Mokslo ir tikėjimo dialogai

In 1942 the Lithuanian Reformed Collegium resurrected the Lutheran ecumenical hymnal project which the Lutherans had dropped after the repatriation of 1941. The Lithuanian book appeared in an abridged version entitled: Evangelikų Giesmynas su Maldomis (Evangelical Hymnal with Prayers) later that year. By special permission of the Lutheran consistory, only the Kaunas Lutheran congregation used this hymnal. In 1943 the Lutheran pastors established their own hymnal commission to produce a suitable Lutheran hymnal, based on the Pagerintos giesmių knygos (Improved Books of Hymns), the official Lithuanian Lutheran hymnal at that time. The soviet occupation made it impossible to continue the project. The book was not popular in the Reformed Church, especially after the apostasy of Adomas Šernas. It was only in 1986 that it was made the official hymnal of the Lithuanian Reformed Church because copies of the old official hymnal were no longer available.

In this article we will try to answer the question – what is the meaning of human corporeality? What is its meaning and significance in the life of a particular person? We will analyze and rely on the cycle of John Paul II’s catechesis about the creation of man and woman and the significance of human love, more commonly known as “the theology of the body”. We will rely on the theological understanding of human corporeality of the Roman Catholic Church and will try to answer the question: is it possible to be happy living here on earth? We will ask the question: how do our corporeality and the perception of the limitations of our corporeality affects the understanding of our happiness? Is it possible to have a recipe for a happy life while knowing of man’s tendencies to choose a life through the experience of the body, which can theologically be called as humiliating the human existence itself? We will analyze some models of thinking patterns that despise the human body. The Biblical narrative – recorded in the Book of Genesis – about the creation of the man and the woman will serve to answer to the fundamental questions related to the perception of human corporeality and its destination.

“Today Christ calls us to agree with Him and follow Him on the path which transforms all our existence” (Pope Francis). The first transformation takes place through Baptism. Baptism pardons all our sins both original and personal. However, forgiveness of the original sin remains a controversial truth of faith. Pope Benedict XVI said that “original sin is usually hard to understand” and therefore talking about original sin is a way to say that salvation is primarily universal and not individual. In order to more fully understand what happens at Baptism, this article overviews Biblical aspects of the original sin, development of the doctrine of the original sin in the history of the Church and consequences of the primordial sin. It is also revealed what Baptism does to the original sin.

Die Entstehung und Formierung der litauischen Intelligenz und ihrer Gruppierungen während des 19, Jh. ist eine der aktuellsten Forschungsthemen der gegenwärtigen Geschichtsschreibung in Litauen. Die Ausbildungspolitik der Synode und ihre Auswirkung auf das Netz der Grundschulen der litauischer reformierten Kirche zwischen den Jahren 1832 bis 1863 wird in diesem Artikel als Teil dieser Problematik untersucht.

Huge impact on the education system based on the universal Catholic pedagogics, and has too much emphasized working activity of the human and underestimated the nature of the personality’s expression, is analyzed in the paper. The mentioned issues are considered regarding the contemporary preparation of seafarers. Aim of the research is a revelation of the universally anthropological value of the education at conditions of protestant pragmatism and technocratism. Social influence of the protestant mentality is discussed. The preparation of seafarers is anthropologically evaluated. Methods such as retrospective analysis of scientific literature, comparison, heuristic analysis, interpretation and systemization were used in the research. Methodological principle of the research is neotomism. Theological tendencies of the protestant technocratism depreciated the personalistic culture that is psychologically compensated emphasizing the modern progress of the technological preparation of seafarers ignoring the broad approach to the valuable potential of the seafarer’s personality self-development. This approach lets create the universal local systems of the seafarers’ higher vocational education, and adequately combine the conditions of the complex human nature development and of the extreme work based on the European culture and authentic Christian heritage of education.

