Auswahl der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Thema „Man-woman relationships – Religious aspects – Christianity“

Innokenty Gizel played a prominent role in cultural and religious movements in Ukrainian lands in the middle of the 17th century. However, the life and work of this church figure, writer, philosopher and theologian remained out of the attention of researchers for a long time. The same can be said about the treatise «Peace with God to a Man», published with the blessing of Innokenty Gizel and under his editorship. The treatise «Peace with God for a Man» should be considered as an exposition of religious and moral norms inherent in Christianity. By religious morality we mean a set of concepts and principles that are conditioned by a religious worldview. Religious morality is interpreted as having a divine origin. However, its norms depend in a certain way on socio-cultural circumstances. This is what is substantiated in the treatise «Peace with God to a Man». A lot of attention is paid to the problems of good and evil, moral virtues and vices, sinfulness, as well as moral duty. Such an orientation was intended to expand the range of cultural assets that could be used by the Orthodox. As a rule, researchers consider the treatise «Peace with God to a Man» and the work of Innokenty Gizel in general in the context of Ukrainian Baroque culture. In the treatise «Peace with God for a Man», Innokenty Gizel gives a broad classification of sins as moral defects, which are interpreted from a theological point of view. In the foreground are sins of a religious or purely ecclesiastical nature. Then there are sins that concern worldly life, in particular, family relationships, the activities of people of various statuses and professions. It is worth noting that it is generally problematic to clearly distinguish the religious and secular components in the interpretation of sins in the treatise «Peace with God to a Husband». Considering religious and ecclesiastical sins, Innokenty Gisel, despite referring to the Bible and the works of the Fathers of the Church, relies on the realities of life in Ukraine at that time. When analyzing universal (common) sins, he appeals not only to his contemporary realities, but also to church tradition, and emphasizes religious aspects. Innokenty Gisel assumed that the basis of social relations is the family. In the treatise «Peace with God for a Husband» a lot of attention is paid to family sins. Giving preference to the patriarchal family, he still advocated the humane attitude of men to women, for harmonious moral relations. The treatise pays attention to children, their upbringing, instilling in them good customs and faith in God. The main social force in the treatise «Peace with God to a Man» is the Orthodox clergy. It is structured, divided into bishops and monks. The main mass is white parish clergy. Innokenty Gisel knew well the life of the Ukrainian Orthodox clergy, the violations and defects inherent in its environment. When describing the sins of spiritual persons, he relied mainly on the realities of his time. I understood that the clergy, being influenced by trade and market relations, increasingly began to «serve mammon». Innokenty Gisel describes the sins of the worldly people separately for each condition. He draws attention to the fact that those in power treat their subjects humanely. He calls on the representatives of the social classes to respect the authorities and their masters, not to raise riots or uprisings.

In this paper the author analyzes the influence of Christianity on society. There will be demonstrated that through its structure, man was created to live in the community. He discovers himself by relating to the world surrounding him, as it is argued by Martin Heidegger, and Martin Buber. Here we also include the relationship with the transcendent. The philosophical and sociological arguments help us understand the influence Christianity had on European society. The religion of the European nations had a strong influence on the civilization of the continent and the world. Researchers have come to the conclusion that man was created with an innate religious feeling. Rudolf Otto sought to demonstrate that man's religious experience can only be explained by the aprioric existence of the sacred. So did Mircea Eliade, who introduced a new term "hierophany" to define the act of experiencing the sacred. There were also researchers who reinterpreted the relationship with the sacred. Emile Durkheim argued that ultimately, religion in its present form will be replaced by a so-called "civic religion," which will replace religious services in churches. Accepting the perspective of Scripture, the author tries to show the idea of the presence of Divinity in the believer's life (John 14:15-26). Jurgen Moltman asserts that if society were to enter the process of Christ's discipleship, she would discover the divine alternatives that bring the long-awaited results. Max Weber argued that Christian religion, and especially the sects of Protestantism, had a decisive role in influencing the culture and civilization of modern Europe, and the world at large. From his point of view, the decision of man in capitalist society to make a great effort in his work, has a religious motivation, namely, the doctrine of predestination. Considering that the moral and theological dimension of Christianity lies at the root of human significance, Christians struggle to defend the revealed message. A good example is given by Francis Schaeffer, who in his book Trilogy pleads to preserve the traditional moral values of the Bible. Schaeffer attempts to link the idea of revelation, as it is presented in the Christian Bible, with the discovering of man's significance.

