The thesis concerns an aspect of poetic imagination in the works of 17th century metaphysical poets and examines the way these poets were influenced by the Church of England. In addition, it identifies elements of Anglican spirituality in their works. The first section analyzes the concept of Christian spirituality and the specifics of Anglican spirituality. Anglican spirituality is closely linked with the historical origins and development of the Anglican Church. In the second section, there is a description of poetic imagination and the relationship between poetics and spirituality. The thesis describes the concept of so-called metaphysical poets. The works of three selected authors are examined to identify poetic expressions of general, theological issues. Theological themes emphasized in Anglican spirituality are compared with those expressed in metaphysical poetic imagination. The aim of this thesis is to find the role of poetics in general, theological discourse.

Diploma thesis Philosophy in the work of John Amos Comenius is focused on demarcation main points in the work of John Amos Comenius, great thinker, philosopher, pedagogic and theologic authority. I deal with philosophy and with influences of most important people, atmosphere of 17th century, significant finding and inventions and his live on his work. Comenius was great thinker of education and pedagogue in praxis and metodology. This is another part of my work, I focused on education in praxis and of course his work in books. I mention ODO - Opera didactica omnia, huge work of pedagogic metodology and Obecná porada o nápravě věcí lidských - his masterpiece. This work have to unify his work in one big complex. Than I am trying to compare it with our today reality and find similar problems in our school and education proces.

The postmodern context in which the church currently performs its duties, necessitates a reconsidering of its pastoral practice. This venture is undertaken by introducing the social constructionist paradigm as a thought form for therapeutic and pastoral approaches. The social constructionist perspective proposes a non-referential, non-descriptive and communicational view of language. Language does not mirror the world, but we create the world we know and inhabit through joint communicative action. This constructionist view of language has radical implications for the way we practice therapy and pastoral care. It invites a move away from expert knowledge, professional diagnosis, essentialist thinking and therapeutic master narratives. It encourages a not-knowing position, multiple descriptions of the reality experienced as the problem, a narrative understanding of identity and the development of local meaning in the therapeutic conversation. If the above mentioned implications of social constructionist thought for pastoral practice are taken seriously, the following question emerges: What is the role of the Bible in a pastoral approach which aligns itself with social constructionist commitments? Does this sacred text allow the pastor to hold a not-knowing position and the development of local meaning in conversation? The question is addressed by explicating the Protestant Orthodox view of Scripture as authorative, perspicuous, sufficient and dependable. This view of Scripture is critiqued by reviewing the complex and challenging developments in modern literary criticism, which give rise to generating alternative descriptions of the status and identity of the text we Christians call ‘The Bible’. These alternative descriptions result in a postfoundationalist view of the Bible. In conclusion a set of values for pastoral therapy, as informed by social constructionism, is formulated. A focus group joins the venture by reflecting on the values. The final chapter is a rumination on therapeutic narratives and context. / Thesis (DD (Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (PhD (Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

The thesis deals with the topic of the pastoral letters of the Old Catholic bishop Augustin Podolák from the years 1971 till 1989, in other words during the time, when the bishop was deprived by the state of his state approval for spiritual functions. To illustrate the case the thesis include also three letters from the time after the revolution, that can shed some lite on the depth of the personality of Bishop Augustin. Beside the pastoral letters the thesis deals also with the history of the Old Catholic Church, because this history often influenced the content of the bishop's letters. Last but not least the thesis offers also a biography of the second Old Catholic bishop from his birth till his death.

This master thesis presents the character of Job and his reception in German-speaking literature on the basis of three works of the twentieth century, written by Joseph Roth, Oskar Kokoschka and Günter Kunert. The starting point for the literary reception is the biblical Old Testament book Job, whose story, form and circumstances of origin are mentioned in the first part of the work. Following are the performances of individual authors and the interpretation of their works. The core of the work is a comparison of literary reception of the figure of Job in the texts with a biblical original. The subject of the study was, in particular, the question of how the selected authors deal with the biblical substance, how they use Job for their works and which meaning have the comic elements in their texts.

This work attempts to identify the sources of the difference between the Christian Left and Right; How is it possible that people who share such a detailed creed can be so strictly opposed when it comes to politics? My hypothesis is that the conflict is engendered by different conceptions of will and the body. To test this hypothesis, I first present a brief history of the relationship between Christianity and politics up to the present state of the Christian versions of Right and Left, to finally find that while their understanding of human will is virtually identical, the human body is seen in opposing terms. Nevertheless, I equally conclude that the division between Right and Left is inaccurate, because both strive for the same - to prevent the monopolization of power by either the State or the Market.

Ecclesiology of Antonín Salajka (1901-1975) The following work presents an ecclesiological analysis of the publication by prof. Antonín Salajka (1901-1975). In the first part, it submits the biography of the author. This author was the first czech catholic priest laureated in Pontifical Institute of Oriental Studies in Rome (in 1930). In the second part, it closely inteprets the very ecclesiology of the author itself. Salajka - theologist is introduced from several perspectives as well. First we supplied a suggestion for periodization of his scientific work. There we proposed two periods in congruence with a paradigm change of ecclesiastic-social circumstances, including changes of theological studies, which evidently affected our author's life and scientific work. The two proposed periods are: (1) 1930-1950, i.e. scientifically paramount and fundamental; (2) 1950-1975. Further, we introduced areas which fell under Salajka's interest: unionism, eastern christian churches and the problem of christian unification, eastern dogmatic theology, Church Slavonic, the study of christian East, dogmatic theology, so called theologia comparata, but also ecumenism, theological realisation, method in theology, fundamental theology, moral theology, last but not least pedagogical activity. The main subject in his...

African teacher of rhetoric Arnobius of Sicca, who lived at the turn of the 3rd and 4th century, is one of the less known Christian authors. He is the author of Christian apology written in Latin called Adversus nationes. His statement attracted particular interest of philologists and historians of antiquity, because it contains large amounts of mythological material. The aim of this work is to introduce Arnobius not only as a crucial source of pagan theology, but also as an important Christian witness of the complicated religious - political situation of Christianity in the time before the Milan Edict, particularly at the time of Diocletian's persecution of Christians. Given the need to work with original texts includes this thesis also the first Czech translation of Arnobiusʼ apology.

This dissertation thematically belongs to the field of "History of Science and Scholarly Knowledge" with significant reach to theology and exegesis. It concerns the dispute of whether the annunciated text of the Old Testament was in all respects original or if it in some respects followed the traditions of ancient Near Eastern civilizations, particularly the Sumero-Akkadian one. The purpose of this thesis is to introduce the fundamental information on the "Babel-Bibel" dispute to the Czech scholarly community for the very first time. The dissertation includes an analysis of the course and consequences of the dispute as well as a discussion of the impact of Oriental scholarship on Old Testament exegesis.