This article was written mainly on the basis of numerous pope’s Benedict XVI speeches given on the occasion of over 40 of the great world music concerts offered to him. From them emerges an image of the pope as a great lover and expert in this field. In his comments he had presented the context in which the work performed by the orchestra or choir was created, the composer’s intentions, what thoughts he contained and by what musical discourse he expressed them. One can also see his great sensitivity to the performed music, he was able to see what the conductor with the orchestra and choir intended to express and he was able to appreciate the masterly original performance. He could also experience this music; it was able to move his emotions, penetrate his heart and move his spirit. Thanks to this, music was reviving his everyday life and giving to it a festive and sublime character.In the musicological comments and statements of the pope, two basic features of music and singing stand out: universal character and theological character. Universal, because music is not – as he said – an accidental combination of sounds, but has a beauty, depth, message that sends the listener above the present, above materiality, raises up the spirit to matters of everlasting, timeless, supranational, supracultural. And these aspects were tried to be extracted from the papal speeches in the first part of the article.However, this orientation of music and singing towards the universal is not Benedict’s XVI orientation towards some pure abstractionism, towards some existential emptiness, but it is theologically oriented, i.e. towards Truth, Goodness, Personal Beauty, towards Someone Transcendent, Someone distant, towards the Creator of the beauty of the cosmos, but also artistic beauty, including music, towards the Giver of the talents who create beauty, and at the same time towards God who is close, God‑Man, Christ, who revealed himself as Personal Love. Music and singing make possible search for God and at the same time contemplation of the mysteries of his existence and saving action. According to the pope’s idea, the universal and theological dimensions cannot be separated; in his teaching they interpenetrate each other.An important element of the pope’s teaching about music and singing is to make the recipients aware of the evangelical roots and the Christian nature of the Western civilization. The meeting with God - Love was throughout the history of the Western Europe a source of music and singing: love for God and the will to worship him were the spiritus movens of the great musical works in which the Western Europe boasts. These issues are focused in the second part of this article, where based on the specific works are pointed these roots. There is also presented Benedict’s description of the essence of the Church music, the path of beauty to God, the role of music and singing in conversion and strengthening the faith in emphasizing of the salvific events, in expressing love for the creatures and the Creator, in intensifying the zeal of prayer. Besides, there is presented the importance of the sacred music and liturgical singing and at the end the organ music – as the crowning achievement of the music of all instruments. Thus, this article attempts to present holistically the musicological issues raised in the papal speeches, giving generally a rich and systematized image.
PL
Niniejszy artykuł został napisany głównie w oparciu o liczne przemówienia Benedykta XVI z okazji ofiarowanych mu koncertów wielkiej muzyki światowej. Wyłania się z nich obraz papieża jako wielkiego miłośnika i znawcy tej dziedziny. W jego komentarzach i wypowiedziach muzykologicznych wybijają się dwie podstawowe cechy muzyki i śpiewu: charakter uniwersalny oraz charakter teologalny. Uniwersalny, ponieważ odsyła słuchacza ku sprawom nieprzemijającym, ponadnarodowym, ponadkulturowym. Te aspekty starano się wydobyć z papieskich przemówień w pierwszej części artykułu. Jednak to zorientowanie muzyki i śpiewu ku temu, co uniwersalne, nie jest u Benedykta XVI ukierunkowaniem ku jakiemuś czystemu abstrakcjonizmowi, jakiejś pustce egzystencjalnej, lecz jest ukierunkowaniem teologalnym, tzn. ku Stwórcy piękna kosmosu, ale i piękna artystycznego, w tym muzycznego, Dawcy talentów tworzących piękno, a równocześnie ku Bogu‑Człowiekowi, który objawił się jako Miłość osobowa. Muzyka i śpiew umożliwiają poszukiwanie Boga i zarazem kontemplację tajemnic Jego istnienia i działania zbawczego. W przekonaniu papieża nie da się oddzielić wymiaru uniwersalnego od teologalnego; w jego nauczaniu nawzajem się przenikają.
2
Dostęp do pełnego tekstu na zewnętrznej witrynie WWW
Człowiek od dawna próbował rozumieć siebie samego oraz otaczający go świat. Historia ludzkiej myśli obfituje w wielu uczonych, którzy przy użyciu rozmaitych systemów filozoficznych, etycznych, społecznych czy religijnych, a w czasach najnowszych także za pomocą wysoko rozwiniętej aparatury technicznej, próbowali i próbują wyjaśnić fenomen człowieka. Na tym tle niezwykle interesująca jawi się droga personalistyczna. Stara się ona wyjaśnić istotę bycia człowiekiem za pomocą kategorii ściśle związanych z tym, co prawdziwie ludzkie: z jego doświadczeniem; z jego egzystencją; z relacjami, w których żyje i działa. Współczesna polska myśl antropologiczna posiada co najmniej kilku wybitnych przedstawicieli tego prądu. Jednym z nich był znakomity lubelski personalista i teolog Wincenty Granat
EN
The paper presents the outlines of integral personalism by W. Granat, Polish theologist and a late Rector of The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. Granat believed that the human being can be described adequate only in personalism, because only personalism indicates the person as a starting point of meaning the whole world. He connected the knowledge of man not only from theology but also from philosophy, sociology, psychology and medicine. In that way he built integral definition of human person. According to him the human being consists of three dimensions: psychological level, moral level and social level. This paper is composed of three parts, in which the author has taken into consideration the issue of methodology, philosophical anthropology and theological anthropology by W. Granat.
The Holy Baptism in Church in period of the first centuries was considered as an extra ordinary and important event, both in life of the baptized person, as well as in the entire Church community. Almost exact information on baptism in Church of the 4th century is available in existing documents of empathetical discourses on baptism by four great Fathers of the Church: St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. John Chrysostom, St. Ambrose of Milan, and Theodor, bishop of Mopsuestia. Thus in this paper I have decided to present only the Baptismal Rites and their theological and anthropological significance. In terms of the mentioned authors’ writings, we can find two parts of the baptismal liturgy where they consist of particular Rites. The first part is devoted to so called the rites preceding a ceremony of baptism, It means to surrender Satan, take off cloths and apply the holy oil before one’s baptism. Another Rite, i.e. taking off clothes of the candidates to be baptized, was significant for the new way of life of a certain human being, and rejection of the old man with his all affairs and matters. Authors of baptismal discourses also paid their attention to application of the holy oil. The second part of Baptismal Rites was related to baptismal immersion itself. First of all, there was the following order: to reach the baptismal tank, immerse in waters three times, then leave it and put on the white clothes. The theological interpretation of particular Baptismal Rites in writings of the Church of the 4th century was rather compact. Even in case of some differences available, they were not concerned with the principal aspects, but strictly devoted to the baptism itself in order to understand the ceremony, and all particular order of the Baptismal Rites.
JavaScript jest wyłączony w Twojej przeglądarce internetowej. Włącz go, a następnie odśwież stronę, aby móc w pełni z niej korzystać.