Nikita Khrouchtchev est surtout connu en Occident comme étant celui qui a permis le relatif soulagement de la déstalinisation. Cette image est d’ailleurs aussi persistante dans les anciens pays de l’URSS. Lorsque Khrouchtchev accède au pouvoir, il aspire en effet à des modifications ambitieuses dans des domaines extrêmement variés. La dénonciation des crimes de Staline lors du XXème Congrès du PCUS ouvre la voie à l’expression d’un certain pluralisme intellectuel et artistique qualifié de « dégel » dont les effets seront irréversibles pour la société soviétique dans son ensemble. Le volontarisme du premier secrétaire conduit à une politique de réformes économiques et politiques aussi impromptues que déstabilisatrices. Cependant la déstalinisation sera pour les peuples soviétiques (tout spécialement pour les ukrainiens) une ère de déceptions autant que d’espoirs. En effet, l’Ukraine, un des plus solides bastions de la vie religieuse en Union soviétique, tiendra une place particulière dans cette campagne. Entre autres, les régions de l’ouest de l’Ukraine avaient échappées à la répression des années trente et constituaient un phénomène singulier avec leur vie religieuse vivace et leur refus de rejoindre l’orthodoxie. Ainsi la campagne antireligieuse de Khrouchtchev est une facette méconnue de la politique du successeur de Staline. Le comportement du nouveau premier secrétaire va ainsi être encore plus dur que celui de Staline l’ancien séminariste à l’égard de la religion. Ce dernier avait fait des concessions aux Eglises après 1943, alors que dès 1958, quelques années après l’accession au pouvoir de Khrouchtchev, la propagande antireligieuse redevient virulente. / Nikita Khrushchev is mainly known in the western countries as the one who has allowed a relative relief of the dictatorship thanks to the destalinization process. This opinion is also persistent in the former countries of the USSR. Indeed when Khrushchev seizes power, he wishes to proceed with many ambitious reforms in various areas. Nevertheless, he remains a convinced communist who tries this way to give a new start to the soviet ideological adventure. The denunciation of the crimes of Stalin during the XXth Congress of the Soviet Union Communist Party (SUCP) opens path to some intellectual and artistic pluralism often called « unfreezing ». Furthermore, the wills of the first secretary will lead to a policy of unexpected and unbalancing politic and economic reforms. But in fact the destalinization times will also be times of disappointments, especially for the Ukrainians. Indeed Ukraine will have a special place in the antireligious campaign, as one of the healthiest strongholds of the religious life of the Soviet Union. Since the western regions had not suffered the repression of the thirties, they were a singular phenomenon in the Soviet Union with their vivid religious life and their refusal to become uniformly orthodox. Thus the antireligious campaign of Khrushchev is one of the poorly known sides of the policy of Stalin’s successor. The behaviour of the new first secretary as regards the religions will be indeed even harsher than the one of Stalin (the former were-be priest). Stalin had made concessions to the churches after 1943; but as soon as 1958, few years after Khrushchev’s rise to power, the antireligious propaganda becomes strong and efficient again.

[pt] O presente trabalho busca compreender como a crítica saramaguiana contida em Caim pode contribuir para a derrubada de imagens inautênticas de Deus. Para tal intento foi necessário seguir alguns passos sendo o primeiro percorrer o caminho de uma proposta de aproximação entre teologia e literatura. No entanto, como a literatura do autor escolhido está marcada por seu ateísmo também se impôs a tarefa de compreender como a teologia pode acolher as críticas ateístas. Já num segundo passo, à luz de um breve perfil biográfico, literário e do pensamento religioso do escritor português percebeu-se que em diversas de suas tramas opera uma reescritura lançando mão da intertextualidade, sobretudo com a Bíblia carnavalizando-a. A partir disso, concluiu-se que uma espécie paixão por questões religiosas habita inúmeros textos do escritor. Todavia, nesses textos Saramago (des)constrói compreensões acerca de representações de Deus que foram forjadas dentro do cristianismo e que ainda estão em vigor em diversos de seus ramos. Ou seja, faz sua a-telogia, ou que se pode chamar de teologia às avessas. Por fim, como último passo afunilou-se a discussão em torno do romance Caim. Nele,ao recontar diversos episódios bíblicos, o lusófono continua seu projeto de uma reescritura nada sagrada e seu labor a-teológico. Pinta através de sua pena um Deus egocêntrico, arbitrário e indiferente ao sofrimento humano. Deus esse que alguns teólogos tem tentado matar. Em suma, a crítica presente em Caim num diálogo com a teologia contribui para demolir imagens inautênticas de Deus. / [en] This study seeks to understand how Saramago s criticism in his book Cain can aid in overturning spurious images of God. For this purpose it was necessary to pursue various paths; the first one being a reconciliation between theology and literature. Since the literature of the chosen author is characterized by his atheism, this required an understanding of how theology canaccomodate atheistic criticism. In the second step, by means of a short biographical sketch that included the literary and religious thinking of the Portuguese writer, it was noted that in many of his plots he does a rewriting of the Bible, using intertextuality, by divesting it of its sacred qualities. From this basis,a conclusion was drawn that Saramago possessed a passion for religious questions that are embedded in many of his works. Even so, in these texts Saramago (de)constructs understandings about the representations of God that were forged within Christianity and which are still in force in many of its branches. That is to say, he creates an nontheology, or what can be called an upside down theology. The last step narrowed down the discussion to include only the novel Cain. In the retelling of many biblical episodes, the Lusophone author continues his project of a profane rewrite of the Scriptures as well as his project of creating a nontheology. Through his pen he paints a portrait of a God who is egocentric, arbitrary and indifferent to human suffering. It is just such a God that some theologians have tried to kill. In summary, the criticism found in the novel Cain offers a dialogue with theology that contributes to the overturning of spurious images of God.

