Poniższy artykuł stanowi refleksję nad zastosowaniem teoretycznej kategorii symboli politycznych w ujęciu Erica Voegelina do badań politologicznych oraz praktycznych problemów współczesnego prawa i polityki. Oryginalny wkład badawczy tego tekstu stanowi przy tym prześledzenie rozwoju koncepcji symboli politycznych u Voegelina i skupienie się na wczesnych, rzadko opisywanych tekstach tegoż autora. Konkluzją jest obserwacja, iż voegelinowska kategoria symboli politycznych to narzędzie znacznie powiększające nasze możliwości poznawcze i otwierające nowe pola dialogu społecznego. Kategoria ta przezwycięża bowiem nieprzystający już w pełni do współczesnej polityki podział na religie i ideologie, a równocześnie unika problemów charakterystycznych dla myśli politycznej Carla Schmitta i pozwala na bardziej szczegółową analizę niż upraszczające huntingtonowskie pojęcie cywilizacji.

The article aims at identifying key elements of Russia’s strategic culture and drivers for its change. It starts with a short theoretical overview of the strategic culture concept and different approaches within various theoretical frameworks (liberal, constructive, and post-modern). It focuses on most important determinants of Russian strategic culture, namely history, ideology, geopolitics, systemic issues, and religion. It examines the extent to which Russian policy reflects these determinants.

Artykuł zawiera teoretyczną analizę procesu socjalizacji, zanurzonego w przekonaniach religijnych, wprowadzającą do przedstawienia wyników badań empirycznych, pochodzących z niewielkiego, pilotażowego studium przypadku studentów Akademii Pedagogiki Specjalnej im. M. Grzegorzewskiej w Warszawie. W badaniu uczestniczyło ponad 250 studentów w grupach 20–30-osobowych na Wydziale Nauk Pedagogicznych, w latach 2014–2016. Studentów poproszono o przygotowanie krótkiej anonimowej notatki zawierającej opis, jak wyobrażają sobie Boga. Studenci mieli również naszkicować „mapę świata”. Powtarzające się odpowiedzi pozwoliły na wyprowadzenie wniosków o dominującym postrzeganiu Boga oraz geograficznej perspektywie eurocentrycznej badanych. Na tej podstawie wyprowadzono wstępne wnioski o procesie socjalizacji, przebiegającej w określonym kontekście religijnym, zastanawiając się, jak kontekst ten oddziałuje na osobiste poglądy o świecie.

Tematem artykułu są prawa człowieka w perspektywie Europejskiej Nowej Prawicy (ENP). Alain de Benoist (główny ideolog) uważa, że prawa człowieka stały się religią obywatelską Zachodu, która zastąpiła chrześcijaństwo w zlaicyzowanej przestrzeni publicznej, stając się głównym, ideologicznych punktem odniesienia Zachodu. Artykuł omawia chrześcijańską genezę praw człowieka i krytykę praw człowieka z punktu widzenia ENP. A. de Benoist argumentuje, iż prawa człowieka są de facto bronią ideologiczną Zachodu, służącą do symbolicznego zdominowania niezachodnich państw.

