. The second example is the former wall and furniture decoration of the Daniel manor house in Szasznagyvesszős (Michelsdorf/Veseuș, Romania). The inner decoration of this building was destroyed before the twentieth century, but it was preserved by the detailed description of the writer József Ponori Thewrewk from 1817. Based on his account, the walls and several pieces of furniture (including a folding screen and a cabinet) were decorated with Hevenesi’s emblems. This program was most possibly ordered by István Daniel the elder, a state official during the Habsburg rule in Transylvania. As an appendix, I draw attention to a surviving cabinet with emblematic paintings based on Jesuit Herman Hugo’s Pia desideria, now in the collection of the Sárospatak Catholic Museum.

Environmentally conscious citizen don´t think homogeneous. Their different perceptions of the world cause a moral diverstiy in climate politics. The article shows that religious and non-religious approaches to climate adaptation refer back to a variety of transcendent notions of truth. Claims of validity result from concrete images of the world including community constructing ideas and action guiding notions such as the kingdom of God or the icon “blue Planet”. We can therefore not expect worldwide homogeneous climate-politics. But notions of truth do not describe the world as it is, they rather show the images that people follow. This is why even opposing conceptions for climate mitigation such as the demand for and the claim against nuclear power can be open to compromise. Voting for the acceptance of plurality, the article suggests not to ignore the Christian wisdom of Chalcedon that offers a way, how to deal with opposing proclaims. The article originates from the Global Centre for Water Security and Climate Change.

Worshipping, Witnessing, and Wondering: Christian Wisdom for Participation in the Mission of God, written by Thomas John Hastings

For better and for worse, classic fairy tales have come under severe criticism as paradigms of sexist patriarchy in recent decades. Likewise, C. S. Lewis has been viewed as sexist, even misogynistic. While many fairy tale and Lewis fans might be tempted to dismiss all of these criticisms as nonsense, gender is one of the predominant discourses of our time, our questions and the varied answers are significant, and in this essay I consider how Lewis’ development of the fairy tale genre in The Chronicles of Narnia offers timeless, possibly even surprising, Christian wisdom. How does Lewis portray sex, love, and human identity in these children’s novels? How does he deal with the related “happily ever after” concept? Are his representations of fairy tale motifs in sync with the genre, or do his novels suggest a significant departure? When might Lewis even be in agreement with feminist critics of classic fairy tales? Which aspects of cultural heritage does he affirm and which does he reject? With the sixtieth anniversary of the 1956 publication of The Last Battle, we have another opportunity to reconsider these important questions for the twenty-first century.

This review of Thomas John Hastings, Worshiping, Witnessing, and Wondering: Christian Wisdom for Participation in the Mission of God (2022), offers comments on its contextual and biblical foundations and engages it on the topics of Christian education, pneumatology, practical theology, and World Christianity. The review praises the careful research and crafting of the book and appreciates its clever use of triads to identify and integrate diverse approaches to Christian education.

This research focused on a study conducted across three different teacher education programs, focusing on equipping teacher candidates with strategies for technology integration while encouraging them to examine how to best glorify God with appropriate technology use in the classroom. Students were instructed using common research-based practices and assignments. These included instruction on the SAMR model, exploration of a variety of technology tools, and a reflection on what it means to glorify God through teaching with technology. Pre- and post-survey data was collected to measure the effectiveness of both the instruction and changes in students' attitudes and perceptions of technology use in teaching. Pre-service teachers read and discussed research addressing Christian wisdom on technology, pursuing excellence in Christian education, technology and computational thinking in the classroom, and digital citizenship as they engaged in these assignments. This article includes main themes, preliminary findings, and implications for future research based on results across all three institutions.

King Alfred could not coerce his elites into implementing his ambitious military reforms. Instead, he had to persuade them to participate. Ideology can induce action, but how did an ideology focused on Christian wisdom motivate military reform? Different theoretical frameworks can help to identify promising new lines of enquiry. Assemblage theory illuminates the materialization of ideology in the burhs, the instantiation of relationships of power in the landscape. Social practice theory elucidates the consolidation of ideology through the social practice of garrisoning the burhs. These theories offer a fresh perspective on the subtle connection between Alfredian ideology and military reform.

