Theology / Literature / History


Mgr. Petr Vizina

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Lost wisdom of virtue ethics. Can it help to reflect on the society and the media?

9:00

9:30

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Charles University / Catholic Theological Faculty

Abstract of the contribution:

The ethicist Alasdair MacIntyre points to Aristotelian teleology and the virtue ethics as the moral system that has been effectively lost since the Enlightenment. Emotionalism and bureaucracy have effectively replaced moral reasoning, claims the ethicist. Can such a scandalous claim be proven? What sort of theological foundation is there to back MacIntyre’s reasoning? What are the possible implications on reflection of society?

I came across MacIntyre’s work while trying to frame the change in digital structural change in media and society for my dissertation. The virtue ethics might be helpful in finding out about the novelty of the need for moral reasoning within the structural change in society and the media. But the question remains whether MacIntyre’s reasoning can crerate such a frame.


Mgr. Tomáš Jeniš

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Transformation of origenian Idea of Visible and Invisible Beauty between Ambrose of Milan and Basil the Great on Gen 1

10:00 10:30

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Masaryk University / Faculty of Arts / Seminar of Aesthetics

Abstract of the contribution:

The first pages of the Bible attracted plenty of authors during the first centuries of the Christian era. Starting with Philo, the biblical account of the creation of the world and that of man to the image and likeness of God established a firm ground for the philosophical reflection on the principles of the world from the biblical perspective. Philo remains fascinated with the harmony of numbers found by him in Gen 1; Origen, on the contrary, dedicates to the book first of his Homilies on Genesis and remains more faithful to the flow of the biblical text than his predecessor and his exegesis of the passage becomes a norm for Christian writers to follow. From the pléade of these authors, the paper will focus on two of them: on Basil’s account of the six days of creation in his nine homilies and Ambrose’s reception of this text in his Exameron. The aim is to revisit the topic of Ambrose’s inspiration and reinterpretation of his templates that would become normative for the Western exegesis, starting with several attempts to interpret Genesis 1 by Augustine.


Mona Herter, M.A.

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Iconic Economy – On the Modernity of Patristic Image theories

10:30 11:00

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

University of Hamburg / Faculty of Humanities / Institute of Catholic Theology

Abstract of the contribution:

What is an image? What is its meaning, its function, and its power? French philosopher and art theorist MarieJosé Mondzain answers these questions based on arguments of Byzantine Iconoclasm. In my contribution, I would like to introduce her interpretation of the patristic idea of iconic economy and its impact on contemporary (Western) perception of images. In her work Image, Icon, Economy - The Byzantine Origins of the Contemporary Imaginary, first published in 1996, Mondzain develops a novel and thoroughly complex image theory that is based on the writings of iconophiles during the Iconoclastic controversy in 8th/9th century, especially the work Antirrhetikoi by Nikephoros I. "If we remove the image, not only Christ but the whole universe disappears." (Antirrhetikos I, PG 100, 244 D), following the dramatic way in which the icon was defended, Mondzain understands the Christian teaching as the image theory par excellence. By examining the writings, she determines the significance of the idea of oikonomia. Based on Pauline Christology, the idea of oikonomia was essential for the patristic understanding of the Trinity and the Incarnation – beyond that Mondzain's analysis points out its relevance for the understanding of the icon by identifying what she calls the conception of iconic economy. I am convinced that the full value not only of Mondzain's but also of Nikephoros' work hasn’t been discovered yetand that research on iconic economy can provide a novel and promising approach on the relationship between the history of church and art, more specific between Christological models and image theories, as well as an ingenious answer to the question of what an image is.


ThDr. Ondřej Rác

Title of Contribution:

Time:

A belief in artificial intelligence as a form of modern idolatry

11:30 12:00

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Charles University / Catholic theological faculty / Department of Systematic Theology and Philosophy

Abstract of the contribution:

This Contribution explores theological reflections on the image and expectations of general AI among selected proponents. First, it summarizes the outcome of noetic and existential analysis' outcomes of these views. The following theological analysis addresses to what extent they are truly innovative or merely forms of pre-existing views and attitudes that the Church has labeled as heresies, contrasting these images and expectations with patristic ontological views.



Mgr. et Mgr. Oleg Gricyk

Title of Contribution:

Time:

The personalized Glory of God in the Old Testament.

12:00 12:30

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Charles University / Catholic theological faculty

Abstract of the contribution:

The proposed paper aims to help clarify the hermeneutic principles of working with authoritative biblical texts in early Christianity, which partly adopted Jewish practices in Palestine and the diaspora, but broadly accepted as a new key to understanding Scripture through Christocentric hermeneutic principle. The case study is Hebrews 1.3a, where Jesus is the brightness of the glory. Right from the beginning, the author compares Jesus to angels and shows his high Christological view. We will discuss on what basis could the author, to the Hebrews, call Jesus the brightness of the glory of God.

Just as in Tanakh, God’s glory cannot be separated from God, and though being different from God, glory is God. So also, for the Epistle, Jesus is the Son of God, but at the same time, he is God on the throne forever and ever. He is the one who speaks and brings final revelation about God; Jesus stays in line with Tanakh's view on the glory of God that also speaks and gives revelation about God. Just as the best possible revelation of God could come only through seeing and hearing the personified glory of God and nothing else can be compared with this, so also Jesus, who is the brightness of the glory, is the final, the highest possible, and the exact representation of God’s nature.

We will analyze the use of glory in Tanakh and other Jewish literature of the second temple. Then we will see how the thought was developed and fulfilled in the person of Jesus. After rediscovering the hermeneutic presupposition of the author to the Hebrews, this research intends to apply his method to other Tanakh passages to find out if using such reasoning will help us see Jesus in other passages.


