scholarly journals The Metamorphosis of Written Devotion in the Age of Vatican II (c. 1948–c. 1998) in Hungary—Guestbooks in Hungarian Marian Shrines

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 235
Author(s):  
Krisztina Frauhammer
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Combined Effect ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
The Public ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Personal Prayer ◽  
The Church

This article presents the Hungarian manifestations of a written devotional practice that emerged in the second half of the 20th century worldwide: the rite of writing prayers in guestbooks or visitors’ books and spontaneously leaving prayer slips in shrines. Guestbooks or visitors’ books, a practice well known in museums and exhibitions, have appeared in Hungarian shrines for pilgrims to record requests, prayers, and declarations of gratitude. This is an unusual use of guestbooks, as, unlike regular guestbook entries, they contain personal prayers, which are surprisingly honest and self-reflective. Another curiosity of the books and slips is that anybody can see and read them, because they are on display in the shrines, mostly close to the statue of Virgin Mary. They allow the researcher to observe a special communication situation, the written representation of an informal, non-formalised, personal prayer. Of course, this is not unknown in the practice of prayer; what is new here is that it takes place in the public realm of a shrine, in written form. This paper seeks answers to the question of what genre antecedents, what patterns of behaviour, and which religious practices have led to the development of this recent practice of devotion in the examined period in Hungarian Catholic shrines. In connection with this issue, this paper would like to draw attention to the combined effect of the following three factors: the continuity of traditions, the emergence of innovative elements and the role of the church as an institution. Their parallel interactions help us to understand the guestbooks of the shrines.

scholarly journals The church as a moral agent: In dialogue with Bram van de Beek

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Vorster
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Moral Agent ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ulterior Motive ◽  
Seminal Article ◽  
The Church

The latter part of the 20th century is known for a surge in the so-called ‘genitive theologies’. Usually, a genitive theology has an ulterior motive, aiming at the transformation of a society or the promotion of sound politics and economy. In recent years, this trend culminated in public theology. The issue of religion with an ulterior motive was raised by Van de Beek in a seminal article focusing on theology without gaining anything from it as an answer to the surging genitive theologies of the latter part of the 20th century and the public theologies of today. Taking into account Van de Beek’s critique against ‘religion with an ulterior motive’, this article explores the concept of the church as a moral agent in dialogue with Van de Beek. The central theoretical argument of this investigation is that Van de Beek’s ecclesiology is valuable when defining the role of the church as a moral agent. However, the perspective of the Kingdom of God concerning the church can enrich one’s views and can add value to his valid critique on public theology.

scholarly journals Social and Political Consequences of the Pandemic for the Russian Orthodox Church

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-558
Author(s):  
Roman N. Lunkin
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cyber Space ◽  
The Church

In the article analyzed the social and political consequences of pandemic of coronavirus for the Russian Orthodox Church in the context of the reaction of different European churches on the quarantine rules and critics towards the church inside Russia. The author used the structural-functional and institutional approaches for the evaluation of the activity of the Russian Orthodox Church, was analyzed the sources of mass-media and the public claims of the clergy. In the article was made a conclusion that Orthodox Church expressed itself during the struggle with coronavirus as national civic institute where could be represented various even polar views. Also the parish activity leads to the formation of the democratic society affiliated with the Church and the role of that phenomenon have to be explored in a future. The coronacrisis makes open the inner potential of the civic activity and different forms of the social service in Russian Church. In the same time pandemic provoked the development of the volunteer activity in the around-church environment and also in the non-church circles among the young people and the generation of 40th age where the idea of the social responsibility for themselves and people around and the significance of the civil rights was one of the popular ideas till 2019. The conditions of the self-isolation also forced the clergy to struggle for their parishioners and once again renovate the role of the church in the society and in the cyber space.

