Author: Bc. Šárka Čechová Department: Civic Education and Philosophy Title: Buddhism in Vietnam Supervisor: Mgr. David Rybák, Ph.D., Department of Civics and Philosophy Faculty of Education of Charles University in Prague Abstract: The main theme of this work is Buddhism as the primary religion in Vietnam. Work is focused on providing the image of Buddhism as a whole and then to its entrance into the Vietnamese culture through periods of Chinese domination. Marginally also mention about other religions in Vietnam, and Vietnamese traditions and customs. In conclusion, I will dedicate the image of Vietnamese living in the Czech Republic, which is affected by the collision of two cultures. We will monitor historically conditioned cultural and religious assumptions that have contributed to easier integration of Vietnamese immigrants.

In my thesis, I tried to describe the process of transformation of premodern and modern society focusing on the creation and development of a new spirituality. In this context, I further came with a terminological definition of the phenomenon. Next the work deals with the sphere of the new spirituality in the form of sects. First of all sects are taken in generally, so that the whole theme can be dealt in its width. Subsequently, my work focuses on the topic of Jehovah`s Witnesses in attempt to determine the extent of this society as a sect. Within each chapter it is possible to see the sect in terms of attractiveness, dynamics of group functioning or for example dependence, manipulation and insecurity. In the chapter called Jehovah's Witnesses the overall picture is completed. This religious society is presented based on its historical development, description of the life of Jehovah's Witnesses members and also through its activities in the Czech Republic. The conclusion contains evaluation of this religious organization including general assessment of the importance of sects. Keywords Religionistic, religion, sects, Jehova's Wittnesses, moderni

The purpose of my thesis is to map a development of religion, mainly christianity, and its different geographical aspects of the Czech republics and Austrian territory. I´d like to compare individual indicators and using questionnaires and interviews answer these questions: Nakolik tyto atributy může zachytit statistika? What are the main attributes of religiosity? The extent to which statistics capture these atributes? How does faith and religiosity vary from each other? How much does actual rate of religiosity and real faith vary? Do the statistics give us a realistic information about religion and its part in mentioned countries? Why do the rate of religiosity in the Czech republic and Austria vary so much from each other considering that they are neighboring countries. Are Austrians considering their high rate of religiosity really more religious than Czechs as an atheistic nation?

The purpose of my thesis is to map a development of religion, mainly christianity, and its different geographical aspects of the Czech republics and Austrian territory. I´d like to compare individual indicators and using questionnaires and interviews answer these questions: Nakolik tyto atributy může zachytit statistika? What are the main attributes of religiosity? The extent to which statistics capture these atributes? How does faith and religiosity vary from each other? How much does actual rate of religiosity and real faith vary? Do the statistics give us a realistic information about religion and its part in mentioned countries? Why do the rate of religiosity in the Czech republic and Austria vary so much from each other considering that they are neighboring countries. Are Austrians considering their high rate of religiosity really more religious than Czechs as an atheistic nation?

The aim of this thesis is to approximate and specify currently very fast growing eschatological Christian movement Seventh-day Adventist Church. First, the history of this religious community is outlined, both at the place of origin, i.e. in the USA, and in the territory of our state, where it is currently one of the most active churches in mission and preaching. Partial attention is then paid to the central circumstances and key figures behind the founding of this community - especially the Baptist preacher William Miller, who gave the initial impetus to the founding of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, or the personality of Ellen White, who was known for her extraordinary visionary abilities. The central part of the work is the characterization and definition of the basic features of Seventh-Day Adventism - namely, the basic dogmas and beliefs, in comparison with the most widespread Christian denominations (particularly the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches). In this sense, they are taken into account, comparatively against Adventism, especially the dogmatics of the first ecumenical councils. In the last part of the work, the author takes into account social or anthropological problems and questions related to this movement - for example, the question of a healthy lifestyle (which makes the...

This thesis focuses on the concept of interreligious dialogue from the perspective of Husite theology, maps the contemporary texts of the theologians of the Czechoslovak Church on the topic of non- Christian religions and the practical involvement of this church and its theological faculty in dialogical structures. Represents associations and movements engaged in interreligious dialogue in the Czech Republic. The probe into the theory and practice of interreligious dialogue worldwide and the review of authors dealing with, captures the expert reflection of the subject. The reflection of Husite theology emphasizes the key non-substantial concept of human personality and Christian dogma for the interreligious dialogue. The results of this reflection are formulated in five principles that may help overcome the contradiction between indifferent religious pluralism and apriori claim to the truth by revealing the existential nature of interreligious dialogue as opposed to substantive dogmatics, giving an occasion for discussion of the elementary nature of religion.