The relevance of studying the features of the meaning regulation of a person is due to the need to describe the mechanisms of the formation of meanings under the influence of cultural, social, historical and ideological aspects of his life. The authors present a theoretical analysis of the features of the formation of the system of personal meanings of people belonging to Western and Eastern Christianity. The purpose of the article is to identify the cultural and confessional factors of psychological differences in adaptive and preadaptive meaning regulation that exist among representatives of the Catholic and Orthodox branches of the Christian world. The paper analyzes the influence of various cultural and confessional factors on the meaning regulation of representatives of Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Catholicism and Orthodoxy, as the western and eastern branches of Christianity, have corresponding differences in the field of religious priorities: God's descent to earth at Christmas and likening to man against the divine Resurrection as a sacrifice for man; worldview: anthropocentrism against сhristocentrism; epistemological views: logical analysis and materialistic rationalism of the intellect and against the sacred unity of the relationship between man and nature; value attitudes: acceptance of one's imperfection against the desire for a divine prototype; cultural priorities: welfare versus sanctity; ethical beliefs: primacy of individual rights versus duties to the soul's conscience; social identities: self-affirmation based on law versus religious humility before spiritual precepts; political preferences: individual freedom versus the common good; legal concepts: legal contract versus moral union. Based on the analysis of the scientific works presented in this study, it is proposed to consider the cultural and confessional features of Catholicism as correlating mainly with the adaptive orientation of meaning-forming strategies, and Orthodoxy as correlating mainly with the preadaptive orientation of meaning-forming strategies.

The philosophy of Western monasticism was born on the fringes of the official Church, especially when the Church had just become imperial. The search for a lived space referenced in the symbolism of the desert and for an ideal Christianity was also influenced by the hagiography of St. Anthony, in a broad space-time relationship. Athanasius of Alexandria, the Coptic bishop, when faced with the embryonic counterfeits of the friction between Church and State, projects in Vita Antoni an ideal presupposition of being Christian as humanity. This anthropological symbolism will crystallize in a trajectory of lived space and time, directly influencing Western civilization from an idealism that develops as a materiality and phenomenon in the deserts: the monasteries and the fuga mundi lifestyle. In the late period of the history of religions, a "father of the church" emerges who boldly describes the nuances of the pious character of the one who will one day be considered the father of monks, St. Anthony. This proposal analyzes the phenomenon of fuga mundi and its articulation with the locality of the monastery, from the perspective of Athanasius of Alexandria, with reference to the biography of Saint Anthony, observing its practical manifestations and how this enunciation occurred in the geohistory of Western Christianity, as well as identifying how this symbolic perspective influenced the Christian religious tradition. The methodology used in this work was applied research, using as a method the systematic analysis of the work of Athanasius of Alexandria and the hagiography present on St. Anthony, considering the evidence of socio-anthropological and symbolic aspects and the scientific convergence of geography, philosophy and the science of religion as an analytical proposal that unites categories such as space, time and being.

Marriage is not just a bond between men and women, but the inner bond between a man and a woman based on the One and Only God. This research was a philosophical normative, thus the approaches used were philosophical, normative, and historical. Besides, a qualitative-descriptive strategy was used in finding a depth description of the law politics of interfaith marriage regulation in Indonesia based on the the 1974 Marriage Law. The results show that the interfaith marriage is not regulated in the 1974 Marriage Law, because: First, the rejection of the majority of Muslims and the faction in Parliament because the interfaith marriage is against the aqidah (matters of faith) of Islam; Second, the interfaith marriage is contrary to the marriage culture in Indonesia, because marriage contains legal, sociology and religious aspects; Third, the interfaith marriage is contrary to the theological teachings of religions in Indonesia that do not want interfaith marriages, such as Islam, Christianity, Protestantism, Hinduism and Buddhism. Furthermore, the interfaith marriage is inconsistent with the philosophical purposes of marriage in Indonesia where the purpose of marriage forms a happy and eternal family based on the One Supreme God.

My first reaction to this eminent book of collected articles and lectures givenby Professor Ismail Raji al-Faruqi is one of frustration that I was not able tomeet the man. He died in 1986. I would have loved to have known him, for Ifound in reading this book that so many of his thoughts and ideas coincidedwith my own hopes concerning the future of Islam and its relationship with theother peoples of the Book, especially the Christians. I was a Christian theolegian and teacher until my conversion to Islam in 1986.Professor Ismail's book provides a good cross-section of his contribution tothe study of comparative religion and covers a wide spectrum of interreligiousissues, spanning more than two decades of his work. Essays which deal directlywith other faiths, Christianity and Judaism in particular, were specificallyselected but they should be seen against the background of his huge contributionto the study of religions through his many other eminent publications.Here, the volume concentrates on those aspects of Islam which the Ahl al-Kitab(the People of the Book) have in common rather than their differences.I have long felt that this was the correct way forward. As a former Christianwho initially came to Islam by studying the teachings of Jesus rather than theQur'an, I was always aware of the commonality of the faith and its development through the prophets of Judaism to Christianity, to its deviation throughTrinitarianism, and through the Prophet of Islam who was sent to bring newunderstanding of Tawhid and the way to find the Straight Path to God.Therefore, I was horrified and disturbed when I ran into the walls of hostilityand misunderstanding from all sides-particularly the hostility of Muslimstoward Christians and Jews, theological hostilities and racist ones, too. Muchof this was and is caused by the complete ignorance of the practicing membersof one faith for the others, a situation that will still take years to remedy.However, scholars such as Professor Ismail are trailblazers in this field, and Irepeat my disappointment that I missed knowing him personally.He was a Palestinian, born in 1921, and graduated from the AmericanUniversity of Beirut in 1941; he served as District Governor of Galilee inPalestine. He left Galilee as a refugee in 1948 when Palestine was partitioned; ...