Participatory Design Practices in Mental Health in the UK: Rebutting the Optimism

Design Issues ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 25-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Pierri
Keyword(s):  
Professional Practice ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Community Organizations ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
The Public ◽  
Design Practices ◽  
The Uk

In what has been defined as an “era of participation,” design practices have become very central to the process of making publics and in bringing to life the dream of developing new ways of political engagement. By reflecting on my professional practice, I highlight the overly optimistic attitude that—most of the time—over-simplifies the role of design, especially when applied in public and community organizations. I illustrate participation as a paradox in itself, by problematizing the role and meaning of participatory encounters, and revealing some complex dynamics of exclusion and self-exclusion that are at play in the public realm.

7. Modern Mary—Reformation to the present

2021 ◽  
pp. 123-146
Author(s):  
Mary Joan Winn Leith
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
Council Of Trent ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Immaculate Conception ◽  
Religious Ideals ◽  
The Church

‘Modern Mary—Reformation to the present’ looks at the Virgin Mary from the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century to the present. During this period Mary was often at the centre of conflicts over religious ideals that contributed to the Enlightenment. The Catholic Council of Trent reaffirmed Mary’s perpetual virginity, intercession, pilgrimage, and relics. Catholic Marian beliefs were shaped by some of the misgivings that Protestants had voiced about Catholic views of Mary. The rosary and apparitions of Mary illustrate Catholic views of Mary after the Council of Trent. The so-called ‘Marian Century’ began in 1854 with Pope Pius IX’s declaration of Mary’s Immaculate Conception effectively ended in 1965 with the church reforms of Vatican II. Marian spirituality in the 21st century have taken often surprising directions.

scholarly journals What’s in a word? Contextual diversity, urban ethnography and the linguistic limits of the street

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 952-967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Dines
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Contextual Diversity ◽  
Urban Ethnography ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
The Public ◽  
Lexical Change ◽  
Raymond Williams

This article takes to task a common assumption within Anglophone scholarship that conceives the street as a preeminent site of urban life, arguing that this sociological truism has worked to obscure the role of other spaces, terms and experiences across different historical, geographical and linguistic contexts. In response, and building on recent reappraisals in sociology of the work of Raymond Williams, the aim of this article is to analyse the street as a particular keyword and reflect on how a cultural materialist approach to lexical change can be incorporated into the practices of urban ethnography and translation. To develop its methodological argument, the article draws on the author’s research on Italian cities, where rather than the strada (street), the piazza and the vicolo (alleyway) have typically commanded a more prominent place in ideas about the public realm. At the same time, the disparate meanings of these two spatial forms attest to the uneven and disputed positions of different Italian cities within national urban culture. In conclusion, the article argues for greater attention to be paid to variations in language use vis-a-vis urban spatial forms as the prerequisite for a more incisive sociology of the street.

Modern Christian Liturgy

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan D. Spinks
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Main Line ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Liturgical Movement ◽  
John Xxiii ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Church

What exactly is meant by the term “Modern Christian Liturgy”? At one level it could mean any recent worship service in any church, for example, the Divine Liturgy of the Ethiopian-Eritrean Orthodox churches celebrated last week. Although a modern celebration, with adaptations made to the rite amongst the diaspora, the rite itself was formulated in the late medieval era and has much older roots in Egypt. Sometimes the term applies to the most recent official liturgical services of a particular main line denomination growing out of the Liturgical Movement, such as the post-Vatican II Roman Catholic rites compared to the so-called “Tridentine” rite represented by the missal of John XXIII, or the Church of England’s Common Worship 2000 rites compared to those of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Here, the term is reserved for those newer forms of service that have appeared officially or unofficially in contemporary Euro-Atlantic protestant, evangelical, and charismatic churches in the 20th century, frequently adopting the current fashions of popular music for worship songs, and incorporating modern technology.

