Academic journal of St . John Paul II . Institute of Missiology and Tropical Health SCIENTIFIC BOARD OF ACADEMIC JOURNAL ACTA MISSIOLOGICA at St . Elizabeth University of Health and Social Sciences, Bratislava – Slovakia prof. Vladimír Krčméry, Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Comenius Univesity in Bratislava (Bratislava, SK) |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020| prof. Peter Fedor-Freybergh, I-GAP, Rresearch centre, (Vienna, AT), prof. Ladislav Bučko, St. Elizabeth University, (Bratislava, SK); St. ACTA MISSIOLOGICA Institut House of Hope, (Phnom Penh, KH) ISSN: 2453-7160 (online) | ISSN: 1337-7515 (print) prof. Wolfgang Graninger, Medizinische Universität Wien, (Vienna, AT) prof. Werner Ustorf, University of Birmingham, (Birmingham, GB) prof. Robert J. Schreiter, C.PP.S, Catholic Theological Union, (Chicago, US) prof. Caleb Kim, Institute for the Study of African Realities (ISAR),

Africa International University, (Nairobi, KE) prof. Ivan Dacko, Ukrainian Catholic University, (, UA) prof. Roberto Cauda, Institute of Infectious Diseases Thematic focus Catholic University of the , (, IT) of this issue: prof. Apostolos Georgopoulos, Medizinische Universität Wien, (Vienna, AT) TOPICS DIRECTLY OR prof. Todd M. Johnson, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, (South Hamilton, MA, US) INDIRECTLY RELATED TO THE ISSUE OF CORONAVIRUS mim. prof., doc. Jozef Šuvada, Management University, (Warsaw, PL) AND FINDING EFFICIENT prof. Juraj Benca, St. Maximilian Kolbe Institut House of Hope, (Phnom Penh, KH) RESEARCH ON SELECTED TOPICS IN THE prof. Pavol Dancák, Prešov University, (Prešov, SK) THEOLOGICAL AND SOCIOMEDICAL FIELDS THAT doc. Peter Caban, Karl-Franzes Universität, (Graz, AT) ARE BENEFICIAL FOR doc. Tonzar, Hus Institute for Theological Studies, (, CZ) BOTH THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL EXPERT doc. Martin Uháľ, Catholic University in Ružomberok, (Ružomberok, SK) COMMUNITY doc. Ludmila Muchová, University of South in Ceske Budejovice, (CZ) prof. Mária Šmidová, Trnava University, (Trnava, SK)

Dr. Francesco Pierli, Tangaza University College, (Nairobi, KE)

ThDr. Jaroslav Jaššo, St. Elizabeth University, (Bratislava, SK) ACTA MISSIOLOGICA Peer-reviewed academic journal for the field of ethics of law and educational reformation: Our mission is to create an international platform for experts en‑ Dr.h.c. prof. doc. JUDr. Marek Šmid, PhD. The Institute for gaged in the field of and missiology, , social Legal Aspects of Religious Freedom; Faculty of Law, Trnava and humanitarian development work at the theoretical, research University, SK; Dr. h. c. mult. doc. PhDr. PaedDr. ThLic. Györ- and application levels. The journal has been creating room with‑ gy Herdics, PhD., MBA, LL.M, mim. prof. Warsaw Manage- in this international platform for further specificities covering the ment University, Warsaw, PL. aforementioned fields that will produce new relevant findings and Guarantors of No. 1, Vol. 14, 2020 issue reviewers interconnections in order to promote the journal more to the widest Doc. Dr. Gabriela Lezcano, Ph.D. University of California, San possible professional community and stimulate a greater interest Francisco, US within it. One such field is international public law with its unique Editor in chief scientific and relevant, direct and close link to international mis‑ prof. PhDr. Ing. Ladislav Bučko, PhD. sionary work, and several other relevant aspects from other fields Executive editor and contact person on which the journal focuses. The journal publishes a wide spectrum Mgr. Mariana Hamarová of articles relevant for education with special focus on assisting pro‑ E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] fessions in the aforementioned areas. This area includes all educa‑ tional, health, social, legal (especially international humanitarian Editorial board law, international human rights law, diplomatic law and interna‑ Prof. PhDr. Ing. Ladislav Bučko, PhD., St. Elizabeth University, (Bra‑ tional treaty law), international organization and spiritual topics tislava, SK); St. Maximilian Kolbe Institut House of Hope, (Phnom connected to the missionary context. As of Autumn 2020, the jour‑ Phen, KH), Dr. h. c. Prof. MUDr. Vladimír Krčméry, DrSc. Institute nal will also focus on specialised unique scientific and professional of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine Comenius Univesity in Bra‑ research at the international level, covering all fields that the journal tislava (Bratislava, SK); Public Health MSc programme SAAaRMM, has focused on thus far, while also presenting new ones. (Kuala Lumpur, MY), Prof. Dr. Roberto Cauda, Ph.D. Institute of In‑ Published twice ayear fectious Diseases Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, (Rome, IT), Dr. Johnson Nzau Mavole, Ph.D., Catholic university of Eastern ISSN: 2453-7160 (online) Africa, (Nairobi, KE), Prof. Dr. Selvaraj Subramanian, Ph.D. president ISSN: 1337-7515 (print) of SAAaRMM, (Kuala Lumpur, MY), Prof. Robert J. Schreiter, C.PP.S, The journal is indexed in the Web of Science database Catholic Theological Union, (Chicago, US), Prof. zw. dr hab. Pawel This issue was published in Bratislava on 30 April 2020 S. Czarnecki, Ph.D., Warsaw Management University, (Warsaw, PL), Published by: St. John Paul II. Institute of Missiology and Tropical Mgr. Pavol Bargár, M.St., Th.D., , (Prague, CZ), Health in Bratislava, Slovakia at St. Elizabeth University of Health Doc. Peter Caban, Karl-Franzes Universität, (Graz, AT), Prof. MUDr. and Social Science in Bratislava, Slovakia, (Polianky, Pod Brehmi Jaroslav Slaný, CSc., Trnava University, (Trnava, SK), Dr. 4/A, 841 01 Bratislava, Slovakia) Costello, MA, MBA, J.D., University of scranton school of educa‑ Company registration number: 31‑821 979 tion, (Scranton, Pensylvánia, US), Doc. PaedDr. PhDr. ThDr. Pavol Editorial Office Tománek, PhD., St. Elizabeth University, (Bratislava, SK), Doc. Prof. Katedra misiológie, Polianky, Pod Brehmi 4/A, 841 01 Bratislava, RNDr. Pavel Nováček, CSc., Palacký University Olomouc, (Olomouc, Slovakia CZ), Prof. Dr. Ivan Dacko, Ukrainian Catholic University, (Lviv, UA), Doc. PhDr. Ondrej Botek, PhD., Trnava University, (Trnava, SK), PhDr. Correspondence address Monika Nová, PhD., Charles University, (Prague, CZ), Prof. Todd M. Katedra misiológie, VŠZSP sv. Alžbety, P.O.Box 104, 810 00 Bratisla‑ Johnson, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, (South Hamilton, va, Slovakia MA, US), Prof. PhDr. Mária Šmidová PhD., Trnava University, (Trnava, phone no.: +421 903 723 899 SK), Doc. PhDr. Ludmila Muchová, PhD., University of South Bohemia E-mail: [email protected] in Ceske Budejovice, (CZ), Doc. ThDr. David Tonzar, Th.D., Hus Insti‑ Journal web site tute for Theological Studies, (Prague, CZ), Mgr. Mariana Hamarová, www.actamissiologica.com St. Elizabeth University, (Bratislava, SK), Guarantors of No. 1, Vol. 14, 2020 issue Graphical editors for the field of theology: Dr. John Berry, Faculty of Theology, Peter Vančo, Peter Bendl, Retouch Slovakia University of Malta, MT; prof. ThLic. Miloš Lichner, SJ. D.Th. Graphical layout – cover: Peter Bendl, Retouch Slovakia Trnava university, Faculty of Theology, Trnava, SK; Collegi- Graphical adjustments and pre-printing: Peter Vančo um Bobolanum, Pontifical Faculty of Theology Warsaw, PL Graphical layout – cover: The Importance of Creating a Sense for the socio-health field: prof. Dr. Selvaraj Subramanian, of Belonging and Support during a Period of the COVID-19 Pandem‑ Ph.D. SAAaRMM, Kuala Lumpur, MY; prof. Andrea Shahum ic and Similar Epidemics. The authors of the painting is © graphic MD, PhD., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School, designers: Peter Bendl, Retouch Slovakia Department of Medicine, US; Dr. h. c. Prof. MUDr. Vladimír Linguistic editing and proofreading Krcmery, DrSc. Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh Scot- Mgr. Mariana Hamarová, John Michael Zawistowski land, GB; The School of Medicine of Comenius University and the Slovak Tropical Institute, SK

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS Editorial

EDITORIAL ...... 5

FRANCISCO XAVIER’S ACTIVITIES REGARDING THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE Ichiro Taida ...... 8

THE ROLE OF STORY AND CHRISTIAN IDENTITY Pavol Bargár...... 20

THE COUNCIL'S DECLARATION ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND ITS IMPORTANCE FOR THE CZECH ECUMENISM Robert Svatoň...... 34

HOPE THROUGH A RENEWED CHURCH: EPISTEMOLOGY OF COMPLEXITY AND ITS CHALLENGES FOR RESTRUCTURALIZATION OF THE Josef Mikulášek...... 46

INIMICI LEONIS IN HOMILETIC WORK OF LEO THE GREAT Expert articles Expert Miloš Lichner...... 57

COHORTATION AND TESTING OF ELDERLY HOMELESS WITHIN COVID PADEMICS IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT – EXAMPLE OF A LIFE ISLAND MISSION MODEL Vladimir Krcmery, Ladislav Bucko, Daria Kimuli, Maria Jackulikova, Vlastimil Kozon, Michael Olah, Robert Kovac, Mario Jancovic, Jarmila Holkova, Getrie Mikolasova, Baska Tekovska, Jaroslava Polonova, Marianna Mrazova, Jose Suvada, Michaela Kosticova, Suzan Hajden...... 76

SOME SPECIFICITIES OF LONG-TERM CARE WITHIN THE EU IN THE CONTEXT OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF COVID-19 Cecilia Costa, Dariusz Gardocki, Krzysztof Trębski, Mária Šmidová, Gulnora Hundley, Harold Baillie, Monika Nová, Simona Rečná, Emma Valigurská...... 79

CERTAIN NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES RELATED TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC AND RELEVANT POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS Jiju Varghese, Zbigniew Kubacki, Peter Caban, Józef Młyński, Mieczysław Ozorowski, Steve Szydlowski, West, Günter Dorfmeister, Alexander Wolf, Jordan Hicks, Emmanuel Janagan Johnson, Grazyna Debska ...... 83

ANALYSIS OF THE POVERTY RISK IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES Pavol Beno, Pavel Stukovsky, Lucia Ludvigh Cintulova, Martin Samohyl...... 92

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DIALOGUE AS A PERSONAL TOOL OF INTEGRATION OF MIGRANTS Martin Dojčár...... 102

NEW, SPECIFIC POSSIBILITIES OF REHABILITATION FOR REGAINING COGNITIVE ABILITIES Ján Mašán...... 109

ON CURRENT SOURCES OF ETHICS IN LAW Marek Šmid...... 113 Expert articles Expert

THE DEMAND OF THE POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IN SLOVAK SOCIAL SURROUNDING AND ITS REFLECTION IN CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING Martin Uháľ, Lýdia Lešková...... 118

SEVERAL RELEVANT SPECIFICITIES IN THE FIELD OF SPIRITUALITY IN SOCIAL WORK Jana Levická...... 129

COOPERATION OF VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS AND ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED IN PROFESSIONAL INTEGRATION OF PERSONS WITH A MENTAL DISABILITY Katarína Slezáková, Krzystof Trebski ...... 142

FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION AND ITS HEALTH, EMOTIONAL, SOCIAL AND ETHICAL CONSEQUENCES Libusa Radkova, Lucia Ludvigh Cintulova, Katarina Bundzelova ...... 153

Commented interview Commented THE COVID-19 PERSPECTIVE FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE GLOBE – SOUTH VERSUS . “THE CORONAVIRUS DISEASE MAY BE CONTROLLED WITHIN LATE SPRING AND EARLY SUMMER 2020” PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE GAINED DURING EPIDEMICS SIMILAR TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC – COMMENTED INTERVIEW Selvaraj Subramanian, Andrea Shahum, Vladimir Krcmery...... 163

REFORM OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THE CONTEXT OF THE JESUITS’ PRINCIPLES RATIO STUDIORUM – COMMENTED INTERVIEW György Herdics, Marek Šmid...... 166 Interesting activities Interesting

SYNODALITY: THE ECUMENICAL JOURNEY OF THE CHURCH Robert Svatoň...... 170 Interview THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE – THE – FOR THE PRESENT – AN INTERVIEW Jozef Kulisz, Miloš Lichner ...... 176

4 EDITORIAL

EDITORIAL

Dear Colleagues and Readers of Acta Missiologica, the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic caught off guard, hit, and affected the entire world . The current issue of the Acta Missiologica journal was written in the midst of the difficult period of the progression of the disease . The COVID-19 disease affected the journal in both direct and indirect ways . Many foreign authors, reviewers, and even some foreign members of the journal’s scientific and editorial boards have been affected by COVID-19 and its aftermath to such an extent, that they are to this day trying to mobilise all their strength and focus on help- ing themselves and those in their immediate vicinity . Several of the aforementioned persons even had to cope with the loss of their loved ones and colleagues . As a result of all these developments, the structure of this issue had to be amended several times and created anew . At the same time, the international professional community was involved in its creation, which brought us all a sense of belonging and support, as well as provided room for some reflection and subsequent inspiring dialogue. This reflection and dialogue did not relate only to the val- ues of human life and health, the need to return to spiritual values or humanity . It also focused on the meaning, usefulness, and worth of man as such, irrespective of whether he is healthy or not, despite the fact that modern bioethics tries to deny the sanctity of human life, which is based on Christian religions and high morals . Sacred life thus means that it is a human life with intrinsic values, and the people living such life form part of a moral community in which no distinction is made between a more valuable and a less valuable life . Such a human life Editorial with intrinsic value has a moral and absolute right to live and cannot be relativised to various situations, nor to a situation such as the COVID-19 disease . The current issue of the Acta Mis- siologica journal also touches on the topic of morality, long-term care for such a sacred human life, and the possibilities of dealing with it in the context of COVID-19 . However, in connection with the forthcoming issue and its circumstances, the reflection and dialogue also dealt with the fundamental position of dialogue in the global and national society, whose specificities and relevant new connections were addressed in the previous issue of Acta Missiologica (2019, No. 2, Vol. 13). The attention in the current issue in regards to reflection and dialogue was fo- cused on the interpersonal, intercultural, and interreligious level . We see the necessity to initiate a dialogue, for example, in the field of migration, ethics in law, ecumenism, Christian identity, the specificities of political correctness, the spiritual aspects of social work, the importance of ecumenism, the ecumenical path of the Church, hope through the renewed Church, and within the epistemology of complexity also in the challenges in the restructuring of the Catho- lic Church, in the noteworthy example of Francisco Xavier’s activities regarding the Japanese language, and in the relevant contribution of studying the Church Fathers in the 21st Century . This necessity to initiate a dialogue can also be seen in the impacts of COVID-19, which open up the need to find relevant and effective solutions at psychosocial, spiritual, and self-help levels in connection with specific aspects of missiology that are beneficial to assisting professions – i e. . frontline workers who are permanently exposed to traumatic stress – in the poverty-related impacts of COVID-19, in vulnerable groups such as the elderly with chronic illnesses, or people with disabilities and their rising uncertainty with regards to employment possibilities, or in such relevant topics as female circumcision, which still occurs in some countries, as well as in many other fields. On the occasion of the forthcoming issue of the journal, Acta Missiologica has prepared a special column entitled Commented interviews (special articles), where you can

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read, for example, interviews with experts on the COVID-19 perspective from both sides of the world – Southeast Asia versus Europe – as well as relevant and interesting practical experience acquired during epidemics that were similar to the COVID-19 pandemic .

However, the reflection and ensuing dialogue of the international community on the current situ- ation of the COVID-19 pandemic published in the Acta Missiologica journal brought further inter- esting and relevant outcomes . These have shown, for example, that due to the journal’s unique- ness and competitiveness, it needs to take a more definite stance and to reach out more to the international professional community in order to stimulate a greater interest within it . With this objective in mind, since 2020, the journal has been creating room within its international platform for unique specificities in the field of international public law with new and unique scientific and relevant direct and close connection to the international missionary activities and several other relevant aspects from other fields, which the journal focuses on. As of autumn 2020, the journal will also focus on specialised unique scientific and expert research at the international level, covering all fields the journal has covered thus far, while also presenting new relevant findings and interconnections that have not yet been identified and will be beneficial for the professional community .

The current issue of the Acta Missiologica journal covers new and as yet insufficiently explored fields in order to create room for new scientific and professional research, reflections, new rele- vant scientific discussions, as well as inspiring incentives for the future work of academics and experts in various scientific fields.

Guarantors of the current issue for the field of theology: Dr. John Berry, Faculty of Theology, University of Malta, MT; prof. ThLic. Miloš Lichner, SJ. D.Th. Trnava university, Faculty of Theology, Trnava, SK; Collegium Bobolanum, Pontifical Faculty of Theology Warsaw, PL for the socio-health field: prof. Dr. Selvaraj Subramanian, Ph.D. SAAaRMM, Kuala Lumpur, MY; prof. Andrea Shahum MD, PhD., University of North Carolina at Chap- el Hill School, Department of Medicine, US; Dr. h. c. Prof. MUDr. Vladimír Krcmery, DrSc. Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh Scotland, GB; The School of Medicine of Comenius University and the Slovak Tropical Institute, SK for the field of ethics of law and educational reformation: Dr.h.c. prof. doc. JUDr. Marek Šmid, PhD. The Institute for Legal Aspects of Religious Freedom; Faculty of Law, Trna- va University, SK; Dr. h. c. mult. doc. PhDr. PaedDr. ThLic. György Herdics, PhD., MBA, LL.M, mim. prof. Warsaw Management University, Warsaw, PL

6 FRANCISCO XAVIER’S ACTIVITIES REGARDING THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE | Ichiro Taida

FRANCISCO XAVIER’S ACTIVITIES REGARDING THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE *

Ichiro Taida ✉1

Faculty of International Tourism Management of Toyo University in Tokyo (, JP)

Submitted: 13 September 2019 Accepted for publication: 25 April 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract Backround: This paper focuses on Francisco Xavier’s activity regarding the Japanese lan- guage . As a Jesuit missionary, he worked in , Malacca, Moluccas, and so forth, before he finally arrived in Japan in August 1549. His work in the Asian region has common features concerning languages . Xavier did not learn Asian languages to any extensive degree or speak them well . He did prepare special texts written in Roman alphabet and read them to preach to the local people . But he regarded learning the local languages very highly; he recommended Western people to learn the local languages and praised those who could speak them . He was also enthusiastic about fostering interpreters and analyzing the Asian languages . Expert articles Conclusion: Although he was not fluent in Japanese, it was Xavier that sowed the seeds for the foundation of the later systematic Japanese learning systems which were put in place by subsequent Jesuits . The contribution and inspiration of Xavier’s work can also be recognized today. Further detailed research and reflections of his work can be beneficial for academics and experts in this field of practice.

Keywords: Francisco Xavier – The – Japanese – Japan – Language .

Introduction Francisco Xavier was a Jesuit missionary. In 1549 he was the first western person to intro- duce Christianity to Japan . It is well known that the Jesuit missionaries studied Japanese from a very early stage. This marked the first time that Western students purposefully studied the Japanese language . Therefore, Xavier is no doubt a pioneer for the learning of the Japanese language among Western people as well as being a pioneer of the Christian missionaries to Asia . However, although much emphasis was placed on his missionary work, his learning ability and learning of Japanese language has not gathered much attention .2

* The paper is based on the author’s presentation at the workshop ‘Receptions of Greco-Roman Classics in Japan’ at Keio University in May, 2019. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Akihiko Watanabe who gave me invaluable suggestions in the workshop. Also, I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments. ✉ Contact on author: Professor Ichiro Taida Ph.D, – email: [email protected] 2 For the description of Xavier’s activities concerning Japanese language, the following are of special value: Y. Uno, ‘The Jesuit Missionaries’ View of Japan: From the Arrival of Xavier through the 1560s’, Journal of Nisho-Gakusha University Humanities Association 74, 2005: 146-162; K. Yoshimura, ‘Communication Ability of ’, in Institute of Humanities, Chuo University (ed.), Catholic and Culture (Tokyo, 2008): 153-186.

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This paper will focus on Xavier’s activity concerning Japanese language, comparing it with his activities in other Asian countries . Before he came to Japan, he visited other Asian countries to do missionary work and was faced with difficulties derived from language problems. It is most probable that he had already established, to some degree, his learning style and attitude to- ward local Asian languages before coming to Japan . Therefore, this comparative research will present some features of this important concerning his language activities and his mis- sionary work .

Before coming to Japan: Stay in India and South East Asia Xavier met Ignacio López de Loyola in and then they established the Society of Jesus on 15 August 1534 . Leaving Europe for his missionary work in 1541, he arrived at Goa on 6 May 1542 . In India, he stayed mainly in Goa, Cochin, and the Fishery Coast . Xavier did not understand the local language in India. He did not even consider learning the difficult Tamil alphabet with its numerous characters and combinations 3. In his letter dated 15 January 1544, he said about local people: “I could get no other answer from them than that they were Christians, and that, since they did not understand our language, they did not know our law, nor what they should be- lieve . And since they did not understand me nor I them, their language being Malabar4 and mine Basque5, I brought together those who were most knowledgeable and looked for individuals who understood both our language and theirs . We then worked together for many days and translated with great efforts the prayers from into Malabar ”. 6 Although he did not understand the local language, he worked hard on his missionary work . It was not absolutely necessary for him to learn the local language . In his letter dated 29 August 1544, he said, “I baptize the infants and the others to be baptized . For this I do not have an inter- preter . The poor let me know their needs without an interpreter, and I understand them without an interpreter when I see them . For the more important things I do not have need of an interpreter ”. 7 Xavier and his companions created missionary texts in the local language . Xavier said he had given the text of the Articles of the Faith to Father Francisco Coelho to translate into Tamil .8 The translation was completed in October, 1548 .9 For his missionary work, Xavier preached using the local language . Xavier wrote the prayers and the Commandments in the Roman alphabet which

3 G. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier: His Life, His Times, Volume II, India, 1541-1545, trans. M. J. Costelloe, S. J. (Rome, 1977), 308. In India, it was said that a miracle occurred and Xavier preached in and spoke the local language very well. Cf. F. Xavier, Monumenta Xaveriana ex autographis vel ex antiquioribus exemplis collecta, Vol. II (Ma- triti, 1912), 546-547; M. Ikegami, Y. Sano, et al. (trans.), João Rodriguez Tçuzu: Historia da Igreja do Japão, Vol. II (Tokyo, 1970), 364. But the evidence is not trustworthy. 4 Cf. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier II, 407: Xavier used “Malabar” for “Tamil”. 5 Since Xavier’s parents were from the Basque country, his mother tongue was Basque. Cf. G. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier: His Life, His Times, Volume I, Europe, 1506-1541, trans. M. J. Costelloe, S. J. (Rome, 1973), 31; Y. Kono (trans.), All Letters of St. Francis Xavier, (Tokyo, 1985), 4; Yoshimura, ‘Communication Ability’, 155. For the detailed study on Xavier’s mother language, see G. Schurhammer, ‘Die Muttersprache de hl. Franz Xaver’, Revista Internacional de los Estudios Vascos 20 (1929): 246-255. 6 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier II, 406-407; G. Schurhammer and I. Wicki, Epistolae S. Francisci Xaverii aliaque eius scripta, Tomus I (Rome, 1944), 161-162; Kono, All Letters, 110; Ikegami, Sano, et al, João Rodriguez Tçuzu, 281. 7 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier II, 449; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae I, 221; Kono, All Letters, 155; H. J. Coler- idge, The Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier, Vol. I (London, 1872), 225. 8 G. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier: His Life, His Times, Volume III, Indonesia and India, 1545-1549, translated by M. J. Costelloe, S. J. (Rome, 1980), 380, 513; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae I, 429; Kono, All Letters, 307. 9 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier III, 520; Kono, All Letters, 311.

8 FRANCISCO XAVIER’S ACTIVITIES REGARDING THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE | Ichiro Taida

had been translated into the local language, and then he memorized the important prayers 10. He recited them before the local people and the people repeated them 11. Xavier, of course, acknowledged the importance of learning languages in India . He applaud- ed Henrique Henriques, a Portuguese Jesuit, in his letter dated 12 January 1549, because he could speak and write the local language, Tamil, and thus he did the work of two or more people .12 Xavier asked Henriques to compose a Tamil grammar book with declensions, conjugations, and moods so that the missionaries could learn the language without too much difficulty.13 In his letter dated 21 November 1549, Henriques reported that he completed his assignment in the making of the grammar book by which people could learn Malabar (i e. . Tamil) easily 14.

Xavier left India and arrived in Malacca at the end of September, 1545 . He left Malacca for Moluccas at the beginning of 1546 . He then went back to Malacca, where he met a Japanese, Anjirō, at the end of 1547. Then he went to India and Malacca again, and finally he came to Japan. Since his arrival at Malacca, there was no doubt that he had acknowledged the importance of learning the local language, Malay . After his apostolic labors, Xavier spent the rest of his time studying Malay 15. Xavier said it was a great hardship not to know their language 16. However, he had no written or printed works to assist him in learning it 17. As a result, Xavier did not fully un- derstand the local language well enough to understand the confessions of the new believers 18. He and his companions translated Christian texts into the local language . His main work in Malacca consisted of laboriously translating the texts into Malay, with the help of various individ- uals who knew the language . They translated the Creed, the Commandments, the Our Father, Expert articles the Hail Mary, the Salve Regina, as well as other important prayers so that the new converts could recite them daily 19. Xavier undertook an investigation into the languages in these regions in his letter dated 10 May 1546, and he wrote: “The Malayan language, spoken in Malacca, is very common through-

10 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier II, 308. 11 Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae I, 162-163; Kono, All Letters, 110 -111. 12 G. Schurhammer and I. Wicki, Epistolae S. Francisci Xaverii aliaque eius scripta, Tomus II (Rome, 1945), 13-14; Kono, All Letters, 343. 13 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier III, 520; J. Wicki, S. I., Documenta Indica I (1540-1549) (Rome, 1948), 287; H. Kish- ino, Xavier and Japan: A Study on the Earliest Period of (Tokyo, 1998), 48. For Henriques’ learning Tamil, see Schurhammer, Francis Xavier III, 512-513. 14 Wicki, Documenta Indica, 581; Kishino, Xavier and Japan, 48. The Society of Jesus as well as Xavier recom- mended members to learn local languages. See D. F. Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe: Volume I, The Century of Discovery, Book One & Two (Chicago, 1965), 279: “Naturally the acquisition of Indian languages was made difficult by the lack of suitable tools such as dictionaries and grammars. The Jesuits, however, from Xavier onward showed themselves able, in several cases at least, to overcome this handicap. Perhaps this was true because the officials of the Society and its Constitutions required the Jesuits in the field to make the attempt. The superiors in India rewarded language competence by promotions.” 15 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier III, 30. 16 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier III, 44; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae I, 299; Kono, All Letters, 220. 17 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier III, 31. 18 Kono, All Letters, 209. 19 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier III, 31, 593; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae I, 292, 299, 333; Kono, All Letters, 205- 206, 219-220, 238-239. Xavier gave the children and the local Christians an explanation of the Articles of the Creed, written in easy to understand language, and he said the explanation was suitable for the local people who had recently converted to Christianity; his idea was that this explanation could be taught in one year if the local people memorized twenty words per a day. Cf. Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae I, 389; Kono, All Let- ters, 271. The explanation of the Articles of the Faith which Xavier composed in Ternate (an island in Moluccas)

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out this area . . . It is a great handicap in these islands that they have no writings, and know only a little about writing; and the language they write is in Malay and the letters are Arabic, which the Moorish priests have taught them to write and still teach them at present . Before they became Moors they did not know how to write ”. 20

Information of Japan and the Japanese language In Malacca, Xavier met a Japanese, Anjirō, who already understood some Portuguese. Fol- lowing Xavier’s suggestion, Anjirō went to the College of St. Paul in Goa. Xavier thought Anjirō could in the meantime perfect his Portuguese in the college and translate the Christian texts into Japanese .21 As a result, as Xavier said, Anjirō became able to read, write, and speak Portuguese within eight months .22 Before coming to Japan, Xavier obtained some information about the Japanese language from Anjirō. Xavier noticed that Anjirō wrote what he heard in an unintelligible Japanese script from top to bottom and from right to left .23 Xavier already knew that the Japanese language con- sisted of different kinds of characters (i e. . kanji, hiragana, and katakana), and when Japanese people wrote a book, they used kanbun which are Classical Chinese sentences written in kanji .24 The Portuguese merchant, Jorge Alvares, who introduced Anjirō to Xavier, urged Xavier to come to Japan and he wrote a report on Japan at the request of Xavier; Xavier forwarded the merchant’s report to Loyola in Rome at the beginning of 1548 and it became the first item of importance collected by the Jesuits for their detailed documentation on Japan compiled during the latter half of the century .25 As for the information concerning the Japanese language, Alvares wrote, “As far as our discoveries have at present extended, there appears to be but one language in use throughout the country ”. 26

was a kind of rhymed catechism which was intended to be learned by heart and taught by being sung. Cf. G. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier: His Life, His Times, Volume IV, Japan and , 1549-1552, trans. M. J. Costelloe, S. J. (Rome, 1982), 107. 20 Lach, Asia, 515; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae I, 333; Kono, All Letters, 238-239. 21 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier III, 272. See also Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 105: “In January, 1548, at the time of his encounter with Anjirō, Francis had already written that his Japanese friend would better his Portu- guese in Goa and be there further instructed in the faith. He, Francis, would then, with his assistance, translate the whole of Christian doctrine into Japanese, an explanation of the articles of the faith, and an extensive account of the coming of Christ, since Anjirō was able to write Japanese very well.” This is cited from his letter dated 20 January 1548. Cf. Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae I, 392; Kono, All Letters, 274. 22 Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 10, 25; Kono, All Letters, 341, 352. Xavier assigned Anjirō to study Portu- guese, get used to the Western lifestyle, and help Xavier in creating the Japanese version of the Christian doctrines and the Articles of Faith. Cf. Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae I, 392; Kono, All Letters, 274; Y. Kono, The Life of St. Francis Xavier (Tokyo, 1988), 144. 23 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier III, 473. Anjirō said that a man’s head was certainly above and his feet below; it was therefore fitting that when writing, men should go from top to bottom. 24 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier III, 474; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 27, 31, 39, 46, 71; Kono, All Letters, 354, 357, 360, 367, 381; K. Matsuda and M. Kawasaki (trans.), Fróis: History of Japan, Vol. VI (Tokyo, 1978), 24. See also Schurhammer, Francis Xavier III, 474: Xavier wrote that Anjirō was able to write Japanese to a good standard, but he only meant that Anjirō knew the two Japanese syllabic scripts (hiragana and katakana) and a limited number of Chinese ideograms; but these were not sufficient enough to read the sacred books of the Bud- dhists written in Chinese characters (kanji). 25 Lach, Asia, 657. 26 H. J. Coleridge, The Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier, Vol. II (London, 1872), 221. Also, the following informa- tion about Japanese monks is noteworthy: “They can read and write Chinese, but not speak it, and are thus constrained to carry on communications with the Chinese by means of writing, as these latter cannot speak

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Japan On 15 August 1549, Xavier landed in Kagoshima, Japan . On their voyage to Japan, one of his group, João Fernández, had already learned some Japanese . But Xavier and his companions had almost no comprehension of the Japanese language when they arrived in Japan, and they were not able to communicate with the people around them without an interpreter .27 They were busy meeting their neighbors, but at night they prayed and studied basic Japanese with great enthusiasm until late . 28 They prolonged their vigils in prayer and in the study of the basic principles of Japanese . Because of this Xavier made so much progress that he said that by the end of September 1549, having spent forty days learning Japanese with Anjirō’s assistance, he was able to explain the Ten Commandments in Japanese .29 He strongly emphasized the necessity of learning Japanese, writing in his later dated 5 November 1549: “and if we knew how to speak the language, I have no doubt that many would become Christians . May it please God our load that we learn it in a short time, for we have already begun to become acquainted with it ”. 30 Also he wrote, “and if we were able to speak, we would have already gained much fruit ”. 31 This necessity motivated him to learn Japanese . He stated his mental attitude toward learning languages in his letter dated 5 November 1549: “Till now we are among them like statues, since they speak and say many things about us, and we ourselves, since we do not understand the language, are mute; and we must now become like little children in learning the language, and may it please God that we may imitate them in simplicity and purity of mind . This forces us to take means and to dispose ourselves to be like them both in learning the language and in imitating Expert articles the simplicity of the little ones who without malice ”. 32 Although it must have been hard for him to learn the language, he seemed optimistic about it . In his letter dated 29 January 1552, he said that Japan was an extremely vast land consisting entirely of islands; only one language was spoken there, and it was not difficult to learn.33

Xavier’s ability of Japanese language However, did he really understand Japanese?34 João Rodriguez wrote it was certain that Xavier himself had a talent for languages, and it was evident because Christians in Satsuma (now known as Kagoshima in Kyushu) said to Padre Luis that Xavier was blessed with language talent .35 Also, Rodriguez wrote that Japanese people understood what Xavier had said in front of a temple .36 Moreover, Antonio Pereira said Xavier understood and spoke the local languages

Japanese.” Cf. Coleridge, The Life and Letters II, 220-221. 27 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 67; Matsuda & Kawasaki, Fróis VI, 42. 28 Matsuda & Kawasaki, Fróis VI, 42. 29 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 67; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 190; Kono, All Letters, 475. 30 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 86; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 190; Kono, All Letters, 475. 31 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 90; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 201; Kono, All Letters, 485. 32 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 91; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 201; Kono, All Letters, 486. 33 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 441; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 254; Kono, All Letters, 521. 34 K. Matsuda, A Study on Japanese Historical Documents of Early Modern Japan, 2nd edn. (Tokyo, 1981), 564 introduced the controversy regarding Xavier’s Japanese ability: William Elliot Griffis said that Xavier did not preach in Japanese, but Michael Steichen did not agree with Griffis. 35 Ikegami, Sano, et al., João Rodriguez Tçuzu, 363. 36 Ikegami, Sano, et al., João Rodriguez Tçuzu, 363.

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wherever he went, as in Malabar (a region in southwest India), Moluccas, and Japan 37. Further- more, modern scholar M . T . Kelly (1918) stated that Xavier managed the local languages ​​in India, Malay, and even Japan .38 However other historical evidence dismisses Xavier’s Japanese ability . In particular, we should focus on Xavier’s stay in Kyoto . Xavier made a return trip from Yamaguchi to Kyoto at the end of 1550 to the beginning of 1551 . Many authors criticized his Japanese ability during the trip . Alessandro Valignano said that Xavier and Fernández did not speak Japanese when they were in Kyoto, and both of them were like mutes 39. Gaspar Vilela reported that Xavier produced no results in his missionary work in Kyoto, because he did not have the knowledge of the language . 40 Rodriguez said when Xavier went to Kyoto, he had only a limited knowledge regarding Japanese language and customs .41 Moreover, the Japanese monk, Ninjitsu, in Kagoshima said that when he met Xavier, he wanted to understand what he said, but he could not understand anything Xavier said because there were no interpreters .42 Many modern scholars deny Xavier’s language ability . 43 As Ikegami, Sano, et al . (1970) pointed out, the mutual understanding between Xavier and the local people was regarded as a miracle, thus, it was considered that he had a great command of several local languages .44 However, this is not worthy of being called a miracle . Even though we cannot speak a common language, we can understand each other in some cases . The same was true of Xavier . For example, a monk, who was one of the students of Ninjitsu, was attracted by the argument about Deus by Xavier, and he said that Xavier did not have enough Japanese ability to make Japanese monks understand what he wanted to say; however, the monk was convinced by Xavier, hence he understood the Christian teachings .45 Like the monk, it seems quite possible that although Xavier did not speak Japanese very well, because of his sainthood, people simply understood what Xavier wanted to convey. In 1616, a witness testified what he had heard from credible individuals and four priests who were Xavier’s companions in India; when Xavier arrived in Japan, he did not know or knew little about the Japanese language, however, he preached without an interpreter . He used partly Spanish, partly Latin, and partly Portuguese when he preached, adding some Japanese words,

37 Xavier, Monumenta Xaveriana, 418; Ikegami, Sano, et al., João Rodriguez Tçuzu, 364-365; Matsuda, A Study on Japanese, 564. 38 M. T. Kelly, A Life of Saint Francis Xavier: Based on Authentic Sources (London, 1918), 114: “Being a man of highly trained intellect and excellent memory, Francis acquired the Eastern languages with such rapidity that he was soon able to dispense with interpreters in his sermons, his disputes with the Brahmans, and his instructions to native Christians and pagans, who belonged to separate tribes, each having a different dialect. […] Besides, as we have already observed, when speaking in one dialect, he was understood by natives knowing only their own tongue; a miracle often repeated in the Malayan Archipelago and in Japan. Absorbed in his sacred duties, it is difficult to understand how Francis could have had time for the study of the many difficult languages in which he was heard to preach with fluency.” 39 J. Wicki S. I., Alessandro Valignano S. I., Historia del Principio y Progresso de la Compañía de Jesús en las Orientales (1542-64) (Rome, 1944), 172; K. Matsuda and M. Kawasaki (trans.), Fróis: History of Japan, Vol. III (Tokyo, 1978), 22. 40 Schurhammer, Das Kirchliche Sprachproblem in der Japanischen Jesuitenmission des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (Tokyo, 1928), 10; Matsuda & Kawasaki, Fróis III, 22. 41 Ikegami, Sano, et al., João Rodriguez Tçuzu, 430-431. 42 Matsuda & Kawasaki, Fróis VI, 275. 43 Also, Matsuda, A Study on Japanese, 564-565 and Yoshimura, ‘Communication Ability’, 173 devalued Xavi- er’s Japanese ability. 44 Ikegami, Sano, et al., João Rodriguez Tçuzu, 364. 45 Matsuda & Kawasaki, Fróis VI, 276-277.

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and his listeners could understand what he meant; the same happened in the Isles of the Moor and on the Fishery Coast 46. Thus, Xavier preached using some Japanese, and on that basis came to be regarded as a good Japanese speaker . Besides, we should take into account the following four facts: first, it was said that Xavier either understood Japanese, listened to Japanese, or spoke Japanese . Yet, it is very common for people learning a foreign language to pretend to listen and to understand the language . Xa- vier spoke Japanese, but he could do it because he had a text written in the Roman alphabet . Secondly, he himself did not say that he had a good command of Japanese; on the other hand, he praised other Westerners’ language abilities, as we will see below . Thirdly, Xavier was aware that he must learn the language “like little children”, as we saw in his letter dated 5 November 1549 cited above . It is probable that Xavier practiced Japanese with local Japanese people . However, he never said that he had learned to read or write either hiragana, katakana or Chinese ideograms . These three types of characters are necessary to understand in order to master Japanese language . As a result, Xavier had to rely on transcripts in the Roman script when he read the Japanese Cathecism, as mentioned hereinafter . Fourthly, we must not forget that Xavier was a holy saint and many historical documents regarding Xavier include flattery. For example, Francisco Rodriguez at the beginning of 1604 said that Xavier’s biography books published by Orazio Torsellino and João de Lucena included descriptions that needed to be corrected as well as many over exaggerated parts 47. Moreover, we must note that most of his biographies were written in the late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century, that is, in the period in which the of Xavier was in progress;48 Expert articles on 12 March 1622, Xavier was officially declared a saint by Pope Gregory XV.49 The biographies were written partly to promote Xavier’s canonization and to index the many successes of the Jesuit missions in Asia; they are situated between “history and hagiography .”50 Therefore, the ev- idence which praised Xavier’s language ability is most likely, a compliment or has been overly exaggerated .

Preaching and Japanese Catechism Let us examine how Xavier carried out his missionary work. In Kagoshima, with Anjirō’s help, Xavier and his companions composed, in Japanese, the Catechism on the life of Christ and the teachings of the faith from the Creation of the World to the Last Judgement 51. How did they create the Japanese Catechism? They translated the original Catechism into Japanese 52. The

46 Coleridge, The Life and Letters II, 385; Schurhammer, Das Kirchliche Sprachproblem, 6-7; Ikegami, Sano, et al., João Rodriguez Tçuzu, 365. 47 K. Takase, Society of Jesus and Japan, Vol. I (Tokyo, 1981), 267. 48 P. Gupta, The State: St Francis Xavier and the Politics of Ritual in Portuguese India (Manchester, 2014), 36. 49 Gupta, The Relic State, 78. 50 Gupta, The Relic State, 36. 51 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 443; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 259; Kono, All Letters, 526; Matsuda & Kawasaki, Fróis VI, 43-44. See also Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 96, Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 211, and Kono, All Letters, 495: In his letter dated 5 November 1549, Xavier wrote, “It seems to me that we shall be busy this winter in writing an explanation of the articles of the faith in the language of Japán, rather full, so that it may be printed, since all the important people know how to read and write, so that our holy faith may be spread in many regions, since we cannot go to all of them. Paul, our dearest brother, will faithfully translate into his own language all that is necessary for the salvation of their souls.” 52 The translation of the Catechism was carried out in Kagoshima. This was where they first landed in Japan, and therefore not only Xavier but also other Western missionaries did not understand Japanese very well. It is natural Anjirō was the main person for the translation project. However, as Schurhammer pointed out, Anjirō’

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sentences in the Japanese book were transcribed into the Roman alphabet so that Xavier could read them 53. With the Catechism, Xavier went to villages to preach . Although he did not speak Japanese fluently, he preached in Japanese. In front of Japanese people, Xavier took the Cat- echism and read this text aloud . This was then followed by an explanation by interpreters, such as Anjirō and Fernández; and Xavier constantly repeated the important parts.54 His limitations of the Japanese language caused many difficulties and problems. For exam- ple, some of his audiences ridiculed his poor pronunciation and unusual gestures; others said he was crazy, while others said that he was telling old wives’ tales 55. Also, the argument about “Deus” was a central problem which Xavier faced in presenting the Gospel and Christian doc- trine, namely, the problem of how to translate the concept of God into the Japanese language . The notion of God, who is the creator of heaven and earth was unknown to the Japanese . Xavier first used the word “Dainichi” (meaning “the Great Sun”) to express God, only to learn that it was used in Buddhism to depict a “Vairocana” . Thus, he decided to use the word “Deus” which in his Spanish pronunciation came out somewhat as “Daius”; but, children interpreted it as “dai uso” (meaning “great lie”), and in turn they ridiculed Xavier whenever he used it, while preaching .56

Xavier’s investigation of the Japanese people and the Japanese language Since Xavier came to Japan, he carried out an investigation regarding the Japanese people and the Japanese language 57. He said that many Japanese people could read and write, both men and women, especially the noble men and women and the merchants . The female bonzes taught the girls how to write in their monasteries, while the male bonzes taught the boys the same in theirs 58. Moreover, Xavier wrote, “A large portion of the people can read and write, which is

translation of the Cathecism was imperfect. Anjirō had not received a higher education; and, despite all his good will, his work was so defective that it badly represented the thoughts of the priests, and its style offend- ed the educated. Cf. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 109. Anjirō’s social position is uncertain. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier III, 270 considered Anjirō as a samurai, but H. Kishino, A Companion of Xavier, Anjirō (Tokyo, 2001), 16-17 considered him as a merchant. In any case, Anjirō was not a scholar, and therefore, given this background and his limited literary skills, he was not exactly suited to understand and translate the Christian doctrine and concepts. 53 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 107-108 said that the Japanese translation of the Catechism was written in Latin characters and in prose, and it gave an extensive account of the history of the Old Testament after the Fall; this was embodied in the manual of the Christian faith which Xavier and his companions read to their vis- itors, who wished to become Christians. This manual enabled them to understand how they should worship God and Christ, in order to save their souls. 54 For Xavier’s preaching, see Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 108-109, 238-239, and Ikegami, Sano, et al., João Rodriguez Tçuzu, 371-372. It is said with the books which he composed in Japan, Xavier preached through the streets twice a day in Yamaguchi. Cf. Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 260; Kono, All Letters, 527. 55 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 109. 56 For the detailed studies about “Dainichi”, for example, see H. Kishino, Relación de la expedicion de Ruy López de Villalobos: Livro que trata das cousas da India e do Japão (Tokyo, 1989), 195-209 and Kishino, A Companion of Xavier, 206-214. See also, Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 284, Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 270, and Kono, All Letters, 538. 57 Xavier’s investigation sometimes showed his lack of knowledge regarding the Japanese language. For exam- ple, he said that there were two scripts in Japanese which were very different from Chinese; one of these was employed by men and the other by women. Cf. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 445; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 274; Kono, All Letters, 541. What Xavier said about the “two scripts” (i.e. hiragana and katakana) that one was employed by men and the other by women, was completely false. The difference was not in the scripts but in the difference of the words and polite phrases used differently by men and women when speaking. 58 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 445; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 274-275; Kono, All Letters, 541.

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a great help for learning the prayers and the things of God in a short time”59, and “since a large portion of them know how to read and write, they quickly learn the prayers ”. 60 Furthermore, he reported the comparison between Japanese and Chinese language in his letter dated 29 January 1552: “It is a remarkable fact that the Chynas and the Japones do not understand each other when they speak, since their languages are very different from each other; but the Japones who know the writing of Chyna can be understood through their writing, but not when they speak ”. 61

Training interpreters Although he himself was not very good at Japanese, Xavier considered it was very important for Western people to learn Japanese . He sent the following letter to Europe on 21 July 1552: “and see well to it that you do not send any priest who is not learned to Japão or to China . And the brother whom you will send, if there is no priest, should have the talent for learning the lan- guage ”. 62 João Rodriguez said that Xavier recommended that Western missionaries learn Japa- nese so that every Western Jesuit coming to Japan would concentrate on learning Japanese .63 Xavier was highly motivated in training interpreters . In his letter written on 5 November 1549, he said to Misser Paulo in Goa, “Strive earnestly to teach and instruct Chinese and Japanese boys in this college in preference to all others, keeping a careful eye upon their spiritual life and that they know how to read and write and speak Portuguese, so that they may be interpreters of the priests who, God our Lord willing, will come within a few years to Japán and China, since it does not seem to me that in any other region of those which have been discovered one can produce so much fruit as in these ”. 64 Expert articles Xavier had a plan to build a school in Yamaguchi to train interpreters who would help Western missionaries from Europe . In his letter dated 29 January 1552, he said that a house of the Society should be erected in Yamaguchi 65. In another letter on the same date, he said that confreres in Yamaguchi would be able to study the language and teachings of their sects so that they might be able to serve as interpreters for the priests who came from Europe and who were qualified to go to the universities in Japan. Xavier continued and said that these qualified priests would thus

59 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 83; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 187; Kono, All Letters, 472. 60 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 91; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 201; Kono, All Letters, 486. 61 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 441; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 292; Kono, All Letters, 555. Xavier con- tinued as follows: “This writing of Chyna is taught in the universities of Japón, and the rest of the people regard the bonzos who know this writing as learned men; and the writing is of such a sort that each letter of Chyna indicates one thing; and therefore, when the Japones learn it, when they write a Chinese letter, they paint over this letter what they wish to say. If they want to write the letter “man,” they paint a figure of a man above this letter, and they do the same with all the other letters. And it is in this way that the signs correspond to words; and when one who is a Japón reads these letters, he reads them in his language of Japón; and when he is a Chyna, in his language of Chyna; so that when they speak, they cannot understand each other; and when they write, they can understand each other by means of a single letter, since they know the meaning of the signs; but the languages always remain different.” 62 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 611; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 473; Kono, All Letters, 705. 63 Ikegami, Sano, et al., João Rodriguez Tçuzu, 362. Also, Xavier wrote to Gaspar Barzaeus and said that when a priest came from Portugal, the brother who had the necessary talent of learning Japanese should go with the priest. Cf. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 542; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 423; Kono, All Letters, 669; Kono, The Life of St. Francis Xavier, 307. 64 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 100; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 217-218; Kono, All Letters, 505. In the same letter, he introduced two Japanese monks who would go to Goa or Malacca and become interpreters. Cf. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 101; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 220; Kono, All Letters, 506-507. 65 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 445; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 275; Kono, All Letters, 542; T. Gonoi, A Study on the History of Christianity in Japan (Tokyo, 2002), 48-49.

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have at their disposal, individuals who could give an accurate translation of everything that they said .66 It is worth remembering that the purpose of this school, which Xavier mentioned here, was to train the interpreters who could help the high-ranking priests who came from Europe 67. This building plan was put into practice; in his letter dated 9 April 1552, he wrote that the House of the Society was already built in Yamaguchi .68 Some Europeans had a certain level of Japanese language skills . Xavier praised Fernández, saying that he was already able to speak Japanese very well, and he translated everything that Cosme de Torrez said to him .69

Conclusion We have seen the language environment that Xavier was surrounded by . Since he left Eu- rope, he did his missionary work mainly in three regions: India, Southeast Asia (Malacca and Moluccas), and Japan . His work in the regions had common features concerning languages . Xavier did not master the Asian languages to any considerable degree; for himself, he prepared special books written in the local languages transcribed into the Roman alphabet and read them to preach to the local people . However, he felt the importance of studying the local languages . Therefore, Xavier regarded learning the local languages very highly . He recommended Western people to learn the local languages and praised those who could speak them . He was also en- thusiastic about fostering interpreters and examining the local languages . Although he recommended other Westerners to learn Asian languages, he, himself, was not fluent in them. He probably believed that even if he could not master the local languages, it would not be the most difficult problem in his missionary work; therefore, it is thought that he had a somewhat optimistic temperament . Please be reminded about what he wrote in his missionary work in India . Although he did not understand the local language, he said, “For the more impor- tant things I do not have need of an interpreter ”. 70 Moreover, in India, as Lach pointed out, it was not the leading lights of the Society who studied the local language, but rather the lay brothers and younger priests who worked in remote areas .71 It must have also been true in other Asian countries, that the young Western priests were expect- ed to learn the local languages . They had to stay with local people and hear their confessions in

66 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 440; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 290; Kono, All Letters, 553. 67 Xavier also said in other letters that the school in Yamaguchi would be useful to train interpreters who would help outstanding missionaries from Europe. Cf. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 546; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 275, 298, 346, 371; Kono, All Letters, 542, 558-559, 608, 626. 68 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 553; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 371; Kono, All Letters, 626-627; Gonoi, A Study on the History, 67-70. 69 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 440; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 291; Kono, All Letters, 554. For Xavi- er’s laudatory remark about Fernández’s Japanese ability, see also Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 445, Schur- hammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 276, and Kono, All Letters, 542. Moreover, in his letter dated 22 March 1552, he wrote, “Affairs in Japão are going very prosperously. Padre Cosme de Torrez and João Fernández are staying there with the many Christians who have already been converted and are being every day converted. They know the language well and, because of this, are producing very great fruit.” Cf. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier IV, 523; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae II, 326; Kono, All Letters, 592. 70 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier II, 449; Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae I, 221; Kono, All Letters, 155; Coleridge, The Life and Letters I, 225. 71 Lach, Asia, 279.

16 FRANCISCO XAVIER’S ACTIVITIES REGARDING THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE | Ichiro Taida

the local languages, and therefore they needed to learn them .72 On the other hand, high-ranking priests like Xavier did not usually make much progress; Xavier’s successors in Asia, Cosme de Torres73, then Francisco Cabral and Alessandro Valignano all needed interpreters 74. Moreover, it is worth remembering the school which Xavier built in Yamaguchi . The purpose of building the school which Xavier mentioned was to train the interpreters who could help the other distinguished Western priests who would preach in Japan . He considered that to learn Japanese was not an absolute necessity for Western people who came to Japan, but it was im- portant to train interpreters to help such Westerners whose Japanese ability was not very good . He was one such Westerner who could not speak Japanese very well, and he did not regard it as a handicap . As a result, Xavier remains renowned as the first evangelist of Christianity in Japan. If he hesitated to do missionary work in Japan because he could not speak Japanese, he would never have gotten such a famous name . In addition, although he was not an excellent learner of lan- guages himself, he should also be admired as being a pioneer of Japanese language learning . He was one of the first Westerners to gather information about Japanese and examine it. He also encouraged other Westerners to learn Japanese . It was Xavier that sowed the seeds for the foundation of the later systematic Japanese learning systems, i e. . the printing of grammar books and dictionaries, the building of schools, and so forth, which were put into place by the subsequent Jesuits . Expert articles Suggestion for further reading Among the latest studies on the Society of Jesus, the following book, a collection of papers is noteworthy. I. G. Županov (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Jesuits (Oxford, 2019) . Among them, for the history of the Jesuit missions in Asia regarding Xavier’s days, see H . V . Thanh, ‘The Jesuits in Asia under the Portuguese Padroado: India, China, and Japan (Sixteenth to Sev- enteenth Centuries)’, 400-426 . For the linguistic activities by the Jesuits, see S . M . McManus, ‘Jesuit Humanism and Indigenous-Language Philology in the Americas and Asia’, 737-758 . The following two studies summarize the life of Xavier and include the bibliography about the studies of Xavier . C . E . O’Neill and J . M . Dominguez (eds ),. Diccionario histórico de la Compañía de Jesús: biográfico-temático, Vol . III (Rome / Madrid, 2001), 2140-2141; T . Worcester (ed ),. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Jesuits (Cambridge, 2017), 846-852 . The latter discusses the language ability of Xavier in short . For the life of Xavier in Asia see as follows . India: P . D . Xavier, Goa: A Social History (Goa, 1993); L . Fernando, ‘Jesuits and India’, Oxford Handbooks Online (Oxford University Press, 2018) (25 Jan . 2020 accessed) . South East Asia: R . M . Loureiro, ‘Historical Notes on the Por-

72 Xavier often wrote about the hearing of confessions as a task of Western missionaries: e.g. Schurhammer & Wicki, Epistolae I, 185; Epistolae II, 24, 89, 347, 363, 402, 421, 495; Kono, All Letters, 185, 351, 395, 609, 623, 654, 666, 724. There is a rule in which the priests who hear confessions must keep them secret; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1467. Thus, it was probably hard for Western missionaries to ask interpreters, because of the sacramental seal of confession. However, sometimes Western priests revealed the secrets of Japanese people; e.g. Diego Collado’s Niffon no cotōbani yô confesion / Modus Confitendi et Examinandi (1632). 73 Pacheco Diego wrote the biography of Cosme de Torres who was a companion of Xavier and also one of the high-ranking priests, saying that Torres’ poor Japanese was not an obstacle for his missionary work because Torres himself and his life were more valuable for Japanese people than his speech. Cf. P. Diego, The Pioneer in : P. Cosme de Torres, trans. T. Sakuma (Tokyo, 1969), 116. 74 J. F. Moran, The Japanese and the Jesuits: Alessandro Valignano in Sixteenth-century Japan (London and New York, 1993), 182. Moran (p. 39) also argued that Valignano himself was never able to dispense with the services of an interpreter, and never heard a confession in Japanese.

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tuguese Fortress of Malacca (1511-1641)’, Revista de Cultura 27 (2008), 78-96 . Japan: C . R . Boxer, The Christian Century in Japan: 1549-1650, 2nd edn . (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967), H . Skoglund, ‘St . Francis Xavier’s Encounter with Japan’, Missiology 3 (1975), 451-467 . For the language activities held by Xavier, see as follows . India: See the following two articles in the book (I . Arellano and C . M . Induráin (eds ),. St Francis Xavier and the Jesuit Missionary Enterprise: Assimilations between Cultures / San Francisco Javier y la empresa misionera jesu- ita: Asimilaciones entre culturas (Pamplona, 2012)): S . Abreu, ‘Contribution of Jesuits to higher education in Goa: historical background of higher education of the Jesuits’, 9-21; J . Kalapura, ‘The legacy of Francis Xavier: Jesuit education in India, 16th-18th centuries’, 91-111 . South East Asia: M . Ozay, ‘A Revisiting Cultural Transformation: Education System in Malaya During the Colonial Era’, World Journal of Islamic History and Civilization, 1, no . 1 (2011), 37-48 . Japan: N . Guo, ‘Determination of Learning Japanese of St . Francisco Xavier’, in N, Guo (ed ),. Japanese Literature by Foreign Missionaries: The Origin of Multi-Lingual, Multi-Cultural Communication (Tokyo, 2017), 26-44 (郭南燕, 「聖フランシスコ・ザビエルの日本語学習の決意」, 郭南燕（編）, 『 キリシタンが拓いた日本語文学：多言語多文化交流の淵源』, 東京) . It discusses Xavier’s Japanese ability as well as his ability of other languages75 .

Bibliography H. J. Coleridge, The Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier, Vol. I & II (London, 1872). P. Diego, The Pioneer in Nagasaki: P. Cosme de Torres, trans. by T. Sakuma (Tokyo, 1969) (パ チ ェ コ・ ディ エ ゴ（ 著）, 佐久間正（訳）, 『長崎を開いた人：コスメ・デ・トーレスの生涯』, 東京). T. Gonoi, A Study on the History of Christianity in Japan (Tokyo, 2002) (五野井隆史, 『日本キリシタン史の研 究』, 東京). P. Gupta, The Relic State: St Francis Xavier and the Politics of Ritual in Portuguese India (Manchester, 2014). M. Ikegami, Y. Sano, et al. (trans.), João Rodriguez Tçuzu: Historia da Igreja do Japão, Vol. II (Tokyo, 1970) (池上 岑夫, 佐野泰彦など（訳）, 『ジョアン・ロドリーゲス 日本教会史 下』, 東京). M. T. Kelly, A Life of Saint Francis Xavier: Based on Authentic Sources (London, 1918). H. Kishino, Relación de la expedicion de Ruy López de Villalobos: Livro que trata das cousas da India e do Japão (Tokyo, 1989) (岸野久, 『西欧人の日本発見：ザビエル来日前 日本情報の研究』, 東京). H. Kishino, Xavier and Japan: A Study on the Earliest Period of Christianity in Japan (Tokyo, 1998) (『ザビエルと 日本』, 東京). H. Kishino, A Companion of Xavier, Anjirō (Tokyo, 2001) (『ザビエルの同伴者アンジロー：戦国時代の国際人』, 東京). Y. Kono (trans.), All Letters of St. Francis Xavier (Tokyo, 1985) (河野純徳（訳）, 『聖フランシスコ・ザビエル全 書簡』, 東京). Y. Kono, The Life of St. Francis Xavier (Tokyo, 1988) (河野純徳, 『聖フランシスコ・ザビエル全生涯』, 東京). D. F. Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe: Volume I, The Century of Discovery, Book One & Two (Chicago, 1965).

75 Unfortunately, Guo’s book became known to me too late to be taken into consideration regarding my paper. Guo deems that (p. 41) Xavier had the ability to understand Japanese used in everyday situations, and in a va- riety of circumstances to a certain degree (i.e. Level N2. See the homepage of Japanese Language Proficiency Test [25 Jan. 2020 accessed]). Also, Guo mentions that Xavier studied Tamil and Malay diligently (pp. 28-31, 40).

18 FRANCISCO XAVIER’S ACTIVITIES REGARDING THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE | Ichiro Taida

K. Matsuda, A Study on Japanese Historical Documents of Early Modern Japan, 2nd edn. (Tokyo, 1981) (松田毅 一, 『近世初期日本関係南蛮史料の研究』, 第2版, 東京). K. Matsuda and M. Kawasaki (trans.), Fróis: History of Japan, Vol. III & VI (Tokyo, 1978) (松田毅一・川崎桃太（ 訳）, 『フロイス：日本史』, 3, 6巻, 東京). J. F. Moran, The Japanese and the Jesuits: Alessandro Valignano in Sixteenth-century Japan (London and New York, 1993). G. Schurhammer, Das Kirchliche Sprachproblem in der Japanischen Jesuitenmission des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (Tokyo, 1928). G. Schurhammer, ‘Die Muttersprache de hl. Franz Xaver’, Revista Internacional de los Estudios Vascos 20 (1929): 246-255. G. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier: His Life, His Times, Volume I, Europe, 1506-1541, translated by M. J. Costelloe, S. J. (Rome, 1973). G. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier: His Life, His Times, Volume II, India, 1541-1545, translated by M. J. Costelloe, S. J. (Rome, 1977). G. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier: His Life, His Times, Volume III, Indonesia and India, 1545-1549, translated by M. J. Costelloe, S. J. (Rome, 1980). G. Schurhammer, Francis Xavier: His Life, His Times, Volume IV, Japan and China, 1549-1552, translated by M. J. Costelloe, S. J. (Rome, 1982). Expert articles G. Schurhammer and I. Wicki, Epistolae S. Francisci Xaverii aliaque eius scripta, Tomus I (1944), Tomus II (1945) (Rome). K. Takase, Society of Jesus and Japan, Vol. I (Tokyo, 1981) (高瀬弘一郎, 『イエズス会と日本 一』, 東京). Y. Uno, ‘The Jesuit Missionaries’ View of Japan: From the Arrival of Xavier through the 1560s’, Journal of Nisho-Gakusha University Humanities Association 74 (2005): 146-162 (宇 野 有介, ‘イエズス会 宣 教 師 達と日 本語：ザビエル来日から1560年代までを中心に’, 『二松学舎大学人文論集』). J. Wicki S. I., Alessandro Valignano S. I., Historia del Principio y Progresso de la Compañía de Jesús en las Indias Orientales (1542-64) (Rome, 1944). J. Wicki S. I, Documenta Indica I (1540-1549) (Rome, 1948). F. Xavier, Monumenta Xaveriana ex autographis vel ex antiquioribus exemplis collecta, Vol. II (Matriti, 1912). K. Yoshimura, ‘Communication Ability of Francis Xavier’, in Institute of Humanities, Chuo University (ed.), Catholic and Culture (Tokyo, 2008): 153-186 (吉村謙輔, ‘フランシスコ・ザビエルのコミュニケーション原理 の先進性について’, 中央大学人文科学研究所（編）, 『カトリックと文化（中央大学人文科学研究所叢書44 ）』, 東京).

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THE ROLE OF STORY AND CHRISTIAN IDENTITY *

Pavol Bargár ✉

Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague (CZ)

Submitted: 15 July 2019 Accepted for publication: 25 February 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract Background: The article discusses the role of the story with the intention of better under- standing and rethinking our understanding of Christian identity . It argues that this identity is based on God’s story in the world and with the world when the disciples of Jesus Christ strive to embody this story and further develop it creatively via the imagination . In the light of this argument, Christian discipleship aims towards the quality of life transformed by the power of the Spirit, and thus elevated to a truly human level . Being a Christian, therefore, ultimately means being human . Conclusion: The conclusion presents four broad areas relevant for practical implications for the church in mission, which the author briefly analyses. At the same time, these areas provide additional potentially interesting topics to discuss in-depth as well as new inspiring research for scientists and professionals who are active not only in the field of theology within Christian denominations, but also in the field of other sciences that focus on human beings and seek to elevate their dignity, values, and quality of life .

Keywords: Christian identity – Significance of story – Imagination – Embodying God’s sto- ry – Christian discipleship .

Introduction The theme of this article brings together two important concepts, namely, story and identity .76 For the purposes of the article it is crucial that these two categories are not go- ing to be primarily explored in general, but rather with respect to Christian faith, mission, and theology . The article seeks to introduce the thesis that the notion of story enables us to develop a dynamic approach to Christian identity based on a creative elaboration of God’s story in and with the world as made apparent, first and foremost, in the story of Jesus of Nazareth . Furthermore, the concept of discipleship will be discussed as an important aspect, interpreted in terms of Jesus’ disciples trying to follow their Master and Lord. To make a case for this thesis, one must first discuss the two concepts that appear in the title of this article – Christian identity and story . Before I set forth with my exploration, however, it is fair to make a short comment on self-positioning . Although coming from and belonging to a Protestant church and the- ological tradition, I seek to write this article from an intentionally ecumenical perspective .