ABSTRACT Over thirty years ago, I (1988) argued for moral and religious ways of dying in face of medicalized and psychologised death. But impediments to dying as a spiritual process have not gone away; if anything, they have become more challenging. Western Cartesian medical practices continue to sever body from soul, people from community, and health care from ecological concern. How then do those with religious convictions about soul, community, and earth justice sustain faithful ways of dying in the face of medically-managed death? How might Christians in particular reclaim the body and its mortality, especially when Christianity itself has contributed to the death denial that afflicts a vast majority of White Westerners? After evaluating the popular discussion of dying that has dominated the United States for the last fifty years, the essay ponders the silencing of religious reflection and considers ways in which practical theological scholarship and its dialogical, narrative, and practice-oriented methodologies might expand the horizons of psychologists and doctors and, with their help, offer an art of dying for Christians, chaplains, and the dying. Using the metaphor and practice of Christian Communion (‘This is my body’), the essay concludes with a few elements in a reconstituted ‘art of dying’ in a distant imitation of the Ars Moriendi that arose during the Black Death of the 1300s.

It remains largely unknown what was knowledge of philosophy by writers in Kyivan Rus’ of the 11th – 14th centuries. Moreover, there are no methodological foundations of resolving the issue. I suggest the key to the solution is the analysis of the meanings of words “philosophy” and “philosophers” in the texts of that time. This article aims to analyse how different researchers interpreted the meanings of these words in Kyivan Rus’ written sources of the 11th – 14th centuries. Use of the word “philosophy” was interpreted by the researchers in six different ways: (1) as an approximate synonym for the word “education” (which was for a long time a prevailing opinion), but also (2) as a pagan or (3) Christian wisdom, (4) as theology, (5) as an allegorical method of interpreting Scripture, and (6) as the knowledge of the nature of things. Some researchers emphasized one of the meanings, but others opted for a “pluralistic approach”, considering that Kyivan writers used the word in different meanings at the same time. The same is true about the word “philosopher”. It referred to an educated man, an ancient philosopher, a Christian thinker, a theologian etc. Another approach in the interpretation of these terms suggested Vilen Horskyi (1931-2007), distinguishing formal and essential properties of words “philosophy” and “philosopher”. He finds that the essential feature of philosophy was deification (theosis), a process whose aim is likeness to God, and cognition of God’s wisdom. Furthermore, according to Horskyi, in the philosopher the link between his knowledge and his action was inextricable.

Cusanus’ learned ignorance is a complex notion that is explained as a form of introduction into Christian wisdom. The different meanings of how God exceeds our conceptual reach and remains ineffable despite all metaphorical approaches are laid out in three steps: the first is devoted to God (conicidencia oppositorum), the second to the Universe (complicatio/explicatio) and the third to the God-man, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is represented here as an intermediary, as measure and mediator between God and creation, the finite and the infinite. Along these lines I highlight three main aspects of docta ignoratia as especially relevant for contemporary thinking. These aspects will be used to evaluate the extent to which Cusanus’ powerful proposal to reinterpret Christian reality can help us respond to Pope John Paul II’s exhortation in Fides et ratio to understand and to exercise Christian reflection as philosophari in Maria.

This article examines how two texts by Marguerite de Navarre contest the tendency in courtly and ecclesiastical literature to reduce women to typologies based on sexuality, spirituality, and notions of virtue. In place of simplified typologies, Marguerite’s writings can be read as depicting women’s multidimensional personhood as they strive to live out a sincere Christian faith in a society that fixates on their sexuality. Ultimately, this study argues that when read together, La Comédie de Mont-de-Marsan and L’Heptaméron 10 and 42 suggest the need for women to develop a practical brand of Christian wisdom that will help them to reform both gender relations and patriarchal institutions, thereby replacing misogynistic discourses and behavioural patterns with respect for women’s humanity.