Full TextIn contemporary, North American society, what it means to be ‘human’ is often taken for granted; in other words, ‘humanness’ is usually accepted as a readily knowable, uncomplicated and stable aspect of social reality. Ivone Gebara argues that because we believe that we already know the meaning of ‘humanness,’ reflecting on this notion often appears to be of little interest, need or value. “Since we imagine that everyone already knows what a [‘human’] is, we might have the feeling that we are wasting our time on notions that are already familiar, and that we ought to be seeking solutions to the urgent problems that [currently] face us” (Gebara, 1999: 67). Like Gebara, I argue that the concept of ‘human,’ is not ‘natural,’ stable or straightforward, rather it is a culturally-specific and historical invention, one intimately implicated within contemporary, environmental problems. In other words, although the category of human is often understood as readily comprehensible and fundamentally elevated above, and detached from, nature and ‘more-thanhuman’I beings, I maintain that the human subject is positioned within what I will term ‘the web of life,’ that is, the worldwide, ecological community which encompasses both human and more-than-human subjects. I believe the term, ‘becoming’ is a useful adjective to describe the human; becoming allows us to consider the human not as a natural or stable entity, but as one which is emerging and transforming in relation to environmental and social contexts. As a being situated within an ecological web of life, the human is not distinct from nature and more-than-human animals, but exists and changes in continuous relation to them. Long before the onset of European colonization of what is now considered North America, various dualisms permeated the European, historical imagination. Within this worldview, aspects of these dichotomies were understood to exist in fundamental distinction from one another; that is, not only were divisions of each dualism conceptualized as inherently disconnected and independent, but one aspect of each dichotomy was always understood as naturally and intrinsically superior to the other. Sallie McFague argues that the primary dualism within this imagination was the conceptualization of ‘reason’ and ‘nature’ as fundamentally distinct entities, in which reason was positioned in hierarchical relation to nature. However, this dichotomy has been broadened to represent, incorporate and interconnect with multiple other dichotomies, including, spirit/body, male/female, reason/ emotion, and human/nature (McFague, 1997: 88). According to McFague, “the [reason/nature] dualism illuminates most of the other dualisms: whatever falls on the top side of a dualism has connections with ‘reason,’ and whatever falls on the bottom side is seen as similar to ‘nature’” (1997: 88). In this sense, the projection of these constructions onto seemingly-different aspects of reality, including ‘different’ bodies, functioned to hierarchically organize both European society and the universe at large. It is important to recognize that because these dualisms were constructions of a very particular and ethnocentric group within European history, namely elite, white men, such subjects were also imagined to embody the superior aspects of various dichotomies; in other words, characteristics associated with reason were presumed to adhere to white, European males (McFague, 1997: 88). Within this imagination, the rational capacities and spiritual natures of white, masculine and European humans were imagined to prevent them from being confined by or to their bodies, or influenced by emotional or sexual responses. Importantly, because such racialized and gendered subjects were the only subjects envisioned to embody these and other superior dimensions of various dualisms, white, European men were positioned as the ideal modes of humanness within a great chain of being. In this sense, as the white, European masculine subject was assumed to embody humanness, subjects who were constructed to embody the opposing dimensions of these dichotomies were regarded as his nonhuman Others. Arguably, as the human was constructed to embody whiteness, masculinity and European ancestry, his Other may be regarded as the colonized, non-white woman. Through her gendered, racialized and cultural difference from the human, she was constructed to embody characteristics he did not. According to this dualistic relationship of interconnected difference(s), because she embodied matter, or solely bodily existence, she possesses neither inherent consciousness nor spirituality allowed by such consciousness. Because she was conceptualized as the Other to the sole, normative human, she was categorized as nonhuman. In this sense, it may be recognized how there has existed a significant, conceptual connection between non-white women and nature, as both were understood as nonhuman material beings in relation to the European, white man, who was presumed to embody true humanness. Through this ideology of the normative human subject, women and nature are conceptually demoted to a subordinate position because of what they are assumed to be (Primavesi, 1991: 142). However, this connection between nature and Aboriginal women is not only ideological: because both are regarded to exist in solely material form, and therefore to lack spiritual natures or capacities for consciousness, various manifestations of colonial violence against both nature and Aboriginal women have been historically disregarded, undermined or recognized as justified. This construction of the masculine human subject as the one who alone inhabits higher realms of reason and spirit served to legitimize and stabilize future social and religious structures of subordination and dominance. Women and nature have been placed under male domination and rule by the compelling and authoritative force of this prevailing ideology (Primavesi, 1991: 142-147). Within contemporary, North American academe, this historical, European construction of the human has been greatly interrogated, denaturalized and critiqued by postcolonial, critical race and psychoanalytic theorists, including Frantz Fanon and Sylvia Wynter, among many others. Within their theories, great energy is focused on how the articulation of humanness has, and continues to affect subjects who have been historically