* This work has been supported by the Charles University Research Centre program no. 204052. ✉ Contact on author: Mgr. Pavol Bargár, M.St., Th.D - email: [email protected]

20 THE ROLE OF STORY AND CHRISTIAN IDENTITY | Pavol Bargár

This claim is to be understood on two levels . First, my dialogue partners include people belonging to various Christian , including mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Anglican, and others, coming from various geographical contexts, both wom- en and men, both theologians and scholars of other humanities . And second, I deliberately opt for inquiring into themes and issues that are relevant across denominational lines within Christianity, and, I believe, even beyond . As such the topic explored in this article is relevant for the discipline of ecumenical missiology .

1. Christian identity The context of the contemporary pluralistic society In her monograph on the topic of Christian identity, Medi Ann Volpe formulates the question of how one ought to think of the 21st-century Christian, searching for answers in both classic and contemporary theology .77 Such a quest must inevitably be situated in the context of the pluralistic society of today . This society is conventionally referred to as post- modern . Appreciating the contentious nature of the term “postmodern” as well as the di- versity of the approaches that strive to understand and grasp it, I would argue that three basic themes are essential to postmodern thinking . These are epistemology (formulated through questions such as, What is the human subject/self?, In what way[s] does this sub- ject relate to the world?), ethics (exploring the issue that can be voiced as follows: How can one live ethically in the ethical pluralism/relativism of today?), and the socio-political (that is engaged with searching for answers to the questions of how various communities Expert articles can reach out and relate to each other in the current situation after the “white male Eu- ropean subject” has been devoid of its centrality, and of the nature of otherness) 78. It is important to keep these matters in mind when one seeks to sketch the typical features of the contemporary pluralistic society . At the same time, it is equally important to interpret the concept of pluralistic society in a non-judgmental way, as a purely descriptive term used to describe the world which can be characterized by a diversity of traditions, views, and attitudes . It is precisely this society that establishes a context for theorizing Christian identity . Here, however, context is not to be interpreted as a theater set-piece on the stage on which Christian identity simply “happens ”. Rather, I propose understanding pluralistic society as a dynamic factor that contributes to the active shaping of Christian identity . This article will make a case for a plausible approach through which one can grasp this formation process. In other words, it will seek to find an answer to the question of what makes one a Christian in the 21st century . In this regard, the basic claim is that Christian identity can be viewed as a relational, dynamic, multi-layered, and fundamentally open reality . Substantially drawing upon the observations of British theologian Timothy J . Gorringe, I believe that to pursue a compre- hensive and theologically fruitful image of Christian identity one can helpfully employ the categories of culture, power, and witness, respectively .79 My own take on Christian identity as argued in this article can thus be presented as a de facto three-fold argument according to which Christian identity is construed in terms of its firm rootedness in culture, its aspiration to tackle power constructively, and its intentional effort to dialogically encounter the other

77  Medi Ann Volpe, Rethinking Christian Identity: Doctrine and Discipleship (Oxford and Malden, MA: Wiley-Black- well, 2013). 78 Cf. Paul Lakeland, Postmodernity: Christian Identity in a Fragmented Age (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1997), 13. 79 See T. J. Gorringe, Furthering Humanity: A Theology of Culture (Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004).

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in an act of witness . Nevertheless, my contribution differs from Gorringe in several aspects . First, unlike this proposal, Gorringe does not use the three categories to explore the issue of Christian identity per se, but is rather focused on theorizing a unique theology of culture . Next, I am convinced that it is possible, and even inevitable, to take a specific context and its particularities more seriously than Gorringe does when inquiring into categories, such as culture, power, and witness 80. Furthermore, it is equally desirable to seriously account for the comprehensiveness and colorfulness of contemporary world Christianity, consid- ering the experiences of women, men, and children from various part of the globe . And finally, when exploring the nature of Christian identity, one should not merely remain at the anthropocentric level but rather seek to integrate the creation as a whole in one’s thinking . The following sections of the article will now in turn discuss all three categories of culture, power, and witness .

1.1. Culture Culture represents an irreplaceable and truly essential dimension of human life . It helps give an expression to what it means to be human . Nevertheless, culture does not appeal to human aesthetic sensibilities and perceptions only . It also enables interpersonal com- munication . Even more importantly, it helps people discover or create the meaning of their existence and of the world. It is a means through which one finds one’s place in the world, both individually and collectively . It is absolutely crucial that Christians seriously and re- sponsibly participate not only in public discussions regarding culture but are also involved in the practical endeavor of culture-making . At the same time, however, it is of prime signif- icance that Christians never exclude themselves from common human culture; they always are – and should be – part thereof. Finally, Scripture is also deeply rooted in a very specific culture (or cultures) . Having acknowledged this fact, however, does not at all diminish the task Christians are called to pursue, namely, to relate to their culture both critically and perceptively .81

1.2. Power Power represents another key category . Some thinkers suggest referring to the pres- ent age as post-ideological, arguing that what is referred to as “grand stories” have for all intents and purposes become untrustworthy and suspicious today 82. Such a view implies significant ramifications, inter alia, in central Europe whose history also includes a period of as a dominant state-imposed ideology . At the same time, however, there is plenty of evidence supporting the very opposite argument, namely, that ideology does

80 Examples of robust and convincing arguments for the contextual nature of every single theology can be found, for instance, in a recently published collection of essays by US American Roman Catholic missiologist Stephen Bevans. See Stephen B. Bevans, SVD, Essays in Contextual Theology (Boston, MA: Brill, 2018). See also Kathryn Tanner, Theories of Culture: A New Agenda for Theology (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1997), espe- cially chapter 4, “The Nature and Tasks of Theology.” 81 Cf. Tanner, Theories of Culture, 63-64; Bevans, Essays in Contextual Theology, 114-124 and 125-144; and Gordon Lynch, Understanding Theology and Popular Culture (Malden, MA, and Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), especially 20-42 and 93-110. 82 This topic has been in the Czech theological discourse explored in detail by Pavel Hošek. See Pavel Hošek, A bohové se vracejí: Proměny náboženství v postmoderní době (Jihlava: Mlýn, 2012), especially 122-123.

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not cease playing a key role in the life of contemporary societies 83. With respect to the latter group of views I find it appropriate to interpret the post-ideological era thesis in light of the discernment between ideology and hegemony as introduced by Timothy Gorringe .84 In his definition of ideology, Gorringe especially draws upon the insights of Terry Eagle- ton85 and John Thompson .86 Here, ideology represents an articulated system of meanings, values, and convictions . To put it succinctly, ideology is, according to Gorringe, meaning in service of power . In contrast, hegemony refers to a set of signs and practices that are viewed as natural and matter-of-course . As such, its power lies in what it leaves unsaid .87 Such a hermeneutic framework undoubtedly has its consequences not only for Christian theology per se but also for construing Christian identity . Rather than presenting their own “grand story” in the sense of a theory of everything, I suggest that Christians in their social involvement ought to be more concerned with their everyday active life of faith, hope, and love, accompanied by resistance against various kinds of ideology and hegemony .

1.3. Witness Finally, witness amounts to a third central category . For the purposes of this article, I take witness to refer to Christianity in dialogue with society (biblically speaking, the “world”), in- cluding its multiple dimensions, such as economic, political, and religious, that takes place within culture . This interpretation clearly underlines the relationship between the categories of culture and witness . But there is also an indisputable connection between the categories of witness and power since the notion of Christian witness has an immense impact on how Expert articles one understands power and power relations . To put it differently, the issue of witness in the context of Christian identity is closely related to the ethical and socio-political aspects of Christians relating to others . Another principal characteristic in the process of forming Christian identity is the significance of the encounter with otherness and alterity.88 When we bring the three categories of culture, power, and witness together, it will help us develop a constructive theological argument enabling us to grasp Christian identity in the contemporary pluralistic society as a dynamic and multifaceted reality . As such, Christian identity is characterized by its embeddedness in a specific culture, its getting to grips with power in a constructive way, and its intentional pursuit of dialogically en- countering the other in an act of witness . The main thesis of this article is that the concept

83 For an argument aimed at the post-communist context of central Europe, see Pavel Hanes, “Christianity in the Post-Marxist Context,“ Journal of European Theology 17, 1 (2008): 29-37. For an argument focused on the contemporary globalized society in the age of Trumpism and Brexit, see, for instance, Kenneth R. Ross, “Brexit, Trump, and Christ’s Call to Discipleship,“ International Review of Mission 106, 2 (2017): 369-388. An attempt to pursue a comprehensive sociological outlook on the world that has lost its ideals and has not managed to avoid the traps of various ideologies, see the last book by Zygmunt Bauman, Retrotopia (Cambridge, UK, and Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2017), especially 9-12. 84 see Gorringe, Furthering Humanity, 131. 85 Cf. Terry Eagleton, Ideology (London: Verso, 1991). 86 Cf. John Thompson, Ideology and Modern Culture (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1990). 87 See Gorringe, Furthering Humanity, 131. Gorringe adopts this observation from Antonio Gramsci and, espe- cially, from Jean and John Comaroffs. See Antonio Gramsci,Selections from the Prison Notebooks (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971), for example, 12; Jean and John Comaroff,Of Revelation and Revolution, vol. 1: Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 23. 88 This important aspect and its implications for Christian mission are explored in detail by Tim Noble in his recent study. See Tim Noble, Mission from the Perspective of the Other: Drawing Together on Holy Ground (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2018), especially 44-92.

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of story helps mediate such an interpretation of Christian identity . And it is this subject that the discussion will focus on in the next section .

2. The significance of story It was approximately in the 1950s when first efforts appeared in both philosophy and Christian theology to employ the category of story to explore what it means being human . The fundamental thesis of the proponents of this approach can be expressed in the words of Hans Frei who argued that “to be human is above all to have a story ”. 89 To elaborate this argument, philosopher and Methodist preacher Stephen Crites, among others, made a sig- nificant contribution when he argued that story is integral to being human. Moreover, the argument goes that the narrative structure of human consciousness belongs to the realm of “nature,” thus for all intents and purposes preceding “culture ”. 90 For his part, Alasdair MacIntyre construes the human “self” in terms of a narrative unity interconnecting one’s ex- istence from birth to death 91. Methodist theologians Stanley Hauerwas and L . Gregory Jones assert that story represents a central conceptual category for Christian thought for three main reasons: it helps express a personal identity; it plays a crucial role in theorizing epistemological and methodological issues; and it is very helpful for representing the con- tent of Christian beliefs .92 Similarly, Ronald Michener views people as narrative beings with a particular respect to Christian faith and theology when he describes Christians as story- ing people who, as a community, embrace biblical accounts and their logic .93 In the Czech and Slovak theological discussion, similar positions are promoted, for instance, by Pavel Hošek who points out apparent and essential affinity, even correlation between story and human existence, first and foremost with regard to their temporality. He is not even reluctant to refer to story as an “immediate offprint of life ”. 94 Even though in concurrence with the basic orientation described above, Hans Frei and some of his followers nonetheless add a key remark that Christian theology should never be based on universal human experience articulated in terms of a story . To the contrary, they argue, theological endeavors always need to start from a specific story as rendered by the Bible . They maintain that the point of departure for theology is not a narratively constructed human identity with the story of Jesus of Nazareth being but one of the possi-

89 Hans W. Frei, Theology and Narrative: Selected Essays, edited by George Hunsinger and William C. Placher (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1993), 208. Here, it is important to note, however, that Frei himself is not a narrativist in the strict sense of the word for he does not begin his reflection from universal human ex- perience formulated narratively, but rather from the concrete story of Jesus Christ who in turn shapes human lives, as we will see in more detail below. 90 Stephen Crites, “The Narrative Quality of Experience,“ in Why Narrative? Readings in Narrative Theology, edit- ed by Stanley Hauerwas and L. Gregory Jones (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1995), 65-88, here at 70-71. Crites’ article was first published in 1971. 91 Cf. Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, 2nd edition (London: Duckworth, 1985), 205. 92 See Stanley Hauerwas and L. Gregory Jones, “Introduction: Why Narrative?“ in Why Narrative? Readings in Narrative Theology, edited by Stanley Hauerwas and L. Gregory Jones (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1995), 1-18, here at 4-5. 93 Ronald T. Michener, Postliberal Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2013), 122- 123. 94 Pavel Hošek, Kouzlo vyprávění: Proměňující moc příběhu a „křest fantazie“ v pojetí C. S. Lewise (Praha: Návrat domů, 2013), 17.

24 THE ROLE OF STORY AND CHRISTIAN IDENTITY | Pavol Bargár

ble examples; it is the gospel story than in turn shapes human lives, both individually and communally .95 Drawing upon what has been discussed so far, we can formulate the thesis that Chris- tian identity is embedded in the story of Jesus of Nazareth who is acknowledged by his adherents as Christ . In this perspective, Christian life is the praxis of the following of a story – the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth . Conversion as the accepting of faith, which accounts for the very core of Christian identity, eo ipso becomes perceived as the entering into the story of Jesus Christ . One discovers oneself, thus also discovering the meaning of one’s life in God’s story in and with the world; as both H . Richard Niebuhr and Pavel Hošek state, one becomes a chapter in the salvation story 96. Therefore, it can be asserted that Christianity is autobiographic since it integrates the life stories of individuals and communities into the “grand story” that Scripture attests to 97. Theology is then, first and foremost, critical reflection on this story; the story is primary, while theological investigation follows . The accent on the narrative nature of the Christian belief that can be, to a major extent, regarded as a response to the long-standing prev- alence of Enlightenment-inspired universalistic rationality in theology and to the attempt to transpose the biblical message into a set of invariably valid principles and axioms,98 has spawned what is referred to as narrative theology – the theology of story . 99 Alternatively, it is alluded to as postliberal theology since its proponents often introduce it as an ecumenically open and constructive alternative to theological liberalism, on the one hand, and conserv- Expert articles ative fundamentalism, on the other 100. Narrative theology is distinguished for several significant contributions that make it one of the most stimulating approaches to the reflection on Christian faith today. Arguably the most important contribution of narrative theology is its non-foundationalism . It means that no value-neutral or ahistorical “fixed point” is postulated to provide access to knowledge through deductive reasoning or empirical inductive approach . In this perspective, Christian faith is founded on a story that is not supported by any other story, theory, or argument . “The story is simply told, and faith is a certain way of telling it, a way of living and embodying it; a habit of the heart ”. 101 Second, narrative theology puts an extraordinary accent on the social and commu- nal aspect of human existence . It persistently reminds us that human identity is inevitably

95 Cf. Frei, Theology and Narrative, 210 and Gerald Loughlin, Telling God’s Story: Bible, Church and Narrative The- ology (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 66-67. 96 See Hošek, Kouzlo vyprávění, 37 and H. Richard Niebuhr, “The Story of Our Life,“ in Why Narrative? Readings in Narrative Theology, edited by Stanley Hauerwas and L. Gregory Jones (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1995), 21-44, here at 41. Niebuhr’s article was first published in 1941. 97 Cf. Hošek, Kouzlo vyprávění, 37 and Nicholas Lash, “Ideology, Metaphor, and Analogy,“ in Why Narrative? Readings in Narrative Theology, edited by Stanley Hauerwas and L. Gregory Jones (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1995), 113-137, here at 120. Lash’s article was first published in 1986. 98 Cf. Hošek, Kouzlo vyprávění, 33-34. 99 An accessible introduction to this topic in the Czech theological discourse can be found, for instance, in Petr Macek, Novější angloamerická teologie: Přehled základních směrů s ukázkami (Praha: Kalich, 2008), especially 114-125. 100 Cf. Michener, Postliberal Theology, 14 and Macek, Novější angloamerická teologie, 114-116. 101 Loughlin, Telling God’s Story, 33.

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rooted in concrete historical, cultural, linguistic, social, and other settings 102. As already discussed, human identity, including, by implication, Christian identity, cannot be possibly construed otherwise than in relation to one’s own context, both individual and communal . This is one of the reasons why narrative theologians hold in such a high esteem the church as a community that not only reads God’s story but also embodies and lives this story, thus in fact writing its next chapters . Furthermore, narrative theology shows great respect for plurality and otherness be- cause the recognition of the uniqueness of one’s story and the particularity of one’s context presupposes recognizing the uniqueness and particularity of the story of the other 103. It is important to note, however, that this attitude does not mean a quest for the “lowest com- mon denominator” of various stories as such an endeavor would represent a recurrence to foundationalism . Neither does it aim at accepting all views and beliefs dialogue partici- pants might hold as correct 104. The intention is to take on board and earnestly consider all differences, religious and otherwise . Only then it is ultimately possible to have a dialogue and witness to one’s faith (and identity) in terms of what we discussed earlier . Finally, narrative theology is also often linked with the inspiring notion of “generous, liberal orthodoxy ”. The term was coined by Hans Frei who formulated it in terms of “the notion of a strong tradition perpetually responding anew, but in recognizably continuous ways, to a God who remains elusive yet stubbornly given .”105 This means, Frei suggests, that Christians are called to learn reading their biblical narrative wherever they as readers are part of the biblical story . This is to be pursued together with their “fellow readers,” including those who came before them in history, their contemporaries, and in anticipation of those who will come after them . However, narrative theology also has its blind spots that have called forth critique from various circles. Narrative theologians are at times accused of fideism that is believed to pos- sibly lead to the marginalization and ghettoization of theology as academic discipline and to the loss of its prophetic role in society 106. To put it differently, there is a possible danger that Christianity will fall into the trap of tribalism and sectarianism . The critique addressed to narrative theologians can be divided into three main categories: the purported denial of absolute truth and the reduction of truth to the fidelity to the biblical story; the purported abandonment of apologetics in the sense of the defense of Christian faith; and the purport- ed lack of ability to constructively relate to broader culture and the public sphere 107. For the purposes of this article, however, the most significant critique is what has been developed with respect to intratextuality as one of the foundational concepts of narrative theology . Intratextuality becomes problematic when postulated in the way Stanley Hau- erwas put it in his aphorism commenting on the role of the theologian: “[This task is not to make] the gospel credible to the modern world, but to make the world credible to the gos-

102 Cf. Michener, Postliberal Theology, 8. 103 Cf. Michener, Postliberal Theology, 9. 104 Cf. Robert Andrew Cathey, God in Postliberal Perspective: Between Realism and Non-Realism (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009), 5. 105 Hans W. Frei, “In Memory of Robert L. Calhoun, 1896-1983,“ Reflection 82 (1984): 8-9, here at 9. 106 See Macek, Novější angloamerická teologie, 119 and 122-124. 107 Further on this issue see Michener, Postliberal Theology, 95-120. Here, he also provides possible responses to such critical voices.

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pel ”. 108 These words illustrate the problematic aspect of intratextuality: rigid fixation on two antithetical spheres (Scripture – world) and an unrealistically comprehended unidirectional flow of influence according to which the world is to be absorbed by the text. Kathryn Tan- ner formulates her criticism similarly when she argues against the idea of the independ- ent identity of Christianity devoid of any external influences. Tanner raises an objection against narrative theologians and their describing Christian identity as a matter of “internal discourse” with external perspectives playing merely a negative and accidental role 109. Paul DeHart arguably goes even further in his critique when he points out the difficulties related to the very possibility of adequately evaluating whether the world is in a given case interpreted through the lenses of the text, or vice versa . If one takes into consideration the variety of the biblical writings and the immensity of different contexts in which the church is actively immersed, it seems close to impossible to determine not only a homogenous cultural framework but also the actual point of departure and the trajectory of influence.110 In light of the contributions and blinds spots of narrative theology as discussed above I would like to suggest that many of the emphases this line of theological reflection brings remain to be invaluable and worthy of our theological attention . At the same time, however, this theological approach is in need of thorough revision . In the following part of this article I would therefore like to concentrate on the relationship between story and Christian iden- tity through the lenses of my own proposal for reconsideration that I refer to as “narrativist theology ”. Central to my proposal is the imagination that enables us to grasp the creative nature of Christian identity vis-à-vis the constant unfolding of God’s story . This, in turn, Expert articles provides space for embodying this story in the following of Christ .

3. Story and Christian identity 3. 1. Narrativist theology As mentioned above, I refer to my proposal for the reconsideration of narrative (postliberal) theology as narrativist theology . To develop this proposal, I draw upon the distinction be- tween story and narrative as introduced into theological discussion by Gerard Loughlin 111. His argument is as follows:

The story is not given apart from its telling in narrative, but the narrative is not the same as the story . The order of the narrative can be different from that of the story; the narra- tive’s duration is nearly always different from the story’s duration; the narrative can tell many times what happened only once, and tell once what happened many times; and the distance between narrative and story can differ greatly, as also the instant of tell- ing 112.

Loughlin believes that, based on these differences between story and narrative, one can argue that the Bible narrates a single coherent story – in many diverse ways . It does

108 Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1989), 24. 109 Cf. Tanner, Theories of Culture, 106. 110 See Paul J. DeHart, The Trial of the Witnesses: The Rise and Decline of Postliberal Theology (Malden, MA, and Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006), 183. 111 In his Telling God’s Story, Loughlin uses the term “narrativist theology.” However, he never comments on the difference betweennarrative (postliberal) and narrativist theologies. He apparently treats the two terms as synonyms. See, for example, Loughlin, Telling God’s Story, x. 112 Loughlin, Telling God’s Story, 62.

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not tell all parts of the story, while other parts are told repeatedly and from various per- spectives 113. The distinction between story and narrative is essential for what I seek to call narra- tivist theology . If one views faith as the entering into the Christian story and if conversion is a testimony about a particular individual becoming a chapter in the story of the “mighty deeds of the Lord,”114 then that individual has actually become one of the narrators of the God’s grand story . The story of his or her life and the telling of this story provides both a perspective and content to the open and continuing story of God . Telling his or her own story, which is, by implication, a telling of God’s story, that person in fact co-creates both of these stories . Each new narrative, Loughlin asserts, also represents a new story, another story that differs from the previous one, thus enriching it with a new dimension . Each new telling of the story in this sense represents an original story itself 115. I argue in this article that the dynamic field of relations between story and narrative can be approximated through the notion of narrativity . It is important to note that this notion does not exclusively focus on either story (i e. ,. what the content is) or narrative (i e. ,. how the content is presented) but also explores the dynamic interaction between diverse aspects at work in the “force field” created by the two categories. As such, narrativist theology considers the complexity of the process through which a specific individual or community becomes and lives as par t of the “God’s grand stor y.” This process, however, is not interpreted in intratextual terms; it is not a unidirectional influence of the grand story on the life story of an individual human being or a group of people . Con- versely, it is much more appropriate to interpret it in terms of what I would call multivectorial intertextuality as there is a permanent “flux” between God’s story as embodied (primarily but not exclusively) in the story of the church, and the story of a concrete person, as well as many other stories . To understand Christian identity from this perspective, it is crucial to realize that one’s own story – my own story – is part of the larger story of God’s people, the creation, and the God Godself in relation to the world . In this regard, Steven Shakespeare argues that if “Christianity really is an open nar- rative, then it cannot prejudge the permanence of its own boundaries, cannot deny its own partiality and its need to be mutually constituted by other narratives ”. 116 A change in one’s thinking occurs as a result of an encounter with other stories and narratives 117.

3. 2. The imagination and Christian identity An indispensable factor playing a key role in this process of transformation represents the imagination . One could even argue that it is the imagination that grounds the human createdness in the image of God . Like their Creator, people are also called to become (co-)creators, through their thoughts, words, and deeds 118. In other words, human beings bear the image of God (imago Dei) because they are endowed with the imagination, like

113 Cf. Loughlin, Telling God’s Story, 62-63. 114 Cf. Hošek, Kouzlo vyprávění, 37. A reference can be made to the scriptural passage, for example, in Psalms 77:11-15. 115 Cf. Loughlin, Telling God’s Story, 191. 116 Steven Shakespeare, Book review of Telling God’s Story by Gerard Loughlin, Modern Believing 38, 1 (1997): 60- 62, here at 62, italics in the original. 117 Cf. Hošek, Kouzlo vyprávění, 13-14 and 42. 118 See Hošek, Kouzlo vyprávění, 69.

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their Creator, the great Artist and Designer of this world . For our purposes, helpful insights are provided by Taiwanese theologian Choan-Seng Song who perceives the imagination in relation to the concept of story as discussed earlier in this article:

“In God’s image” means that God has endowed human beings with the imagination of the soul and the facility of words to tell over and over God’s story of creation as part of our stories and to integrate our stories into God’s story . God’s image in human beings is thus the power to tell stories – the power of imagination and the power of words 119.

In Song’s reading, then, the creation of the human in the image of God means that the human has been entrusted with a share in God’s imagination . Human beings are invited to properly exercise the gift of the imagination . They are to be artists mandated to carry on the work of God’s creation . There is an analogical relation between the divine and human imaginations; more precisely, the human imagination is derived from the divine imagination . However, the divine imagination does not only have its imaging but also its verbal as- pect. The latter finds its unique expression in God’s story with and in the world. God is not only an Artist but also a Narrator and a Protagonist in this grand story of God . Similarly, the human imagination is related to this ability to create words which, in turn, enables people to write not only their own stories but also partake in writing/telling the grand story of God . As I emphasized earlier when making the case for narrativist theology, these new narra- Expert articles tives should in essence represent creative and original embodiments of the gospel story, inspired both by one’s own experience and by many other stories and narratives, including Christian and non-Christian ones . To be able to create such embodiments (narratives), one is endowed with the imagination . I have already shown that one’s task is to integrate one’s story into God’s story . This axiom accounts for the core of Christian identity . As Song shows, God’s image in human beings lies in the power to tell stories – in the power of the imagination and the power of words . However, Christians belonging to all tra- ditions confess that God’s image in human beings has been corrupted after the Fall of the first people, as mythically illustrated in the first chapters of Scripture.120 If one interprets the concept of imago Dei in the framework of the power of the imagination, one must clearly say that this image is truly broken and corrupted as the human imagination is far from being perfect . This assertion has two implications . First, one can imagine the good and desirable that one is called to pursue and that is to be the focus of all human efforts only partially and as if “through a glass, darkly ”. 121 Both conventional and scientific languages can mediate it only occasionally. The flashes of the good and the desirable are more readily and helpfully facilitated by images and metaphors presented to mystics, poets, and artists through the inspiration of the Spirit . The other point is that the human imagination also has its dark side . One can imagine and, horribile dictu, accomplish not only beautiful, good, and true things but also those that are repulsive, disastrous, and dreadful . It is relevant to reiterate here the words of US Amer- ican literary theorist Kenneth Burke who said that human beings are able to envision not

119 Choan-Seng Song, The Believing Heart: An Invitation to Story Theology (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1999), 65. 120 See Genesis 3. 121 Cf. biblical reference to 1 Corinthians 13:12, KJV.

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only a perfect world but also a perfect atomic warhead .122 Over the image of New Jerusalem there is constantly hovering the smoke rising from the chimneys in extermination camps . The human imagination is, therefore, ultimately an ambivalent matter . Not only does it draw people closer to God, mediating the fragments of God’s image and likeness and making the human “a littler lower than God”123 in the process, but it also creates an abyss between God and humans, thus alienating them from the Great Artist . God-human Jesus Christ has bridged this great divide . He was able to perfectly iden- tify with the vision his Father had for this world, thus integrating himself into God’s story . God’s story became his story . With his incarnation, life, death on the cross, and resurrection he has overcome conventional human perceptions of who and what God is . In the story of Jesus, the human imagination was shattered into pieces only to get a brand-new quality and a chance for a new beginning . In the Christian perspective, it is thanks to Christ’s life, death, and resurrection that the human imagination can witness to what is here already as a “pledge,” while its fullness is yet to come 124. This transformation of the imagination is enabled by God’s mercy; one receives it free of charge, as a gift. It is possible and desirable to pray for it and, first and foremost, to be open to receive it . It is through the imagination that one can integrate one’s own story into God’s story, thus mirroring God’s image in which one has been created . This dynamic pro- cess finds its expression in one’s fetterless and creative following of Christ, or discipleship. And it is this topic that we will focus our attention on in the next section .

3. 3. Embodying God’s story and Christian discipleship In his volume on theological anthropology, Ian McFarland explores in what way our rela- tionship with the person and work of Jesus Christ shapes our own identity and encounters with others 125. This relationship is in theological discourse referred to as discipleship . The main features of Christian discipleship were succinctly described by Jan Milíč Lochman in his introductory study to the Czech edition of The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bon- hoeffer . As Lochman has it, Christian discipleship can be characterized as one’s faithful following of Christ on earth; it focuses on being for others; and rather than on religious talk it is keen on pursuing Christ-like ministry in the world 126. Discipleship eo ipso involves not only a personal relationship and a constant spiritual growth but also active involvement in Jesus’ mission of proclamation and embodiment of life in fullness . To be a of Je- sus means to participate in the work he did and continues doing . To be a disciple of Jesus means to embody God’s story in the world . This idea is also underscored by former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who argues that it is not enough when the narrators or readers of the biblical story remain

122 See Kenneth Burke, Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature and Method (Berkeley, CA: Univer- sity of California Press, 1966), 22. 123 Cf. Psalm 8:5. 124 The term “pledge” is a reference to the biblical passage from 2 Corinthians 5:5. 125 See Ian MacFarland, Difference and Identity: A Theological Anthropology (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 2001). 126 See Jan Milíč Lochman, “Svědek následovaní,“ in Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Následování: Výklad Kázání na hoře, translated into Czech by František M. Dobiáš and Amedeo Molnár (Praha: Kalich, 1962), 5-18, especially 12-17.

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at the level of mere narrators and readers . Much more is at stake here: they are called to become full-fledged characters in the narrative that has also become their story.127 For his part, David Ford approaches the theme of embodied story from a somewhat different, Ricoeurian perspective when he interprets the self as defined through a dynam- ic web of relationships, conversations, service or resistance to others within a narrative in which various characters appear in time 128. In this view, humans are social beings an- chored in broader stories of various communities which they are part of . Ford grounds his understanding of human identity Christologically when he maintains that Jesus Christ is “a person who in facing God and other people embodies the other-oriented concept of self .”129 We can see that the understanding of human identity in such a dynamic and comprehensive way presupposes two foundational ideas, namely, the idea of embodiment and the idea of the orientation towards the other . The theme of body and embodiment is crucial here for Christian discipleship as the living of God’s story always encompasses the whole person . It represents a way of life that does not only concern one’s inner self but needs to be apprehended holistically . This emphasis has been introduced to theology especially by feminist theologians in the recent decades . What was originally proposed as a legitimate critique of ecclesial and theological androcentrism also has its profound significance for a fuller comprehension of Christian discipleship. Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, for instance, finds evidence for the presence of feminine patterns of the authentic following of Christ in the Gospels according to Mark and John . She argues that Jesus’ vision of God’s reign “calls all women to wholeness and Expert articles selfhood, as well as to solidarity with those women who are the impoverished, the maimed, and the outcasts of society and church ”. 130 I would add that this assertion does not neces- sarily have to apply to women only . Together with, for instance, Ellen Leonard I believe it is legitimate to interpret it more broadly as a call to an ongoing pursuit of a fellowship of equal followers of Jesus Christ 131. Human existence in flesh represents a sine qua non for the ability to establish and maintain any relationship oriented towards the other . In his interpretation of Bonhoeffer cited above, Lochman employs this orientation towards the other to define one of the basic features of Christian discipleship . He argues that it is an essential part of Christian identity that an authentic disciple of Jesus Christ is called to be a human among his or her fellow humans; he or she is to stand with them and to be here for them . Furthermore, this calling includes the command not to exalt oneself over others and to point out their shortcomings and alleged or real sins but rather to willingly help carry their cross . For such a person, the path of discipleship becomes a path of being for and with others 132. This accent on the

127 Cf. Rowan Williams, “The Literal Sense of Scripture,“ Modern Theology 7, 2 (1991): 121-134, especially 125. Cf. also Nicholas Lash, “Performing Scriptures,“ in Theology on the Way to Emmaus (London: SCM Press, 1986), 37-46. 128 See David F. Ford, Self and Salvation: Being Transformed (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 82-87. 129 Ford, Self and Salvation, 166. 130 Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins (New York, NY: Crossroad, 1983), 153. 131 Cf. Ellen Leonard, “Women and Christ: Toward Inclusive Christologies,“ in The Strength of Her Witness: Jesus Christ in the Global Voices of Women, edited by Elizabeth A. Johnson (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2016), 47-58, here at 57. Leonard’s article was originally published in a longer version in 1990. 132 Cf. Lochman, “Svědek následování,“ 14-15.

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incarnational and holistic nature of Christian faith affirms the main thesis of this article that Christian identity is to be an embodied story .

Conclusion The aim of this article was to explore the role of the story with the intention of under- standing Christian identity better and anew . It was argued that Christian identity is rooted in God’s story in and with the world as the disciples of Jesus Christ seek to embody this story, further developing it creatively through the imagination . This concept has several important and very practical implications that I would like to briefly outline at this place. First, the proposed concept gives us a more comprehensive grasp of what it means to be Christian in today’s society that is often referred to as post-modern or post-Christian . This society is noted for a plurality of stories that ground the identities of various commu- nities, with the biblical story being but one of these stories . Christian identity rooted in this story is not supported by any other neutral or privileged epistemological argument . Chris- tians are to rely on the power of this story alone – the story of love, hope, justice, peace, and reconciliation . Furthermore, they are called to carry this story on, writing its next chapters of and witnessing to it as they live their everyday lives . Being the narrators and protagonists of their stories, which is part of God’s story, Christians are thus called to witness to people of other faiths and none . Second, the suggested understanding of Christian identity seriously regards one’s in- dividual and/or communal context . Following his or her Master, the disciple of Christ is al- ways entangled in a web of relationships with concrete people . Moreover, this process always takes place under the circumstances of a specific culture. Culture is not perceived as a mere stage for the drama of salvation history; rather, it represents an integral and invaluable part of God’s story with the world . Its diversity is to be viewed as a precious gift of God . This proposal represents a viable alternative to various reductionist and individu- alistic notions of Christianity . Moreover, it leads to appreciation of the multi-layered nature of life as God’s gift . Third, such an understanding of Christian identity recognizes the imagination as an in- dispensable and crucial attribute of God’s image in human beings . The imagination is a fac- ulty that enables people to creatively present and embody the grand story of God . However, Christian theology must constantly keep in mind that the human imagination is broken as a result of sin . As such, it is at risk of power abuse . At the same time, however, one needs to note that Christian identity encompasses the pursuit of tackling power constructively and resisting different ideologies and hegemonies . The perspectives provided by other stories, or alternative narratives of the same story to which one relates, have the potential to be- come one of the ways to cultivate one’s imagination and to address power constructively . And finally, this concept of Christian identity takes very seriously the church as a com- munity of disciples and followers of Jesus Christ . This is of special relevance for the post-Christian society in which a nominal membership in a church has ceased to have its social significance. Following Christ through a creative embodiment of God’s story thus does not consist in Christianity defined in terms of belonging to a specific established church, and even less in terms of a certain civilization . Rather, the emphasis should be, I would argue, on the Christ-like spirit that empowers discipleship . In other words, what matters is the quality of life transformed by the power of the Spirit, thus elevated to the truly human level . Being Christian, therefore, ultimately means being human .

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Bibliography Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature and Method Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1966. Bevans, Stephen B. SVD. Essays in Contextual Theology Boston, MA: Brill, 2018. Comaroff, Jean and John. Of Revelation and Revolution, vol. 1: Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1991. Choan-Seng Song, The Believing Heart: An Invitation to Story Theology Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1999. DeHart, Paul J. The Trial of the Witnesses: The Rise and Decline of Postliberal Theology Malden, MA, and Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Gordon Lynch. Understanding Theology and Popular Culture Malden, MA, and Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. Ford, David F. Self and Salvation: Being Transformed Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Gorringe, T. J. Furthering Humanity: A Theology of Culture Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004. Gramsci, Antonio. Selections from the Prison Notebooks London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971. Hans W. Frei, Theology and Narrative: Selected Essays. Edited by George Hunsinger and William C. Placher New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Hošek, Pavel. Kouzlo vyprávění: Proměňující moc příběhu a „křest fantazie“ v pojetí C. S. Lewise Praha: Návrat Expert articles domů, 2013. Hošek, Pavel. A bohové se vracejí: Proměny náboženství v postmoderní době Jihlava: Mlýn, 2012. Kenneth Burke, Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature and Method Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1966. Lash, Nicholas. “Performing Scriptures,“ in Theology on the Way to Emmaus London: SCM Press, 1986. Lakeland, Paul. Postmodernity: Christian Identity in a Fragmented Age Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1997. Lochman, Milíč Jan “Svědek následovaní,“ in Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Následování: Výklad Kázání na hoře, trans- lated into Czech by František M. Dobiáš and Amedeo Molnár Praha: Kalich, 1962. Loughlin, Gerald. Telling God’s Story: Bible, Church and Narrative Theology Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Uni- versity Press, 1996. Macek, Petr. Novější angloamerická teologie: Přehled základních směrů s ukázkami. Praha: Kalich, 2008. MacIntyre, Alasdair. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, 2nd edition London: Duckworth, 1985. MacFarland, Ian. Difference and Identity: A Theological Anthropology Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 2001. Noble, Tim. Mission from the Perspective of the Other: Drawing Together on Holy Ground, Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2018. Schüssler Fiorenza, Elizabeth. In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins New York, NY: Crossroad, 1983. Thompson, John. Ideology and Modern Culture Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1990. Volpe, Medi Ann. Rethinking Christian Identity: Doctrine and Discipleship. Oxford and Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. Williams, Rowan. “The Literal Sense of Scripture,“ Modern Theology 7, 2 (1991): 121-134,

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THE COUNCIL'S DECLARATION ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND ITS IMPORTANCE FOR THE CZECH ECUMENISM*133

Robert Svatoň ✉ 134

Palacký University Olomouc, The Sts Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology (Olomouc, CZ)

Submitted: 30 November 2019 Accepted for publication: 16 April 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract Background: According to Ratzinger, the endorsement of the Declaration on Re- ligious freedom of the Vatican Council II was “one of the most important events of [the] Council” . This paper focus in too steps on the mutual interconnection between the teaching of the universal church – as presented by the Council – and the experience of the local church in the Czech lands: the first part focuses on the core of the Council’s teaching on religious freedom as expressed in ; the second part explores, from an ecumenical perspective, the issue of religious freedom within the framework of the ex- perience of the church in the Czech lands . Conclusion: The text highlights extraordinary ecumenical potential of the Catholic teach- ing on religious freedom interwoven with local experience and living memory of the Church in the Czech lands . The article postulates a return to the study of conciliar teaching on re- ligious freedom as a valid source of reflection in current ecumenical practice aimed at de- veloping common forms of the Christian mission .

Keywords: Catholic Church – Vatican Council II – religious freedom – Czech lands – – ecumenism .

Introduction The Declaration on Religious Freedom is one of the shortest documents produced by Vatican Council II . However, neither the relatively short length of the document nor its doctrinal character by any means diminish its importance . The Council’s intention was not so much to present a specific piece of teaching concerning the faith but to offer the church’s perspective on a particular question that concerns us all . As such, Dignitatis humanae provides clear proof of the pastoral nature of the last Council, the principal task of which was to formulate imperatives for the church in its proclamation of the living truth of the gospel to the people of the world today 135.

* The paper originates from the project solution Pokřtění a poslaní: misijní poslání církve a ekumenis- mus – Velehradské dialogy 2019 (IGA_CMTF_2019_009). ✉ Contact on author: Robert Svatoň, Th.D. – email: [email protected]. 135 Recent studies have shown that we are not standing here before the closed chapter of the history of the Councils, but that the topic of the Council's teachings on religious freedom continues to attract the attention of scholars. Cf. N. Schwerdtfeger, “Ökumene für ein Recht der Person: Die Erklärung über die Religionsfreiheit „Dignitatis humanae“ und ihr historischer Kontext,” Catholica 65, no. 4, (2011): 273–290; C. Soler, “La con-

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How the discussions on the conciliar document proceeded reflected to a significant de- gree the experience the conciliar fathers brought with them from their local churches . It was exactly these real life conditions of the church that helped to shape the attitudes of certain bishops on the question of religious freedom 136. This paper will focus on the mutual inter- connection between the teaching of the universal church – as presented by the Council – and the life of the local church in the Czech lands: the first part will therefore focus on the core of the Council’s teaching on religious freedom as expressed in Dignitatis humanae; in the second part I will explore the issue of religious freedom within the framework of the particular experience of the church in the Czech lands, as expressed in the conciliar speech by the Archbishop of Prague, cardinal Josef Beran (1888–1969), pointing out its crucial impact on ecumenical relations .

The main elements of the Council’s teaching on freedom in the sphere of religion The ultimately harmonious nature of the Declaration on Religious Freedom text betrays barely a hint of the tense atmosphere in which the Council’s proclamation was born and in which it developed . Religious freedom was without doubt one of the most testing and most discussed subjects at the Council, and this is attested to by the fact that it took the entire duration of the Council, including the preparations for it, to produce the document 137. Together with three other documents, the text of the declaration was finally adopted, after several re-workings and amendments, at the closing celebration of Vatican Council II on 7 December 1965 . According to the evaluation of a certain young theologian, Joseph Expert articles Ratzinger, the declaration’s endorsement was “one of the most important events of [the] Council”, thanks to which the church was finally able to rid itself of one of its most serious historical burdens, namely its close alliance with political power . Thus for the church one entire epoch – the Constantinian era – came to an end 138.

tinuidad del magisterio sobre libertad religiosa: “La interpretación de Dignitatis humanae en su contexto histórico,” Scripta Theologica 47, no. 2, (2015): 459–482; G. Routhier, “La liberté religieuse au concile Vatican II et depuis,” Toronto Journal of Theology 32, no. 2, (2016): 329–340; R.A. Siebenrock, “The Gospel of Human Dignity: Dignitatis humanae: A Continuing Provocation,” Concilium 4 (2016): 28–36; W. Lopez Sanchez, “Ig- reja Católica e liberdade religiosa: A renovação desencadeada pelo Concilio Vaticano II, Revista de estudos da religiao 17, no. 3, (2017): 123–138. The current significance of the topic is also evidenced by the recently published document of the International Theological Commission from May 2019, which presents a theologi- cal-hermeneutic reflection of the issue of religious freedom in contemporary social, cultural and political con- ditions. The reception of the Declaration Dignitatis humanae in the post-conciliar magisterium of the Catholic Church forms a substantial part of this text. Cf. Commissione teologica internazionale. See:“La libertà religiosa per il bene di tutti,” COMMISSIONE TEOLOGICA INTERNAZIONALE, accessed November 21, 2019, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_20190426_liberta-religio - sa_it.html#Una_soglia_di_novit%C3%A0 136 The subject was perceived differently by pastors from those European countries where Catholicism was the majority faith and those who came, for example, from the USA, where the church-state relationship was pro- grammatically determined by the so-called politics of non-establishment. Cf. Tavard, G.V., American contribu- tions to Vatican II's documents on ecumenism and on religious liberty, Chicago Studies 42, no.1, (2003): 17–30. 137 On the history of the conciliar text see, for example, J. Hamer, “Geschichte des Textes der Erklärung,” in Die Konzilserklärung über die Religionsfreiheit ed. J. Hamer, Y. Congar, (Paderborn: Bonifacius, 1967), 59–123; R.A. Siebenrock, “Theologischer Kommentar zur Erklärung über der religiöse Freiheit Dignitatis humanae,” in Herders theologischer Kommentar zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil ed. P. Hünnermann, B.J. Hilberath (Bd. 4, Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2005), 152–165. 138 Cf. J. Ratzinger, Theological Highlights of Vatican II (New York: Paulist Press, 2009), 144.

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What distinguishes the teachings contained in the Council document? In the following lines I will explicitly draw attention to three characteristics: anthropological bases of the teaching, their elaboration in the light of Christian Revelation and the pastoral consequenc- es of the doctrine .

Anchoring religious freedom in the dignity of the human person The declaration we are dealing with is a concrete expression of the efforts of the Council fathers to find points in common between the church and the world, with which Vatican Council II wished systematically to enter into “a dialogue of salvation”139 . The principal concept of the argument for “the right of the person and communities to social and civil freedom in matters religious”140 is embodied in the opening words of the declaration: Dig- nitatis humanae personae . It is precisely the concept of the dignity of a human person, the demands of which man discovers by his reason through experience,141 which forms “the crucial points of reference and the starting point for the perspective and relationship of the Christian faith to the world in which the life of modern man takes place” 142. But in what sense? Whereas before the Council, the key concept of the whole discourse was ‘the truth’s rights’, the church now adopts the main idea of the modern legal state, ac- cording to which the subject of rights is a human person 143. The right to religious freedom (ius ad libertatem religiosam) – which the declaration defines through two maxims: “[no one is] to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his conscience . Nor ( . . ) is he to be restrained from acting in accordance with his conscience, especially in matters religious” – holds a privileged position among the inviolable rights of a human person (humanae personae iura) 144. But if, however, the right to religious freedom does not inhere in the disposition of the human subject but springs from human nature itself then it means that those who are “mistaken” in their conscience also have this right 145. Does this mean that the Council fathers capitulated before the claims of the truth? No, quite the opposite . From the opening article of the document, which precedes the two main sections, it is clear that the question of “the truth” forms the very premise of the right to reli- gious freedom, as all people, without exception, are in their conscience “bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and His Church, and to embrace the truth they come to know, and to hold fast to it”146 . Religious freedom and the obligation to the truth do not become mutually exclusive, but form, so to speak, two sides of the same coin: on one side man is, in his heart, bound by a duty to seek the truth, and on the other he can, in the matter of religion – characterised by the notion of free and voluntary action – develop the obligation

139 Cf. Paul VI, Ecclesiam suam, 70–84. 140 This is the subtitle of the declaration and reflects the attempts of the Council fathers to explore the matter of “religious freedom” in the widest context possible, including the possibility that a person may decide to be an atheist. 141 Cf. Dignitatis humanae, 9. 142 W. Thönissen, Ein Konzil für ein ökumenisches Zeitalter: Schlüsselthemen des Zweiten Vaticanums (Paderborn – Leipzig: Bonifatius – Evangelisches Verlagsanstalt, 2013), 242. 143 Cf. Thönissen, “Ein Konzil ,” 241. 144 Dignitatis humanae, 3 145 Cf. “Dignitatis humanae,” 3. This idea echoes the pronouncement of the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, according to which “conscience frequently errs from invincible ignorance without los- ing its dignity” (Gaudium et spes, 16). 146 “Dignitatis humanae,” 1

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to seek and find the truth only without restriction or external coercion. Only in freedom is it possible to accept the truth, therefore “this Vatican Council (…) professes (…) that the truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth, as it makes its entrance into the mind at once quietly and with power”147 . Walter Kasper sees in this connection between the objective and subjective aspect of religious freedom ‘the hermeneutical key’ for a correct understanding of the statements of the Council 148. Highlighting the inner (moral) duty of man (which consists in his directing the whole of his life towards the truth) becomes the Council’s justification for its appeal to governments to safeguard – in legal terms, by just laws and other appropriate means – the religious freedom of all their citizens 149.

Religious freedom in light of the Christian revelation The declaration Dignitatis humanae explores the question of religious freedom on two levels: first, it follows the way of rational reflections, and secondly, it views the whole matter from the perspective of Christian revelation . It does so in a completely balanced manner, as can be seen from how the document is constructed upon its two main pillars: The general principle of religious freedom and Religious freedom in the light of revelation . According to Augustin cardinal Bea, who as president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion Christian Unity – to which the preparation of the text on religious freedom was entrusted – played a key role in the work on the declaration, these two levels cannot be separated from each other 150. Expert articles Although it is true that “revelation does not indeed affirm in so many words the right of man to immunity from external coercion in matters religious”151, this teaching on freedom has its roots in God’s revelation 152. The main reason for this is that the dignity of a human person becomes fully clear only in the light of Christian revelation, that is, in Christ . It is, after all, only in the mystery of the incarnate Word – Christ, who is homo perfectus – that the mystery of man truly “takes on light”, as the graceful expression of the constitution Gaudium et spes reminds us . Christ as the new “reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear”153 when he restores God’s image in him, to which man—as a person endowed with reason, conscience and freedom—was created (see Gen 1:26) 154. If we read the declaration on religious freedom in the context of an immanent conciliar hermeneutic which does not lose sight of the corpus of all conciliar documents,155 then by studying the constitution on God’s revelation we will also understand the main point on which the fathers defend religious freedom, which was by reference to the freedom of the act of Christian faith . It is the constitution Dei Verbum which presents God’s revela-

147 “Dignitatis humanae,” 1 148 Cf. W. Kasper, Wahrheit und Freiheit: Die Erklärung über die Religionsfreiheit des II. Vatikanischen Konzils (Hei- delberg: Winter, 1988), 28. 149 Cf. “Dignitatis humanae,” 6. 150 Cf. A. Bea, Der Weg der Einheit nach dem Konzil, (Freiburg – Basel – Wien: Herder, 1966). 282. 151 “Dignitatis humanae,” 9. 152 Cf. “Dignitatis humanae,” 9. 153 Cf. “Gaudium et spes,” 22. 154 Cf. “Gaudium et spes,”12–17. 155 Cf. E. Schockenhoff, “Das Recht, ungehindert die Wahrheit suchen: Die Erklärung über die Religionsfreiheit Dignitatis humanae,” in Erinnerungen an die Zukunft: Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil, ed. H.-J. Tück (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2013). 721.

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tion in terms of the personal sharing of God, who “in His goodness and wisdom” decides to reveal Himself in the history of salvation in order to speak to people and “invite and take them into fellowship with Himself”156 . The human response to this revealing God then lies in the act of faith “by which man commits his whole self freely to God”157 . From the very nature of Christian faith – which, furthermore, is not possible without God’s grace or the inner help of the Holy Spirit158 – it follows that “in matters religious every manner of coercion on the part of men should be excluded”159 .

The pastoral consequences of the Conciliar teaching on religious freedom The third point to mention here is the effect that the discourse on religious freedom has on the life and ministry of the church . The apologia for libertas religiosa is, ultimately, the defence of true libertas Ecclesiae . But in what sense? For the mission entrusted to her by the Son of God himself when he sent the apostles to proclaim the gospel to all creation (see Mk 15:16), the church must, as a prerequisite for its very way of life, always be inde- pendent of the state . If it is the duty of a state to protect, by just laws, the religious freedom of individuals and the wider community, it follows that the church, as part of society, should be granted such freedom of action as her care for the salvation of men requires 160. The church, however – taught by the events from her own history – must decide, ever more de- cisively, to free herself from every purely human means of support and to seek nothing for herself but the freedom to proclaim the gospel in the spirit of the Beatitudes .161 It is precisely the freedom from the political concessions of a certain kind of “Constantinianism” – which were often connected with material privileges – which will help the church to fully devote herself to the task of service to God and neighbour .162 This is the only way in which the mis- sionary nature of the ministry of the church – the priority for which is tirelessly highlighted by the Pope Francis163 – will gain credibility . The mission of the church, pervaded by the Spirit of freedom, unfolds the mission of Christ himself .164 This is why her journey follows in the footsteps of the Lord who “emptied himself” (Phil 2:7) and who effected his kingdom not by the blows of the sword but through the love by which Christ draws all people to himself (see John 18:37) .165 This is why the proc- lamation of the church will be all the more effective the more perfectly it mirrors “the image of her crucified Lord, the supreme witness of patient love and of humble meekness”166 . If the declaration expressly refuses, in spreading religious faith, to resort to any means which “might seem to carry a hint of coercion or of a kind of persuasion that would be dishon-

156 “Dei Verbum,” 2. 157 “Dei Verbum,” 5. 158 Cf. “Dei Verbum,”5. 159 “Dignitatis humanae,” 10. 160 Cf. “Dignitatis humanae,” 13. 161 Cf. John Paul II, Ut unum sint, 3. 162 “Begegnung mit in Kirche und Gesellschaft engagierten Katholiken: Ansprache von Papst Benedikt: Freiburg im Breisgau, 25. September 2011,” accessed November 21, 2019, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2011/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_ spe_20110923_evangelical-church-erfurt_ge.html 163 Cf. Francis, Evangelii gaudium, 25. 164 Cf. Ad gentes, 5. 165 Cf. “Dignitatis humanae,” 11. 166 John Paul II, Tertio millenio adveniente, 35.

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ourable or unworthy”167, this is not in any way to doubt her duty “to give utterance to, and authoritatively to teach, that truth which is Christ Himself”168 . All forms of proclamation must, however, without exception, comport to the spirit of the gospel . In this sense, we can then say that the declaration on religious freedom “contributes to the deepening of missionary work by making this work more authentic and pure”169 .

Council speech of Josef cardinal Beran and its importance for Czech ecumenism Already during the process of its formation, the Council's teaching on religious freedom was closely connected with the effort to restore unity among Christians, which became one of the principal concerns of the Council 170. With the German ecumenist Wolfgang Thönis- sen, we can even claim that at the council „the question of religious freedom has developed into the touchstone of the ecumenical openness of the Catholic Church“171 . In this sense, the decisive option of the Catholic Church for ecumenism, which we have witnessed in the immediate post-Vatican period, was not based solely on renewed Council's ecclesiology, but was made possible by the Church's new attitude towards religious freedom 172. The keynote for ecumenical relations in the Czech lands was played by the Council speech of cardinal Josef Beran, who actively entered the debate that accompanied the elaboration of the final text of the Declaration on Religious Freedom. His contribution, re- corded in the synodic acta,173 reflected the experience of Christians in Bohemia, a country where the question of the freedom of religious confession was particularly relevant – both in history and at the time of the Council . Expert articles In the following part I will introduce the thought lines of Beran's conciliar speech and then I will point out the permanent importance of the cardinal's speech for the Catholic Church in the Czech lands and for the Czech ecumenism in particular .

The content of cardinal Beran’s speech at Vatican Council II in defence of reli- gious freedom The archbishop of Prague incorporated into his speech the experience of the church in the Czech lands, presenting on the one hand an historical narrative of a church divided by age-old religious wars and intolerance and on the other a first-hand account of the confrontation between the Czech hierarch and the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century . During the Nazi occupation of the Czech lands, his priestly zeal and pure nation- alistic feelings ended him up in the concentration camp at Dachau, where he experienced the remarkable ecumenical community of Czech Catholic and non-Catholic clergy united

167 “Dignitatis humanae,” 4. 168 “Dignitatis humanae,” 14. 169 Cf. J. Willebrands, “Religiosfreiheit und Ökumenismus,” in Mandatum unitatis: Beiträge zur Ökumene, ed. J. Willebrands (Paderborn: Bonifatius, 1989). 63. 170 Cf. Unitatis redintegratio, 1. Further, cf. J.J., Keane, “Religious freedom at Vatican II: Its impact on ecumenical and interreligious dialogue ,” One in Christ 41, no. 2 (2006): 40–52; Clifford, C.E., The ecumenical context of Dignitatis humanae: Forty years after Vatican II, Science et Esprit 59, no. 2–3, (2007): 387–403. 171 Thönissen, “Ein Konzil,” 257. 172 That is why the hermenutic remark of John Paul II is very correct, according to which it is necessary to read all three documents – Lumen gentium, Unitatis redintegratio, Dignitatis humannae – simultaneously in order to understand the conciliar doctrine of ecumenism. Cf. John Paul II, “Ut unum sint,” 8. 173 Cf. Acta synodalia sacrosancti concilii oecumenici vaticani II. Vol. IV : Periodus quarta. Pars I, Romae: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1976: 393–394.

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together in the resistance movement 174. From the autumn of 1946, when he was appointed archbishop of Prague, he was able with other Catholics to enjoy the freedom of the church for only a few years . After the communist coup of 1948, long years of unlawful imprisonment by the state police – who watched the archbishop day and night – awaited him 175. Cardinal Beran was almost 77 years old when on 20 September he took the floor during the Council discussions on religious freedom . The cardinal’s speech reads as the testi- mony of a Christian persecuted for his faith and who with great emotion looks back at the Christian history of his country and admits all of the sins committed against the freedom of conscience in the name of the Catholic Church . With much determination, Beran made a plea for the acceptance of the declaration on religious freedom, taking as his starting point Paul’s words concerning the sinfulness of acts that do not come from a clear con- science (cf . Rom 14:23), and claiming that whoever “by material or mental coercion leads a person to act against their conscience, leads them into sin against God”176 . To prove the verity of his words, the Czech cardinal dared to bring a “humble testimony” from his country of birth . The restrictions on the freedom of conscience which the archbishop experienced at first hand in a country controlled by a totalitarian regime led him to realise that such be- haviour is always ethically damaging “even when the perpetrators have in their minds the interests of true faith”177 . Ultimately, oppression of the freedom of conscience always leads to hypocrisy: faith becomes either a pretence – an outward show – or a secret . Beran took another example from Czech history when he stated:

“It seems that even in my country, the Catholic Church is suffering today for that which was committed in the past in her name against the freedom of conscience: such as in the fifteenth century when the priest Jan Hus was burnt at the stake; or in the seven- teenth century when a large part of the nation was compelled to accept once more the Catholic faith according the principle Cuius regio – eius religio which was being applied at the time. By such acts, the secular power wishing – or at least pretending – to serve the Catholic Church in reality left a permanent wound hidden in the hearts of the people . This trauma became an obstacle to spiritual progress and offered, and offers still, to the enemies of the Church some easy ammunition for agitation ”. 178

According to Beran, this lesson from history should lead the church to renounce oppor- tunism and to “clearly and without reservation” support the principle of religious freedom and the freedom of conscience . The church can also take such a step in the spirit of re- pentance for the sins against religious freedom that she herself committed in the past . According to the archbishop of Prague such an act could even put to shame those who still today, to the detriment of the church, fight against the freedom of conscience. Whatever the case, however, the authority of the church would increase and the Council would with its moral power stand behind all of its persecuted brothers in the faith 179.

174 Cf. S. Vodičková, Uzavírám vás do svého srdce: Životopis Josefa kardinála Berana (Brno – Praha: CDK – Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů, 2009). 106. 175 Cf. Vodičková, “Uzavírám vás do svého srdce,” 217–291. 176 Acta synodalia sacrosancti concilii oecumenici vaticani II. Vol. IV : Periodus quarta. Pars I, 393. 177 “Acta synodalia sacrosancti concilii oecumenici vaticani II. Vol. IV : Periodus quarta. Pars I,” 393. 178 “Acta synodalia sacrosancti concilii oecumenici vaticani II. Vol. IV : Periodus quarta. Pars I,” 393. 179 “Acta synodalia sacrosancti concilii oecumenici vaticani II. Vol. IV : Periodus quarta. Pars I,” 394.

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The Czech pastor therefore ended his speech by turning to those present with a request to include, at the end of the declaration, words with which the Catholic Church should with some urgency address all governments of the world and appeal to them to promote and apply the freedom of conscience and “to cease oppressing religious freedom in any way”180 . He had in mind the imprisonment of the faithful, the prevention of priests and bishops from carrying out their ministry, the unjust laws that do harm to the church, the obstacles put in the way of candidates for the priesthood and entire religious orders, and the constraints on the freedom of Christian education for families .

The enduring significance for Czech ecumenism of the Council’s teaching on re- ligious freedom We would be moving into the realm of pure hypothesis if we attempted to prove any direct influence of Josef Beran on the creation of the conciliar text. What is certain, howev- er, is that his speech engraved itself on the memory of the Council fathers, as evidenced by a personal recollection of the Council peritus Joseph Ratzinger 181. Furthermore, the final article of the declaration includes explicit reference to the regimes “under which, even though freedom of religious worship receives constitutional recognition, the powers of government are engaged in the effort to deter citizens from the profession of religion and to make life very difficult and dangerous for religious communities”182 . The significance of the cardinal’s speech for the life of the Catholic Church in the Czech lands is clear and beyond doubt . The cardinal’s speech went far beyond the boundaries Expert articles of the Catholic Church in our lands and gained broader ecumenical significance. Beran also became “a symbol of the persecuted Christian”183 for Czech Protestants and news of his speech spread among Protestant Christians, who paid special attention to it . Josef Smolík, a theologian from the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, attests that “the words of car- dinal Beran in admitting guilt over, and in radically condemning, the use of force in matters of faith had magical power. For Protestants they proved sufficient as an appeal to them to change their attitude towards their Catholic brothers and sisters”184 .

“Healing of memories” The words the archbishop of Prague delivered at the Council paved a fresh way for- ward for Czech ecumenism which would mean, first and foremost, a penitent pilgrimage towards reconciliation in the depths of Czech spiritual heritage (marked as it is by a history of Christians being divided against each other) . In the spirit of the Czech hierarch’s speech to the Council, Beran’s successor as archbishop of Prague, František cardinal Tomášek,

180 “Acta synodalia sacrosancti concilii oecumenici vaticani II. Vol. IV : Periodus quarta. Pars I,” 394. 181 Cf. J. Ratzinger, Problemi e risultati del Concilio Vaticano II (Brescia: Queriniana, 1967), 102. 182 “Dignitatis humanae,” 15. 183 J. Heller, “Vzpomínky českého evangelíka na koncil,” Teologické texty 6 (1995): 201. 184 J. Smolík, “Druhý vatikánský koncil a evangelíci u nás,” in Ve znamení naděje: Proměny teologie a církve po II. vatikánském koncilu, ed. J. Hanuš (Brno: CDK, 1997): 78. According to the protestant theologian J. M. Loch- man, after 1968 an exile in Basel, we can also say that the whole ecumenical cooperation of Czechs living abroad was inspired to a certain degree by Josef Beran’s speech at the Council; cf. J.M. Lochman, “Ekumenická a akademická služba exilu,” Křesťanská revue LXVI/8 (1999): 215.

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repeatedly confessed the sins of Catholics in the painful pages of our history and pleaded for non-Catholic Christians to forgive them 185. Josef Beran’s positive reference to the Czech reformer Jan Hus aroused interest among a number of Czech Catholic theologians and historians at home and abroad in the 1970s and 1980s and provoked them into studying the person and work of a man who was still for the majority of Czech Catholics above all else a heretic . John Paul II, who as an active participant in the discussions concerning the creation of the text of the declaration Dignita- tis humanae and who heard the Czech cardinal’s speech at first hand, referred to his words during his first visit to what was then when, immediately after the fall of the iron curtain, he called upon Czech theologians and other experts to find together a place for Jan Hus in Czech spiritual history . The subsequent ecumenical studies of the so-called Hus Commission, which lasted several years, resulted, on the eve of the new millennium, in an international congress in Rome during which the Pope addressed the Czech nation in words which expressed “deep regret for the cruel death inflicted on Jan Hus, and for the consequent wound of conflict and division which was thus imposed on the minds and hearts of the Bohemian people”186 .

“Solidarity of the powerless” The fact that the Catholic Church declared the inviolability of the freedom of man in mat- ters of religion was seen by Czech Protestants as a “Copernican revolution”187 which also enabled Czech Catholics to enter that stream which the Czech philosopher Jan Patočka calls “elementary democratism”, expressing the continuity of moral imperative and concern in Czech spiritual history 188. The defence of the freedom of conscience and the inalienable rights of a human per- son pronounced by the Council provided support for the engagement of Czech Catholics in a new phase of resistance against the communist totalitarian power in the 1970s and 1980s . Czech dissidence at the time was embodied in the civic initiative “Charta 77”, which defined itself in its first declaration as a “free, informal, and open community of people of different convictions, different faiths, and different confessions, which are united by the will to strive, individually and collectively, for the respect of civic and human rights in our own country and throughout the world”189 . Its policy statement in January 1977 was signed by people from various professions and walks of life including Catholic and Protestant theologians and clergy and other Christian intellectuals. And so in the fight for the de-

185 Cf. F. Tomášek, “Vyhlášení sedmileté přípravy k tisíciletému výročí založení biskupství v Praze – duben 1967,” in Pastýřské listy 1945–2000: Arcidiecéze pražská (Kostelní Vydří: Karmelitánské nakladatelství, 2003), 150–152; “Velikonoční poselství pražského arcibiskupa duchovním a věřícím všech křesťanských církví a všem lidem dobré vůle v naší zemi – Velikonoce 1988,” in Pastýřské listy 1945–2000: Arcidiecéze pražská (Kostelní Vydří: Karmelitánské nakladatelství, 2003), 508–513. 186 “Projev papeže Jana Pavla II. k účastníkům římského mezinárodního sympozia o Mistru Janu Husovi (Papežská lateránská univerzita 15. – 18. 12. 1999) při audienci ve vatikánské „Sala del Concistoro“ v pátek 17.12. 1999,” in Mezinárodní sympozium o Mistru Janu Husovi: Řím, Papežská lateránská univerzita. 15. – 18. 12. 1999 (Praha: Sekretariát ČBK, 20012). 187 See: B. Komárková, “Česká otázka v průběhu století (tři poznámky),” in Spor o smysl českých dějin 2: 1938–1989: Posuny a akcenty české otázky, ed. M. Havelka, (Praha: Torst, 2006), 506–507; J.S. Trojan, Idea lidských práv v české duchovní tradici Praha: (Oikoymenh, 2002), 95, note 114. 188 Cf. J. Patočka, “Filosofie českých dějin,” in J. Patočka Češi.“ I,” (Praha: Oikoymenh, 2006), 199. 189 “Prohlášení Charty 77 ,” in Charta 77. 1977–1989: Od morální k demokratické revoluci: Dokumentace, ed. V. Prečan (Scheinfeld – Praha – Bratislava: Čs. dokumentační středisko nezávislé literatury, 1990), 12.

