Augustine of Hippo argues that all suffering is the result of the punishment of sin. Misinterpretations of his meaning are common since isolated statements taken from his works do give misleading and contradictory impressions. This dissertation assembles a comprehensive account of Augustine’s understanding of the causes of suffering to show that these views are substantive and internally consistent. The argument of the dissertation proceeds by confronting and resolving the apparent problems with Augustine’s views on sin and punishment from within the broader framework of his anthropology and metaphysics. The chief difficulty is that Augustine gives two apparently irreconcilable accounts of suffering as punishment. In the first, suffering is viewed as self-inflicted because sin is inherently self-damaging. In the second, God inflicts suffering in response to sin. This dissertation argues that these views are united by Augustine’s concern with the theme of ‘order.’ The first account, it argues, is actually an expression of Augustine’s doctrine that evil is the privation of good; since good is for Augustine synonymous with order, we can then see why he views all affliction as the concrete experience of disorder brought about by sin. This context in turn allows us to see that, by invoking the notion of divinely inflicted punishment in both its retributive and remedial forms, Augustine wants to show that disorder itself is embraced by order, either because disorder itself must obey laws, or because what is disordered can be reordered. In either case, Augustine’s ideas of punishment may be seen as an expression of his conviction that order in the universe is unassailable. It is hoped that these observations contribute to a greater appreciation not only of Augustine’s theory of punishment, but also of the extent to which the theme of order is fundamental to his thought.

Texte remanié de: Th. 3e cycle--Histoire de la philosophie médiévale--Paris--Université de Paris I-Panthéon-Sorbonne, 1984. / Bibliogr. p. 247-260. Index. Contient le texte norrois et latin en parallèle du "De arrha animae"

This pastoral theological work is focused on clarification of the identity of deacon service and the permanent deacons' placement in the Czech and Moravian parishes, regarding to the Catholic Church at the beginning of the 21st century. The starting point of this work is the historical development of the diaconate and its theological reflection. The current situation of the Czech Particular Churches is, with all the respect, very specific and not sufficiently described yet. That is why I've partly focused on the empirical research (2011 and 2012) where I was searching for answers to the fundamental questions concerning the identity of the diaconate as a connection to the historical and theological part of my work. The target group of respondents was consisted of parishioners, priests, bishops, and deacons who had been active in parish pastoral work. The empirical research has revealed some positive and negative aspects associated with this sacramental service and helped to suggest some changes to the pastoral involvement of the permanent deacons in the Czech Republic. As a result of this research, the deacon service is truly an important part of the sacramental life in the Church and it is indispensable. However, concerning its true identity, surely it is more than important to seek and create specific space for the role of permanent deacons in such a way that their positions don't play only a vicarious role, as we experience these days. The theses that have come out of this work might help partialy to solve this problem.

No description available.

Lars Levi Laestadius (1800-1861) was active as a priest in the Swedish church in the northernmost parts of Sweden. After experiencing a transformative and life-changing spiritual breakthrough, which he himself has later called his rebirth and the moment when he received a living faith, he came to gather large audiences and give rise to a revival movement, which still bears his name today. Although Laestadius was active as a priest, he sharply criticized many conditions in the contemporary church. The purpose of this essay has been to investigate whether, and if so how, this criticism as presented in his sermons and writings can be linked to his Bible use, i.e. his reading and interpretation of the Bible and the authority he gives the Bible. For my study, I have closely read a large number of his extant sermons and published writings. The study also briefly summarises the central elements of Laestadius' theology, as well as what he perceives to be the Church's main mission. The study shows how his criticism is based on his use of the Bible and also how, through a far-reaching allegorical interpretation of the Bible, he uses different texts from both the Old and the New Testaments in his argumentation.