excluded by this rigid definition at the level of social, emotional, psychic and bodily realities. These theorists are correct in their assertions that the purpose of the human construction was to reduce the modes of being, embodied by nonwhite and non-European/nonwestern subjects, in order to elevate the mode of being embodied by their cultural Others. However, it must be recognized that there exists a subtle, but continued, hierarchical and dualistic relationship between human and nonhuman within these theories. Not only do human beings continue to be understood as stably and inherently different from nonhuman beings, principally animals, but human experiences of colonial violence, and therefore, human modes of being, are essentially recognized as more significant than the modes of being and lived realities of more-than-human beings. In fact, as the conflation of racialized humans with more-thanhumans is articulated as undermining the violence experienced by such human subjects, violence against animals and nature, in such forms as human invasion, objectification, exploitation and voracious consumption, is disregarded as violence per se. Gebara calls this trend an anthropocentric “hierarchicalizing of knowing [that actually] runs parallel to the hierarchicalizing of society, [which is] itself a characteristic of the patriarchal world” (1999: 25). In this sense, within such criticism, there is an attempt to destabilize one conception of the boundary between human and nonhuman, while a second human/nonhuman dualism is (re)produced and supported; ultimately, the traditional border, employed in colonial fantasies to distinguish what counts as (a) human and what does not, is kept intact. These attempts to distinguish the human, along with having a colonial genealogy, are built on the assumption of a distinct sphere in which humans act, and blind to ideas of significant interconnection and interdependence: dimensions of each dualism are considered not only unrelated to, but to actually oppose, one another. However, each element of social reality is constructed in relation to others; in other words, every aspect of each dichotomy involves a reference to that which is supposedly opposite, distinct from, or Other to, the primary category (See Hewitt Suchocki, 1982). In this sense, all aspects of the dichotomies require reference beyond them in order to develop as intelligible categories and, therefore, cannot be understood, or even exist, outside the relationships within which they are implicated (Hewitt Suchocki, 1982: 6—7). More importantly, there are material interrelationships that are not captured by these dichotomies. As an example we can think of contemporary environmental threats, such as global warming and Colony Collapse Disorder in North America, that illustrate how humans are not ultimately separate from nature, but dependent on it for our survival, and that ‘natural’ phenomena has the potential to powerfully and disastrously affect humans. In this sense, it must be recognized that there is danger within denial: by assuming that we are not part of nature, we ultimately deny the significance of ecological problems on their own bodies and lived realities. However, I think it necessary at this point to remark on the (neo)colonial anthropo-centrism within many conceptions of human/nature relationality. Similar to the consciousness of more-than-human animals, when ecological problems are recognized as problems per se, and especially, when such issues are recognized to transcend the human/nature divide and create an impact in the lives of humans, such problems tend to be understood in human terms. In other words, nature often becomes the subject of human attention, concern, and care when humans acknowledge the fact that we are intimately related to, and ultimately dependent on, the earth for our survival and wellbeing, and that by abusing and destroying nature and more-than-human subjects, humans ultimately bring about their own destruction. Although within such types of care, the interrelatedness among all beings within the web of life is recognized, such care for nature often develops because humans fear the effects of environmental disasters on our lives, and not because we genuinely care about the lives and wellbeing of Other creatures or the earth, in and of themselves. And even within environmental concerns, the recognition of the interrelatedness of all living subjects often leads to a hierarchy of environmental issues. Within conceptions of human/ more-than-human relations, there is often a hierarchy of environmental issues and social issues, including the (neo)colonial treatment of humans outside the dominant, white, European/western man as nonhuman, strengthening the conceptual disconnect between these human and more-than-human. These aspects of environmental interrelatedness must be regarded as not only anthropocentric, but violent, contemporary manifestations of the historically-dominant, European construction of the normative and viable human subject. In this sense, it is evident that a new consciousness must emerge. Humans must begin to recognize that, as Paula Gunn Allen states, “we are the land… the land and the people are the same… The earth is the source of being of the people and we are equally the being of the earth. The land is not really a place separate from ourselves… The land is not a mere source of survival, distant from the creatures it nurtures” (Allen, as quoted in Christ, 1997: 114). Christ employs the term ‘interdependence’ in order to characterize the connection between all beings in the web of life. Yet the word interdependence must be used cautiously, for although humans are dependent on nature, animals, plants and other more-than-humans, as well as other humans for our survival, the earth is not reciprocally dependent on humans. In fact, the presence of (certain) humans on the earth has historically prevented, and continues to threaten, the flourishing and wellbeing of Others, including both human and more-than-human beings within the web of life. In this sense, concepts such as interdependence undermine the reality of power relations that exist between and among different modes of being, including human relationships and those between humans and nature. For this reason, ecofeminists’ use the notion interdependence to illustrate that humans are not separate from, but intimately implicated