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fence of human rights (including religious freedom), Christians stood side by side with non-believers, liberals, humanists, even reformative communists, all of whom united into a democratic opposition . In the environment of the so-called chartists, many ecumenical cross-overs happened and many contacts and friendships developed when on the journey they shared with both seekers and non-believers, Catholics and Protestants discovered the roots of their Christian faith and so learned mutual respect and regard . It was thanks to this very “solidarity of the powerless” that the Czech Catholics joined, that in November 1989 František cardinal Tomášek was able to pronounce, memorably, that he and the whole Catholic Church stood on the side of the Czech nation and that there- fore Czech society and the Czech church were in one accord in the battle for the freedom and dignity of man .

Conclusion “There is no true ecumenical dialogue without religious freedom,”190 said cardinal Jo- hannes Willebrands, Second Chairman of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Chris- tian Unity, decisively, according to him, the right to religious freedom is “an inalienable pre- condition for ecumenical trust” . The present repeatedly expresses a similar view whenever he points out that proselytism, as an effort closely linked to violence on hu- man conscience, is a poison on the ecumenical journey . The repeated study of the Coun- cil's teachings on religious freedom, together with a look at its reception in a non-Catholic setting, not only shows us the complexity of the process that the Catholic Church went Expert articles through in this direction, but brings us to the very core of the Christian mission: with un- shakeable respect for the dignity of every human person, to give testimony before the world to the Truth that leads us into “the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:21) .

Bibliography Acta synodalia sacrosancti concilii oecumenici vaticani II. Vol. IV : Periodus quarta. Pars I, Romae: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1976. Ad gentes. Bea, A. Der Weg der Einheit nach dem Konzil. Freiburg – Basel – Wien: Herder, 1966. “Begegnung mit in Kirche und Gesellschaft engagierten Katholiken: Ansprache von Papst Benedikt: Freiburg im Breisgau, 25. September 2011,” Accessed November 21, 2019, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2011/september/documents/hf_ben- xvi_spe_20110923_evangelical-church-erfurt_ge.html Clifford, C.E. “The ecumenical context of Dignitatis humanae: Forty years after Vatican II,” Science et Es- prit, 59, no. 2–3, (2007): 387–403. COMMISSIONE TEOLOGICA INTERNAZIONALE. “La libertà religiosa per il bene di tutti.” Accessed No- vember 21, 2019. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_20190426_liber- ta-religiosa_it.html#Una_soglia_di_novit%C3%A0 Dignitatis humanae.

190 Willebrands, “Religiosfreiheit und Ökumenismus,” 54.

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Dei Verbum. Francis, Evangelii gaudium. Hamer, J. Geschichte des Textes der Erklärung, In Die Konzilserklärung über die Religionsfreiheit, edited by J. Hamer, Y. Congar, Paderborn: Bonifacius, 1967, p. 59–123. Heller, J. “Vzpomínky českého evangelíka na koncil,” Teologické texty 6, (1995): 201. Gaudium et spes. John Paul II, Tertio millenio adveniente. John Paul II, Ut unum sint. Kasper, W. Wahrheit und Freiheit: Die Erklärung über die Religionsfreiheit des II. Vatikanischen Konzils. Hei- delberg: Winter, 1988. Keane, J.J. “Religious freedom at Vatican II: Its impact on ecumenical and interreligious dialogue,” One in Christ, 41, no. 2 (2006): 40–52. Komárková, B. “Česká otázka v průběhu století (tři poznámky).” In Spor o smysl českých dějin 2: 1938– 1989: Posuny a akcenty české otázky,” 482–508. Praha: Torst, 2006. Lochman, J.M. “Ekumenická a akademická služba exilu,” Křesťanská revue LXVI/8 (1999): 214–217. Patočka, J. “Filosofie českých dějin, in Patočka, J., Češi. I,” Praha: Oikoymenh, 2006: 188–213. Paul VI, Ecclesiam suam. “Prohlášení Charty 77,” In Charta 77. 1977–1989: Od morální k demokratické revoluci: Dokumentace,” edit- ed by V. Prečan, 9–13. Scheinfeld – Praha – Bratislava: Čs. dokumentační středisko nezávislé literatury, 1990. “Projev papeže Jana Pavla II. k účastníkům římského mezinárodního sympozia o Mistru Janu Husovi (Papežská lateránská univerzita 15. – 18. 12. 1999) při audienci ve vatikánské „Sala del Concistoro“ v pátek 17.12. 1999.” In Mezinárodní sympozium o Mistru Janu Husovi: Řím, Papežská lateránská univerzita 15. – 18. 12. 1999, 1–3. Praha: Sekretariát ČBK, 2001. Tomášek, F., “Vyhlášení sedmileté přípravy k tisíciletému výročí založení biskupství v Praze – duben 1967,” In Pastýřské listy 1945–2000: Arcidiecéze pražská, 150–152. Kostelní Vydří: Karmelitánské nakla- datelství, 2003. Ratzinger, J. Problemi e risultati del Concilio Vaticano II. Brescia: Queriniana, 1967. Ratzinger, J., Theological Highlights of Vatican II. New York: Paulist Press, 2009. Routhier, G. “La liberté religieuse au concile Vatican II et depuis,” Toronto Journal of Theology 32, no. 2 (2016): 329–340. Sanchez, W. Lopez. “Igreja Católica e liberdade religiosa: A renovação desencadeada pelo Concilio Vaticano II. Revista de estudos da religiao 17, no. 3, (2017): 123–138. Schockenhoff, E. “Das Recht, ungehindert die Wahrheit suchen: Die Erklärung über die Religionsfrei- heit Dignitatis humanae.” In Erinnerungen an die Zukunft: Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil, edited by H.-J. Tück, 701–742. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2013. Schwerdtfeger, N. “Ökumene für ein Recht der Person: Die Erklärung über die Religionsfreiheit „Digni- tatis humanae“ und ihr historischer Kontext,” Catholica 65, no. 4, (2011): 273–290.

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Siebenrock, R.A. “Theologischer Kommentar zur Erklärung über der religiöse Freiheit Dignitatis hu- manae.” In Herders theologischer Kommentar zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil, edited by P. Hünner- mann, B.J. Hilberath, 152–165. Bd. 4, Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2005. Siebenrock, R.A., “The Gospel of Human Dignity”: Dignitatis humanae: A Continuing Provocation, Con- cilium 4 (2016): 28–36. Smolík, J. “Druhý vatikánský koncil a evangelíci u nás” In Ve znamení naděje: Proměny teologie a církve po II. vatikánském koncilu, edited by J. Hanuš, 75–81. Brno: CDK, 1997. Soler, C., La continuidad del magisterio sobre libertad religiosa: La interpretación de Dignitatis hu- manae en su contexto histórico, Scripta Theologica 47, no. 2, (2015): 459–482. Tavard, G.V., American contributions to Vatican II's documents on ecumenism and on religious liberty, Chicago Studies 42, no.1, (2003):17–30. Thönissen, W. Ein Konzil für ein ökumenisches Zeitalter: Schlüsselthemen des Zweiten Vaticanums. Pader- born – Leipzig: Bonifatius – Evangelisches Verlagsanstalt, 2013. Trojan, J.S., Idea lidských práv v české duchovní tradici. Praha: Oikoymenh, 2002. Unitatis redintegratio. “Velikonoční poselství pražského arcibiskupa duchovním a věřícím všech křesťanských církví a všem lidem dobré vůle v naší zemi – Velikonoce 1988,” In Pastýřské listy 1945–2000: Arcidiecéze pražská, 508– 513. Kostelní Vydří: Karmelitánské nakladatelství, 2003. Expert articles Vodičková, S., Uzavírám vás do svého srdce: Životopis Josefa kardinála Berana. Brno – Praha: CDK – Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů, 2009.

Willebrands, J.“Religiosfreiheit und Ökumenismus,” In Mandatum unitatis: Beiträge zur Ökumene, edited by Willebrands, J., 54–69. Paderborn: Bonifatius, 1989.

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HOPE THROUGH A RENEWED CHURCH: EPISTEMOLOGY OF COMPLEXITY AND ITS CHALLENGES FOR RESTRUCTURALIZATION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH *191

Josef Mikulášek ✉

Palacký University Olomouc, The Sts Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology (Olomouc, CZ)

Submitted: 9 September 2019 Accepted for publication: 28 April 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract: Backround: There was a significant move in the philosophy of science over the 20th centu- ry . Whereas its beginning is shaped by positivism and by a reductionist approach in science, we face – as consequence of new facts and methods – a completely new paradigm shaped by consciousness of the necessity of a non-reductive approach to reality at the end of the 20th century . The new paradigm in the philosophy of science is called epistemology of complexity . It is inspired by studies of so called `complex systems` found both in the nature and in the human culture . In this article I try to undertake an interpretation of the epistemology of complexity on the field of the Catholic ecclesiology. As will be apparent, for our future understanding of the Church we must assume a non-reductive form of thinking about Church`s historical and social reality . Conclusion: As the author argues in the article, ecclesiological studies can benefit from the epistemology of complexity as from a highly efficient analytical and heuristic tool. Accepting this methodological invitation, we will be invited to a deeper understanding of the Church as the `communion of churches`, of the Church synodality and the horizontal balancing of accountabil- ity, of the missionary nature of the Church and of other relevant issues that cannot be passed by in the rethinking of the Church .

Keywords: Epistemology of complexity – Church structures – Antireductionism – Horizontal accountability .

Introduction “Give me but a firm spot on which to stand and I will move the earth.” This quote, ascribed to the ancient philosopher Archimedes, defines to a great extent the aim of the path which hu- man knowledge has undertaken for hundreds of years: seeking out one firm point, known from the earliest periods of philosophy as arché, principium or also essentia, which has accompanied western civilization from the ancient days of Greek philosophers up to the twentieth century . This attempt to isolate and describe the initial, simple and unifying principle is actually not only part of the history of philosophy192, but also the development of natural sciences and reaching an un-

* This article was supported by the Grant Agency of Palacky University in the framework of the specific research project `Christianity and contemporary society` (IGA_CMTF_2019_005). ✉ Contact on author: Josef Mikulášek, Ph.D. – e-mail: [email protected]. 192 Seeking out the arché is clearly linked in western philosophy and the theological tradition of metaphysi- cal thinking with the teaching about the so-called transcendentals, in which the first and most important is the unifying Unum. For a bibliography on the theme, see, for example, Mario Bunge, The Myth of Simplicity:

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derstanding of the laws of nature. The “force field” of this approach has naturally grasped also the Christian theological thinking 193. All of the previous history of western civilization and human knowledge can be referred to with the summary concept: an epistemology of simplicity 194. With the exception of efforts by certain authors, the prevailing stream of all of the history of western thinking has always focused on the reduction of the complexity of reality into simpler particles, if not directly into the isolated initial principle, whose correlation is the explicitly formulated and communicable logos of human understanding . This reductionism concerned not only the content of the research (that is revealing the simple arché of the beginning), but also its methodology, which shifts, under the influence of the development of the natural sciences at the beginning of the Modern age, to the need to express oneself by means of logical statements, led by mathe- matically clear knowledge . This descriptive approach, whereby man increasingly faces the world, also tended to increasingly distance him from a connection with the world . This came about so gradually, under the influence of Cartesian thinking, to a complete distinction between the observer (res cogitans) and the observed object (res extensa), the spiritual and material reality,195 and thereby to the consequent establishment of the dualism of the world of the soul and matter .

If we were to have more time in the present historical overview, we would be able to gradually analyze all of the key moments which the development of scientific knowledge in western civiliza- tion underwent over the course of the centuries of the Modern era 196. We would stop specifically at the already mentioned Cartesian division of the subject from the observed object,197 or at the at- tempt by Newton to reduce all knowledge of physics/matter into a few small (three) laws,198 Expert articles generally valid and determinant for further knowledge or perhaps at the work of Immanuel Kant, who tried to abstract and isolate possibilities and approaches to knowledge in his work Critique of Pure Reason,199 where according to Kant, human reason is absolutely freed and completely independent from any kind of surrounding influences, that is from the human absorbedness into the environment of the objectivity of the world . The tragedy of this loss of the natural world, our Lebenswelt and thus our absorbedness into the intersubjectively constituted and perceived

Problems in Scientific Philosophy (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1963); Jorge E. Gracia, “The Transcendentals in the Middle Ages: An Introduction,” Topoi: An International Review of Philosophy, 11, no. 2, (1992): 113–120. 193 An important representative of the powerfully hierarchical vision of the cosmos, which is also reflected in the form of the life of church society is the figure of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, an author further unknown from the sixth century. See his text De divinis nominibus in the book Dionysius Aeropagita. The Divine Names and Mystical Theology ed. John D. J. Jones, (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1980), 107-207. See also: Bernhard Brons, Gott und die Seienden. Un- tersuchungen zum Verhältnis von neuplatonischer Metaphysik und christlicher Tradition bei Dionysius Areop- agita (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1976). 194 Compare Edgar Morin, On Complexity (Cresskill: Hampton Press, 2008), 39-40. 195 See: René Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy (Indianapolis: Hackett Publish- ing, 1998). 196 See, for example, the volumes of D. Deming, where the author analyses the modern idea of progress and its impacts on the development of western society: David Deming, Science and Technology in World History, vol. III-IV, (Jefferson-London: McFarland & Company, 2012-2016). 197 See above. 198 For further explanation of Newton`s laws of motion, see B. Crowell, Light and matter, Fullerton: B. Crowell, 2014, 129-138, 151-155, http://www.lightandmatter.com/lm/. 199 Immanuel Kant, “Critique of Pure Reason,” ed. Paul Guyer, Allen W. Wood (Cambridge: University Press, 1998).

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world, will be recalled and will be attempted to return in the first decades of the twentieth century, with the founder of the philosophy of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl .200

Dawn of the New Perception of Reality The acceptance of complexity of our existence and of the world as a compact object, compre- hensible and explorable with the methodological reduction of the natural sciences, begins to be seen as problematic in the pole of science from the beginning of the twentieth century .201 Classi- cal Newtonian physics starts to lose its dominance and its seeming unsurmountable character, under the influence of the formulation of the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein202 (1879-1955) and quantum theory of Max Planck (1858-1947) and Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) 203. It is known that these theories were concerned with a mutually diametrically different reality: in the first case this involves a cosmology of a large whole, while in the second case it concerns the physics of elementary particles . Despite these differences, from a perspective involving analys- ing both theories, increased support arises for anomalies which call into question Newtonian physics: relativity of time and the characteristics of particles and waves in elementary quantum physics . This also questions the assumed vision of the regularity and uniformity of space, and the connected demand for a simple explanation of reality . The observations of physics give rise to a new surprise: Werner Heisenberg uncovered in his research, on the level of elementary particles, how it is impossible with certainty to predict the place and movement of these particles . Physics, which was viewed up until this point as the queen of the sciences of the material world, therefore found itself in a precarious position . The material world, seemingly domesticated and explored, thereby becomes a place for new surprises .

The need for a formulation of a new epistemological paradigm begins to be declared among physics, biology and philosophy of science in the middle of the twentieth century 204. While the epistemology of simplicity up until then tried to study complex systems as `simple objects`, the developing of so-called epistemology of complexity attempted to approach objects as internally truly complex systems 205. As the epistemological origin of this term indicates, complexity (from the lat . cumplexus) does not mean a complication (from the lat . cumplicatum), but instead a term making reference to an interlinking, interweaving, of many levels, relations and perspectives, through which one can examine one system . In the case of complex systems, the thesis of an

200 Edmund Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An Introduction to Phe- nomenological Philosophy trans. David Carr (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1970). 201 Here I`m thinking on the developments in the philosophy of science as represented by the so called `Vienna circle` or, more specifically on the philosophical grounds, the neopositivism and its tendency to `humbleness` of exact sciences. For a recent valutation of this movement see: Rudolf Haller. Neopositivismus: Eine historische Einführung in die Philosophie des Wiener Kreises (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1993). 202 Albert Einstein, Relativity: The Special and the General Theory (London-New York: Routledge, 2006). 203 Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science (London: Allen & Unwin, 1959). 204 Theorization of “the change in the paradigm” is discussed in a classic work of science of philosophy written by an American philosopher of science, T. S. Kuhn. See: Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago-London: The University of Chicago Press, 19963). 205 The first international meeting of scientists involved in evaluating the status of an epistemology of complex- ity was held in Montpellier, in , in May 1984. See the proceedings of the conference in: Science et pra- tique de la complexité: Actes du colloque de Montpellier (Paris: La Documentation française, 1984).

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interdisciplinary (and therefore multi-layered) approach, by means of which we are protected from a temptation to a reductive perception of reality, is necessarily valid .206

The Main Principles of the Epistemology of Complexity The following presentation of the epistemology of complexity will focus on a description of certain basic principles, through which one can comprehend the epistemology of complex systems .207 I will consequently, by means of these principles, attempt to interpret certain ques- tions of contemporary Catholic ecclesiology in order for these principles to provide extremely broad material of considerations on how we can deepen our understanding of the Church in this manner as a complex system208 of divine-human reality in its historical realization .

Out of the important principles in the study of complex systems, I will focus my attention on four principles which are of most importance for our consequent contemplation on the level of ecclesiological mediations .209 These are the principles of “auto-organization”, “the return of the observer”, “the holographic principle” and the principle of “double causality” .

a) The principle of “auto-organization” is one of the most distinct principles of complex sys- tems. This principle is discovered specifically on the basis of the above-mentioned observations of Albert Einstein or Max Planck and their successors . Its basis is that reality does not present itself to us as a simple sum of elements, but as an abundance of complex organization (of el- ements), which cannot be understood by means of pure analysis of particular elements, or as Expert articles is stated in the already well-established motto of this principle, “The whole is something more than a sum of parts”210 . The whole, perceived as a system as opposed to as a simple object, is thereby a place of unexpected vitality, which is not dependent on the external, on heteronomy, on defining, on external authority, but arises from this system itself. The principle of the auto-or- ganization of complex systems is in and of itself supported by the law of entropy, contained in the second law of thermodynamics, toward which all living systems should move . As the exploration of these so-called dissipative systems demonstrates, its actual characteristic is surprisingly the

206 An introduction into an interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary methodology of thinking offers F. Darbellay, M. Cockell, J. Billote, F. Waldvogel. A Vision of Transdisciplinarity: Laying Foundations for a World Knowledge Dia- logue (Lausanne - Boca Raton: EPFL Press – CRC Press, 2008). 207 A theorist and important representative of the epistemology of complexity in the areas of the humanities is E. Morin. See his above-mentioned work On Complexity. See also, for example, Fritjof Capra, The Turning Point: Science, Society and the Rising Culture (London: Flamingo, 1982). 208 See: , Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium 8: “But, the society structured with hierarchical organs and the Mystical Body of Christ, are not to be considered as two re- alities, nor are the visible assembly and the spiritual community, nor the earthly Church and the Church enriched with heavenly things; rather they form one complex reality which coalesces from a divine and a human element.” 209 A clear and full presentation of all of the principles of the complex systems is provided by Edgar Morin. “Le vie della complessità” in La sfida della complessità ed. Gianluca Bocchi, Mauro Ceruti (Milano: Mondadori, 2007). 210 “The organizational whole is something more than a sum of parts as it allows new qualities to emerge, which would not exist without this kind of organization.” Morin, “Le vie della complessità”, 27.

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capability of emergence, or also negative entropy, which enables the development of the com- plexity of the system, and therefore to the opening up of its further future .211

b) The second principle of complex systems is that which scholars currently refer to as “the return of the observer” . After a long curve in the development of Modern science attempting to establish a strict distinction between observed objects and the perceiving subject (established by R . Descartes), there has been a reemergence in recent decades of the need for a non-du- alistic approach to perceiving reality: man is not a non-material spirit, which levitates above perceived reality, but is essentially linked to the examined events of his or her own physicality; not a mere observer, but also in particular an active participant in the world . The evidence of this importance of consciousness of the involvement of the observer was provided by schol- ars concerned with quantum theory. Specifically in this respect, Werner Heisenberg formulated his thesis on the non-specificity of the location and movement of matter, within the framework of which he came to the conclusion that it depends on the scientific theory through which the given scientist perceives elementary particles (in this case either physics of particles or waves), because the manner (the character) of the perception decisively influences the results of the observation . This illustration uncovers the role of subjects, we ourselves: our experience, our “subjectivity”, does influence our processes of perception, understanding and evaluating reality. We are thus indelibly immersed in our observation of complex systems .212

c) The third principle of the epistemology of complexity, which is manifested as truly beneficial is that known as “the holographic principle” . This principle allows us to reveal how each complex system is formed by means of fractals213 (or we could call them the more comprehensible term portions), which – as a certain type of pars pro toto – contain information on the whole of the system (and consequently contain the entire system), just as a suitable portion of cake contains all of the relevant ingredients . Each cell of the human body contains the entire genetic code of our individuality, our being . In a similar fashion, each fractal, in which the system is created, contains the whole of the information of the system . This principle thereby leads us to a bipolar tension between the parts and the whole, which should not be completed, destroyed, but interpreted and developed in a constructive manner . As Blaise Pascal stated long ago: “I hold it (…) impossible to know the parts without knowing the whole, and to know the whole without knowing the parts in detail ”. 214 Each individual thereby becomes, for example, a fractal of the local culture he or she grows up in: by means of a process of socialization and education, “the whole” of culture in its characteristic features is inserted into each of us and we therefore become living fractals of cul- ture, of a nation, of a community . It is once again valid here that “The whole is something more than a summary of parts”, as the nation, community, is definitely something more than a mere sum of (its) elements; it consists of a new creation, of emergence and unpredictability . Concerning the question of “what is the family?” I cannot merely answer with complete isolation

211 For the first appearance of the term `negative entropy` or (abbreviated to) `negentropy` see Leon Bril- louin, “The Negentropy Principle of Information,” Journal of Applied Physics 24, no. 9, (1953): 1152-1163. doi:10.1063/1.1721463 212 Werner Heisenberg, „Über den anschaulichen Inhalt der quantentheoretischen Kinematik und Mechanik“, Zeitschrift für Physik 43, no. 3-4 (1927): 172-198 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01397280 213 For introduction into the reasoning of fractal systems see Author links open overlay panel Paul H. Coleman, Luciano Pietronero, „The fractal structure of the universe“, Physics Reports 213, no. 6, (1992): 311-389. https:// doi.org/10.1016/0370-1573(92)90112-D 214 Blaise Pascal Pensées, trans. W. F. Trotter (Mineola: Dover Publications, 2003). 20, no. 72.

50 HOPE THROUGH A RENEWED CHURCH: EPISTEMOLOGY OF COMPLEXITY AND ITS CHALLENGES FOR RESTRUCTURALIZATION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH | Josef Mikulášek

and analysis of the single members of the family and the consequent elaboration of their char- acteristics, as the whole/the system is something greater .215

d) The just mentioned bipolarity between the fractal and the whole finally leads us to the final principle of the epistemology of complexity, this being the principle of “double causality”. Researchers of these fractals have pointed out that one cannot defend a simple vision of linear causality in the case of complex systems, that is a singularity of cause and a singularity of effect (in its place, time, subject, object) . Who is the cause and who the effect, for example, in the case of human society? Are individuals the cause or the whole of society? Or is it more valid that there are members who produce the given society, which consequently return back to them as in their “presumed” effects? Specialists in this respect therefore speak of the so-called recursive organization of these kinds of societies, wherein any kind of reduction of the whole of the system is condemned ahead of time only on its global level . The direction of bottom-up negotiations and emergence, which arise from these single fractals of the system and which contribute significant- ly to their growth, have been denied .216

Challenges of the Epistemology of Complexity for Catholic Ecclesiology I believe that several of the above-mentioned principles of the epistemology of complex- ity help us to reach an understanding of the difference between complicated and complex . Complex systems have their own logic, their own order, which, however, require a shift within our experienced processes of understanding . They provoke of course our seemingly unity and Expert articles certainty of understanding, functioning over the centuries in western civilization, which was the path to “a peaceful” solution, but a path purchased with a significant amount of reduction, with concise decisions and adjusting to the reality or tools of our understanding in a manner suiting the equation . The epistemology of complexity and its principles are an extremely powerful tool for understanding phenomena which the reduction methods of science, involving the epistemol- ogy of simplicity, are unable to deal with . This is the case not only with natural sciences and the humanities, but also when it comes to Christian theology . There have been a number of works in recent years in which authors, by means of the epistemology of complexity, have enriched our understanding of God, creation and the grace of God .217 In contrast, however, challenges offered by the study of complex systems, if we view the phenomena of the Church and the social exist-

215 An anticipation of the `emergence` in complex system studies can be seen present in the philosophy of sci- ence as early as in writings of Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) who developed the idea of `boundary conditions` (or, also, elsewhere called `marginal control`) in the hierarchy of the universe. This principle, valid both in physical and in biological systems, states that „each level (of being) is subject to dual control; first, by the laws that apply to its elements in themselves and, second, by the laws that control the comprehensive entity formed by them.“ Accordingly, „the operations of a higher level cannot be accounted for by the laws govern- ing its particular forming the lower level.“ These rules, Polanyi argues, are the way how to refuse a hegemonic claim of natural scientists when seeking to explain all living and non-living systems in a purely mechanistic interpretation. Michael Polanyi, The tacit dimension (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 20092). 216 See: Morin, “Le vie della complessità,” 27-29. 217 The contribution of the epistemology of complexity for Christian theology is briefly summarised, for example, in an article by Haught, John. “Chaos, Complexity and Theology,” in Teilhard in the 21st Century: The Emerging Spirit of Earth, ed. Arthur Fabel, Donald St. John (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2003). 181-194. For other relevant bibliography see: Arthur Peacocke, Creation and the World of Science (New York: Oxford University Press, 20042); Robert J. Russell, “Chaos and Complexity: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action,” ed. Nancey Mur- phy ( – Berkeley: Vatican Observatory Publications – Centre for theology and the natural sciences, 20002). (here specifically the contributions of B.-O. Küppers, J. Polkinghorne and J. Moltmann). One of the

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ence of Christians in the society of believers from its perspective, are still practically untouched . 218 I will therefore in the concluding part of this paper attempt to provide a few paths which might be worth examining and further analyzed hitherto lacked in Catholic ecclesiology .

The epistemology of complexity could – just as it led to a change in the paradigm in the case of the natural sciences – firstly encourage us to avoid the temptation to understand the Church as some kind of object which stands in a fixed manner and is determined separately from ourselves . The Church is not a conserved object of our interest and passive observation,219 but instead a dynamic system where any attempt at blocking its development would be a dramatic intervention into the principles of its functioning . Each reality is a dynamic linking of relations which the system (the Church) creates and through which it renews itself .220

a) In connection with the principle of auto-organization, there is definitely an interesting space for further considerations as to what extent our epistemological shift from the object to the system has transformed our concept of the intersubjectivity of Christians (communion) within the Church . If a characteristic of complex systems is its ability to auto-organize, how can this fact be understood in the case of the Church? In what way is the organized Church like the process of foreseeing the Kingdom of God? Can we understand the system of the Church as a way of God`s revelation in history? Is there not a need, specifically in light of the reality of the Church, to replace the question of “the principle/essence” of the Church with a view of the Church as a kind of “system of revelation” of God’s kingdom, in which an essential role is played by time and emergence, that is the expressions of God in history?221 This in fact stands at the very basis of Christian doctrine about the Church: it is not only the fruit of the Holy Spirit, but also a place and a means of its presence . God is revealed by means of the Church and in the Church specif- ically in its emergence, in its dynamic development and in self-understanding as a sub-system

recent books which analyses the possibility of the epistemology of complex systems as a stimulating impulse for a theological method is Giorgio Bonaccorso. Critica della ragione impura: Per un confronto tra teologia e scienza (Assisi: Cittadella, 2016). 218 One of the few original projects in this direction which calls for a reformulation of the basic considerations about the Church is the book by Stella Morra, Dio non si stanca: La misericordia come forma ecclesiale (Bolo- gna: Edizioni Dehoniane, 2015). 219 It is undoubtedly appropriate to add and contemplate how this „objectivist” vision of the Church corresponds to the concept of Revelation and the Church in the First Vatican Council (as conceived, this latter, in the Dog- matic Constitution on the Church of Christ Pastor Aeternus) still conserving in its own formulations an old sharp distinction between an Ecclesia docens and an Ecclesia discerns. 220 In this respect, it is particularly interesting to reflect on the model of eclesiogenesis by the Italian theologian Severino Dianich, who attributes this source of ongoing renewal and formation of the Church into the mo- ment of preaching, which is the basic parameter of any kind of development and transformation of the ec- clesiastical reality and the structure. See: Severino Dianich, Ecclesiologia: questioni di metodo e una proposta, (Cinisello Balsamo: Edizioni Paoline, 1993), especially 86-113. 221 Here I suggest a reflection on how to conceive the ancient but still ambiguous category of `form`. A vast range of its conception offers: Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz, „Form: History of one term and five concepts.“ In A History of Six Ideas. An Essay in Aesthetics (Hague-Boston-London: Martinus Nijhoff, 1980), 220-243. Among different concepts of how could be conceived the term `form`, the author emphasizes that which draws its origin from the ancient Greeks. As Tatarkiewicz argues, „the expressions which the ancient Greeks used to designate beauty etymologically meant the arrangement or proportion of parts.“ In our present time, then, a close meaning express the term „`structure`, often used today.“ This term „desig- nates only non-adventitious forms shaped on the outside by inner forces. Tatarkiewicz, „Form: History of one term and five concepts,“ 222 and 228.

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(of the Church) in the system (the history of the salvation) . The members of the Church do not necessarily have to first and foremost face the distinct and hierarchical isolated authority (in relation to the whole of People of God), as the Church is a system of revelation of God himself in history in which God leads the Church . There is therefore a need to reformulate the Church in a perspective of horizontal accountability, this being an extremely urgent challenge for the following years in the Catholic Church .222

b) The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), in terms of its course and the documents which it published, opened up a path to what I have earlier mentioned as the principle of the return of the observer. It was of course specifically this event which was one of the truly major turning points, which distinguishes the first and second halves of the twentieth century in the life of the Catholic Church: from a Church as an object to the Church as a subject; from a concept of believers as passive observers to a renewed awareness of its immersion and participation, co-creators of the Church . In virtue of the the status of each of us has been changed from external observers into “included participants”, as all of us are bearers and part of the common priesthood of all faithful (Lumen gentium 10) . This awareness is in the life of Christian communities only at the beginning of its consequences, which force us to change our perception of the Church . We no longer perceive the Church (as an external observer) as some kind of “theory” or definition about the Church, i.e. an accessible definition synthetically offered up to our reason. The knowl- edge of Christians is best expressed more as sentire cum Ecclesia, where this “understanding” and “sensibility” take place in the fullness of our being, not only (and not firstly) in thinking but Expert articles in our feeling, in actions, in relations, as the Spiritus movens, the spirit of God, resides in each of us and is manifested through us, and these impulses become building blocks for any further development of the Church through our practical actions (i e. . through human experiences and competences) .

c) The holographic principle of complex systems, in contrast, shifts our attention to chal- lenge, which open up to us when we begin to view the Church and its parts on the basis of the above-mentioned fractal structure . The non-dialectical duality, or the bipolar tension, between the whole and its parts, contains within itself the future tasks of the development of the life of the Church without the particular fractals of the Church or (as the Decree of the Vatican Council II on pastoral service of the bishops Christus Dominus in article 11 speaks) its portio populi Dei were viewed as something other than fractals, which are autonomous in their theological essence when they faithfully and fully reflect the unit of “the genetic information” of the Church. It is there- fore necessary to legitimize them as the authentic contextual embodiments of the Church of Je-

222 Etienne Wenger (born 1952), an American theoretician and consultant of social organisations for many years, said the following on the question of horizontal accountability: “A common mistake in organizations is to assume that horizontal relationships lack accountability—and therefore that the only way to create account- ability is to overlay vertical structures. A well-functioning community of practice can give rise to very strong horizontal accountability among members through a mutual commitment to collective learning. (…) Hori- zontal accountability has to be the primary axis of social learning spaces, even when they operate in the context of institutions. Without a strong sense of mutual accountability, the learning potential of these spac- es cannot be realized since genuine peer engagement and learning citizenship cannot be dictated. Social learning spaces must place governance in the hands of participants because it is the only way that learning can fully engage and reflect who they are.” Etienne Wegner,Social learning capability. Four essays on inno- vation and learning in social systems, accessed September 3, 2019, https://wenger-trayner.com/wp-content/ uploads/2011/12/09-04-17-Social-learning-capability-v2.1.pdf.

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sus Christ 223. The holographic principle also, however, reflects the new thinking of the theology of the Christian subject: if each of the Christians is a holographic reflection of the story of God and man, which kind of new challenges arises for our theological reflection thereof? What value and what weight do experience and originality of every individual have in the life of the system of the Church and how can an individual become a place for the emergence of the Church?224

d) The principle of double causality finally returns us to that which was already implicitly stated in relation to auto-organization. Is it possible under the influence of the epistemology of complex- ity to transform and enrich our concept of causality, classically linked with metaphysical thinking of a (neo)scholastic character? Could not specifically this principle of double causality be of assistance in overcoming the eternal struggle between the primary and secondary causality of God and man, and thus the excess of artistic evasions in the areas of logic and metaphysics? And we have not even begun to speak of the entire issue of the origin of evil, that which has been referred to as “the absence of God” in the world or the non-linear experience of the history of individuals and the whole of humanity .225 The principle of double causality prevents us from too hasty a judgement in light of a clear identification of causes and consequences. It also primarily indicates that if we are not to view ourselves as mere passive observers, we are also, us Chris- tians, the source of causality and the further development of the Church. Can we find a path in which we can develop our ecclesiological understanding, as specifically this understanding allows us to consider the double-direction of causality in the world, according to which God acted (top-down) on the basis of information, while the society of the Church would act (bottom-up) by means of energy and information? This approach leads us to a much more differentiated, but more truthful and more modest understanding of the causes and consequences in the history and the life of the Church . This principle allows us to situate ourselves in a completely new way in the questions of pastoral dynamics and processes: who is the genuine subject of pasto- ral work? The particular groups of categorial pastoral work? The enhancement of confidence in a motto expressed a number of decades ago by the French theologian Yves Congar serves to express this realistic answer to these questions . He emphasised that “Quod ad omnes tangit, ab omnibus tractari et approbari debet” .226 This is a neuralgic point which indicates the weakness and limitations of a mere epistemology of enlightenment of the Church hierarchy as an exemplary case of “the epistemology of simplicity” - and which calls us to a new comprehension and devel-

223 At this time one can make reference to the recent event of the Synod on the Amazon region and on the post-synodal apostolic exhortation: Pope Francis, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation for a Church with an Amazonian face Querida Amazonia (Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor, 2020). 224 In this respect we still lag a great deal behind that which was already written about several decades ago by Hannah Arendt on the expression of humanity in social interaction: “Speech and action (…) are the modes in which human beings appear to each other, not indeed as physical objects, but qua men. This appearance, as distinguished from mere bodily existence, rests on initiative, but it is an initiative from which no human being can refrain and still be human. This is true of no other activity in the vita activa. (…) A life without speech and without action, on the other hand—and this is the only way of life that in earnest has renounced all appearance and all vanity in the biblical sense of the word—is literally dead to the world; it has ceased to be a human life because it is no longer lived among men.” Hannah Arendt, Human Condition (Chicago-London: The University of Chicago Press, 1998), 176. 225 On this question see: Giorgio Bonaccorso, “L’epistemologia della complessità e la teologia.” Rassegna di Teo- logia 54, no. 1, (2013): 61-95. 226 See: Yves Congar, “Quod ad omnes tangit, ab omnibus tractari et approbari debet”. Revue historique de droit français et étranger, 36 (1958): 210-259.

54 HOPE THROUGH A RENEWED CHURCH: EPISTEMOLOGY OF COMPLEXITY AND ITS CHALLENGES FOR RESTRUCTURALIZATION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH | Josef Mikulášek

opment of participatio actuosa from the side of those who are generators of the epistemology of the people of God, linked with the reality of all areas of human life .

Conclusion In this paper I have attempted to outline several lines of thought which can be used on the level of considerations about the Church . Such a heuristic study of complex systems is very suitable for a more thorough understanding of the organism of the Church, about which the Vatican Council II in the Constitution Lumen gentium stated that it is “complexa realitas” (art . no . 8) . I am of the opinion that the epistemology of complexity contains within itself extremely inspi- rational tools for our further understanding of the Church, our (still developing) fides quaerens intellectum Ecclesiae . As Serena Noceti, an Italian theologian, wrote in her recent contribution to the theme of the development of the theology of the People of God: the transformation of the life of the Church can only come about when the activation of the three vectors of work come about,227 as one cannot merely continuously and exclusively make reference to “the renewal of the Church” in the hearts of believers (which Romano Guardini spoke about decades ago) – if a distinct speaking is not also accompanied by an acting which will bring a new hope for the credibility of the Catholic Church in our world . God`s hope for the world is revealed sacramentally through the Church; its structures and its modus procedendi, its inner and outer life, therefore, have to be a clear and transparent bearer of this hope for women and men of our present time .

Bibliography Expert articles Arendt, Hannah. Human Condition. Chicago-London: The University of Chicago Press, 1998. Bonaccorso, Giorgio. Critica della ragione impura: Per un confronto tra teologia e scienza, Assisi: Cittadella, 2016. Bonaccorso, Giorgio. „L’epistemologia della complessità e la teologia.“ Rassegna di Teologia, 54/1 (2013): 61-95. Brillouin Leon, “The Negentropy Principle of Information,” Journal of Applied Physics 24, no. 9, (1953): 1152- 1163. doi:10.1063/1.1721463 Brons, Bernhard. Gott und die Seienden. Untersuchungen zum Verhältnis von neuplatonischer Metaphysik und christlicher Tradition bei Dionysius Areopagita. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1976). Bunge, Mario. The Myth of Simplicity: Problems in Scientific Philosophy, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1963. Capra Fritjof. The Turning Point: Science, Society and the Rising Culture, London: Flamingo, 1982. Coleman, Paul H., Luciano Pietronero, „The fractal structure of the universe“, Physics Reports 213, no. 6, (1992): 311-389. https://doi.org/10.1016/0370-1573(92)90112-D Congar, Yves. “Quod ad omnes tangit, ab omnibus tractari et approbari debet”. Revue historique de droit français et étranger, 36 (1958): 210-259. Crowell, Light and matter, Fullerton: B. Crowell, 2014, 129-138, 151-155, http://www.lightandmatter.com/lm/. Darbellay, F., Cockell, M., Billote, J., Waldvogel, F. A Vision of Transdisciplinarity: Laying Foundations for a World Knowledge Dialogue Lausanne - Boca Raton: EPFL Press – CRC Press, 2008. Deming, David. Science and Technology in World History. vol. III-IV. Jefferson-London: McFarland & Company, 2012-2016.

227 Serena Noceti presents the following vectors: 1) “change the models of communication”, 2) “rethink power(s) and authority”, and 3) “recognise ‘forgotten partners’, lay men and lay women.” Serena Noceti “What Structures are Needed for a Reform of the Church?” Concilium. International Journal of Theology 4 (2018): 85-99, here 93. ISSN 0010-5236.

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Dianich Severino, Ecclesiologia: questioni di metodo e una proposta, (Cinisello Balsamo: Edizioni Paoline, 1993. Descartes, René. Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1998. Dionysius Aeropagita. The Divine Names and Mystical Theology ed. John D. J. Jones, Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1980. Einstein Albert, Relativity: The Special and the General Theory. London-New York: Routledge, 2006. Pope Francis, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation for a Church with an Amazonian face Querida Amazonia Hun- tington: Our Sunday Visitor, 2020. Gracia, Jorge. „The Transcendentals in the Middle Ages: An Introduction“. Topoi: An International Review of Phi- losophy 11, no. 2, (1992): 113–120. Haller, Rudolf, Neopositivismus: Eine historische Einführung in die Philosophie des Wiener Kreises. Darmstadt: Wis- senschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1993. Haught, John. “Chaos, Complexity and Theology,” in Teilhard in the 21st Century: The Emerging Spirit of Earth. Edited by Arthur Fabel, Donald St. John Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2003. Heisenberg, Werner. „Über den anschaulichen Inhalt der quantentheoretischen Kinematik und Mechanik“, Zeitschrift für Physik 43, no. 3-4 (1927): 172-198 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01397280 Heisenberg, Werner. Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science, London: Allen & Unwin, 1959. Husserl, Edmund. The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An Introduction to Phe- nomenological Philosophy trans. David Carr (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1970 Immanuel Kant, “Critique of Pure Reason,” ed. Paul Guyer, Allen W. Wood (Cambridge: University Press, 1998 Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago-London: The University of Chicago Press, 19963. Morin, Edgar. On Complexity, Cresskill: Hampton Press, 2008. Edgar Morin. “Le vie della complessità” in La sfida della complessità. Edited by Gianluca Bocchi, Mauro Ceruti. Milano: Bruno Mondadori, 2007. Morra, Stella. Dio non si stanca: La misericordia come forma ecclesiale, Bologna: Edizioni Dehoniane, 2015. Noceti, Serena. „What Structures are Needed for a Reform of the Church?“ Concilium. International Journal of Theology, 4 (2018): 85-99. Peacocke, Arthur. Creation and the World of Science. New York: Oxford University Press, 20042. Polanyi, Michael. The tacit dimension. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 20092. Pascal, Blaise. Pensées. Mineola: Dover Publications, 2003, 20, no. 72. Russell Robert J. Chaos and Complexity: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action. Vatican City – Berkeley: Vatican Observatory Publications – Centre for theology and the natural sciences, 20002. Science et pratique de la complexité: Actes du colloque de Montpellier, Paris: La Documentation française, 1984. Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz, „Form: History of one term and five concepts.“ In A History of Six Ideas. An Essay in Aes- thetics Hague-Boston-London: Martinus Nijhoff, 1980. Wegner, Etienne. Social learning capability. Four essays on innovation and learning in social systems, accessed September 3, 2019, https://wenger-trayner.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/09-04-17-Social-learning-ca- pability-v2.1.pdf.

56 INIMICI LEONIS IN HOMILETIC WORK OF POPE LEO THE GREAT | Miloš Lichner

INIMICI LEONIS IN HOMILETIC WORK OF POPE LEO THE GREAT *228

Miloš Lichner ✉ 229

Trnava university, Faculty of Theology, Trnava (SK); Collegium Bobolanum, Pontifical Faculty of Theology Warsaw (PL)

Submitted: 3 September 2019 Accepted for publication: 12 April 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract Backround: The submitted study analyses the perception of the ancient heresies by Pope Leo the Great as it is documented in his homiletic corpus . This article represents a part of an ongoing project dedicated to the research of thinking of this notable Pope who signif- icantly influenced the development of Latin Christology and soteriology. The study offers the analysis of ancient heresies with an emphasis on Leo’s point of view and its pres- entation to public. In his homilies, Leo explains orthodox faith to believers and defines various heretical opinions, encouraging believers to strictly reject heterodox attitudes . The Expert articles study is structured in the following way: The introduction is dedicated to Leo’s understand- ing of the word enemy . Afterwards we shall describe and analyse four groups of heretics mentioned by Leo in his sermons . In the conclusion, we shall suggest the implications for further research . Conclusion: Nowadays, the experts dealing with early Christian literature focus their at- tention on understanding of the existence of plurality of religious beliefs in thinking of the Church Fathers . The outcomes of this research will contribute to deepening of the dialogue with Christian and non-Christian communities in contemporary world .

Keywords: Leo the Great – Homily – Heresy – Christology – Enemy .

Introduction , attributed the adjective “Great” by posterity, significantly influenced the development of western Latin Christology and soteriology . In the submitted study, I follow up on previous analysis of Leo’s soteriological Christology with the reference to the theolo- gy of sacraments and translation of significant texts.230 It is exactly the study of Leo’s texts

* This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency underthe contract No. APVV-17-0001.

✉ Contact on author: prof. ThLic. Miloš Lichner, SJ. D.Th., – e-mail: [email protected]. 230 Miloš Lichner, Lev Veľký a jeho Tomus ad Flavianum: Preklad a analýza textu. (Trnava: Dobrá kniha, 2014); Miloš Lichner, “Predchalcedónska soteriologická kristológia pápeža Leva Veľkého v kontexte dobových teo- logicko-kultúrnych diskurzov,” Slavica Slovaca 53, no. 1, (2018): 3-19; Miloš Lichner, “Postchalcedonian soterio- logical Christology of Pope Leo the Great in the context of contemporary theological-cultural discourse,” Acta Misiologica 12, no. 2, (2018): 74-89; Miloš Lichner, “Theology of the Laity according to St. Leo the Great and St. Gregory the Great as a part of the dialogical perception of the role of the laity in the contemporary Church,” Acta Misiologica 13, no. 2, (2018): 49-58; Miloš Lichner, “Náuka o sviatosti krstu pápeža Leva Veľkého v kon- texte jeho diela,” Verba Theologica XVII, no. 1, (2018): 28-44.

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that points to the importance of understanding of his opponents against whom he spoke . This study analyses the way of Leo’s perception and presentation of these heresies . I focus on Leo’s homilies (sermones – tractatus) that have not been sufficiently analyzed from this point of view, yet 231. The aim is to fill in the gap in the range of sources of literature and studies concerning early Church period when ecclesiastical dogmatics was born .

Distinction between spiritual and physical enemy Sermons XXXIX and LXXVIII allow us to define Leo’s understanding of the term enemy (inimicus). Sermon XXXIX from the first collection was delivered during the first Lenten Sunday on 9th February 441 . In that time, Rome was threatened by Vandals . The aim of the sermon was to encourage the listeners to embrace the virtue of fasting . Leo points to the event mentioned in 1Sam 7:6-11 when Israelites fasted to defeat their enemies . The aim of this fasting was to renew their inner and outer strength . To be able to overpower their enemies they had to overpower themselves in the first place.232 Leo recommends such a procedure to the faithful of his time because he believes that the situation is very similar . 233 The text of Leo’s sermon offers a parallel . He believes that if Israelites deserve to be overpowered by their enemies as a result of their morum corruptio, they can overpower the same enemies thanks to morum correctio achieved with the help of God . Leo recommends this to the faithful as the only way, reminding them that during fasting the attacks of the Devil will be stronger than ever 234. In the second collection, he adjusts and completes the sermon, pointing to Sunday Gospel and the image of Christ who fought against his enemy, won this fight and thus set the example of victory to the faithful.235 Sermon LXXVIII delivered on 11th May 441 on the feast of Pentecost ends with a re- minder of “physical enemies” who differ from “spiritual enemies” . Here, Leo mentions the phenomenon of prayer on the basis of which God liberates believers from their enemies . His theological language is similar to sermon XXXIX .236 The text of the last paragraph of the sermon clearly shows that Leo knows the richness of the Latin language and distinguishes between enemy (inimicus) and adversary (hostis) . He uses the latter in the context of public enemy, barbarian, while inimicus is a personal, spiritual enemy . It is a Devil although at the beginning of the sermon the expression hostis also includes a non-physical enemy (inisibili es enim aduersarii et incorporales hostes) – also the Devil .237 In sermon XXIII delivered during Christmas 442, Leo spoke about many people who seek the truth and about plenty of those with an “arguable” opinion who were deceived by the Devil’s artifice. This is because ambiguous knowledge is the source of human igno- rance of various and contradictory doctrines .238

231 “Homilies from the first collection have Latin numbering, the ones from the second collection have Arabic numbering (CCL 138 and CCL 138A),” 232 “Sermo XXXIX, 1, CCL 138A,” 211. 233 “Sermo XXXIX, 1ß, CCL 138A,” 212. 234 “Sermo XXXIX, 3, CCL 138A,” 214. 235 “Sermo XXXIX, 3 ß, CCL 138A,” 215. 236 “Sermo LXXVIII, 4, CCL 138A,” 497. 237 “Sermo LXXVIII, 2, CCL 138A,” 495. 238 “Sermo XXIII, 3, CCL 138A,” 93.

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In sermon XVI delivered on 12th December 443 Leo reminded the faithful that the Devil uses heretics to mislead people 239. Similarly, in sermon XLII from the second collection he explained that Manicheans are faithful to the Devil .240 Leo the Great sometimes calls heretics by names and sometimes he just mentions their fallacious opinions to draw the attention to true faith . Generally, he distinguishes between two basic groups of heretics . In the 28th Christmas sermon delivered in 452 he spoke about the group of those who deny divinity and the group that denies the humanity of Jesus Christ .241 For Leo, heresy was both a historical phenomenon and demonic deviation from truth, as he wrote in his 30th Christmas sermon .242

Heretics in the homiletic corpus of Leo the Great We know that basic categories of orthodoxy and heresy were elaborated in the second century as a part of the battle with gnostic Christianity . The analysis of Leo's homiletic corpus demonstrates that he mentioned the following heretics in his sermons: Basilides, Marcion, Sabellius, Photinus, Arius, Eunomius, Eutyches, Macedonius, Apollinarius, Man- icheus/Manes, Nestorius . Apart from these quoted heresies there is also Pelagian heresy that is not mentioned directly but we shall point out that Leo’s theological formation was influenced by the study of this heresy . We also have a well-documented heresis of Priscillianists, which is men- tioned in his letter but never in his homilies . Heresies can be divided into four groups . Expert articles The first group consists of Pelagianism and Nestorianism. Both teachings had been introduced to Leo before he became the bishop of Rome and we can say that he theolog- ically grew up with them . The second group consists of heresies that Leo had to fight because they were present in Rome or in places under his jurisdiction as Roman bishop . We are talking about Man- ichaeism and Eutycheanism . The third group consists of heresies quoted by Leo as sort of “mandatory”, since he was inspired by his great role model, St . Augustine . Leo never mentioned just one heresy . Following the example of St . of Lyons he always mentioned several of them, mostly mutually related . According to him, each her- esy has a certain archetype usually derived from a concrete heresiarch who gave heresy its name . In regard to each heresy, Leo tried to draw attention to its condemned predeces- sor .243 Thus, at the very end of searching for this predecessor we get to the Devil who stood at the beginning of all heresies . He misled those who gave their names to heresies and who followed, one after another, offering certain doctrinal variations . It is like the opposite of a theory of apostolic sequentiality which we know from the works of Irenaeus of Lyons: something like a theory of “diabolic sequentiality” . Thus, a newly discovered heresy is al- ways related to a previous one that has already been condemned, which casts the light of condemnation on the new heresy as well .

239 “Sermo , 3, CCL 138,” 63. 240 “Sermo XLII, 4, CCL 138A,” 244-245. 241 “Sermo 28, 4, CCL 138,” 141. 242 “Sermo 30,3, CCL 138,” 153. 243 “Sermo XXIV, 5, CCL 138,” 113-114.

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A study of Cohen points to Leo's description of orthodoxy and to the fact that it means conformity with decrees approved by Rome .244 The fourth group is formed by Priscillianists . In 447, Leo found out about Priscillianism through bishop Turibius of Astorga . The answer lies in Epistle 15 . Priscillian was executed by state power upon extradiction by the Church in spite of the protest of of and Martin of Tours 245. The analysis of the texts clearly shows that in Leo's eyes, Priscilli- anists were similar to Manicheans and he mistakenly attributed Manichean rites to them . However, since all mistakes have a common root, Leo claimed that Priscillianists were in a certain way close to other Christological heresies .

First group: Pelagianism and Nestorianism Pelagius When Leo was a deacon, he was sufficiently informed about the affair of Pelagius and his disciples. The first theological encounter took place in 418 when the last phase of Pe- lagian controversy started . Sixtus sent him to Aurelius of Carthage with a letter containing information about the condemnation of Pelagius . It was written by Zosimus . Leo knew his hesitation and subsequent definite condemnation of Pelagian movement. Thus, Leo's ser- mons revolve around a stable teaching about sin and mercy . He adopted basic attitudes of Augustine, but we witness a certain theological development that prevents him from adoption of the doctrine on predestination . However, we don't have any special sermon by Leo dedicated to Pelagianism . There are only epistulae, in which he mentions the ne- cessity to unmask crypto-Pelagians .246 I assume that the dispute with bishop Hilary of Arles could have contained certain Pela- gian tension related to a legal conflict between Leo and Hilary. This conflict is documented in the fourth sermon delivered on the occasion of the anniversary of Leo's episcopal con- secration .247 However, in this sermon Leo deals only with the theology of the primacy of the bishop of Rome as a successor to Apostle Peter .248 Nestorius Leo's first encounter with Nestorius' teaching was during the papacy of Celestine (422- 432) and Sixtus III (432-440) . The situation with Nestorius was rather complicated in gen- eral . Relations between him and the Roman curia were cold from the very beginning and doubts about his orthodoxy could have caused that Rome did not consider seriously enough his concern regarding Apollinarism and Arianism in Constantinople 249. As Green pointed out, a secret memorandum about Nestorius written by Cyril in 429, as well as the

244 Samuel Cohen, Heresy, Authority and the Bishops of Rome in the Fifth Century: Leo I (440-461) and Gelasius (492-496). A thesis submitted in conformitywith the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Department of History, Unviersity of Toronto, 2014, p. 66. 245 Miloš Lichner, “Sulpicius Severus. Život svätého Martina z Tours. Starokresťanská knižnica 11. ,” (Dobrá kniha, Trnava, 2019). 58-60. 246 “Epistula 18, PL 54.” 247 See also “epistulae 10-11, PL 54, 628-640.” 248 A collection of sermons on the occasion of Leo's consecration has been preserved, in which he focuses on Pe- ter's primacy (III, LI, LX, LXXIII, LXXIV, LXXXIII). We also have sermon IV, where Leo deals with the affair of bish- op Hilary of Arles and underlines the primacy of Apostle Peter and his successors. Since this homily doesn't describe the conflict with Hilary, we shall not pay attention to it in this study. However, we plan to focus on it in the study about Leo's perception of the primacy of the bishop of Rome. 249 B. Green, The Soteriology of Leo the Great (Oxford University press, 2008) 25.

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visit of bishop Posdion, Cyril's emissary, testify to the incorrect understanding of Nestori- us that Cyril changed rather quickly but Rome preserved for another twenty years 250. Leo subsequently asked John Cassian for help (sometimes at the end of 429 or the beginning of 430) .251 Nestorian controversy led Leo to eagerly demonstrate his conviction that the main factor of Incarnation that actually forms the identity of Christ is the Word of God . The Pelagian controversy taught him that the reason for incarnation was to offer salvation to the whole of humanity, to the whole of mankind. In this, Leo was strongly influenced by Hilary of Poi- tiers who helped him refute Augustinian predestinationism . When it comes to Nestorius, Leo mentioned him two times directly and once indirectly . In his 23rd Christmas sermon dated to 442, he mentioned Nestorius indirectly . Leo thought that he understood the connection between two natures according to the example of an inhabitant living in a house . He bases his conviction on a verse from Mt 1:23 that includes a quotation from 7:14 LXX: “Through this miraculous conception, the Holy gave birth to a person who is both completely human and completely divine. It is one person, because its two natures did not preserve their character features independently enough to make two persons. The relation between creature and its Creator cannot be likened to the one of a house and its inhabitant. It should rather be described as a relation of two natures that have been united. In spite of the fact that the received nature is different from the nature that re- ceives, their mutual difference results in the unity of the one and only Son who describes Expert articles himself as lesser than Father due to his humanity,252 but at the same time he declares himself equal to Father253 due to his divine nature.”254

Leo adopted this perception of Nestorius from Cassian and his De incarnatione255 ac- cording to which Christ is like a temple inhabited by the Word of God . Cassian understood this theory as adoptianism close to Pelagianism 256. Nestorius represents a continuation of Pelagianism for Cassian . After some time, however, Leo refused Cassian's opinion about Nestorius . He arrived at the conclusion that the attitude of Nestorius towards the doctrine regarding original sin was “clean” . This looks like a breaking point thanks to which Leo decided to deepen his Christology . Another reference can be found in Leo's 28th sermon delivered in 452 . He warned against the falsehood of heresies, especially the ones of Nestorius and Eutyches . The problem of Nestorius is that he denies the title “Mother of God” to Mary, emphasizing that she is only a mother of a man . We would lose hope of salvation for mankind if the son of the Virgin was not the Creator of his mother at the same time .257

250 Green, “The Soteriology ,” 28-35. 251 “Iohannes Cassianus: De incarnatione, Praef. 3, CSEL17, 236.” 252 Cf. Jn 14,28. 253 Cf. Jn 10,30. 254 “Sermo 23, 1, CCL 138,” 102-103. 255 “ Iohannes Cassianus: De incarnatione, 7,21,4, CSEL 17,” 379. 256 “Iohannes Cassianus: De incarnatione, 6,14, CSEL 17,”341-342. 257 “Sermo 28, 5, CCL 138,” 142-143.

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In his sermon 91 delivered on the occasion of fasting of the seventh month of year 453, Leo condemns two extremities introduced by Nestorius and Eutyches . Leo believes that Nestorius is mistaken when he separates the divine from the human .258

Second group: Manicheans and Eutyches Manicheans In Leonic corpus we find several sermons dealing with the topic of Manicheans259: IX, XVI, XXII, XXIV, XXXIV 1 ed ., XLII 1 ed ., LXXII, LXXVI 1 ed . The last three sermons XXX- IV, XLII and LXXVI from 444 were rewritten around 447 . Leo's perception of Manichaeism is highly dependent on Augustine's attitude, mainly on his work De haeresibus written in the years 428-430 . 260 The largest part of this opus is dedicated to Manichaeism and it is obvious that the ways Augustine and Leo criticize Manicheans are very similar . He bases his objections on already published state law against the Manicheans . This movement was present in Rome from the 3rd century and the Theodosian Codex contains several restrictions against it . For example, a law from 381 forbade them to testify in court and demise any property in their last will 261. And a law from 425 banished Manicheans, other heretics, astrologists and all those who are not in communion with Pope from Rome .262 Generally, Leo concentrated more on condemnation of their immoral behaviour than on their doctrinal mistakes . In sermones he described Manichaeism in medical terms: illness, contagion, infection 263. For Leo, Manichaeism was the worst thing that could ev- er happen to the Catholic community . It represented a collection of already condemned heresies and black magic spread among good believers . Their faults regarding faith were automatically related to immoral behaviour . Chronologically the oldest record about Manicheans can be found in XXII Christmas sermon from 441. Leo encourages believers to remain firm in their faith. He warned them against the Devil's lies from which they have been liberated through the redeeming work of Christ . The Devil uses feeble-minded people to spread the rumors that lead to doom . According to them, the feast of Christ's birth represents a birth of the new Sun . Leo inspired by Augustine is concerned about Manicheans264, but until year 443 he did not see them as dangerous heretics .265 In the second edition of sermons Leo added several lines in which he clearly defines Manichean doctrine as godless superstition and a big lie (impia superstition prodigiosum quemendacium) .266 To escape from these enemies means to accept the doctrine of incar- nation of the Word of God into human nature as a whole .

258 “Sermo 91, 2, CCL 138A,” 565. 259 For more information see: A.Lauras, “Saint Léonle Grand et leManichéisme Romain,” Studia Patristica 11, (1972): 203-209. 260 Samuel Cohen, “Heresy,” 70. 261 “Code théodosien Livre XVI, 5, 7, SC 497, Paris, Éd.du Cerf, 2005,” 238-243. 262 “Code théodosien Livre XVI, 5, 62, SC 497, Paris, Éd. du Cerf, 2005,” 328-329. 263 For example: “Sermo XVI,5; XXIV,4; XXXIV,4; XLII,5.” 264 Cf. AVGVSTINVS: De haeresibus ad Quoduultdeum. 46,18, CCL 46, p. 319. 265 “Sermo XXII, 6, CCL 138,” 99. 266 “Sermo XXII, 6, CCL 138,” 100.

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According to the IX sermon delivered on the occasion of collections (de collectis), this all happened in Rome in November 443, during the fourth year of Leo's preaching . The whole affair ended in January 444, when Leo wrote about it to Italian bishops (epistle 7 from the 30th January 444, line 9: utquod a nobis in Verbe extinguitur) . Since the sermons are dated thanks to A . Chavas, we can observe the course of the af- fair through several direct and indirect allusions . Leo also used certain paragraphs on Man- icheans in the second edition of his sermons, but his description was less sharp as a result of the fact that by this time the danger had already ceased . When we look at the text of sermon IX dated to November 443, we find out that the Man- ichean affair had not yet culminated . Leo was convinced that Manicheans were in Rome and asked believers to report their discoveries in this regard to their priests .267 He believed that Manicheans supported the docetist attitude refusing the idea of corporality, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ .268 It is interesting that Leo used the term pietas not only to describe the essence of charity . In this sermon he used it to define the spiritual setting of human soul in relation to God, which in this context meant the conviction about the necessity to report Manicheans to the clergy. Leo saw it as the best way to fight the Devil served by Manicheans.269 According to this theory, if believers reported Manicheans to priests, they would be liked by God and rewarded when their moment in front of Lord's tribunal came .270 Then Leo listed the errors attributed to them: they rejected the law of and the prophets, which means that they also rejected the Holy Spirit; they denied incarnation, passion and resurrection of the Son Expert articles of God .271 All this deprives Baptism of its sacramental power .272 This reporting is understandable, however, if we consider it through the prism of the edict issued by Valentinian III in 445, which allowed people to accuse others of Manichaeism without the threat of traditional punishment for a possible false accusation, we can't but have a strange feeling about the whole situation in Rome .273 In the following sermon XVI dated to 12th December 443 on the occasion of fasting during the tenth month we find out that the Manichean affair had burst out at large. It looks like in that period “abominable and pestiferous” (exsecrabiles atque pestiferos) Manicheans came to Rome in large numbers along with Catholics from the northern part of Africa that was devastated by Vandals (clades Wandalica in Leo's biography, LP, 239, when they burned out Rome) .274 At first, Leo lists their names and it is clear from the text that he sees them as followers of the Devil and his deeds .275 Indeed, Leo emphasized that although all these heresies were damaging, Manichaeism to be the worst of them . In his opinion, Manicheans represented:

267 “Sermo IX, 4, CCL 138,” 37. 268 “Sermo IX, 4, CCL 138,”38. 269 “Sermo IX, 4, CCL 138,” 37. 270 “Sermo IX, 4, CCL 138,” 38. 271 “Sermo IX, 4, CCL 138,” 37-38. 272 “Sermo IX, 4, CCL 138,” 38. 273 Cf. “Code théodosien, Livre XVI, 5,9, SC 497, Paris, Éd. du Cerf, 2005,” 244-247. 274 “Sermo XVI, 5, CCL 138,” 39. 275 “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138,” 63-64.

