Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 83 No. 4, 2013.
Original scientific paper
Scientific-Teaching and Scientific-Research Institutes – the Wealth of the Catholic Faculty of Theology of the University of Zagreb
Stjepan Baloban
orcid.org/0000-0002-3138-3222
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
For the Church in Croatia and for theology among the most important activities of the Catholic Faculty of Theology in Zagreb during the difficult communist period was the founding of scientific-teaching and scientific-research institutes. From 1961 until 1985 eight such institutes have been founded: four scientific-teaching (Institute for Catechetics – 1961, Institute for Church Music – 1963, Institute for Theological Culture of Lay Persons – 1968, Institute for Spirituality – 1984) and four scientific-research institutes (Croatian Mariological Institute – 1974, Institute for Church History– 1975, Institute for Biblical Pastoral Activity – 1978, Institute for Ecumenical Theology and Dialogue – 1985). However, to a large extent this remains for ecclesial and social public an unexplored area. While the Institute for Church Music has published two monographs, the other institutes do not possess such monographs and, thus, they have been, at best, presented by an article or a review. The article »Scientific-Teaching and Scientific-Research Institutes – the Wealth of the Catholic Faculty of Theology of the University of Zagreb« has been divided into two parts. The first part entitled »Scientific-Teaching Institutes« deals with the four Institutes, in their order of founding, by pointing out the reasons for their founding, their initiators, and the ecclesial and social needs to which these institutes tried to respond. The second part entitled »Scientific-Research Institutes« presents the second form of scientific activity of the Faculty, which refers to the four scientific-research areas: veneration of Mary in ecclesial and religious life of the Croatian people, research into the more recent Church history in the Croatian Church, Biblical pastoral activity, and ecumenism and dialogue. Since there are no detailed reviews of most Institutes available, the author offers in this study panoramic reviews of their founding, short explanations of their meaning, and some main goals of their activities. The author believes that even this partial review establishes beyond doubt that these Institutes are truly the wealth of the Catholic Faculty of Theology, despite the fact that this wealth is still mostly »hidden« in the archives of particular Institutes and the Faculty itself. What has been done in this article can therefore be used as a basis for more detailed studies and analyses so that the history would not be forgotten and so that there would be benefits of those positive fruits for present and for future. The author concludes that the Institutes of the Catholic Faculty of Theology deserve more attention from the professors and the students in their research and analysis in diploma, master, or doctoral theses.
Keywords
Institutes of KBF (Catholic Faculty of Theology); the area of catechetics; Church music; theological culture of lay persons; study and worship of Mary; Church history; Biblical pastoral activity; ecumenism and dialogue
Hrčak ID:
115776
URI
Publication date:
7.2.2014.
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