The Meaning and Impact of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Concept of "an adult person"and "a non-religious interpretation" on Czech Post-War Christian Theology, Ecclesiology and a Christian Preaching. In this diploma thesis I deal with a debate held in religious studies in the Czech region on a meaning and impact of Dietrich Bomhoeffer's concepts of "an adult person" and "a non-religious interpetation". For a deeper understanding of concepts itself the thesis presents context of Bonhoeffer's life and work. This part discusses what he intended to say by using his concepts although he wasn't able to finishe them. The aim of my thesis is to answer two religious studies questions related to Dietrich Bonhoeffer'concepts with respect to Czech region only. The first query is: Became a human being in a religious field mature (Is he grown up of religion)? A situation of Czech society provides unique conditions of secularisation for a verification of Bonhoeffer's theses. To prove them I will examine only Czech sociologists, religious scientists and psychologists of religion. I will examine the second research problem (What does Bonhoeffer's claim for non-religious interpretations mean for Czech Christian religious tradition?) within the writings of Chech non-catholic theologians. Their own contributions to...

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This study explores the struggle of the Catholic Church to be true to itself and its mission in the midst of other religions, in the context of the non-Catholic American culture, and in relation to the modern world and its discontents. As milestones of the global interfaith movement, American religious freedom and pluralism, and of the relation of religion to modernity, the Chicago Parliaments of Religions offer a unique window through which to view this Catholic struggle at work in the religious public square created by the Parliaments and the evolution of that struggle over the course of the century framed by the two Chicago events. In relation to other religions, the Catholic Church stretched itself from an exclusivist position of being the only true and good religion to an inclusivist position of recognizing that truth and good can be present in other religions. Uniquely, Catholic involvement in the centennial Parliament made the Church stretch itself even further, beyond the exclusivist-inclusivist spectrum into a pluralist framework in which the Church acted humbly as one religion among many. In relation to American culture, the Catholic Church stretched itself from a Eurocentric and monarchic worldview with claims of Catholic supremacy to the American alternative of democracy, religious freedom, and the separation of church and state. In relation to modernity, the Church stretched itself from viewing the modern world as an enemy to be fought and conquered to befriending modernity and designing some specific accommodations to it. In these three relationships, there was indeed a shift, but not at all a clean break. Instead a stretch occurred, acknowledging a lived intra-Catholic tension between religious exclusivism and inclusivism, between a universal Catholic identity and Catholic inculturation in America (and in other cultures), and between the immutability of Catholic eternal truths and their translatability into the new languages offered by the modern world. In all this the Second Vatican Council was the major catalyst. For all three cases the Chicago Parliaments of Religions serve as environments conducive to the raising of important questions about Catholic identity, the Catholic understanding of non-Catholics, and Catholic interfaith relations.

This study explores the struggle of the Catholic Church to be true to itself and its mission in the midst of other religions, in the context of the non-Catholic American culture, and in relation to the modern world and its discontents. As milestones of the global interfaith movement, American religious freedom and pluralism, and of the relation of religion to modernity, the Chicago Parliaments of Religions offer a unique window through which to view this Catholic struggle at work in the religious public square created by the Parliaments and the evolution of that struggle over the course of the century framed by the two Chicago events. In relation to other religions, the Catholic Church stretched itself from an exclusivist position of being the only true and good religion to an inclusivist position of recognizing that truth and good can be present in other religions. Uniquely, Catholic involvement in the centennial Parliament made the Church stretch itself even further, beyond the exclusivist-inclusivist spectrum into a pluralist framework in which the Church acted humbly as one religion among many. In relation to American culture, the Catholic Church stretched itself from a Eurocentric and monarchic worldview with claims of Catholic supremacy to the American alternative of democracy, religious freedom, and the separation of church and state. In relation to modernity, the Church stretched itself from viewing the modern world as an enemy to be fought and conquered to befriending modernity and designing some specific accommodations to it. In these three relationships, there was indeed a shift, but not at all a clean break. Instead a stretch occurred, acknowledging a lived intra-Catholic tension between religious exclusivism and inclusivism, between a universal Catholic identity and Catholic inculturation in America (and in other cultures), and between the immutability of Catholic eternal truths and their translatability into the new languages offered by the modern world. In all this the Second Vatican Council was the major catalyst. For all three cases the Chicago Parliaments of Religions serve as environments conducive to the raising of important questions about Catholic identity, the Catholic understanding of non-Catholics, and Catholic interfaith relations.

This dissertation examines the intersection of spiritual values and material life at Syon Abbey, a wealthy Brigittine double monastery in late medieval England. As an institution it was, paradoxically, directed primarily toward an evangelical goal, while being focused on contemplative women who were strictly enclosed. In this dissertation, I assert that this apparent contradiction was resolved through a high degree of collaboration between the abbey’s religious women and men. I argue that Brigittine monasticism, and that of Syon in particular, was uniquely attuned to metaphors and meanings of materiality, which enabled the abbey to transform the women’s mundane material life of food, clothing, architecture, work, finance, and even bureaucracy, into spiritual fruits to be shared with the Syon brethren through dialogue within confessional relationships, and subsequently, with the laity through the media of sermons, sacraments, books, and conversation. I use the abbey’s extensive household financial accounts in conjunction with Brigittine writings and monastic legislative documents to examine the intersection of ideal material life and its spiritual meaning on the one hand, and the abbey’s lived materiality as reflected in its internal economic and administrative actions, on the other. The central question is the degree to which Syon’s material life was one of luxury in keeping with what the Order’s founder, Saint Birgitta, would have seen as worldly excess, or one of moderate asceticism, in keeping with the Brigittine Rule. Major findings are that in most respects (financial management, gender power, officer appointments, clothing, and some aspects of food), Syon’s materiality was lived in accordance with the Rule and the Brigittine mission, but that in some respects, it erred on the side of elite display and consumption (the majority of food items and the architecture and decoration of the abbey church), and in others, the source material is too incomplete to enable conclusions (the decoration of monastic buildings and the distribution of alms). In addition, by analysing the income from boarding of visitors and offerings from pilgrims, I examine the degree of Syon’s impact on the laity and how it changed with the approaching Dissolution, concluding that the abbey had a significant impact that declined only when legal restrictions were applied.

in English The following work is about Matěj Procházka (1811-1889), an important figure of national and ecclesiastical life in Moravia in 19th century and a member of the circle around Professor František Sušil, the-so-called Sušilova družina. The detailed biography presented here is the result of historical research into resource materials from several different archives in Moravia. This work examines three main periods of Procházka's life. He spent his childhood and student years, firstly, in his native town of Brtnice, then in Jihlava and Brno. After ordination, he served as a priest for sixteen years in different parishes of Brno diocese. Then he lived in Brno for nearly forty years while working as a secondary grammar school teacher and catechist and being involved in different activities, such as the Czech national revival, Catholic associations, education, and especially, publishing. This work maps the importance of the personage of Matěj Procházka as seen by his contemporaries and by following generations up to the present. It also brings out the overall characteristics of this priest. A part of this study is a new and enlarged bibliography of Procházka's works, as writer, journalist, translator, reviewer, poet, and author of scientific and scholarly treatises. In his works, he covered a...