The Origins of Christianity in the Territory of Czech and Slovak Republics Within the Context of Written Sources
- ️https://ukf.academia.edu/PeterIvani%C4%8D
Related papers
2021
During the reign of Charlemagne, East Central and Eastern Europe were populated by dozens of small-scale, “pagan” societies organized on the basis of fragile tribal or clan bonds. Two centuries later, around 1000, the picture changed completely. Now, the region was divided among several kingdoms with Christian rulers and with their own dioceses and rudiments of ecclesiastical organization. Throughout the region, political centralization went hand in hand with Christianization, with one process accelerating the other. However, both processes were predicated upon intensive and varied interactions that have taken place during the 9th and 10th centuries between local elites, on the one hand, and the Frankish or Byzantine Empire, on the other hand. While Bohemia, Poland and Hungary entered the Frankish geopolitical sphere and through the decision of their respective rulers subsequently became part of Latin Christianity, Rus’ adopted Christianity from Byzantium and transformed its liturgy and culture. All those polities, however, maintained at least some contact with both Western and Eastern Christianity.
2019
The medieval Mazovian-Ruthenian borderland came under the influence of Christianity relatively late. This was caused mostly by its peripheral location in relation to the cultural centres of Poland and Rus’ States. The absence of a developed local administrative and religious network, moreover –up to the second half of the 14th century – the neighborhood of pagan Lithuania kept the pre-Christian religious practices alive longer than it was in cases of other lands. We should not forget as well, that analyzed areas were a zone of rivalry between Orthodox and Roman Churches. As a consequence, within the longitudinally windrowing territory of a range of about 100 km a multi cultural conglomerate has been established, with archaeologically recognized influences of Christian religion and local ethnic practices having their roots in older traditions. Through the implementation of the research program a comprehensive analysis of archaeological data concerning funeral customs in the area of the middle Bug River has been carried out. Thus, the basis for discussing the stages of adaptation and acculturation of new burial forms and funeral rituals by local communities has been defined.
THEOLOGICAL FORM OF SLOVAK CULTURE AND ITS CURRENT STATE
ROCZNIKI HUMANISTYCZNE, 2023
The aim of the study is to analyse the form of Slovak culture, which has been linked to Christianity for over a thousand years but has undergone considerable development in recent decades. It is confirmed that the bond between Christianity and culture was not only historically conditioned, but also academically reflected and programmatically formed even in the first half of 20th century. However, communism and secularization brought about changes that affected the original form of culture and influenced the distanced approach to culture from the side of Christianity. The study analyses such approach of the Catholic Church in Slovakia and offers a vision of reform, the principles of which were proposed by Pope Francis during his visit to Slovakia in 2021.
Territorial identities and religion in Czechia and Central Europe
2018
What story can place names tell about the significance of religion to national and regional societies? This study explores Christian place names in Czechia, Poland and Slovakia, three neighboring countries of Central Europe. Historically, these three nations share predominantly Catholic religious roots. More recently, however, their respective national societies display markedly different attitudes toward religion. Using FamilySearch Places (an online database of place names), the study examines the occurrence and spatial distribution of Christian place names. It considers when these names were initially coined and looks at changes involving Christian place names, since 1900. The research uncovers a number of apparent spatial patterns in Christian toponyms. With few exceptions, the observed name changes were religious to secular in nature.
Maria Manuel Baptista (ed.), Proceedings of the International Conference “Europe of Nations. Myths of Origin: Modern and Postmodern Discourses”, Aveiro, 9-11 May 2011, pp. 324-335., 2011
In the Primary Chronicle from the 12th c. there can be found two mythical stories on the origin of the city of Kiev and the alleged Christian roots of Rus´: the journey of the apostle Andrew through the Slavic land, and St. Paul and his disciple Andronikos as the teachers of the Slavs and the Rus´. Only in the Book of Degrees from the 16th c. does the view exist that it was St. Andrew´s original purpose to go to the Rus´ian lands. The explanation for the change is that national policy in the 16th c. tried to depreciate the Greek link with Russia. In this paper we will show the ideological use of the texts.
Orthodox Churches and Politics in Southeastern Europe, 2019
This chapter will focus on the fortunes of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia in the aftermath of the collapse of the Czechoslovak communist regime in 1989 and the creation of new nation-states in Prague and Bratislava in 1993. The topic generates a special set of questions stemming from the fact that, not only does the Orthodox Church in the successor states of former Czechoslovakia represent a minority faith existing on the periphery of the post-communist societies, but it does so in the case of the Czech Republic, in one of the most secularized and atheistic countries in the world. Among the topics examined will be the strength of its membership and of its present societal role, its relationship with key governmental institutions, its leadership strife, social conservatism and religious tolerance, the impact of church restitutions, and its position on the evolving schism between the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church over the issue of