within, the natural world. This concept helps to demonstrate that “‘human’ beings are essentially relational and interdependent. We are tied to [‘human’ and ‘more-than-human’] Others from the moment of birth to the moment of death. Our lives are dependent in more ways than we can begin to imagine on support and nurture from the web of life, from the earth body” (Christ, 1997: 136). Because the interdependent relation between human subjects and the earth is conceptualized as so intimate, human actions can have significant, and often disastrous effects on nature. However, the agency and power of nature in creating significant phenomena in the lived realities, societies and experiences of humans must also be recognized. This concept destabilizes colonial, western (and gendered) conceptions of the earth as a passive object, to be owned, harnessed, excavated and harvested in order to increase the economic and social flourishing of humans. In other words, the notion of interdependence demonstrates that humans are also affected by more-than-human lives, and that the earth is not a passive, receptive instrument to be exploited by and for human cultures. Examples such as decreased air quality and Colony Collapse Disorder illustrate the power of the earth to violently fight back against human abuse in order to protect itself. In order for a more life-affirming, harmonious relationship between the natural world and human beings to emerge and, therefore, in order to ensure the survival of all beings within the web of life, what ultimately needs to emerge is a new conception of the relationship between human and more-than-human life. McFague proposes the notion of subject-subjects relations, which encompasses a radical and life-affirming way of transforming this hierarchical relationship. According to this model, human subjects must relate to nature as a subject. While recognizing their own intrinsic relation to Other subjects, grounded in their interconnection within the web of life, human subjects must recognize morethan- human subjects’ own intrinsic value and right to live, quite apart from human interests and lives. In other words, we must recognize the otherness of morethan- humans, yet simultaneously feel a connection and recognize an affinity with such subjects. This connection “underscores both radical unity and radical individuality. It suggests a different, basic sensibility for all our knowing and doing and a different kind of know-ink and doing… It says: ‘I am a subject and live in a world of many other different subjects’” (McFague, 1997: 38). According to McFague, this will involve “the loving eye [as well as] the other senses, for it moves the eye from the mind (and the heavens) to the body (and the earth). It will result in an embodied kind of knowledge of other subjects who, like ourselves, occupy specific bodies in specific locations on this messy, muddy, wonderful, complex, mysterious earth” (Mc Fague, 1997: 36). Practicing this type of relationship will implicitly and explicitly embody a radical challenge to what it has historically meant to be both a human and nonhuman subject. It will require an erosion of the imagined boundary, grounded in the perception of difference, between human and nature, and the other, interconnected dichotomies within the European, colonial, historical imagination. It will also involve re-valuing the both sides of classic western dualisms as significant and worthy in and of themselves. This type of relationship will necessitate the erosion of concepts such as intrinsic inferiority and superiority, and potentially end the embodied and lived power relations that such concepts sanction. Perhaps most importantly, the subject-subjects relationship will allow a new understanding of the relations between all beings within the web of life to emerge; the human, that is, the normative, white, European man of the (neo)colonial imagination, and the human of the human/nature dichotomy, and his wellbeing, subjectivity, knowledge and mode of being, will be displaced of from the dominant center. Beginning to recognize and relate to more-thanhumans as subjects will inevitably represent a strong challenge to the coherence of the traditional, anthropocentric, colonial paradigm. The fantasy of humans as the sole, normative subjects within the universe has historically, and continues to provide powerful senses of security and identity to many of us; we are therefore deeply attached to this conception of humanness. However, in order for a more life affirming, harmonious relationship between the natural world and human beings to emerge, we must begin to practice such models within all of our relationships, including relationships with more-than-human beings and other human subjects. Such an endeavor is crucial for the flourishing, and ultimately, the survival of all beings within the web of life. Bibliography Christ, Carol P (1997). Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality. California, Massachusetts and New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing. Gebara, Ivone (1999). Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Hewitt Suchocki, Marjorie (1982). “Why a Relational Theology?” In God, Christ, Church: A Practical Guide to Process Theology. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 3-11. McFague, Sallie (1997). Super, Natural Christians: How We Should Love Nature. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Primavesi, Anne (1991). From Apocalypse to Genesis: Ecology, Feminism and Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. i The term, ‘more-than-human’ will be used in place of the term, ‘nonhuman’ in certain areas within this paper. For a number of reasons, I believe the former term is more appropriate. Firstly, nonhuman carries connotations of difference from an explicitly human norm, and a related sense of deficiency and deviance. For this reason, I will employ nonhuman in areas in which I describe traditional, colonial human perceptions of more-than-humans. However, I believe that more-than-human conveys a sense that there literally exists significantly more than simply human realities in the world. More-than-human is also more comprehensive than related terms, such as animals or nature, as it can encompass many diverse expressions of realities, experiences and subject(ivitie)s that transcend traditional constructions of humanness.

