The Czech spiritual market is today as developed as that of western European countries. De-traditionalised and individualised holistic milieu has created a demand for spiritual literature and magazines as well as other marketable goods (“magic” stones, amulets, horoscopes, natural drugs etc.). This paper attempts to analyse the character and sources of contemporary best selling spiritual literature and its readership in the Czech Republic. It also provides a case study of a Prague spiritual bookshop and its comparison with five other Czech spiritual outlets (including an Internet outlet). The results clearly show that marketing spirituality has become a mainstream phenomenon with regard to all gender, age and class categories, although there was found to be an over presence of older middle-aged women among the buyers. There is emphasized “churchless” and “nonreligious” character of the buyers and the best selling books, that include predominantly those referring to “modem” and “esoteric” western or “ethnic” spiritualities. The supply side comprises both special and general publishers, the former having been more successful in specialised bookshops and spirituál outlets and the latter in addressing the wider population (including via the Internet).
The so-called ontological turn, drawing largely on Viveiros de Castro´s notion of Amazonian perspectivism, has attracted considerable attention in contemporary anthropology. The proponents of ontological relativism were indeed submitted to strong criticism focusing, among other things, on the questions of obscurity, solipsism or meta-ontology. In the theoretical section of the study, I present selected themes of this approach, its merits, but also its difficulties that I try to overcome by means of present-day phenomenological anthropology. The key question - in which are the examined otherness and its apprehending grounded? - I attempt to answer through the concepts of the everyday experience and the lifeworld. In the empirical section of the study, I illustrate the theory with the ethnography of Maya perception of crosses, mountains and caves, which are considered to be living and acting beings.
Při vymezování pojmu spiritualita je v psychologii náboženství možné rozlišovat čtyři směry. Zaměřují se na rozdíl mezi náboženstvím a spiritualitou, na náboženství a spiritualitu ve vztahu k posvátnu, na spiritualitu ve vztahu k „vnitřnímu životu“ a na spiritualitu v souvislosti s existenciálními otázkami. První tři výše zmíněné směry však mají následné nedostatky: hodnotící srovnávání mezi „špatným náboženstvím“ a „dobrou spiritualitou“, zahrnutí problematického a přeceňovaného konceptu a podpora karteziánského dualizmu v psychologické terminologii psychologie. Ačkoli je čtvrtý směr příznivější, narušuje některým lidem vnímání sebe sama. Zahrnutí spirituality do analytického slovníku psychologie je tudíž neuvážené. Namísto toho by mělo být zkoumáno osobní chápání náboženství a spirituality v souvislosti s tím, jak se lidé vyrovnávají s existenciálními otázkami.
Javorník, in the Horňácko region, is one of two villages where people still use old hymnbooks and where human piety is not a matter of mere formality. Hymnbooks, postils, bibles, catechisms and many other books that were handed down through generations can be found in numerous families. ‘Religious educational literature’, as we can call this specific type of literary production, played a very important role in the lives of ordinary people. Although they were persecuted for it, this literature had in return served and supported them in difficult times of religious, social and war oppression. this explains why people fervently shared the chronicles of their life stories inside these books. Now they bear testimony of those times.
Jedním z konceptů, který udělal v rámci sociálních věd v devadesátých letech minulého století velkou kariéru, je (vedle například sociálního kapitálu) kvalita života . Nejde vlastně o jeden přesně vymezený koncept ale spíše o (velkou) rodinu navzájem propojených teorií, výzkumů a vlastně i aktuálních a navrhovaných politik. Pod titulem kvality života se provádí široké spektrum výzkumů, od studií zabývajících se životem lidí se specifickými zdravotními problémy po dotazníková šetření reprezentativní pro celé dospělé populace států [Rapley 2003]. Zdá se, že zvýšený zájem o kvalitu života je příznačný pro dobu, která vyzvedává práva jedince a zároveň buduje složité (administrativní i tržní) mechanismy pro uspokojování jeho potřeb. Kvalita života (její zkoumání, stejně jako usilování o ni) byla vlastně důležitým konceptem už od dob osvícenství, ale, jak o tom píše například Foucault [2009], až do druhé poloviny 20. století byla důležitá především kvalita života celých populací, spíše než individuí. V průběhu druhé poloviny 20. století také došlo k určitému posunu od objektivního chápání kvality života, které bylo založeno především na měření materiálních a „biologických“ ukazatelů k pojetí více subjektivnímu. Tuto subjektivní dimenzi sleduji i ve svém textu – primární pro mne jsou respondentova subjektivní hodnocení jeho situace. Studie kvality života se samozřejmě nezabývají pouze jednorozměrnou analýzou kvality, ale téměř vždy jí analyzují ve vztahu k faktorům, které mají vliv na její úroveň. Zaměřuji se zde na vztahy mezi religiozitou/spiritualitou respondenta (o tom jak ji měřit viz níže) a psychosociálními faktory, které úzce souvisí s kvalitou života chápanou objektivisticky a samy jsou tak vlastně součástí šířeji chápané kvality života., The article deals with relationship of religiosity and psycho-social phenomena (powerlessness, normlessness, social isolation, self-estrangement and cultural estrangement) which are inhibiting factor in relation to quality of life of individuals. Theoretically this article (besides general theory of subjective quality of life) is supported by Melvinem Seeman ́s concept of alienation. Personal religiosity is not measured here by individual indicator only but by plurality of indicators. In regressions socio-demographic variables are more important in explaining variability indicators of psycho-social phe - nomena but religiosity is interesting contribution in overall explanation. Among religiosity indicators frequency of church attendance has the strongest predictive ability., and Martin Vávra.
