The thesis, "Prayer: The Role, Place and Significance of Prayer in the Lives of Members of the Christian Community" deals with the topics outlined in its title. It is examined from the standpoint which understands prayer in its Biblical context, as well as how it has been interpreted by the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren tradition. The core of the thesis is made up of qualitative research. The goal of the research is to discover how prayer is perceived by believers within a particular Christian community: what place prayer occupies in their lives, what shapes it, what it contributes to them and, at the same time, how they perceive prayer and what kind of meaning corporate prayer has for them. Five deep, semi-structured conversations with research participants helped to achieve the goal of the thesis. The results of the qualitative analyses are presented in several chapters, of which four main chapters contain (1) the benefits of prayer in understanding oneself, and (2) in understanding and perceiving God, (3) prayer as a tool for service, and (4) benefits and deficits connected with prayer. The concluding chapters then summarize the results found in the answers to the survey questions, and further on there is a discussion presented on the understanding of prayer as perceived through the lens...

This thesis is focused on upbringing the Christian children in the preschool age to prayer. We will recall the essence of the Christian faith and the way faith of a child awakens and develops, along with the progression of its ideas about God. With the help of the psychology of religion we will try to discuss the mental development of a child according to P. Říčan, M. Vágnerová, followed by E. H. Erikson's theory and we will consider "the stages of faith" of a child by J. W. Fowler. Then we will focus on the child's images and experiences with God in the context of prayer, as it is presented by some authors, such as K. Tilmann, S. Cavalletto and Ch. Ponsard. In the next part we will deal with upbringing a child to prayer. There we will mention the key concepts, which are prayer, the Christian faith, as a well as parish, family and catholic kindergarten as the preferred places of education of children to the prayer. In the final part, we will try to outline practical recommendations for upbringing children to the prayer. Keywords prayer, catechesis, faith, child education, family, parish, personality development Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

The Merry Holiness - The Spirituality of S. M. Braito In His Life and Works The goal of this thesis was to inquire the main features of the spirituality of Silvestr Maria Braito, who, in his time, played one of the key roles in the forming of the Christian life in former Czechoslovakia. Above all, it aimed to look into Braito`s spirituality on two levels: on the level of his personal experience, including the experience from the communist prison, and on the level of his works in the spiritual review Na hlubinu. The objective of the thesis was to categorize Braito`s spirituality and compare his theoretical work with the experienced spiritual life, including its changes. Keywords Braito, Na hlubinu, spirituality, mysticism, prayer Počet znaků (včetně mezer): 180 245

The diploma thesis "Dance as a Manifestation of Devotion, its History and Use in the Christian Liturgy" enquires into the phenomenon of dance in the context of Christian culture. It outlines the development of the religious dance in the history of mankind, its forms and modes of perception in different cultures and religions. The thesis also deals with dance as an expression of faith in Jewish culture whence the Christian liturgical dance often drew inspiration and thus went back to its own roots. It seeks to explore the positive attitudes of believers towards dance, but also the mistrust that accompanied dance throughout the history of Christianity. Additionally, the paper presents the situation of dance in the contemporary Christian culture on different continents (Europe, America, Africa), to pursue finally the question of dance as a manifestation of devotion in the Czech Republic. Based on the collected material, the thesis seeks to present the deep potential of dance that make believers express through gestures and movements their respect to God, their joy and anxiety, grief and hope, and thus can, alongside music and singing, enrich the liturgy to a great extent. Keywords Dance, gesture, liturgy, prayer, expression.

The present thesis focuses on the topic of exorcism in the Synoptic Gospels. The introductory chapters characterize the practice of exorcism in the cultures of antiquity and Judaism, clarifying some of the specific emphases of these rituals. It then introduces the perspective of the New Testament on the subject, including a short list of terminology related to the designation of the enemy of God in the synoptics. Separate chapters are dedicated to Jesus' statements about exorcism, exorcism narratives and general reports. Each chapter treats in great detail the different exegeses, and the relevant terminological and stylistic peculiarities. The merits of the individual findings, which are summarized in the concluding chapter, are duly assessed from several perspectives, primarily biblical theology, but also underscoring some issues concerning pastoral theology and the practical applications of these findings.