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“Godlessness of pagans, blindness of corporal Jews, forbidden secret magic acts, sac- rilege and blasphemy of all heresies. All this flows into one synthesis of dishonourable- ness like into one gutter ”. 276

Leo blamed Manicheans for the crime of black magic, which according to the Theodo- sian Codex was punished by death . It seems that Leo's opinion was the same as the com- mon opinion of ecclesiastic authors who emphasized that Manichaeism was a congeries of all heresies . The text of the sermon shows that the requested inquiry resulted in the exposure of sev- eral Manicheans . They were examined and sentenced by a Church-State tribunal .277 Leo did not accuse Manicheans of heretical doctrine but of the serious sexual crime of paedophilia that was committed by a young Manichean to a ten-year old girl in the pres- ence of a Manichean bishop who ordered the whole thing 278. Almost every topic concern- ing Manicheans that was developed by Leo, is rooted in Augustine's work De haeresibus ad Quoduultdeum . In this regard Leo used the expression known from Augustine's work by which Augustine described the crime of Manicheans: exsecramentum .279 Another part of the sermon is dedicated to faithful women whom Leo warns against talking to Manicheans who might lead them to their sect . 280 Leo wanted the examination and inquisition (inquisitio) of Manicheans to continue . He reprimanded the believers who were convinced that it was not necessary to report Manicheans to ecclesiastical structures .281 In his Christmas sermon XXIV from 25th December 443 Leo returned to this topic . He explained the teaching on the Incarnation and declared that true doctrine had nothing to do with a foolish fallacy of Manicheans who were excluded from rebirth in Christ because of their denial of his physical birth by the Virgin Mary .282 In the fifth paragraph of this sermon Leo described other heresies and compared them with Manichaeism . He believed they all were condemnable, however, each of them contained at least a small part of truth, except Manichaeism . Leo named authors of all known heresies like Arius, Macedonius, Sabellius, Photinus, Apollinarius . In his opinion, all of them were better than Manicheans . The text demonstrates that Leo understood mutual Christological and trinitary relations among heresies . In his opinion, each heresy preserved a part of Christian faith but in the doctrine of Manicheans it was totally absent .283 At the beginning of 444 the whole affair ended, but in spite of that Leo had to fight hidden Manicheans till the middle of the 444 .284

276 “Sermo XVI, 4, CCL 138,” 64. 277 “Sermo XVI, 4-5, CCL 138,” 64-65. 278 “Sermo XVI,4, CCL 138,” Cf. “AVGVSTINVS: De haeresibus ad Quoduultdeum 46,9, CCL 46,” 315. 279 Cf. “AVGVSTINVS: De haeresibus ad Quoduultdeum 46,9, CCL 46,” 315. 280 “Sermo XVI, 5, CCL 138,” 65. 281 “Sermo XVI, 6, CCL 138,” 66. 282 “Sermo XXIV, 4, CCL 138,” 113. 283 “Sermo XXIV, 5, CCL 138,” 113-114. 284 Manicheans are mentioned by PROSPERVS AQUITANVS in his work “Chronicum integrum 749, PL 51,600, dat- ing the whole case to year 443.” For Manicheism see: François Decret, Mání a tradice manicheismu. Translated by PhDr. Zdeněk Müller. 1.ed. (Bratislava: CAD Press, 1994). Civil ending is officialized by the Consi- tution of Valentinian from the 19th June 445 (inter epist. Leon. 8).

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On the 6th January, the Epiphany of 444, Leo returned to the Manicheans in his sermon XXXIV . He explained their docetist Christology and warned against it . 285 After describing the basic points of their doctrine in the fourth paragraph, he recalled that the biggest danger lied in their effort to empty the Apostolic Creed completely, aiming at the liberation of godless people from fear and stealing hope from saintly believers . 286 Leo concluded the sermon with a clearly expressed warning to believers: “Till now these people could harm the incautious and bemuse the inexperienced; but from now on no failure will be justifiable. Those who let themselves be absorbed by this infamously known fallacy will not be considered naive but miserable and perverse ”. 287

On the first Lenten Sunday, 12th March 444, Leo in his XLII sermon from the first edition attacked Manicheans and called them an “execrable sect” (exsecrabilem sectam)288 . In the first three paragraphs he warned believers, offering them information on the basis of which they could easily identify Manicheans trying to intrude into gathering of believers, remain unknown and refrain from full participation in liturgical celebration 289. When Leo used this text in his second edition of sermons, he softened some of his expressions and liberated the text from everything that he considered unnecessary considering the fact that the danger was already over . It was not an “execrable sect” anymore but an “execrable error” (exsecrandum errorem) .290 He did not speak about “this contagion” (huius contagionis) but used the expression “error” .291 However, in 444 these crypto-Manicheans were still in Rome and they were dangerous, Expert articles so Leo briefly returned to this topic on 21st April at the end of his sermon LXXII during the rite of resurrection . He did not name them anymore but warned against false Christians who de- ny that Christ was of true human nature, thus becoming the adversaries of this sacrament . 292 Chronologically the last text is the sermon LXXVI delivered on Sunday 11th June on the occasion of the feast of the Pentecost . Leo drew the inspiration from Augustine's 96th sermon on the Gospel of John 293. Manicheans used to refer to certain passages of this Gospel in which Christ promises the Holy Spirit and then applied them to Mani, the founder of their sect . It was actually the only time when Leo mentioned Mani's name . He did it in both the first and second collection of his sermons. In all other cases he used the general term Manicheans . Leo rewrote the sermon for the second collection to define Mani better. He did not de- scribe the Manichean doctrine as “false” (falsum) but as “ridiculous” (ridiculum) instead 294. Leo quoted verses from John 16:13 b and warned against their incorrect understanding, because these words disproved the godlessness of Manicheans who believed that the HolySpirit appeared in their master Mani and that he was the promised Paraclete:

285 “Sermo XXXIV, 4, CCL 138,” 184. 286 “Sermo XXIV, 4, CCL 138,” 185. 287 “Sermo XXIV, 4, CCL 138,” 186-187. 288 “Sermo XLII,6, CCL 138A,” 248-249. 289 “Sermo XLII, 4-6, CCL 138A,” 244-250. 290 “Sermo XLII, 6, CCL 138A,” 249. 291 “Sermo XLII, 5, CCL 138A,” 246. 292 “Sermo LXXII, 7, CCL 138A,” 448. 293 “AVGVSTINVS: Io. eu. tr. 96,5, In Iohanniseuangeliumtractatus CXXIV, CCL 36,” 572-573. 294 “Sermo LXXVI, 6, CCL 138A ,” 481.

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“The Holy Spirit was said to be so present inside him that Mani was nobody else but the Spirit who guided his disciples to all truth with his voice and language, revealing the mysteries unknown to previous generations. The authority of the Gospel preaching only proves how false and empty this statement is. Mani, the instrument of deception in the service of the Devil and initiator of an obscene superstition unveiled himself and was condemned 260 years after the resurrection of the Lord during the reign of Probus an Paulinus, while the eighth persecution in a row was destroying Christians and the victory of thousands and thousands of confirmed the fulfilment of His promise: ʻWhen they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speaks but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.' 295 ” 296

Leo mentioned the eighth persecution because he did not distinguish between two persecutions by Valerian in 256 and Aurelian between the years 270-276 . Therefore, Dio- cletian's persecution was the ninth and the last of all persecutions . For example, Augustine distinguished between two persecutions mentioned above and wrote about ten persecu- tions . His basic argument is chronological-theological . According to Leo, it was ridiculous to think that the promised Paraclete would be so late and leave whole generations without his guidance . After this sermon Leo did not mention the topic of Manichaeism either publicly nor pri- vately . Only during preparation of the second edition of his sermons did he return to Man- ichaeism, correcting, softening and abbreviating some of his former expressions . Eutyches Leo mentioned Eutyches in his homiletic corpus three times, while in Leo's epistles his name appeared more often . Leo associated the modern heresy of Eutyches with heresies condemned a long time before . He quoted Eutyches along with Nestorius, which allowed him to avoid any possible accusations of supporting Nestorianism . If he condemned only Eutyches, it might have seemed like indirect support of Nestorius . Nestorius and Eutyches are – although on opposite sides – clear heretics . Leo's cor- respondence with the emperor's court shows that he was careful in condemnation of Eu- tyches, considering him to be “too zealous” in his opposition to Nestorius 297. It is also interesting that Leo described Eutyches as naive, not evil-minded . In his 28th Christmas sermon from 452 Leo warned against heresies, mainly against Nestorius and Eutyches . He said that contrary to Nestorius, Eutychus acknowledged two natures of Christ but was convinced that after unification there remained only one nature. The other one did not exist anymore, which could happen only through its destruction or separation . In Leo's opinion, the danger of heresy is so serious that its supporters do not deserve to be called Christians . He quotes Col 1:18 and claims that the denial of Christ's humanity and his death also means the denial of Christ's resurrection .298 Another reference is in the 91st sermon delivered on the occasion of fasting in the seventh month of 453 . It was an opportunity for him to remind believers that more im- portant than physical fasting was fasting from the errors of the enemies of faith . Among

295 Mt 10:19-20. 296 “Sermo LXXVI, 6, CCL 138A,” 479-480. 297 Cf. Miloš Lichner, Lev Veľký a jeho Tomus ad Flavianum: Preklad a analýza textu (Trnava: Dobrá kniha, 2014). 298 “Sermo 28, 5, CCL 138, 144.”

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those he enlisted Palestinian monks who provoked serious disturbance after the Council of Chalcedon and whom Leo described in the same way as Eutyches in his work Tomus ad Flavianum: imperitus . Thus, Catholic faith represented by Leo rejected two extremities represented by the dogma of Nestorius and error of Eutyches 299. He blamed Eutyches for “causing the loss of the human within the divine” .300 The 96th sermon was delivered in the Basilica of St . Anastasia on 25th December 457 .301 Although it was a sermon from the second collection, manuscripts call it a tractate (Sermo siue tractatus contra haeresim Eutychis habitus Romae in Basilica Sanctae Anastasiae) . It is the only sermon completely dedicated to one heresy . Its writing was inspired by the fact that merchants from who had started to spread the monophysitist Christology of Eu- tyches, arrived in Rome . According to Leo, this Christology was a concealed Docetism .302 Leo believed one verse from the Letter to Titus (3: 10-11) to be crucial: “After a first and second warning, break off contact with a heretic, realizing that such a person is pervert- ed and sinful and stands self-condemned.” We find this verse in the Leonian corpus only twice - apart from this sermon it also appears in epistulae 164 dated to 17th August or 1st September 458 .

He offers believers a brief Christological explanation faithful to Chalcedon: “He adopted our nature and agreed to become what he wasn't, whereby he did not stop being what he was, that is a true human. He who was a true God. Without a shadow of impurity he adhered to our nature in reality of his body and his soul, conceived in the Expert articles womb of the blessed Virgin, his Mother, through the power of the Holy Spirit. He did not consider it to be unworthy of himself that he was born to this world and suffered the weakness of childhood. He declared to have acquired the Word of God the Father by the power of his divinity and human nature by the weakness of his body. Fleshly deeds come out of his body and magnificent spiritual power is the fruit of his divinity.” 303

Leo concluded his sermon by warning against any contacts with heretics, mainly against debates that might confuse inexperienced believers (ab eorum conloquiis... abstinete) .304 As he states in epistulae 144 from 1st June 457, Eutychians (Eutychianistae) are adversar- ies of Chalcedon .305 The analysis of ancient literature demonstrates that Pope Leo was the first to use the adjective Eutychian to describe the group of followers and we can see him as someone who created the name of the heresy .

299 “Epistula 53,2, PL 54,” 1215.” 300 “Sermo 91,2, CCL 138A, 565.” 301 See: Miloš Lichner and Katarína Karabová, K prameňom ranokresťanskej latinskej tradície (Trnava: Dobrá kniha, 2018). 387-391. 302 “Sermo 96,1, CCL 138A, 593.” 303 “Sermo 96,2, CCL 138A, 594.” 304 “Sermo 96,3, CCL 138A, 595.” 305 Ep. 144: SCHWARTZ, E. (ed.): Acta Oecumenicorum Conciliorum, series prima, – Leipzig, 1914- 1949: ACO II,4: Leonis papae I epistularum Collectiones, 1932. 138.

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Third group: other heresies Macedonius Leo mentioned Macedonians in the whole corpus twice – once indirectly and twice di- rectly . In his Christmas sermon XXIV from 443 he mentioned Macedonius as someone who denied divinity of the Holy Spirit but confessed that the Father and the Son were of one and the same power, of one and the same nature .306 The second reference can be found in sermon LXXV delivered on the occasion of the feast of the Pentecost on sunday 23rd May 443 . The liturgical celebration gave him an op- portunity to explain the doctrine on the Holy Trinity . In the fourth paragraph Leo condemned Arians and Macedonians . He describes the graveness of this heresy through quotation from Matthew 12:32: “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come ”. The sin against the Holy Spirit is identical with the denial of his divinity, with serious consequences that Leo reads through 1Cor 12 . Therefore, incorrect pneumatology influences the whole spiritual life of believers, because according to 1 Cor 12, 3, correct Christological profession of faith is possible only under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Denial of the divinity of the Holy Spirit makes profession of true Christology impossible and it has a serious soteriological impact .307 Several years later Leo in his 28th Chrismas sermon from 452 condemned heretics in general and mentioned also the supporters of the false dogmas who denied the existence of the Holy Spirit .308 Sabellius Leo quoted Sabellius in his XXIV Christmas sermon from 443 . He mentioned him among other heretics as the one who got lost in unsolvable problems, acknowledged the unity of inseparable nature in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but what he should have attributed to three equal persons he only attributed to one person for he was not able to dis- tinguish the true Trinity . He was convinced that it was one and the same person known by three different names .309 The second time Sabellius appeared in Leo's sermons was in December 443 on the occasion of fasting during the tenth month . Leo traditionally invited to fasting and to gener- osity expressed through almsgiving to the poor . Both elements should accompany our plea for forgiveness of sins addressed to God . Leo subsequently warned against the Devil who wants to foil this effort of ours . He cannot attack Christians through torture and persecution anymore, so he uses the service of heretics. In Eden he seduced the first people through the tongue of the snake, now he uses the tongue of heretics 310. Leo warned against false prophets who come in sheep's clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves (Mt 7:15) with Satan inside them who masquerades as an angel of light (2Cor 11:14) .311

306 “Sermo XXIV, 5, CCL 138, 114”: “Macedonius a lumine ueritatis alienus, diuinitatem sancti Spiritus non recepit, sed in Patre et Filio unam potentiam, et eamdem confessus est esse naturam.” 307 “Sermo LXXV, 4, CCL 138A 469-470.” 308 “Sermo 28, 4, CCL 138, 141.” 309 “Sermo XXIV, 5, CCL 138, 114.” 310 “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138, 63.” 311 “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138, 63-64.”

68 INIMICI LEONIS IN HOMILETIC WORK OF POPE LEO THE GREAT | Miloš Lichner

Basilides In sermon XVI delivered on 12th December 443 on the occasion of fasting during the tenth month Leo mentioned a gnostic from the 2nd century named Basilides . Although his disciple Valentine is known better, several errors had been attributed directly to Basilides . It seems that Leo was convinced that the gnostic shared docetic attitudes denying true humanity of Christ . That is why he quoted him along with other Christological heretics 312. In his 28th Christmas sermon from 452 Leo also mentioned a gnostic attitude according to which Christ did not have real human body but had a true divinity .313 Marcion Marcion, another heretic from the 2nd century, is mentioned by Leo only once, in sermon XVI .314 He indirectly criticized Marcion's Christological errors several times in his sermons, mainly modalism and docetism . Eunomius of Cyzicus In sermon XVI from 12th December 443 on the occasion of fasting in the tenth month Leo also mentioned Eunomius, Arian bishop who lived in the 4th century . He was a representa- tive of Anomeans (anomioi = different) who separated from Arians and proclaimed that the Logos was absolutely different from the Father . They believed that the Son was dissimilar to the Father in all aspects but he participated at God's works and His creative power . The analysis of ancient literature shows that Leo found out about Eunomius from western propagators of Anomians Ursacius and Valens who were strongly rejected by Ambrose,315 or through the works of Augustine who mentioned Eunomius after Arius:316 Expert articles Photinus Photinus was a bishop of the 4th century in Sirmium, Pannonia Secunda, today known as Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia 317. He supported a certain form of Adoptianist Monarcha- nism and was condemned and sent into exile in 351 . He is mentioned several times by Au- gustine318 or Zenon of Verona319 . It is possible that Leo knew Photinus through Augustine's works or through the decrees of the Council of Sirmium from 351 . He mentioned Photinus among other heretics in his sermon from 12th December 443 but he did not pay much attention to him .320 In his XXIV Christmas sermon from 443 Leo wrote about Photinus' fallacious attitude . Photinus believed that the Son had not existed before the moment of Incarnation in Beth- lem . The analysis of early Christian texts demonstrated that Leo adopted a classical de- scription of Photinus found in the oldest guidebook on heresies written by Philastrius, ac-

312 “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138, pp. 63-64.” 313 “Sermo 28, 4, CCL 138, pp. 141-142.” 314 “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138, pp. 63-64.” 315 Cf. “AMBROSIVS: epistula extra collationem 5,3, CSEL 82,1; Gesta concilii Aquileiensis, epist. 2, CSEL 82/3, 325 ( = AMBROSIVS: epistula 10, 9-10, CSEL 82/1.” 316 “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138 63-64.”; Cf. “AVGVSTINVS: epistula 185,48, CSEL 57, 42.”; “De haeresibus ad Quoduultde- um 53, CCL 46.”324. 317 Cf. D. H. Williams, “Monarchianism and Photinus of Sirmium as the Persistent heretical face of the fourth cen- tury,” Harvard Theological review 99, (2002): 187-206. 318 “AVGVSTINVS: sermo 37,17, CCL 41,” 462; “sermo 71,5, RB 75, 1965,” 70; “sermo 246,4, SC 116” 302. 319 “ ZENON VERONENSIS: Tractatus 2,8, CCL 22,” 177. 320 “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138, 63-64.”

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cording to which Photinus was a heretic because he denied that Christ was God just like his Father before the beginning of ages .321 Leo briefly mentioned Monarchianism of Photinus in his 28th Christmas sermon in 452 without any further reference .322 In sermon 96 delivered in the Basilica of St . Anastasia on 25th December 457 there was only a short remark dedicated to Photinus (“... et in Fotini perfidia...”) .323 Apollinarius Leo mentioned bishop Apollinarius of Laodicea (nicknamed Younger, while his father was called Older) who died around 390, four times . In his XXIV Christmas sermon from 443 he described Apolinarius' error: “Apollinarius was very unstable in his faith . He believed that the Son of God was united with the real substance of his body . According to him there was no soul in this body but there was divinity instead ”. 324

In his 28th Christmas sermon from 452, Leo dealed with various heretical attitudes and indirectly mentioned Apollinarius' teaching according to which Christ lacked human soul, which was substituted by the divine Word 325. Several lines below he described a certain alternative of Apollinarism according to which a part of the Word had been transformed into the body .326 In sermon 47 from 21st February 454 on the occasion of Lent Leo suggested that think- ing of Apollinarius could have been actuated in a certain way (quodetiam in diebus nostris) because already was accused of being an Apollinarist . Therefore, Leo could have known Apollinarius and Eunomius from his letters . Along with Apollinarius, Leo also condemned Mani: “ . . they dare to deny a double nature of Christ saying that he either did not have real body or that his divinity had transformed into the body . According to Mani there would be no resurrection if there was no suffering, or – according to Apollinarius – the divinity of the Word became transformable and as a result of this it also became mortal ”. 327

The last reference to Apollinarius can be found in Leo's 96th sermon delivered on 25th December 457 in the Basilica of St. Anastasia against Eutyches. Leo briefly mentioned Apollinarius and his “insane” dogmas along with Mani .328

Arians In his 23rd Christmas sermon from 442 Leo refuted the teaching of Arians whom he con- sidered to be blind and unable to acknowledge that Christ was equal to the Father . Leo

321 “Sermo XXIV, 5, CCL 138, 114.”; “FILASTRIVS: Diuersarum haereson liber 91,2, CSEL 9,” 257. See also: “EVSEBIVS VERCELLENSIS: De trinitate 3,47, CCL 9.” 42. 322 “Sermo 28, 4, CCL 138, 142.” 323 Translation of the whole sermon is published in: Miloš Lichner, Katarína Karabová, K prameňom ranokresťan- skej latinskej tradície (Trnava: Dobrá kniha, 2018), 387-391. 324 “Sermo XXIV, 5, CCL 138, 114.” 325 “Sermo 28, 4, CCL 138, 142.” 326 “Sermo 28, 4, CCL 138, 142.” 327 “Sermo 47,2, CCL 138A, 276.” 328 “Sermo 96, 2, CCL 138A, 594.”

70 INIMICI LEONIS IN HOMILETIC WORK OF POPE LEO THE GREAT | Miloš Lichner

quoted several biblical verses, those used by blind Arians (caecitas Arriana) which – ac- cording to them – confirm that Christ was lesser than the Father (Jn 14:28), but also those that confirm that Christ and the Father are one (Jn 10:30).329 The problem of Arians lies in the fact that they deliberately picked only certain verses and did not read the Holy Scripture as a whole . They did not distinguish between various ways of Christ's speaking . If he considered himself to be lesser, he spoke about it in his human nature . If he considered himself to be equal to the Father, he was talking about it in his divine nature. Leo actually accepted classical Christological thinking that we find in St. Augustine's works . One year later, on 12th December 443, Leo delivered the 16th sermon on the occasion of fasting in the tenth month . In the row of heretics Leo mentioned Arius as a servant of the Devil: “Arius indulged his power” .330 Shortly afterwards, in his XXIV Christmas homily from 443 he compared Arius and other heretics with Manichaeans, describing the aspects in which the Manichaeans are worse . Arius, for example, did not deny the divine nature of the Father: “Arius said that the Son is lesser than the Father being only a creature and he thought that the Father also created the Holy Spirit, but although he did not see eternal and quiescent divinity in the unity of the Trinity, he did not doubt the essence of the Father .”331

Sermon LXXV delivered on the feast of the Pentecost (23rd May 443) offered Leo an op- portunity to recall unfortunate impact of incorrect pneumatology on the life of believers . That Expert articles is why Leo condemned both Arians and Macedonians in the 4th paragraph . He perceived the gravity of this heresy through Mt 12:32: “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come ”. The sin against the Holy Spirit is identical with the denial of his divinity, with serious consequences that Leo reads through 1Cor . Therefore, incorrect pneumatology influences the whole spiritual life of believers: “We damn Arians who want to insert the distance between the Father and the Son . ”. 332

Conclusion In the submitted study I focused on the analysis of relevant texts in the works of Pope Leo the Great dedicated to the topic of heresies . I emphasized the relevance and impor- tance of an ongoing research of his works, as well as of the theme of heresies in the context of ancient time . The detailed analysis of sermones333 clearly demonstrates that Leo used pedagogical way to explain various heresies and true Christology to believers . The study pointed to all heresies known by Leo from theological point of view because he practically observed them from the very beginning, heresies that he encountered as a Pope and ve- hemently opposed in his sermons, as well as heresies that he knew and quoted only from other sources. I succeeded in defining primary sources used by Leo and it is obvious that he was mostly influenced by the teaching of St. Augustine.

329 “Sermo 23,2, CCL 138, 103-104.” 330 “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138, 63-64.” 331 “Sermo XXIV, 5, CCL 138, 113-114.” 332 “Sermo LXXV, 4, CCL 138A, 469.” 333 We plan to publish a separate study on the problem of heresies in epistolary corpus of Pope Leo.

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According to Leo it is necessary for believers to strictly reject all Christological heresies, because true faith acknowledges both complete divinity and complete humanity of Christ in the sense defined by the Council of Chalcedon on the basis of Leo's influence. Leo was convinced that other doctrines are only godless fables (impias fabulas) and all that contra- dicts the basis of Catholic and Apostolic Creed should be seen as absolutely mortal and diabolic teaching .334 Leo's Christology is altogether soteriological, so any degression from true faith has an impact on spirituality of believers . Knowing of Leo's thinking in the area of his battle with ancient heresies gives us a helping hand in contemporary ecumenical dialogue with non-Chalcedonian Churches, as well as with orthodox Churches . The study clearly demon- strates that Leo rejected plurality of thinking in the area of dogmatics .

Bibliography AMBROSIVS: epistula extra collationem 5,3, CSEL 82,1 AVGVSTINVS: epistula 185,48, CSEL 57, 42.”; “De haeresibus ad Quoduultdeum 53, CCL 46.”324. “AVGVSTINVS: sermo 37,17, CCL 41,” 462; AVGVSTINVS: De haeresibus ad Quoduultdeum 46,9, CCL 46,” 315. “AVGVSTINVS: De haeresibus ad Quoduultdeum 46,9, CCL 46,” 315. “AVGVSTINVS: Io. eu. tr. 96,5, In Iohanniseuangeliumtractatus CXXIV, CCL 36,” 572-573. Cassianus Iohannes: De incarnatione, Praef. 3, CSEL17, 236. “(CCL 138 and CCL 138A),” “Code théodosien Livre XVI, 5, 7, SC 497, Paris, Éd.du Cerf, 2005,” 238-243. “Code théodosien Livre XVI, 5, 62, SC 497, Paris, Éd. du Cerf, 2005,” 328-329. “Code théodosien, Livre XVI, 5,9, SC 497, Paris, Éd. du Cerf, 2005,” 244-247. Cohen, Samuel Heresy, Authority and the Bishops of Rome in the Fifth Century: Leo I (440-461) and Gelasius (492-496). A thesis submitted in conformitywith the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philoso- phy. Department of History, Unviersity of Toronto, 2014, 66. Decret, François. Mání a tradice manicheismu. Translated by PhDr. Zdeněk Müller. 1.ed. (Bratislava: CAD Press, 1994). “Epistula 53,2, PL 54,” 1215.” “EVSEBIVS VERCELLENSIS: De trinitate 3,47, CCL 9.” 42. “FILASTRIVS: Diuersarum haereson liber 91,2, CSEL 9,” 257. Green, B. The Soteriology of Leo the Great. Oxford University press, 2008. Lauras, A. “Saint Léonle Grand et leManichéisme Romain,” Studia Patristica 11, (1972): 203-209. Lichner, Miloš and Karabová, Katarína. K prameňom ranokresťanskej latinskej tradície Trnava: Dobrá kniha, 2018.

334 “Sermo 24, 6, CCL 138, 115.”

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Lichner, Miloš. “Theology of the Laity according to St. Leo the Great and St. Gregory the Great as a part of the dialogical perception of the role of the laity in the contemporary Church,” Acta Misiologica 13, no. 2, (2018): 49-58. Lichner, Miloš. “Náuka o sviatosti krstu pápeža Leva Veľkého v kontexte jeho diela,” Verba Theologica XVII, no. 1, (2018): 28-44. Lichner, Miloš. “Predchalcedónska soteriologická kristológia pápeža Leva Veľkého v kontexte dobových teologicko-kultúrnych diskurzov,” Slavica Slovaca 53, no. 1, (2018): 3-19. Lichner, Miloš. “Postchalcedonian soteriological Christology of Pope Leo the Great in the context of contemporary theological-cultural discourse,” Acta Misiologica 12, no. 2, (2018): 74-89. Lichner, Miloš. Lev Veľký a jeho Tomus ad Flavianum: Preklad a analýza textu. Trnava: Dobrá kniha, 2014. PROSPERVS AQUITANVS in his work “Chronicum integrum 749, PL 51,600, dating the whole case to year 443.” “Sermo XXXIX, 1, CCL 138A,” 211. “Sermo XXXIX, 1ß, CCL 138A,” 212. “Sermo XXXIX, 3, CCL 138A,” 214. “Sermo XXXIX, 3 ß, CCL 138A,” 215. “Sermo LXXVIII, 4, CCL 138A,” 497. Expert articles “Sermo LXXVIII, 2, CCL 138A,” 495. “Sermo XXIII, 3, CCL 138A,” 93. “Sermo , 3, CCL 138,” 63. “Sermo XLII, 4, CCL 138A,” 244-245. “Sermo 28, 4, CCL 138,” 141. “Sermo 30,3, CCL 138,” 153. “Sermo XXIV, 5, CCL 138,” 113-114. “Sermo 23, 1, CCL 138,” 102-103. “Sermo 28, 5, CCL 138,” 142-143. “Sermo 91, 2, CCL 138A,” 565. “Sermo XVI,5; XXIV,4; XXXIV,4; XLII,5.” “Sermo XXII, 6, CCL 138,” 99. “Sermo XXII, 6, CCL 138,” 100. “Sermo IX, 4, CCL 138,” 37. “Sermo IX, 4, CCL 138,”38. “Sermo IX, 4, CCL 138,” 37. “Sermo IX, 4, CCL 138,” 38. “Sermo IX, 4, CCL 138,” 37-38. “Sermo IX, 4, CCL 138,” 38.

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“Sermo XVI, 5, CCL 138,” 39. “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138,” 63-64. “Sermo XVI, 4, CCL 138,” 64. “Sermo XVI, 4-5, CCL 138,” 64-65. “Sermo XVI,4, CCL 138,” Cf. “ “Sermo XVI, 5, CCL 138,” 65. “Sermo XVI, 6, CCL 138,” 66. “Sermo XXIV, 4, CCL 138,” 113. “Sermo XXIV, 5, CCL 138,” 113-114. Consitution of Valentinian from the 19th June 445 (inter epist. Leon. 8). “Sermo XXXIV, 4, CCL 138,” 184. “Sermo XXIV, 4, CCL 138,” 185. “Sermo XXIV, 4, CCL 138,” 186-187. “Sermo XLII,6, CCL 138A,” 248-249. “Sermo XLII, 4-6, CCL 138A,” 244-250. “Sermo XLII, 6, CCL 138A,” 249. “Sermo XLII, 5, CCL 138A,” 246. “Sermo LXXII, 7, CCL 138A,” 448. “Sermo LXXVI, 6, CCL 138A ,” 481. “Sermo LXXVI, 6, CCL 138A,” 479-480 “Sermo 28, 5, CCL 138, 144.” “Sermo 91,2, CCL 138A, 565.” “Sermo 96,1, CCL 138A, 593.” “Sermo 96,2, CCL 138A, 594.” “Sermo 96,3, CCL 138A, 595.” “Sermo LXXV, 4, CCL 138A 469-470.” “Sermo 28, 4, CCL 138, 141.” “Sermo XXIV, 5, CCL 138, 114.” “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138, 63.” “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138, 63-64.” “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138, 63-64.” “Sermo 28, 4, CCL 138, 141-142.” “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138, 63-64.” “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138, 63-64.”

74 INIMICI LEONIS IN HOMILETIC WORK OF POPE LEO THE GREAT | Miloš Lichner

“Sermo XXIV, 5, CCL 138, 114.”; “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138, 63-64.” “Sermo XXIV, 5, CCL 138, 114.”; “Sermo 28, 4, CCL 138, 142.” “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138 63-64.”; Cf. “ “Sermo XXIV, 5, CCL 138, 114.” “Sermo 28, 4, CCL 138, 142.” “Sermo 28, 4, CCL 138, 142.” “Sermo 47,2, CCL 138A, 276.” “Sermo 96, 2, CCL 138A, 594.” “Sermo 23,2, CCL 138, 103-104.” “Sermo XVI, 3, CCL 138, 63-64.” “Sermo XXIV, 5, CCL 138, 113-114.” “Sermo LXXV, 4, CCL 138A, 469.”

“Sermo 24, 6, CCL 138, 115.” Expert articles Sermo XXIV, 5, CCL 138, 114” SCHWARTZ, E. (ed.): Acta Oecumenicorum Conciliorum, series prima, Berlin – Leipzig, 1914- 1949: ACO II,4: Leonis papae I epistularum Collectiones, 1932. 138. Williams, D. H. “Monarchianism and Photinus of Sirmium as the Persistent heretical face of the fourth century,” Harvard Theological review 99, (2002): 187-206. "ZENON VERONENSIS: Tractatus 2,8, CCL 22,” 177.

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COHORTATION AND TESTING OF ELDERLY HOMELESS WITHIN COVID PADEMICS IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT – EXAMPLE OF A LIFE ISLAND MISSION MODEL

Vladimir Krcmery ✉ 2,3335, Ladislav Bucko 3,4, Daria Kimuli 2,4, Maria Jackulikova 1,3, Vlastimil Kozon 5, Michael Olah 3, Robert Kovac 3, Mario Jancovic 3,4, Jarmila Holkova 3,4 , Getrie Mikolasova 2,3, Jozef Bozik 4, Jaroslava Polonova 3, Marianna Mrazova 2, Jose Suvada 2, Michaela Kosticova 3, Suzan Hajden 4

1 NPHO Support Mission, HPF, St . Elizabeth University Lesbos, Greece (GR) 2 Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh Scotland (GB); The School of Medicine of Comenius University and the Slovak Tropical Institute, (SK) 3 Shelter Mea Culpa Bratislava (SK) 4 St . John Paul II School of Missiology at St . Elizabeth University Nairobi Branch Kenya (KE) 5 Vienna General Hospital - Medical University Campus, Vienna (AT)

Submitted: 16 March 2020 Accepted for publication: 15 April 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract Backround: The Covid pandemics are related with high overall mortality mainly in high risk and vulnerable groups such as elderly and multiple organ failure patients . Conclusion: Here we present an example of the Life Island mission strategy to prevent homeless group of senior clients/patients within an urban environment affected by Cov- id-19 epidemic in March to April 2020 .

Keywords: Covid-19 pandemic – Elderly – Homeless – Life island – Urban environment .

Introduction The senescence and homelessness is a deadly synergy concerning risk factors for infections related with high either overall or attributable mortality due to various communi- cable diseases, such as seasonal influenza, Covid, TB etc. Current epidemics of seasonal flu and Covid or tuberculosis among homeless is an emerging public health issue, mainly in countries of high disease prevalence such as China, EU and US . The aim of this short communication is to focus on an example of a good praxis: the Life Island Strategy of a protected microenvironment – homeless shelter, which protects elder- ly homeless against potentially deadly diseases in any large urban environment .

✉ Contact on all authors/Coresspondece author: Dr. h. c. Prof. MUDr. Vladimír Krcmery, DrSc. – email: [email protected] prof. PhDr. Ing. Ladislav Bucko, PhD., Dr. Daria Kimuli, PhD., Mgr. Maria Jackulikova, PhD., prof. Dr. Vlastimil Kozon, PhD., prof. Dr. Michael Olah, Ph.D., PhDr. Robert Kovac, PhD., Mgr. Martin Fero, PhD., Mgr. Ing. Jarmila Holkova, RNDr. Getrie Mikolasova, PhD., doc. PaedDr. Jozef Bozik, PhD., Mgr. PhDr. Jaroslava Polonova, PhD., prof. MUDr. Marianna Mrázová PhD. MHA., mim. Prof. doc. MUDr. Jose Su- vada, PhD., Michaela Kosticova, PhD., MPH, Mgr. Suzan Hajden

76 COHORTATION AND TESTING OF ELDERLY HOMELESS WITHIN COVID PADEMICS IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT – EXAMPLE OF A LIFE ISLAND MISSION MODEL | Vladimir Krcmery, Ladislav Bucko, Daria Kimuli, Maria Jackulikova, Vlastimil Kozon, Michael Olah, Robert Kovac, Mario Jancovic, Jarmila Holkova, Getrie Mikolasova, Baska Tekovska, Jaroslava Polonova, Marianna Mrazova, Jose Suvada, Michaela Kosticova, Suzan Hajden

Clients / Patients Methods Setting We arranged a special shelter for elderly homeless within and previous existing high threshold shelter to isolate senior homeless individuals – elderly and sick homeless pa- tients for 6 weeks to protect them during the outbreak of Covid 19 in an urban 0,56 million population environment .

The shelter provides a refuge for 25 clients . The inclusion criteria are: a, homeless sleeping and camping in parks, train stations, or other unsuitable places, b, age more than 60, compliance with abstinence of a substance use or alcohol, c, at least one underlying disease such as diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, epilepsy, chronic obstructive lung disease, kidney failure, wounds and ec- toparasites plus other noncommunicable chronic disease, negative Ab test for Cov- id-19, d, absence of respiratory symptoms related to Covid, absence of travel in last 14 days and no contacts to other homeless in last seven days within another shelter .

Regimen consisted of eight weeks semi lock down with the possibility of access to the lo- cal garden without visiting shopping malls and other homeless or social pathology related communities . Expert articles Results and discussion From 25 elderly homeless, 21 complied with the regimen . The rest four clients were transferred to a low treshold center. All clients were tested for the first time and all were Covid-19 negative after four weeks . We have used incentives to keep the clients indoor, such as free cigarettes, free three meals per day, TV, social counseling, laundry service, short spiritual and educational talks . All were familiar and agreed with the mission of the Life Island . For testing, we have used the German Covid Ab IgM and IgG rapid test . All results were negative . The Life Island Mission Model has been tested successfully many times in New York City during the HIV and TB pandemics . As incentives, Budweiser beer cans and free cigarettes have been used in NYC and free meals in San Francisco for TB control among homeless .336 Because Covid-19 and seasonal Fluenza are related with substantial mortality and more than 110 homes for elderly have been affected in UK and about five in Slovakia, we initiat- ed this Life Island model just at the beginning of Covid-19 pandemic in Slovakia, 21 days

336 For detailed information on this matter see the following studies: Prochazkova, K., Grey,E., Mikolasova G., Libova L., Hupkova,I., Pauerova K., Hochman, R., Jancovic, M., Hofbau- erova, B., Sramkova, M., Stanekova, P., Bartkovjak, M., Murgova A., Katunska,M., Tomanek,P., Mikloskova M., Miklosko,J. ,Vlcek,R., Palenikova, M. , Drgova, J., Kozon,V., Konosova, H, Hrindova T., Otrubova, J, “Analysis of 9896 Homeless Patients,” Clinical Social Work and Health Intervention 10, no. 4, (2019): 67 – 69. DOI: 10.22359/ cswhi_10_4_09; Kovac, R., Mikloskova, M., “The impact of early childhood to the risk of homelesness,” The International Jour- nal of Prenatal and Perinatal psychology and Medicine 25, no. Suppl.1 (2013): 80-89; Haj Ali P, Putekova, S., Kabatova, J., Martikova, J., Zollerova, K., Bucko, L, Radkova, L, Vlcek, R., Grey, E., Olah, M., Duricova, Z., Svitek, R., Simonek, T, Otrubova, J., Bibza, M, Kolibab, M., Mamova, A., Palenikova, M., Mur- gova, A., Tkacova, L., Kalatova, D, Jankechova, M., Bydzovsky J., Khalil,I., Michalikova, L., Mrazova M., Liskova A., Herdics,G., Carnecky, M., Khaled, I. “Are Migrants From Middle East Carriers of resistant bacteria,” Clinical Social Work and Health Intervention 7, no. 3, (2016): 10–13; DOI 10.22359/cswhi_7_3_02;

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after first case appeared. In a case of positivity, we have furnished an agreement with military isolation camp Zlate Piesky arranged by the City Council, and with the St Louise Hospital for Homeless in a case of terminally ill . However, during this period no transfers were needed .

Conclusion Homeless Elderly and Psychiatric Facilities are of special concern during the Viral RTI pandemics . In this paper, we have presented the Life Island model during the peak Covid-19 pandemic in the large urban environment. To improve the efficacy and safety of clients, initial screening tests for Covid and TB are advisable, as well as vaccine against seasonal influenza, Covid (when available) and pneumococcal vaccine should be administrated at the entry or before the entry to the Life Island Mission Shelter Model .

Bibliography Haj Ali P, Putekova, S., Kabatova, J., Martikova, J., Zollerova, K., Bucko, L, Radkova, L, Vlcek, R., Grey, E., Olah, M., Duricova, Z., Svitek, R., Simonek, T, Otrubova, J., Bibza, M, Kolibab, M., Mamova, A., Palenikova, M., Mur- gova, A., Tkacova, L., Kalatova, D, Jankechova, M., Bydzovsky J., Khalil,I., Michalikova, L., Mrazova M., Liskova A., Herdics,G., Carnecky, M., Khaled, I. “Are Migrants From Middle East Carriers of resistant bacteria,” Clinical Social Work and Health Intervention 7, no. 3, (2016): 10–13; DOI 10.22359/cswhi_7_3_02; Hardy, M., Bartkovjak, M., Beresova, A., Knoskova, E., Radkova, L., Otrubova, J., Rabarova, L., Topolska, A., Polonova, J., Kalatova, D., Mikolasova, G., Prochazkova K., Stankova, P., Mrazova, M., Valach,M., Olah,M., Jack- ulikova, M., Drgova, J., Palenikova M., Barkasi, D., Otrubova, J., Hofbauerova B., Schifferdeckerova, M., Hat- apkova Z., Kovac, R.: “ Is the homeles shelter population a public Health Threat? ,” Lek Obz (Med Horizon) 68, no. 4, (2019): 151-152. Kovac, R., Mikloskova, M., “The impact of early childhood to the risk of homelesness,” The International Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal psychology and Medicine 25, no. Suppl.1 (2013): 80-89. Prochazkova, K., Grey,E., Mikolasova G., Libova L., Hupkova,I., Pauerova K., Hochman, R., Jancovic, M., Hof- bauerova, B., Sramkova, M., Stanekova, P., Bartkovjak, M., Murgova A., Katunska,M., Tomanek,P., Mikloskova M., Miklosko,J. ,Vlcek,R., Palenikova, M. , Drgova, J., Kozon,V., Konosova, H, Hrindova T., Otrubova, J, “Analysis of 9896 Homeless Patients,” Clinical Social Work and Health Intervention 10, no. 4, (2019): 67 – 69. DOI: 10.22359/ cswhi_10_4_09;

Hardy, M., Bartkovjak, M., Beresova, A., Knoskova, E., Radkova, L., Otrubova, J., Rabarova, L., Topolska, A., Polo- nova, J., Kalatova, D., Mikolasova, G., Prochazkova K., Stankova, P., Mrazova, M., Valach,M., Olah,M., Jackuliko- va, M., Drgova, J., Palenikova M., Barkasi, D., Otrubova, J., Hofbauerova B., Schifferdeckerova, M., Hatapkova Z., Kovac, R.: “ Is the homeles shelter population a public Health Threat? ,” Lek Obz (Med Horizon) 68, no. 4, (2019): 151-152.

78 SOME SPECIFICITIES OF LONG-TERM CARE WITHIN THE EU IN THE CONTEXT OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF COVID-19 | Cecilia Costa, Dariusz Gardocki, Krzysztof Trębski, Mária Šmidová, Gulnora Hundley, Harold Baillie, Monika Nová, Simona Rečná, Emma Valigurská

SOME SPECIFICITIES OF LONG-TERM CARE WITHIN THE EU IN THE CONTEXT OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF COVID-19

Cecilia Costa ✉ 3371, Dariusz Gardocki 2, Krzysztof Trębski 3,4, Mária Šmidová 4, Gulnora Hundley 5, Harold Baillie 6, Monika Nová 7, Simona Rečná 8, Emma Valigurská 9

1 Faculty of Education Sciences (DSF), University of Roma Tre (IT); Higher Institute of Reli- gious Sciences " Ecclesia Mater ”, Pontifical Lateran University, Vatican City (VA) 2 Collegium Bobolanum, Pontifical Faculty of Theology Warsaw (PL) 3 Inst . Centro Spiritualità Nicola D'Onofrio, Bucchianico (IT) 4 Trnava university, Faculty of Theology, Trnava (SK) 5 University of Central Florida, Community Counseling and Research Center (US) 6 University of Scranton (US) 7 Hussite Theological Faculty, Charles University, (Prague, CZ) 8 St . Elizabeth University of Health and Social Science, Bratislava (SK) 9 University of Ss . Cyril and Methodius in Trnava (SK)

Submitted: 11 February 2020 Accepted for publication: 10 April 2020 Expert articles First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract Background: This contribution was based on several years’ worth of research and obser- vations and although it does not have the typical nature of research, the observations and findings made can be applied when creating similar analyses, which will form the basis for more detailed and long-term research at the international level that can be built on even during the period of COVID-19 and similar epidemics . Creating a long-term sustainable long-term care (LTC) system even during the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic is one of the EU member states’ priorities . However, the differences in the LTC care system between developed and less developed EU member states are striking . Not only is the division of responsibilities for the provision of care between the public and private sectors different, but so is the boundary between the provision of health and social care . Priori- ties in the field of LTC include financial sustainability, support for home care, and quality standards improvement . Many clients prefer the so-called informal care provided by fam- ily members or other loved ones, where the benefit of informal providers is the fact that they bear the economic, health and social consequences on a voluntary basis and draw public funds from resources designed to support informal care in LTC . Different approach- es to the LTC system‘s funding are applied . However, less developed EU member states, in particular, are facing challenges in the provision of LTC, which they will have to address, and one of the priorities is the introduction of public, compulsory LTC insurance .

✉ Contact on all authors/Coresspondece author: [email protected] prof. Cecilia Costa, PhD., prof. Dariusz Gardocki sj, ThLic. Krzysztof Trębski, PhD., prof. PhDr. Mária Šmidová, PhD., Dr. Gulnora Hundley, Ph.D., prof. Dr. Harold W. Baillie, Ph.D., PhDr. Monika Nová, PhD., PhDr. Simona Rečná, Mgr. Emma Valigurská

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Conclusion: All academics agree that, especially in the context of the consequences of COVID-19, it will be necessary for the foreign professional community to pay attention at the level of professional discussions and reflections, or theoretical academic and em- pirical studies, to the most difficult challenges that will need to be addressed in the near future, namely: the issue of the manageability of the population’s ageing, as well as the sustainability of LTC systems, not only in developed or less developed EU member states but also on a global scale; the amount of pensions, setting or adjusting the LTC insurance rate, issues of informal care, as well as the system of preventive visits in the home envi- ronment to those dependent on LTC .

Keywords: Long-Term Care – LTC differences – LTC insurance – Home care – Informal caregivers .

Introduction The member states strive to ensure a long-term sustainable long-term care (LTC) system even during the Coronavirus pandemic. They have put forward efficient suggestions aimed at reducing the disparities in the LTC system between developed and less developed EU member states . In the individual EU member states, there is a different division of responsibilities for the provision of care between the family, the public and the private sectors . The boundary between the provision of health and social care within the EU is also different . Although the number of the elderly population differs in the individual EU countries, experts assume that the need for LTC is comparable among them. Strategic priorities in the field of LTC in- clude securing financial sustainability, support for home care, and improvement of quality standards for LTC services . The developed countries within the EU are on the path towards securing the optimal functioning of cooperation between the formal and informal sectors and providing all forms of LTC care so as to ensure their flexible coordination according to the current needs of the elderly and their family members .

Positive and Negative Aspects of Informal Care In the EU member states, there are a number of clients who prefer so-called informal care, e g. . care provided by family members or other loved ones . The positive aspect of the informal care providers’ assistance is the fact that the economic, health, and social consequences are borne solely on a voluntary basis and that public funds are drawn from resources designed to support informal care in LTC . In the case of negative aspects of the aforementioned informal care, they are especially palpable in less developed EU member states. Compared to developed countries in the field of LTC, such as , where care providers are provided with so-called respite care, the situation is different in less developed countries . In Germany, for example, care providers are entitled to leave of up to eight weeks per year. This benefit is necessary, especially given the demanding nature of the care provided . Less developed EU countries should prioritise the issue of the quality of the provided informal care, which is unfortunately currently not sufficiently monitored. Another negative aspect is the insufficient counselling and insufficient offer of training courses for informal care providers. The solution for less developed countries in the field of LTC systems and their provision would be to introduce long-term care insurance (LTCI) and compulsory LTC insurance into the social security system . In such a case, counselling and caregiver courses would be provided free of charge . In practice, this would be moni-

80 SOME SPECIFICITIES OF LONG-TERM CARE WITHIN THE EU IN THE CONTEXT OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF COVID-19 | Cecilia Costa, Dariusz Gardocki, Krzysztof Trębski, Mária Šmidová, Gulnora Hundley, Harold Baillie, Monika Nová, Simona Rečná, Emma Valigurská

tored by the controlling authorities several times per year via care allowance, which would help to ensure not only the quality of the care provided but also the collection of up-to- date information on the patient’s health . With such practice in place, LTCI would constitute a predictable source of funding for the LTC system . Its legal anchoring could help reduce public costs .

LTC Funding Methods Three different approaches to LTC system funding are applied. The first model minimis- es state intervention and focuses on helping those who do not have the financial resources to pay for LTC services. The care recipients whose financial means do not allow them to pay for the service provided would be eligible to receive public funding . However, the assistance in such a case is limited, which results in the unmet needs of the care recipi- ents . It can also create conditions for the use of only acute LTC health care . However, this model may be unfair to those care recipients who have saved up all their lives to cover all their needs, even at old age . This model may result in additional costs for the public sector, which are mainly related to the administrative requirements for the evaluation of the care recipient’s funds . In general, however, this model tends to be very effective . The second model is akin to a universal financing system. Compared to the aforementioned first model, it provides greater equality and social cohesion across the whole population . However, it also means pressure to increase the state budget . The positive aspect of this model may be the transfer of funds to other sectors in the field of LTC, for example by reducing the use Expert articles of more expensive acute healthcare services . All care recipients who meet the eligibility criteria will have access to these services . The majority of these universal funding systems are progressive. The third model is a combination of the first and the second models, a kind of mixed system, where the LTC coverage is provided through universal programmes . As with the previous model, not all LTC costs are covered by public funds . People in need of LTC are partially reimbursed for the expenses incurred for covering these services . Some countries, such as , Australia, , France, and the Czech Republic, limit the amount of these expenses . Some states have not developed their own LTC system, but provide various forms of benefits. Universal systems exist mainly in Northern and Western Europe, and mixed systems are more typical of Central and Southern Europe . However, the basic principles are identical: to provide a range of benefits to all those who need it. The three methods of securing LTC funding are relatively broad, and there are vast differ- ences between them . Many countries focus on a universal approach, which enables them to protect those in need of care in a sustainable way, while public assistance is reserved for those who need care the most .

Conclusion The less developed EU member states in particular face challenges in the field of LTC provision that they will have to address . These include weak points in implementing the LTC concept in their social security systems and subsequently in practice, as well as risks, for example in the form of various obstacles to these changes . One of the priorities is the in- troduction of public, compulsory LTC insurance . This should be preceded by more detailed professional discussions and reflections on the insurance rate, which would eliminate the associated weak points and risks . The insurance rate should be set at an acceptable level for citizens of both developed and less developed member states while allowing for the creation of a reserve for potential increased costs . The introduction of such measures

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would prevent the reduction in insurance income for long-term insurance in the event of in- creased costs; the increase in the insurance rate having a negative effect on the economy; and the increase in the assessment basis for insured persons . This would mean that part of the insurance income would come from public funds and would ultimately be a burden on the state budget . It will also be necessary to address the application of such meas- ures in practice . It is important to ask how it will be possible in less developed member states to maintain the quality standards of LTC provision . It is necessary to adapt to the needs of informal care providers in order to avoid their financial or health discrimination. Increased attention will need to be given to patients with mental illness and to making them eligible to receive LTC funding . From the point of view of the state budget, it will be nec- essary to allocate funds to traditional health care and LTC, which may ultimately lead to incentives to shift costs between the two types of care . In the future, it will be necessary to improve promotion in facilities providing LTC, improve the quality of rehabilitation for cli- ents, and also consider introducing a system of preventive visits in the home environment of the elderly . The purpose of such measures is, in particular, to reduce the likelihood that such persons will not be provided with LTC . The effectiveness of introducing this system in practice is confirmed especially by the developed Nordic states, which serve as a good practical example even for the less developed EU member states .

What all academics agree on is the fact that, particularly in relation to the consequences of COVID-19, the foreign community of professionals will have to focus on the most difficult challenges on the level of expert discussions and reflections or theoretical academic and em- pirical studies . Such challenges will need to be given attention in the near future, and they should specifically include the question of dealing with the ageing of the population, the sus- tainability of LTC systems, both in the developed and less developed EU member states and at a global scale, the amount of pensions, setting or changing the LTC insurance rate, questions of informal care, and the system of preventive visits to those dependent on the LTC system in their home environment .

82 CERTAIN NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES RELATED TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC AND RELEVANT POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS | Jiju Varghese, Zbigniew Kubacki, Peter Caban, Józef Młyński, Mieczysław Ozorowski, Steve Szydlowski, Daniel West, Günter Dorfmeister, Alexander Wolf, Jordan Hicks, Emmanuel Janagan Johnson, Grazyna Debska

CERTAIN NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES RELATED TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC AND RELEVANT POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Jiju Varghese 1 ✉ 338, Zbigniew Kubacki 2, Peter Caban 3, Józef Młyński 4, Mieczysław Ozorowski 4, Steve Szydlowski 5, Daniel West 6, Günter Dorfmeister 7, Alexander Wolf 8, Jordan Hicks 9, Em- manuel Janagan Johnson 10, Grazyna Debska 11

1 St . Xavier s College Maitighar, Kathmandu Nepal (NP) 2 Collegium Bobolanum, Pontifical Faculty of Theology Warsaw (PL) 3 Karl-Franzes Universität (Graz, AT) 4 Faculty of Family Studies, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Warsaw (PL) 5 University of Scranton, Department of Health Administration and Human Resources (US) 6 University of Scranton school of education (US) 7 Vienna General Hospital, Vienna (AT) 8 Shupyk National Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education, Kiev (UA) 9 University of Central Florida, College of Health and Public Affairs (US) 10 The University of the West Indies (IN) 11 Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University (PL) Expert articles Submitted: 2 March 2020 Accepted for publication: 18 April 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract Background: Concerns about the impact of the Coronavirus outbreak on the global socie- ty in various fields, disease-related information and other types of negative consequences of Coronavirus, which are either directly or indirectly associated with the Coronavirus pandem- ic, cause various disorders of human emotion, such as fear, anxiety, feelings of losing control, or traumatic stress . The presented contribution thus became the basis for developing special intervention strategies aimed at coping with the aforementioned strain . These strategies have been developed on a professional basis of special strategies, techniques, and methods un- der the supervision of psychologists, social workers, religious and spiritual workers of various faiths, including Christian theologians . Based on the strategies, specialised research has been developed, which has been underway since February 2020 and reports on the management of strain and stress in assisting workers, health professionals, and other frontline workers . The research is based on qualitative research strategies and has a total of 200 participants from various countries, such as the Slovak Re- public, , Hungary, Italy, Spain, Austria, the USA, Japan, and African countries, who all participate via specialised online consultations . Research participants must be over 25 years

✉ Contact on all authors/Coresspondece author: – email: dr hab. Józef Młyński, PhD. - email: [email protected] Jiju Varghese, PhD., prof. Zbigniew Kubacki sj, Doc. ThDr. Peter Caban, PhD., dr hab. Józef Młyński, PhD., prof. dr hab. Mieczysław Ozorowski, PhD., Dr. Steve Szydlowski, MBA, MHA, DHA, prof. Dr. Da- niel J. West, Jr. Ph.D, Dr. Günter Dorfmeister, PhD., Dr. Alexander Wolf, Jordan Hicks, MHA, Emmanuel Janagan Johnson MSW. M Phil. PhD., Grazyna Debska PhD.

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of age, be long-term employed in the aforementioned professions, and be actively engaging in various fields impacted by COVID-19. Prior to the commencement of the specialised re- search, the respondents participated in focus groups that showed which areas need to be given priority when managing the strain . Conclusion: We see possible applications in practice in this field in the form of research, which aims to teach non-professionals, professionals and practitioners working in various profession- al and scientific fields with an emphasis on assisting professions how to effectively manage strain and reduce stress by themselves using online technologies in cases where isolation is necessary or where it has been impossible to see a psychologist of a therapist for a longer period of time. As far as possibilities for further research in this field, we consider it necessary to modify similarly-developed intervention strategies and constantly adapt them to the emerg- ing needs of the clients, i e. . recipients of these methods . To this end, we recommend creating space for relevant professional discussions and reflections in various professional and scien- tific fields, including the spiritual and theological field, and their mutual benefits. These discus- sions and reflections should subsequently form the basis for the possibility of long-term appli- cation of these intervention strategies in practice, which can represent very effective solutions in the period of overcoming the Coronavirus pandemic and also serve as a means of preventing similar types of diseases .

Keywords: COVID-19 – Impacts of COVID-19 – Anxiety and stress – Frontline workers Special intervention strategies .

Introduction Worries related to various effects of the coronavirus on the global society, related informa- tion or other forms of negative consequences of the coronavirus which are directly or indirectly linked to the coronavirus pandemic are a source of negative emotional reactions and behaviour- al disorders and affect the way people think . This includes anxiety and fear of danger, intense feelings of losing control over one’s life, negative emotions, depression, disorientation, psycho- somatic disorders, aggression, increased risk of being manipulated or controlled, reduced ability to distinguish and analyse information and many others. In this contribution, we will briefly focus on anxiety, which can be considered a nuclear phenomenon within anxiety disorders and ac- companying depression states and other mental disorders . Anxiety is linked to fear . In practice, the terms anxiety and fear are often used interchangeably, as they condition and influence each another. However, it is paradoxical that there is no precise definition of these terms and there are no specificities regarding their mutual conditioning and influence. In relation to the spread of information on the coronavirus and its potential negative consequences in various forms, both above-mentioned human emotional disorders have become very common, therefore it is necessary to focus on them as well as on possible solutions . Working with strategies, techniques and methods aimed at managing traumatic stress, anx- iety and fear can then serve as prevention in crisis situations similar to the coronavirus pan- demic, because as many epidemiologists, active clinicians and other experts have said, we may experience similar types of diseases and their consequences in the future .

Possible solutions to anxiety, fear and stress Anxiety and fear in adults and the elderly caused by information and other negative con- sequences of the coronavirus may be reduced by using the following steps: limited monitoring of the news and various types of information to one to two times per day; maintaining one’s daily

84 CERTAIN NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES RELATED TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC AND RELEVANT POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS | Jiju Varghese, Zbigniew Kubacki, Peter Caban, Józef Młyński, Mieczysław Ozorowski, Steve Szydlowski, Daniel West, Günter Dorfmeister, Alexander Wolf, Jordan Hicks, Emmanuel Janagan Johnson, Grazyna Debska

routine, which will help reduce perceived tension; maintaining physical activity for example by doing simple exercises that help us relax; keeping in touch with one’s family, friends or grand- children via the phone or various apps; talking about one’s fears, problems and feelings with selected trusted people; getting in touch with people who trigger positive emotions in us . In the provision of psychological and social support which can mitigate the consequences of anxiety and stress, it is necessary to focus on the creation of the feelings of safety and con- nection and use these feelings to offer concrete interventions in the form of individual or group consultations. In group consultations, it is important to first ask and listen and only then to offer solutions, to perceive the consultation recipient as competent, to respect him and provide him with the highest possible level of control over himself and his situation in a tactful way . In addition, anxiety and stress can be relieved with techniques and methods which are also relevant for helping professionals who are engaged in activities related to the coronavirus in one way or another . We will focus on such techniques and methods which can be applied in the area of social work, requiring further and deeper research of the connection with social work, as they are based in psychology, however, they ultimately focus on supporting the client to teach him self-help and mobilise his inner sources. One of such efficient techniques focus- ing on anxiety and stress management is called mindfulness . Research results have shown that this technique is efficient in treating chronic depressions, burn-out syndrome and various addictions . In addition, it has positive impact on the ability to self-regulate and it helps control automatic negative and self-destructing thoughts without logical justification. In relation to the coronavirus, they are often related to worries about the future and anxious states . On the level Expert articles of everyday life, they are related to self-guilt, excessive self-criticism, low self-esteem, jeal- ousy, and so on . Controlling our thoughts does not mean pretending that our anxiety and fear do not exist and that we will not talk about them with anyone . Quite the opposite, it is important to talk about our fears with our dear ones or with a helping professional . For this technique, it is important not to develop similar thoughts when we find ourselves alone. Mindfulness focuses on the present moment, looking around us and noticing what we normally cannot see . It teaches us to focus on colours, noises, smells, even the ones we have not perceived before . The main point is not to judge, evaluate or expect anything . This increasingly popular technique is based on various approaches . They include: Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction – MBSR 339; Mind- fulness-based Cognitive Therapy – MBCT 340, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy – DBT 341 and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy – ACT)342. With these therapeutic methods based on the practice of mindfulness, compassion or self-com- passion, participants explicitly learn how to develop a mindful approach to their problems and how to use mindfulness in their everyday lives . There are many variations and differences between the above-mentioned therapies . Mindfulness can be developed by long-term, formal meditation present in MBSR and MBCT or by different shorter and less formal exercises used

339 For more information, see: Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full catastrophe living: Using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and illness (New York: Delta Trade Paperback/Bantam Dell, 1990). 340 For more information, see: Zindel V. Segal, et al. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for depression: A new approach to preventing relapse (New York: Guilford Press, 2002). 341 For more information on the theory and practice of DBT, see: Marsha M. Linehan, Cognitive-behavioral treat- ment of Borderline Personality Disorder (New York: Guilford Press, 1993). Exercise book with manuals and de- scriptions: Marsha M. Linehan, Skills training manual for treating Borderline Personality (Disorder. New York: Guilford Press, 1993). 342 For more information, see: Steven C. Hayes, et al. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An experiential ap- proach to behavior change (New York: Guilford Press, 1999).

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in ACT or DBT. Some therapies were originally designed for individual client sessions (ACT), while others were designed for group therapies (MBSR, MBCT) or apply to both types (DBT) . In MBSR and MBCT, mindfulness is a fundamental part of therapy, while in ACT and DBT, it is a part of complex therapeutic intervention and it is necessary to bear in mind that its efficiency might be a result of additional methods and not mindfulness . Other helpful methods are Compassion Focused Therapy – CFT 343 and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing – EMDR.344 All techniques should be carried out and led by a therapist or a social worker-therapist . How- ever, we can also efficiently work with some strategies of these techniques and methods in the area of social work during the coronavirus pandemic . We will focus on them in more detail . Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme – participants learn to ″only ob- serve″ their thoughts and feelings without being overwhelmed by their content. Based on their personal experience, they discover that most feelings, emotions and thoughts are temporary and unstable and their attitude towards them changes. Participants in this programme should try to notice what is going on with them in the present moment and not to develop or respond to those feelings and thoughts. Mindfulness practice allows for a better understanding of ″the here and now″ . It teaches us how to let go of rumination of the past and worries related to the future. Mindfulness is developed through various meditation exercises – focused on breath, body, movement, non-judgmental observation of thoughts and ideas. Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy – MBCT is a structured therapeutic programme largely based on MBSR. MBCT also works with the practice of noticing one’s body through meditation by integrating mindfulness into our everyday life with an open non-judgmental ap- proach to participants and their experience. What makes MBCT different from MBSR is mainly the use of various traditional cognitive therapy techniques used in depression treatment. These techniques develop a decentralized distance from one’s thoughts whose aim is to change the content of negative thoughts. It involves practice of the relationship between thoughts and feel- ings in order to see that thoughts are not reality, they are not always valid and true and they are conditioned by one’s mood and mental state. MBCT participants also create an individualized list of symptoms of anxiety, fear and depression and possibilities to stop them from the onset. An adapted mindfulness technique and MBSR and MBCT methods are very helpful for anxiety and stress management especially due to the fact that they work with the body, for ex- ample by fully realizing one’s body during meditation . Through the connection with the body and the use of self-healing potential, even small interventions and strategies can bring quick relief . This contribution has become a basis for the creation of special intervention strategies based on some of the above-mentioned methods and techniques, including mindfulness strategies and MBSR/MBCT methods, several key principles of the beneficial mutual relationship between spirituality and Christian theology or special aspects of Christian missiology . These strategies were created on a professional basis under the supervision of psychologists, social workers, spiritual workers from various religions, including Christian theologists . Their aim is to make sure that people – including vulnerable groups such as the elderly, helping workers, healthcare workers and other front-line workers who experience anxiety, fear, traumatic stress or exhaus- tion could safely apply these techniques to help themselves without compromising their mental

343 For more information, see: Paul Gilbert. Compassion Focused Therapy: Distinctive Features (CBT Distinctive Features) (New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2010); Mary Welford. Compassion Focused Therapy For Dummies (Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2016). 344 For more information, see: Francine Shapiro, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Thera- py, Third Edition: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures (New York: The Guilford Press, 2018).

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health, in their own environment or conditions in which they feel safe and if they are interested, they can use them to support their loved ones . Based on these strategies, special research was launched in from February 2020, which has been mapping anxiety and stress management in helping workers, healthcare workers and other front-line workers . The research has been conducted on the basis of qualitative research strategies with 200 re- spondents from various countries: Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Austria, USA, Japan and African countries by means of specific online consultations. All respondents are older than 25, they have long-term experience in helping professions and are actively engaged in various areas related to COVID-19 . Prior to the start of the specialized research, respondents took part in focus groups which showed what areas should be prioritized in stress management .

