This article attempts to answer the question: what has the current migration crisis revealed in relations between Christianity and Islam, two religions with common Abrahamic roots? What conclusions can be drawn about the state of these relations, particularly with regard to ordinary members of the two religions? How should we assess the reaction of Christians in Europe to the inflow of refugees from Muslim countries in the light of the Gospel, the Second Vatican Council and the teaching of Pope Francis?The (...) article consists of four parts. Part I briefly presents Christian-Muslim relationships over the centuries. Part II focuses on the sense of danger occurring in European societies in connection with the influx of Muslims during the migration crisis. Part III presents the teachings of the Second Vatican Council about Islam and Part IV describes Pope Francis’s attitude towards refugees from Muslim countries. (shrink)

“Of all the fine arts, drawing is indisputably the most useful, the most positive, and the most capable of practical application,” declared Sigismond Schuster, author of one of the many popular drawing books of the nineteenth century. “It might in this respect be classed rather among the useful than the ornamental arts, for it is the basis of them all, and is an indispensable auxiliary to every mechanic. Drawing is the language of nature and of the imagination; it secures (...) ease and steadiness to the hand, gives symmetrical correctness to the eye, creates and cultivates taste, leads to the appreciation of nature’s beauties, and offers a never-ceasing source of pleasure which is inaccessible to those who have neglected the cultivation of the art.” Drawing books like Schuster’s were powerful influences over taste and artistic standards in the United States during the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. Moreover, to the American readership for which he wrote, Schuster’s appeal to the practical value of drawing and painting was the surest route to preparing a friendly reception for instruction in artistic sensibility. (shrink)

Decalogue Five tells the story of Waldemar Rekowski (Jan Tesarz), a jaded taxi driver, Piotr Balicki (Krzysztof Globisz), an idealistic, newly-licensed attorney, and Jacek Lazar (Mirosław Baka), a young and troubled drifter, whose lives intersect with one another as a result of fate, or contingent circumstance, or some combination of both. With brutal detail and detachment, the film depicts Jacek’s seemingly aimless wanderings through Warsaw, his senseless killing of Waldemar, his interactions with Piotr (his court-appointed attorney), and his eventual (...) execution after a failed defense in court. Like other films within the Decalogue series, Five illustrates what happens when human beings are forced to confront ethical dilemmas (and thus are forced to confront themselves as responsible moral decision makers) in a world that seems to offer little in the way of moral direction, meaning, purpose, and community with others. Discussing the overarching aim of the Decalogue series as a whole, Krzysztof Kies´lowski refers to the sense of alienation, aimlessness, and loneliness that often describes the human condition. (shrink)