[pt] O desafio do ateísmo configura-se num grande clamor dos tempos modernos para a prática e o testemunho da fé cristã. A nova face da confissão atéia emerge dentro de uma sociedade marcada por grandes desafios sociais e humanos, tais como: o terrorismo religioso, os conflitos entre etnias e povos, a questão da dignidade da vida humana e a construção da justiça e da paz. A partir da compreensão do pensamento ateu de Richard Dawkins o presente trabalho buscará elucidar o conceito de neo-ateísmo, com seus objetivos, argumentos e propostas concretas de homem e sociedade. O ateísmo novo apresentado por pensadores como André Comte-Sponville, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Michel Onfray, e próprio Dawkins, trazem novos questionamentos e interpretações e desafios, tanto para fé quanto para ciência. É a partir do efetivo diálogo entre a fé e o novo ateísmo, que o cristianismo poderá, revendo seu discurso e prática, responder concretamente e positivamente a tais desafios. Todavia o desejo da sociedade sem religião, acalentado pela maioria dos novos ateus, parece ser um ideal efêmero. O que se constata é o desejo de compor na sociedade uma nova meta-linguagem em contraposição à falta de dignidade humana e à crescente violência hodierna. O nosso objetivo, portanto, é propor um diálogo consistente entre fé cristã e neo-ateísmo, para se edificar uma linguagem da solidariedade, da coexistência e da fraternidade, e, prol de uma autêntica realização do humano. / [en] The challenge in the atheism configures itself in a big clamour of modern times to the practice and testimony of Christian faith. The new face of atheist confession emerges inside a society marked by social and human challenges, such as; religious terrorism, the ethnics and nations conflits, the question of life s diginity and the construction of justice and peace. From the understanding of the atheist thinking of Richard Dawkins this work intent to elucidate the neoatheism concept, with its objectives, arguments and proposals of man and society. The new atheism presented by thinkers such as André Comte-Sponville, Daniel Dennet, Sam Harris, Michel Onfray, and the Dawkins himself, brings new questions and interpretations and challenges, both faith and science for. It s from the effective dialogue between faith and the new atheism, that christianity will be able, reviewing its speech and practice, answer correctly and positively to such challenges. Nevertheless the desires of the society without religion, formed for the majority of new atheists, seems to be a ephemeral ideal. What we can note it s the desire compose on the society with a new metalanguage in opposition to the lack of human dignity and the growing violence of this days. Or goal, therefore, it s to propose a consistent dialogue between Christian faith and the neo-atheísm, to build a language of solidarity, of coexistence and fraternity, and, fowarding to an authentic realization of the human being.

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Both Plato and the Cambridge Platonists hold the view that moral knowledge depends primarily on cognitive resources which are innate to the mind. There is, nevertheless, a need for our minds to be prompted through experience in order for knowledge to occur. The following study is an attempt to reconstruct and compare the accounts in Plato and the Cambridge Platonists of the empirical conditions that are required for knowledge. For Plato, these conditions are a result of a decline in political and psychological constitutions, through which the intellect is increasingly developed. Dialectical analysis of received customs, laws, opinions, and language may then reveal the moral ideas upon which the polity was initially based and which remain implicit in common sense throughout the historical decline. Philosophical knowledge consists of a recollection of the ancient wisdom which was revealed to the original lawgiver by the gods. In the Cambridge Platonists, philosophical knowledge likewise consists of a recollection of revealed knowledge that stood at the foundation of a form of life, namely, Judaism. The revival of ancient Greek and Jewish philosophical theories in modern times heralds the end of history, in which the complete system of knowledge is both attainable and necessary for salvation. From the perspective of humanity as a whole, knowledge is initially granted through revelation, then generally forgotten, and finally recollected in a highly intellectual age of deteriorating morality and stability. The esoteric traditions of knowledge, coupled with recent developments in science and philosophy, act as the prompts for knowledge, given an intuitive basis that has been formed through the spread of Christianity. This intuitive basis serves as the concrete way in which the natural anticipations of the mind are gradually shaped in order to recognize the truth when it appears in a shrouded manner in modern philosophy. Both Plato and the Cambridge Platonists are critics of the similar intellectual trends in their times and they respond with similar arguments; however, unlike Plato, the Cambridge Platonists are unable to connect their rational critique with their genetic critique of modern ideas, rendering the latter ineffective. / Thesis (Ph.D, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2009-09-24 16:19:49.145

