Studia Theologica 2018, 20(2):1-15 | DOI: 10.5507/sth.2017.0731682
The article examines to what extent justice is a value and an attribute of mutual human relations and actions and to what extent justice relates humans with God, in the Hebrew Bible, in the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings. The term justice is often connected with the law, although justice does not only involve fulfilling the rules of the law, but also includes solidarity in the family, in the community and in the world. The biblical understanding of justice liberates humans from destiny; it presumes freedom and responsibility. Justice is always treated in the context of human life and relations in the Hebrew Bible and in the context of earthbound...
Studia Theologica 2018, 20(2):17-34 | DOI: 10.5507/sth.2017.0631672
The purpose of this paper is to, on the one hand, point out the importance of Psalm 118 in the setting of the Book of Psalms and its use in Judaism and to deal, on the other hand, with its usage in the Gospel of Mark in connection with the presentation of the person of Jesus and his significance. Psalm 118 (117 LXX), which is the magnificent closing Psalm of the group of Ps 113–118 entitled the Hallel, which praises God for various aspects of his saving power, is the most frequently referred to Psalm in the New Testament with 11 direct quotations and 9 allusions. The Gospel of Mark contains two explicit quotations from Psalm 118 (117 LXX). Both...
Studia Theologica 2018, 20(2):35-54 | DOI: 10.5507/sth.2017.0691506
The author surprisingly argues that insufficient attention has been given to Luther‘s reading of the Scriptures. One of the few exceptions is Ebeling‘s pre-war dissertation. The thesis of the exposition is that Luther‘s reading of Scripture must be viewed within the mystical tradition in which Luther stands. Luther is not interested so much in special hermeneutics as in an expository technique. He instead takes an interest in opening up to the influence of God‘s Word and allowing it to work, with its tendency to incarnate in the world and in life. Here Luther stands in the tradition of the German mystical "Gelassenheit". The...
Studia Theologica 2018, 20(2):55-65 | DOI: 10.5507/sth.2018.0181200
The concept of walking in the sense of a specific way of life (the Hebrew verb hālaḵ hitp.) which pleases God forms the established tradition in the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament. This tradition influences (in the Psalms and outside the Psalms) the translation of the LXX. The translators into Greek have viewed the translation "walk" as insufficient in certain places. This is the reason why they interpreted walking with God (or before God) as gaining God’s favor (εὐαρεστέω as the equivalent of hālaḵ hitp.).
Studia Theologica 2018, 20(2):67-107 | DOI: 10.5507/sth.2017.0811788
This study attempts to describe and comment on the latest development in the area of the ceremony (the so-called mandatum) which is now part of the evening mass on Holy (Maundy) Thursday. The fundamental subject is the issue of the relationship between its anamnestic and mimetic dimension wherein the latest official decision, based on the direct impulse of Pope Francis (2016), tends to the first mentioned characteristic. The text describes the relatively complicated development from the original mandatum hospitum and pauperum towards the mandatum fratrum and clericorum, and also mentions the baptismal washing of feet in non‑Roman western liturgies....
Studia Theologica 2018, 20(2):109-128 | DOI: 10.5507/sth.2017.0882104
The paper describes and explains the position of Thomas Aquinas regarding the possibility of the dispensation of certain precepts of the natural law by man. It situates this concept into the broader context of his views concerning God’s action within practical reason and human participation in providence which is also the basis of his comprehension of every law used by men. The meaning and the relationship between certain key notions (law, dispensation, obligation, moral, natural and divine law) in the discourse of Aquinas is explained. Aquinas is revealed to be a thinker who is very much aware of the limits bound to more particular rules in...
Studia Theologica 2018, 20(2):129-149 | DOI: 10.5507/sth.2017.0892463
According to Pierre Manent, an eminent French Catholic political philosopher and a disciple of Leo Strauss, the concept of the common good has lost all its intelligibility in contemporary French society. It has been replaced by an emphasis on the concept of human rights. Human rights as such are not able, however, to serve as a viable basis for a political society. A similar analysis can be found in other Christian authors: for instance, vis-à-vis the crisis of contemporary liberal democracies, the main representatives of the so-called Radical Orthodoxy movement, John Milbank and Adrian Pabst, plead for the return of the politics of the common...
Studia Theologica 2018, 20(2):151-167 | DOI: 10.5507/sth.2018.0121256
The article reflects on the phenomenon of migration as the basis of the current social‑political conflict. Its aim is (above all) to point out the inspirational and critical importance of the social teaching of the Church on this current issue. It focuses on the two key moments contained in this teaching, which also appear to be pivotal within the socio-political discourse in relation to migration. It is a question of the relevance of the cosmopolitan principle, respectively the question of political decision‑making on a transnational level. The article also provides a partial view of the role and the importance of the Church and individual...
Studia Theologica 2018, 20(2):169-183 | DOI: 10.5507/sth.2017.0361263
This paper is part of a larger scholar project focused on Catholic theologians and scholars between 1871 and 1910 who accepted the evolutionary origin of the human body in accordance with the so called Mivart theory, or rejected it. The author presents the life and writings of the French theologian and biblical scholar F. E. Gigot, who was active mainly in the USA. He then analysed the relevant parts of the first section of his special introduction to the Old Testament (1901), where he interprets the first and second chapter of the book of Genesis and demonstrates a more or less open attitude to the theory of the evolutionary origin of man. The name...
Studia Theologica 2018, 20(2):185-208 | DOI: 10.5507/sth.2017.0841793
The study deals with the diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Fascist Italy over the period of 1922–1929. In the period of the dramatic events in the 1920s, it follows up on the final phase of the so-called Rome question, which was opened after World War I. It describes each of the meetings and analyses the requirements of both sides, which resulted in the signing of Lateran Treaty in February 1929. By means of this treaty, Mussolini’s Italy recognized the sovereignty of the Holy See over the Church, accepted the right to send and receive legates, issue passports, own a post office and coin their own money. Furthermore, the Italian...
Studia Theologica 2018, 20(2):209-226 | DOI: 10.5507/sth.2017.0751415
New instructions on proceedings in case of requests on leaving the Church were promulgated on 15 November 2013 for the Diocese of Brno. They contained, apart from the theological bases and procedural-law regulations, the specification of the relevant institutions of substantive law. This was a reaction to the growing number of requests of such a character in the Czech Republic which were otherwise very wide-spread in the countries with the Church tax. The uncertainty and cautiousness of the lawgiver and the need for eventually making provision for a still developing dispute in this actual issue in the future, is primarily evident from its publication...
Studia Theologica 2018, 20(2):227-241758