From nature to culture. Dilemmas and postulates

Abstract

The present time is undoubtedly a period of dynamic and overwhelming cultural changes. They permeate into all fields of human life, and are especially noticeable in the system of values. Every man is born and grows in a particular culture, hence his formation cannot be accomplished in separation from the culture (lat. cultura animi). Extraordinary possibilities emerging from very dynamic scientific and technological development have resulted in man’s more and more common belief that we have an unlimited power not only over nature, but also over other human beings. An attitude like that is dangerously close to usurping divine authority. A type of a cult of knowledge analysed in the article cannot become a kind of a façade, behind which hides post-modernist ideology which is destroying man and his culture and which explains contemporary changes through the negation of man in his transcendental dimension, a programmed atheism, and intellectual manipulation. Therefore in the field of culture we should above all talk about the so-called Christian hermeneutics of continuation, which leads to being faithful to God and to man. It is precisely the spiritual dimension of human life that plays an important role in overcoming the nihilism present in contemporary culture, and the values emerging from the Gospel and Christian culture give a great opportunity for a beneficial influence on moral and ethical attitudes. The principles of the culture described above must be perceived from the angle of the constant relation of man (the creation) to God (the Creator).