Incunables from the Konrad Stahel’s and Matthias Preinlein’s printing press located in Brno, have survived, with a couple exceptions, in a few, or single unique copies. Each new item that can enlarge our source base is therefore of a great importance for further research. This applies to the incunabulum, Psalterium Olomucense, from 1499, preserved in four specimens known to date. As research has so far been limited to mainly bibliographical recording, little do we know about their origin and readership. The focal point of this study is another extant copy of this edition, stored in the Municipal Museum in Velká Bíteš. Although it has been located there since the end of the 19th century, it has escaped the attention of researchers. This copy contains a number of commemorative records from the first half of the 16th century, which give an account of the religious life in the town of Velká Bíteš. The study offers transcriptions and interpretation of these records, paying attention to other secondary marks – drawings and readers’ notes. The study is not only a research report; it also compares the newly discovered copy with hitherto known specimens, providing bibliographical descriptions, investigating their provenance, and analysing readers’ marks. In addition to the Psalterium, the article mentions other liturgical books from Velká Bíteš (a printed missal and a manuscript gradual), which also contain commemorative records dating back to the middle of the 17th century. Among other findings besides adding a new bibliographical record of a domestic incunable, the study reveals various ways of using psalters published by Stahel’s and Preinlein’s press in Brno. Some people used psalters for purely religious purposes, while others sought to capture events of various types (family, religious, political, military, and economic ones). A thorough analysis of these publications can therefore bring interesting information for not only librarians, but also regional historians. The description of the newly discovered specimen of books printed before the 16th century can also inspire future research in various archives, libraries, museum collections, and depositories, which may lead to identification of other unique copies.
a1_This paper considers the influence of Enlightenment thinking on the pedagogical works of Jan Valerián Jirsík (1798-1883), who earned a place in Czech history as a priest, theologian, active patriot, education campaigner, pedagogue, writer and not least as the fourth Bishop of České Budějovice (Budweis), an office he held from 1851 until his death. Primarily, it draws on and follows up ideas in the writings of the theologian Ctirad Václav Pospíšil and the church historian Kamila Veverková, who both trace the links between Jirsík the theologist and thinkers associated with Bernard Bolzano. Jirsík’s early writings, however, are as much concerned with pedagogy as they are with theology, and the aim of this study is to discover whether his ideas on education were similarly influenced by Enlightenment thinking. It analyses his views on the subject before 1851, i.e. until he became Bishop of Budweis - specifically in the period 1826-1843, when he was much occupied with questions of education and upbringing. In his years as bishop he devoted little time to literary pursuits. The study concludes that the legacy of the Enlightenment era most certainly played an important part in Jirsík’s deliberations on education. There is, however, a certain progression discernible in his thinking. In the early period, of which Sunday School (1826) is a representative text, we see the influence of contemporary Enlightenment clerical pedagogy as he advocates extending human knowledge through reason in order to improve living conditions. Faith and religion are also factors here, especially in his emphasis on the positive role of God the Creator. In the second period under consideration (1836-43), we find closer parallels between Jirsík’s pedagogical and theological thinking., a2_Within ten years of writing Sunday School, his position had shifted from that of a priest attempting to expand or improve education in the spirit of Enlightenment ecclesiastical pedagogy to that of a theologian (and so-called ‘true’ enlightener) who from theological considerations drew conclusions for the educational process. In Jirsík’s view, Christianity and Enlightenment go hand in hand, serving to elevate human life spiritually as well as materially. For him education means the enlightenment of both soul and reason. Nor does he see any contradiction between faith and rationality. It is evident from his thinking that he was convinced of the need to implement the pedagogical ideal of the Enlightenment: to educate virtuous citizens who were also rational., Rudolf Svoboda., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Reshep is a warlike god that rules over diseases. He is the lord of fire and all heat, including that from the sun and that which can burn inside man, that is, fever. There is, however, no evidence of Reshep´s rule in the netherworld. The only argument in favor of this thesis rests on the identification of Reshep with Nergal. Yet this identification springs from their common rule over disease and not from any connection with the netherworld. This seems particularly obvious when ones takes into account that the West Semites were already acquainted with the cut of Nergal in the form of an association with the cult of Erra, the god of heat, drought, and disease.
The study summarizes the work of Maurice Bloch, especially his theory of ritual and religion. Focusing on Bloch’s concepts of rebounding violence, ideology and knowledge, it is argued that the cognitive dualism does not correspond to the fact of the entirety of the human mind, a unique constellation of specific biological, natural environmental, historical, social and cultural circumstances as well as personal and experiential conditions. When dealing with some analogies of Bloch’s thought, the assumptions of Marx, Freud and Rousseau are recalled. The recognition of the eurocentric polarization also demands a mention of the Latin naturalis and supernaturalis dichotomy as well as the Greek sophistic duality of fysei and nomó. On the other hand, Bloch’s precise critique of functionalist and Marxist approaches allows moving towards deeper psychosocial processes within ritual.