Since Simone de Beauvoir published The Second Sex in 1949, feminist analysis has tended to assume that the conditions of male normativity—reducing woman to the merely excluded "Other" of man—holds true in the experience of all women, not the least, women in the context of Christian praxis and theology. Beauvoir's powerful analysis—showing us how problematic it is to establish a position outside patriarchy's dominance of our conceptual fields—has helped to explain the resilience of sexism and forms of male violence that continue to diminish and destroy women's lives because they cannot be seen as questionable. It has also, I would argue, had the unintended consequence of intensifying the sense of limitation, so that it becomes problematic to account for the work and lives of effective, innovative and responsible women in these contexts. In order to address this problematic issue, I use the life and work of novelist Michèle Roberts, as a case study in female genius within an interdisciplinary field, in order to acknowledge the conditions that have limited a singular woman's literary and theological aspirations but also to claim that she is able to give voice to something creative of her own. The key concept of female genius within this project draws on Julia Kristeva's notion of being a subject without implicitly excluding embodiment and female desire as in normative male theology, or in notions of genius derived from Romanticism. Roberts' work as a writer qualifies her as female genius in so far as it challenges aspects of traditional Christianity, bringing to birth new relationships between theological themes and scriptural narratives without excluding her singular female desires and pleasures as a writer. This paper—as part of a more inclusive, historical survey of the work of women writers crossing the disciplinary boundaries between literature and Christian theology over the last several centuries also asks whether, in order to do proper justice to the real and proven limitations imposed on countless women in these fields across global and historical contexts, we need, at the same time, to reduce the Christian tradition to something that is always antithetical or for which women can take absolutely no credit or bear no responsibility.

This paper presents the topical issue of the role of aggressive domestic and foreign policy of the German rulers of the XIII century. According to the plot of the epic poem «Kudrun», at the heart of the aggressive domestic and foreign policy of the German rulers is a global conflict involving man and the world, people and their religious worldview, the hierarchy of relations of the individual, wildlife and descendants of the «elite», king, queen and the authority of the church, upbringing and education, the beauty of a young woman and the hostility of a man, the jealousy of a brave old king-father and the cruelty of an elderly woman-queen-mother, and so on. Oppositions are also found in the categories of «one’s own» and «foreign», good and evil, old and new, earthly and unearthly, material and ideal, perfect and imperfect, living and inanimate, free from slavery and enslaved, bodily, mental and spiritual, mind and emotions. There is a bifurcation of the whole objective world into its physical existence and meaning. At the same time, the ideal behavior of knights is transformed – the support of German kings. There are relationships – «knight – thief, robber», «knight – barbarian», «knight – animal». Aggressive human behavior as a social being has a moral character. In the question of immorality, the medial man is influenced by ancient psychology, paganism and Christianity. The aim of the article is to identify German language units with the meaning of aggression in the Middle Ages. The study used deductive, structural-semantic, logical-semantic, contextual analysis, the method of linguistic description and analysis of dictionary definitions. The results of the study include clarification of the concept of «aggression», tracing its semantic content in time, highlighting the system of language units such as word, proper name, phrase (free and permanent), sentence (simple, complex, complex, combined, supra-phrase unity) and elucidation of the peculiarities of the formation of the phenomenon. It has been proven that aggression can be natural or artificial. Natural aggression is characteristic of the element of water, wild animals and man as a biological being, artificial – man as a social being and supernatural beings who embody evil.Aggression correlates with gender, age and culture: a man is aggressive at any age and in any culture, a woman – only in old age, being in the status of a mother who wishes her child a happy fate and being a foreigner. We conclude that the concept of aggression in medieval Germany is associated primarily with extralinguistic factors (religion, domestic and foreign policy, social, economic and cultural-historical development), refracted verbally by the author of the epic poem «Kudrun».Key words: the Middle ages, aggression, man, animal, element, word, proper name, phrase, sentence. Статтю присвячено актуальній проблемі щодо ролі агресивної внутрішньої