Mokslo ir tikėjimo dialogai. Tiltai. Priedas: Mokslo darbai

Research into the specificity of the personal and artistic formation of the contemporary composer Victor Stepurko based on material from the early stage of his work is relevant. It is important to research not only specific issues from the personal side of his artistic growth, but also those that present themselves to Ukrainian society as a whole: the revival of traditions and the awareness of originality at a national level. In the wider context of European art, these features mark the stylistic specifics of Stepurko’s choral music.

The article deals with the attitude to Protestantism in the post-soviet Russia. Formation of Protestantism in Russia can be considered in the present paper. Thus, the purposes of this research are to examine formation of Protestantism in Russia, to analyze attitude of Russians to Protestantism and to identify its reasons. The author’s periodization of Protestantism formation in Russia is proposed. This periodization is based on 3 criteria: types of Protestants activities at each stage; the government’s attitude to it; its functions. It is shown that the establishment of the Russian Protestantism version took five basic steps. In modern Russia, Protestantism has its own history, values it gained its traditions, and it has its own distinctive character. Protestant churches are ready to actively participate in solving the pressing issues facing the people of the country. The authors suggest that the most authoritative of them can and should acquire the status of social partners of state institutions and significantly contribute to the spiritual and moral education of young people, to overcoming child homelessness and neglect, to family strengthening, to improvement of moral atmosphere in society and to the formation of high standards of business, economic and work ethic. The positive development of this process and its dynamics are largely dependent on Russian Protestants consolidation and on their willingness and ability to develop and strengthen interfaith relations and cooperation. According to the article, the attitude of most Russians to Protestantism is largely negative, although most of them have friends or acquaintances among the followers of this religion. The reasons for this are stereotypes in the public opinion of Russians: about the church itself (simplification of ceremonies, of the Bible, of the decoration of the church), and about the personal qualities of the congregation (the rejection of community service and charity, lack of citizenship).

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.

Spirituality is a basic human drive with diverse forms of expression that make for unique patterns of thinking consonant with an advanced level of cognition and integration of information. The paper features the Humanistic Spirituality Model, which captures the essential dimensions of humanistic spirituality through three components: self-actualisation, transcendence and ultimate meaning in life. The Humanistic Spirituality Inventory (HSI), a measure of spirituality developed on the basis of the Humanistic Spirituality Model, contains three scales corresponding to the three model components. According to the results of the HSI validation study (N = 331), the instrument has good psychometric properties, i.e. adequate content and construct validity as well as satisfactory internal consistency and test-retest reliabilities, which makes it a proper spirituality research measure.

In this article I will use my experience with Native American cultures and religions to offer an alternative perspective on Lithuanian paganism. I will compare the definitions, methodology, and politics in the studies of indigenous Baltic and Native American religions, or spirituality and belief systems. In order to understand the situation of Lithuanian paganism, I employ two perspectives: a viewpoint of a “native” Lithuanian combined with the anthropology of “Native” North America. I also argued for the need of interdisciplinary perspectives on a cultural phenomenon. Collaboration of cultural anthropologists, ethno-musicologists, social scientists, historians, and archaeologists would provide the richness of sources, methodologies, and theoretical perspectives on Lithuanian paganism. I also emphasized the need for more fieldwork, especially qualitative, in order to include the indigenous views, stories and contexts. It is also paramount that the scholars of Baltic Studies as a new anthropological school remain open to their re-search outcome and experiment with various methodologies and perspectives, learn from other ethno-graphic examples and apply that experience to the unique local Baltic situation.