Following the idea of the famous Croatian sociologist Željko Mardešić (JakovJukić), this paper analyzes Mardešić’s vision of Christian dialogue and cooperation in thecontext of contemporary sociology of religion. The presented vision of dialogue and cooperationin relation to various social, cultural, and religious changes calls for expandingthe space for dialogue and cooperation. According to Mardešić, dialogue and cooperationpresuppose the existence of opposite ideas and not necessarily identity; otherwise,they would be reduced to mere confirmation. Thus, dialogue and cooperation observedseparately contain an entire (...) program and are key to the realization of Christianity in thefuture. Željko Mardešić sees the future of Christianity along the lines of the Second VaticanCouncil, which remains the “compass” for the Catholic Church, on four council levels:establishing a dialogue with divided Christians, major world religions, non-believers,and the modern world. Importantly, dialogue and cooperation in the Church representan unavoidable prerequisite to establishing four effective dialogues with the world. Inthis context, the authenticity of Christian dialogue and cooperation, according to ŽeljkoMardešić, can be summed up in a few demanding words: kindness, forgiveness, mercy,service, peace, and the joy of hope. A person – not seen as an object but a subject of experience– is certainly changed by every dialogue because the experience itself is dialogicaland open to cooperation. (shrink)

This paper aims to pave the way for religion’s potential revitalisation – outside of the ideological concept of the dialectics of contemporary society and within the historical context of the specific meaning of the secularisation of religion. Accordingly, in its understanding of religion, this paper’s discussion necessarily remains beyond the dialectics of secularity, since religion is not dependent on that kind of dialectics, but on the Sacred and its comprehension. Without the Sacred, we would be in a situation of ‘reoccurring (...) of the same’, as a result of which contemporary modern ideologies would negatively influence the life of the individual. The aforementioned then points to the need for multi-dimensional theoretical approaches resulting from the intricate social circumstances and various development courses of individual religions in the contemporary world. In this way the theoretical approaches to religion in contemporary society, primarily analysed based on prevalent theories of functionalism, phenomenology and the neo-Weberian tradition, exhibit diverse paradigms in their different explanations of the secularisation and revitalisation of religion. (shrink)

U članku se kritički promišlja predaja katoličkog ethosa iz vlastitih pretpostavki. Tematizirajući katolički ethos iz mišljenja bitka suvremenog čovjeka na temelju umjetnosti u modernom i postmodernom dobu pokušava se razumjeti katolički ethos u horizontu ljudske egzistencije post-modernog doba. Time nam je otvoren prostor za njegovo razumijevanje iz postojanja umjetnosti u post-modernom dobu. Problematizirajući katolički ethos i umjetnost u post-modernom dobu iz njihovog ontološkog statusa unutar položaja u bitku suvremenog čovjeka bilo je potrebno distingvirati i naznačiti razliku i korespondenciju ova dva (...) pojma kao jednih od temeljnih oblika ljudskog duha. Čovjek kao onto-antropološko biće logosa postoji jedino kao povijesno onto-antropološko biće koje ima potrebu za svetim koje određuje njegov izvorni odnos prema postojanju. Sveto kao sveto, naime, povezano je s egzistencijalnom biti čovjeka. Umjetnost se na temelju svetoga pruža kao otvoreno medijacijsko polje prema katoličkom ethosu, otvarajući mu istinu epohe, posredujući egzistencijalnu istinu s epohalnom istinom. Time umjetnost kao forma suvremenog čovjekovog duha, uz znanost, tehnologiju, filozofiju i religiju, otkriva i oblikuje jednu novu stvarnost, koja u svojim najvišem potencijalima korespondira s najdubljim pitanjima čovjekove povijesne egzistencije kao njegove istine.The article critically reflects upon the tradition of Catholic ethos from its own assumptions. Considering the Catholic ethos from the thought of Being of modern man based on art in modern and postmodern age, we are trying to understand the Catholic ethos in the horizon of human existence in the postmodern age. Through this we have open space for understanding it from the existence of art in the postmodern age. In raising the issue of the Catholic ethos and art in postmodern age from their ontological status inside modern man’s position in Being, it was necessary to distinguish and note difference and correspondence of these two notions as one of the ground forms of human spirit. Human as an onto-anthropological creature of logos exists only as a historical onto-anthropological creature which has the need for the sacred which determines his original relation towards existence. The sacred as sacred is connected to the human existential essence. Art grounded on sacred is extended as an open mediation field towards the Catholic ethos, revealing the truth of epoch, mediating the existential truth with the epochal truth. By this art as a form of modern human spirit, with science, technology, philosophy and religion, reveals and shapes a new reality which in its highest potentials corresponds with the deepest questions of human historical existence as his truth. (shrink)