і зовнішньої політики германських можновладців ХІІІ ст. Згідно з фабулою епічної поеми «Кудруна», в підвалинах агресивної внутрішньої і зовнішньої політики германських можновладців лежить глобальний конфлікт, що включає в себе людину і навколишній світ, людей і їхній релігійний світогляд, ієрархію стосунків індивідуума, диких тварин і нащадків «еліти», авторитет короля, королеви й авторитет церкви, виховання й освіту, красу молодої жінки й ворожість чоло-віка, ревнощі сміливого літнього короля-батька й жорстокість літньої жінки-королеви-матері тощо. Опозиції виявляємо і в категоріях «свого» й «чужого», добра й зла, старого й нового, земного й неземного, матеріального й ідеального, досконалого й недосконалого, живого й неживого, вільного від рабства й поневоленого, тілесного, душевного й духовного, розуму й емоцій. Відбувається роздвоєння цілісного предметного світу на його фізичне буття і значення. Разом з цим трансформується ідеальна поведінка лицарів – опори германських королів. Виникають нові співвідношення – «лицар – злодій, розбійник», «лицар – варвар», «лицар – тварина». Агресивна поведінка людини як соціальної істоти має моральний характер. У питанні про аморальність медіальна людина перебуває під впливом античної психології, язичництва та християнства. Метою статті є виявлення німецьких мовних одиниць зі значенням агресивності в середні віки. В ході дослідження було використано дедуктивний, структурно-семантичний, логіко-семантичний, контекстуальний аналізи, метод лінгвістичного опису та аналіз словникових дефініцій. Результати дослідження охоплюють уточнення поняття «агресивність», простеження його смислового наповнення на часовому зрізі, виокремлення системи мовних одиниць як-от слово, власна назва, словосполучення (вільне й стале), речення (просте, складне, ускладнене, комбіноване, надфразова єдність) та з’ясування особливостей формування феномену. Доведено, що агресивність може бути природною та штучною. Природна агресивність характерна стихії води, диким тваринам і людині як біологічній істоті, штучна – людині як соціальній істоті та надприродним істотам, що втілюють у собі зло. Агресивність корелює зі статтю, віком і культурою: чоловік – агресивний у будь-якому віці та в будь-якій культурі, жінка – лише в літньому віці, перебуваючи в статусі матері, яка бажає своїй дитині щасливої долі та будучи іноземкою. Висновуємо, що поняття агресивності в середньовічній Німеччині пов’язане насамперед з позамовними чинни-ками (релігія, внутрішня і зовнішня політика, соціальний, економічний і культурно-історичний розвиток), заломленими автором епічної поеми «Кудруна» вербально.Ключові слова: середні віки, агресивність, людина, тварина, стихія, слово, власна назва, словосполучення, речення.

In Memory of Helge Grell, 1925 - 2000By Jens Holger SchjørringHelge Grell’s life coincided with some decisive events in the history of research on Grundtvig and Grundtvig’s importance in theology and in the religious and national life in Denmark.When Grell took holy orders in 1940, the year of the occupation of the country by the German Wehrmacht, the depression and confusion over the loss of national independence led many Danes to search for a mobilization of new resources in the Danish people to avoid an internal breakdown. This found expression for example through De danske Ungdomsforeninger (Danish Youth Associations), a particular manifestation being Hal Koch’s famous lectures on Grundtvig and his work for Dansk Ungdomssamvirke (Federation of Danish Youth Associations). In the post-war years the discussion turning on Kaj Thaning’s interpretation of Grundtvig was the point of departure for much debate on the Grundtvigian heritage and in a wider sense the situation of the Danish national church. There was, in particular, Thaning’s protest against tendencies to allow a »pilgrim myth« to determine the understanding of the relationship between created human life and Christianity. Against this Thaning would stress the intrinsic value of created life with his programmatic emphasis on »Man first...«.The last decades of the twentieth century saw, with increasing strength, endeavours being made to apply an international perspective to the interpretation of Grundtvig.Helge Grell lived through all these phases, briefly outlined above, and each one of them came to determine in different ways his work as clergyman, as teacher in many different contexts, as lecturer in Grundtvig circles and participant in their activities, and as Grundtvig scholar. When Helge Grell’s life is considered within such an extensive framework, it becomes apparent that his many activities share an inner coherence. In retrospect, one senses an arch spanning the different aspects of his lifework and combining his practical activity with his work as a Grundtvig scholar. Likewise, when viewed in that light, there is an impressive unity in the books that Grell managed to finish in the last decades of his life, dealing partly with the relation between creator spirit and the spirit of the people, partly with Grundtvig’s travels to England and their significance, and finally with Grundtvig’s folk high school ideas and their realization after Grundtvig’s death.

