Catholicism

Holy Selfie in Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy: A Comparative Analysis of a New Visual Canon

Analyzing the visual content from Instagram, the article address‑ es the phenomenon of “holy selfie” as a way of expressing religious identity used by Orthodox and Catholic adepts. Selfie as a technique of online self‑presentation allows believers to report about their connections to sacred places, persons, events and objects. Despite the dis‑ approval of Orthodox and Catholic priests, taking a selfie is a way to consolidate religious communities around offline religious experience.

Semiotic Vigilance and Cultivation of Sincerity in Catholic Practice of Vocational Discernment

In contemporary Catholicism, the reflection of faithful on the way of life or vocation implies the acquisition of interpretative skills that allow to define God’s will with a degree of certainty. The process of vocational discernment constitutes a hermeneutic work of a Catholic with his or her inner states — consciousness, emotions — and various outer shreds of evidence indicating that this specific life project is precisely what God is calling for.

A Typology of Interreligious Dialogue: Analysis of Existing Approaches

The concept of interreligious dialogue can be interpreted in many ways, denoting a wide range objectives, principles and formats of interaction between followers of different religions. The article discusses the classification of interreligious dialogue by various scholars. The article offers a comprehensive description of the main research approaches and allows the reader to get acquainted with the terminology used by the Western experts in this field.

“Vocation in the Flesh”: Gender and Embodiment in Religious Anthropology of Contemporary Catholicism

In the early and medieval Christian tradition, the gendered body was understood as both an obstacle to the cultivation of virtues and a potential medium of transgression. The contemporary Catholic anthropology has another view of the subject’s body and its senses and desires. This article is concerned with the pastoral project of encouraging priestly and monastic callings in the Russian Catholic parishes. It also specifically looks at its rhetoric, placing significant emphasis on gendered embodiment.

Gender Discourse Transformation within Contemporary Catholicism

This article analyzes the transformation of gender discourse within contemporary Catholicism after Vatican II Council. The author shows how numerous discussions among Catholic intellectuals and ordinary Catholics on gender equality, women’s role in the church tradition, respect to sexual minorities and other out-groups historically discriminated within the traditionalist conservative approach are being actualized at the current stage of development of Catholic thought.

Kicking, Stripping, and Re-Dressing a Saint in Black: Visions of Public Space in Brazil’s Recent Holy War

This article deals with a particular case of blasphemy that happened in 1995 when a Protestant televangelist insulted one of the most reverend religious symbols of Brazil — Nossa Senhora Aparecid. This was shown on TV as the televangelist’s protest against the presence of Catholicism in the public sphere of Brazil. The author uses this case in order to consider the cult of saints as a symbolic site where issues of nation, history, ideology, public space, and so on, come together.

The Image of the Polish Mother, and Mother of God: New Uses of the Symbolism of Motherhood

A Matter of Taste. On a Certain Division within the Roman Catholic Community in Poland

Polonia semper fidelis? National Mythology, Religion and Politics in Poland

Councils as a Manifestation of the Church

In this essay the author develops the theme of councils as living ecclesiology, as a manifestation of the reality of the Church. The meaning of councils is not limited to their agenda. The primary source of their charisma is the fact of assembly as such. The conciliar assembly manifests the essential relationships on which the Church is founded. One of the author’s chief concerns is to describe how councils help to shape the dynamics of leadership in the Christian Church. The orientation of conciliar leadership is horizontal and inclusive, not vertical and elitist.

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