Mokslo ir tikėjimo dialogai

The central principle and goal of Christian life is the lifelong pursuit of Christ-likeness in our thinking and our relationships with people and the world. People are called to grow, to celebrate, to seek true friendship with God in their present life situation. The essence of holiness, the fullness of the Christian life, is union with Christ, living his mysteries, which is possible in every situation of life. The period of widowhood is painful, but it is an invitation to purify oneself inwardly, to grow in love, and to serve one’s neighbours and all other members of the Church and of society. This is the origin of the spirituality of widowhood, a holiness based on faith. Widows can contribute to the holiness of the Church by living in God’s grace, by accepting and managing their situation psychologically, and by giving themselves up to God and to others. Widows often experience the loss of a spouse as an irreversible fact, a loss that matures them, so that, in the light of their faith, they are able to adapt to the changed reality and rebuild their lives.

Present social and personal spiritual crises make it necessary to actualize the significance of a personal return to God. The Church invites to evaluate again the importance of religious conversion in preventing various social and personal spiritual pathologies. In this context, discussion and specification of a multidimensional phenomenon of religious conversion is problematic. Following the objectives of the Church to deepen the faith and renew evangelisation, this research aims to answer the following scientific questions: what are the typical features of a religious conversion? What are the factors that can influence the dynamics of this process? What are the changes a personal religious conversion may inspire? This article presents a theoretical analysis of a phenomenon of conversion. The research has shown that personal transformation and existential fulfillment of one’s personal life is an essential meaning of a religious conversion. Religion performs a positive psychotherapeutic function, it gives a meaning to a human existence and contributes to a personal maturity, also leads to a wholesome relationship with God where the meaning of human existence is completely fulfilled. Religious conversion may be considered as one of the fundamental elements of a spiritual health within the context of the present life challenges.

The article analyzes the Christian Church in the first centuries of controversy about the divine mercy and understanding of the operation in the believer’s life. Briefly reviewing the biblical teaching about the divine grace. Highlights the key terms in the Old and New Testaments. It reviews the doctrines of grace in the origins of Gnostic Manichean sects. Discussion about the operation of the grace of one of the greatest the echoes reached the Pelagius and St. Augustine teachings. Their doctrine, especially Augustine, centuries later influenced the development of the Catholic doctrine of grace for the individual man and for the whole Church. Augustine understood the divine grace of anthropological perspectives as a new relationship with God through Jesus Christ’s saving event. This relationship is just a pure gift from God, given to everyone who has faith in the Savior. By their nature the man deserves such a gift, so it is in vain received grace, leads man to the justification, and thus to eternal salvation.

In the article the paradigm of traditional public administration is analysed by trying to accomplish the critique of the model in the cultural dimension direction and by identifying the crucial elements of post-modernism which, according to the authors, had made an impact for the formation of such a model. There are also revealed the parameters of post-modernism in metanarrative theories of rationality, as the grounded technological and instrumental relation towards traditional paradigm principles by stressing the hierarchical governance, bureaucratic relations, control mechanisms, rational organisational structure and functional division with professionalism. By identifying the main traits of traditional paradigm, the aspects and tendencies of post-modernist organisations are revealed and the controversial answer to the question about the relevance of traditional public administration model is presented.

In contemporary society the new organizational forms take pace, which enable individuums to form some kind of common identities by reaching consumers communities. Consumerism is the main feature of such communities, which may be called as certain “tribes” with their values and they develop as capitalist system deepens and widens. Postmodernism creates such cultural environment, which forms “tribal marketing” phenomena as mobilizing different groups for the more developed, clearly defined and specific consumption. The authors in the article seek to reveal the impact of postmodernist consumerism to the formation of “tribal marketing” and the development of this phenomena vice/versa.