This thesis focuses on patriarchy and machismo and the long lasting political, economic, and social effects that their practice has had on women in the United States and Latin America. It examines the role of the Catholic Church, political influences, social, cultural, economic and legal issues, historic issues (such as the Industrial Revolution), the importance of the family's preference for sons rather than daughters, and the differences in the raising of male and female children for their adult roles.

This study explores the operations of Sesotho masculinity: its dominant ideas and practices and their effects on Basotho women and men and this latter‟s resistance to a gender-ethical consciousness gaining momentum in Lesotho. It challenges a deep running belief among the Basotho that being born male necessarily means being born into a superior social position and status that is naturally and divinely sanctioned. It investigates how the dominant postcolonial discourse called sekoele (a return to the traditions of the ancestors) and the Christian churches‟ discourses of the “true”/“authentic” Christian life, framed by the classical biblical and confessional dogmatic traditions, actually support and sustain this belief and so reinforce the imbalance of power in favour of men in the order of gender relations in Lesotho. On the contrary, through the principles of the contextual theologies of liberating praxis, social construction theory, a narrative approach to therapy, gender-ethical consciousness and participatory approach, the study argues that masculinity and ways of being and thinking about men are socially constructed through historical and cultural processes and practices. It is in these processes and practices that Basotho men have been and continue to be advantaged and privileged over women. This study has challenged this situation by tracing the existence of alternative, more ethical ways of being and thinking about men in those historical and cultural processes and practices; ways which are more open to women and children and their wellbeing in the everyday life interactions. In this way, the study argues for a gender-ethical consciousness, which, in particular, invites Basotho men to engage in a reflection on their participation in a culture and practices which oppress the other, especially women and children. It invites Basotho men to accountability and responsibility. In this sense a gender-ethical consciousness is understood as watershed of masculinity in Lesotho. The participation of a group of Basotho men who offered to reflect on their relationship with the dominant masculinities, demonstrates how Basotho men are struggling to transform yet they fill us with the hope that change is possible.
Humanities Social Sciences and Theology
D. Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

Text in German, summaries in German and English
Diese Arbeit untersucht die Relevanz der Herkunftsfamilie und ihre Auswirkung auf eine spätere Paarbeziehung im Blick auf Beziehungszufriedenheit. Dazu ist ihr Einfluss auf deren Mitglieder aufzuzeigen, die theoretischen Faktoren zur ehelichen Zufriedenheit darzustellen und empirisch zu verifizieren oder zu falsifizieren. Dadurch ist veranschaulicht, wie Zufriedenheit einer ehelichen Beziehung durch unterschiedliche familiäre Vorprägungen beeinflusst oder sogar „vorherbestimmt“ ist. Daraus ist weiter ersichtlich, inwieweit Zufriedenheit einer ehelichen Beziehung sich tradiert, oder ob für eine gelungene Beziehung nicht doch zu „arbeiten“ ist. Diese Inspektion zentraler Partnerschaftsmerkmale soll zu Fortschritten in der sozialpsychologischen und seelsorgerlichen Theoriebildung führen. Für eine Arbeit im Bereich christlicher Seelsorge ist auch zu fragen, inwieweit der Zuspruch des Evangeliums in konkreter seelsorgerlicher Beratung hilft, dass Paare trotz negativer familiärer Vorprägung zu ehelicher Zufriedenheit finden. Die eigene Ehe zu pflegen erfordert persönliche Sorgfalt sowohl für den Mann als auch für die Frau und individuelle seelsorgerliche Aufmerksamkeit durch die christliche Gemeinde.
This dissertation examines relevance and impact of family history on marital relationship in regard to partner satisfaction. Firstly, the family’s influence on its members is investigated; secondly, the theoretical factors of marital satisfaction are explained; thirdly, these dimensions are empirically verified or falsified. The study demonstrates the impact or pre-definition of family history on marital satisfaction. Furthermore, it answers if marital satisfaction can be passed on or if it has to be consciously developed. The thorough examination of central marital partnership dimensions is leading to an improvement of theory construction in sociopsychological and pastoral counselling terms. As this paper is concerned with Christian counselling, it considers, how Christian doctrine can be relevant in counselling couples displaying a negative marital pre-disposition, by helping them to achieve marital satisfaction. To care for a marital relationship, the carefulness of both partners, as well as the pastoral attentiveness of the Christian church, is required.
Practical Theology
M. Th. (Practical Theology)