The Master's thesis Prayer in the Luke's Parables first deals with the definition of the parable itself: how the modern narratology understands it, how was this literary form used in the Old Testament and in the New Testament connotations. Further, it discusses the Gospel of Luke as a separate literary unit with an editorial plan regarding especially parables, and also describes the circumstances of its inception, the recipients, contemporary realities, etc. The next part outlines the basic teachings on prayer in the Church Documents. Then the thesis separately analyses both the grammar and the interpretation of three particularly important Luke's parables concerning prayer (L 11,513; L 18,18; 18, L 18,914). Their common contribution to Jesus' teachings on prayer is summarized in the conclusion.

The diploma thesis deals with so-called St Emmeram's Prayer preserved in Old High German and Old Church Slavonic manuscript versions. It summarises the up-to-date state of research. In the analytical part, on the ground of the structure of an Old High German confession formula a text analysis is carried out for both versions of the prayer, as well as for another Latin confession formula recorded in the b 9 manuscript. Old High German / Old Church Slavonic index is attached to the thesis.

In religious faith I am finding the similar principle to the placebo effect. Placebo effect is associated to human belief and it is so powerful phenomenon that if the new drug in medicine is tested it has to be done through double-blind studies to eliminate the effect of placebo. Without this elimination, even non-working medicaments are having positive impact. In medicine, a placebo is commonly used to cure physiological or psychological problem, to achieve the effect, result. But there are other ways where we can meet placebo and is not it so easily recognized. Placebo can be a message, political doctrine or religious belief. Placebo investigates a mysterious area of effect without apparent cause, it is merely a reflection of our state of mind. Religion wraps its doctrine in sparkly packaging, tinsel, so that it is easily consumable and friendly. But under the wrapping is nothing but a placebo pill, we are attracted to, and which we may or may not believe will work. The pill is nothing, has no content, it is empty. It is in some way false, fake and illusory. But the most interesting part is that works reliably for decades.

The thesis entitled Life and Work of Fanny Neuda deals with a significant and almost forgotten writer from Lostice who lived between 1819-1894. It was Loštice that was the place of her writing, which is why the first chapter is devoted to them. This Jewish community was quite specific in its history, as discussed in the chapter. The second chapter deals with Fanny Neuda itself, her life and her "pioneering" writing activity. Since Fanny Neuda, née Schmiedl, was the world's first woman of Jewish descent, she did not write only prayers for women, but wrote a book for general opportunities / stimuli named Stunden der Andacht. Ein Gebet- und Erbauungsbuch für Israels Frauen und Jungfrauen, zur öffentlichen und häuslichen Andacht, sowie für alle Verhältnisse des weiblichen Lebens (Praha / Břeclav, 1855). She confidently compares her prayers with those written by men for women, for she is denied empathy with women's perception. But a woman can read in the hearts of her sisters.1 It is worthwhile to bring the character of Fanny Neuda and her work closer together, as well as the challenges she faced in writing in German. Pnina Navé Levinson characterized Fanny's literary work, a rabbi's rabbi, whose pious book for women can be regarded as a "classic" from the second half of the 19th century to our times....

The aim of the diploma thesis is to point out the connections between the moral life of a person and his state of health. This is a current topic of applied ethics, which deals with the relationship between ethical behavior and its consequences in health and disease therapy. The work deals with the life and work of Ctibor Bezděk, who is considered by the professional public to be the founder of ethics therapy. The diploma thesis introduces the concepts of ethics therapy and tries to bring the meaning of his work to the present day with an understandable approach. The diploma thesis also points out the importance of moral balance in various areas of our lives, the role of faith in God and the trust we place in him in the dynamics of health and disease. The method used in the diploma thesis is the analysis of Ctibor Bezděk's texts, the systematic arrangement into the topic of the thesis and the updating of his legacy. Key words: ethics, ethicotherapy, prayer, morality, illness, suggestion, healing, evil