MUDr. Lukáš Malý

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Approach to teaching medical ethics during medical student internships at Itibo Hospital in Kenya

14:00 14:30

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Charles University / 3rd Faculty of medicine

Abstract of the contribution:

Internships for medical students at the hospital in Itibo (Kenya) have been running since 2005. Several times a year, groups of medical students and doctors participate there with the local staff with providing medical care. This project operates under the auspices of the non-profit organizations ADRA Czech Republic and Kenya. Within the provision of humanitarian aid, it is a combination of human rights and charitable - philanthropic approach. There are many medical, social, cultural and economic differences there (e.g. lack of scarce resources). The issue of teaching ethics is very specific here. Most students who apply for an internship have a very positive attitude towards helping other people. In a way, they are already inclined to help other people and are very open to ethical issues. It can be deduced from the cover letters but also the essays they write before leaving for the internship. It can be seen on them during the month he works there and it is also reflected in the essays after returning from the project. Itibo is a development cooperation project of Adventist organization. So there is a very strong ethos of helping other people. It is therefore also an institutional dimension of ethics. We teach ethics here in close

connection with clinical practice. Students themselves find ethical issues and dilemmas in direct contact with patients. In the form of joint interviews with local health professionals, patients and their relatives, we reflect and discuss the problems. As a framework, we use principialism and the four boxes approach in clinical ethics. Ethical reasoning is in accordance with the local culture and the ethos of this organization. The health care is coherent with the country's legal framework. Typical is holistic approach to the patient. Individual ethics, the ethics of virtues, and inspiration from the ethics of “reverence for the life” of Albert Schweitzer play an important role here.


Filip Šanca

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Jewish Underground Corridor Near the Catholic Church

14:30 15:00

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Charles University / Hussite Theological Faculty / Department of Judaism

Abstract of the contribution:

The aim of the study was to map out and to evaluate the significance of the underground Jewish corridors near the Catholic Church in Habry, as well as the significance of the Habry native, Minister of Commerce, Catholic JUDr. A. Stránský in his quest for understanding between the Catholic and Jewish populations. The basic method was to obtain facts by direct research of archival sources, which are a direct documented evidence of the religious life of Jews in Habry and in the Czech Republic and direct archaeological research on the place. The results of the study show that the Habry´s area, as an important part of the history of Bohemia with an overlap abroad was unique with its underground Jewish corridors and especially the corridor leading to the Catholic Church, which have no analogue within the Czech Republic and their importance also exceeds its uniqueness abroad. Also mentioned is the importance of the Habry native, minister of commerce Adolf Stránský, who converted to the Catholic faith and during his lifetime sought an understanding between the Catholic environment and the Jewish people. In conclusion, the Habry´s area was a very significant and unique sphere within the underground Jewish corridors in Habry not only by the proximity of the Catholic Church, but by the corridors themselves, as it is not found anywhere else in the Czech Republic.


Zuzana Wrana

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Who all slumbers beneath the Sicilian volcano? A case study of myths from the foot of Mount Etna

15:30 16:00

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Masaryk University, Brno / Faculty of Arts / Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Abstract of the contribution:

Sicily lies at the interface of two continental plates whose seemingly subtle movements are manifested on the island by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. These eruptions aroused the interest and questions of Sicilians, who tried to answer and interpret various common natural phenomena in this way. The ancient inhabitants of the area around Etna believed that when the gods fought and quarrelled with each other, Etna showed it by its restless behaviour. The ancients subsequently told their interpretation of the volcano's behaviour to their descendants until these stories became tales that were common knowledge to all Sicilians. Among the most famous Sicilian myths associated with Etna are certainly those of Typhon and of Enceladus or Vulcan. But they are certainly not the only ones who have ever been engulfed by this myth-ridden volcano.


Dorota Kutyła

Title of Contribution:

Time:

From seeing to acting, or "Chronicles" of Bolesław Prus.

16:00 16:30

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

University of Warsaw and Hamburg / Faculty of Philosophy

Abstract of the contribution:

I was inspired by your poster for the conference. A woman, children, Madonna, a born God and painter who tries to reflect what he sees. One might ask why, but I will leave the painter from the painting. He became an inspiration. The 19th century is a time of intense questioning in European literature about what we see and how literature reflects what it sees. This is not the time of reportage, which seems to be close to life and give it hot, but the 19th century brings the development of columns and chronicles in Polish literature, and Bolesław Prus becomes one of the most outstanding Polish columnists. Maybe even the most outstanding. For over 40 years, he has been recording the image of a divided Poland, Europe and the world. One of the great slogans of the 19th century is freedom. Poland is deprived of it in the political dimension, but there are many areas of enslavement and liberation, and Prussia follows them. The "Chronicles" show emancipation in its historical, nineteenth-century shape. And the interpretation of what Prus sees is provided by Rancière and Foucault. They both don't think we're free. Rancière speaks of the boundaries (material, technical, mental) that divide the world, and these are not apparent divisions. Foucault about the almost ubiquitous oppression. Foucault explores its shapes, Rancière shows maps of division and, importantly, new possibilities for thinking and living. I am closer to Rancière because he believes that man can achieve freedom. And it gives an interesting way to do that. Building a political community, having a vote or not, which is recognizing or not recognizing whoever speaks. This is a political dimension and maybe not even that revealing, but what is new is to show the role of art in this change. For Rancière, art and politics are not different realities, but two ways of dividing what he calls sensuality, coexisting with each other and modifying their influence. In this division, Rancière gives a greater role to art, which, through an aesthetic revolution, is to lead to the creation of a new political community. And I would like to devote my paper to the process of how there are changes in the division of sensuality on the example of "Chronicles" by Bolesław Prus.








Last change: April 25, 2022 13:42 
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