“DISMEMBERING THE HUMAN CHARACTER”: ADAM FERGUSON’S CONCEPTION OF CORRUPTION

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (02) ◽  
pp. 54-72
Author(s):  
Samuel Fleischacker
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
The Public ◽  
Liberal Perspective ◽  
Do So

Abstract:This essay lays out three kinds of corruption—personal, structural, and civic—stressing the differences among these phenomena. It then explores civic corruption via the work of the eighteenth-century Scottish thinker Adam Ferguson. Civic corruption occurs when the citizens of a republic lose interest in defending their shared institutions, and pursue their private wealth alone; avoiding it, according to Ferguson, requires placing limits on these private pursuits and getting citizens to participate in the public realm instead. By way of a comparison with Ferguson’s contemporary and friend Adam Smith—who agreed with Ferguson on many issues, although not on what was corrupting about the acquisition of wealth—the essay argues that Ferguson, for all his emphasis on participatory government, was a liberal, not a collectivist. With that in mind, the essay endorses many of Ferguson’s suggestions from a liberal perspective, and argues that, to preserve liberal republics, it is often necessary to expand what governments do, so as to maintain the commitment of citizens to their public institutions. This prescriptive implication brings out sharply how civic corruption differs from personal corruption, which may best be limited by shrinking the role of government, rather than expanding it.

Hillsborough and the Church of England

Theology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
James Jones
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
The Public ◽  
Independent Panel ◽  
The Government ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Church ◽  
British Football

In 1989, 96 Liverpool Football Club supporters were killed at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. It was the biggest sporting disaster in British football. The original inquests returned a verdict of ‘accidental death’. For over 20 years the families of the 96 and the survivors campaigned against this verdict. In 2010 the government set up an Independent Panel with myself as its Chair. Its remit after consultation with the families and survivors was to access and analyse all the documents related to the disaster and its aftermath and to write a report to add to public understanding. The Panel’s Report was published in 2012 and led to the quashing of the original verdicts and the setting up of fresh inquests. After two years and the longest inquests in British legal history, the jury gave its determination of ‘unlawful killing’. Here I reflect theologically on the public and pastoral role of the Church of England and its mission to wider society.

scholarly journals The role of prophetic action in public theology – the implications for addressing corruption in a context of sustainable development

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedrich W. De Wet
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Public Space ◽  
South African ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Role ◽  
African Churches ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Two Kingdoms ◽  
The Church

After almost two decades of democratic rule in South Africa, patterns of withdrawal and uncertainty about the complexities involved in defining the contents, rationality and impact of the public role of the church in society seem to be prevalent. As unabated levels of corruption and its sustained threat to sustainable development point out, a long-awaited reckoning should take place – at least in the circles of South African churches from reformed origin – regarding its rich tradition of critical and transformational prophetic involvement in the public space. In this article, the author places different models for the public role of the church in the field of tension that is generated when the private and public spheres meet each other. The author anticipates different configurations that will probably form in this field of tension in the cases of respectively the Two Kingdoms Model, the Neo-Calvinist Approach and the Communicative Rationality Approach.Die rol van profetiese prediking in publieke teologie: Die implikasies vir die hantering van korrupsie in ‘n konteks van volhoubare ontwikkeling. Na bykans twee dekades van demokratiese regering in Suid-Afrika blyk dit dat patrone van onttrekking en onsekerheid oor wat die inhoud, rasionaliteit en impak van die publieke rol van die kerk in die samelewing presies behels, steeds voortduur. In ‘n situasie waaruit dit blyk dat daar geen werklike teenvoeter is vir die hoë vlakke van korrupsie asook vir die bedreiging wat dit vir volhoubare ontwikkeling inhou nie, is dit hoog tyd dat die kerk, ten minste in die geval van die Suid-Afrikaanse kerke van reformatoriese oorsprong, diep oor sy profetiese rol in die samelewing moet besin. Hierdie kerke kom uit ‘n ryke tradisie van kritiese en transformerende betrokkenheid in die publieke sfeer. In hierdie artikel plaas die outeur verskillende modelle vir die publieke rol van die kerk in die spanningsveld wat gegenereer word wanneer die private en publieke sfere mekaar ontmoet. Die outeur antisipeer verskillende konfigurasies wat waarskynlik na vore sal tree in hierdie spanningsveld in die gevalle van onderskeidelik die Twee Koninkryke Model, die Neo-Calvinistiese Benadering en die Kommunikatiewe Rasionaliteit Benadering.

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