Focus groups results To manage stress and provide support, front-line workers, especially healthcare workers, other helping professions, pastoral workers and other spiritual workers from various religions, Christian theologists and pastoral workers need specific social and material conditions created in a proper and high-quality manner in order to do their well and handle increasing demands resulting from demanding and changing conditions as a result of the coronavirus . Healthcare workers predominantly from European and African countries have said that these conditions must meet the following criteria: increased pragmatic, material and technical support ensured to maximum possible extent; meaningful and coordinated information and instructions from in- dividual countries, which must be communicated by efficient and adequate means to help solve Expert articles the situation instead of aggravating it . Conditions for all above-mentioned groups of front-line workers must be based on a relationship and social background, cooperation and mutual sup- port . Only with cohesion and common efforts can creative and unexpected solutions be found even to seemingly unsolvable problems in which front-line workers can find themselves and overcome various deficiencies, including those of material and technical nature. During the coronavirus pandemic, it is also necessary for the front-line workers to hear and perceive on the level of the entire society – including from individual countries and their citizens – that their activities and efforts are helpful and bring results, that they are appreciated and supported, they also need to feel understanding, honest interest in their emotions and needs and be assured that their experience is shared within the global society . All these aspects are inevitable to create the so-called compassion sustainability, which in practice means to expe- rience satisfaction from compassion, which is also an effective protective strategy for stress management .345 Failing this, they will experience exhaustion and their compassion motivation might eventually be weakened . In their approach, countries and experts should communicate the qualities which can strengthen the above-mentioned positive systems and strategies to manage anxiety, stress and strain in these workers . In addition, this approach must be expressed honestly and deeply rooted so that it can be really experienced . From the psychological and social perspective, it is crucial to help front-line workers in a systematic way to make sure they manage extreme pressure and stress as well and for as long as possible . However, it is also necessary to avoid a somewhat mechanic view of these workers, without returning them to full activity after ″fixing them″. It is key to select approaches that can efficiently provide support and quality of a ther-

345 For more information on latest research and practical techniques of brain training, stress management, health and resistance improvement, energy focus and building relationships and courage, see for example: Kelly McGonigal, The Upside of Stress Why Stress is Good for You (and How to Get Good at it), (New York: Pen- guin Publishing Group, 2015).

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apeutic relationship so that they can provide quick assistance or relief when needed . Based on the respondents’ views, the provided psychological and social support must not be required from helping professionals under pressure – for example by certain countries –, it must be car- ried out on a voluntary basis . This should apply only to helping professionals who are skilled and have experience in providing similar assistance and are able and willing to quickly and flexibly respond to potential future needs, who have positive motivation and are interested in joining such interventions .

Related methods and techniques contributing to the creation of special intervention strategies applied in research In the creation of special intervention strategies, the following anxiety and stress reducing methods were found relevant . Dialectical Behavioural Therapy – DBT – its principles are based on behavioural science, dialectical philosophy and other psychological and spiritual processes which include mindful- ness and acceptance of one’s negative emotions . It balances out acceptance and change, which in practice means that it works with cognitive and behavioural techniques which are designed to change thoughts, emotions and behaviour and teaches participants to accept themselves, their experience and past just the way they are . Mindfulness practice and development are part of all areas and modules which DBT focuses on: practicing mindfulness, managing anxiety and stress so that they are not overpowering and destabilizing, emotional regulation, tolerance, interpersonal relationships or interpersonal skills.346 Through these modules, participants learn how to: accept painful circumstances without trying to change them or immediately and compul- sively handle them. This acceptance includes overall acceptance of circumstances, an active choice to accept circumstances, in the sense of actively trying to accept the situation because the participant has decided to do so because it is useful for him, accepting resistance towards reality which cannot be changed versus accepting reality, distinguishing between circumstanc- es which cannot be changed and must be accepted, which circumstances can be accepted only on the mental level – this is the so-called intermediary state leading to overall acceptance – and which circumstances can be changed and should be faced. Participants can also face unpleasant situations, anxiety and stress directly or only in their mind, for example in the case of coronavirus-related worries, they can create and write down a catastrophic scenario of what could happen. At the same time, they learn to accept these various aspects of their emotional reactions through mindfulness without secondary reaction, such as feeling guilty for their feel- ings or angry with themselves. In these cases, mindfulness works as a technique of acceptance, exposition or desensitisation of unpleasant feelings applied in behavioural therapy. Another very efficient technique is rescription, i.e. transcript of a memory linked to a negative circumstance or event in a form which triggers negative emotions less intensely. It is stressed to participants that unpleasant feelings, anxiety and stress are a natural part of their lives and they are led to learn to handle them. Various meditation and mindfulness techniques are used to this end, for example monitoring one’s breath or full mindfulness of an ongoing activity. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy – ACT – the therapy’s key notion is experiential avoid- ance, which is defined as a state in which a person is not willing to maintain a connection with certain inner experiences, such as feelings, emotions, thoughts, memories or psychological predispositions and makes steps to change the frequency or form of these phenomena or en-

346 Cf. Thomas R. Lynch et al. “Mechanisms of change in Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Theoretical and empirical observations,” Journal of Clinical Psychology 62, no. 4, 2006. 459-480. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20243

88 CERTAIN NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES RELATED TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC AND RELEVANT POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS | Jiju Varghese, Zbigniew Kubacki, Peter Caban, Józef Młyński, Mieczysław Ozorowski, Steve Szydlowski, Daniel West, Günter Dorfmeister, Alexander Wolf, Jordan Hicks, Emmanuel Janagan Johnson, Grazyna Debska

vironments in which they occur, even in cases where such steps cause pain . This often leads to a counterproductive effort to escape unpleasant inner feelings, for example by abusing ad- dictive substances, bulimic overeating, dissociation and avoiding triggering people, situations or places 347. This leads to suppression of certain thoughts, which paradoxically makes them grow in number .348 In addition, flexibility of emotional experience is lost and ultimately the quality of the person’s life deteriorates . Instead of experiential avoidance, ACT leads to willingness to experience the present mo- ment just the way it is and to act in line with the participant’s personal goals and values. That is why ATC focuses on participants’ personal values, future aspirations, roles they wish to play in their lives and it helps them realize what values are of such importance that they are worth fighting for even in their current state and what it means for their everyday lives. In the interven- tion, participants are led to realize that most of their suffering is not caused by the symptoms themselves but rather by trying to avoid them. This avoidance then disrupts their life and per- sonal values. Therefore, participants learn to accept unpleasant feelings and act in line with their values. Similarly to DBT, mindfulness is perceived as a result of subsequent mutually con- nected mental processes: acceptance, defusion, contact with the present moment and seeing self-as-context. 349 Another method used in cognitive and behavioural therapy which could be useful in the prac- tice of anxiety and stress management is Compassion Focused Therapy – CFT. Participants learn to systematically develop an approach of open acceptance, compassion and kindness towards themselves and their feelings, including the unpleasant ones, and towards other people. Expert articles In this therapy, participants learn to create images of a safe place, a kind person, to remember kind actions of other people towards them or their own kind actions towards others, and thus develop their compassionate and non-criticising approach towards themselves and others. The practice of anxiety, stress and pain management is considered to be a part of human experience which can be enriching provided that the person can accept and use it constructively. Another method or approach which could be very efficient and useful in the training of anx- iety and stress management, including in the acute stress response phase is EMDR . Under normal circumstances, people process stressful experiences spontaneously . How- ever, if a trauma is too overwhelming or repeated, the natural ability to process events is over- burdened and may stop working. This is how the process of self-healing and self-recovery is blocked and memories cannot be processed. They are stored in this ″raw″ form in the nervous system and cause numerous mental and somatic problems . Typically, very vivid memories repeatedly come to surface, as if the event occurred again here and now . Therefore, EMDR uses the nervous system’s natural healing ability and allows simultaneous healing of mental and physical wounds. The role of EMDR therapy is to help remove barriers which prevent spontaneous recovery. Thanks to that, treatment that uses EMDR can be quite quick. However, the number of sessions needed for treatment can largely vary depending on the severity of the trauma, as well as internal and external sources of the person.

347 Steven C. Hayes, et al. “Experiential avoidance and behavioral disorders: A functional dimensional approach to diagnosis and treatment,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 64, no. 6, (1996): 1152-1168. https:// doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.64.6.1152 348 Daniel M. Wegner and Sophia Zanakos, “Chronic thoughts suppression,” Journal of Personality 62, no. 4, (1994): 616-640. 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1994.tb00311.x ; Lizabeth Roemer, and Thomas D. Borkovec, “Effects of suppressing thoughts about emotional material,” Journal of Abnormal Psychology 103, no. 3, (1994): 467-474. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.103.3.467 349 Wegner, Zanakos, “Chronic,” 616-640; Roemer, “Borkovec,” Effects, 467-474.

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EMDR can be used with new clients to process traumatic or stressful situations only face- to-face . Online EMDR in the coronavirus situation can be carried out only with participants who had prior experience with a therapist and EMDR processing prior to the outbreak . Despite this fact, we believe that it is necessary for helping workers, including social workers, to have access to a good overview of this method . Currently, application of the above-mentioned special intervention strategies on specific respondents is the subject of research, that is why no illustrations or interpretations are included in this contribution . This can be done only after the end of the research .

Conclusion The coronavirus pandemic and the escalating feeling of responsibility related to the disease and its consequences, including the economic ones, create enormous pressure on a global scale. It has been manifested in specific ways in individual countries with the general public, state representatives, experts in various areas, healthcare, helping, spiritual, Christian pas- toral or other workers who are engaged in the front line and those who have been hit by the pandemic or its consequences so hard that they are trying to mobilize all their strengths and focus on helping themselves and their loved ones or workers or volunteers who still respond to various calls to efficiently contribute and provide help in its various aspects and links. All the above-mentioned workers say that they are often under great pressure caused by their own expectations to be helpful and by external expectations created by the public or countries . Given this development, plenty of information materials, processes and methods have been created in relation to the coronavirus pandemic, related measures and potential consequences and how to handle them from various perspectives, for example epidemiologic, healthcare, economic, political, psychosocial, spiritual, etc . Therefore, various topics and discussions with experts can be observed in many countries presented by the media and online, focusing on the management of mental strain which has emerged in the coronavirus pandemic . It is not always easy to respond to the pandemic and its consequences with prudence and in a tactful sensitive way . Therefore, this contribution presented several relevant options related to its management from the perspective of psychosocial support . It focused on training of anxiety and stress man- agement . It is not its intention to become a panacea or the most complex insight into the issue . It stresses the importance of stabilization techniques used to handle anxiety and stress, as well as the importance of their support in the form of relationship and social background, cooper- ation, the sense of belonging, the way how the state communicates on adopted measures . These forms of support can strengthen and stabilize the protective effect of social strategies of handling anxiety and stress . This effect is very strong itself and if it is supported by necessary stimuli from the external environment, the public, experts and front-line workers can be able to overcome various extreme situations without serious damage to their mental health even during the coronavirus pandemic . Potential applications in practice can be seen in the realized research whose aim is to teach laymen, experts and practitioners engaged in various professional and scientific areas with special focus on helping professions through online technologies to efficiently handle strain and reduce stress in situations when it is necessary to self-isolate or when direct long-term access to a psychologist or therapist is impossible or complicated . On the level of further research in this area, we believe that it is necessary to modify these intervention strategies and continuously adapt them to emerging needs of clients, i e. . users of these methods . For this purpose, we recommend to create space for relevant expert dis- cussions and reflections in various professional and scientific areas – including the spiritual

90 CERTAIN NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES RELATED TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC AND RELEVANT POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS | Jiju Varghese, Zbigniew Kubacki, Peter Caban, Józef Młyński, Mieczysław Ozorowski, Steve Szydlowski, Daniel West, Günter Dorfmeister, Alexander Wolf, Jordan Hicks, Emmanuel Janagan Johnson, Grazyna Debska

and theological area and their mutual benefits – which will focus on methods and strategies designed to manage various forms of stress, anxiety, fear and the possibility of self-help for in- dividuals or larger groups, e .g . front-line healthcare workers working in the same facility . These discussions and reflections should then create basis for potential long-term application of these methods in practice, which can be a very efficient solution during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as during similar epidemies .

Bibliography Gilbert, Paul. Compassion Focused Therapy: Distinctive Features (CBT Distinctive Features) New York: Rout- ledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2010. Hayes, Steven C., Kirk D. Strosahl, Kelly G. Wilson, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An experiential ap- proach to behavior change (New York: Guilford Press, 1999. Hayes, Steven C., Wilson, Gifford, Kelly G., Follette, Elizabeth V., M. Victoria, Strosahl, Kirk, “Experiential avoid- ance and behavioral disorders: A functional dimensional approach to diagnosis and treatment,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 64, no. 6, (1996): 1152-1168. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.64.6.1152 Kabat-Zinn, Jon, Full catastrophe living: Using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and illness. New York: Delta Trade Paperback/Bantam Dell, 1990. Lynch Thomas R. Chapman Alexander L., Rosenthal, Zachary M., Kuo, Janice R., Linehan, Marsha M. “Mecha- nisms of change in Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Theoretical and empirical observations,” Journal of Clinical Expert articles Psychology 62, no. 4, 2006. 459-480. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20243 Linehan, Marsha M. Cognitive-behavioral treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder New York: Guilford Press, 1993. Linehan, Marsha M. Skills training manual for treating Borderline Personality Disorder. New York: Guilford Press, 1993. McGonigal, Kelly. The Upside of Stress Why Stress is Good for You (and How to Get Good at it). New York: Penguin Publishing Group, 2015. Roemer, Lizabeth. and Borkovec, Thomas D. “Effects of suppressing thoughts about emotional material,” Journal of Abnormal Psychology 103, no. 3, (1994): 467-474. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.103.3.467 Segal, Zindel V. Williams, J. Mark G. Teasdale, John D. Teasdale, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for de- pression: A new approach to preventing relapse. New York: Guilford Press, 2002. Shapiro, Francine. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy. Third Edition: Basic Princi- ples, Protocols, and Procedures. New York: The Guilford Press, 2018. Wegner, Daniel M. and Zanakos, Sophia. “Chronic thoughts suppression,” Journal of Personality 62, no. 4, (1994): 616 - 640. 10.1111/j.1467- 6494.1994.tb00311.x

Welford, Mary. Compassion Focused Therapy For Dummies. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2016.

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ANALYSIS OF THE POVERTY RISK IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Pavol Beno 1 ✉ 350, Pavel Stukovsky ✉ 2, Lucia Ludvigh Cintulova ✉ 3, Martin Samohyl ✉ 4

1 Faculty of Health Sciences and Social Work, Trnava University in Trnava (SK) 2 Institute of Public Policy, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava (SK) 3 St . Elizabeth University of Health and Social Science, Bratislava (SK) 4 Institute of Hygiene, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University in Bratislava (SK)

Submitted: 1 March 2020 Accepted for publication: 27 April 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract Background: Poverty is a global socio-cultural aspect and multifaceted phenomenon usually examined in terms of economic perspectives . According to the latest data 112 8. million people (22 .4 % of the population) lived at poverty risk or social exclusion in the European countries . The highest relative immigrant poverty rate was in Greece (44 .8%) . The aim of the study is to analyze an impact between the rate of risk of poverty and immigrants arriving to the European countries . Methods: The data for the economy and social study were obtained from the European Statis- tical System . The trend analysis between 2011 and 2017 was analyzed by the average annual percent change (AAPC) based on the 23 .514 .934 immigrants that arrived to the European Union between 2011 to 2017 . Results: Significantly the highest AAPC increase of poverty risk was observed in Luxembourg (0.23% AAPC). Significantly the highest AAPC decrease of poverty risk was observed in Fin- land (-0 16%. AAPC) . From all European countries, the highest AAPC increase of number of im- migrants was observed in the Czech Republic (1 26%;. p<0 01). . If the AAPC of poverty risk increases by 1.0%, the AAPC of number of immigrant will decrease by 1.2%. This was confirmed in our socio-economic model . Conclusion: Our results confirmed that the ranking of country for immigrants is influenced by the poverty rate in this country .

Keywords: Poverty Risk – Immigrants – Migration – Social-economic Model – COVID-19 .

Introduction Social and health services in Europe face the challenge of delivering care to a heteroge- neous group of irregular migrants . Migrant groups in particular often show an increased risk for poverty and are often exposed to multiple socioeconomic stress factors depending on the context of pre-migration, migration, and post-migration social factors .

✉ Contact on author: Doc. PharmDr. Pavol Beno, CSc. – email: [email protected] ✉ Contact on author: JUDr. Bc. Pavel Stukovsky – email: [email protected] ✉ Contact on author: PhDr. Lucia Ludvigh Cintulova, PhD. – e-mail: [email protected] ✉ Contact on author/Coresspondece author: PhDr. Ing. Martin Samohyl, PhD. – email: martin.samohyl@ fmed.uniba.sk

92 ANALYSIS OF THE POVERTY RISK IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES | Pavol Beno, Pavel Stukovsky, Lucia Ludvigh Cintulova, Martin Samohyl

Poverty is a global socio-cultural aspect and multifaceted phenomenon351 usually examined in terms of economic perspectives . Personal experiences, behaviours, and one‘s perception aspects are among the basic reasons of poverty perpetuation 352. The current research and pol- icies aimed at poverty alleviation are influenced by the poverty trap concept; a situation where self-reinforcing tools “trap” population in poverty . The low level of productivity growth contributes to the inter-generational poverty trap . 353,354 In most countries the rate of poverty is described as an absolute threshold (meeting basic needs by households) or as a relative threshold (a cut-off point associated with the country‘s consumption or overall income distribution) . Material deprivation is a more complete social exclusion measure than for example the pover- ty risk (calculated on the relative threshold basis) . Material deprivation measures the population percentage who cannot afford to pay their mortgage or rent, keep their home in warm, eat meat (proteins) regularly, face unexpected expenses, go on holiday, a washing machine, a television set, a telephone and a car. The rate of severe material deprivation is defined as the enforced inability to afford at least 4 of the mentioned items . The rate of persistent material deprivation is defined as the enforced inability to afford at least 3 (material deprivation) or 4 (severe mate- rial deprivation) of the mentioned items 355. The population at risk of poverty has higher material deprivation rate than people who are not at poverty risk 356. In the 2018 European comparison the highest material deprivation rate was observed in Albania (56 .8%), and the lowest in (4 .3%) . The material deprivation rate was higher in Slovakia (17 .2%) than in EU-28 (13 .2%) .357 Of the perilous problems of today, the population growth, environmental threats and poverty358 are the three main .359 Expert articles The poverty risk rate is the percentage share of inhabitants with an equalised disposable income below the risk of poverty (below 60 % of the national median equalised) . This rate meas- ures neither poverty nor wealth, but low income in comparison to other inhabitants in a particular

351 Ullah S, Naz A, Khan W, et al. “Struggling for Survival: The Intricate Relationship between Poverty & Hiv/Aids In District Dir Lower, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” Clinical Social Work and Health Intervention 10, no. 2, (2019): 101-109. DOI 10.22359/cswhi_10_2 352 Adamkovič M, Martončík M. “A Review of Consequences of Poverty on Economic Decision-Making: A Hypoth- esized Model of a Cognitive Mechanism,” Frontiers in psychology. 8, no. 1, (2017): 1784. https://doi.org/10.3389/ fpsyg.2017.01784 353 Lade SJ, Haider LJ, Engström G, et al. “Resilience offers escape from trapped thinking on poverty alleviation,” Science advances Vol. 3, no. 5, (2017): e1603043 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1603043 354 Naz A, Khan H, Khan T, et al. “Social and Cultural Determinants of Child Labor in Pakistan,” Clinical Social Work and Health Intervention 10, no. 2, (2019): 80-92. DOI 10.22359/cswhi_10_2 355 “Glossary: Material deprivation,” EUROSTAT, accessed February 27, 2020 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statis- tics-explained/index.php/Glossary:Material_deprivation 356 “Poverty and material deprivation,” FSO, accessed February 27, 2020, https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/economic-social-situation-population/economic-and-so- cial-situation-of-the-population/poverty-and-material-deprivation.html 357 Glossary: Material deprivation,” EUROSTAT, accessed February 27, 2020, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Glossary:Material_deprivation 358 Janček J. “Theories affecting development aid providing,”Acta Missiologica 6, no. 1, (2012): 25-31. https:// www.actamissiologica.com/ 359 Nováček P. “The sustainable development phenomenon: a way out of the global problems of the first half of the 21st century?” Acta Missiologica 9, no. 2, (2015): 33-50. https://www.actamissiologica.com/

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country .360 The equalised disposable income is calculated as the taxed household total income minus other deductions (spending) divided by the number of people in a household .361 According to the latest data 112 8. million people (22 4. % of population) lived at poverty risk or social exclusion in European countries . One of the main aims of the Europe 2020 headline indi- cators is to reduce poverty by about 20 million people (out of the poverty risk or social exclusion) . The lowest percentage of children who live in a household at poverty risk or social exclusion was in Denmark (15 .0%) and the highest in Romania (41 .7 %) . The child poverty is caused by the ed- ucation level, government intervention (income support), and household composition . The most vulnerable group are children of immigrant parents 362. Children are often forced to sleep in bed with their mother and other siblings due to poverty .363 The household income is a key factor in determining the socio-economic outcomes . The higher income level was associated with better education and health . The poverty has opposite effects to the well-being of immigrants (inhibited skills development and poor housing) . Inequi- table income distribution can lead to damaged social cohesion and marginalisation . According to the latest data, household income of immigrants was 17 .000€ per capita in the European Union (about 13 0%. lower than in native-born households) and 15 000€. per capita in OECD (about 17 .0% lower than in native-born households) .364 One-third of the immigrant households are in relative poverty . According to the latest data relative immigrant poverty rate was 44 8%. in Greece, 39 9%. in Spain, 39 1%. in Spain (29 6%. EU total and 32 .9% OECD total) . In-work relative poverty immigrant rate (relative poverty immi- grant rate in employment people) was 32 .4% in Greece, 29 .2% in Cyprus, 29 .0% in Italy (18 .8% EU total and 22 .3% OECD total) .365 The aim of the study was to analyze the impact between risk of poverty rate and immigrants arriving to the European countries .

Material and methods The data for economy and social study were obtained from the European Statistical System . It analyzed 23 .514 .934 immigrants that arrived to the European Union between 2011 and 2017 . The trend analysis of 2011-2017 was analysed by the indicator of average annual percent change (AAPC)366 . Theil-Sen estimator of trend line (median) was used and analyzed by non-

360 “Glossary: At-risk-of-poverty rate,” EUROSTAT, accessed February 27, 2020, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Glossary:At-risk-of-poverty_rate 361 “Glossary: Equivalised disposable income,” EUROSTAT, February 27, 2020, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Glossary:Equivalised_disposable_ in- come 362 “People at risk of poverty or social exclusion,” EUROSTAT, accessed February 27, 2020, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/People_at_risk_of_poverty_or_social_exclus ion 363 Pecháčová D, Jančovičová L. “Street girls in Kenya – the neglected sex,” Acta Missiologica 6, no. 1, (2012): 32-39. https://www.actamissiologica.com/ 364 “Indicators of Immigrant Integration 2015,” OECD, accessed February 27, 2020, https://www.oecd-ilibrary. org/docserver/9789264234024-11-en.pdf?expires=1567500561&id=id&accname=g uest&checksum=CBCD- D678531A7484D8A1FFE0D6A271BE 365 “Indicators of Immigrant Integration 2015,” OECD, accessed February 27, 2020, https://www.oecd-ilibrary. org/docserver/9789264234024-11-en.pdf?expires=1567500561&id=id&accname= guest&checksum=CBCD- D678531A7484D8A1FFE0D6A271BE 366 Clegg LX, Hankey BF, Tiwari R, et al. “Estimating average annual per cent change in trend analysis ,” Statistics in Medicine 28, (2009): 3670–3682. https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.3733

94 ANALYSIS OF THE POVERTY RISK IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES | Pavol Beno, Pavel Stukovsky, Lucia Ludvigh Cintulova, Martin Samohyl

parametric Wilcoxon test367 . This indicator evaluated growth/decline of risk of poverty rate and immigrants’ number in period 2011-2017:

where x was represented input indicator of poverty risk rate or immigrants’ number in year i and in period n . Due to the strong migration crisis in Germany, Greece, France, Hungary and Malta, the years 2015, 2016 and 2017 weren‘t included in the AAPC formula .

Results The average annual percentage change analysis (2011–2017) of poverty risk in selected European countries can be seen in the Table 1 . Significantly the highest AAPC increase of poverty risk was found in Luxembourg (0.23% AAPC). Significantly the highest AAPC decrease of poverty risk was in Finland (-0.16% AAPC). From all European countries, significant AAPC increase of poverty risk was observed in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, , Romania and Norway . In Slovakia, the average annual percent- age chance of poverty risk was found to be -0 .03% . In 2017 the highest risk of poverty rate was observed in Romania (23 .6%) . Expert articles

Table 1 Average annual percentage change analysis (2011–2017) of poverty risk in select- ed European countries

European 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 AAPC of Poverty Countries1 Risk of Poverty (%) Risk2 (%) Estonia 17 .5 17 .5 18 .6 21 .8 -3 -3 -3 0 12*. Latvia 19 .0 19 .2 19 .4 21 .2 22 .5 21 .8 22 1. 0 15*. Lithuania 19 .2 18 .6 20 .6 19 1. 22 .2 21 .9 22 .9 0 16*. Luxembourg 13 .6 15 1. 15 .9 16 .4 15 .3 16 .5 18 7. 0 .23* Netherlands 11 .0 10 1. 10 .4 11 .6 11 .6 12 7. 13 .2 0 16*. Romania 22 .3 22 .9 23 .0 25 1. 25 .4 25 .3 23 .6 0 12*. Finland 13 7. 13 .2 11 .8 12 .8 12 .4 11 .6 11 .5 - 0 16*. Norway 10 .5 10 .0 10 .9 10 .9 11 .9 12 .2 12 .3 0 16*.

1 We present only data from the selected European countries where the significant AAPC of pov- erty risk in 2011-2017 was confirmed. 2 AAPC of poverty risk from 2011 to 2017 3 data were not included in the calculation due to bias – migration crisis in this country *p<0.05 The average annual percentage change analysis (2011–2017) of number of immigrants in se- lected European countries can be seen in the Table 2 . From all European countries, the highest AAPC increase of number of immigrants was ob- served in the Czech Republic (1 26%;. p<0 01). . AAPC increase of number of immigrants was

367 Sen PK. “Estimates of Regression Coefficient Based on Kendall’s tau,” Journal of the American Statistical Asso- ciation 63, (1968): 1379-1389. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1968.10480934

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found in Malta (p<0 .01), Iceland (p<0 .01), Bulgaria (p<0 .05), Germany (p<0 .05), Ireland (p<0 .05), Croatia (p<0 .05), Lithuania (p<0 .05), Hungary (p<0 .05), Netherlands (p<0 .05), Austria (p<0 .05), Poland (p<0 .05), Portugal (p<0 .05) and Slovakia (p<0 .05) . Linear regression between AAPC of number of immigrants and AAPC of poverty risk in Eu- ropean Union can be seen in the Figure 1 . The relationship between AAPC of number of immigrants and AAPC of poverty risk is de- creasing . It was observed with decrease of poverty risk AAPC, it was the most increasing AAPC of number of immigrants in Finland . If the AAPC of poverty risk increases by 1 0%,. the AAPC of number of immigrants will decrease by 1.2% as confirmed in our socio-economic model.

Table 2 The average annual percentage change analysis (2011–2017) of number of immi- grants in selected European countries.

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 AAPC European of Immi- Countries1 Number of immigrants (n) grants2 (%) Bulgaria -3 14,103 18,570 26,615 25,223 21,241 25,597 0 .58* Czechia 27,114 34,337 30,124 29,897 29,602 64,083 51,847 1 .26** Germany 489,422 592,175 692,713 884,893 -4 -4 -4 0 .47* Ireland 57,292 61,324 65,539 73,519 80,792 85,185 78,499 0 .40* Croatia 8,534 8,959 10,378 10,638 11,706 13,985 15,553 0 .55* Lithuania 15,685 19,843 22,011 24,294 22,130 20,162 20,368 0 .30* Hungary 28,018 33,702 38,968 54,581 -4 -4 -4 0 .49* Malta 5,465 8,256 10,897 14,454 -4 -4 -4 0 .94** Netherlands 130,118 124,566 129,428 145,323 166,872 189,232 189,646 0 .40* Austria 82,230 91,557 101,866 116,262 166,323 129,509 111,801 0 .55* Poland 157,059 217,546 220,311 222,275 218,147 208,302 209,353 0 .34* Portugal 19,667 14,606 17,554 19,516 29,896 29,925 36,639 0 .63* Slovakia 4,829 5,419 5,149 5,357 6,997 7,686 7,188 0 .51* Iceland 4,073 4,960 6,406 5,368 5,635 8,710 12,116 1 .01**

1 We present only the data from selected European countries where the statistical significance of AAPC of immigrant´s number was confirmed in 2011-2017. 2 AAPC of immigrant’s number from 2011 to 2017 3 data was not available 4 data were not included in the calculation due to bias – migration crisis in this country *p<0.05 **p<0.01

96 ANALYSIS OF THE POVERTY RISK IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES | Pavol Beno, Pavel Stukovsky, Lucia Ludvigh Cintulova, Martin Samohyl Expert articles Figure 1. Linear regression between AAPC of number of immigrants and AAPC of pov- erty risk.

Discussion Migration is one of the natural phenomenon in the human history and has a strong impact on the world economy . Lack of economic prospects, poverty, disparities in income levels are the main reasons for migration .368

Poverty is a complex issue in the globalized world . Poverty is considered a social problem, social deviance (a behavior and an action what violates social norms, including a formally en- acted rule e g. . crime, and informal violations of social norms e g. . rejecting folkways), or social pathology (analyzing of social problems e .g . alcoholism what views them as the social organism diseased conditions) . Lots of poverty people live in conditions are very unstable and areas what are filled with crime. Crime and poverty go hand in hand. In the Jütte study369 analysing of devi- ance and poverty it was observed people in poverty who found survival own patterns in these communities . The main factor that affects immigrant poverty is their participation in labor force . Despite the fact that there is a group of people who try to improve their life situation, the immigrants are unable to get out of poverty .370

368 Gul A, Naz A, Khan N. Causes and Social Implication of Migration to the Middle East (A Case Study of Village Zarobi/Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Clinical Social Work and Health Intervention 10, no. 2, (2019): 43-52. DOI 10.22359/cswhi_10_2 369 Jütte R. Poverty and Deviance in Early Modern Europe (Cambridgen: Cambridge University Press, 1994). 370 Czarnecki P. “Social pedagogy, social policy and the system of care and social assistance – how to keep human dignity at the center of the discussion?,” Acta Missiologica 12, no. 1, (2018): 54-62. https://www.actamissiologi- ca.com/

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In comparison to their counterparts, immigrant children experience socioeconomic depri- vation .371 More authors confirmed that unstable household income of immigrant families might negatively influence the academic achievements of children.372 Immigrants present a special pas- toral challenge .373 Assistance to poor and hungry people should be a fundamental search activity of Christianity374 . The study by Eugster375 analysing immigrants’ social rights in 19 industrialised countries found out that traditional family programmes reduce poverty of immigrants in countries where they were granted easier access to paid social and employment benefits. The highest AAPC of poverty risk was observed in Luxembourg (0 .23% AAPC) . The fact can be explained by high housing costs (42 .0% of the disposable income) and household spending . In 2015, the average median income in Luxembourg was 35,270€ per year (the poverty risk threshold was 21,162€ per year) . The guaranteed minimum income is one of the main ways how to fight social exclusion and poverty.376 The highest AAPC of number of immigrants was observed in the Czech Republic (1 26%). . The number can be explained by low income inequality (0 25;. 0=complete equality and 1=to- tal inequality)377, annual growth of household disposable income (1 9%). 378. Despite the fact that the world’s wealth is growing, inequalities are increasing 379. Most immigrants who moved to the Czech Republic came from Ukraine (8 900),. Slovakia (3 900),. Romania (1 500),. and Bulgaria (1 .400) .380 One of the most vulnerable groups at risk of poverty are the children of immigrants . Nearly 50% of immigrant children are raised in households with some type of public assistance .381 A country’s risk of poverty is a strong indicator for immigrants, which was confirmed in our study . The higher a country’s risk of poverty, the less immigrants come to that country . The pov- erty rate of a country affects immigrants in their decisions . In most countries the gap between poor and rich is at its highest since 30 years . Today, the richest 10% of people earn 9 6. times the income of the poorest 10% of people in OECD coun- tries . The growing inequality harmfuls for longterm economic growth (beyond impact on social

371 Van Hook J, Brown SI, Kwenda MN. “A decomposition of trends in poverty among children of immigrants,” Demography 41, no. 4 (2004): 649-670. https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.2004.0038 372 Barr MS. No Slack: The Financial Lives of Low-Income Americans (Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2012). 373 Bargár P. “’Blessed be ye poor’: the poor in ’together towards life’, ’the cape town commitment’, and ’evangelii gaudium’,” Acta Missiologica 9, no. 2, (2015): 22-32. https://www.actamissiologica.com/ 374 Mátel A. “Social help in the era of apostolic fathers and apologists,” Acta Missiologica 5, no. 2, (2011): 24-30. https://www.actamissiologica.com/ 375 Eugster B. “Immigrants and poverty, and conditionality of immigrants’ social rights,” Journal of European Social Policy 28, no. 5, (2018): 452-470, https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928717753580 376 STATEC. “Luxembourgin Figures,” https://statistiques.public.lu/catalogue-publications/luxembourg-en-chif- fres/2017/luxembourg-figures.pdf 377 “Income inequality,” OECD, accessed February 27, 2020, https://data.oecd.org/inequality/income-inequality. htm 378 “Household disposable income,” OECD, accessed February 27, 2020, https://data.oecd.org/hha/house- hold-disposable-income.htm 379 Pierli F, Ratti MT. “Social transformation: a constitutive component of the new paradigm of the missionary theology and praxis. Acta Missiologica 8, no. 2, (2014): 5-21. https://www.actamissiologica.com/ 380 “Pohyb obyvatelstva - 1. - 3. čtvrtletí 2018,” CZSO, accessed February 27, 2020, https://www.czso.cz/csu/czso/ cri/pohyb-obyvatelstva-1-3-ctvrtleti-2018 381 Borjas GJ. “Poverty and program participation among immigrant children,” Future Child 21, no. 1, (201): 247-66. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21465863

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cohesion). Females have made significance progress in narrowing the participation. Worldwide, the wealth is more concentrated than income: 10% of wealthiest households (on average) hold half of total wealth and the next 50% of wealthiest households hold the other half of total wealth . The reduction of growing divide between poor and rich requires: (a) participation in economic life of females (elimination of unequal treatment of females and males in the labor market, removal of barriers females career progression), (b) good quality jobs and employment promotion, (c) skills and education (upgrading of skills during the working life) .382 Very little economic literature studies immigrant poverty . The poverty rates are higher in im- migrants coming from low and middle income countries outside the European Union .383

Conclusion Our results confirmed that the ranking of country for immigrants is influenced by the poverty rate in this country . The highest AAPC of poverty risk was observed in Luxembourg and the highest AAPC of im- migrant’s number was found in the Czech Republic . Based on the results of our study, we recommend that: (a) countries should make greater use of social instruments to actively intervene in the prevention of poverty, and to alleviate its most extreme manifestations, (b) countries should participate more on creating a socio-economic context that may be more or less inclusive (promoting childcare in kindergartens that positively impact parents’ participation in the labour market) . At the conceptual level, cities need to be involved in the reform of the concept of social housing . Expert articles We plan to analyze the relationship between selected predictors (health status, social re- lations, unemployment, and social exclusion) of poverty and number of immigrants in selected European countries in another study . We have observed several negative consequences that coronavirus disease-2019 (COV- ID-19) infection will have on increasing risk of poverty . COVID-19 has negatively affected coun- tries of Europe leading to a national emergency with healthcare and economic impact propelling the countries into an economic recession with disrupted lifestyle (schools, nurseries, etc ,. are closed), not known in recent history . WHO and national governments and agencies have attempt- ed to organize intensive programs utilizing appropriate (ordinary and extraordinary) preventive and economic measures . Many parents and children will suffer by negative social and economic impacts of those measures needed to mastering of the pandemic . It is needed to minimize regu- latory burden so that patients with COVID-19 will have access to health care regardless to their financial circumstance. COVID-19 is a potential public health problem for homeless populations It is very probable that COVID-19 will be transmitted to people experiencing homelessness . The measures should include e g. . provisional housing units or alternative spaces for quaran- tine) of those people during epidemic stage/period . A population who does not have a stable job or is dependent on casual work can lose their jobs and cannot repay a mortgage because they have few savings . They may lose an apartment or home ownership, which may increase the risk of poverty . The solution could be to support the banks in postponing monthly mortgage payments for the duration of COVID-19 epidemic. Home office and flexible working hours and the utilization of psychological help without stigmatization seem to be particularly important measures . COVID-19 is a global crisis . Health and social professional workers are confronted

382 OECD. It Together: Why Less Inequality Benefits All (Paris: OECD Publishing, 2015). 383 Caner A, Pedersen PJ. “Does Poverty Among Immigrants Adapt toCountry of Residence? Turks in Germany and Denmark,” International Migration 57, no. 1, (2019): 264-280. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12522

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with specific stressors and risk for mental health. It is essential that governments, international organizations, charitable donors step up efforts to improve both the health and social protection of marginalized population groups . For the international community looking into the area covered by our article, it is mapping the risk of poverty for the period 2011-2017 (23, 5514,934 immigrants) . Countries in the European Economic Area are moving towards the ‘limited sustained transmission’ phase . In our paper, we point out the possibility of use and application as an indicator of the percentage change of new indicator, which is AAPC . This indicator evaluates the trend and results more accurately than the percentage change indicator . Results of our study were validated on the basis of the non-parametric Wilcoxon test and are applicable to both scientific theory and practice in an effort to prevent an exponential increase in the risk of poverty of citizens .

Bibliography Adamkovič M, Martončík M. “A Review of Consequences of Poverty on Economic Decision-Making: A Hypoth- esized Model of a Cognitive Mechanism,” Frontiers in psychology. 8, no. 1, (2017): 1784. https://doi.org/10.3389/ fpsyg.2017.01784 Bargár P. “’Blessed be ye poor’: the poor in ’together towards life’, ’the cape town commitment’, and ’evangelii gaudium’,” Acta Missiologica 9, no. 2, (2015): 22-32. https://www.actamissiologica.com/ Barr MS. No Slack: The Financial Lives of Low-Income Americans. Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2012. Borjas GJ. “Poverty and program participation among immigrant children,” Future Child 21, no. 1, (201): 247-66. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21465863 Caner A, Pedersen PJ. “Does Poverty Among Immigrants Adapt toCountry of Residence? Turks in Germany and Denmark,” International Migration 57, no. 1, (2019): 264-280. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12522 Clegg LX, Hankey BF, Tiwari R, et al. “Estimating average annual per cent change in trend analysis ,” Statistics in Medicine 28, (2009): 3670–3682. https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.3733 Czarnecki P. “Social pedagogy, social policy and the system of care and social assistance – how to keep human dignity at the center of the discussion?,” Acta Missiologica 12, no. 1, (2018): 54-62. https://www.actamissio- logica.com/ CZSO. “Pohyb obyvatelstva - 1. - 3. čtvrtletí 2018.” Accessed February 27, 2020. https://www.czso.cz/csu/czso/ cri/pohyb-obyvatelstva-1-3-ctvrtleti-2018 Eugster B. “Immigrants and poverty, and conditionality of immigrants’ social rights,” Journal of European Social Policy 28, no. 5, (2018): 452-470, https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928717753580 EUROSTAT. “Glossary: At-risk-of-poverty rate.” Accessed February 27, 2020. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ statistics-explained/index.php/Glossary:At-risk-of-poverty_rate EUROSTAT. “Glossary: Equivalised disposable income” Accessed February 27, 2020. https://ec.europa.eu/eu- rostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Glossary:Equivalised_disposable_ income EUROSTAT. “Glossary: Material deprivation.” Accessed February 27, 2020. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/sta- tistics-explained/index.php/Glossary:Material_deprivation EUROSTAT. “People at risk of poverty or social exclusion.” Accessed February 27, 2020. https://ec.europa.eu/ eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/People_at_risk_of_poverty_or_social_exclus ion FSO. “Poverty and material deprivation.” Accessed February 27, 2020,

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https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/economic-social-situation-population/econom- ic-and-social-situation-of-the-population/poverty-and-material-deprivation.html Gul A, Naz A, Khan N. Causes and Social Implication of Migration to the Middle East (A Case Study of Village Zarobi/Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Clinical Social Work and Health Intervention 10, no. 2, (2019): 43-52. Jour- nal DOI 10.22359/cswhi Issue DOI 10.22359/cswhi_10_2 Janček J. “Theories affecting development aid providing,” Acta Missiologica 6, no. 1, (2012): 25-31. https:// www.actamissiologica.com/ Jütte R. Poverty and Deviance in Early Modern Europe (Cambridgen: Cambridge University Press, 1994). Lade SJ, Haider LJ, Engström G, et al. “Resilience offers escape from trapped thinking on poverty alleviation,” Science advances Vol. 3, no. 5, (2017): e1603043 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1603043 Mátel A. “Social help in the era of apostolic fathers and apologists,” Acta Missiologica 5, no. 2, (2011): 24-30. https://www.actamissiologica.com/ Naz A, Khan H, Khan T, et al. “Social and Cultural Determinants of Child Labor in Pakistan,” Clinical Social Work and Health Intervention 10, no. 2, (2019): 80-92. Issue DOI 10.22359/cswhi_10_2 Nováček P. “The sustainable development phenomenon: a way out of the global problems of the first half of the 21st century?” Acta Missiologica 9, no. 2, (2015): 33-50. https://www.actamissiologica.com/ OECD. “Household disposable income.” Accessed February 27, 2020. https://data.oecd.org/hha/house- hold-disposable-income.htm Expert articles OECD. “Income inequality.” Accessed February 27, 2020. https://data.oecd.org/inequality/income-inequality. htm OECD. “Indicators of Immigrant Integration 2015.” Accessed February 27, 2020. https://www.oecd-ilibrary. org/docserver/9789264234024-11-en.pdf?expires=1567500561&id=id&accname=g uest&checksum=CBCD- D678531A7484D8A1FFE0D6A271BE OECD. It Together: Why Less Inequality Benefits All. Paris: OECD Publishing, 2015. Pecháčová D, Jančovičová L. “Street girls in Kenya – the neglected sex,” Acta Missiologica 6, no. 1, (2012): 32-39. https://www.actamissiologica.com/ Pierli F, Ratti MT. “Social transformation: a constitutive component of the new paradigm of the missionary theology and praxis. Acta Missiologica 8, no. 2, (2014): 5-21. https://www.actamissiologica.com/ Sen PK. “Estimates of Regression Coefficient Based on Kendall’s tau,” Journal of the American Statistical Asso- ciation 63, (1968): 1379-1389. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1968.10480934 STATEC. “Luxembourgin Figures,” https://statistiques.public.lu/catalogue-publications/luxembourg-en-chif- fres/2017/luxembourg-figures.pdf Ullah S, Naz A, Khan W, et al. “Struggling for Survival: The Intricate Relationship between Poverty & Hiv/Aids In District Dir Lower, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” Clinical Social Work and Health Intervention 10, no. 2, (2019): 101- 109. Issue DOI 10.22359/cswhi_10_2

Van Hook J, Brown SI, Kwenda MN. “A decomposition of trends in poverty among children of immigrants,” Demography 41, no. 4 (2004): 649-670. https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.2004.0038

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DIALOGUE AS A PERSONAL TOOL OF INTEGRATION OF MIGRANTS*384

Martin Dojčár ✉ 385

Faculty of Education, Trnava University in Trnava (SK): Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research (MN, US)

Submitted: 15 August 2019 Accepted for publication: 26 February 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract Backround: In his study, the author discusses the possibilities of implementation of dia- logue within the processes of facilitation of integration of migrants . He provides two basic arguments for the purpose: the one based on relational understanding of dialogue as an interpersonal event as developed in the philosophy of dialogue, that is as an encounter of autonomous individuals based on the principles of mutuality and finality; the other one based on European historical experience with xenophobia, which must be taken seriously into consideration in this regard . Finally, he illustrates the idea of dialogue as an alternative to the conflict on an example of Charles de Foucauld, a renowned Catholic proponent of the Christian-Muslim dialogue . Conclusion: Both Christians and Muslims can propose a reference to the value-based sense of life to the present “hyperconsumer civilization”, as described and philosophically analyzed by Gilles Lipovetsky, but only under the condition that they will proclaim it with their own lives .

Keywords: Dialogue, Integration, Migration, Xenophobia, Charles de Foucauld

Introduction There is a wide range of meanings of the notion of dialogue as we pointed out in the previous issue of Acta Missiologica (2019, no 2, vol 13) specifically devoted to this very topic . Among them, there appeared one linking together various approaches and de- scribing dialogue not as a mere exercise in dialectics but rather as dialogical coexistence – a dialogical way of coping with the other .386 In this study, we are going to have a closer look at the possibilities of implementation of dialogue within the processes of facilitation of integration of migrants . In order to do so, we provide two basic arguments: the one based on relational understanding of dialogue as an interpersonal event as developed in the philosophy of dialogue, that is as an encounter of autonomous individuals based on the principles of mutuality and finality; the other one based on European historical expe- rience with xenophobia, which must be taken seriously into consideration in this regard .

384 This article is an outcome of the project VEGA 1/0056/19 Moral Reflection as a Primary Component of * Character Education under Conditions of Implementation of the School Subject Ethical Education. ✉ Contact on author: Doc. PaedDr. Martin Dojčár, PhD. – email: [email protected] 386 “Editorial.“ Acta Missiologica, 13, no. 2, (2019): 6. https://www.actamissiologica.com/

102 DIALOGUE AS A PERSONAL TOOL OF INTEGRATION OF MIGRANTS | Martin Dojčár

Migration as a Catalyst of Xenophobia The initial experience of migrants in the environment of a host society with culture that differs from their own can be characterized as cultural shock, in other words as a crisis situation . The initial experience of members of a host society in relation to migrants with culture that differs from their own can be equally characterized as cultural shock, in oth- er words also as a crisis situation . In this very experience of cultural shock xenophobia originates .

In short, xenophobia can be described as a fear of what is alien and thus unknown and different to what we are familiar with as we pointed out in our previous in-depth monographic study The Problem of Global Coexistence .387 The unknown and different is perceived as incomprehensible and threatening in regard to one’s own identity, i .e . as an experience that we are not able to integrate into the complex of our own life experiences at a given moment .

Xenophobia has various forms . No matter the form, it is always based on a sense that our identity is somehow threatened . By the identity we mean an image of who we are, or a concept that we create about ourselves as individuals as well as communities 388. It is this self-image that we consider to be at risk in contact with otherness .

Xenophobia consequently determines the integration of migrants into the host society . Expert articles In concretum, migration can catalyze xenophobic attitudes, while at the same time it can also catalyze the processes of critical reflection of one’s identity on personal, interperson- al and social levels . Therefore, xenophobia is not the only possible response to cultural, ethnic or religious diversity .

Xenophobia appears to be a reactive response to a crisis situation . From the perspec- tive of moral quality, it corresponds with the notion of actus hominis, an “act of a human” . On the other hand, critical reflection of one’s own identity is the opposite representing one form of fully human response to a life challenge, which corresponds with the moral notion of actus humanus, a “human act” .

In above mentioned context, the question arises: How can we facilitate this process of fully human response to a crisis situation within the context of integration of migrants into our societies?

We do not intend here to discuss the issue from a juridical or, let’s say, a political point of view, but instead, we are looking for anthropological bases that could ground these processes universally with regard to universally valid attributes of human existence, and thus our approach is philosophical by its nature .

387 Martin Dojčár, Problém globálneho spolužitia: antropologické východisko (Bratislava: Veda, 2012), 23–24. 388 At this point we particularly refer to our philosophical analysis of identity in the context of self-transcendence published recently in my book: Martin Dojčár, Self-Transcendence and Prosociality (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2017), 38–39.

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Dialogue as a Tool of Facilitating the Integration of Migrants The answer can be expressed in a single word: dialogue. We find the anthropological bases of the process of integration in dialogue . But not primary in dialogue as a form of communication, but rather in its form of interpersonal event, that is, an encounter of au- tonomous persons based on the principles of mutuality and finality .389

In its basal form, i .e . dialogue as a form of communication, a plurality of views of reality is assumed . The dialogical form of communication is therefore based on understanding of reality as complex phenomena on the part of a cognitive object and the plurality of per- spectives on the part of a cognitive subject . In dialogical interaction, there is consequently an appreciating confrontation of partial views of reality, provided that this confrontation can lead to a more complete view – to a fuller understanding of reality . An authentic di- alogue thus begins by recognizing the limitations of our particular view, that is our ideas and models of reality . When opens up a space of free exchange and a creative search for understanding on the bases of equal opportunities, dialogue affirms the legitimacy of others in their ethnical, cultural, religious and personal autonomy .

In the narrower sense, dialogue as an interpersonal event is to be understood as an encounter of individuals based on equality and aiming for common interest in mutual understanding or cooperation . The characteristic feature of this form of dialogue is an “encounter” (Jolana Poláková), “mutuality” (Martin Buber), in other words relationship that transforms a gathering of aliens into a community of friends . An authentic dialogue presupposes a relationship – an interpersonal encounter that can grow into “friendship” . 390 This is the core of the message of philosophers of dialogue of the 20th century, such as Martin Buber, Emmanuel Lévinas, or Jolana Poláková, where the notion of dialogue as an interpersonal event was elaborated in response to the two greatest tragedies of the previous century – the crisis of values caused by the First World War and the crisis of democracy caused by the rule of totalitarian dictatorships in Europe (e g. . Communism and National Socialism). These thinkers identified the causes of the crisis of European civilization in neglecting the human interpersonal dimension: they realized that fully hu- man existence presupposes relationship in which one human relates to the other in an interpersonal way .391

The current migration crisis is another crisis that has hit European civilization, and the same is true of it: fully human existence presupposes human relationship . Sure, the idea is not new, but our point aims at stressing the historical context of the idea – it arises from a reflection of a concrete historical experience of Europeans. Therefore, it has to be perceived within this historical context, not as a result of theoretical speculation .

The difference between the two modalities of dialogue can be illustrated on an exam- ple of two notions of dialogue – Socratic and Buberian . In his maieutics, Socrates deals primarily with knowledge and emphasizes dialectics assuming that knowledge is latent

389 Dojčár, “Problém globálneho spolužitia,” 66. 390 William Johnston, Hledání nové spirituality (Brno: Portál, 1997), 47. 391 Jolana Poláková, “Několik poznámek ke smyslu dialogu,” Filosofický časopis46, no. 3, (1998): 465–466.

104 DIALOGUE AS A PERSONAL TOOL OF INTEGRATION OF MIGRANTS | Martin Dojčár

inherently in humans and only needs to be “brought into the world” through dialogue 392. Here, also “recognition of multiple approaches to values” is required, as philosopher Radovan Šoltés points out.393

On the other hand, Martin Buber deals primarily with the interpersonal level of di- alogue based on the foundations of mutuality . For him, the key element in dialogue is “interpersonal encounter” of the “I and Thou” 394. “Relationship is mutuality,”395 he writes, and every “real life is an encounter” .396

Following Buberian thinking, we prefer to interpret mutuality in terms of human inner capacity for relationship . As social beings we all inevitably depend on our relationships with others who always remain others in their otherness no matter how close they are to us . Recognition, acceptance and understanding of otherness of the other is a way of dialogue – it is the middle way between the cheap tolerance or indolence on one side, and xenophobia or conflict on the other one. As such it is a noble way of those who have reached personal maturity and are able to act accordingly in a fully human way (actus humanus) .

This is the sense in which an authentic dialogue presupposes relationship – an inter- personal encounter that includes, among others, hospitality and solidarity and can grow into friendship . In this way, a “disturbing experience of a stranger” (Hans Waldenfels) may Expert articles become a challenge in dialogue to open up to the otherness of the other; it may become an opportunity to enter into encounter; it may be the beginning of a personal relationship that can result in mutual understanding and coexistence of those involved in it .

It is this relational dimension of mutuality that inspires us to consider dialogue as an anthropological bases of integration of migrants, as a tool among tools of facilitating the process in its bipolar dynamics as described above . Moreover, the notion of dialogue based on mutuality, e g. . on an encounter of autonomous human beings, is perceived from the perspective of European historical experience – it’s an answer that takes this experience seriously and draws lessons from it .

We would like to illustrate the idea on an example of Charles de Foucauld, a renowned Roman Catholic proponent of Christian-Muslim dialogue . Foucauld embodied the per- sonal dimension of the dialogue without even talking about it . The very way of his life was essentially dialogical . This dialogical nature of his life was born at the same moment as his vocation was born . Foucauld used to describe it as the “Nazareth’s life” .

Charles de Foucauld: Dialogue as a Bases of Christian-Muslim Encounter In a letter to Henri de Castries, Charles de Foucauld also describes his vision of life in terms of hospitality to everyone . The Nazareth’s life is built, in his own words, on

392 Pavel Hošek, Na cestě k dialogu: křesťanská víra v pluralitě náboženství (Praha: Návrat Domů, 2005), 149. 393 Radovan Šoltés, Politika a etika v živote kresťana (Prešov: GTF PU, 2017), 185. 394 Martin Buber, Já a ty (Praha: Kalich, 2005), 38–39. 395 Buber, “Já a ty,” 48. 396 Buber, “Já a ty,” 44.

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“providing hospitality to every visitor, whether good or bad, friend or enemy, Muslim or Christian .”397 Foucauld’s concept of hospitality is linked to the concept of brotherhood . He had only gradually learned that the core of his mission consists in building bridges by being a “brother of all” . “I wish,” he formulates the idea, “that all the inhabitants, Christians, Mus- lims, pagans, would see me as their brother, brother of all.”398 In this way – as a “brother of all”, as a bridges builder – Charles de Foucauld bears witness of his Christian life: he proclaims Christ by a dialogical way of his own existence embodying the personal dimen- sion of the dialogue in its aspect of interpersonal event .

Nevertheless, it took him years to come to this understanding that can be described philosophically in terms of the dialogical way of existence . When in 1897, after more than six years in Syria, Foucauld left a poor rural Trappist monastery and moved to Palestine in order to serve and pray there for four years at the Pure Claire’s Convent in Nazareth, he finally discovered what he had been looking for since the very beginning of his religious vocation . Over there, in Nazareth, he found his way of life . It is an original blend of con- templation, manual labor and proclamation . What differs it from a long Catholic tradition of religious life is his view of the latter. To him proclamation cannot solely be identified with preaching or teaching . Little brother Charles embodies a new form of proclamation – a proclamation with his life! He wants to bear witness of Christ by an example of his own life! In this way, brother Charles “shouts the Gospel with his life” . “Our whole life we must cry out that we belong to Jesus,” he describes the specifics of his view. Our“ whole being must be a living proclamation, a reflection of Jesus.”399

Foucauld was eagerly wishing to bear witness to Christ particularly to Muslims . In 1901 he received a priestly ordination in order to have access to the Eucharist that always stood in the center of his religious life, and afterwards he left for the Sahara and settled down in the Algerian oasis of Beni-Abbes near the Algerian border with Morocco . There he perfectly adapted himself to the local culture by being dressed as a Berber, having meals as a Berber, and so on . Along with this cultural appropriation, he had been further developing his vision of the Nazareth’s life in the community of brothers . He described it as follows in the already mentioned letter to Henri de Castries: “In the border area with Morocco, I would like to establish a monastery not of the Trappists, not a great and wealthy one, not a farmhouse, but a kind of small modest hermitage in which a few poor monks could live on fruits and barley grown by the work of their hands, in a strict cloister, in repentance and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, … not dedicated to preaching, but providing hospitality to every visitor, whether good or bad, friend or enemy, Muslim or Christian .”400

Later he described his ideal in terms of “cordial relationship” wishing: “To become all for all, to give them all to Jesus – to have goodness and brotherly love for them; to serve

397 Charles de Foucauld, Boh je láska (Bratislava: Oto Németh, 1998), 41. 398 Michel Lafon, 15 dní s Karlem de Foucauldem (Brno: Cesta, 2000), 56. 399 Foucauld, “Boh je láska,” 37. 400 Foucauld, “Boh je láska,” 41.

106 DIALOGUE AS A PERSONAL TOOL OF INTEGRATION OF MIGRANTS | Martin Dojčár

them as much as possible; to establish a cordial relationship with them; to be a gentle brother to them, to bring them slowly to Jesus, embodying the mildness of Jesus.”401

Charles de Foucauld was far ahead of his time . At a time when Christian proclamation had been mainly focused on the preaching and teaching of Christian faith, brother Charles pushed forward and strongly promoted an anthropologically primordial and theologically basic form of proclamation – proclamation with one’s own existence . He himself demon- strated the theological thesis on dialogical way of existence as the fundamental form of the mission that we have developed in our recent study Dialogue as a Form of Proclama- tion arguing that the dialogical way of existence precedes all forms of missionary activity as the primary form of proclamation that recognizes, accepts and values the very being of another person as desired and created by God in its inalienable dignity and unconditional autonomy theologically derived from the creation of humans as Imago Dei .402

Conclusion Put together, the above-mentioned reasoning results in the following conclusions: In an ethnically, culturally and religiously diverse environment of the present world, dialogue is not only one option of mutual interaction among others; it is an alternative to the conflict as European historical experience teaches us . Based on mutuality, the dialogue offers a chance to stop the heritage of the conflict by being a tool among tools of facilitating the integration of migrants . Expert articles In its interpersonal aspect based on “mutuality”, dialogue directly challenges xenopho- bia in all its forms. The current global situation of COVID-19 pandemic amplified this fear of what is alien and thus unknown and different to what we are familiar with even more than before . Paradoxically, migrants are no more considered the main threat; our close neighbors are suddenly also perceived as protentional danger . The other hidden behind the mask we are currently wearing in order to protect ourselves against the virus has become a stranger . Ultimately there is no difference between the stranger hidden behind the mask and the one migrating from abroad . They all are now threatening us .

Here again dialogue can productively come into play . By opening space for the other – the one we share with the same humanity – the same threats, fears, worries . .

Dialogue can also be at help in addressing the current crisis of values as manifested in the consumer mentality widely spread across the whole Western world . Rehabilitation of values on a religious basis offers a chance to Christians and Muslims to come back to the public domain as their respected promoters . Both Christians and Muslims can propose a reference to the value-based sense of life to the present “hyperconsumer civilization”, as described and philosophically analyzed by Gilles Lipovetsky,403 but only under the condition that they will proclaim it with their own lives .

401 Foucauld, “Boh je láska,” 57. 402 Martin Dojčár, “Dialogue as a Form of Proclamation,” Acta Missiologica 12, no. 2, (2018): 40–49. https://www. actamissiologica.com/ 403 Gilles Lipovetsky, Paradoxní štěstí (Praha: Prostor, 2007), 30 ; Bernhard Waldenfels, Znepokojivá zkušenost cizího. (Praha: Oikoymenh, 1998). etc.

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Bibliography Buber, Martin. Já a ty. Praha: Kalich, 2005. Dojčár, Martin. Self-Transcendence and Prosociality. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2017. Dojčár, Martin. “Dialogue as a Form of Proclamation,” Acta Missiologica 12, no. 2, (2018): 40–49. https://www.actamissiologica.com/ Dojčár, Martin. Problém globálneho spolužitia: antropologické východisko. Bratislava: Veda, 2012. “Editorial.“ Acta Missiologica, 13, no. 2, (2019): 6. https://www.actamissiologica.com/ Foucauld, Charles de. Boh je láska. Bratislava: Oto Németh, 1998. Hošek, Pavel. Na cestě k dialogu: křesťanská víra v pluralitě náboženství. Praha: Návrat Domů, 2005. Johnston, William. Hledání nové spirituality. Brno: Portál, 1997. Lafon, Michel. 15 dní s Karlem de Foucauldem. Brno: Cesta, 2000. Lipovetsky, Gilles. Paradoxní štěstí. Praha: Prostor, 2007. Poláková, Jolana. “Několik poznámek ke smyslu dialogu,” Filosofický časopis 46, no. 3, (1998): 465–472. Šoltés, Radovan. Politika a etika v živote kresťana. Prešov: GTF PU, 2017. Waldenfels, Bernhard. Znepokojivá zkušenost cizího. Praha: Oikoymenh, 1998.

108 NEW, SPECIFIC POSSIBILITIES OF REHABILITATION FOR REGAINING COGNITIVE ABILITIES | Ján Mašán

NEW, SPECIFIC POSSIBILITIES OF REHABILITATION FOR REGAINING COGNITIVE ABILITIES

404 Ján Mašán ✉

University of Thessaly (GR)

Submitted: 11 Juny 2019 Accepted for publication: 13 April 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract Background: In the current technically advanced world, patients with various impair- ments of cognitive abilities can enjoy cognitive rehabilitation, cognitive education or re- motely via accessible telerehabilitation carried out with the support of modern telecom- munication technologies . The concept of cognitive training and cognitive rehabilitation involves training and correction of the cognitive deficit. A modern method for this is Virtual Reality, which creates an emotionally positive and stimulating environment for the patient in space and time . Expert articles Conclusion: Telerehabilitation provides specific rehabilitation options for the return of cognitive abilities . It is carried out with the support of modern telecommunication tech- nologies regardless of the location of the client/patient . Telerehabilitation can be deliv- ered from any place using telecommunication networks and the Internet . In the current period of the Coronavirus pandemic, these rehabilitation methods constitute a huge ben- efit in preventing the spread of this virus. The use of various forms of virtual cognitive rehabilitation are more beneficial and popular in modern contemporary rehabilitation treatment activities . Further research into telerehabilitation is being carried out on the basis of non-invasive brain stimulation with the purpose of effective practical application of the results in the everyday practical life of patients .

Keywords: Cognitive abilities – Cognitive rehabilitation – Training – Virtual Reality . Tel- erehabilitation .

Introduction New specific rehabilitation opportunities for patients fighting various impairments of cognitive abilities can rely on non-pharmacological interventions such as cognitive re- habilitation and cognitive education . In the contemporary world, telerehabilitation is very beneficial since there is no need to meet in person; everything can take place via modern technology. This paper briefly describes some specifics of cognitive rehabilitation, virtual rehabilitation and telerehabilitation . Cognitive rehabilitation for correction of impaired cognitive functions is becoming relevant not only in neurological and psychiatric pathologies such as traumatic brain injuries, cerebrovascular accidents, psychiatric pathologies, dementia, multiple sclerosis

✉ Contact on author: MUDr. Ján Mašán, PhD. – email: [email protected]

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or schizophrenia, but also in improving the cognitive abilities of the whole population in human ontogenesis .405 Cognitive training and cognitive rehabilitation may be considered as concepts which encompass training and correction of cognitive deficits. They involve a path from the basic training of attention, training of spatial visualization, speech, count- ing, and visual perception to training of higher cognitive functions such as solving logical tasks . Such cognitive stimulation is also performed by computers using new technolo- gies. The benefit of computers is that they use more attractive and motivating stimuli and are easier to control . One such method is by using Virtual Reality in an emotionally positive environment .

Virtual Reality as part of rehabilitation In a virtual environment modelled using a computer simulation, visual experience is usually created on a PC screen; in more complex cases senses such as hearing, smell and touch are also stimulated . The basis of Virtual Reality is the effort to create a real world with all of its laws and rules, to move within three-dimensional space and in real time . Smartphones or computer consoles such as Playstation are used for the performance of Virtual Reality . Objects placed in a virtual world are three-dimensional or create the impression of being such . Users may enter the virtual world, and move inside it by walking, flying or jumping, as the virtual world is not static. Virtual bodies move across animation curves and influence users. Virtual Reality can be used in rehabilitation inputs not only in mobility difficulty but also in cognitive impairments. It is clear from clinical rehabilitation that functional restitution of movement is determined mostly by the individual quality of cognitive functions . . The thoughts of movement may be divided into visual and kinaesthetic . In visual imagining, an individual observes and in kinetic form performs a cer- tain activity . This form of cognitive education is led by an instructor and is often accompanied by motivational training . Cognitive rehabilitation can currently be provided to a large extent also in the domestic environment in the form of telerehabilitation .

Providing rehabilitation services remotely Telerehabilitation is performed through the support of modern telecommunication technol- ogies and its main purpose is the effort to provide rehabilitation services regardless of the cli- ent‘s location . Telerehabilitation may be conducted from any place using telecommunication networks and the Internet . Telerehabilitation services are provided as two basic components: clinical assessment (the functional abilities of the patient in his/her environment) and clinical treatment . Telerehabilitation systems based on Virtual Reality use computers with a three-di- mensional virtual environment . Specialists are able to manipulate these environments and con- trol rehabilitation concepts . Motivating clients/patients is also important . These PC applications give new direction to the development of software . The most commonly used methods are web cameras, video conferencing, videotelephones and web pages with software updates or mod- ifications available for all participants. Applications can be accessed from any location using

405 In the aforementioned cases, the “subsequent risks associated with immobility” pose a serious problem. E. Musilová, Z. Surovčíková, “Self-sufficiency after pertrochanteric fracture in seniors,”Rehabilitácia 52, no. 1 (2015): 13. https://www.rehabilitacia.sk/ In this context, it is necessary to point out the issues and solutions of this type of rehabilitation, especially “in geriatric patients, who usually become partially or completely immobile after suffering an injury.” Musilová, Su- rovčíková, “Self-sufficiency,” 13. https://www.rehabilitacia.sk/ Many of them were completely self-sufficient prior to the injury, they were able to live independently. After the injury, they become dependent on others’ help. Musilová, Surovčíková, “Self-sufficiency,” 13. https://www.rehabilitacia.sk/

110 NEW, SPECIFIC POSSIBILITIES OF REHABILITATION FOR REGAINING COGNITIVE ABILITIES | Ján Mašán

a PC and Internet connection . Applications and client data are not limited to one PC only . This form of cognitive rehabilitation is an effective method allowing wide use of the application for a longer period .

