This is an argument with an idea that faith and religious practices are fading away, the influence of the Church on the life of society is coming to an end, and that it is a process that is inevitable and irreversible. The author shares Jose Casanova’s pro-position that the ever increasing dechristianization of the hitherto Christian societies seems to be more of a hypothesis than an empirical fact. Moreover, on the one hand, he puts forward questions about the positive sense of the process of secularization that has been wearing down European Christianity for three centuries now, and on the other, he recalls cases, described in the Bible and known in the history of the Church, of a dramatic depopulation of God’s people. And the question, whether we are to expect an increase of the secularization process, rather than its reversal, he answers with the following, specifically Polish, 17th century, formula: Fortuna variabilis, Deus mirabilis (the world goes round at random, and God is admirable!).

For at least two centuries Europeans, in particular the political elites of Europe, have assumed that modernity and the rational character of the civilization require a marginalization of religion. A separation and juxtaposition of reason and faith, sci-ence and religion or the state and the church are regarded as almost obvious. Gradual-ly the legitimate principle of religious freedom has started to be understood as a pos-tulate of “purification” of public life from any references to sacrum and religion itself as an area of irrational and random opinions has been located in the private sphere. This has led to the conviction that religion (Christianity) does not have or should not have any significance in social life, the public order, the legal system or the widely understood political sphere . The central issue of the paper, which is the possibility of reversing the direction taken by European civilization, is conditioned not only by making the secularist policy of the West more friendly towards Christian tradition (for instance by grounding it on natural law) but still more by the revitalization of religious life of the Churches and Christian communities.

This paper constitutes out of necessity only a partial/fragmentary analysis of the infuence of Christianity on the culture of the United Sates. There is no doubt that the wish to create a truly Christian society which could be a “new Israel” was a strong motive which became the underlying cause for the founding of the USA. The “founding myth” has been refected not only in the proclaimed constitution with a pioneering principle of separating the state from the religion but also present in everyday life of a rapidly developing nation, continually fuelled by Protestant leaders. The power of the myth was sustained and spontaneously stimulated by the successive waves of European immigrants systematically Americanized by the local population. the inseparable element of American lifestyle is a specifc presence of Christianity in the public sphere in the form of civil religion. After the crisis associated with the expansion of secularism (intellectuals’ heresy after the Second World War) there was a great revival of Christianity in the eighties of the previous century. It was infuenced by a fervent religious rhetoric of President R. Reagan and by the attack of Protestant conservatives soon allied with conservatism of Catholic writers/publicists. Despite the growing attitudes of religious indifference, political and social life of contemporary America is permeated with religious elements, declaration of faith in God being perceived positively. A marked religious revival although encompassing only some part of the society makes America, in contrast to Europe, a country of a clearly Christian character.

In general the iconographic details recorded in the hagiographic literature are pretty meagre. Authors focus on the miraculous properties of icons. The Coptic lives of the saints may be selected as representative for the Early Christian and Byzantine hagiography. The Martyrdom and Miracles of Saint Mercurius the General and other lives contain stories about the Saint’s icons. We have some information about church decoration in the East, but, it does not look as impressive as John of Gaza’s extensive ecphraseis of St. Sergius’ and St. Stephen’s complex decorative programmes. However, we actually find a number of interesting minor descriptions in the church histories, in the theological polemic on icons, and in the hagiographies. A Syriac manuscript from the British Museum preserves a chronicle of the monastery of Qartamin, Mor Gabriel. I focus on a chapter which describes the church’s construction and its interior decoration. The essential part of the art terminology, which we know from the Coptic texts, consists of the Greek borrowings. The Syriac texts show an entirely different pattern. The Syriac description compiled by an anonymous monk from Qartamin resembles the hymn on the Edessa Cathedral. The Syriac art description in general evolved along entirely different lines from the Greek ecphrasis. Greek borrowings in the discussed Syriac texts are rare, and if they do appear, they are limited to only certain words.

An attempt to create a written Mongolian language based on the Cyrillic script is linked to the missionary activities of Archbishop Nil (1799-1874) among the Buryat Mongols. On his initiative, several Christian liturgical books were translated into Mongolian and printed in St. Petersburg. However, Nil and his assistants did not take into account the discrepancy between written and spoken Mongolian language and transcribed every letter of the Mongolian written language with corresponding Cyrillic letters and thus did no in any way make the texts closer to the spoken language.

