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"Lord Acton is known mainly by his famous maxim that "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Those who are more familiar with him know that he was a great nineteenth-century historian and political thinker, a passionate lover of liberty who, unfortunately, failed to complete his long-term project—the history of liberty—and thus became the "author" of "the greatest book that was never written."2 Specialists in Victorian England, the British Catholic press and the Catholic liberal movement of that epoch are further aware that Acton was a very pious Catholic and an ardent liberal, who spent much of his life on failed attempts to reconcile Catholicism and liberalism. Some of them are puzzled, as were Acton's contemporaries, how a man of his enormous erudition and political wisdom could have dreamt about succeeding in such a Sisyphean task. Liberalism, after all, was a child of the Enlightenment, hostile to any religion in principle and Catholicism in particular."(.)

"More than he wanted to be remembered for having been President, Mr. Jefferson wanted to be remembered as the author of the Virginia "Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom." In his draft of that bill he wrote: "The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction." In a republic of free citizens, every opinion, every prejudice, every aspiration, every moral discernment has access to the public square in which we deliberate the ordering of our life together."(.)

"Alexis de Tocqueville was a liberal, but, as he once wrote, a "new kind of liberal." For us, no feature of his new liberalism is more remarkable than the alliance between religion and liberty that he saw in America and proposed to be imitated, wherever it can, in every free society. In liberalism today, there is a debate over whether liberal theory needs— or should avoid—a "foundation." Tocqueville seems to take the anti-foundational side: lie never mentions the "state of nature," which was the standard foundation of 17th-century liberalism, and in Democracy in America he omits any reference to the Declaration of Independence with its ringing foundational assertion that "all men are created equal." Yet, if he avoids laying a foundation in reason, he also thinks that religion is essential to political liberty because of the "certain fixed ideas" that it offers to ground the practice of self-government. These are doctrines of faith, since for Tocqueville "religion" means revealed religion, not a rational or natural religion."(.)

"It is a rather daunting task to address the place of religion in American public life. The question is so rich, so complex, and often so divisive, even contentious. It brings together the two things that American folk wisdom teaches us, from a very early age, that we should not discuss in polite company: religion and politics. And indeed, one widely held, and widely respected, view of the matter is that one should say as little as possible in public about either religion or politics. While there are times when this is good advice, and represents the acme of prudence, it will hardly do for us as a general principle. A form of "civility" that is achieved only by our remaining studiously silent about the things that matter to us most, and are most fundamental to the health of our civil society, is not really civility, but merely an uneasy and impoverished social peace. Nor is this the kind of society that the American Constitutional order envisioned. The first item in our Bill of Rights makes it clear that the Framers placed religion in a very high place—not only as the first and most fundamental of our freedoms, but as a mental and moral and social right whose "free exercise" we also are promised."(.)

"Under the impact of economic, political and cultural globalisation one could expect that the whole world would tend to become more and more culturally homogeneous until a convergence of cultures eventuated. Such homogenizing forces have impinged upon nation-states causing them to lose some of their traditional omnipotence and charisma. The rising significance of international organisations has eroded some of the states' powers, as has the increasing acceptance of dual citizenship and the rising tide of migratory flows across the globe."(.)

Stanisław Szukalski był z jednym z z najgłośniejszych i najbardziej kontrowersyjnych polskich artystów. Znany w Polsce międzywojennej, został zupełnie zapomniany po II wojnie światowej, kontynuował swoją pracę artystyczną w Stanach Zjednoczonych Ameryki, gdzie zmarł w latach 90. Szukalski zafascynowany był słowiańszczyzną, pradawną przeszłością i tradycją Słowian, szczególnie na ziemiach polskich. W tych wątkach historii znajdował inspiracje dla swojej twórczości i koncepcji politycznych. Wzbudzając tradycje inne niż katolickie i łącząc je z myślą polityczną współczesnych sobie Polaków, stał się niezwykłym nie tylko artystą ale i politykiem. Niniejszy artykuł to próba odnalezienia prawdziwych źródeł inspiracji doktryny politycznej i sztuki Stanisława Szukalskiego w oparciu o kontekst historyczny, społeczny i kulturowy epoki.

"Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin died on November 14, 1996, after a moving and profoundly Christian battle with pancreatic cancer that edified Americans across the political and religious spectrums. Fourteen years after his holy death, the cardinal is remembered primarily for his end-of-life ministry to fellow cancer sufferers, for his chairmanship of the committee that produced the American bishops' 1983 pastoral letter "The Challenge of Peace," and for his advocacy of a "consistent ethic of life." Those achievements were not the whole of the Bernardin story, however."(.)

"Throughout American history, many of our nation's leaders and citizens have believed that the United States is an exceptional nation. The roots of American exceptionalism run deep, as far back as the early 17th century and John Winthrop's "city upon a hill" sermon. "The eyes of all people are upon us," said Winthrop. In one of his earliest political works, A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law, John Adams wrote that he "always consider[ed] the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth." The historical record contains many other statements in this vein."(.)