This thesis deals with the topic of teaching religious topics at secondary schools according to Framework Education Programme for Secondary General Education. Also, the aspect of education towards tolerance and preventing religious xenophobia in multicultural society is involved. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part is focused on the theoretical background and includes interpretation of formal documents that the teacher must take into consideration when teaching this topic, (such as textbooks, national curricular documents and recommendations). The approach in other countries is mentioned as well. The theoretical part involves a minimal amount of knowledge that the teacher should know and be able to implement while teaching the topic this work is focused on. The second part contains a qualitative research concentrating on finding students' preconceptions towards the topic of the thesis. The research method was a profound dialogue with five students of secondary schools. The students were of different age, sex, religious opinion, nationality and socio- economical background. The data were analysed regarding the areas of knowledge, abilities and opinions. The last part of this work deals with solving particular methodological situation when discussing the topic of this thesis. There...

Body is a biological system, but also a medium, through which an individual as well as their culture are actualized in the world. Both the individual and culture conceptualize the body in notions that, together with physical perceptions, constitute bodily experience. In studying ancient cultures, such as Mesopotamia, the actual bodily experience is lost for us, but the cultural notions can be reconstructed. The present thesis focuses on the notions of body and disease in Mesopotamian healing practice recorded in professional medical literature that was being canonized and copied since the late second millennium BCE. The collections of prescriptions called "therapeutic texts" are of main interest, since they present the healing procedure itself. In these texts, I analyzed the verbal descriptions of disease and healing as well as the physical treatment of the body with regard to general context and with focus on cases of fever. The thesis concludes, that the texts present the interaction between the body and the disease as spatial and physical, in their metaphors as well as in the prescribed treatment of the body and of surrounding space. Fever entered from outer space, attached itself to the body, it "seized" or "took hold" of the person, and needed to be removed. Its independent agency, the way...

To open a different perspective on the still-discussed difference between Christian religion and magic is the task of this work. In order to reach the end successfully, that is, the fourth part of this thesis, which deals with the principle of sanctity in the Catholic Church, it was necessary to first develop the following three blocks. 1) Religious-anthropological analysis of magic ? in this part we summarize basic anthropological views on magic according to the individual researchers J.G. Frazer, E.B. Taylor, R.R. Marett, B. Malinowski, and E. de Martino. The subject of this section was the analysis of animism and the inner power of creation. 2) Magic as a part of religion ? in which we analysed the content of the concept of magic, the area where it came from, and how it was perceived in the environment of the Mediterranean European culture of ancient Rome, and how magic was discredited in the ancient "pagan" and Christian environment. 3) The interest of the sages in the phenomenon of magic ? has created a space for the issue of the magic of "barbaric" tribes, whose faith traditions have become a legitimate part of the Catholic faith. This section has also developed a "story of overly" peculiar magic adepts of the "restored" Renaissance Platonic Academy, in which M. Ficino and P. della Mirandola worked. We paid more attention to their life stories and work, for they themselves stood at the birth of an "institutional" association in the area of a sort of "applied" magism in the form of esoteric neoplatonism, hermetism, and theururgy. At this point we also found the historical model of the later Czech hermetic society Universalia, which we mentioned at the end of the work. 4) Ex opere operato et ex opere operantis ? it represents the peak of our work, opening a whole new discussion in the critique of magic and religion. Magic and Christian religion have a common root, they co-exist side by side, complement each other, and even blend in some areas of universal piety as conditions of one and the same Catholic faith.

The aim of this thesis is to describe forms of Greek religion in the context of Graeco-Bactrian kingdom. The lack of written sources is typical for the region, my analysis is therefore based on archaeological evidence. The first part of my thesis introduces the archaeological sources connected to the religion. A material culture of Graeco-Bactrian kingdom mixes both Greek and local traditions. The second part of the thesis analyses the formation of the Graeco-Bactrian religious identity. I compare the situation with other Hellenistic states, especially with Syria, using postcolonial models based on theories by Rachel Mairs and Irad Malkin. It seems that Graeco- Bactrian kingdom does not differ from other parts of Hellenistic world. The absence of Greek temples is especially remarkable, I suppose that Hellenistic religion inclined to respect local religious traditions. On the other hand, Hellenistic identity did not depend on Greek religion but on Greek education.