Conclusion According to the results, such new methods are beneficial and lead to improving the condition of the cognitive abilities of patients who find such training entertaining and mo- tivating . This method of rehabilitation contributes to increasing independence and motiva- tion for further activities in a greater extent . Various research studies have shown that the group of patients using Virtual Reality is more motivated in comparison with the control group .406 This form of individual cognitive rehabilitation is suitable also for bedridden pa- tients. The benefits and effectiveness can be applied to regular rehabilitation in the case of both group and individual forms of virtual cognitive rehabilitation . Despite the fact that this method cannot fully replace conventional therapy407, it is often beneficial. Currently, it is one of the latest means of rehabilitation 408. Further research in telerehabilitation is carried out on the basis of non-invasive brain stimulation with the purpose of aiding the ensuing improvement of cognitive functions and the efficient application of the results in the everyday practical life of patients . Expert articles

406 For detailed information on this matter see the following studies: Jen-Wen Hung et al. “Randomized comparison trial of balance training by using exergaming and conven- tional weight-shift therapy in patients with chronic stroke,” Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 95, no. 9, (2014): 1629-1637. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2014.04.029 ; Johanna Jonsdottir, Davide Catta- neo, “Reliability and validity of the dynamic gait index in persons with chronic stroke,” Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 88, no. 11, (2007): 1410-1415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2007.08.109 407 An interesting point is this context is the relationship between rehabilitation treatment combined with hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) and spasticity, which positively affect the patients’ motor function in a significant way. The patients perceive the great importance of rehabilitation treatment and hyperbaric oxygen therapy in terms of self-sufficiency and self-care, which they considered from the beginning of the disease to be the most serious handicap in their current lives. Miroslav Černický et al. “Impact of Re- habilitation and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in a Patient with Ischemic Stroke,” Health and Social Work 13, no. 4. (2018): 25-26. http://www.zdravotnictvoasocialnapraca.sk/ “In some diseases, HBOT is the foundation of a life-saving treatment, many of which are an important addi- tion to other treatment methods.” Miroslav Černický et al. “Impact,”25. http://www.zdravotnictvoasocial- napraca.sk/ “However, the curative effect is not immediate, but it does not begin to manifest in patients until after a while.” Miroslav Černický et al. “Impact,”25. http://www.zdravotnictvoasocialnapraca.sk/ 408 Its success can also bring the clients/patients a “surge of self-confidence and independence.” J. Čelko, A. Gúth, “Assistant dogs improve quality of life of people with disability,” Rehabilitácia, 55, no. 4 (2018): 206. https:// www.rehabilitacia.sk/

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Bibliography Čelko, J., Gúth, A. “Assistant dogs improve quality of life of people with disability,” Rehabilitácia, 55, no. 4 (2018): 206. https://www.rehabilitacia.sk/ Černický, Miroslav et al. “Impact of Rehabilitation and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in a Patient with Ischemic Stroke,” Health and Social Work 13, no. 4. (2018): 25-26. http://www.zdravotnictvoasocial- napraca.sk/ Hung, Jen-Wen et al. “Randomized comparison trial of balance training by using exergaming and conventional weight-shift therapy in patients with chronic stroke,” Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 95, no. 9, (2014): 1629-1637. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2014.04.029 Jonsdottir, Johanna, Cattaneo, Davide. “Reliability and validity of the dynamic gait index in persons with chronic stroke,” Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 88, no. 11, (2007): 1410-1415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2007.08.109 Musilová, E., Surovčíková, Z. “Self-sufficiency after pertrochanteric fracture in seniors,” Rehabilitácia 52, no. 1 (2015): 13. https://www.rehabilitacia.sk/

112 ON CURRENT SOURCES OF ETHICS IN LAW | Marek Šmid

ON CURRENT SOURCES OF ETHICS IN LAW

Marek Šmid ✉409

The Institute for Legal Aspects of Religious Freedom; Faculty of Law, Trnava University (SK)

Submitted: 3 August 2019 Accepted for publication: 29 March 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract Background: The purpose of law is not only justified and adequate protection of civil liberties, but also protection and promotion of values . It is important to look for relevant answers to the question of what the real values are that should be rightfully protected by law . With this purpose, it is currently more than effective to communicate together, to carry out scientific discussions and to reflect on the capacity of law to react to social, cultural, economic or geopolitical factors such as migration, a changing view of values and its plurality, personal existential crises regarding the meaning of life, extremism, digi- talization, etc . The topics of plenary meeting are ethics, values, human rights, geopolitics, Expert articles culture and current crises, the synergy of opinions, approaches and valuable conclusions and a social programme when we are feeling well . It is important to ask ourselves what the roles of ethics and morality in law are . It is a matter of the point of view in creation, interpretation and application of law . Therefore, it is necessary to think about it not only from the perspective of everyday life, but from Celius’ Ius est ars boni et aequi . Conclusion: In the light of the analysed topic it is worth noting the recommendation of Pope John Paul II, addressed to the Slovak nation upon their joining the European Union, after landing in the area of Slovakia on 11 September 2003. The most relevant implications for its application in practice as well as the possibility of further research in this topic are the drawing up of scientific studies and interesting cor- relations focusing more elaborately on specific examples of implementing conscientious objection to everyday life in the social, legal or public area, which will definitely improve the quality of expert and scientific discussions regarding the sources of ethics in law. In this respect, however, it is also necessary to ponder certain relevant specificities which the international professional community could also relate to in the context of this brief analysis . Writing new professional studies and interesting correlations at the international level which will deal in more detail with specific examples of implementation of conscien- tious objection principles into the everyday life, the social, legal, and societal field will serve as the most relevant implications for application in practice, as well as the possibility of further research on this topic . This will undoubtedly improve the quality of professional and scientific discussions pertaining to the sources of ethics in law.

Keywords: Law – Justice – Ethics – Conscious objection – International law .

✉ Contact on author: Dr.h.c. prof. doc. JUDr. Marek Šmid, PhD. – email: [email protected]

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Introduction Law and the judiciary should not be associated only with the idea of justice, but also of protection of values. The truth of human life significantly determines human behaviour and its values protected by law . We are facing the fundamental question of what the real values to be protected by law are .

The situation within Europe and Slovakia is much more complex than it was decades ago . In this century we are witnessing an emerging difficult economic situation which is induc- ing a restriction of liberty and different lifestyle requirements .

The priority of perceiving interpersonal relations from the point of view of business is not an exception today, as relations are often based on the matter of benefit. It is not the effort to outmatch oneself but to outmatch others which is in the foreground . People who believe in the fairness of the system are often mockingly marked as naive . We all know what human rights are or what we are legally entitled to but hardly anybody is interested in humans in the first place. At the same time, humanity has experienced two thousand years of history that can teach us what the right direction is . The problem is that it is unbelievable because we have become blind and deaf due to our own, mostly contrary, experiences . Therefore, we should ask ourselves this essential question: Have we given up on the daily fight for the possibility to change something in our lives?

Ethics and morals in law When discussing the justifiability of this question, it is necessary to communicate pro- fessionally about the legal capacity which should flexibly react to fast changing social, cultural, economic or geopolitical circumstances. It is important to find out what the roles of ethics and morality are in law . We need to think about this in the context of daily life, probably using Celsius’ perspective: Ius est ars boni et aequi . The role of law is to ensure a fair framework of human relations and the protection of human liberty . The claim that the main role of law is protection and support of primary human values in society is broadly known in Anglo-American legal theory . Yet, we are looking for arguments supporting this view . In our culture there is a stronger source of answers to the question of what the real values are that should be protected by law . At the beginning of this millennium we approached a revision of the law characterised as elimination of a spiritual source of answers to the question mentioned above: which human values should be protected by law and for what reason . The problem is that legal regulations are created by people with different opinions, interests and criteria . The fact is that the basic function of law is not only to protect one person against another by restricting liberty, but also to protect and support what is good for humans . To protect what has a real value for us, makes our life better and moves us forward . This derives from our experiences, observance of ourselves and of the world around us . However, we often suppress the real values, either instinc- tively or consciously . In moments of human weakness, such suppression confronts our experience which confirms the high worth of known values and becomes another source of the reason for protection . The spiritual source of answers to the question of what the real values that should be protected by law are is deeply rooted in our culture . Based on our experience we are capable of defining the space for positive human behaviour which deserves adequate legal protection .

114 ON CURRENT SOURCES OF ETHICS IN LAW | Marek Šmid

The need for determination of behaviour by legal regulations At the beginning of the 21st Century we faced a revision of legal concepts . One of the key steps of this revision of law was the removal of the spiritual source of answers to the ques- tion of what legally protected values are . The law abruptly declared the inadmissibility of recognising the impact of a spiritual source of argumentation . Such source was trans- ferred to the private sphere and its place remains empty . Therefore, we are looking for arguments that represent mostly subjective, individual and group opinions and feelings . These opinions should mainly follow real human experience that would define the space protected by law . In such case, the law would be appropriate and the area of its protection would be determined in the right way . Humans are incapable of thinking perfectly fairly and correctly internally about themselves and externally in society . Therefore, we need to define our own behaviour by legal regulations. We reach a vicious circle we try to leave as soon as possible and therefore we remain incapable of building on stable value pillars in the formation and application of law . Our ability and willingness to look up is an imaginary boundary that protects humans . The boundary is the primary human characteristic that contributed to formation of the term anthropos . We cannot properly reconcile with the statement that the ethics in law is a chimera .

Convention on conscientious objection A good example of such healthy incapability to reconcile with resignation from ethics is the regulation on conscientious objection in conventions concluded by churches and religious Expert articles communities in Slovakia at the beginning of our millennium and Slovakia‘s international legal obligation to conclude implementation contracts with those subjects, both interna- tional and national. This commitment arises from the principal conventions defining the system of the relation between the State and respective churches: everyone’s right to ex- ercise conscientious objection is recognised by the Slovak Republic under the principles of the respective church’s teaching, while the extent and conditions of applying this law will be established in a specific agreement concluded between the contracting parties. It is an ethical foray into law as an instrument for supporting freedom of conscience, which is a basic human right. There are two concepts regarding this matter: the first involves the obligation of the State to protect conscience in compliance with the church’s teach- ing under the convention; and the second involves the concluding agreement between the State and the church on the values which need to be protected and the protection of freedom of conscience ensured by national law. The first case involves recognising the church’s teaching as a long-term cultural basis in Slovakia, whilst the second involves considering the church as a partner in cultural dialogue . It is obvious that the questions regarding real execution of conscious objections are a very sensitive issue . Even in the most discussed topic there are always multiple feasible solutions . Firstly, we can establish the details of applying law directly in the international convention . This may lead to con- flicts regarding judicial obstacles caused by the character of the discussed convention. Gradual modification of Slovak legal regulations without any contractual basis is another possibility . The third possibility is bilateral contractual liability for the protection of moral principles based on the Teachings of the Catholic Church and other registered churches . This liability should be formed pursuant to Article 7 of well-known principal conventions with churches and religious communities which involve establishing a conclusion for the international convention with the as a subject of international public law and with other subjects. The liability for keeping the specific religious principles of faith and

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morality would be laid down directly in the wording of the conventions . This concept re- sembles the creation of European Union regulations and implies a high extent of legal stability . The convention might stipulate that the Slovak Republic legally establishes the conditions for the prohibition of legal enforcement of all legal obligations that may consti- tute a breach of the principles set out in the convention . The convention should involve the relevant protected principles . What is it about? The description is demonstrative only . It might, for example, involve the principle of the integrity of human life from conception until natural death, mainly related to health care professionals, the prescription and adminis- tration of drugs, activities that are aimed at abortion and non-natural death in any phase of human life, provided that the principle of the respect for human life would also relate to health care professionals but also to researchers and the general public . Participation in artificial or assisted reproduction, genetic manipulations, cloning of human embryos, sterilization and any other forms of contraception are part of the current issues of ethics and conscience . This convention might involve the principles of liberty in the education process . This would relate to teachers, parents and students performing activities that are contrary to moral principles . Furthermore, new conventions would include the principle of protection of marriage as the union between a man and a woman, which aims at estab- lishing a permanent community and the education of children . The principle of protecting the secrecy of information given to a person performing pastoral care and the principle of respect for the freedom to use religious symbols would not be entirely new . This concept ensures the contractual liberty of both parties, the State and churches . On the basis of free assumption of the undertaking, new rules would oblige the Slovak Republic to adapt its legal order to hinder breach of the basic principles of obligatory legal regulations .

The protection of human rights in the area of freedom of conscience The fact remains that ethical questions are not in the EU‘s competence but are still the responsibility of its member states . Yet, the national regulation regarding conscious ob- jection assumes legal frameworks established in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union . We are still facing the question of necessity to more precisely deter- mine the means of protecting human rights in the area of freedom of conscience whilst not losing our national identity . . Incapacity to form an opinion associated with this question could ultimately result in social and political instability. Precisely defined legal regulations always ensure better functioning of law . Culture, society and law in Slovakia are highly influenced by new European systems of the legal and social environment. This is why we are standing at the crossroads of a cultural and legal future . The Church, governments and the European Union should consider modification in the area of the protection of conscious objection and recognize that such modification offers interesting solutions. The protection should aim at people’s hearts and two thousand years of experience which are proof of the fact that the freedom of conscience fundamentally and in specific manifesta- tion are a gift, not an outdated legal concept .

Conclusion In light of the analysed topic it is worth noting the recommendation of Pope John Paul II, addressed to the Slovak nation upon their joining the European Union, after landing in the area of Slovakia on 11 September 2003, as the words of such occasions are often overlooked or forgotten: Dearly beloved, bring to the construction of Europe’s new identity the contribution of your rich Christian tradition! Do not be satisfied with the sole quest for

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economic advantages. Great affluence in fact can also generate great poverty. Only by building up, not without sacrifices and difficulties, a society respectful of human life in all its expressions, that promotes the family as a place of reciprocal love and growth of per- sons, that seeks the common good and is attentive to the needs of the weakest, will there be guarantees of a future based on solid foundations and rich in goods for all. The most relevant implications for application in practice as well as the possibility of fur- ther research in this topic are the drawing up of scientific studies and interesting correla- tions focusing more elaborately on the specific examples of implementing conscientious objection into everyday life in the social, legal or public area, which will definitely improve the quality of expert and scientific discussions regarding the sources of ethics in law. In this context, however, it is also necessary to think about some relevant specificities which the international expert community could also relate to within this brief analysis . Among the most relevant implications for the application into practice and the possibil- ities for further research regarding this topic is the creation of new expert studies and interesting correlations at the international level which will focus in detail on the specific examples of implementing conscientious objection principles into people’s day-to-day life, social, legal, and societal area . Such actions will certainly improve the quality of expert and scientific discussions concerning the sources of ethics in law. Expert articles

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THE DEMAND OF THE POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IN SLOVAK SOCIAL SURROUNDING AND ITS REFLECTION IN CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING

Martin Uháľ ✉ 2, Lýdia Lešková ✉ 1,2 410

1 Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Quality of Gdynia Maritime University (PL) 2 Faculty of Theology in Kosice – Catholic University in Ruzomberok (SK)

Submitted: 25 July 2019 Accepted for publication: 16 April 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract Background: In the last few years there is a question in Slovakia, or maybe also in the much larger surrounding in the European Union, about the demands of the political cor- rectness in a public life . We can say that this is a new phenomenon in a social and politi- cal environment of EU which not just impacts the presentation of various social groups in this area, in this zone, but also impacts the values of a social life and influences a range of topics which can be discussed in the social environment without fear, that the dialogue or discussion will be presented as political incorrect . That is why we should focus on that phenomenon which impacts our social life more and more, and to weigh that issue in terms of the values and principles presented by the Catholic social teaching . They are defined to be a basis for the equitable way of life in our culture, which respects not just the Christian social virtues and common social goods, but also all fundamental human rights, which are the base for a human dignified life in all human environments. Conclusion: In the conclusion, the article presents several applicable implications in relevant relation to the discussed issues . In the conclusion, the article presents several applicable implications in relevant relation to the discussed issues which are also related to the COVID 19 pandemic and some of its consequences . It also suggests some impli- cations for possibilities of further researches and other scholars in their work .

Keywords: Political correctness – New political influences – Public dialog – Catholic social teaching Human rights .

Introduction Just as we have in the past, we can currently clearly perceive the struggle between the individual‘s personal good and the demands of the common good . Creating common good values is neither the role nor the mission of the State . Such creation has to be based on the value systems and attitudes of individuals and other social entities created by the individuals and citizens of the State in order to be a source of development and assistance to them . The common good – procured primarily by legislation – cannot be designed against the interests of the individual or even in a way that does not respect

✉ Contact on author: Doc. ThDr. Martin Uháľ, PhD. – email: [email protected] ✉ Contact on author: Doc. PhDr. Ing. Lýdia Lešková, PhD. – email: [email protected]

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their rights, freedoms, and needs . That was how the common good was manifested in the territory of Slovakia during socialism . This trend did not end, though . It has mani- fested repeatedly and to varying degrees in the disparity between the demands of the common good and the interests of the individual . Examples of this include taxes, levies, the issue of migration, religious freedom and its manifestations, the issue of EU interests and needs, and the current control of the movement of individuals via mobile phones and other applications due to the spread of COVID -19 . This clash is one of the key elements in the issue of political correctness . Political correctness can be perceived as a phenomenon that juxtaposes the values of the personal rights and freedoms of the individual and the demands of the common good which is procured and protected by the State . The State facilitates the transfer of this phenomenon to the spheres of the government and political parties and to the pres- entation of their policies, attitudes and campaigns, and ultimately to all political areas and the general mood in society 411. Hence, this contribution will focus on identifying the existing habitual and deliberately-cultivated and required methods of using and abusing this phenomenon that is relatively new for the territory of Slovakia . One of the priorities of this contribution is to point out the social and ethical nature of this phenomenon and its response in the Social Doctrine of the Church, i .e . the basis of the correct application of ethics in political relations because it serves as the source of well-known social princi- ples that are generally respected . Another equally important aim of this contribution is to: ● provoke a public and professional discussion on this phenomenon within Slovakia; Expert articles ● bring to the forefront the need for an ethical “transformation” of society, which should be the logical consequence of socio-political reform that is still not complete in regards to the ethical issues; ● encourage the search for forms of presentation and conscious awareness of the impact of political and social ethics on public life . The aim of the study is to evaluate the relevance of the need for ethical formation and the awareness of this phenom- enon, and to point out its possibilities and extent .

This creates a “testing” environment and conditions for the implementation of ad- equate social and political ethics that respect not only the rights and freedoms of the individual but also the demands of the common good and the State, as well as wider entities such as the EU .

This contribution thus delves into the current extent of the societal perception of this phenomenon from the point of view of the Slovak social background and it creates basic frameworks based on Catholic ethics regarding the correct interpretation of its applica- tion .

411 This can be demonstrated by the Parliamentary example. Upon joining Parliament, a member promises to vote to the best of his/her knowledge and belief. Despite this fact, the political party that nominated him/ her demands that he/she conforms to a unified stance – obey a certain party discipline and vote or don’t vote according to the unified stance of the party. This phenomenon is then applied to the dissemination of information and it also compels one not to ask certain questions in order to avoid creating tensions in various areas ranging from social measures to broad societal formation and public awareness.

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What is political correctness? According to generally available definitions, the term political correctness is used to indicate language, policies, or measures designed to prevent insults or disadvantages of members of certain specific groups in society.412

Thus, political correctness is a tendency to deliberately influence public policies, pub- lic measures, as well as the language of public speaking in such a way as to cause the fewest potential problems and obstacles to interaction . This is especially when describing groups defined by external characters such as race, gender, culture, religion, or sexual orientation .

The term defined in this way, is without any discussion of a contribution to social life. If its meaning would be only in this context, it should be promoted in the whole spectrum of the social field. Nevertheless many politicians, prominent figures of public life, scientists, and other experts in various social settings point to the meaningful use of this phenome- non . The use of political correctness is especially prevalent concerning issues which are delicate on the political scene or at the edge of defined political ambitions, governmental directions, and parties . Therefore, political correctness is transformed into ideological manipulation or censorship .

A look at the historical context of the origin of this phenomenon Except for a few unique cases, the term appeared in public life or in rulings of the courts of each country in the eighteenth century . According to the Britannic Encyclopedia, this term first appeared systemically in the Marxist-Lenin dictionary after the Russian Revolution in 1917 . At that time, the term was used to describe compliance with the policies and principles of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, i e. . a kind of party line that has appeared in this mode until its end, and so even in our demographic is not yet completely forgotten 413. It is, therefore, a deliberate control or influence of ideas and behavior according to party fundamentals . Thus, it is only an ideologization of public speeches or internal censorship of content . Furthermore, this phenomenon has been a hallmark of communist ideology for years in our demographic .

Apart from this case, the concept of political correctness appeared very sporadically and was rarely used in general realm until almost after the Second World War . It spread mostly in the early 1970s in the . According to many sources, it was used more pejoratively than with legitimate severity and became a means of suppressing crit- icism of opposition views 414. It looks like a phenomenon that reminds us of a Marxist ideological censorship .

412 This definition is a modified version used in the Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/ political-correctness 413 See also: https://www.britannica.com/topic/political-correctness 414 See also: Sarah Dunant, The War of the Words: The Political Correctness Debate (Virago, 1994); Stuart Hall, Some ‘Politically Incorrect’ Pathways Through PC http://www.ram-wan.net/restrepo/hall/some%20politically%20incorrect%20pathways.pdf

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In the late 1970s and early 1980s, US liberal politicians began to use this term to refer to the extremism of some left-wing questions . Mainly, this was perceived as an emphasis or predominance of rhetoric over content .415

The term was used to ridicule the notion that by changing the use of language or concepts, it is possible to change public perception and belief or even influence certain results and effects .416

In the 1980s and 1990s, this term has increasingly appeared in public life, especially in the US . It sounded like criticism of certain attitudes of political or state power, or atti- tudes of the academic environment, especially in relation to black students, women within society or the educational system or in connection with racial issues . The term became a reproach that government, cabinets or parties presented certain positions as a form of political correctness, which did not correspond to real conditions, public opinion, or given practice of the demographic .417

The present perception of political correctness Negative perception of this phenomenon Ironization and satire in attitude to political correctness. It is true that if you search the internet for the concept of political correctness and its use in today‘s society, whether in Slovak or English, it can be observed that, even today most of the comments understand Expert articles this phenomenon negatively . This applies not only to blogs, but also in quite serious com- ments by renowned authors on various topics . This phenomenon is in the form of humor and satire, or even a certain public criticism, as a serious social tool to ensure equal rights and preserve appropriate dignity of each individual or race .

Rejection of correctness as a source of censorship. The second dimension of atti- tudes is the rejection of this phenomenon in the social environment, because it seems to be a means of “disguising the truth ”. Many critics point out that it does not touch the essence of the problem and it does not call the thing by the real name, which makes it impossible to deal with a certain situation or social phenomenon .

There are many approaches that directly point to political correctness as a censorship of truth and a political tool of social control .

Politicians, academics, different artists, as well as ordinary people from different disci- plines, perceive the spread of this phenomenon in European terms as a way of controlling or even silencing opposition or unfavorable opinions as a real tool to improve political culture or the seriousness of the public sector .

415 See also: https://www.britannica.com/topic/political-correctness 416 “The term has often been used derisively to ridicule the notion that altering language usage can change the public’s perceptions and beliefs as well as influence outcomes. (https://www.britannica.com/topic/polit- ical-correctness).” 417 See: Tony Platt, “Desegregating Multiculturalism: Problems in the Theory and Pedagogy of Diversity Educa- tion,” Social Justice 29, no. 4 (90) (2002): 41-46. https://www.jstor.org/stable/29768146

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Many publications on this topic. Among the well-known approach that speak of politi- cal correctness as a tool for influencing or controlling undesirable topics in politics or pub- lic life, there are many publications, especially from foreign authors . It is true that there are no such studies in Slovak or Czech language, but they are abundant in German418, mainly in English . They are often the work of serious scientist authors . Most often, they point to political correctness as a censorship of truth or topics that should or should not be publicly presented . Thus, correctness proves itself like a political or party censorship, rather than a way of social and public ethics. It turns out to be an effort to influence topics that should not be addressed in society, which consequently hurts the attempt to under- stand the problems or seek politically and socially effective solutions . 419

Positive views of this phenomenon It is obvious that a number of positive approaches can be registered referring to the impact of this phenomenon on society . It is possible to see comments and articles that do not refer to a particular situation, but as a social phenomenon, that should have a positive impact on society and its ethics . They require some form of political “restraint,” correctness or ethics in public speeches of various kinds . Thus, the term is presented as a form of ethical requirement for adequate public decency to approach others . This deals so much in terms of topics, but in the way they are interpreted, the used language, the method of progress and the loyalty of the chosen topic .

Circumstances tempt us but they also clear the way. It becomes apparent that many topics related to the impact of global issues on the territory of Slovakia require an ad- equate dimension of a sort of “global ethics platform” or political culture that considers global issues to be a current topic for Slovakia and which does not perceive them as a form of violent advocacy . These issues include the problem of illegal migration . This problem has been one of the strongest postulates that has provoked the demand for political correctness in presenting the conflict of the personal rights of individuals, the

418 See: Michael Bonder, Ein Gespenst geht um die Welt: Political correctness (Frankfurt/Main, Eichborn 1995); Frederik Weinert, Nazi-Vergleiche und Political Correctness: Eine sprach- und kommunikationswissenschaftli- che Analyse (Baden-Baden: Nomos 2018); Ingo von Münch. Meinungsfreiheit gegen Political Correctness (Ber- lin: Duncker & Humblot, 2017). Matthias Dusini, Thomas Edlinger, In Anführungszeichen - Glanz und Elend der Political Correctness (Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2012); Jörg Schönbohm, Politische Korrektheit: Das Schlachtfeld der Tugendwächter (Wall- trop & Leipzig: Manuscriptum Verlagsbuchhandlung. Thomas Hoof KG 2009). 419 See: Michael William, The Genesis of Political Correctness: The Basis of a False Morality (CreateSpace Independ- ent Publishing Platform, 2016); Kevin Donnelly, How Political Correctness is Destroying Australia (Melbourne: Wilkinson Publishing, 2018); Kevin Donnelly, How Political Correctness is Destroying Education Melbourne: Wilkinson Publishing, 2018); David Thibodaux, Beyond Political Correctness : Are There Limits to This Lunacy? (Las Vegas: Huntington House Publishers, 1994); Richard Feldstein, Political correctness : a response from the Cultural Left (Minneapolis: Uni- versity of Minnisota Press, 1997); Keith Preston, The Tyranny of the Politically Correct: Totalitarianism in the Postmodern Age (London: Black House Publishing Ltd 2016); Geoffrey Hughes,Political Correctness: A History of Semantics and Culture (Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell 2009); Bruce G. Charlton, Thought Prison: The Fundamental Nature of Political Correctness (University of Buckingham Press 2015); After Political Correctness: The Humanities And Society In The 1990s, eds. Christopher Newfield and Ronald Strickland (Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.: Westview Press, 1995); Friedman, Marilyn, and Jan Narveson, Political correctness: for and against (Lan- ham: Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 1994); Joe Battaglia,The Politically Incorrect Jesus: Living Boldly in a Culture of Unbelief (Broadstreet Publishing Group LLC, 2015); Mark Taylor, The Politically Correct Christian: Trading Christ Centeredness for Political Correctness (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016).

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demands of States and the wider context of the European common good . The issue of the migrant quota is also related to this problem . However, the issue of the Istanbul Con- vention, gender equality and many other relevant issues are even more sensitive . In the recent period, for example, the issue of global protection against the pandemic spread of Coronavirus – which requires vigorous local measures not only to improve the situation in Slovakia but also to protect the citizens of other countries – was added to this list . It is precisely this issue that is given attention by a relatively strong consensus of all social actors, from individuals, groups, communities and organisations . It is, therefore, possible to examine the circumstances that are behind this relatively distinctive element of unity and solidarity . It is evident that, with the right motivation and clearly presented bases or circumstances, a higher degree of solidarity, positive acceptance, and participation can be achieved .

Positive responses to correctness rather from young people. Positive approaches, responding to the attitudes of young people full of ideals and good intentions, shows the need to change public life . This is shown through our high school students who have pre- sented and demanded the need to change the political culture in our society more than once. It is not so much political or scientific studies, but opinions based on desire of the need to change political or social ethics . Expert articles Such views are rare. This view is incomprehensible and even fully respects the human dignity of man, his rights and the cultural background of his environment . Nevertheless, such approaches are very few in Slovakia and they seem to be a singular shout in the environment, or even more, an almost impossible wish in this society .

The truth is that until now, it is impossible to find proper studies on the issue in Slovak or Czech language on websites or servers of companies distributing literature and books . We can search for articles or comments that have been heard at various forums and conferences, but the most common source of approaches to this issue are responses in blogs, individual sites, or discussion forums under some articles and reports .

Reasons for the positive acceptance of this phenomenon Improving social or political ethics. One of the basic reasons for positive approaches towards political correctness is the need to change social ethics, political ethics, or even overall political change . It is a argument from one of the authors of the articles on this topic .

The influence of language affects the moral formation of an individual. Those who note positive proportions of this fact also point to research by the American anthropolo- gist and philosopher Benjamin Lee Whorf (1891-1941), and eventually Edward Sapir and Franz Boaz . According to Whorf‘s hypothesis, our perception of reality is determined by our thought processes, which are influenced by the language we use. This is the way our language shapes our reality, tells us how to think about it and how to react to it; the language also reveals and promotes our prejudices .420

420 Language, Thought, and Reality Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf, ed. John B. Carroll (Cambridge Mas- sachusetts: THE MIT PRESS, 1956).

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The use of sexist language promotes sexism. According to this hypothesis, the use of sexist language promotes sexism and the use of racial language promotes racism . Thus, those who point at the need to apply political correctness to politics and social interac- tion, justify these phenomena that present these studies .

Political correctness through the view of social doctrine What does the Church‘s social doctrine say? The truth is that if we understand political correctness as defined as a political or social tool to improve social expression in the context of society, it becomes a tool and area of social ethics that respects man and his or her freedom and rights .

Political correctness does not explicitly exist in the Social Doctrine of the Church. The social doctrine of the Church itself does not recognize this term and in the official docu- ments of the Church it does not appear anywhere as a clear requirement for the social environment . Since the social doctrine of the Church is a social ethics that should apply in society, it can be said that the social doctrine of the Church involves participatory political correctness in itself . It is also highly possible that, in a certain cultural and social context, there are authors who describe this phenomenon from the perspective of Catholic ethics or social doctrine of the Church and its principles, as set out above in this lecture, among the authors who discuss the issue .

The demands of the Church‘s social doctrine are always about political correctness. From the point of view of the principles of Catholic social ethics or social doctrine, this phenomenon seems desirable in its principles .

In this view, political correctness is a kind of public expectation or unwritten rule ex- pressed in the basis of ethical standards in society or for a specific sector or area. This expectation or rule requires, that all public approaches or results of politics, culture, and science will always be the subject to the ethical dimension of the social principles of hu- man dignity, justice, subsidiarity or the common good . The basic principle of every area of public life is the preservation of human dignity and human development .

Political correctness is a requirement of public decency. Public decency is always a legitimate requirement of every human culture . That is why political correctness can be seen as a basic human and social morality or public decency; then the meaning of the social doctrine of the Church has its support .

Political correctness as a means of objective approach in solving questions. Political correctness can be understood in the social doctrine of the Church as a necessary form of fundamental procedure and approach in solving certain questions and problems . It is not only about a goal, but also an instrument to be used in social interaction . For example, to avoid getting personal invitations or allusions into a matter-of-fact debate on a particu- lar issue that puts the opponent in a ridiculous position for his appearance, his past, his level of experience, his religion, or another area unrelated to the process, or discussion .

The purpose of political correctness should maintain human dignity. The purpose of any social activity of man and his subjects within society is and must be to preserve

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human dignity, including the potential of its continuous development, in a holistic sense of its needs - both physical and spiritual . For example, in the field of economics, where the systems of the economy must never become so independent of the needs of the integral development of man, they would make him only a value maker or a machine . The purpose of producing goods and services is not profit, but help a person and improve his or her life. It must be in the field of medicine, space research, culture, or ways of rest and so on .

Is it possible to control abuse of political correctness? Political correctness as political censorship? However, there is another question relat- ed to political correctness. Namely, influencing the truthfulness of knowing specific truth and phenomena, as well as the question of restricting freedom of expression through political censorship . Do political and social norms have the right to control such speeches as well as the content of public speeches and opinions? The answer is not easy .

It is permissible through the principle of the common good. It can be said that through the principle of protection of the common good one can perceive a certain possibility and the need to limit certain topics, even the forms of their interpretation in specific conditions or at a certain time. It can therefore be said that social subjects have the right to filter cer- tain attitudes and actions, but not in a total and exclusive way, but only in certain specific conditions and situations . Restricting the right to public protest during tense political sit- Expert articles uations, or restricting the right of freedom of expression or assembly allows the principle of creating and protecting the common good . This usually happens on two levels .

Level of legal restrictions. At the level of law, the combination of common good must be observed . Prohibition of certain marches, presentation of opinions, and establish- ment of parties are such examples .

Level of ethical requirements – codes of ethics . This is a restriction on the level of eth- ics and codes applicable to certain areas . They do not have to be presented by law, but are required by social principles within the social doctrine of the Church, codes of ethics in a particular area, or even so-called good morals .

Even if some questions or topics are timely and true and their publication would create social dissatisfaction, fully in violation of the social principles of human dignity, justice and subsidiarity, their implementation or dissemination may be required to limit it . However, this threshold is very thin and far from abusing this phenomenon for political censorship and restriction of freedom of speech .

Political correctness as a form of political pressure . Political correctness already ap- pears to be a form of an “indirect” political censorship of social life . By declaring someone to act without an adequate cultural sensitivity is a form of social discrediting of a person or an opponent, and their impatience is incapable of receiving and respect the rights of someone else . There is therefore always a risk of abuse of this phenomenon against opponents .

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Abuse is always possible but the risk is worth it. Nevertheless, social doctrine allows certain themes or phenomena and their interpretation to be presented in such a way as to correspond to the personal maturity of individuals, the social situation of other social units, minorities, movements, religious groups and the needs of the common good, that is, of society as a whole . However, it must not be forgotten that truth is always one of the highest goods on which social order must also grow .

Conclusion The study at hand has shown that political correctness is not a new phenomenon . It should be part of any well-designed political culture . Nevertheless, it is now emerging in the form of new demand for clearly understandable ethics in the political and social environment, and not only in Slovakia . However, many experts also warn against abuse of this phenomenon . More reservations than clear advantages emerge, not only in Slo- vakia but also in the circumstances of the prevailing political culture of the contemporary world. However, there is still a lack of a clear and ethically-justified approach towards this phenomenon, especially in Slovakia . A similar situation is occurring in other Central European countries that have undergone or are still experiencing political and social reform and restructuring . There are new global incentives in response to this phenomenon . It will be necessary to respond to them in an appropriate and responsible way . In addition to the very sensi- tive issue of gender equality and adequate high-quality legislation on this topic, the new issues include the spread of the COVID -19 pandemic . This issue also requires the right approach and measures that will not undermine the rights of individuals but will advo- cate respect for the common good, not only within a single state but also in large global bodies and throughout the entire world . Perhaps the issue of public health or the issue of an adequate and healthy environment for individuals and their families is one of the new issues or aspects that will need to be addressed with an adequate and politically correct approach in the near future . The aforementioned facts create space for further research opportunities in the field of professional studies and reflections focused on a politically correct approach to the relevant public, social, political, and societal issues in Slovakia . These issues may be currently perceived through the approach based on the Social Doc- trine of the Church, which lays down the basic framework for future attitudes . It is also necessary to develop expert studies and reflections on these attitudes and to conduct an effective dialogue about them that would be of benefit to the national and international community in the field of political correctness in general. These attitudes are as follows:

Political correctness should be seen as a new challenge for the social environment. The spread of this phenomenon must be seen as a new challenge for the current progress of new manifestations of social culture, which would not reject traditional values, human freedom of conscience and proven elements of the common good verified by history.

The need for multi-level control. The boundary between the correct alignment of this political membrane in society and its abuse for predetermined goals of transition into ma- nipulation and demography is very thin and subtle . It can often be exceeded, so it needs

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to be controlled, fully in terms of political control of legitimate governance models 421. Individuals, opposition attitudes, the media, civic initiatives, churches and international institutions conform necessary controls .

The necessary dialogue on this subject and control at all levels. Different forms of political, but also social, dialogue in society at all levels will be needed to keep this new phenomenon out of control before it becomes an element of social scope . Individuals and other actors do not get a certain degree of differentiation in matters under control .

Bibliography After Political Correctness: The Humanities And Society In The 1990s, Edited by Christopher Newfield and Ronald Strickland. Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.: Westview Press, 1995. Battaglia, Joe. The Politically Incorrect Jesus: Living Boldly in a Culture of Unbelief. Broadstreet Publish- ing Group LLC, 2015. Bonder Michael. Ein Gespenst geht um die Welt: Political correctness. Frankfurt/Main, Eichborn 1995. Donnelly, Kevin. How Political Correctness is Destroying Australia. Melbourne: Wilkinson Publishing, 2018. Donnelly, Kevin. How Political Correctness is Destroying Education. Melbourne: Wilkinson Publishing, 2018. Expert articles Dunant, Sarah. The War of the Words: The Political Correctness Debate. Virago, 1994. Dusini Matthias, Edlinger, Thomas. In Anführungszeichen - Glanz und Elend der Political Correctness. Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2012. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/political-correctness Feldstein, Richard. Political correctness : a response from the Cultural Left. Minneapolis: University of Minnisota Press, 1997. Friedman, Marilyn, Narveson, Jan. Political correctness: for and against. Lanham: Md: Rowman & Lit- tlefield Publishers; 1994. Hall, Stuart. Some ‘Politically Incorrect’ Pathways Through PC http://www.ram-wan.net/restrepo/hall/some%20politically%20incorrect%20pathways.pdf Hughes, Geoffrey. Political Correctness: A History of Semantics and Culture (Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell 2009. Charlton, Bruce G. Thought Prison: The Fundamental Nature of Political Correctness (University of Buck- ingham Press 2015. Language, Thought, and Reality Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf, Edited by John B. Carroll Cambridge Massachusetts: THE MIT PRESS, 1956.

421 The issue of controlling public authority in the democratic governance models requires a fourfold or four-lev- el model of control. This is usually required and applicable also in other areas of participatory citizen involve- ment, which requires the democratisation principle itself – the subsidiarity principle. These forms of control include, first and foremost, opposition parties or entities, citizens’ initiatives of various nature, the media, as well as international activities and bodies focused on respecting human rights, etc.

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Platt, Tony. “Desegregating Multiculturalism: Problems in the Theory and Pedagogy of Diversity Education,” Social Justice 29, no. 4 (90) (2002): 41-46. https://www.jstor.org/stable/29768146 Preston, Keith. The Tyranny of the Politically Correct: Totalitarianism in the Postmodern Age. London: Black House Publishing Ltd 2016. Schönbohm, Jörg. Politische Korrektheit: Das Schlachtfeld der Tugendwächter. Walltrop & Leipzig: Man- uscriptum Verlagsbuchhandlung. Thomas Hoof KG 2009. Taylor, Mark. The Politically Correct Christian: Trading Christ Centeredness for Political Correctness. Cre- ateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016. Thibodaux, David. Beyond Political Correctness : Are There Limits to This Lunacy? Las Vegas: Huntington House Publishers, 1994. Weinert, Frederik. Nazi-Vergleiche und Political Correctness: Eine sprach- und kommunikationswissen- schaftliche Analyse. Baden-Baden: Nomos 2018. William, Michael. The Genesis of Political Correctness: The Basis of a False Morality. CreateSpace Inde- pendent Publishing Platform, 2016. Von Münch. Ingo. Meinungsfreiheit gegen Political Correctness. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2017.

128 SEVERAL RELEVANT SPECIFICITIES IN THE FIELD OF SPIRITUALITY IN SOCIAL WORK | Jana Levická

SEVERAL RELEVANT SPECIFICITIES IN THE FIELD OF SPIRITUALITY IN SOCIAL WORK*422

Jana Levická ✉ 1,2 423

1 Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ss . Cyril and Methodius in Trnava (SK) 2 Institute of Social Work, Faculty of Arts, University of Hradec Králové (CZ)

Submitted: 24 October 2019 Accepted for publication: 30 March 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract Background: Development of the Slovak society after 1990 was aimed at the democratization of social life, which brought not only freedom but also new social risks that had been unknown to a part of the society . The pressure induced by the life in a postmodern society brought about, among oth- ers, a great deal of uncertainty, which naturally led individuals to seek existential answers . Some of them have sought help within church societies as well as in helping professionals, including social workers, to solve their existential problems . The question is whether social work should also re- Expert articles spond to spiritual problems of its clients . This issue is only marginalized by the experts in Slovakia . The author therefore offers an analysis aimed at bringing the contemporary discourse focused on spiritual social work . Her inspiration is to answer two questions: 1) What is the place of spirituality in the contemporary social work? and 2) Should spiritual questions be part of the undergraduate training of social workers and if so, why? Conclusion: The author theoretically anchored the discussion of spirituality in social work in sys- temic theories of social work, which, by their inclination to a holistic understanding of the rela- tionship of a man and the society, create the most appropriate theoretical environment . In the conclusion, the author presents several relevant recommendations which could be used by the international community of experts within the analysis . It is necessary that new expert studies and reflections are conducted on the basis of intercultural international dialogue which will focus on the search of new interesting correlations focused on specific suggested areas.

Keywords: Social work – Needs – Spirituality – Systemic approach – Implications for practice .

Introduction Systemic social work deals with people whose biological, psychological, social and cultural needs have remained unmet in their own ecological-socio-cultural environment . It is a social re- sponse to the problem of social constellations, which act as an obstacle to realizing individual needs424 . “Individual needs differ in their urgency, strong tendency to be satisfied, flexibility, mutual determination and individual importance. That is why the same need may appear to be particularly urgent and dominant in one person, and may appear to be secondary in another. The exception is

* This article is the output of the project APVV-0524-12 Identity of social work in the context of Slovakia ✉ Contact on author: prof. PhDr. Mgr. Jana Levická, PhD. – e-mail: [email protected] 424 Jana Levická, Teoretické aspekty sociálnej práce (Trnava: ProSocio, 2002).

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food, water, air and other basic biological needs of a man. In extreme situations, one is also able to relocate these needs, which are necessary to maintain their biological existence, to secondary posi- tions. Human life then, from the perspective of general systems theory, is actually a cycle consisting of realizing the satisfaction of one‘s own needs and fulfilling one‘s own wishes.”425

The systemic approach allows social workers to reflect diverse problems that accompany a per- son on the trajectory of their life in their multi-layered layouts, while teaching us to accept that these problems arise in the interaction of a man with their environment, and solutions need to be sought both in a man and in their environment . Systems theories offer a concept in which a man and the environment form a whole426 (Payne, 2005, Hare, 2004, Siporin, 1980, Richmond, 1965) . At the same time, systems theories understand a man as a specific system that cooperates with their environment . Within the systemic approach, a man can be viewed as a set of subsystems including mainly physical, mental, relationship and spiritual subsystems427 . A person who is a part of a large social system interacts with the environment through individual subsystems . The traditional systems theory is built on four basic pillars, which, in essence, correspond to the same number of functions of the subsystems of which the society as a whole, i e. . the system, consists of:

(a) social subsystem; (b) cultural subsystem; (c) personality subsystem; (d) behavioural subsystem428; whereas individual subsystems can act as core systems in relation to individuals . Despite the ef- forts of some authors to define dominant subsystems, social work perceives all subsystems that somehow interfere with clients‘ lives as equally important . Individual subsystems can also be seen as an area in which the struggle to cope with the problems of everyday life events take place . In this sense, social work aims to help its clients manage their social functioning429, with the overall aim of achieving the best quality of life for as many people as possible430 .

Social work is therefore a profession that supports people in optimizing their daily functioning . Systems theories provide it with an appropriate operational space which helps to explore individual variables that appear not only in the context of efforts to improve individual human lives, but also to optimize functioning of the society as a specific living space in which a human life is happening.

425 Jana Levická, Od konceptu k technike. (Trnava: Vydavateľstvo TŠ pre SPPVV na FZaSP TU, 2005). 426 For detailed information on this matter see the following studies: Malcolm Payne, Modern Social Work Theory (3rd ed.). (Chicago: Lyceum Books Inc.,U.S, 2005); Isadora Hare, “Defining social work for the 21st century, The International Federation of Social Workers´ revised definition of social work,”International Social Work, 47, no. 3, (2004): 407-424. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020872804043973 ; Max Siporin, “Ecological Systems Theo- ry in Social Work,” The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: 7, no. 4, (1980): 507-532. https://scholarworks. wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1428&context=jssw ; Mary E. Richmond, Social Diagnosis (New York: The Free Press, 1965). 427 Silvia Staub-Bernasconi, Systemtheorie, soziale Probleme und Soziale Arbeit: lokal, national, international oder: vom Ende der Bescheidenheit (Bern-Stuttgart-Wien: Haupt 1995); Jana Levická, Od konceptu k technike. (Trna- va: Vydavateľstvo TŠ pre SPPVV na FZaSP TU, 2005). 428 Niklas Luhmann, Sociální systémy (Brno: CDK, 2006). 429 Harriet M. Bartlett, The Common Base of Social Work Practice (New York: National Association of Social Work- ers, Inc.,1970). 430 Jana Levická, Ekosociálne prístupy v sociálnej práci (Trnava: Oliva, 2012).

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At the same time, these theories create individual concepts that allow a better grasp of the subject matter in both theoretical and practical form .431

One of the concepts social workers use in their intervention is the concept of the quality of life . There are several models of the concept of the quality of life used in a contemporary social work; individual models have evolved depending on the author‘s/authors’ orientation in some field of social work . Lapage 432 drew attention to the lack of clarity of the situation regarding the quality of life models resulting from the interest of experts in this issue . In recent years, quality of life models focusing on a sustainable development have emerged in social work too433 . Although the emergence of the concept of the quality of life is linked to the economic field, social work uses more psychological or medically oriented models . Models adjusted in this way are more in tune with the complex under- standing of a man and include their spiritual dimension too . Although acceptance of spirituality as one of the components of social work corresponds not only to a comprehensive approach to a man, but also to the historical developmental context of the profession, which was built on Judeo-Christian philosophy and tradition434, in the Slovak practice these issues are rarely encountered .

Spirituality as part of social work At the beginning of education and training in social work, at least in the field of ethics, Europe- an and American schools reported themselves to Christian roots, which naturally also translated into the practice carried out by these schools graduates .435 In later years, social workers no longer openly declared themselves to the spiritual dimension of their profession, which under the influence Expert articles of secularization, was described as an old-fashioned concept . Those social workers who pointed out the possibility of making positive use of religious motives in helping others were also suspected of unprofessional behaviour in their profession436 . For more than 40 years, religion and beliefs were moved beyond the professional attention of social workers and their use in practice was sporadic . In the intervention of social workers, the spiritual dimension was thus omitted, as a result of which clients‘ spiritual needs remained unmet . The Christian context was gradually minimized for most educators until it was completely removed from undergraduate training in some schools437 .

431 For detailed information on this matter see the following studies: Malcolm Payne, Modern Social Work Theory (3rd ed.). (Chicago: Lyceum Books Inc.,U.S, 2005). Pamela Trevithick, Social Work Skills And Knowledge: A Prac- tice Handbook (3rd ed.). Berkshire: Open University Press, 2012. 432 Alain Lepage, The Quality of Life model as attribute of the sustainability concept 2007. http://www.ep.liu.se/ ecp/026/081/ecp0726081.pdf 433 Alain Lepage, “The evaluation of a political system, using the Markov model, with sustainability and safety as reverse processes,” IPSI BgD Transactions (Two Research Oriented Journals) 2, no. 1, (January 2006): 76-83 http://tar.ipsitransactions.org/2006/January/Paper%2012.pdf 434 Beryl Hugen, “Calling: A Spirituality Model for Social Work Practice,” Pro Rege 24, no. 3, (1996): 1- 10. https:// digitalcollections.dordt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1864&context=pro_rege; Jana Levická, Náčrt dejín sociálnej práce (Trnava: SAP, 1999). 435 Hugen, “Calling,” 1-10. 436 Hugen, “Calling,” 1-10. 437 Hugen, “Calling,” 1-10; Edward R Canda, “Spiriruality, religious diversity and social work practice,” Social Case- work 69, no. 4 (1988): 238-247. Edward R Canda, et al. Health through faith and community : A study resource for Christian faith communities to promote personal and social well-being (Binghamton, New York: The Haworth Press, 2006); Edward R Canda, “Spiritually Sensitive Social Work: An Overview of American and International Trends Plenary Address for International Conference on Social Work and Counseling Practice, City Universi- ty of Hong Kong, China,” https://spiritualitydiversity.drupal.ku.edu/sites/spiritualitydiversity.drupal.ku.edu/ files/docs/Practice/Spirituality%20and%20SW%20Hong%20Kong%20plenary%20paper.pdf

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Existential social work, which began to be promoted in the 1960s, highlighted the need to pay attention to spiritual issues, especially in the context of the meaning of life and human suffering438 . Unmet spiritual needs can enhance feelings of scepticism and existential frustration . Today‘s glo- balized society multiplies the perceived level of risk by expanding it to enduring feelings of threat not only from the ever-opening new local war conflicts, persistent arms race, terrorist attacks, but also from deteriorating living conditions resulting from the climate change . Almost daily, media bring a lot of negative information from different world locations, thus “shrinking” our world and, as a result, some individuals experience feelings of danger from situations that take place more than a thousand kilometers away . All these strong emotions that accompany a person‘s life in their daily routine ultimately lead to the need for something “good” and “stable” that would fulfill their existence.

This need also appears in the selection of helping professions, including social work . Among the motivators of those interested in studying social work, it is often personal faith that is translated into a desire to help other people, in some cases a desire to serve others439 . However, the need to „help the neighbour“ does not only manifest itself on an individual level . In the form of a professional commitment, it will also be met by social workers who have voluntarily assumed responsibility for building social services and providing quality assistance, which has led to a gradual professionali- zation that has been carried out in a specific socio-historical context. Abels440 notes that in a secu- larized society, this commitment has been translated into the moral responsibility of social workers, which does not refer to the biblical „love your neighbour“ but refers to international human rights documents . Since the mid-20th century, we have been able to observe, in ethically-oriented works, the promotion of linguistic change, which is gradually replacing the term „near“ by the terminology such as „man as value“. The man is thus classified among other social valuessuch ​​ as justice, ed- ucation, nature, etc. In the effort to promote social work as a scientifically sound profession, there has been a gradual distancing from its strong association with charity roots . Christian values were​​ gradually exchanged for “humanistic” values, which has led to the presentation of social work as a value-based profession towards society, no longer emphasizing Christian values441 . Within the framework of professional ethics, liberal ethics suppressed Christian ethics442 . The Christian context was gradually minimized for most educators until it was completely removed from undergraduate training in several schools443 .

438 James Leiby, “Moral Foundations of Social Welfare and Social Work: A Historical View”, Social Work 30, no. 4, (1985): 323–330. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/30.4.323 ; Hugen, “Calling,” 1-10; Edward R Canda, Leola Dyrud Furman, Spiritual diversity in social work practice: The heart of helping (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). 439 Eva Sotoniaková, Teorie a metody sociální práce Ostrava: Filozofická fakulta OSU, 2005; Hugen, “Calling,” 1-10. 440 Sonia Leib Abels, Spirituality in Social Work Practice: Narratives for Professional Helping (Denver, Love Publish- ing Company, 2000). 441 Edie Weinstein-Moser, “Spirituality in Social Work — the Journey From Fringe to Mainstream, ” Social Work Today 8, No. 2, (2008): 32. https://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/marapr2008p32.shtml ; Max Siporin, “Moral philosophy in social work today,” Social Service Review 56, no. 4, (1982): 516-538. https://www.journals. uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/644045?mobileUi=0& 442 Max Siporin, “Contribution of religious values to social work and the law, ” Social Thought 12, no. 4, (1986): 35- 50. https://doi.org/10.1080/15426432.1986.10383576 443 Hugen, “Calling,” 1- 9; Edward R Canda, “Spiriruality, religious diversity,” 238-247; Edward R Canda, “Spiritually Sensitive Social Work: An Overview of American and International Trends Plenary Address for International Conference on Social Work and Counseling Practice, City University of Hong Kong, China,” https://spirituality-

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In the 1980s, however, there was a revival of the discussion of spirituality in the context of social work, which eventually developed into a coherent theoretical concept . Within this concept, spirit- uality is perceived as a fixed part of a human being444 . If social work in its interventions is based on a holistic concept, then it also needs to know and understand human spirituality . Spirituality is greatly influenced by culture, faith, traditions, lifestyle, social values, etc. This fact is also reflected in the characteristics and definitions of spirituality, resulting in the existence of several definitions and approaches to spirituality445 . However, helping professionals must be aware of the fact that despite the pursuit of scientific exploration of spirituality, it is created and lived on a subjective basis. In a broader sense, spirituality can be understood as a natural part of the personality, as a component that links each individual‘s inner, subjective experience with the awareness of something higher than their own . Personal spirituality is characterized by a relationship to oneself, to other people and to a „higher power“ (in Christian oriented spirituality to God), as well as to the environment (nature), which allows people to experience transcendence, i .e . experience beyond their own sensual and ra- tional experience446) . Spirituality is a set of personal beliefs that come from the perception of oneself and of one‘s own relationship to the natural world that actually exists, as well as to what goes beyond that reality . When individuals try to understand the meaning of life, they often seek answers in “force majeure” . In doing so, they experience strong feelings of belonging to Someone and Something, but also feelings of isolation, faith and doubt, hope and despair, suffering, and joy447 . In a broader understanding, spirituality can be understood as an openness of a man not only for religious but also for general human experience, which can also be associated with everyday life448 . According to Smekal449, spirituality is connected with our everyday life, it is a journey towards some- Expert articles thing greater than ourselves . Such an experience can be achieved not only through a relationship with God, but also through a deep relationship with another person, when encountering “beauty”, which may take the form of an artistic experience, contact with nature, or contact with the actions of another person deeply impressed by . Although we understand spirituality as a natural part of every human being, there are differences in how people realize it . Emmons450 writes about the spiritual intelligence assigned to everyone . Spiritual intelligence includes the skills needed to process and

diversity.drupal.ku.edu/sites/spiritualitydiversity.drupal.ku.edu/files/docs/Practice/Spirituality%20and%20 SW%20Hong%20Kong%20plenary%20paper.pdf; Edward R Canda, Leola Dyrud Furman, Spiritual diversity in social work practice: The heart of helping (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). 444 Edward R Canda, “Spiriruality, religious diversity,” 238-247; Edward R Canda, Spirituality in social work: New di- rections (Binghamton, New York: The Haworth Press, 2012); Ladislav Bučko, Ondrej Botek, “Spirituality for mis- sion,” Acta Missiologica 9, no. 1, (2015): 51-58. https://www.actamissiologica.com/ ; Michal Stríženec, Novšie psychologické pohľady na religiozitu a spiritualitu (Bratislava: Ústav experimentálnej psychológie SAV, 2007). 445 Ladislav Bučko, Ondrej Botek, “Spirituality,” 51-58. https://www.actamissiologica.com/ 446 Edward R Canda, “Spiriruality, religious diversity,” 238-247; Edward R Canda, “Spiritually Sensitive Social Work: An Overview of American and International Trends Plenary Address for International Conference on Social Work and Counseling Practice, City University of Hong Kong, China,” https://spiritualitydiversity.drupal. ku.edu/sites/spiritualitydiversity.drupal.ku.edu/files/docs/Practice/Spirituality%20and%20SW%20Hong%20 Kong%20plenary%20paper.pdf 447 Jim Winship, Infusing Spirituality and Religion into Social Work Practice A NACSW Audio Conference April 29, 2002. https://www.nacsw.org/AudioConf/042902Handouts.htm 448 Věra Suchomelová, Senioři a spiritualita. Duchovní potřeby v každodenním životě (Praha: Návrat domů, 2016). 449 Vladimír Smékal, Psychologie duchovního života (Brno: Cesta, 2017). 450 Robert A. Emmons, “Spirituality and Intelligence: Problems and Prospects,” The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 10, no. 1, (2000): 57-64. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327582IJPR1001_6

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use spiritual information . Emmons considers spiritual information451 be part of the individual‘s knowl- edge. It is information that can make it easier for an individual to adapt to change and find solutions to problem situations .

Spiritual-sensitive social work The fact that there are several different religions within countries, and also that there is a relative- ly large group of people who do not profess any religion, imposes new demands on social workers in relation to spirituality . Several authors452 have stated that due to migratory waves, social workers need to be able to respond to a much more diverse spiritual need, since clients do not come from a unified spiritual environment, as was the case in the past. The main requirement is that they should be able to respond adequately to the spiritual needs of all members of the society in which they work .

Spiritual-Sensitive Social Work focuses on identifying, understanding and promoting the spiritual goals and aspirations of individual clients, their families and entire communities, while doing so on a holistic approach, with an emphasis on a culturally appropriate way of intervention . It is assumed that social workers are able to understand the specifics of individual clients‘ spirituality and to un- derstand them despite different religious contexts . These skills should be developed during the undergraduate training/education of social workers . In this context, Canda453 expects that future social workers will have the opportunity to self-reflect their own spiritual or religious experience. Spiritual-sensitive social work respects a large number of religious and non-religious needs, fo- cusing on understanding how social workers and their clients seek meaning, purpose, and context to overcome personal obstacles and insufficient resources in realizing their highest desires and spiritual needs .454

Canda455 reiterates that spiritual-sensitive social work requires social workers to have a higher degree of sensitivity, which in turn becomes part of their professional personality . Spiritual sensitivity thus increases the general sensitivity of social workers in practice . On a practical level, spiritual-sen- sitive social work requires social workers to have in their personal equipment firm rules which they follow in their personal life and in their own practice . Involvement in undergraduate training of students requires social pedagogues to permanently develop their own spirituality, because only in this way it is possible to develop the spirituality of their students, who, in the course of their studies, should build the competence to handle sensitively the spirituality of their clients .

If we accept Canda‘s understanding of spirituality, we also accept the fact that spiritual-sensitive social work focuses its intervention on three areas:

451 Robert A. Emmons, “Is Spirituality an Intelligence? Motivation, Cognition, and the Psychology of Ultimate Con- cern, ” The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 10, no. 1, (2000): 3-26. https://doi.org/10.1207/ S15327582IJPR1001_2 452 E.g. Max Siporin, “Current social work perspectives on clinical practice,” Clinical Social Work Journal 13, (1985): 198-217. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00754647 ; Hugen, “Calling,” 1- 10. 453 Edward R Canda, “Spiriruality, religious diversity,” 238-247. 454 Edward R Canda, “Spiritually Sensitive Social Work: An Overview of American and International Trends Ple- nary Address for International Conference on Social Work and Counseling Practice, City University of Hong Kong, China,” https://spiritualitydiversity.drupal.ku.edu/sites/spiritualitydiversity.drupal.ku.edu/files/docs/ Practice/Spirituality%20and%20SW%20Hong%20Kong%20plenary%20paper.pdf 455 Edward R Canda, Spirituality in social work: New directions (Binghamton, New York: The Haworth Press, 2012); Edward R Canda, “Spiriruality, religious diversity,” 238-247.

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1) to understand how living situations affect the creation of personal meanings that individuals attribute to these situations, 2) to understand how individuals come to understand themselves, 3) to understand the importance of one‘s own connection with other people .456

Application of spirituality in social work Canda‘s works in particular contributed to the fact that in the 1990s the interest in spiritual social work increased, especially in America . In 1989, Ed Canda founded the Society for Spirituality and Social Work in the United States, which gradually created an informal network bringing together academics, PhD students, as well as practitioners who combined efforts to integrate the issues of religiosity and spirituality into their social work . The development of this discourse was greatly aided by the founding of The Spirituality and Social Work Communicator, which started to be issued in 1990 . A year later, the informal network transformed into a professional organization that began pub- lishing a peer-reviewed journal Religion and Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought in 1991 . After Canda, the directors were Robin Russel, Ann Weaver Nichols, Helen Landa and Kimberly Hardy .

In 2000, under the influence of The Society for Spiritual and Social Work, Barbara Swartz- entruber, Brian Ouellette, John Graham and John Coates founded the Canadian Network for Spiritual and Social Work . The activity of this company was supported by two major organiza- tions, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research (SSHRC) and the Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE). Following the USA, the informal Canadian network transferred Expert articles in 2005 in a professional scientific society named Canadian Society for Spirituality and Social Work (CSSSW) . It was these two companies which have contributed not only to the development of spiritual social work at the scientific level, but also to its application in practical social work. Thanks to their action, a concept defining spirituality as what makes sense to our life, gives it a goal, and sometimes determines our vocation/job, has finally been adopted.

Spiritual social work in the American environment has been quite broad from the outset . Unlike spiritual social work in the European environment, which began to develop at about the same time as in Canada, it did not focus its attention only on hospice services . It is undisputed that it is in the final stage of human life that people naturally feel the need to solve their spiritual problems457, but this period of life is not the only one in which people intensively perceive their spiritual needs .

Weinstein-Moser458 drew attention to the fact that we can encounter spiritual social work with regard to solving various traumas or problems related to aging and different illnesses, including psychiatric illness, addictions, etc ., whereas, at the same time, these are situations in which people feel the need for good interpersonal relationships, they are finding or re-establishing the meaning of life, and often seek for the need for forgiveness . In addition to the topic of forgiveness, spirituality brings hope to social work .

456 Edward R Canda, “Spiritually sensitive social work: key concepts and ideals,” Journal of Social Work Theory and Practice (1999): 3. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.565.5827&rep=rep1&type=pdf 457 Ann Callahan, Spirituality and Hospice Social Work (End-of-Life Care: A Series) (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017). 458 Edie Weinstein-Moser, “Spirituality in Social Work — the Journey From Fringe to Mainstream, ” Social Work Today 8, No. 2, (2008): 32. https://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/marapr2008p32.shtml

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Weinstein-Moser459 identified as one of the tasks of spiritual social work the need to reveal how spiritual values influence the practice of social workers and how they influence clients‘ ability to un- derstand difficult life situations and, above all, their ability to manage and find solutions. Spirituality also affects the ability to establish connections with other human beings and to be aware of the interdependence with all the people, which ultimately leads to the awareness of the need for the unity of the human community . By cultivating the spiritual aspect of personality, social workers help clients gain a sense of self-wholeness from which they can draw additional strength to handle very demanding tasks460 .

The concept of forgiveness offers an understanding of how our anger and resistance repeatedly make us attached to painful past and prevent us from achieving the state of equilibrium that is neces- sary for our performance . Reshaping feelings of anger and harm prevent people from revealing and exploiting their own skills for self-development and coping . Spirituality involves cognitive, philosoph- ical, experiential, emotional, and behavioural aspects461 . Similarly, Canda462 expressed spirituality as a universal aspect of human existence and the search for the meaning of life, which is closely linked to the formation and fulfilment of relationships with other people, but also of relationships beyond human existence . Spirituality provides a perspective for the support, purpose, meaning and direction of human life463 .

This makes it obvious that spiritual social work is not limited to the narrow area of hospice care . In working with the family, e g. ,. social workers point to the positive use of spirituality in restoring family relationships, and it is the spiritual resources of family members that can be used for the family’s recovery process, which is not possible without forgiveness and hope .

Helen Land464 points out the possibilities of using spiritual social work when working with clients with psychiatric illness and their families . Despite the increasing secularisation of the society, people still need their own philosophical foundation, through which they can understand themselves, as well as the people with whom they share their lives . Understanding of how clients, especially psychiatric patients, perceive religion, faith and spirituality could help therapists to decide which elements of their personal spirituality can be incorporated into the process of professional intervention . It is this “sacred triad” that can, according to Land, support their recovery process .