Some methodological difficulties in studying and analysing China

The study presents various factors which obstacles adequate description and analysis of Chinese realities in Western scholarly literature. The first factor presented in the article is the psychological mechanism of a “mirror”. As Lynn T. White suggested, since the 17th century, that Westerners look at China not through a ‘window’ but through a ‘mirror’, in which their own fears or most treasured ideals are refl ected, not China itself. Hence their descriptions of China refl ect first of all their state of mind. Peter Hays Gries and Stanley Rosen add to this metaphor another one, that of a procrustean bed. According to these authors, contemporary Western scholars procede like ancient Procrustes who made his captives fit his bed cutting their too long limbs or stretching these too short, in order to adapt Chinese realities to the Western schemes. Sebastian Heilmann and Matthias Stepan in order to explain Western mistaken views of China and expectations presented six wrong assumptions concerning developments in China. Their list is controversial, but it is true that on the Western side there are numerous wrong assumptions concerning China and other Asian states. Thus the Chinese realities are described in a wrong way, and the predictions of future developments are also false.
The Author put an emphasis on scientific categories and terms elaborated in Europe and the States and considered “universal”, which, however, are not adequate to the Chinese realities. Hence their use results in falsification of descriptions and makes previsions based on them – groundless. He distinguishes two essential kinds of categories and terms borrowed from the West but inadequate to the Chinese realities. The first constitutes the terms which significance does not fit to the Chinese realities, as “language”, “religion”, historical epochs such as “antiquity”, “,Middle Ages”, etc. The second constitutes the terms which meanings involve cultural values. Many of them are difficult to translate into Chinese and they acquire different meanings in the context of Confucian heritage. The Author analyses from this perspective: “human rights”, “democracy” and “freedom”.
Western scholars are also often mislead by Chinese sources. The study indicates another factor, which facilitates great misunderstandings. According to the cultural norm of the Confucian civilisation there is a “proper façade” presented in public, behind which there are hidden “internal realities”. Of course, such differences could be detected in each culture, but in highly ritualistic Confucian civilisation this distinction is essential, and both parts constitute “complex realities”, whereas Westerners presume that the façade constitutes a whole and complete reality. The Author presents as an example centralised, unitary Leninist state in Chin that is – in his opinion merely a false “public image”, whereas in reality there operate more or less innumerable quite autonomous units, which in fact are not subordinate. Under such circumstances all decisions must be consulted and negotiated among them, like in a federal system, although it does not operate formally. The Westerners also misleads themselves considering their peculiar civilisation as “universal”, whereas there are various civilisations, which will not amalgamate during the modernisation processes. Hence various societies function and change in their own ways, different from the western schemes and expectations.
The study indicates that the West still predominates and presents its civilisation as universal. However, its predomination faces growing resistance and numerous scholars recognise the existence of numerous civilisations, which will also develop in the future. The author enumerates the most significant concepts such as “dialogue among civilisations and cultures” adopted by the United Nations in 1989, Huntington’s warning against imposing western norms on other civilisations, which may result in their ‘clashes’, the concept of the Axial Age, of Multiple Modernities, and so on. The road to an equal status of all civilisations is long and tortuous. The elaboration of universal scientific categories and principles is even more difficult, and it is, perhaps, a task for future generations of Asian scholars.

Celem artykułu jest prezentacja specyfiki czeskiego Kościoła i religijności Czechów. Autorka inspiruje się pracami głównie czeskich badaczy (Petr Fiala, Dana Hamplová, Tomáš Halík, Pavel Hošek, Jan Jandourek, Max Kašparů, Dušan Lužný, David Václavík, Michal Martinek, Zdeněk R. Nešpor, Pavel Říčan, Ivo O. Štampach, O. Štěch, David Václavík) i rozwija zawarte w nich myśli. Zajmuje się stereotypem Czecha, charakterystyką czeskiego wierzącego, czeskiego duchownego oraz czeskiego Kościoła, znajdując źródła wskazanych odmienności w wydarzeniach historycznych i ich interpretacji. W zakończeniu artykułu przedstawiono wnioski i przybliżono odbiorcy „obraz czeskiego Boga”.

Confessional Secrecy in Criminal, Civil and Administrative Cases as a Condition for the Implementation of the Constitutional Right to Freedom of Conscience and Religion

The text is devoted to the issue of protection of the secret of confession provided on the basis of criminal trial, civil and administration process. This secret is the immanent element of the rites of persons exercising their freedom of conscience and religion under Art. 53 sec. 1 of the Constitution. Freedom of conscience and religion is one of the most important. The differences in the approach to clergy witnesses and possible solutions for the unification of mechanisms governing their interrogation were presented.

The present article provides an original typology of Polish parliamentary parties according to the religious criterion, i.e., the attitude towards the Catholic Church and its postulates (prohibition of abortion, legalising IVF and civil partnerships). The analysis covers the parties which have had at least 10 seats in the Sejm since 2001. First, the parties were classified according to the program criterion (membership in party families), then their views in the axiological sphere were analysed, and finally, the party typology was determined. The following types of parties were distinguished: quasi-religious, referring only to Christian values, axiologically moderate, secular.

History, archaeology and ethnography as disciplines unsuitable for the study of Slavic beliefs according to Dariusz Andrzej Sikorski in his „Religions of the ancient Slavs”

For the author of the book presented below, the topic of Slavic beliefs is only a pretext for formulating writing technique-related postulates. A discussion with D.A. Sikorski should not take place in the field of methodology, or the field of the substance, and even less in the field of extra-academic research motivations. A historian should give voice to the source accounts (which does not necessarily mean considering them historically reliable), and this is made possible by appropriate methods. D.A. Sikorski, on the other hand, believes that the method is secondary, as long as it leads to results that are consistent with the ‘state of the facts’, which in practice have nothing to do with the sources. His proposal, however, is unacceptable for it is characterised by unreliability, one-sidedness, undermining of source testimony and replacing it with one’s own fantasies in accordance with a preconceived thesis that „it is not known how it actually was, but it is known that the Slavs did not have their own beliefs”. The result is a methodological trap: positivism has been taken to its ultimate consequences and turned upside down, becoming voluntarism within which you can undermine whatever you see fit.