Przeglądanie według Temat "the sacred"

Aktualnie wyświetlane 1 - 2 z 2

Nature as the locus of theological cognition
(Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego, 2016-12) Rogozińska, Renata
The text attempts to answer the question of whether, and to what extent, sacralisation of landscape is justified on Christian grounds, and whether religious and landscape art can be equated in status, as Jerzy Nowosielski proposed. The idea of sacralisation of nature is closer to the Eastern Orthodox Church, with its tendency to divinize man, or even (considering some comments) the whole of created reality. However, the author’s attention is focused on Catholic thought, based on Thomism and Scholasticism. The questions discussed are: to what degree, according to St Thomas Aquinas’ teaching, nature participates in God’s sanctity; what indeed nature’s sacrality is; and, hence, in what sense, from the point of view of the Church, landscape art can claim to transcend the limits of physicality and to visualize the supernatural character of being. Thomas Aquinas’ views on the mutual relation between God and the world, art and nature, are confronted with the Neo-Platonic philosophy, in order to highlight their specificity and uniqueness. Currently, the Church’s teaching on the relation between God and the world in fact conforms to the long tradition of treating the created reality as a sign, indicating its Creator, imbued with the power, good, and beauty of the spiritual world. The Church, while emphasizing a strong connection between God and nature, still accentuates God’s transcendence, being aware of the lasting tension between the sacred and the profane. On the other hand, nowadays, in the teaching of the Church, the long tradition of stressing the aspect of God’s transcendence is counterbalanced by the emphasis on God’s immanence. Opposing cosmic pessimism, which proclaims lack of any general sense to the universe, the Church has begun to underline the sacramental nature of the world. According to certain theologians, we could even speak of an ontological co-dependence of both realities; however, this claim does not contribute to the “Pantheization” or “Neo-Platonization” of Christianity.
Representations of the use of psychoactive substances in the beliefs and rituals of ancient societies: between the sacred and the profane
(Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego, 2022-12) Motyka, Marek A.
The use of plants with psychoactive properties by ancient communities has been confirmed in numerous archaeological studies conducted in almost every place on earth. Many tribes used their own characteristic psychoactive potions and, according to researchers, their use fostered the integration of the members of a given community, facilitated their existence in an occupied area and could be of significant importance for its survival. Around the psychoactive plants and toxic secretions of some species of fauna a conglomerate of myths, cults and the properties attributed to them has developed. Permanent traces of their presence remain in both non-material and material culture. The aim of this article is to present the representations of psychoactive substances in the beliefs of ancient communities, their occurrence in myths, rock or sepulchral art, and to discuss the reasons for their use during rituals. The article presents also the main causes of the diffusion of the use of psychoactive plants from the sacred to the profane sphere.