459 Edie Weinstein-Moser, “Spirituality in Social Work — the Journey From Fringe to Mainstream, ” Social Work Today 8, No. 2, (2008): 32. https://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/marapr2008p32.shtml 460 Edie Weinstein-Moser, “Spirituality in Social Work — the Journey From Fringe to Mainstream, ” Social Work Today 8, No. 2, (2008): 32. https://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/marapr2008p32.shtml 461 Edie Weinstein-Moser, “Spirituality in Social Work — the Journey From Fringe to Mainstream, ” Social Work Today 8, No. 2, (2008): 32. https://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/marapr2008p32.shtml 462 Edward R Canda, “Spiriruality, religious diversity,” 238-247; Edward R Canda, et al. Health through faith and community: A study resource for Christian faith communities to promote personal and social well-being (Bing- hamton, New York: The Haworth Press, 2006). 463 Edie Weinstein-Moser, “Spirituality in Social Work — the Journey From Fringe to Mainstream, ” Social Work Today 8, No. 2, (2008): 32. https://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/marapr2008p32.shtml 464 Helen M. Land, Spirituality, Religion, and Faith in Psychoterapy: Evidence-Based Expressive Methods for Mind, Brain, and Body (USA, Chicago IL: Lyceum Books, 2015).

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Knowledge of the importance of spirituality for the healing process of clients with psychiatric diagnosis has been known since the beginning of the 20th century . E g. . Cabot465 appreciated that social workers, thanks to their spiritual strength, help those in need to strengthen their faith, courage, humility, allowing them to rediscover their ability to become people . This activity is based on the goal of social work, which is to maintain and to improve the ways of understanding, both in a man’s inter- action with other people, but also in those with whom it is possible to show the effect of God’s will for the benefit of individuals. Cabot even wrote about the spiritual diagnosis, which aims to reveal the meaning of the individual’s existence, which implies that the spiritual diagnosis allows us to see the interconnection of a man with the rest of the world . The intervention also includes “spiritual treat- ment”, i e. . an attempt to open the paths of communication between a man and the world in a way that a man’s action is directed towards the good functioning of the world . And as Cabot puts it, “ in this way, social workers participate in God’s providence”466 .

At the end of the millennium, Canda and Furman467 also recalled the bio-psycho-social-spiritual importance, according to which knowing the subjective spirituality of an individual allows social work- ers and their clients to work with the ideas that are important to their actions . These are thoughts that are of particular importance to the client and are very often associated with individuals’ efforts to make sense of their existence and their actions . Spiritual social work can help clients gradually discover and build a meaningful existence .

In specific situations, this sacred triad may result e.g. in frustration anxiety and other problems. Expert articles These are especially situations when individuals with strong faith and spirituality acted contrary to their own spiritual values. There are situations such as marital / partner infidelity, failure to manage their own parenthood, but also abortion, abandonment of the child, etc . In situations where there is a serious disruption of the subjective value system, the intervention must be directed towards restoring the client’s homeostasis, which, if it is to be restored, must be restored including the cli- ent’s spiritual dimension .

Conclusion At the end of the previous millennium, discussions about spirituality in the context of social work 468 and spiritual social work469 have been revived . In part, this interest is attributed to the Judeo-Chris- tian traditions on which social work has grown470, and in part it is a reaction to life in a risky society471, which (despite secularization at all levels of social life) brings not only a feeling of unlimited freedom to human life, but also feelings of loneliness, frustration of escalating insecurity, i .e . feelings, which, when accumulated, can have a negative impact on human health .472

465 Hugen, “Calling,” 1- 10. 466 Hugen, “Calling,” 1- 10. 467 Edward R Canda, Leola Dyrud Furman, Spiritual diversity in social work practice: The heart of helping (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). 468 Hugen, “Calling,” 1- 10. 469 Edward R Canda, “Spiriruality, religious diversity,” 238-247. 470 Leiby, “Moral Foundations of Social Welfare and Social Work”, 323–330. 471 Ulrich Beck, Riziková společnost: Na cestě k jiné moderně (Praha: SLON, 2011). 472 Michal Stríženec, Novšie psychologické pohľady na religiozitu a spiritualitu (Bratislava: Ústav experimentálnej psychológie SAV, 2007); Viktor Frankl, Neuvedomený Boh. Psychoterapia a náboženstvo (Bratislava: Lúč, 2005); Viktor Frankl, Pinchas Lapide, Hľadanie Boha a otázka zmyslu (Bratislava: Lúč, 2009).

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Dynamics of the development of the society, which is about responding to global trends of unlim- ited economic growth, the impact of modern technologies on everyday life, the enormous pressure of consumer-oriented advertising on life, or the unmanageable waves of economic migrants, are causing destabilizing processes in the global and local society . These can also be strengthened by new spiritual elements, other philosophies, etc ,. which migrants bring to a stable spiritual envi- ronment . Together, all these facts can cause in some individuals feelings of persistent confusion, uncertainty or fear of the development of the society of which they are part . In such an unstable environment, people live their daily lives . Therefore, it is not uncommon that not everyone can maintain the necessary homeostasis and experience less or more than just spiritual contamination .

At the end of the 20th century, not only the deteriorating ecological environment473, the threat of a war or financial crisis, but also the spiritual emptiness of the society should be classified as a threat to civilization. The secularized society offers dozens of new scientific knowledge daily, including new treatments for major diseases . However, it cannot guarantee what is basal, such as positive inter- personal relationships, assurance of acceptance and love, deep interest, etc . The certainty offered to the society by spirituality transformed into subjective value systems has become what ever more members of the society are looking for . And, as Canda474 points out, as well as Mathews475, Land476, Mc Kernan477, this emptied spiritual space is pushing new “religious movements “ that are not rarely referred to as sects, offer especially to young people compensation for some of the traditional forms of spirituality . It is therefore more than desirable that we bring to this emptied space traditional spirit- uality in the language of a contemporary man478 .

Thus, spiritual social work is not only an offer for sensitive intervention using this dimension of aid, it is also a preventive activity protecting clients from the undesirable influence of sectarian societies . At the same time, spiritual social work accepts the fact that people now live their lives in a multicultural, multi-ethnic and thus also in a multi-spiritual environment . Spiritual social workers are convinced that it is necessary to know, understand and promote those forms of spirituality that

473 John Coates, Ecology and Social Work: Toward a New Paradigm. Halifax NS: Fernwood Publishing, 2003; Le- na Dominelli, Green Social Work: From Environmental Crises to Enviromental Justice (Cambridge, Polity Press, 2012). 474 Edward R Canda, “Spiriruality, religious diversity,” 238-247; Edward R Canda, et al. Health through faith and community: A study resource for Christian faith communities to promote personal and social well-being (Bing- hamton, New York: The Haworth Press, 2006); Edward R Canda, “Spiritually Sensitive Social Work: An Over- view of American and International Trends Plenary Address for International Conference on Social Work and Counseling Practice, City University of Hong Kong, China,” https://spiritualitydiversity.drupal.ku.edu/sites/ spiritualitydiversity.drupal.ku.edu/files/docs/Practice/Spirituality%20and%20SW%20Hong%20Kong%20 plenary%20paper.pdf 475 Ian Mathews, Social Work and Spirituality: Transforming Social Work Practice (Exeter, Learning Matters Ltd., 2009). 476 Helen M. Land, Spirituality, Religion, and Faith in Psychoterapy: Evidence-Based Expressive Methods for Mind, Brain, and Body (USA, Chicago IL: Lyceum Books, 2015). 477 Michael McKernan, “Exploring the Spiritual Dimension of Social Work,” Critical Social Work 6, no. 2, (2005). https://ojs.uwindsor.ca/index.php/csw/article/view/5670/4633 478 Ladislav Bučko, “The current mission model applicable to today’s globalized world,” Acta Missiologica, 10, no. 2, (2016): 17-34. https://www.actamissiologica.com/

138 SEVERAL RELEVANT SPECIFICITIES IN THE FIELD OF SPIRITUALITY IN SOCIAL WORK | Jana Levická

can benefit individual human lives479 . The fact that someone is e g. . a Christian does not mean that they cannot respect Jewish, Muslim or other spirituality .

Problems today’s postmodern society is facing do not avoid Slovakia . This fact can also be ob- served in the current situation influenced by COVID-19, whose context has various negative con- sequences on a global scale . This is where space opens for a deeper perception of relevance of spirituality in social work on an international level in many forms and models . For the Slovak society, the current COVID-19 situation represents a serious and most desirable challenge in the area of spirituality in social work: to introduce and develop spiritual social work . At the same time, as McK- ernan480 confirms, it is necessary to look for an approach of integrating spirituality into the Slovak social work that would not be unrestrained, be based on scientific arguments, but at the same time be sufficiently credible not only for clients and their families but especially for social workers themselves . On an international level, analysis of the situation in the Slovak society in the area of spirituality in social work could point out at the necessity of international discussion and cooperation in the search of new and efficient solutions in the area of spirituality in social work, including in the COVID-19 context. With this regard, it is also necessary to think about certain relevant specificities which could be used by the international community of experts within the analysis . It is necessary that new expert studies and reflections are conducted on the basis of an intercultural international dialogue, which will focus on the search of new interesting correlations focused on: importance of religious and spiritual conviction in the lives of many social service users on an inter- Expert articles national level with benefits for individual countries in which the phenomenon of spirituality in social work has not been sufficiently anchored yet; potential usefulness in the area of specifically created new and efficient interventions: on the level of Christian and other more or less known religions in the world, including the area of spirituality perception; skills strengthening and building – for social workers and future profiling social workers, including social work students – using adequate methods and strategies to efficiently respond to the needs of all social service clients, including those for whom religious and spiritual convictions are decisive .

Bibliography: Abels, Sonia Leib. Spirituality in Social Work Practice: Narratives for Professional Helping. Denver, Love Publishing Company, 2000. Bartlett, Harriet M. The Common Base of Social Work Practice. New York: National Association of Social Workers, Inc.,1970. Beck, Ulrich. Riziková společnost: Na cestě k jiné moderně. Praha: SLON, 2011.

479 Nancy Wiedmeyer, “Spirituality in Social Work: Therapists’ Perspectives on the Role of Spirituality Within their Practice,” Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?arti- cle=1275&context=msw_papers 480 Michael McKernan, “Exploring the Spiritual Dimension of Social Work,” Critical Social Work 6, no. 2, (2005). https://ojs.uwindsor.ca/index.php/csw/article/view/5670/4633

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Bučko, Ladislav. “The current mission model applicable to today’s globalized world,” Acta Missiologica, 10, no. 2, (2016): 17-34. https://www.actamissiologica.com/ Bučko, Ladislav., Botek, Ondrej. “Spirituality for mission,” Acta Missiologica 9, no. 1, (2015): 51-58. https://www. actamissiologica.com/ Callahan, Ann. Spirituality and Hospice Social Work (End-of-Life Care: A Series). New York: Columbia University Press, 2017. Canda, Edward R. Spirituality in social work: New directions. Binghamton, New York: The Haworth Press, 2012. Canda, Edward R., Furman, Leola Dyrud. Spiritual diversity in social work practice: The heart of helping. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Canda, Edward R., et al. Health through faith and community: A study resource for Christian faith communities to promote personal and social well-being. Binghamton, New York: The Haworth Press, 2006. Canda, Edward R., “Spiritually Sensitive Social Work: An Overview of American and International Trends Plenary Address for International Conference on Social Work and Counseling Practice, City University of Hong Kong, China,” https://spiritualitydiversity.drupal.ku.edu/sites/spiritualitydiversity.drupal.ku.edu/files/docs/Practice/ Spirituality%20and%20SW%20Hong%20Kong%20plenary%20paper.pdf; Canda, Edward R., “Spiritually sensitive social work: key concepts and ideals,” Journal of Social Work Theory and Practice (1999): 3. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.565.5827&rep=rep1&type=pdf Canda, Edward R., “Spiriruality, religious diversity and social work practice,” Social Casework 69, no. 4 (1988): 238- 247. Dominelli, Lena. Green Social Work: From Environmental Crises to Enviromental Justice. Cambridge, Polity Press, 2012. Emmons, Robert A. “Spirituality and Intelligence: Problems and Prospects,” The International Journal for the Psy- chology of Religion 10, no. 1, (2000): 57-64. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327582IJPR1001_6 Emmons, Robert A. “Is Spirituality an Intelligence? Motivation, Cognition, and the Psychology of Ultimate Concern, ” The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 10, no. 1, (2000): 3-26. https://doi.org/10.1207/ S15327582IJPR1001_2 Frankl, Viktor. Neuvedomený Boh. Psychoterapia a náboženstvo. Bratislava: Lúč, 2005. Frankl, Viktor., Lapide, Pinchas. Hľadanie Boha a otázka zmyslu. Bratislava: Lúč, 2009. Hare, Isadora. “Defining social work for the 21st century, The International Federation of Social Work- ers´ revised definition of social work,” International Social Work, 47, no. 3, (2004): 407-424. https://doi. org/10.1177/0020872804043973 Hugen, Beryl.“Calling: A Spirituality Model for Social Work Practice,” Pro Rege 24, no. 3, (1996): 1- 10. https://digi- talcollections.dordt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1864&context=pro_rege Land, Helen M. Spirituality, Religion, and Faith in Psychoterapy: Evidence-Based Expressive Methods for Mind, Brain, and Body. USA, Chicago IL: Lyceum Books, 2015. Leiby, James . “Moral Foundations of Social Welfare and Social Work: A Historical View”, Social Work 30, no. 4, (1985): 323–330. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/30.4.323 ; Lepage, Alain. The Quality of Life model as attribute of the sustainability concept 2007. http://www.ep.liu.se/ecp/026/081/ ecp0726081.pdf

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Lepage, Alain. “The evaluation of a political system, using the Markov model, with sustainability and safety as reverse processes,” IPSI BgD Transactions (Two Research Oriented Journals) 2, no. 1, (January 2006): 76-83 http://tar. ipsitransactions.org/2006/January/Paper%2012.pdf Levická, Jana. Ekosociálne prístupy v sociálnej práci. Trnava: Oliva, 2012. Levická, Jana. Od konceptu k technike. Trnava: Vydavateľstvo TŠ pre SPPVV na FZaSP TU, 2005. Levická, Jana. Náčrt dejín sociálnej práce. Trnava: SAP, 1999. Luhmann, Niklas. Sociální systémy. Brno: CDK, 2006. McKernan, Michael. “Exploring the Spiritual Dimension of Social Work,” Critical Social Work 6, no. 2, (2005). https:// ojs.uwindsor.ca/index.php/csw/article/view/5670/4633 Mathews, Ian. Social Work and Spirituality: Transforming Social Work Practice. Exeter, Learning Matters Ltd., 2009. Payne, Malcolm. Modern Social Work Theory. (3rd ed.). Chicago: Lyceum Books Inc.,U.S, 2005. Richmond, Mary E. Social Diagnosis. New York: The Free Press, 1965. Siporin, Max. “Contribution of religious values to social work and the law, ” Social Thought 12, no. 4, (1986): 35-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/15426432.1986.10383576 Siporin, Max. “Current social work perspectives on clinical practice,” Clinical Social Work Journal 13, (1985): 198-217. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00754647

Siporin, Max. “Moral philosophy in social work today,” Social Service Review 56, no. 4, (1982): 516-538. https://www. Expert articles journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/644045?mobileUi=0& Siporin, Max. “Ecological Systems Theory in Social Work,” The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: 7, no. 4, (1980): 507-532. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1428&context=jssw Smékal, Vladimír, Psychologie duchovního života. Brno: Cesta, 2017. Sotoniaková, Eva. Teorie a metody sociální práce Ostrava: Filozofická fakulta OSU, 2005. Staub-Bernasconi, Silvia. Systemtheorie, soziale Probleme und Soziale Arbeit: lokal, national, international oder: vom Ende der Bescheidenheit. Bern-Stuttgart-Wien: Haupt 1995. Stríženec, Michal. Novšie psychologické pohľady na religiozitu a spiritualitu. Bratislava: Ústav experimentálnej psy- chológie SAV, 2007. Suchomelová, Věra, Senioři a spiritualita. Duchovní potřeby v každodenním životě. Praha: Návrat domů, 2016. Trevithick, Pamela. Social Work Skills And Knowledge: A Practice Handbook (3rd ed.). Berkshire: Open University Press, 2012. Wiedmeyer, Nancy. “Spirituality in Social Work: Therapists’ Perspectives on the Role of Spirituality Within their Practice,” Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?arti- cle=1275&context=msw_papers Weinstein-Moser, Edie. “Spirituality in Social Work — the Journey From Fringe to Mainstream, ” Social Work Today 8, No. 2, (2008): 32. https://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/marapr2008p32.shtml Winship, Jim. Infusing Spirituality and Religion into Social Work Practice A NACSW Audio Conference April 29, 2002. https://www.nacsw.org/AudioConf/042902Handouts.htm

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COOPERATION OF VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS AND ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED IN PROFESSIONAL INTEGRATION OF PERSONS WITH A MENTAL DISABILITY

Katarína Slezáková 1 ✉, Krzystof Trebski ✉ 1,2 481

1 Faculty of Theology, Trnava University in Trnava (SK) 2 Inst . Centro Spiritualità Nicola D‘Onofrio, Bucchianico (IT)

Submitted: 15 December 2019 Accepted for publication: 3 April 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract Background: Vocational schools provide education and training on the performance of simple professional activities to students with a mental disability . The training aims to integrate persons with a mental disability into professional and social life . The provision of career guidance and cooperation with organisations involved in student vocational training is a very important aspect of promoting the professional integration of vocational school students . Organisations that can participate in this promotion are either educational or non-educational entities with which the guid- ance counsellor of the relevant vocational school establishes cooperation . Methods: The contribution reflects on the results of our research conducted at the beginning of 2019 . Among other things, the research focused on whether or not vocational schools co- operate with the aforementioned organisations . The research sample consisted of 42 guidance counsellors of vocational schools from all eight self-governing regions of the Slovak Republic . The questionnaire was selected as a research method, the collected data were analysed in the SPSS statistical programme and processed using first- and second-stage statistical analysis. Results: The research results have shown that vocational schools cooperate most frequently with educational counselling organisations and relevant offices of Labour, Social Affairs and Family. However, it was found that the average employment rate of vocational school graduates is only 47%, suggesting that the promotion of professional integration of young adults with a mental disa- bility is not at the required level . Conclusion: The conclusion of the contribution presents several relevant recommendations for practical application that derive from the performed research . In this context, the authors also at- tempted to present several examples of good practice abroad, which may serve as inspiration for the creation of additional expert studies and reflections that would help fill in the lack of effective solutions in this field in Slovakia. At the international level, these studies and reflections could sub- sequently point to the need for international cooperation to find new and effective solutions in the field of the professional lives of people with various types of disabilities (including mental disability) in countries that are not yet well prepared for their full inclusion in this field. Creating space for such professional discussions and reflections is particularly important in the current situation caused by

✉ Contact on author: Mgr. Katarína Slezáková, PhD. – email: [email protected] ✉ Contact on author/Coresspondece author: ThLic. Krzysztof Trębski, PhD. – email: kris.treb@gmail. com

142 COOPERATION OF VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS AND ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED IN PROFESSIONAL INTEGRATION OF PERSONS WITH A MENTAL DISABILITY | Katarína Slezáková, Krzystof Trebski

the consequences of COVID-19 which affect the entire world and to some extent also affect the area studied in this article at the international and national levels within the individual EU member states as well as worldwide .

Keywords: Counselling organisations . Vocational schools . Mental disability . Professional integra- tion . Good practice examples .

Introduction Vocational guidance is considered as one of the types of social counselling . The authors Žilová and Novotná look at social counselling on two levels . “In the broader sense of the word, social counselling is counselling provided to a client (individual, group, community) that is related to the need to address various life situations, tasks, personal and professional problems . This includes pedagogical, psychological, health, civil-law and labour-law counselling, as well as social coun- selling in the narrow sense of the word . Social counselling in the narrow sense focuses on the client’s problematic life situations that are associated with material or social deprivation, i e. . lack of financial resources to meet basic necessities; impossibility or inability to care for oneself, for one’s household; impossibility or inability to ensure social contact, to exercise one’s human and civil rights and legally protected interests; social problems associated with the ongoing social pro- cesses and their consequences, such as unemployment, poverty, neglect, etc . To summarise, it can be concluded that social counselling helps the client resolve (and prevent) his/her problematic situation that arises from the relationship between the client and the company, Expert articles the company and the client; it goes beyond his/her personal framework and the client wants to solve it by using his/her own (or closely related) resources and possibilities ”. 482 Vocational guidance is provided at primary and secondary schools in Slovakia by a system of educational counselling, which consists of guidance counsellors, school psychologists, special ed- ucation teachers, pedagogical-psychological counselling centres, special educational counselling centres in special schools, youth information centres, and other participating institutions . Ultimate- ly, the school principal along with the pedagogical council and the parent council is responsible for coordinating vocational training . He coordinates the vocational training of authorised staff to provide career guidance, and encourages and supports teachers to pursue lifelong learning . The class teacher plays an important role in the vocational training of students . He has known the students, their social and family background, and school achievements for a long time . He serves as an intermediary between parents and other members of the teaching staff . A guidance coun- sellor is an irreplaceable and the most important component of vocational guidance . His role is to address specific issues of psychological, educational and social development of children and young adults and to provide guidance on the choice of further studies and occupation . Since ed- ucational counselling activities are combined with other activities, career counselling often takes a lower priority . Early and consistent preparation of the student for his/her future occupation plays an important role in the prevention against his/her future unemployment, lack of success or failure in the labour market . A guidance counsellor provides a link between the school and counselling facilities in the education sector (pedagogical-psychological counselling centres and special edu- cation counselling centres), offices of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, and other institutions and professional facilities dealing with children and young adult care . As part of career counselling, guidance counsellors provide and coordinate the following at secondary schools:

482 See: A. Žilová, A. Novotná, “K niektorým aspektom sociálneho poradenstva Sociální poradenství jako druh pomoci,” Zborník příspěvku z kolokvia konaného 5.12.2002 v Hradci Králové. Hradec Králové: Ústav sociálních stúdií PF UHK, 2003, 95-100.

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– individual career counselling to all students, including students with special educational needs, – implementation of group programmes focusing on career guidance of students, – methodological assistance to other school teachers as well as to students’ parents, – provision of up-to-date information on schools and educational fields within the district, region and the entire territory of Slovakia, – organisation and coordination of students’ participation during open days at secondary schools and other organisations, at school and labour exchanges, at students excursions to the every- day professional environment, etc ,. – coordination of cooperation with other educational and non-educational institutions involved in student vocational training, etc .483 The counselling system in the field of professional development of students in the Slovak school system consists also of educational counselling and prevention centres, i e. :. ● Educational and Psychological Counselling and Prevention Centre (EPCPC), ● Special Education Counselling Centre (SECC). Educational and Psychological Counselling and Prevention Centres provide comprehensive psy- chological, special education, diagnostic, educational, counselling, and preventive care to children, especially in the field of optimisation of their personal, educational, and professional development, care for the development of their talent, and elimination of mental development disorders and behavioural disorders . They provide counselling services to legal representatives and teaching staff . They mainly employ methods of psychological and pedagogical diagnostics, psychological and educational counselling, prevention, re-education, rehabilitation, and psychotherapy 484. As of 1 September 2019, there are 79 educational and psychological counselling and prevention centres and 11 detached workplaces in Slovakia .485 The centre may be divided into the following departments: a) personal development counselling, b) educational development counselling, c) social development and prevention counselling, d) career development counselling, e) psychotherapy, f) educational counselling methodology, g) special education counselling . Special Education Counselling Centres facilitate comprehensive special education, psychological, diagnostic, counselling, rehabilitation, preventive, methodological, educational and other profes- sional activities and a set of special education interventions for children with disabilities, including children with developmental disorders in order to achieve optimal personality development and social integration .486 The aim of the professional activities carried out at an SECC as part of the career guidance of students is, inter alia, to participate in the education and career guidance of students with disabil- ities until their vocational training is completed, to facilitate a comprehensive diagnostic process and, on the basis of this knowledge, to draw up proposals for an appropriate educational method

483 See: M. Hargašová et al. Výchovné poradenstvo a voľba povolania (Bratislava: Klett, 2014). 484 See: Zákon 245/2008, Z.z. o výchove a vzdelávaní (školský zákon) a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov § 132. 485 See: Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (SCSTI) http://www.cvtisr.sk/cvti-sr-vedecka-knizni- ca/informacie-o-skolstve/vyskumy-a-prevencia/cpppap-adresar.html?page_id=10279 486 See: Zákon 245/2008 Z.z. o výchove a vzdelávaní (školský zákon) a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov § 133

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aimed at the highest possible level of social interaction and improvement of their employability in the labour market . In addition to students’ individual and group counselling, experts from this centre also provide information and methodological assistance to teachers, psychologists, and guidance counsellors .487 As of 15 September 2018, there are 152 special education counselling centres in Slovakia .488 Non-educational institutions focused on the field of vocational guidance collaborate with special education schools . Non-educational institutions include: ● Research Institute for Child Psychology and Pathopsychology ● State Vocational Education Institute ● National Institute of Education ● Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family ● Institute for Occupational Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons ● Youth Information Centres The offices of Labour, Social Affairs and Family provide information services and vocational guidance . Secondary school counselling is tailored to provide students with useful information when seeking employment or further studies and to provide information on the methods and places to look at to find their first job. The counsellors also focus on effective communication with a future employer (how to correctly write a job application, a letter of motivation and a CV, the principles of applying for a job via telephone, the principles of a successful job interview) and services provided by the offices of Labour, Social Affairs and Family. In addition to group counselling, it is possible to attend individual counselling, where the counsellor works independently with the student .489 Expert articles The career guidance of students with a mental disability at vocational schools is usually coor- dinated by guidance counsellors who have the opportunity to cooperate with a school psychologist or a special education teacher at some schools . When dealing with additional professional training, they usually cooperate with counselling organisations – EPCPC, SECC, and OLSAF .

Cooperation of Vocational Schools and Organisations Involved in Professional Integration of Persons with a Mental Disability490 Methods In 2019, we conducted a research study entitled “Promotion of Professional Integration of Ad- olescents with a Mental Disability within the Education Process”, which served as the basis for the following research findings. The questionnaire was selected as a data collection method, the collected data were analysed in the SPSS statistical programme and processed using first- and second-stage statistical analysis . The core group consisted of guidance consultants from all 59 vocational schools in Slovakia . The research sample consisted of 42 guidance counsellors of vo- cational schools from all eight self-governing regions of the Slovak Republic . The average age of respondents was 47 years . The results show that at least one form of career guidance is provided by 39 out of 42 respondents (92.8%). One of the quantitative research objectives was to find out which (if any) specific organisations involved in the vocational training of persons with a mental disability cooperate with vocational schools, how often they cooperate and what activities they provide to students . We assumed that:

487 See: M. Hargašová et al. Výchovné poradenstvo a voľba povolania (Bratislava: Klett, 2014). 488 See: Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (SCSTI) http://www.cvtisr.sk/cvti-sr-vedecka-knizni- ca/informacie-o-skolstve/registre/zoznamy-skol-a-skolskych-zariadeni.html?page_id=9332 489 See: http://www.upsvar.sk/ 490 See: K. Slezáková, Podpora pracovnej integrácie adolescentov s mentálnym postihnutím (Dobrá kniha: Trnava, 2019).

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– guidance counsellors at vocational schools (VS) with a higher number of students cooperate with EPCPC; – guidance counsellors at VS with a higher number of students cooperate with SECC .

Results There are several organisations vocational schools can collaborate with to support the pro- fessional integration of their students . There are two basic groups: educational counselling facili- ties (EPCPC and SECC) and non-educational organisations (Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, Supported Employment Agency, etc ). . The following table shows data on the frequency of cooperation between these organisations and vocational schools . The data reveal that VS coop- erate most frequently with the Educational and Psychological Counselling and Prevention Centres (57 1%). . 53 4%. of respondents said that they cooperate with the Special Education Counselling Centres. The data on the cooperation of the VS with the Offices of Labour, Social Affairs and Family were processed separately .

Table 1: Frequency of cooperation between VS and organisations involved in professional integration of students (in %)

Organisation Annually Bi-annually Quarterly Monthly Weekly In general SECC 4 .8 16 .7 2 .4 21 .4 7 1. 47 .6 EPCPC 9 .5 16 .7 9 .5 21 .4 0 42 .9 Supported Employment 14 .3 0 0 2 .4 0 83 .3 Agency Institute for Occupational Rehabilitation of Disabled 0 0 2 .4 0 0 97 .6 Persons Social and Occupational 0 0 2 .4 2 .4 0 95 .2 Rehabilitation Centre

Table 2: Activities of organisations involved in vocational training of VS students

Cooperates with Activities VS Organisation Discussions/ Number % Counselling Diagnostics lectures SECC 22 52 .4 12 7 10 EPCPC 24 57 1. 13 13 8 Supported Employment 7 16 .8 6 1 0 Agency Institute for Occupational Rehabilitation of Disabled 1 2 .4 0 1 0 Persons Social and Occupational 2 4 .8 0 2 0 Rehabilitation Centre

146 COOPERATION OF VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS AND ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED IN PROFESSIONAL INTEGRATION OF PERSONS WITH A MENTAL DISABILITY | Katarína Slezáková, Krzystof Trebski

An open-ended question was used to find out whether vocational schools cooperate with other organisations involved in the professional integration of persons with disabilities . The answers have shown that in 16 6%. of respondents VS cooperate with the municipality, and in 9 5%. of re- spondents, VS cooperate with the community centre .

The assumption that guidance counsellors at vocational schools with a higher number of students cooperate with EPCPC The hypothesis was tested using Spearman’s correlation coefficient.491 The test result is shown in Table 3 and it shows that VS with a higher number of students cooperate with EPCPC counsellors to a higher degree. This constitutes a significant (p < 0.05) relationship at a moderate level (r = 0 .334) .

Table 3: The assumption that guidance counsellors at vocational schools with a higher number of students cooperate with EPCPC

EPCPC Correlation coefficient 0 .334* Number of students P – value 0 .031 N 42 Expert articles The assumption that guidance counsellors at vocational schools with a higher number of students cooperate with SECC The hypothesis was tested using Spearman’s correlation coefficient. The test result is shown in Table 4 and it shows that VS with a higher number of students do not cooperate with SECC coun- sellors to a higher degree. The identified relationship is not significant (p > 0 .05) .

Table 4: The assumption that guidance counsellors at vocational schools with a higher number of students cooperate with SECC

SECC Correlation coefficient 0 .067 Number of students P – value 0 .672 N 42

61.9% of respondents reported they cooperate with the Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family. The following table shows data on the type of activity provided and the target group (grades) the activity is intended for. The most preferred target group are the third graders at VS. Specifically, the following activities are organised – discussions/lectures on the current state of the labour market (100%) and group counselling (65 42%). . It is also shown that the least performed activity is individual counselling; labour offices provide such counselling in only 19.27% of cases. 38.44% of labour offices do not provide parent cooperation. The number 100% in Table 5 constitutes 26 respondents who stated that they cooperate with the Offices of Labour, Social Affairs and Family.

491 See: A. Almašiová, K. Kohútová, Štatistické spracovanie dát sociálneho výskumu v programe SPSS (Ružomber- ok: Verbum, 2016).

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Table 5: Activities of the Offices of Labour, Social Affairs and Family at VS and target groups of students in %

1st grades 2nd grades 3rd grades Activity not provided Individual counselling 0 7 75. 11 .47 80 .77 Group counselling 19 .22 26 .97 65 .42 23 1. Discussions 19 .22 23 .58 100 0 Cooperation with parents 34 .57 34 .57 57 .67 38 .44

Guidance counsellor recommendations on improvement of professional integration of VS graduates The most frequently mentioned recommendation (33 .3% of respondents) is to strengthen the pro- vision of career counselling at vocational schools to students, parents and VS graduates . Accord- ing to the respondents, this kind of support could increase the employment rate of VS graduates in the labour market . The respondents also reported that a large proportion of students does not complete their VS studies . For this reason, it would be possible to contemplate changing the leg- islation to extend the compulsory education until the student reaches 18 years of age or until the student completes their VS studies . This recommendation was given by 19 05%. of respondents . The graduates cannot get employed if they have not completed their education . Another sugges- tion was the provision of a more efficient support of VS graduates from the State and employers once they enter the labour market (19 05%). . The respondents’ recommendations included the is- sue of staffing at schools. The teaching profession tends to be underpaid, which results in the loss of motivation for young teachers to work in the education sector and the ensuing lack of teachers in the school system and potentially less efficient access to education and training.

Discussion The cooperation with organisations involved in student vocational training is an important as- pect of promoting the professional integration of VS students . Vocational schools cooperate most frequently with EPCPC, specifically in 57.1% of cases. Activities provided by this school counselling facility developed for VS students mainly include discussions/lectures, counselling, and diagnos- tics . In general, EPCPC provides comprehensive psychological, special education, diagnostic, educational, counselling, and preventive care to children, especially in the field of optimisation of their personal, educational, and professional development, care for the development of their talent, and elimination of mental development disorders and behavioural disorders . SECC is the second organisation with which the vocational schools collaborate (52 4%). . They also organise discussions/lectures and provide counselling and diagnostics to VS students . As a school facility of educational counselling and prevention, SECC represents a multidisciplinary and multisectoral comprehensive counselling service for preschool children and young adults who are completing their vocational training . Children and young adults with special educational needs are their clients . Together with the author Vendel492, we recommend that professional groups – such as guidance counsellors, counselling psychologists, special education teachers and other professionals who work with students on their career growth – should not be isolated . Separation hinders progress that could be made and thus affects the students and clients participating in career guidance .

492 See: Š. Vendel, “Kariérové poradenstvo: Súčasný stav a perspektívy,” Československá psychologie LV. no. 6, (2011): 499 – 509.

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We are also convinced, along with the author Whiston493, that if there were more unity among career guidance professionals and if they could exchange information and collaborate on career guidance development, it would facilitate synergies . Therefore, there should be more unity and cooperation among career guidance professionals in the future . Our research assumed that guidance counsellors at vocational schools with a higher number of students cooperate with EPCPC. The hypothesis was confirmed: guidance counsellors at VS with a higher number of students cooperate with EPCPC . As students are also attended to by experts from the aforementioned school counselling facility, they are provided with better care in the field of counselling . However, the situation in Slovakia could improve nationwide after the legislative changes that have been in force since 1 September 2019 . 79 existing EPCPC have created 79 jobs for career counsellors who provide activities that would be less professionally effective had they been performed in schools and school facilities . The competences of career counsellors at EPCPC are defined in Section 26 of Act No. 138/2019 Coll.494 The main focus of their activities is the performance of career guidance activities, which would be less effective in the environment of schools or school facilities (diagnostics, information on the labour market – communication with employers, etc .) . Career counsellors employed by schools have a higher number of hours allocated for career counselling, which we also consider to be beneficial. Our research also assumed that guidance counsellors at vocational schools with a higher number of students cooperate with SECC. This hypothesis was not confirmed. We believe that vocational schools with a higher number of students that are cooperating with EPCPC consider this cooperation as being sufficient in providing counselling services to students. However, it is Expert articles appropriate and necessary to make use of the potential of the special education counselling cen- tres given their specialisation in clients (students) with various types of disabilities . These centres provide both students and parents with professional counselling, diagnostics and rehabilitation services, which are beneficial in the transition from the school environment to the labour market. 16 7%. of respondents said that the Supported Employment Agency is another organisation that cooperates with vocational schools in the vocational training of students . It provides students with counselling and discussions/lectures . It aims to address the issue of integration of the disadvan- taged, unemployed and disabled persons in the professional as well as social environment495, and to create conditions for the provision of services of general economic interest in the care for such people . 61.9% of respondents cooperate with the relevant Offices of Labour, Social Affairs and Family. They most often provide students with discussions on the current labour market opportunities (100% of the respondents answered in the affirmative to the question of whether they cooperate with the labour office) and group counselling (76.9% of respondents). 61.56% of respondents co- operating with the labour office mention the cooperation of the office with parents as an activity. Labour office counsellors focus most on third-grade students. The office provides individual coun- selling only in 19 .23% of the cases .496

493 See: S. C. Whiston, “Career counseling: 90 years old yet still healthy and vital,” The Career Development Quar- terly 52, no. 1, (2011): 35–42. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2003.tb00625.x 494 See: Zákon č. 138/2019 Z. z. o pedagogických zamestnancoch a odborných zamestnancoch a o zmene a do- plnení niektorých zákonov https://www.slov-lex.sk/pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2019/138/ 495 See also: A. Novotná, Bariéry integrácie občanov so zdravotným postihnutím na trhu práce v Slovenskej repub- like (Hradec Králové: 2007). 496 See: A. Žilová, Gergel M. “Trendy v hodnotení odborných poradenských služieb pre uchádzačov o zamest- nanie” Rezortné správy 1-3/2015, 10-12.

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Only 23% of guidance counsellors are informed of the employment rate of vocational school grad- uates in the labour market . The average employment rate of VS graduates is 47% . Guidance counsellors have declared that graduates often cut off contact with the school once they graduate and the counsellors thus have no way of obtaining this information .

Conclusion In conclusion, we would like to highlight several relevant recommendations to apply in practice in the field of potential systemic solutions to the problem of professional exclusion of persons with a mental disability in Slovakia, which derive from the performed research . In this context, we also attempt to present several examples of good practice from abroad, which may serve as inspiration for the creation of additional expert studies and reflections that would help fill in the lack of effec- tive solutions in this field in Slovakia. At the international level, these studies and reflections could subsequently point to the need for international cooperation to find new and effective solutions in the field of the professional lives of people with various types of disabilities (including mental disa- bility) in countries that are not yet well prepared for their full inclusion in this field. Making room for these expert discussions and reflections is especially important in the current climate marked by the consequences of COVID-19 as they affect the whole world and to some extent also the field covered in this contribution, both at international and national level within the EU and worldwide . Recommendations for practical application on the basis of performed research are as follows: – Targeted cooperation of vocational schools and organisations involved in the professional integration of persons with disabilities. More than half of guidance counsellors at vocational schools report cooperation with educational counselling facilities . Vocational schools prepare their students primarily for the performance of their chosen profession, but guidance on how to get a job after completing school education is in the hands of guidance counsellors who only cooperate with counselling organisations in about half of the cases . In addition, educational counselling facilities have a range of competencies, and career counselling is just one of several types of counselling and services that professionals at the centres provide . In particular, students and graduates with disabilities should be provided professional counselling assistance during their transition from school to the professional envi- ronment. More than half of vocational schools also cooperate with the Offices of Labour, Social Affairs and Family that also provide career counselling, especially group and collective counselling sessions . A certain percentage of respondents stated that they cooperate with Supported Employ- ment Agencies . These focus on increasing the employment rate of persons with disabilities and the long-term unemployed . As can be seen, the cooperation of vocational schools with organisations involved in the profes- sional integration of persons with disabilities varies, with cooperation with Offices of Labour, Social Affairs and Family and educational counselling organisations being the most represented . These most often provide students with collective counselling and diagnostics . What is common for all cooperating organisations is the fact that neither body is focused solely on the target group of young people with disabilities, their professional integration and assistance during their transition from school to the professional environment . This criterion is met only by the Institute for Occupa- tional Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons, with which 2 4%. of respondents cooperate . Increased demands on the provision of career counselling remain with VS guidance counsellors . Guidance counsellors should make greater use of cooperation with educational counselling facilities, which can also participate in vocational training of young persons with disabilities .

150 COOPERATION OF VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS AND ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED IN PROFESSIONAL INTEGRATION OF PERSONS WITH A MENTAL DISABILITY | Katarína Slezáková, Krzystof Trebski

In the recommendations of guidance counsellors, there is a request for a more efficient profes- sional interconnection and deeper cooperation of all institutions, which could be helpful in the professional integration of persons with disabilities . – Occupational rehabilitation centres In several foreign countries, a support network of measures, cross-sectoral cooperation and sup- port for both persons with disabilities and their families has been set up to facilitate the profes- sional integration of persons with disabilities . In the United States, not only the Department of Labour but also the Department of Education support the integration of persons with disabilities into the labour market . Within its remit, there is a department for occupational rehabilitation, which specialises in the transition from school to the first professional environment. The occupational rehabilitation community centre provides psychological diagnostics, career counselling, practical skills training at secondary schools and it facilitates recruitment of the job applicants upon comple- tion of their secondary school education, it facilitates their accommodation and provides various trainings, support counselling, etc .497 Another inspiring example from abroad is the Australian “Ticket to Work” programme, which pre- pares secondary school students with disabilities for the world of work . The project is under the auspices of the Department of Social Services . The rankings showed that the programme partic- ipants fare better in the labour market, apprenticeship, postgraduate studies, social participation and independence compared to other young people with similar disabilities . The project covers the counselling system and various methods implemented in the period of completion of the special secondary school and commencement of employment . 498 In Slovakia, this model can be compared Expert articles to dual education . An example of good practice can also be found in Norway, where families and students can turn to selected organisations for guidance in this field. A well-functioning organisation can help families relieve periods of similarly difficult transitions. Another benefit for Norwegian students with a mental disability is individual educational planning . Individual planning during secondary school should be connected as much as possible to the training of occupational skills or daily activities that students will need in the future . It is therefore essential that their preparation be carried out in cooperation with potential employers or offices of labour. These activities aim at making the students as independent as possible when carrying out job duties .499 The aforementioned systemic solution to the issue of professional exclusion of persons with a mental disability is missing in Slovakia . This was ascertained also through the research we have carried out . Despite the fact that, in 2019, guidance counsellors have increased the amount of career guidance at schools as a result of legislative changes, counselling organisations that specialise in assistance to persons with a mental disability are rare . For this reason, it is important to exploit the potential of existing educational and non-educational counselling organisations and institutes . As a second recommendation, it is important to mention the establishment of profes- sional integration centres for persons with disabilities, where a multidisciplinary team of experts, specifically designed for the target group of persons with disabilities and their professional integra- tion would provide advice .

497 See: Your Guide To Employment - Handbook of Services. Florida Department of Education, Vocational Rehabil- itation. http://www.rehabworks.org/docs/yourguidetoemployment.pdf 498 See: Gerard Atkinson et al. Ticket to work post school outcomes: Report for national disability services depart- ment of the world: Final report April 2019. http://www.tickettowork.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/ Ticket-to-Work-Post-School-Outcomes-final-2019.pdf 499 M. Cangár et al. Else a Ema (nezávislý život v komunite) (Bratislava: Rada pre poradenstvo v sociálnej práci, 2014).

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Bibliography Almášiová, A., Kohútová, K. 2016. Štatistické spracovanie dát sociálneho výskumu v programe SPSS. Ružomb- erok: Verbum, 2016. Atkinson, Gerard et al. Ticket to work post school outcomes: Report for national disability services department of the world: Final report April 2019. http://www.tickettowork.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Ticket- to-Work-Post-School-Outcomes-final-2019.pdf Cangár, M. et al. Else a Ema (nezávislý život v komunite). Bratislava: Rada pre poradenstvo v sociálnej práci, 2014. Hargašová M., et al. Výchovné poradenstvo a voľba povolania. Bratislava: Klett, 2014. Novotná, A. Bariéry integrácie občanov so zdravotným postihnutím na trhu práce v Slovenskej republike Hradec Králové: 2007. Slezáková, K. Podpora pracovnej integrácie adolescentov s mentálnym postihnutím. Dobrá kniha: Trnava, 2019. Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (SCSTI)http://www.cvtisr.sk/cvti-sr-vedecka-kniznica/ informacie-o-skolstve/vyskumy-a-prevencia/cpppap-adresar.html?page_id=10279 Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (SCSTI) http://www.cvtisr.sk/cvti-sr-vedecka-kniznica/ informacie-o-skolstve/registre/zoznamy-skol-a-skolskych-zariadeni.html?page_id=9332 Vendel, Š. “Kariérové poradenstvo: Súčasný stav a perspektívy,” Československá psychologie 2011. LV. no. 6, (2011): 499 – 509. Your Guide To Employment - Handbook of Services. Florida Department of Education, Vocational Rehabilitation. http://www.rehabworks.org/docs/yourguidetoemployment.pdf Whiston, S. C. “Career counseling: 90 years old yet still healthy and vital,” The Career Development Quarterly 52, no. 1, (2011): 35–42. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2003.tb00625.x Zákon 245/2008 Z.z. o výchove a vzdelávaní (školský zákon) a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov § 133 Zákon 245/2008, Z.z. o výchove a vzdelávaní (školský zákon) a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov § 132 Zákon č. 138/2019 Z. z. o pedagogických zamestnancoch a odborných zamestnancoch a o zmene a dopl- není niektorých zákonovhttps://www.slov-lex.sk/pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2019/138/ Žilová, A., Novotná, A. “K niektorým aspektom sociálneho poradenstva,” Sociální poradenství jako druh pomoci. Zborník příspěvku z kolokvia konaného 5.12.2002 v Hradci Králové. Hradec Králové: Ústav sociálních stúdií PF UHK, 2003, 95 -100. Žilová, A., Gergel, M. “Trendy v hodnotení odborných poradenských služieb pre uchádzačov o zamest- nanie” Rezortné správy 1-3/2015, 10-12.

152 FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION AND ITS HEALTH, EMOTIONAL, SOCIAL AND ETHICAL CONSEQUENCES | Libusa Radkova, Lucia Ludvigh Cintulova, Katarina Bundzelova

FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION AND ITS HEALTH, EMOTIONAL, SOCIAL AND ETHICAL CONSEQUENCES

Libusa Radkova 500✉ 1,2,3, Lucia Ludvigh Cintulova 3, Katarina Bundzelova 3

1 Field Hospital SEU, Hegyeshalom, Hungary, Nickelsdorf, (AT) 2 Field Hospital, St . Elizabeth University, Dobova, Slovenia (SI) 3 St . Elizabeth University of Health and Social Science, Bratislava (SK)

Submitted: 29 July 2019 Accepted for publication: 12 February 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Abstract Background: According to the World Health Organization, there are about 140 million girls and women around the world currently living with the consequences of the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) . The majority of these females are in Africa, where it is routinely done in 28 countries . FGM is practiced in women in several religions, although religious regulations do not require it . . Female genital mutilation is still performed for ritual reasons . It is supported by tradi- Expert articles tion in the societies where it is performed . It is an unacceptable procedure that mutilates female genitalia . It is sexuality intervening and disruptive to women emotional and physical health . Conclusion: Cultural and ritual practices are not fixed forever and can evolve. Community edu- cation can significantly contribute to reducing FGM practice than bans. Over the past 10 years, efforts to change the practice of FGM have been increasing in developing countries . Many local volunteers and NGOs strive for community education on the harmfulness of FGM and thus to stop practicing it . In further research it is necessary to capture these changes in the perception of FGM . This research should be preceded by international discussions with prac- titioners and experts focusing on FGM specifics. Specific expert reflections and participation in international cooperation in various areas directly or indirectly related to FGM should be con- ducted . Participative and summary results of this research which will help to eliminate FGM should be then used in practice by using specialized and efficient methods in countries where this harmful practice persists . It is very relevant to think about potential solutions to FGM during the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of its various negative effects . This period, as well as its consequences, may contribute to the worsening of the impact of FGM on health care and on the level of limited attention that is paid to this issue .

Keywords: Female Genital Mutilation . Women‘s health . . Social problems . Ethical issue . Emo- tional Problems .

Introduction Millions of little girls around the world must undergo varying degrees of genital mutilation . Medical staff and social workers of St . Elisabeth University in developing countries have been

✉ Contact on all authors/Coresspondece author: prof. Ing. Libusa Radkova, PhD. – email: libusa.radko- [email protected] PhDr. Lucia Ludvigh Cintulova, PhD., PhDr. Katarina Bundzelova, PhD.

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dealing directly with people who suffer from the practices and consequences of female genital mutilation . We have seen this ritual in its crude and primitive form . It strongly represses a woman physically, mentally and socially . It inhibits her survival, autonomy and, especially, her sexuality . Because of our ongoing relationships with people in these developing countries, we understand the issues at stake .

History of female genital mutilation on women It is generally believed that female genital mutilation (FGM) came from the area of central Africa . It spread from there mainly to the east and north . The most well-known practice of FGM is called “Pharaonic” surgery, from Egypt . Yet it is interesting that this type of female genital mutilation has never been found in Egyptian mummies . FGM is concentrated in Africa—east to west from Somalia to Senegal, and north to south from Egypt to Tanzania 501. The practice‘s distribution in Africa meets in Nubia in the 502503. The proposed circumcision of an Egyptian girl is mentioned on a Greek papyrus from 163 B .C .504 Found on the sarcophagus of Sit-Hedj-Hotep, the spell dates to Egypt‘s Middle Kingdom (c . 1991– 1786 BCE) .505 The examination of mummies has shown no evidence of FGM .506

FGM and religion The Bible does not mention FGM .507 Christian authorities agree that the practice has no foun- dation in Christianity‘s religious texts, and Christian missionaries in Africa were at the forefront of efforts to stop it . Indeed, they led the way in referring to it as mutilation; from 1929 the Kenya Missionary Council called it the “sexual mutilation of women”, following the lead of Marion Scott Stevenson, a Church of Scotland missionary .508 When, in the 1930s, Christian missionaries tried to make the abandonment of FGM a condition of church membership in colonial Kenya, they provoked a far-reaching campaign in defence of the practice .509 Despite the absence of scriptural support, women and girls within Christian communities, in- cluding in Egypt, Kenya, and Tanzania, do undergo FGM510 . It has been found among Cop- tic Christians in Egypt, Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia, and Protestants and Catholics in Sudan

501 Gerry Mackie, “Female Genital Cutting: The Beginning of the End,” in Female “Circumcision” in Africa: Culture Controversy and Change, ed. Bettina Shell-Duncan, Ylva Hernlund (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000). 259-260. 502 Mackie, “Female Genital Cutting,” 266-267. 503 Esther K. Hicks, Infibulation: Female Mutilation in Islamic Northeastern Africa (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1996), 19. 504 Mary Knight, “Curing Cut or Ritual Mutilation?: Some Remarks on the Practice of Female and Male Circumci- sion in Graeco-Roman Egypt,” Isis A Journal of the History of Science Society 92, no. 2, (2001): 329-330. https:// www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/385184 505 Knight, “Curing Cut or Ritual Mutilation?,” 330; The Egyptian Coffin Texts,ed. De Buck, Gardiner (Chicago: Uni- versity of Chicago Press 1935), 448-450. 506 Knight, “Curing Cut or Ritual Mutilation?” 331. 507 Samuel Waje Kunhiyop, African Christian Ethics (Hippo Books, 2008), 297. 508 James Karanja, J. The Missionary Movement in Colonial Kenya: The Foundation of Africa Inland Church 93. (Göt- tingen: Cuvillier Verlag, 2009). 509 Lynn M. Thomas, “‘Ngaitana (I will circumcise myself)’: Lessons from Colonial Campaigns to Ban Excision in Meru, Kenya,” Female “Circumcision”,” in Africa: Culture Controversy and Change, ed. Bettina Shell-Duncan, Ylva Hernlund (Boulder : Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000), 132. 510 I. El-Damanhoury. “Editorial The Jewish and Christian view on female genital mutilation” African Journal of Urology 19, 3, (2013): 127-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.afju.2013.01.004

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and Kenya 511. A 2013 UNICEF report identified 17 African countries in which at least 10 percent of Christian women and girls aged 15–49 had undergone it . Muslim proponents of FGM rely on the following hadith (a saying attributed to Muhammad): “Umm Atiyyat al-Ansariyyah said: A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina . The Proph- et said to her: Do not cut too severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband ”. 512 Senior Muslim religious authorities agree that FGM is neither required nor prohibited by Is- lam .513 The Quran mentions neither FGM nor male circumcision 514. FGM is praised in a few ha- dith (sayings attributed to Muhammad) as noble but not required 515. In addition to Sharia, the Ij- tihad have been one of the four sources of Muslim law through the centuries . Ijtihad include fat- was (opinions of Muslim religious scholars), which are often widely distributed and describe behaviour that conforms to religious requirements . Fatwas have been issued forbidding FGM,516 favouring it,517 and leaving the decision to parents but advising against it .518 Several Muslim leaders have called for an end to the practice . After a 12-year-old Egyptian girl died during an FGM procedure in 2007, the Al-Azhar Supreme Council of Islamic Research in Cairo ruled, according to UNICEF, that FGM had “no basis in core Islamic law or any of its partial provisions and that it is harmful and should not be practised ”. 519 In 2018 the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland classified removal of the clitoral foreskin, a less severe form of FGM, as sunna (recommended) even it was prohibited in 2012 in Switzer- land and in overseas Swiss girls .520 The various schools of Islamic jurisprudence have expressed differing views on FGM .521 For Expert articles example, Egyptian scholars such as Mohammed Emara and Mohammad Salim Al-Awa argue that FGM is not an Islamic practice and is not endorsed by Islamic jurisprudence .

511 Damanhoury “Editorial,” 138. 512 Sunan Abu Dawud: English translation (3 volume set) trans. Ahmad Hasan (India: Kitab Bhavan, 2000). See: Chapter 1888. 513 Abdulrahim A. Rouzi “Facts and controversies on female genital mutilation and Islam,” 11. The European Jour- nal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care 18, no. 1, (2013): 10-14. https://doi.org/10.3109/13625187.201 2.749982 514 Mohamed Selim Al-Awa, “FGM In the Context of Islam” (The National Council for Childhood and Motherhood Cornish El-Nile, Maadi, Cairo), 28 https://egypt.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/d9174a63-2960-459b-9f78-b33ad795445e.pdf 515 Ibrahim Lethome Asmani, Maryam Sheikh Abdi, “De-linking Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting from Islam,” 2008, 6-13, https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/De-linking%20FGM%20from%20Islam%20final%20re - port.pdf 516 “In Mauritania, progress made in ending female genital mutilation/cutting,” UNICEF, accessed July 16, 2019, https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/mauritania_66159.html 517 M. Kedar, “Islam and “female circumcision”: the dispute over FGM in the Egyptian press, September 1994,” 416-412. Med Law. 21, no. 2, 2002: 403-18. 518 Human Rights Watch, “Iraqi Kurdistan: FGM Fatwa Positive, but not Definitive,” accessed July 16, 2019 https://www.hrw.org/news/2010/07/17/iraqi-kurdistan-fgm-fatwa-positive-not-definitive 519 “Fresh progress toward the elimination of female genital mutilation and cutting in Egypt,” UNICEF, accessed July 16, 2019 https://www.unicef.org/media/media_40168.html 520 Kurt Pelda, Simone Rau, “Islamischer Zentralrat verteidigt die Beschneidung von Mädchen,” https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/schweiz/standard/islamischer-zentralrat-verteidigt-die-beschnei- dung-von-maedchen/story/12784121 521 Vardit Rispler-Chaim, Islamic Medical Ethics in the Twentieth Century (BRILL, 1993). 84.

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In May 2012 it was reported that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was working to decrimi- nalize FGM .522 Over 80 percent of Malaysian women claim religious obligation as the primary reason for practising FGM, along with hygiene (41 percent) and cultural practice (32 percent)523 The prac- tice is widespread among Muslim women in Indonesia, and over 90 percent of Muslim adults supported it as of 2003 . 524 In 2013 the Indonesian Ulema Council, Indonesia‘s top Muslim clerical body, ruled that it favours FGM, stating that, although it is not mandatory, it is „morally recom- mended“ .525 Judaism requires male circumcision, but it does not allow FGM and the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) does not mention it . The only Jewish group known to have practised FGM are the Be- ta Israel of Ethiopia . 526 Sikhism does not require circumcision of either males or females, and criticizes the practice . 527 Several animist groups in Africa, particularly Guinea and Mali, practise it . 528 Hinduism and Buddhism reject it . 529 It is absent from Confucian traditions .530

The reason why FGM is practised There are several reasons why FGM is still practised . Even it is not required in religion, it is required in tradition in many communities . 1 .To ensure virginity before marriage . Almost-closed external genitalia prevent sexual inter- course . Since proof of virginity is part of premarital negotiations of families this provides the evidence before the actual act of marriage . 2 . To protect the girl from possible rape, this is related to the previous reason . 3 . To practice the ritual of female circumcision . Although traditionally practised by old women, it is done in cultures where the males dominate women as if the women are to only bear children and serve the sexual needs of men . It is the ultimate control of sexuality of women, even by disabling their ability to enjoy their sexuality .

522 Mariz Tadros, The Muslim Brotherhood in Contemporary Egypt Democracy Redefined or Confined? (London: Routledge, 2012), 153.  523 See: Dahlui M., Wong YL., Choo WY. “Female circumcision (FC) in Malaysia: Medicalization of a religious prac- tice,” Int.J.Behav.Med. (2012) 19 (Suppl 1). 524 “Female Circumcision in Indonesia. Extent, Implications and Possible Interventions to Uphold Women’s Health Rights,” 24-27, Population Council and USAID, accessed July 16, 2019 https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNA- CU138.pdf 525 Mathias Hariyadi, “Indonesian Ulema in favour of female circumcision: a “human right”,” accessed July 16, 2019, http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Indonesian-Ulema-in-favour-of-female-circumcision:-a-hu- man-right-26948.html 526 Shaye J. D. Cohen, Why Aren’t Jewish Women Circumcised?: Gender and Covenant in Judaism (University of California Press, 2005), 59. 527 John F. Peppin, et al. Religious perspectives in bioethics (London ; Taylor & Francis, 2004). 528 “Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Statistical Overview and Exploration of the Dynamics of Change,” UNICEF, 2013, 175. accessed July 16, 2019 https://www.unicef.org/cbsc/files/UNICEF_FGM_report_July_2013_ Hi_res.pdf 529 “Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Statistical Overview and Exploration of the Dynamics of Change,” UNICEF, 2013, 175. accessed July 16, 2019https://www.unicef.org/cbsc/files/UNICEF_FGM_report_July_2013_ Hi_res.pdf 530 “Circumcision,” New World Encyclopedia accessed July 16, 2019https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/en- try/circumcision 

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4 . Some tribes believe that if a woman retains her clitoris (not removed), its secretions may dis- pose of sperm in the vagina during intercourse and after it . Another view holds that a woman with a clitoris cannot give birth to a son or even is sterile . That is why circumcision is prac- tised and the female after circumcision is often married immediately and becomes pregnant . 5 .To honour religious, ritualistic, cultural and even aesthetic reasons . Some African tribes con- sider the flat and smooth genitals of women without pubic hair to be aesthetic. They believe that removing the clitoris is considered feminine protection . A woman without circumcision is considered unclean and can be expelled from the community . They are not allowed to en- gage in its social activities . This attitude toward women passes on to the head of the family and his approach to his wife (wives) and daughters lives . When there is poverty, hunger, a lack of water, and no basic medical care, people live day-to-day with existential prob- lems . No woman can survive when she is excluded from the community because of refusing to receive a circumcision . In some tribes the men would not marry a woman who is, in their vocabulary, „undone“ . Some tribes consider the external genitalia in females even ugly and unclean, and therefore there is a need for circumcision .

Demography of female circumcision Today, female circumcision is a matter of life for about 140 million women and girls in 28 countries in Africa . It also takes place in some societies in Asia, Latin America, and even in Aus- tralia . The worst society for it is in Somalia, where it is present in nearly 100 percent of women . Sudan follows with 98 percent . About 90 percent of women in Ethiopia and Mali are circumcised . Expert articles In Kenya about 50 percent of the female population undergoes circumcision 531. 532 Immigrants from countries that practice female circumcision have even brought this cruel habit to Europe, America, Canada and Australia .

Types of procedure According to WHO, they are divided into 4 groups . 1 .The type that consists of partial or total cliteridectomy, removal of the clitoris . This type is considered to be the least traumatic . It is called the Sunnah and is done in some Muslim countries . 2 .The type where, in addition to the removal of the clitoris, is added a total excision of the labia minora . 3. Infibulation: narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal. The seal is formed by cutting and repositioning the inner, or outer, labia, with or without removal of the clitoris . This type is called a Pharaonic operation . A small opening is left for the drain- age of urine and menstrual blood, 4 .The last type of circumcision includes other forms of incisions, burns, and other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes .533

531 Nahid Toubia, “Female Circumcision as a Public Health Issue, ” 713. N Engl J Med. 331, no. 11, (1994); 712-716. 10.1056/NEJM199409153311106. 532 Ellen Gruenbaum, “The Cultural Debate over Female Circumcision: The Sudanese Are Arguing This One Out for Themselves, ” Medical Anthropology Quarterly: International Journal for the Analysis of Health, 460-461. 10, no. 4, (1996): 455-475. https://doi.org/10.1525/maq.1996.10.4.02a00030 533 “Female Genital Mutilation Fact Sheet N°241 ,” Updated February 2013, WHO, accessed July 16, 2019 https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation

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Ritual procedure The ritual is performed on girls from birth to adulthood, sometimes during delivery or after a young woman delivers her first son. The circumcision ritual is supposed to be associated with the celebration . Up to 90% of girls in Africa are circumcised by the time they are 16 years old . Most often they are circumcised between their 5th –12th year . 534 In Kenya, it is usually between 12 –14 years . Mostly, the circumcision ritual is performed as an event where whole groups of girls are operated on at the same time . The most common type is the Pharaonic operation . After the surgery they are supposed to celebrate for a month . That is when the girl is taught about her position and role in society according to tribal customs . The rituals vary among each ethnic group, but what they all have in common is how circumcision transforms a girl into a woman through a traumatizing ritual genital operation .

Circumcision is most often done by a medically uneducated person – a female . In Somalia in 52% of cases535 several other women who are or may not be a relative of the girl help in the treatment. The girl is completely naked and fixed onto a bed or a small chair or fixed onto the ground . The operational tool is usually a razor, a knife, or scissors . Usually the tools are old, used and rusty .536 Sometimes, in the poorest environment, they might use a piece of glass, a glowing stone, or burning wood or coal 537. The operations are done without anaesthesia or antibiotics . These pharmaceuticals would only be used if the circumcision was performed by a doctor . When homoeostasis happens then various ointments, leaves and animal secretions are used . Where infibulation is performed, thorns from the acacia tree and natural adhesives are used as sutures. Rarely are sewing supplies used . After the operation, the girl‘s legs are tightly bound to each other and usually fixed from the ankles to the knees or hips. Immobilization takes 10 to 40 days. The girl usually gets married soon after the circumcision . A circumcision procedure that seals or narrows a vaginal opening (type 3 above) needs to be cut open later to allow for sexual inter- course and childbirth .538 It is done usually by the husband either by tearing with the fingers or by using a razor blade or knife . Conversely, sometimes it is stitched again several times, including after childbirth, after divorce or after the death of the spouse .539

Health complications Complications in female circumcision are both acute, late or even obstetric . If the compli- cations are acute, there is bleeding, urinary retention, infection and injury to the retrovesical pouch . There are also violent fractures due to immobilization of the girl during surgery . The late complications include infection, keloid scars, vaginal stenosis, cysts, vaginism, dyspareunia, HIV

534 Karin Johnson, Shielda Rodgers, “When cultural practices are health risks: The dilemma of female circumci- sion,” Holistic Nursing Practice 8, no. 2, (1994): 70–78. 10.1097/00004650-199401000-00012 ; Ndu Eke, Kanu E.O. Nkanginieme, “Female Genital Mutilation: A Global Bug That Should Not Cross the Millen- nium Bridge ,” 1085-1086. World Journal of Surgery 23, (1999): 1082–1086. 10.1007/s002689900627 535 Dirie MA, Lindmark G., “The risk of medical complications after female circumcision ,” East Afr Med J. 69, no. 9, (1992): 479-482. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1286628 536 Ndu Eke, Kanu E.O. Nkanginieme, “Female Genital Mutilation: A Global Bug That Should Not Cross the Millen- nium Bridge, 1087”,World Journal of Surgery 23, (1999): 1082–1086. 10.1007/s002689900627 537 Elchalal U et al. “Ritualistic Female Genital Mutilation: Current Status and Future Outlook ,” 648. Obstetrical and Gynecological Survey. 52, no. 10, (1997): 643-651. 10.1097/00006254-199710000-00022 ; Reichert GA Fe- male circumcision, What You Need to Know about Genital Mutilation, AWHONN Lifelines. 2, (1998): 31. 538 “Female Genital Mutilation Fact Sheet N°241 ,” Updated February 2013, WHO, accessed July 16, 2019 https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation 539 Dirie MA, Lindmark G., “The risk of medical complications ,” 479-82.