Matěj Novotný - Impiety in Classical Athens Abstract The thesis discusses the definition and prosecution of impiety in democratic Athens during the Classical period, i.e. in 5th-4th centuries BCE. The question of "impiety" in the narrower sense, i.e. of what was denoted by the Greek word ἀσέβεια (literally, "the absence/negation of respect"), is set into larger context of other crimes of religious character, covered by special laws: "sacrilege" (ἱεροσυλία), digging out sacred olive-trees, offences against festivals and other delicts which were not subsumed under any more general term in the laws, pragmatically formulated as they were. The dissertation builds on the work of the researchers who show considerable scepticism towards the reliability of later sources, for example Plutarch or Diogenes Laertius - this is connected with doubts concerning processes against philosophers before Socrates. At the same time, the thesis follows the scholars who doubt the authenticity of the documents inserted in the speeches of the Attic Orators. For these reasons, a considerable part of the thesis is devoted to the rebuttal of late reports and inserted documents. A particular attention is given to the Decree of Diopeithes, which is mentioned in Plutarch's Life of Pericles and is usually interpreted as criminalising...

The thesis looks into the relationship of the current Czech society towards the issue of the Decalogue. The first two chapters deal with the theological-anthropological reflection on man in relation to human freedom and corresponding norms. The third part enquires into the problems of the Decalogue as a codex of ethical norms with regard to the biblical rootage, and ethical and catechistic features. Further, the work outlines the level of value orientation and religiousness of the current Czech society with reference to the European context. Following the findings and results of a research carried out at a public secondary school in České Budějovice, the fifth part reflects the position of the Decalogue in the society

The modern swedish atheism is led by Christer Sturmark, chairman of Humanisterna, the swedish humanists. In this essay I study the epistemology of Christer Sturmark to find out on what basis he makes his assumptions about knowledge, faith, belief and his view that scientism is the only way to reach real knowledge. I present a closer historical look at the research about and philosophy of epistemology in general and then I analyze Christer Sturmarks book "Tro och Vetande 3.0 - Upplysning i det 21:a århundradet" and compare the views presented in that book to historical and contemporary philopsohers and religous scholars to extract the epistemology of Christer Sturmark, as it is presented in his book. To gain a more thorough understanding of his epistemolgy, I then compare his view to the swedish churchs´view of God as omnipotent. Finally I present a conclusion about the nature of Christer Sturmarks epistemology, if it is logically consistent and how it relates to the way humans can organize their understanding of the world.

Sverige är ett sekulariserat land där stat och kyrka ej längre går hand i hand. I detta land ska skolors undervisning vara icke-konfessionell samtidigt som utbildningen ska vila på den tradition som förvaltats av kristen tradition. Religionsämnet är brett och ska enligt läroplanen omfatta religioner och andra livsåskådningar, med fokus på världsreligioner och etiska och moraliska frågeställningar kopplat till livsfrågor. Många i Sverige är icke-troende eller ateister, men ateism behandlas först i läroplanen för årskurs 7-9 och fördjupas senare i gymnasiet. Genom en kvalitativ studie har uppsatsen haft som syfte att undersöka representation av ateism i religionsundervisning årskurs 4-6, och empirin visar att lärare inte planerar för undervisning om ateism och att elever inte känner till begreppet. Vidare redogörs för lärares och elevers diskurs om religionsundervisning och om hur religiös positionering ses som resurs i undervisningen.

This work studies the environment of contemporary alternative spirituality in the Czech Republic, specifically unusual spiritual experiences and techniques for inducing them. It is based on long-term field research utilizing the method of participant observation carried out primarily in the environment of neo-shamanism, but also the use of psychedelics, dark therapy, and other movements and practices. I perceive and analyze these practices both as psychotechnologies - i.e. techniques through which their users strive to alter their thinking - as well as spiritual techniques aimed at establishing and cultivating a relationship with the spiritual world. The focus of this study is a comparison of neo-shamanism and other practices in three main aspects: the induction of experiences, the connection between spiritual experiences and the actor's life as a whole, and the changes in the perception of reality brought about by long- term practicing. I point out that in all these areas, techniques traditionally thought of as closely related exhibit fundamental differences. A non-negligible part of this study consists of methodological and theoretical considerations. I show that the field of alternative spirituality has many specifics compared to other religious environments, and that mainstream methodological...