Overcoming guilt and feeling spiritual peace is a fundamental human endeavour. The church calls for reconciliation with oneself, others and God and it calls to seek salvation – eternal happiness and peace. One of the most active preachers of the teaching of the Church was priest Jurgis Pabrėža (1771–1849), whose 250th birth anniversary has been commemorated in 2021. He was the man with an ambition to serve others wholeheartedly so that we “receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5: 9). Speaking of human guilt and liberation from the oppressive feeling of guilt in his sermons, Fr. J. Pabrėža provided the example of Cain’s story. J. Pabrėža mentions the biblical name of Cain in his sermon collection “Sermons on Various Matters” 22 times. Of 48 sermons in this collection Cain is mentioned in 5 of them. Examples of Cain’s experience of sin and guilt are provided when discussing the spiritual well-being of a person: who has no hope of being saved; who does not commit sin by killing another man; why is it bad to desire what belongs to another; what evil is there in a jealous sneer towards others; what is wrong with a blasphemous confession? In the biblical story of Cain and examples of this narrative in the sermons of Fr. J. Pabrėža we see that a person experiences a disturbing feeling of guilt as a subconscious state of insecurity, helplessness and spiritual suffering, and as a lack of meaning in life. This sense of guilt has its own cause – sin, i.e. acting in the world against the laws of nature.

The article analyses the phenomenon of acedia which is often described as modern time evil by the thinkers of spiritual life and theologians whereas the Magisterium of the Catholic Church attributes this phenomenon to the seven capital vices. Acedia is analysed as one of temptations and difficulties of human life that deprives the person of hope. The article searches for expressions of acedia in biblical scriptures and analyses direct references to the phenomenon in the early monastic writings and works of other Church teachers. Multidimensional causes of acedia and its common characteristics that might help identify expressions of this spiritual illness in human life are also discussed.

The article analyses John Paul II’s activities and ideas in the light of his attitude towards the family. Some of his informal and formal writings and their familistic themes are therefore discussed. The analysis shows that even before the beginning of the pontificate, there was a distinct focus on the marriage and family, which was revealed both in his practical pastoral work and in the themes of his educational, theological, philosophical and fictional writings. After becoming Pope, John Paul II continued to maintain this priority and devoted much of his written and unwritten activities to the pastoral care and current affairs of the family, detailing the tasks of the family in the society and the church, and highlighting its social and theological foundations. Through his teaching, he formed the concept of the family as a “civilization of love” encompassing different generations, which becomes especially relevant in today’s sociocultural context experiencing the consequences of pathological individualism.

This article analyses relationship between theological since and psychology. Bible’s and Catholic Church teaching regarding person’s dignity, free will and equality are presented. From that perspective analysed methods used by representatives of cognitive and experience psychology schools in process of spiritual – psychological counselling. Spiritual counselling is understood as open to religious feeling (faith) relationship between too persons or between person and the group. Church, by proclaiming Gospel, brings hope to the people, gives meaning to the life and death, love and suffering, brings existential foundation to the daily life. Such spiritual counselling gives truthful assessment of the person’s situation and helps to see in the light of faith, meaning that the person is helped by the spiritual counsellor to go throe crisis situation getting strength from the faith. Article gives special notice to the personal faith of the counsellor and its importance in his service. Counsellor wile using different psychological methods should fill them with Christian approach to the human person, and by doing so help ones who find them selves in crisis or trying to find answers to the existential questions of life’s meaning. Every psychology school has it methods to understand and to help human persons. Article takes special notice of the cognitive and experience psychology schools and their methods and how they treat human person looking from the Christian perspective of human dignity, his freedom of will and unconditional worth in it self. It is noticed special need to see human as person created by God, seeking to see him more than a victim of circumstances or a person afflicted by different fears and complexes.

Typology is a rich strand of biblical interpretation, present in both the Old and New Testaments. It reveals the deepest truth about Jesus Christ as the Merciful Saviour. Biblical typology illuminates the consistent fulfilment of God’s salvatory plan. This article depicts the story of Joseph, son of Israel, from the Old Testament as a prototype of forgiveness corresponding to Jesus Christ’s forgiving and salvatory activity in the New Testament. The parallel between Joseph and Jesus displays the development of forgiveness in the stories of the Old and New Testaments. This article presents fourteen typological parallels between Joseph and Jesus revealing the course of salvatory forgiveness.