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infection, and others . The obstetric complications include post-natal bleeding, infertility, perineal rupture, dehiscence following an episiotomy, and also harm to the newborn by asphyxia, etc .540

Emotional Consequences It is more difficult to know the extent of the psychological effects caused by circumcision sur- gery . Girls and women themselves are strictly warned not to talk about it . Certainly, they endure painful menstruation . Painful sexual intercourse causes anxiety and fear . They have no feeling of pleasure during sexual intercourse . Orgasm remains the prerogative of men, the husbands of these women .541

Social and ethical issues The tradition of female circumcision is very strong and supported by mothers and grandmoth- ers . Talk about sex even between partners is not accepted . Sexuality is interpreted as a gift for reproduction . Many women have no idea about the structure and functioning of the genitalia, except for the reproductive function of their genitalia that is the property of her husband . There have been some efforts to put an end to female circumcision when there has been a progressive government . Some churches, cultural and social institutions have brought to the forefront the horribleness of circumcision, but it often persists, outside of the law and in secret . 542 There is no rational reason for carrying out female circumcision . On the contrary, it is trau- matic, robs women of their natural sexuality which is their right as human beings . Until its erad- ication, this barbaric ritual is shameful to contemporary civilization . But research shows that, Expert articles if practising communities themselves decide to abandon female genital mutilation the practice can be eliminated very rapidly .543 In 1997 the WHO, Unicef and the UN Population Fund unveiled a joint plan to completely eradicate the practice of FGM in three generations . Campaigners are still optimistic that this can be achieved . The most important task is to change attitudes and convince people that they can dispense with FGM without harming their culture . Bogaletch Gebre sums it up: we are each others‘ keepers . We must be each others‘ supporters, for whenever one of us is hurt or violated, all of us are violated .544 Community activists are best placed to determine how best to raise such a difficult issue and encourage discussion. Even in relatively educated Western countries it can be difficult. A number of brave women are daring to speak up against FGM in new and unusual ways . There are signs that their campaigns are starting to have an effect . Activists in Eritrea point to national health surveys which show the prevalence of FGM fell from 95%in 1995 to 89% in 2002 . Among the youngest group surveyed (15 to 19 years old) 78% were circumcised and 50% believed that the practice should be stopped. In Togo, officials claim that FGM rates have fallen since the government enacted legislation against it in in 1998 . Legislation must go hand- in-hand with community – based education programmes aimed against FGM .

540 Arbesman M, Kahler L, Buck GM, “Assessment of the impact of female circumcision on the gynecological, genitourinary and obstetrical health problems of women from Somalia,” Women Health 20, no. 3, (1993): 27- 42. 10.1300/J013v20n03_02 541 Toubia, “Female Circumcision ,” 713 ; Gruenbaum, “The Cultural Debate ,” 457-458.  542 Elchalal, “Ritualistic Female ,” 648; Toubia. “Female Circumcision ,” 714. 543 “Female Genital Mutilation Fact Sheet N°241 ,” Updated February 2013, WHO, https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation 544 Jessica Williams, 50 Facts That Should Change The World, (USA, Disinformation Company LTD, 2004), 237.

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As a joint statement from the WHO and UN puts it: “Culture is not static but is a constant flux adapting and reforming . People will change their behaviour when they understand the hazards and indignity of harmful practices without giving up meaningful aspects of their culture ”. 545

Conclusion Female circumcision is one of the crudest means of violence against women, especially in countries where it is practised . Circumcision results in many acute medical complications . These are supplemented by later obstetric complications and the frequent infertility of circum- cised women . This traumatic ritual leaves lifelong psychological consequences, which then complicate the sex lives of such women . Although in most countries where female circumcision is practised it is illegal, public opinion in these countries has not yet rejected it, and circumcision is tacitly recognized and accepted . Therefore, in the case of refugee women, UNHCR considers female circumcision in international refugee law as persecution based on gender and it may be one of the grounds for granting refugee status .546 FGM is prohibited by law in most developing countries, but is still practised as a cultural tra- dition across religions . In recent years, efforts by many volunteers and NGOs within local com- munities to educate about the harmful effects of FGM have been increasing . Educating women themselves, as well as all the actors involved, can contribute to changing the way they view FGM . Social behaviour and rituals have evolved in history and are not constant dogma . These changes in FGM thinking and behaviour should be analysed through more extensive international research in all areas where FGM is being successfully eliminated . This research should be preceded by international discussions with practitioners and experts focusing on FGM specifics. Specific expert reflections and participation in international cooperation in various areas directly or indirectly related to FGM should be conducted . Participative and summary re- sults of this research which will help to eliminate FGM should be then used in practice by using specialized and efficient methods in countries where this harmful practice persists. It is very relevant to think about potential solutions to FGM during the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of its various negative effects . This period, as well as its consequences, may contribute to the worsening of the impact of FGM on health care and on the level of the limited attention that is paid to this issue .

Bibliography Al-Awa, Mohamed Selim. “FGM In the Context of Islam” (The National Council for Childhood and Motherhood Cornish El-Nile, Maadi, Cairo), 28 https://egypt.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/d9174a63-2960-459b- 9f78-b33ad795445e.pdf Arbesman M, Kahler L, Buck GM, “Assessment of the impact of female circumcision on the gynecological, genitourinary and obstetrical health problems of women from Somalia,” Women Health 20, no. 3, (1993): 27- 42. 10.1300/J013v20n03_02 Asmani, Ibrahim Lethome, Sheikh Abdi, Maryam. “De-linking Fe male Genital Mutilation/Cutting from Islam,” 2008, 6-13, https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/De-linking%20FGM%20from%20Islam%20fi- nal%20report.pdf

545 Joint statement by the World Health Organization, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and UN Population Fund, February 1996. 546 “The conclusions of the UNHCR Executive Committee ,” 2, UNHCR, accessed July 16, 2019 https://www. unhcr.org/

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Cohen, Shaye J. D. Why Aren’t Jewish Women Circumcised?: Gender and Covenant in Judaism. University of Cal- ifornia Press, 2005. Dahlui M., Wong YL., Choo WY. “Female circumcision (FC) in Malaysia: Medicalization of a religious practice,” Int.J.Behav.Med. (2012) 19 (Suppl 1). Dirie MA, Lindmark G., “The risk of medical complications after female circumcision ,” East Afr Med J. 69, no. 9, (1992): 479-482. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1286628 El-Damanhoury, I.. “Editorial The Jewish and Christian view on female genital mutilation” African Journal of Urology 19, 3, (2013): 127-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.afju.2013.01.004 Eke, Ndu, Nkanginieme, Kanu E.O. “Female Genital Mutilation: A Global Bug That Should Not Cross the Millen- nium Bridge,” 1085-1086. World Journal of Surgery 23, (1999): 1082–1086. 10.1007/s002689900627 Elchalal U et al. “Ritualistic Female Genital Mutilation: Current Status and Future Outlook ,” Obstetrical and Gynecological Survey. 52, no. 10, (1997): 643-651. 10.1097/00006254-199710000-00022 Gruenbaum, Ellen. “The Cultural Debate over Female Circumcision: The Sudanese Are Arguing This One Out for Themselves,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly: International Journal for the Analysis of Health, 460-461. 10, no. 4, (1996): 455-475. https://doi.org/10.1525/maq.1996.10.4.02a00030 Hariyadi, Mathias.“Indonesian Ulema in favour of female circumcision: a “human right”,” http://www.asian- ews.it/news-en/Indonesian-Ulema-in-favour-of-female-circumcision:-a-human-right-26948.html Hicks, Esther K. Infibulation: Female Mutilation in Islamic Northeastern Africa. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1996. Expert articles Human Rights Watch. “Iraqi Kurdistan: FGM Fatwa Positive, but not Definitive.” Accessed July 16, 2019. https:// www.hrw.org/news/2010/07/17/iraqi-kurdistan-fgm-fatwa-positive-not-definitive Johnson, Karin, Shielda Rodgers, “When cultural practices are health risks: The dilemma of female circumci- sion,” Holistic Nursing Practice 8, no. 2, (1994): 70–78. 10.1097/00004650-199401000-00012 Joint statement by the World Health Organization, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and UN Population Fund, February 1996. Karanja, James J. The Missionary Movement in Colonial Kenya: The Foundation of Africa Inland Church. Göttin- gen: Cuvillier Verlag, 2009. Kedar, M. “Islam and “female circumcision”: the dispute over FGM in the Egyptian press, September 1994,” 416-412. Med Law. 21, no. 2, 2002: 403-18. Knight, Mary. “Curing Cut or Ritual Mutilation?: Some Remarks on the Practice of Female and Male Circumci- sion in Graeco-Roman Egypt,” Isis A Journal of the History of Science Society 92, no. 2, (2001): 329-330. https:// www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/385184 Kunhiyop, Samuel Waje. African Christian Ethics. Hippo Books, 2008. Lynn M. Thomas, “‘Ngaitana (I will circumcise myself)’: Lessons from Colonial Campaigns to Ban Excision in Me- ru, Kenya,” Female “Circumcision”,” In Africa: Culture Controversy and Change, edited by Bettina Shell-Duncan, Ylva Hernlund, 132. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000. Mackie, Gerry. “Female Genital Cutting: The Beginning of the End.” In Female “Circumcision” in Africa: Culture Controversy and Change, edited by Bettina Shell-Duncan, Ylva Hernlund, 259-260. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000. New World Encyclopedia “Circumcision.” Accessed July 16, 2019. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/ entry/circumcision

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Pelda, Kurt, Rau Simone, “Islamischer Zentralrat verteidigt die Beschneidung von Mädchen.” Accessed July 16, 2019. https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/schweiz/standard/islamischer-zentralrat-verteidigt-die-beschnei- dung-von-maedchen/story/12784121 Peppin, John F. et al. Religious perspectives in bioethics London ; Taylor & Francis, 2004. Population Council and USAID. “Female Circumcision in Indonesia. Extent, Implications and Possible Inter- ventions to Uphold Women’s Health Rights,” 24-27. Accessed July 16, 2019. https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/ PNACU138.pdf Reichert GA. Female circumcision, What You Need to Know about Genital Mutilation, AWHONN Lifelines. 2, (1998). Rispler-Chaim, Vardit. Islamic Medical Ethics in the Twentieth Century BRILL, 1993. Rouzi, Abdulrahim A. “Facts and controversies on female genital mutilation and Islam,” 11. The European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care 18, no. 1, (2013): 10-14. https://doi.org/10.3109/1362518 7.2012.749982 Sunan Abu Dawud: English translation (3 volume set) trans. Ahmad Hasan (India: Kitab Bhavan, 2000). Chapter 1888. Tadros, Mariz. The Muslim Brotherhood in Contemporary Egypt Democracy Redefined or Confined? London: Rou- tledge, 2012. The Egyptian Coffin Texts, edited by Adriaan de Buck, A.H. Gardiner, 448-450. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935. Toubia, Nahid. “Female Circumcision as a Public Health Issue, ” N Engl J Med. 331, no. 11, (1994); 712-716. 10.1056/NEJM199409153311106. UNHCR. “The conclusions of the UNHCR Executive Committee.” 2. https://www.unhcr.org/ UNICEF. “Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Statistical Overview and Exploration of the Dynamics of Change,” 2013. Accessed July 16, 2019. https://www.unicef.org/cbsc/files/UNICEF_FGM_report_Ju- ly_2013_Hi_res.pdf UNICEF. “Fresh progress toward the elimination of female genital mutilation and cutting in Egypt.” Accessed July 16, 2019. https://www.unicef.org/media/media_40168.html UNICEF. “In Mauritania, progress made in ending female genital mutilation/cutting“ Accessed July 16, 2019. https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/mauritania_66159.html WHO: “Female Genital Mutilation Fact Sheet N°241,” Updated February 2013. Accessed July 16, 2019. https:// www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation Williams, Jessica. 50 Facts That Should Change The World. USA, Disinformation Company LTD, 2004.

162 THE COVID-19 PERSPECTIVE FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE GLOBE – SOUTH EAST ASIA VERSUS EUROPE. “THE CORONAVIRUS DISEASE MAY BE CONTROLLED WITHIN LATE SPRING AND EARLY SUMMER 2020” PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE GAINED DURING EPIDEMICS SIMILAR TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC – COMMENTED INTERVIEW | Selvaraj Subramanian, Andrea Shahum, Vladimir Krcmery

THE COVID-19 PERSPECTIVE FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE GLOBE – SOUTH EAST ASIA VERSUS EUROPE “THE CORONAVIRUS DISEASE MAY BE CONTROLLED WITHIN LATE SPRING AND EARLY SUMMER 2020” PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE GAINED DURING EPIDEMICS SIMILAR TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC – COMMENTED INTERVIEW

Selvaraj Subramanian ✉ 1, Andrea Shahum ✉ 2, Vladimir Krcmery ✉ 5473 1 SAAaRMM, Kuala Lumpur, (MY) 2 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School, Department of Medicine, (US) 3 Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh Scotland (GB); The School of Medicine of Comenius University and the Slovak Tropical Institute, (SK)

Submitted: 20 March 2020 Accepted for publication: 11 April 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Analysts, healthcare professionals and the general public are currently looking for Commented interview answers to the questions regarding which measures primarily need to be taken in the current pandemic or other epidemics in the future. We discussed this topic with public health expert Vladimír Krcmery MD, PhD, who is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians at Edinburgh, the School of Medicine of Comenius University and the Slovak Tropical Institute, and Andrea Shahum MD, PhD., an infectious disease spe- cialist with expertise on China (Guangzhou and Cambodia).

“Taking strict, preventive measures as soon as possible is essential.” The strictness of the measures taken against the Coronavirus pandemic in Slovakia and Cambodia in March this year was essential according to Professor Krcmery . Besides these measures, the expert recommends that, during the formation of the disease‘s prognoses, experts should stay in contact with their colleagues, epidemiologists, who are working at the centre of such epidemics abroad (e g. . China) and listen to their opinion (V . Krcmery) . “It’s necessary to clearly inform the general public that each infected person is not necessar- ily sick . The view of an epidemiologist may be different than that of a clinician . According to clinicians, only 5 out of 100 infected persons are seriously sick, 2 are in critical condition but none of them is in danger of loss of life . It seems that a maximum of 20% of them need hos- pitalization . Information coming from the numbers of infected people presented to the gen- eral public invoke panic and ultimately contribute to deterioration of the mental and health condition of seniors and patients with various mental diseases,” says Professor A . Shahum, who believes that there are various possible approaches to the development of Coronavi- rus . “In terms of the number of infected people, there are two approaches applicable to any disease, including Ebola, Yellow Fever or Coronavirus. The first is to define the limits of the disease, in this case Coronavirus . This is how the pandemic is currently developing in e g. . Slovakia, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc . We may prevent a high number

✉ Contact on all authors/Coresspondece author: prof. Dr. Selvaraj Subramanian, Ph.D. – email: doc.sel- [email protected] prof. Andrea Shahum MD, PhD., prof. Vladimír Krcmery MD, PhD.

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of people in critical condition as there are, for example, in Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK, where unpopular quarantine methods came later . We would be facing another situation if the disease set the pace of its development and this is the second approach . Such a situation was probably occurring e g. . in France, Germany and the , where initially a larger number of people was infected which was assumed to induce herd immunity . “Herd” immunity should subsequently protect the citizens against Coronavirus and any other similar epidemic in the future . Such scenario is intended to increase immu- nity but also poses a great risk of a high number of deaths . For this reason, they are trying simultaneously to protect the high-risk group – seniors . This means the need to quarantine the vulnerable ones . Vulnerable groups include seniors, immuno-compromised people and people with disabilities such as muscular dystrophy . If such situation occurs that the disease sets the pace of its development, it is necessary to apply greater protective measures for seniors, including their strict isolation .

“Are there examples of countries that have brought Coronavirus under control in 3-4 months?” Positive scenarios of Coronavirus development have been recorded in most provinces of China, where they have faced similar epidemics in the past . “There was an outbreak of an epidemic during my stay in Hong Kong in 2003 . Nearly 8,874 people got infected and 780 people (10%) died . They managed to bring the disease under control within 4 months . A similar situation occurred in Taiwan, Singapore and in South Korea (in the city of Busan 2 1/2 years ago), but it stayed within the region and it did not spread any further . These examples are evidence of the fact that Coronavirus can be brought under control with strict quarantine measures” says Krcmery . On the basis of his experience he assumes that the pandemic might decline in Slovakia prior to Summer of this year . This practically means that we will be mostly able to get back to our normal work routine, possibly back to the school routine as well . “Fortunately, the percentage of the elderly population is not so high in Slovakia when compared to the USA or the countries of Western Europe . If we look at the map of Europe, the more we head to , the lower the number of presences of the disease and the lower the number of deaths (A. Shahum). If there were a significant increase in infected people in Slovakia, which means the disease would set the pace of its development, it would be necessary to take measures to avoid a collapse of the healthcare system as we see in some countries. One possible solution would be to define separate hospitals for the infected and quarantine those hospitals in case of need . From the clinical point of view, hospitalization of those patients who have tested positive for Coronavirus without clinical symptoms but who are able to treat themselves successfully at home .

Are there treatment possibilities against Coronavirus and what about their availa- bility? According to Krcmery we already have that may be active against Coronavirus . At least 4–6 medicines have already been registered for emergency or compassionate use in the United States . We have enough information on their safety for other indications, not just for Coronavirus . This imposes an administrative, technical and bureaucratic question for the USA, China, and the EU . In projects on tropical medicine at St . Elizabeth University of Health and Social Sciences, e g. . in Cambodia, we have been using some of these med- icines for 20 years (Hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin, Favipiravir, Lopinavir, Ritonavir, Ribavirin) . You maybe need to add possible emergency use for Coronavirus to the emer-

164 THE COVID-19 PERSPECTIVE FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE GLOBE – SOUTH EAST ASIA VERSUS EUROPE. “THE CORONAVIRUS DISEASE MAY BE CONTROLLED WITHIN LATE SPRING AND EARLY SUMMER 2020” PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE GAINED DURING EPIDEMICS SIMILAR TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC – COMMENTED INTERVIEW | Selvaraj Subramanian, Andrea Shahum, Vladimir Krcmery

gency indications of these medicines . This has been achieved in the case of Ebola, from which many healthcare professionals, including WHO workers, have died . I wish we could achieve the same in the case of Coronavirus, as we are in an emergency situation . Besides those medicines we have information about, China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea have a whole range of medicines we haven’t heard of yet, as they are mentioned exclusively in Chinese publications . The problem is that many European authorities keep ignoring and questioning them for the fact that the studies come from the Far East . They are not currently available for treating Coronavirus in the EU or the USA. As we know, scientific experts are currently working on developing a vaccine . We can say that it will be probably available in the Summer The Lancet Infectious Diseases published two Phase 1–2 studies from Germa- ny, the UK and South Korea . In addition, the US has its vaccine in Phase 2 already) . “Finally, I would like to add that the influenza virus is similarly contagious as Coronavirus. In the case of influenza we can only partially prevent the population from repeatedly getting infected year after year . In any case, to handle any eventual epidemic in the future it is necessary to consider effective compliance with the unpopular but effective quarantine measures we have mentioned,” Dr . Shahum concludes .

Bibliography Sanders, James M. et al.: “Pharmacologic Treatments for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Re- Commented interview view,” JAMA. 13 April 2020. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.6019 Folegatti, Pedro M. et al.: “Safety and immunogenicity of a candidate Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus viral-vectored vaccine: a dose-escalation, open-label, non-randomised, uncontrolled, phase 1 trial,” The Lancet Infectious Diseases. April 20, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30160-2 Koch, Till. et al.: “Safety and immunogenicity of a candidate Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavi- rus viral-vectored vaccine: a dose-escalation, open-label, non-randomised, uncontrolled, phase 1 trial,” The Lancet Infectious Diseases. April 20, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30248-6

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REFORM OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THE CONTEXT OF THE JESUITS’ PRINCIPLES RATIO STUDIORUM – COMMENTED INTERVIEW

György Herdics, Marek Šmid ✉ 548

1 Warsaw Management University, (Warsaw, PL) 2 The Institute for Legal Aspects of Religious Freedom; Faculty of Law, Trnava University (SK)

Submitted: 3 August 2019 Accepted for publication: 29 March 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

A return to respect for higher education institutions, dignity to the profession of pedagogue and admiration for scientists searching for the truth: these should be the basic principles of Slovak higher education reform according to lawyer, diplo- mat and university pedagogue, one of the founders of and Emeritus Rector of Tr- nava University, and President of the Slovak Rectors Conference, Dr.h.c. prof. doc. JUDr. Marek Šmid, PhD., who is currently employed as the Chairman of the Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education. Along with other appeals, he empha- sizes the need for live dialogue between higher education institutions and the State with real measures implemented.

According to Prof. Šmid, higher education requires a change that will create an opportunity for raising the level of education and science, leading to exploitation of the available poten- tial . “Slovak culture is ready to learn how to assess, use information in a right way and con- template more deeply on the context . It is not true that everything is as it should be today, but we have got the potential . Our character has been tested many times during our history, and we are able to react relatively quickly to the requirement of having our own qualified attitude. This capacity, together with a sufficient degree of higher education institutions‘ autonomy, is essential not only in the environment of Slovak higher education, but also in the effort to be open to real cooperation on important projects with foreign institutions,” says Professor Šmid. He subsequently adds that it is necessary to be careful in the classification of higher education institutions in various tenders, criteria and inspections . We are losing the sense of trust and the academic scene increasingly resembles a judicial inquiry, while the only possible success is through error-free handling of the burden of proof and the only possible failure is less impact of the school or an administrative error . The process of reform requires responsibility from higher education institutions, sufficient state financing and good administration . “Higher education institutions have to gain a level of autonomy and internal organization reasonable for the situation . This presupposes their stability and

✉ Contact on author: Dr. h. c. mult. doc. PhDr. PaedDr. ThLic. György Herdics, PhD., MBA, LL.M, mim. prof. – email: [email protected] ✉ Contact on author/Coresspondece author: Dr.h.c. prof. doc. JUDr. Marek Šmid, PhD. – email: smid- [email protected]

166 REFORM OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THE CONTEXT OF THE JESUITS’ PRINCIPLES RATIO STUDIORUM – COMMENTED INTERVIEW | György Herdics, Marek Šmid

prosperity . And this concerns n only the legal standard protecting the principle of university autonomy; also the real conditions that form the opportunity and our own will to look for our right place, path and target, while having an impact on education, science and culture .

Higher education reform from the point of view of higher education institutions The reform of higher education should result in a condition where our higher education institutions become appreciated institutions at home, being addressed by society for solu- tions, and building institutions of education and science through trustworthy and equal partners throughout the world . Our human potential to achieve this is great . Then we need balanced support of education and research . This also involves balanced support of all fields of education and research because the transferable capabilities of graduates gain increasing significance. The results of studying should be more visible even upon recruit- ment of our graduates, according to Prof. Šmid: “We need to define research, all of its use- ful forms, its internal interconnection and, at the same time, its interdisciplinary connection to practice, to learn the fantasy of using what we know . Higher education institutions would also like to have long-term and stable management of higher education with the output of a high-quality but shorter law on higher education institutions and predictable and stable long-term financing of schools with responsibility that would actually involve the results of higher education institutions . According to the former President of the Slovak Rectors’ Commented interview Conference, administrative regulation of the number of higher education institutions in Slo- vakia or regulation of the interest for studying is not the right way, but responsible setting of the support for quality research and education in the study fields is where the quality really lies. Another real problem is always the economic system and a sufficient amount of fi- nances for the support of research and education . I am not capable of predicting the future, but after the pandemic, the State might not have a sufficient amount of finances available for education . We know that higher education has constantly been a governmental priority . However, if we face a chain of slow sales, a decrease in production, an increase in the unemployment rate or other factors, which seem to be real even today, constant priorities would take a step back and create space for new ones, mostly economic ones, and higher education might become a marginal matter . Are we getting prepared for that?

The Jesuits’ principles - Ratio studiorum in the European education systems According to Prof. Šmid, the well-known historical Jesuits’ principles of education from the 17th Century – Ratio studiorum – are really perceived mostly as historical heritage at first glance . When examined more attentively, they are actually and currently highly applicable methods leading to transformation of a student memorizing the lines from a textbook to a student who can classify significant and insignificant information and place information into context . Isn’t that one of the relevant requirements of the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, which are the main normative base of the standards of the Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education? Disputes at academic premises of historical University of Trnava after 1635 were a historical form of such education . Back then, the University was involved in something we can call good preparation for practice . Under the principles of Ratio studiorum, each principle defined by the teacher was disputable and no student opinion could be a limine rejected, even if the student could not manage to surpass the claims of his pedagogue . Students were lead to use precise expressions from the beginning . Public discussions took place on special occasions and were considered as great events . The subjects of the discussions were

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various principles, extracts from theological or philosophical books . The variety of topics indicates the course of the discussions, their free character and the purpose, which was mainly to teach students to reason and classify information .

The consortium of higher education institutions forms the right path The institution of the consortium of higher education is one of the interesting aspects of the current reform of higher education . This institution is an implementation of Article 29 paragraph 1 of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic on the Right to Free Association . The recent amendment of Act No . 131/2002 Coll . on Higher Education Institutions effective as of 1 July 2019 has brought the possibility of establishing a professional association of legal entities with members of Slovak higher education institutions . This association is designated as the “consortium of higher education institutions” . According to Professor Šmid, this idea originated in the context of similar changes of universities in Europe and worldwide, but also in relation to the natural trend of joining forces in research and edu- cation . In Slovakia it was also due to the decreased number of candidates for studying in relation to state financial support. If we automatically think of merging higher education institutions a possible effective path – this has not been successful in Slovakia . “Merging means losing the legal subjectivity of merged higher education institutions and only the subsequent creation of subjects with new academic bodies . It interrupts or fully stops aca- demic life in certain regions, including its economic, scientific, personal, material and cul- tural dimension ”. On the contrary, the consortium of higher education institutions enables elimination of such factors . According to its legal form, it is a professional association of two or more legal entities, established under paragraph 20f of Act . No 40/1964 Coll . of the Civil Code . Memoranda and articles of association or minutes from the constituent meeting are required for establishing a professional association . Its registration is performed by the Ministry of Education and its members may only be higher education institutions . The higher education institutions do not lose their legal subjectivity upon registration, which is a positive progress from the idea of merging for easier solutions . This was projected into practice for the first time in October 2019 by the publication of memoranda of nine Slovak universities in which they declared their interest to establish the “Consortium of Slovak Universities” . They were aware that they will be able to use this designation and related opportunities on the basis of registration of the association of legal entities in a special register of the Ministry of Education . It is necessary to point out that the role and objectives of a consortium are restricted to some extent by the Act on Higher Education Institutions in effective cooperation with member universities in the fields of the subject of activity of the consortium. According to Prof. Šmid, the main objectives of the consortium are improving the position of higher education institutions, their opportunities and quality of education and research . Last but not least, this undoubtedly means effective use of personal and financial resources and active cooperation with other national or international schools and their consortia. No less important issues are the possibilities of financing a consortium which manages its own and State movable and immovable property, while the sources of property should be contributions of members from government grants, donations, rev- enues from the property and revenues from the business activities of the consortium . If agreed by the managing board, the schools may provide the state grant resources of the consortium’s assets allocated to public higher education institutions to the consortium of which they are members . The consortium is entitled to perform business activities but only to the extent of the subject of its activity, while such revenues have to be fully used for the

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subject of activity of the consortium, excluding expenses for its management . “We will be able to assess the relevant importance of the institution of consortium more in detail after acquiring experience during its operation ”. We may assume that it is a reasonable institution which aims at achieving a complex synergy of higher education institutions in a special environment . For the purpose of consortium functioning, we can use state grants within legislation – and this is important . The consortium of higher education institutions is a response to the current situation in the system of Slovak higher education and the effort to integrate higher education institutions.” According to Prof. Šmid, there will be no slow- down in their development and the development of their area . The consortium also makes it possible to connect scientific, study, professional and regional relations.

Higher education is essential for improving the culture of approach Slovak higher education institutions have to knowingly accept the responsibility for the quality they offer . It is inevitable to have good results in science at higher education in- stitutions and universities and prepare young people for life in specific sectors – to be able to think individually, analytically and critically . Higher education institutions of high quality should have the ambition to positively influence society. “Mutual interaction among pedagogues and students based on good and vital mutual social interactions which are complemented by tolerance, regard and respect for the individuality of each person, for its Commented interview value and dignity, is fundamental . We should newly discover the hope which implies the belief that everything has sense, that it is worthwhile to defend good, to live by conscience and be aware that wisdom covers knowledge, critical thinking, character, empathy and the ability to look up and be some kind of anthropos of our age and be able to perceive and admit the truth about oneself,” adds Prof. Šmid.

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SYNODALITY: THE ECUMENICAL JOURNEY OF THE CHURCH

Robert Svatoň ✉549

Palacký University Olomouc, The Sts Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology (Olomouc, CZ)

Submitted: 11 March 2020 Accepted for publication: 18 April 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

For today‘s life of the Catholic Church, and hence for contemporary Catholic ecclesiology, synodality is a key concept in which, in a certain sense, the development and concrete real- ization of the conception of the Church as presented by Vatican II can be seen 550. Moreover, the emphasis on synodality not only in the contemporary Catholic theological discourse on the Church, but above all in the application of the principles of synodality in the life of the Church, can be understood as a manifestation that sums up the desires and determination to authentic reform . To such a reform in which the Holy Spirit continually renews the Church so that she will grow in faithfulness to her one Lord on her way through history .551

1. Time of Synodality for the Catholic Church of the Third Millennium The ecclesiology of Vatican II marked a fundamental reversal in the concept of the Church, which found its expression above all in Chapter 2 of the dogmatic constitution Lumen Gen- tium . It deals with the Church as a new people of God, to which all believing Christians belong by baptism . While placing this treatise before the chapter on the hierarchical organization of the Church, the Council document meant the end of the pyramidal concept of the Church as „a which is entirely determined by its peak“552 . As a result of this decision, taken in the context of the Council‘s ecclesiology of the People of God, we no longer find a model dividing the Church into two levels, namely clergy and lay people, as was typical in the Catholic environment for almost the whole second millennium . The division of Church members into those who teach actively and with authority and those who are taught in passive obedience (ecclesia docens vs. ecclesia dis- cens) was thus overcame with an initial emphasis on the common dignity of the children of God who through baptism take part in Christ‘s priestly, prophetical and kingly mission . The people

✉ Contact on author: Robert Svatoň, Th.D. – email: [email protected]. 550 To illustrate the topicality of the subject cf. just randomly Alberto Melloni, Silvia Scatena, (ed.), Synod and synodality: Theology, history, canon law and ecumenism in new contact: International Colloquium Bruges 2003 (Münster: Lit Verlag, 2005); Hervé Louis, Legrand. “La sinodalità, dimensione inerente alla vita ecclesiale. Fondamenti e attualità,” Vivens Homo 15 (2005): 7–42; Associazione teologica italiana, Chiesa e sinodalità. Coscienza, forme, procesi (a cura di Riccardo Battocchio, Serena Noceti), (Milano: Glossa, 2007); Walter Kasper, “Sinodalità nella Chiesa: Camminare insieme nella comunione e nella diversità dei carismi,” Teologia 40 (2015): 172–181; Dario Vitali, Verso la sinodalità, Bose: Qiqajon, 2018; Cannobio, Giacomo, “Sulla Sinodalità,” Teologia 41 (2016): 249–273; Rüdiger Althaus, “Die Synodalität (in) der Kirche aus Sicht des katholischen Kirchenrechts,” Catholica 70 (2016): 101–113; José, R. Villar, “La sinodalidad en la reflexión teológica actual,”Ius canonicum 58 (2018): 69–82. 551 Cf. Lumen gentium 9; Unitatis redintegratio 6. 552 Yves Congar, “Reception as an Ecclesiological Reality,” Concilium 77 (1972): 60. Cf. Ormond Rush. “Inverting the Pyramid: The Sensus Fidelium in a Synodal Church,” Theological Studies 78/2 (2017): 299–325.

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of God, wandering to its eschatological accomplishment in the kingdom of God, is filled by the glorified Christ with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, whose anointing has the effect that this people as a whole, „from the Bishops down to the last of the lay faithful“ shows universal agreement in matters of faith and morals (sensus fidei) .553 This wandering community of faith is entrusted with the mission of being the sacrament of salvation in the world and the seed of hope and re- demption . It is only on the basis of this initial unity of the people of God that within him the diversification of the various services takes place with which Christ has provided His Church „for the good of the whole body“554, for the benefit of all who share true Christian dignity. As a community of faith, hope and love, the Church in this world is also a visible organism built on the foundations of the apostles whose office continues in their successors, the bishops. In this respect too, the Second Vatican Council has taken a step that has changed previous concept . For the Council has em- phasized that the mission to proclaim the gospel and shepherd the flock of God is not the task of the individuals, but that task has been entrusted by Christ to the Apostles and, consequently, to the Bishops as a college . The rediscovery of bishop‘s collegiality at the last Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church resulted not only in the organic incorporation of the primate of Pe- ter‘s successor into the hierarchical community of bishops, but also in the growth of „collegiate feeling“ (affectus collegialis)555 and co-responsibility among the bishops of the whole church . For this purpose, Pope Paul VI decided just before the end of the Council to establish the Episcopal Interesting activities Synod as a permanent institution guaranteeing the participation of representatives of the Catho- lic Episcopate in governing the universal Church 556. The same reason stood at the birth of the bishops‘ conferences, which arise in individual countries in the subsequent post-conciliar period . The collegiate nature of the episcopal ministry emphasized by the Council is closely linked to one more question, namely the relationship between the universal and the particular Church . In fact, the bishops who have been entrusted to the care of a certain part of the people of God represent the individual particular churches in which and from which comes into being the one and only Catholic Church .557 It is precisely within the principle of synodality that this internal cor- relation between universal and particular churches can be expressed in appropriate intensity, not only when the bishops representing the Church from different parts of the world participate in or- dinary or extraordinary episcopal synods, but also when the principles of synodality are applied in the lives of particular and local churches (eg . in the form of diocesan or regional synods) . 558 From what has been said, we can conclude that synodality is a manifestation and instru- ment of „ecclesiology of communion“, which accurately expresses the core of the doctrine of the Church of Vatican II on three levels: in the whole of God‘s people it develops the concept of the Church as communio fidelium; it helps to realize the mission of the bishops within the communio episcoporum and it strengthens the relationship between the universal church and the particular and local churches within the model of the Catholic Church as communio ecclesiarum .559

553 Cf. Lumen gentium 12. 554 Lumen gentium 18. 555 Lumen gentium 23. 556 Cf. Paul VI, Apostolica solicitudo (15 September 1965). AAS 57 (1965), 775–780. 557 Cf. Lumen gentium 23. 558 For the canonical anchoring of synodality structures at the level of local churches cf. Codex iuris canonici, Can. 439–446 (On Particular Councils), 460–468 (Diocesan Synods). 559 Cf. “Sinodality in the life and mission of the Church”, 66, International Theological comission, accessed March 7, 2020, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_20180302_sinodal- ita_en.html

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In the reform efforts of Pope Francis, led by a desire for the missionary transformation of the Church, synodality occupies a central place . Indeed, it is synodality that favors in the Church the processes in which the people of God will learn to recognize what the Spirit is saying to the Church (cf . Rev 2:7) and will respond to this call in an authentic way so that it can carry out its mission in the world . According to Pope Francis, „the path of synodality is what God expects of the Church of the third millennium“560 . Indeed, the word „synod“, in some sense, already con- tains everything that the Lord asks of us as the Church, that is to „walk together“ – laymen, shep- herds, bishop of Rome – as God‘s flock to Christ Christ the Lord. As the „constitutive dimension of the Church“, synodality manifests itself above all in listening to the supernatural sense of faith that the Holy Spirit arouses in every baptized . It is in this sense that synodality forms also the „interpretative framework“ for understanding the very hierarchical ministry in the Church, whose bearers play the role of witnesses to the faith of the whole Church . Thus, according to the present Pope, synodality is a way of effectively expressing the fact that the whole of God‘s people par- ticipates in Christ‘s prophetical mission and that true reform of the Church is a matter of all her members .561 As a very concrete manifestation of the Pope‘s interest in strengthening the principle of synodality in the Church can be considered Bishops‘ Synods convened by him on following topics: the family (2014 and 2015), the young (2018) and the Amazon (2019) . 562 It is also due to the Pope‘s impulse that we have the document of the International Papal Theological Commission Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church (2018) .563

2. Synodality as an ecumenical learning proces Every effort for authentic reform in the Church has a significant ecumenical impact.564 Con- cerning synodality, Pope Francis himself draws attention to the close link between this subject and the requirement of a „conversion of the Papacy“, which would further organically incorporate the Bishop of Rome into the community of all the baptized and the congregation of bishops 565. As we know, in recent years synodality and its relationship with primacy has been the subject of ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox 566. In addition, it is certain that ques- tions relating to synodality, such as the participation of the baptized in the life of the Church, the

560 “Ceremony commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Institution of the Synod of Bishops: Adress of his Holiness Pope Francis”, accessed March 7, 2020, http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/ october/documents/papa-francesco_20151017_50-anniversario-sinodo.html 561 In this context, the Pope mentions the legal principle contained in the Justinian Code of 6th Century: Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbari debet [What touches all must be approved by all.]. 562 Concerning the new directives regarding the preparation and conduct of the Synod of Bishops, the Pope summarized them in the “ Apostolic Letter Episcopalis communio”, accessed March 7, 2020, .http://w2.vatican. va/content/francesco/en/apost_constitutions/documents/papa-francesco_costituzione-ap_20180915_epis- copalis-communio.html Recently Pope Francis has chosen “For a synodal Church: communion, participation, and mission” as the theme for the next Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 2022. 563 Cf. “ Sinodality in the life and mission of the Church,” 564 Cf. Unitatis redintegratio 6. 565 Cf. “ Ceremony commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Institution of the Synod of Bishops: Adress of his Holiness Pope Francis,” 566 Cf. latest documents like Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, Synodality and Primacy During the First Millennium: Towards a Common Understanding in Service to the Unity of the Church accessed March 7, 2020, http://www.vatican. va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/ch_orthodox_docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_201609 21_sinodali- ty-primacy_en.html ; Gemeinsamer orthodox-katholischer Arbeitskreis St. Irenäus. Im Dienst an der Gemein- schaft. Das Verhältnis von Primat und Synodalität neu denken (Paderborn: Bonifatius, 2018).

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relationship between the local and universal Church or the relationship between the unity of faith and the plurality of its expressive forms are central to ecumenical discourse . However, there may be another reason to address the issue of synodality ecumenically: sharing about what this term means in the lives of individual Christian churches and traditions 567. If the Spirit of God works in them, then the area of ​​application of synodality in the Church can also be the subject of the exchange of gifts within the Christian ecumene .568 The ecumenical dimension of the rediscovery of synodality in the Catholic Church was the reason for the symposium held in Paderborn, Germany, from 17 to 19 February 2020 . During the Ecumenical Study Days, it was organized by the Johann Adam Möhler Institute for Ecumenism . The organizers, who are among the top Catholic experts in ecumenical theology, were motivated in the selection of the theme by the two assumptions already outlined: 1) in the epoch of ecu- menism which we live in, no process can be isolated from the wider ecumenical community; 2) to know the practice of synodality in a non-Catholic environment, in which synodal mechanisms in some sense prevail more than in the Catholic Church, can be very useful for Catholics in find- ing their own model of synodal life . Twenty participants of the event had the opportunity to hear in Paderborn the contributions that introduced the concept of synodality in the four confessional traditions (Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Evangelicalism, ) and then to reflect on them together, to seek specificities and to ask for ecumenical implications. Interesting activities 2.1. Orthodox Perspective: symptoms of sinodality crisis It is common knowledge that the churches of the Christian East use a synodal practice in their lives, referring to the tradition of the undivided church of the first centuries, when it was common for synods within individual ecclesiastical provinces, metropolitan churches and patriarchates to be convened . Their task was to make decisions on matters that went beyond the competence of the individual bishop of the local church, as exemplified in the late 3rd century Apostolic Can- on 34, which is in due respect in the East . The Orthodox theologian Athanasios Vletsis, who is a professor of systematic theology at the University of Munich, spoke at the symposium about the challenge that the Synodality for Orthodox Churches is currently facing . Although synodality is often referred to as the strength of Orthodoxy, the expert pointed out that the application of the principle of synodality is going through a period of crisis . He mentioned, for example, the Pan-Or- thodox Council in Crete in 2016, which was refused to take part by four autocephal churches and secondly the problem of the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine . To date, only The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and two other Orthodox churches have recognized their autocephality . There are several reasons for the inability to express the unity of Orthodoxy in a synodal way. Vletsis drew attention in particular to two: ethnofiletism, the identification of the nation and the Church, and the primacy, the problem of who is authorised to assume the role of the presidency role in Orthodoxy . 569 Thus, in order to consolidate synodality in Orthodoxy, it will be necessary not only to clarify the role of the ecumenical patriarchate, but also to weaken the

567 Cf. Jochen Bernd Hilberath, “Eine ökumenische Aufgabe und eine katholische Herausforderung: Synodal- ität,” Theologische Quartalschrift, 192/2 (2012): 131–148; Morandini, Simone, “Un dinamismo ecumenico.” In La Sinodalità nella vita e nella missione della Chiesa: Commento a più voci al Documento della Commissione teo- logica internazionale, ed. Piero Coda, Roberto Repole (Bologna: EDB, 2019), 83–92. 568 In this context, Pope Francis repeatedly points out that the Catholic Church should seek to enrich herself by the experience of synodal practice in the churches of the Christian East. Cf. Pope Francis, Evangelii gaudium 246. 569 Cf. Vletsis, Athanasios. “Achillesferse oder Allheilmittel? Die Synodalität (in) der Orthodoxie und ihre ökume- nischen Implikationen,” Ostkirchliche Studien, 68/ 1–2 (2019): 15–35.

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antagonism of profane power aspirations . Moreover, according to Vletsis, reform will be neces- sary so that the synodal structures, in which bishops are mainly involved, can penetrate a life characterized by the collaboration of the laity and clerics .

2.2. Synodality as a challenge for today‘s Roman Catholic Church Bochum‘s New Testament professor Thomas Söding presented in Paderborn the Roman Catholic perspective of synodality as contained in the aforementioned document of the Interna- tional Theological Commission and incorporated into current canon law standards . His contribu- tion was compounded by the fact that in December 2019 the Roman Catholic Church in Germany embarked on a synodal journey starting a process in which the burning problems of the current local church are discussed in order to be resolved .570 The central issue that, according to Söding, re-emerges in the Catholic concept of synodality is the relationship of the hierarchical leader- ship in the Church entrusted to the bishops and the manner of participation in it of all baptized as bearers of Christ‘s royal, priestly and prophetical office. He pointed out that the Code of Canon Law also presupposes that even lay Christians, under the provisions of the right are able to co- operate in the exercise of jurisdiction given to those who have been granted sacred ordination (cf . Can 129) . Synodality means an opportunity for the Church to strengthen its participatory structures, which requires, on the one hand, strengthening the awareness of participation and co-responsibility within the people of God, and, on the other, openness to the diversity of forms of participation and responsibility .

2.3. Synodality in the perspective of free and evangelical churches The ecclesiology of free and evangelical churches is based on the assumption that the church is primarily carried out in a particular assembly of Christians . 571 That is why the synodality in these churches is realized mainly on the local level of congregations. This was confirmed by Professor Markus Iff, systematic theologian at the Theological Seminary of the Union of Free Evangelical Communities in Ewersbach . The ecclesiology of this confessional family within Christianity per- ceives the Church as an organic community of persons in the service of proclaiming the Gospel, in whose center rules the risen Christ, who divides the various charisms (among them especially the office of presbyter) for the benefit of others. The free and evangelical churches, which follow the radical currents of the Reformation and the subsequent revival movements within Protes- tantism, were from the outset characterized by a presbyteral-synodal structure which envisaged the active participation of all Church members in the leadership . The whole people of God must be guaranteed participation in the leadership and mission of the Church . A peculiarity is that the episcope office in these churches is not tied to the college of bishops, but is understood as a tool of unity and apostolicity in the church, which includes ordained and lay people, and manifests itself in synodal dynamics at the level of individual congregations and at conferences and allianc- es . Iff did not obscure the fact that the autonomy of the concrete assembly constituted certain boundaries for the application of synodality in the over local areas of free churches .

570 Cf. Söding, Thomas. “Ermahnung als Ermunterung: Der Brief von Papst Franziskus an die deutschen Katholik- en auf dem „Synodalen Weg“,” IKZ Communio, 47/5 (2019), 575–580; Christsein 2020 – synodal, Christ in der Gegenwart, 72/1 (2020): 17–18. The main topics covered by the Synod, are structured in four “synodal forums”: power in the Church; clergy; woman in church; sexuality and family life. Cf. https://www.synodalerweg.de/ english/ 571 For this feature evangelical ecclesiology cf. Evangelical Ecclesiogy: Reality or Illusion? ed. John G. Stackhouse (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003); Kirche und Gemeinde in freikirchlicher und römisch-katholischer Sicht, ed. Burkhard Neumann, Jürgen Stolze (Paderborn – Göttingen: Bonifatius – Ruprecht, 2010).

174 SYNODALITY: THE ECUMENICAL JOURNEY OF THE CHURCH | Robert Svatoň

2.4. Synodal dynamics in churches of the Lutheran tradition While the ecclesiologies of free and evangelical churches are based more on Calvinism, the theological view of Luther and church practices based on the Reformation of Wittemberg is deci- sive for the Evangelical churches (Landeskirchen) in Germany . It is from this perspective that the Lutheran theologian Frierdich Hausschildt tried to answer the question of synodality, while point- ed out at the outset that although synodal principles are part of the life of evangelical churches, the very term „synodality“ is not widely used nor reflected in the Lutheran environment.572 Synodal practice in terms of the establishment of governing ecclesiastical committees, in which the share of laity is substantially manifested, did not develop in the German evangelical churches until the 19th century when political and social impulses contributed (eg the rise of modern democracy) . 573 Synodality is perceived primarily as an important element of leadership in the Church . Martin Luther has already opened the way for the application of so conceived synodality by emphasizing the role of the universal priesthood on the basis of baptismal theology: to become a Christian meant to him to become priest . With this emphasis, the reformer did not intend to abolish the special ordained office in the Church, but wanted to point out that it is precisely the universal priesthood that becomes his prerequisite . Thus, in Lutheran theology, synodality is one of the forms of expression of the universal priesthood, and in the life of the churches it is also imple- mented, among other things, by applying the principle of checks and balances, which prevents concentration of power, arbitrariness, and abuse . Interesting activities The call to synodality is an invitation to discover the nature of the Church, which is a pilgrim community of faith. This is, moreover, contained in the very word σύνοδος [common path]. This means that we are not walking alone on this journey, but above all with God and also with whom we are bound by the bonds of communion . Walking together on the road to the Kingdom already means unity . This year‘s Ecumenical Study Days in Paderborn certainly contributed to the de- velopment of this ecumenical potential of the theme of synodality .

572 For desiderata regarding the concept of synodality in contemporary lutheran theology and practice of the Church, cf. Huber, Wolfgang. “Synode und Konziliarität,” in Das Recht in der Kirche, Bd. 3, Zur Praxis des Kirch- enrechts, ed. Gerhard Rau, Hans-Richard Reuter, Klaus, Schlaich (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1994). 319–348. 573 Cf. Grethlein Christian, “Synodalität aus evangelischer Perspektive,” Lebendige Seelsorge 69/4 (2018): 239–244.

175 © Acta Missiologica | No. 1 | Vol. 14 | 2020 |

THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE – THE CHURCH FATHERS – FOR THE PRESENT*574 – AN INTERVIEW

Jozef Kulisz, Miloš Lichner

Submitted: 13 February 2019 Accepted for publication: 27 April 2020

First published: 30 April © Acta Missiologica |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

Professor dr hab. Jozef Kulisz SJ, ✉ teaching at Pontifical Faculty of Theology – Collegium Bobolanum in Poland provides Acta Missiologica an interview focused on the relevance studying the Church Fathers in the present day in the 21st Cen- tury, as well as on various important and interesting aspects of other professional fields which also include benefits for the field of helping professions with Professor ThLic. Miloš Lichner, SJ, D.Th,✉ whose scientific research focuses on publishing the works of St. Augustine in the Slovak language and the works of St. Augustine Bibliothèque Augustinienne in Paris. His professional focus also includes Latin Patrology, specializing in theology of St. Augustine, and the early-Christian dog- matic theology (Eschatology, , Theological Anthropology, Ecclesiology). He teaches also at the Theological Faculty of the Trnava University. He is a mem- ber of the international patristic organization Association Internationale d‘Études Patristiques (AIEP); he is a co-founder of the Slovak Society for Catholic Theology - the Slovak Section of the European Society for Catholic Theology (SSKT-ESCT), where he worked for several years as Executive Secretary and President of the SS- KT-ESCT. He is also active in the Society of Deans of Jesuits Faculties in Europe and the Middle East. In 2019, he has been elected as President of the European Society for Catholic Theology (ESCT).

Professor Lichner, is studying the Church Fathers still important in the 21st Cen- tury? Church history tells us that whenever there has been a spiritual and cultural renewal in thought or action (these two realities are constantly interconnected), it has always hap- pened in the context of the Church Fathers’ teachings. The reflection of the patristic tradi- tion and the teachings of the Church Fathers can be recognised not only in the context of the history of theology in periods marked by certain crises and the search for new ways and dialogues with secular culture or other religions . The impact of these authors was ev-

574 This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the contract No. * APVV-17-0001. ✉ Contact on author/Coresspondece author: prof. dr hab. Jozef Kulisz SJ [email protected] ✉ Contact on author: Prof. ThLic. Miloš Lichner, SJ. D.Th. – email: [email protected] Trnava university, Faculty of Theology, Trnava (SK); Collegium Bobolanum, Pontifical Faculty of The- ology Warsaw (PL)

176 THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE – THE CHURCH FATHERS – FOR THE PRESENT – AN INTERVIEW | Jozef Kulisz, Miloš Lichner

ident in the Middle Ages as well as today . Studying this literature is and has always been part of the university education process, also in the history of literature and the culture of each community .

Explain the basic dimension of the work with patristic texts to the contemporary Slovak reader. Patrology (derived from pater – father and logos – word) is a stand-alone scientific disci- pline dealing with early Christian literature . It emerged in the 17th century . Lutheran the- ologian Johannes Gerhard was the first person to use this term officially. Traditionally, Western culture considers its origins to be associated with the death of in 636 .Eastern Christianity considers its origins to be associated with the passing away of in 749 . It should be noted that early Christian authors wrote in several languages, therefore, an expert on this period needs to master the old (not only classical) languages, but also modern languages of our times . However, without knowledge of histo- ry, philology, philosophy, and theology, one cannot imagine working on this very interesting topic . It is said for good reason that, without a proper knowledge of languages, it is impos- sible to understand one’s own national culture. In Slovakia, we are thus trying to fill the gap from the Communist era by professionally translating patristic texts from the original languages into the standard Slovak language . Translation work is also the starting point for the creation of partial scientific studies and monographs. In doing so, we are employing a historical-critical method in an analytical and synchronous way . Interview What is the importance of reading and interpreting ancient texts for the present day? Early Church authors were able to aptly implant the Christian message in the cultural field of the Greco-Roman environment without damaging the identity of the issue, and thus adopted and applied several stimuli from which our Christianity lives today . The incultura- tion of ancient Biblical texts as well as the Church Fathers’ texts is nowadays deeply rooted in Christianity and, especially in the current multicultural environment, can help us iden- tify new impulses for life . Confronting one’s own life with a different environment means refusing to form a spiritual ghetto and instead make dogmatic progress called intellectus fidei. Reading patristic texts also helps with ecumenical dialogue with various Christian churches around the world . In particular, it helps with uncovering the resources, roots and formation factors of our European civilisation due to substantial contributions of secular or interreligious origin . Emphasising the importance of humanitarian education is rooted, willingly or unwillingly, in the study of sacred texts that help in combating fundamentalist currents in society . Many early Church authors are witnesses to and creators of the fixation of the biblical canon, as well as the formation of the confession of faith called regula fidei that decided on the way the sacred texts were interpreted . These writers wrote in Latin, Greek, Syrian, Coptic, Armenian and other languages, and thus enriched not only the literary and cultural heritage of the nations but also became the true founders of Christian culture . They knew each others‘ works in their original languag- es and, therefore, in addition to accepting the national culture expressing and forming the spirit of a particular nation, their works represent the true and original Catholicism, which means true universality .

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An important part of the cultural dialogue is the fact that these authors were educated in the disciplines of ancient, Greek and Roman culture, from which they drew knowledge to enrich the spiritual life of Christians . Several of them were philosophers, historians, mathe- maticians, physicists, astronomers or physicians. In this way, they influenced the spiritual, intellectual, and social life of people in the Middle Ages .

Would you provide us with a specific example? The texts from the early Church period are also important for a proper understanding and potential development of Jewish-Christian relations . It is true that in some texts we may find anti-Judaist polemics, which may, however, be a very important impulse for a new theological reflection on Christianity’s relationship to Judaism or other confessions. It should be noted that it was precisely the renewal of patristic studies that brought about a positive change in its relationship to the Jewish nation at the Second Vatican Council . In this context, I would like to mention an excellent study by the French Jesuit M . Ras- toin, which deals with the presence of Jesuits of Jewish origin (conversos) in the Jesuit Order, which for some time was called the “Synagogue of Jews”; it is also good to know that many prominent figures of our Order were originally of Jewish origin and that our Order has much to be thankful for to them .

What about the field of social work? I would like to draw attention to the fact that the charity as we know it has Judeo-Christian roots and that it was Christians who transformed what André Boulanger called euergetism (from Greek euergetéô – doing good deeds) . Homiletic texts thus testify to the constant struggle against corruption, usury, slavery, and collections for the poor and those affected by various epidemics . I would also like to point out that several theologians who dealt with topics related to the discovery of America and the current situation in South and Latin America drew their views from the Church Fathers in order to condemn several forms of colonialism and misguided evangelisation as well as a deeply-rooted social injustice that was in their opinion inconsistent with the spirit of the Gospel . For instance, Bartolomé de las Casas relied on , Ambrose and Augustine .

And what about the Catholic Church? Early Church literature also helps in providing a renewed look at Church affairs . After the Council of Trent a new way of thinking was developed, which gradually closed off to the outside world that which was considered a threat . It was formed – using the words of Y . Congar – by an error concealment mechanism that was inconsistent with the Church tra- dition which emphasised the transparency of church life . The early Church texts also emphasise the pluralistic diversity in the formation and celebration of the sacraments, as well as in the understanding of church unity allowing plu- ralism . Already in the 2nd Century, Irenaeus of Lyon emphasised that the church communio (i e. . internal unity) manifests itself through great diversity in ceremonies, spiritual move- ments, traditions, and theologies . Plurality was thus regarded as an intrinsic value of unity .

Is it important also in regards to the understanding of Man? The early Church’s anthropology was the result of Hebrew biblical texts that came into con- tact with the Greco-Roman world . In today’s pluralistic world, these texts serve to remind us that the world we live in is not an illusion, as is the case in the teachings of Hinduism

178 THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE – THE CHURCH FATHERS – FOR THE PRESENT – AN INTERVIEW | Jozef Kulisz, Miloš Lichner

or Buddhism . There is a clear rejection of the cyclical perception of the world in which certain things are repeated . The texts also emphasise that our world is Man’s world in which Man occupies the central position and is responsible for people and nature . The Church Fathers remind us of the importance of freedom; that is to say, that being created in God’s image means being free .

What recommendations could you offer to those who are interested in the study of early Christian literature – the Church Fathers? For example, our Faculty of Theology of Trnava University started to publish selected works of the Fathers of early Church within the framework of a special bilingual book edi- tion Ancient Christian Library . Thus, people who are interested in these text can read not only the Slovak translation of high standard, but also the text in its original language with explanatory scientific apparatus. For instance, within the project APVV running under my gestion, our faculty has been publishing Commentaries to the Books of Old and New Tes- tament . Apart from the newest translation from original biblical languages, linguistic and theological analyses of all texts, we also supply selected commentaries written by rabbis and writers of early Church. I believe that these commentaries have a capacity to influence the forthcoming generations of both Catholic and Protestant priests and catechists in Slo- vakia and the Czech republic . I am convinced that this approach will lead to the renewal of theology and the encouragement of intellectual and spiritual life of believers, as well as to the animation of social and charitable aspect of our faith . Interview What benefit could it bring to the field of helping professions? What principles could be useful for their work with clients? Many Christians are active in helping professions . Through the study of early Christian literature they realize the fact that charity or social support of the poor has Judeo-Christian roots and represents a part of Christian existence . The oldest Church councils reminded the clergy to actively search for people in need and look after them, financial resources were created to help the sick and the poor . Judeo-Christian tradition integrated biblical values in the social life, mainly through practicing of the deeds of mercy, almsgiving (there are plenty of sermons in which Pope Leo the Great encouraged people to offer increased help to the poor during the period of Lent in the 5th century; we can also mention a so- cial-spiritual activity of Pope Gregory the Great during the epidemics of plague in Rome in the 6th century, which was a part of so-called Plague of Justinian . Early Christian Fathers see active charitable work as a result of one´s personal relationship with Christ . Many re- ligious communities that dedicated their efforts to building of hospitals and hospices and to education of the poor, were born on the basis of this phenomenon in the Middle Ages . In our recent past, I can mention the example of the Slovak society that suffered from national oppression and belated industrialization within Austro-Hungarian monarchy, where priests were known for their reputation of humanists and advocates of poor people . Social question belonged to the agenda of political Catholicism in Slovakia during the first half of the 20th century . A good priest who was faithful to true Christian tradition would not only proclaim the Gospel . He would be active in the social sphere, too – he would be a people lover .

179 © Acta Missiologica | No. 1 | Vol. 14 | 2020 |

Could you mention some concrete example for our readers? John Chrysostom, the archbishop of Constantinople, was born between 344-354 and died in exile in 407 . He was not only an excellent speaker and theologian but also a reformist and a man with charitable-social feeling . In the 50th homily inspired by the Gospel of Mat- thew he reminds people that God does not need any golden vessels but our golden souls . He does not forbid the donations to the temple but he suggests that the almsgiving should precede them, because he likes it more . He clearly says that it is necessary to feed the hungry in the first place and with the rest we can decorate the altar of God. He invites be- lievers to reflect over Christ who walks by as a vagabond and pilgrim with no place to stay. Instead of letting him in, we decorate floors, walls and column chaplets, and we refuse to see him shackled in the prison .

What are other possibilities of further exploration of this matter? What would you consider to be an interesting field of exploration for international community of experts in regard to the study of early Christian literature? Accessible literary sources do not offer sufficient amount of relevant documents that would focus on the topic of social work of the Church in ancient or medieval times . Thus, we in- tend to continue with their translation because they represent the basis of further scientific work . Elaboration of the topic of the impact of biblical Book of Psalms on the development of European culture might be interesting for international scientific community because this book was most often rewritten and publis hed in the course of history . Work with early Christian themes in relation to the social activities of the Church as a part of active living of Christian faith seems to be important as well . I think that our environment tends to narrow understanding of Christian identity to the topics of sexual ethics and traditional family, re- jection of migrants (mainly those who are not Christians) and to the reappearing antisemi- tism, while the engagement in other areas of life like social justice is neglected . I would like to point out that the Decalogue of the Old Testament touches the problem currently known as corruption in three of its ten commandments . Also, there have been preserved many texts of early Church authors who clearly condemn corruption with its negative impact on socially week groups of inhabitants .

180 THE LIST OF THE PEER-REVIEWERS ARTICLES OF NO. 1, VOL. 14, 2020 ISSUE

Leon Szot Pontifical University of John Paul II in Cracow (PL) Tibor Görföl Theological College of Pécs, Department of Applied Theology, Pécs, (HU ) Jadwiga Daszykowska Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II. (PL) Jan Dacok Pontifical Gregorian University, (Rome, IT) Vojtech Bohac, Greek-Catholic Theological Faculty University of Presov (SK) Michaela Mulera Catholic university of Eastern Africa Nairobi (KE) Tadeusz Bak Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego w Warszawie (PL) Katarina Mulama, Catholic university of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, (KE) Kinga Przybyszewska Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa w Płocku, (PL) Vitalis Okoth Catholic university of Eastern Africa, Nairobi (KE) Arab Naz, University of Malakand Chakdara Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (PK) Aleksandar Cubranic, Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka (HR) Michel Ackermann Berliner Institut für Familientherapie Berlin (DE) Francis Hvizdak, Association and Charles Lwanga Clinic, Buikwe, Uganda (UG) Ayesha Gul University Balochistan (PK) Erich Kalavsky House of family and House of Hope, SEU programmes, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, Cambodia (KH) Ratana Somrongthong, Chulalongkorn University, College of Public Health Sciences Bangkok (TH) Piotr Nowakovski Warsaw Management University (PL ) Małgorzata Jagodzińska Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa w Płocku (PL) Peter Marks UNHCR camp Lesbos SEU Migrant Health Program, Greece (GR ) Harald Stefan, Vienna General Hospital, Vienna (AT) Jiri Tuma, College of Physical Education and Sport PALESTRA, Prague (CZ ) Muhammad Israr, Shaheed Benazir Bhuto University Sheringal (PK) Hristo Kyuchukov, University of Silesia in Katowice (PL) Nicodemus Mwanzia Kimuli Catholic university of Eastern Africa Nairobi (KE) Lucy Krcmery University College London (UK) Muhammad Nadeemullah University of Karachi (PK) Michaela Mulera Catholic university of Eastern Africa Nairobi (KE) Claus Muss I-GAP, Rresearch centre, Vienna (AT) Zofia Szarota Pedagogical University of Cracow (PL) Rajoo Magesvari, MSc . SARMM, University Kuala Lumpur (MY) Sana Ullah University of Malakand Chakdara Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (PK)

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183 Academic journal of St . John Paul II . Institute of Missiology and Tropical Health SCIENTIFIC BOARD OF ACADEMIC JOURNAL ACTA MISSIOLOGICA at St . Elizabeth University of Health and Social Sciences, Bratislava – Slovakia

prof. Vladimír Krčméry, Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine Comenius Univesity in Bratislava (Bratislava, SK) |No. 1|Vol. 14|2020|

prof. Peter Fedor-Freybergh, I-GAP, Rresearch centre, (Vienna, AT), prof. Ladislav Bučko, St. Elizabeth University, (Bratislava, SK); St. Maximilian Kolbe ACTA MISSIOLOGICA Institut House of Hope, (Phnom Penh, KH) ISSN: 2453-7160 (online) | ISSN: 1337-7515 (print)

prof. Wolfgang Graninger, Medizinische Universität Wien, (Vienna, AT)

prof. Werner Ustorf, University of Birmingham, (Birmingham, GB)

prof. Robert J. Schreiter, C.PP.S, Catholic Theological Union, (Chicago, US)

prof. Caleb Kim, Institute for the Study of African Realities (ISAR),

Africa International University, (Nairobi, KE)

prof. Ivan Dacko, Ukrainian Catholic University, (Lviv, UA)

prof. Roberto Cauda, Institute of Infectious Diseases Thematic focus Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, (Rome, IT) of this issue:

prof. Apostolos Georgopoulos, Medizinische Universität Wien, (Vienna, AT) TOPICS DIRECTLY OR prof. Todd M. Johnson, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, (South Hamilton, MA, US) INDIRECTLY RELATED TO THE ISSUE OF CORONAVIRUS mim. prof., doc. Jozef Šuvada, Warsaw Management University, (Warsaw, PL) AND FINDING EFFICIENT prof. Juraj Benca, St. Maximilian Kolbe Institut House of Hope, (Phnom Penh, KH) RESEARCH ON SELECTED TOPICS IN THE prof. Pavol Dancák, Prešov University, (Prešov, SK) THEOLOGICAL AND SOCIOMEDICAL FIELDS THAT doc. Peter Caban, Karl-Franzes Universität, (Graz, AT) ARE BENEFICIAL FOR doc. David Tonzar, Hus Institute for Theological Studies, (Prague, CZ) BOTH THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL EXPERT doc. Martin Uháľ, Catholic University in Ružomberok, (Ružomberok, SK) COMMUNITY

doc. Ludmila Muchová, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice, (CZ)

prof. Mária Šmidová, Trnava University, (Trnava, SK)

Dr. Francesco Pierli, Tangaza University College, (Nairobi, KE)

ThDr. Jaroslav Jaššo, St. Elizabeth University, (Bratislava, SK)