Klaipėdos universitetas

In the article we analyse the approach to the family, fatherhood and motherhood presented in Roman Catholic theology. We analyse the period after the Second Vatican Council, and discuss the new opportunities for theological knowledge and analysis, in order to see how a unified approach to man and the family, and how the creation of a relationship with God is developed through the family. We analyse how, by understanding who a person is, we can find answers to questions of the meaning of life, as well as the discovery of the perfection of parenthood. We ask how the question of God and religious knowledge can serve to spread human love in the family.

The article presents the phenomenon of the existential loneliness of elderly people. The concept of existential loneliness is analysed from philosophical, theological, psychological and sociological points of view. The existential loneliness of elderly people is treated as a social problem that begins with a decrease in social abilities and individual differences. Signs of existential loneliness and methods of recognition are presented.

In the article, we analyse the natural right of parents to raise their children, the law arising from their being natural parents and bringing children into the world. We make an analysis of the problematical understanding of natural law and rights. These form not only the point of view of the right education and the educational powers of separate individuals (parents), but also of all of society and the state. We analyse the challenges to the modern Western world which questions the ability of parents to raise their children in the best and most acceptable way to them. We delve deeper into the pre-Christian understanding of natural rights and laws exposed in the reflections and conceptual understanding of the Ancient philosophers, as well as the Christian approach in understanding the natural law and rights of parents on the understanding of children’s education, analysing and understanding the guidelines presented by the Pontifical Council for the Family, and looking at the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church’s concept of education.

We will analyse the cultural phenomenon as a product created by human genius. We will ask how works the interaction of culture and human life today and how cultural transformation influences the process of modelling perceptions of man himself. We will analyse how the cultural perception of what is “normal” or what is “value” is replaced by what is pleasant and useful. How a new concept of normality and value is created. We are creating a society on the foundation of exceptions without borders or a respectful and tolerant society?

A man living in an ultramodern society is increasingly questioning the meaning of his own existence, which is closely related to the finding of the answer of his own identity and the understanding of his place in the family and the society. In this process the very important place goes to the question of males self-realization in the labor market and to the way how a woman enters in to the labor market. The relationship between these two protagonists – the man and the woman – and the correlation of that relationship is what brings the man or the father to identity crises. The influence of the labor market is one of the most important factors contributing to identity crises in the sphere of been a male and in the sphere of being a woman. In this article we will analyse the changes of the ultramodern society, which have their connection with the transformations in the labor market and their influence on the men and the fathers of the ultramodern society.

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.