This dissertation is a critical study of the paradigm of Liturgical Theology. Focus in this systematic inquiry has been on the Russian school with the focal point in the works of Alexander Schmemann, who was active in the late 20th century. The main question of the thesis concerns the relation between theory and practice in Liturgical Theology.                       It is claimed that the relation between theory and practice corresponds to the relation between ritual action and communicative action. The former concerns the identity founded on the unavoidable alterity immanent in life, but also transcending life through a holistic encounter with life, which enables us to express a holistic attitude to life and the entire world. The latter concerns the equally unavoidable rationalization of life which gives rise to a continuous atomization of life through science and the process of acquiring facts and data.                       The thesis makes use of different theories for the reaching of an explanatory theory in connection to theory and practice. Foremost the Theory of Communicative Action in the works of Jürgen Habermas and the re-interpretation of disclosure by Nikolas Kompridis is used. It is claimed tthat ritual action is connected to a primary disclosure attached to otherness with the intention of revealing the identity of the Ecclesia. Without identity, we are left with a never-ending debate and a continuous atomization where every answer exponentially provokes more questions. Communicative action then is connected with a secondary co-disclosure with the intention for the reaching of mutual understanding, making subjects accountable and responsible. Without communicative action we are bound on a long walk into the never ending sea of being. The missionary imperative in the Ecclesia is dependent on the co-existence of ritual action and communicative action.

Abstrakt_anglicky The PhD thesis is focused on canon procedural law in Prague at the end of 14th century. The purpose is to prepare a critical edition and summary of the treatise Processus iudiciarius secundum stilum Pragensem and to contextualize it to iuridical and administrative connections in the period at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries. The researched treatise was a very useful theoretical and practical vademecum of procedural law and was used not only by students of law at The University of Prague as a manual but also by archiepiscopal clerks, as well as plaintiffs and defendants in the single cases. The thesis consists of the biography of the author Nicolaus Puchnik, canon law analysis and commentary incl., local customs, manuscript analysis based on paleography and codicology, European context analysis based on the juristic style and, last but not least, the edition. The edition is composed of four manuscripts (Munich 677 as the basic text version and other three manuscripts originated in the 14th century).

No description available.

Le Missel Romain présente la prière eucharistique comme « le centre et le sommet de toute la célébration » (PGMR, no 54). Dans ce mémoire, nous avons précisément voulu exposer les aspects majeurs du mystère eucharistique, tels que nous avons pu les dégager des Prières eucharistiques I, II, III et IV du Missel Romain. Nous avons analysé les divers éléments de ces formulaires (et les gestes qui leur sont intimement liés), en essayant de les comprendre les uns par les autres, dans leur articulation organique. Nous en sommes ainsi arrivé à mettre en lumière le cheminement précis dans lequel l’Eucharistie fait passer l’assemblée célébrante : la sanctification de cette assemblée par l’offrande du Christ, son oblation de cette offrande et sa consommation en elle.

As I hope to show, a philosophical study of love is highly relevant today, since the sciences have not adequately answered the perennial question: What is love?; Since the time of Socrates, the idea of love and the conception of the human heart have been devalued by thinkers who, by definition, are known as "lovers of wisdom." Considered pejoratively as "the passions," the subject of emotion was deemed inferior to thought centered upon the human faculty of reason. Many studies in the sciences, from biology to psychology, claim to have pointed us to the source of the human experience of love--but do they help us to understand love properly? In order to provide a full consideration of love in my philosophical research, I will focus my analysis on love under the philosophical lens of phenomenology. Known as the study of firsthand human experience, phenomenology became the influential school of thought for many German philosophers in the early twentieth century. My research will closely examine the writings of Max Scheler, Dietrich von Hildebrand, and Jean-Luc Marion within the context of this tradition. Moving from a justification of love in philosophy to the topic of self-love, I hope to define effectively what it means to love another. I shall also attempt to disambiguate the common assumptions regarding the nature of love. Is there a fundamental difference between the phenomenon of "falling in love" and of love itself? I question whether love, in its essence, is defined by the element of choice--of a willful emotional giving of oneself to another--and whether it can be distinguished from a passive feeling and an active loving will. I aim to bring the human affective sphere into the full light of philosophical inquiry, considering whether love is a moral act of the will that involves a total participation of the self--in mind, body, and spirit. Love is arguably the most powerful of the human emotions, one that elevates the human sphere of emotions and the ethical existence beyond simple desire.