The common layer of Jewish and Christian name systems consists of biblical names from the Old Testament. The comparison showing how these Old Testament names functioned in both faiths on Podlasie in 15th–16th centuries revealed a close connection between chosen names as well as their popularity over the centuries and cultural traditions formed by faith.

The aim of the paper is to analyze instances of vegetalization, which is the X IS A PLANT metaphor, in John Henry Newman’s collection of sermons, published as Sermons on Subjects of the Day (1843). One group of metaphors are ontological metaphors, whose source domain is an entity (Lakoff, Johnson 2003[1980]). They can be classified as reifications, vegetalizations, animalizations, personifications, and deifications, which corresponds to the hierarchy of the so-called Great Chain of Being. As claimed by Krzeszowski (1997), these metaphors play an important role in expressing the axiological dimension of language, since they can express specific values of their target domains. In Christian discourse, vegetalizations contribute to the conceptualization of such notions from the religious sphere as God, grace, the Kingdom of God, the Christian life, the Church, or evil.

The title of the article, formulated by the Editors, requires a few clarifcations of terms. Both phenomena – Christianity and the African culture – are de facto plural and have to be regarded and treated as such. The title also juxtaposes a term that describes a religious reality with a cultural one (this also touches on the understanding of the relation between religion and culture). This can only be done on the assumption that “Christianity” means “a culture permeated by the Gospel message”.

The author argues that Christians have never presented a unifed attitude towards the African culture. As in the Christian antiquity, as in later times (including the present) Christians showed ambivalent attitudes towards the African culture. Some strongly opposed it, some allowed a restricted borrowing, some engaged actively with the African culture. One cannot see these attitudes in terms of development or regress because they have been synchronically present at all times. The attitudes towards African culture also changed at times within the particular strands of Christianity. What was rejected of hardly acceptable at one time becomes the order of the day at other. However, these attitudes have not been synchronized in all christian churches and communities.

After stating the article’s argument and making the terminological reservations, the author substantiate the argument presenting three types of interaction between Christianity and African culture giving examples from different times and regions.

The aim of this article is to present the relation between Christianity and Korean culture. The problem here is not the concept of Christianity, but the concept of Korean culture. In the Korean thought is hard to distinguish between religion and philosophy. Philosophy, religion and culture are synonyms for “philosophy of life”.

The original Korean philosophy is Shamanism and received from China Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. In the case of Christianity we have to consider Catholic Church, Protestant Church and Orthodox Church. Special attention we have to pay to the Korean theology, which is based on Korean tradition. Special role in the history of Catholic Church in Korea played Korean martyrs. Sanguis martyrum, semen christianorum.

The aim of this article is to present the relation between Christianity and Japanese culture. The problem here is not the concept of Christianity, but the concept of Japanese culture. In the Japanese thought is hard to distinguish between religion and philosophy. Philosophy, religion and culture are synonyms for “philosophy of life”. The original Japanese philosophy is Shinto and received from China Confucianism, and Buddhism. In the case of Christianity we have to consider Catholic Church and Orthodox Church. Special attention we have to pay to the process of inculturation of the Good news in the Japanese soil.

Since Vatican II there have been issued many Church documents of different rank, which are explicitly devoted to dialogue with non-Christian religions or contain statements on the matter; there is also a very comprehensive bibliography on interreligious dialogue. The article presents three issues which occupy a signifcant place in these works. The frst is the theological bases for dialogue. They have been expressed in the trinitarian structure. At the heart of the dialogue is faith in God, the creator and father of all people, in the Son, through whom universal salvation took place and the Spirit, which everywhere personifes the salvation work of God in three persons. The second issue, which is the content of the article, expresses a unique position of Judaism in dialogue of Christianity with other religions. The importance of Israel for the emergence and existence of the Church, and at the same time for her salvation role for the entire Jewish people, is an important spur to the refection on the salvation relationship of christianity to other religions. The dialogue is diffcult to operate without a proper spiritual attitude. This issue is the subject of interest of the third point in the article. Spirituality shaped by attitudes of conversion and submission to the will of God, especially in the prayerful elation of the human heart, becomes a source of behaviours which are conducive to dialogue.

