University curricula of cultural studies at Polish universities : an attempt at assessment

The scientific world view which has been shaped since the Enlightenment influences the belief that man is the sole creator of culture whereas the main culture-creating factors are economic conditions and social relations. Therefore, management-economic or sociological approach are dominant ones in contemporary curricula of cultural studies. Christianity and other religions are not treated as ideological foundations shaping culture, but as a manifestation of human activity resulting from primal fear of incomprehensible phenomena which occur in the surrounding world. Hence, religion is understood not as a culture-forming subject, but as an object that is one of many elements of culture, a historical and transient phenomenon

Alienation from the culture : interpretative dilemmas : on the example of the old believers

After G.W.F. Hegel's The Phenomenology of Spirit and Ludwig Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity, the issue of alienation is considered to be a significant object of study. Sociology - which attempts to dominate studies on this concept - is a discipline which rather single-mindedly interprets the phenomena rooted in the religious reality, and one should not rely solely on its analyses. By the same token, semiotics should be treated with similar distrust, even though the impact of Old Believers on the development of Russian culture is widely emphasised in the works of Russian semioticians. The reason for that stems from the claim for being a universal method - which hence is forced to refer to a universal object - that semiotics has shared; the mentioned object has been culture. The idea of subsuming phenomena of different categories under a common denominator in the course of interpretation has led to a situation in which the semiotic means have turned to be but metaphors, even though semioticians have argued for their ontological statues. Precisely this aspect should be noted, as it proves that semiotics - with its universalist claims - appears to blur the boundaries between sociological stratum, and the one oriented towards philosophy and theology. From the point of view expressed by Orthodox Christianity, the true tragic alienation relies not on the distance separating one from culture and society, but rather on the one which detaches one from God - the creator of being. The case of Old Believers exemplifies a convoluted situation, as the bone of contention has been provided by liturgy, which is, in other words, the space in which a human being encounters God. If, therefore, this issue is related to culture, then it is so precisely through its metaphysical aspect. Neither sociology nor philosophy - and even not semiotics, recently withdrawing from cultural studies, which it used to dominate - has been capable of interpreting the phenomenon of Old Believers as thoroughly as theology and history of Church. Relying on the scientist methodology, the former group of disciplines has not included such significant aspects of the culture of Orthodox Christianity as anthropology, dogmatics, state theology, or liturgics. Without those aspects, any attempt which aims at explaining the issue of Old Believers happens to be inaccurate

Tradition and modernism in Russian orthodoxy

Modernizm w odniesieniu do wiary chrześcijańskiej Kościoła rzymskiego i prawosławnego jest definiowany od drugiej połowy XIX w. Wcześniejsze odstępstwa od doktryny, czy dogmatu były określane mianem herezji. W modernizmie również odnajdujemy pewne wątki heretyckie, jednak nie jest on związany z podważaniem podstawowych prawd wiary chrześcijańskiej. Do jego powstania przyczynił się rozwój nauk w XIX wieku, szczególnie filozofii i tego co niosła ze sobą filozofia przenosząc to na grunt dogmatyczny. Był to kierunek odwołujący się do nowych metod badawczych i postulujący dostosowanie doktryny chrześcijańskiej do poglądów filozoficznych, historycznych i społecznych, a także form praktycznej działalności Kościoła do wymagań współczesności. Modernizm odrzuca obiektywizm prawdy Objawienia. Reprezentuje specyficzne podejście do prawdy chrześcijańskiej.Modernism in relation to the Christian faith of the Roman and Orthodox Church has been defined since the second half of the 19th century. Earlier deviations from the doctrine or dogma were referred to as heresy. We also find some heretical threads in modernism, but it is not related to undermining the basic truths of the Christian faith. The development of sciences in the nineteenth century, especially philosophy and what philosophy brought with it, contributed to its creation, transferring it to the dogmatic ground. It was a direction referring to new research methods and postulating the adaptation of Christian doctrine to philosophical, historical and social views, as well as the forms of practical activity of the Church to the requirements of modern times. Modernism rejects the objectivity of the truth of Revelation. He represents a specific approach to Christian truth.Модернизм по отношению к христианской вере Римской и Православной церкви определялся со второй половины XIX века. Ранее отклонения от доктрины или догмы назывались ересью. В модернизме мы также находим некоторые еретические нити, но это не связано с подрывом основных истин христианской веры. Развитие наук в девятнадцатом веке, особенно философии и того, что принесла с собой философия, способствовало его созданию, переведя его на догматическую почву. Это было направление, относящееся к новым методам исследования и постулирующее адаптацию христианского учения к философским, историческим и социальным воззрениям, а также формы практической деятельности Церкви к требованиям современности. Модернизм отвергает объективность истины Откровения. Он представляет особый подход к христианской истине