From introduction: "During the last two decades, social scientists have begun to examine the links between law and legał systems, and the broader political and economic changes that are transforming developing democracies. In comparative politics and public law debates on democracy, legał issues raised by national and transnational human rights movements, and the rule of law, have become prominent concems. With the spread of neoliberal economic reform and with new pressures from the world economy, property rights, commercial law, and the predictability of legał systems have become dominant themes in the work of legał scholars and students of political economy. One primary goal of these evolving research agendas is to assess whether legał institutions are proving to be a catalyst, or an obstacle, to deepening democracy and economic innovation."(.)

From introduction: "In terms of population, territory, govemment, foreign relations, economic development, and democratization, and under international law, Taiwan has every right to become a member of the United Nations. Since 1993, Taipei has indicated its desire and taken the appropriate actions to join the United Nations, but Beijing has consistently blocked the campaign. After President George W. Bush was inaugurated in January 2001, Taipei was able to improve relations with the United States and gained more support for joining such international organizations as the World Health Organization (WHO). Furthermore, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) initiated several reforms and broadened the traditional concept of diplomacy."(.)

"Considering the lack of attention paid to religious topics in European popular journalism and scholarly magazines, the noticeable interest in religiosity and passionate discussions on the issue in the United States is an interesting phenomenon. An inquiring observer of American religious life will easily notice that new publications on the topic are issued with an extraordinary frequency. This indicates that religion is an important part of various aspects of the American past and present reality. It constituted one of the fundamentals upon which the United States was built, determined the mentality of the first settlers and their descendants and was an influential factor in the social and cultural changes in the country. Moreover, religion has always interwoven with politics, from the period of the first colonial authorities up to today. An interesting characteristic of American religion is also its symbiosis with popular culture. It seems that church leaders are experts in benefiting from modern technologies, both in performing religious services and in attracting new members. All these issues make American religiosity an intriguing phenomenon from a sociological point of view. Therefore, I will investigate it in this paper. Nevertheless, there are numerous difficulties which come along with all the fascinating observations, mainly caused by the fact that there is simply no one dominant American faith. The times when Protestantism did not have rivals and shaped American culture are gone. Nowadays, the American religious scene is so diverse that it cannot be easily organised or classified. Bearing this fact in mind, I will attempt to sketch a general and to some degree simplified image of American religiosity which will, however, provide an insight into this absorbing topic."(.)

"South Africa is currently celebrating 10 years of democracy, and although many problems still need to be solved, South Africans can be justifiably proud of what has been achieved during the past decade. However, the dark years that went before the dawning of freedom should not be forgotten. And indeed: when one says that one comes from South Africa, people often respond with keywords and names such as "Nelson Mandela", "Johannesburg", "gold", "Sun City", "Kruger National Park", "the Big Five", "Cape Town", 'Table Mountain", "Rooibos tea", "wine", "the country with the little country inside its borders [Lesotho]", but sadly often also still "apartheid". "Apartheid", meaning separateness, is an Afrikaans word, and for many Afrikaners it is regrettable that this specific Afrikaans word has become known throughout the world."(.)

"Richard J. Neuhaus was a fascinating phenomenon. A first-rate public intellectual, in the 1960s he was a civil rights Lutheran activist for the equality of black Americans within the circle of Martin Luther King. He was a socially active priestintellectual. Neuhaus's life was a life of an incessant burning passion, a Christian acutely aware that the times in which he lived were not ordinary times. He was at ease with the world and with people of all walks of life because he knew where the anchor was, a living embodiment of a truth found in the old maps of Christian antiquity, where Jerusalem was always at the center, the axis mundi – a blatant cartographical error, but a theological truth. At a time of ubiquitous disenchantment, Neuhaus was one of the greatest apologists of Christendom of today, a spectacular feast when Christendom was consigned by the majority of modern Western cognoscenti either to the ash heap of history or, at best, to a psychotherapeutic spirituality. His apology for Christendom, and the Catholic Church in that, stemmed from his understanding that Christianity, with all its sins, created and has been a defender of human freedom in the most fundamental, anthropological, but also political sense. A possible demise of Christianity would thus constitute in his judgment a menace to freedom even for those who battled it."(.)

From introduction: "The role of religion in U.S. foreign policy is a very complex issue. Dependent on the personal attitude of the researcher, religion can play a major or secondary role in analyzing the process of shaping American behavior in international relations. This topic is extremely difficult for political scientists (and I daresay for other scholarly approaches as well) due to its inherently internal nature. It is easier to research and analyze open, accessible and, even if controversial, publicly discussed topics. However, this is not the case with religion. When asked to contribute to the volume on this topic the first feeling was confusion. Undoubtedly, there is religious inclination in the deeds and actions of the following American administrations, but does that mean that all the actions are guided by religious principles? Does it mean that the point of relevance is the divine principles of Christianity? Is the Decalogue the driving force of American foreign policy? Ultimately, how can we measure this topic? I will risk saying no to these questions."(.)

"Leo Strauss, in an autobiographical aside, spoke of being in the grip of a "theological political predicament" as a young man. He meant by this something like the following. For modern Jews the constellation of religious beliefs that seems to them reasonable and compelling—the theological horizon, so to speak—is constrained by the political horizon. They are spiritually indebted, to the point of dependency, on the values of the political system, which, for the lucky ones at least, derive from the Enlightenment. Judaism therefore depends on the Enlightenment. But what happens when confidence in the Enlightenment begins to wobble and Judaism, now weakened by its dependency, lacks the strength to make up the difference?"(.)