In recent reflections on the current situation of ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq and the threat of their extinction, a number of Iraqi intellectuals have stressed they cannot imagine their society without the plurality and diversity that have contributed to the creation of a common interethnic and interreligious Iraqi identity and historical memory. Among them are writers who raise this issue not only in essays, articles and interviews, but also in their fiction. The aim of the present article is to show the interweaving of literary discourse on Iraqi minorities and the wider debate among Iraqi intellectuals on the deteriorating condition of Iraqi Christians – which has led to their mass emigration – as reflected in a number of post-2003 Iraqi novels. The literary image of this exodus cannot be discussed without addressing the position of Christians among other Iraqi communities currently and in the past, as well as the question of their identity. This article refers to the following novels: Taššārī (Dispersion, 2012) by In‘ām Kaǧaǧī, I‘ǧām (Diacritics, 2004) and Yā Maryam (Ave Maria, 2012) by Sinān Antūn, Sīra dātiyya riwā’iyya (An Iraqi in Paris: An Autobiographical Novel, 2012) by Samū’īl Šam‘ūn, Frānkanštāyn fī Baġdād (Frankenstein in Baghdad, 2013) by Ahmad Sa‘dāwī, and Sabāyā dawlat al-hurāfa (Slaves of the Imaginary State, 2017) by ‘Abd ar-Ridā Sālih Muhammad. The article is divided into four parts, including an introduction in which the above-mentioned debate is presented. The second part depicts the plight of Iraqi Christians after 2003 through a brief outline of the lives of four literary characters. The third part focuses on the situation of Iraqi Christians before 2003 by relating the memories of five fictional protagonists. These two descriptive parts are followed by some final remarks. The theoretical framework of this article is based on the reflections of Birgit Neumann and Astrid Erll concerning the role of literature as a medium in the construction of cultural memory.

W niniejszym tekście autorka próbuje rozwikłać paradoks ukryty w stwierdzeniu Bogusława Wolniewicza, który określał się jako „rzymski katolik niewierzący”. Najpierw zostaje ukazane, (1) w jaki sposób Wolniewicz rozumiał źródła religii, następnie (2) jak określał „minimum” chrześcijaństwa. Autorka zastanawia się, (3) czy można pogodzić jego tak wyraziste poglądy na temat eutanazji z nauką Kościoła oraz (4) etyką ewangeliczną. Na koniec (5) autorka szuka zbieżności między racjonalizmem tychicznym Wolniewicza a chrześcijaństwem.

The present overview of current Christian-Jewish dialogue shape firstly specifes the dialogue and its partners concept meaning applied to the relations between religious societies. It draws our attention to the polarisations within the Christianity and Judaism as well as to the differencies in dialogue advancement between bodies keeping the dialogue and the general public. It points out the different motivation prompting Jews and Christians to keep the dialogue and the infuence of this on understanding the sense, the choice of its representatives and the theme of the dialogue.

The deepening mutual cognition along with the growing awareness of both; chances and limits of consensus in the dialogue, are indicated among the previous achievements. From the side of the catholic church, irreversible will of the dialogue along with the appropriate directions of doctrinal clarifcations of the Church Teaching are strongly emphasized.

The theological questions are raised that on the Christian side develop from the acknowledgment of irremovability of the covenant between God and Israel. The questions refer to the contemporary situation and the eschatological perspective of existence of two communities considering themselves as continuation of the covenant between God and Abraham, as well as their relation towards Israel Land. The article at its conclusion stipulates the deepening of the awareness of the mystery whenever resuming the religious topics in the dialogue.

This article focuses on an extremely urgent problem of today’s Christian dialogue with China, i.e. the culture (and politics) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and asks whether a Christian dialogue with China – which understand herself as an atheist and Communist state, which, however, is a country of many religious traditions, is possible, and if so in what form? What are its prospects and challenges?

The starting point of the article, after some historical remarks, is a kind of heterotopy of the dialogue in Chinese context, involving (III.1.) the historical and political context, then (III.2) its partners, and fnally (III.3) its forms and contents. in this framework, this article is (IV) refection on the challenges, opportunities and prospects of the Christian dialogue with Chinese culture. This refection is not taken here from the standpoint of theology, but is rather a phenomenological description of the status quo. At the end of the article (V) some statements of pope John Paul II with regard to the dialogue of Christianity with Chinese culture are quoted as a kind of summary.

The article states a great asymmetry of partners of the dialogue in China caused by the restrictive religious policy. There are some forms of dialogue which, however, are realized outside of the institutionalized Christianity, i.e. the Christian Churches. The Churches themselves, due to their historical background, are not very interested in or prepared for an inter-religious dialogue.