The aim of the article is to remind the circumstances of the foundation of an academic journal “Silesian Historical and Theological Studies”, which is a periodical  presenting the achievements of the Catholic academics from the Upper Silesia. The first issue of the journal was published in 1968. Its beginnings are associated with the activation of the local milieu of theologians and historians after the Second Vatican Council and with the context of the Silesian University established in Katowice. The article presents also the uniting role of the journal in the milieu of the theologians from Katowice and the outline of the history of the journal over fifty-year period of its publication.

The character of theological interpretations of the theory of evolution is very important for the main problem of theodicy which looks for some arguments to defend God against accusations of evil present in a world of nature. If one assumes that God directly designs every living organism, one has to admit that all forms of evil which result from evolutionary processes are directly designed by God too. For theodicy much more beneficial is an interpretation in which it is assumed that God does not design organisms, but works through the laws of nature that cause the evolution described and explained by the theory of Darwin. The key mechanism of this theory is a natural selection, which is responsible for many forms of evil present in nature. In the paper some arguments were discussed which claim that the theory of biological evolution based on natural selection throws a new light on the old problem of theodicy.

The aim of this article is to present the arguments for the constitution of a man by the spiritual soul. To complete this task one scrutinized the academic works of Konstanty Michalski (1879 – 1947), a Polish priest, philosopher, professor at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and a prisoner of the concentration camp in Sachsenhausen. The author referring to the principle agere sequitur esse proves the existence of an immaterial, spiritual reality in the ontological structure of a man. The argument for its existence is the world of culture; the world which is completely foreign to the world of animals and necessary for human life. The  immaterial deeds of a man demand the most appropriate cause, that is a spiritual human soul. Remembering and developing this thought, in our time, is an essential duty for anthropology, both: philosophical and theological. It is a fundamental task, because there are strong forces that falsely attempt to grasp and explain the human being as only a material entity.

The purpose of this study is to present the evangelical specificity of the marriage vows. The paper consists of three essential parts. In the first one the meaning of the vows themselves in the evangelical theology is discussed. In the second the author focuses on the text of the marriage vows during the evangelical liturgical wedding service. In the last part an attempt is made to answer a question about the theological and ethical implications of the vows in the family life of the evangelical faithful. It should be stated that the evangelical marital vows underline the important qualities of the community, i.e. the unity and the indissolubility (stability). Mutual love, respect and fidelity have to help the newly-weds to observe those qualities. Unfortunately, the practice of the evangelical Churches is not fully coherent with the content of the marriage vows. Divorces and remarriages are allowed because of human weakness and sinfulness. 

The Higher College of Social and Economic Sciences (the present University of Economics) in Katowice was formally founded on the 3rd of December 1936. The inauguration of studies took place on the 11th of January 1937. Though the College was a private-owned higher school of vocational education, its activities were supported by eminent persons of the then Silesian voivodship. One of them was Stanisław Adamski, the bishop of Katowice who was deeply interested in  development of the College in the years 1937-1939. It was thanks to him that ethics was taught as a part of curriculum at the Faculty of Industrial Organisation. Detailed information on how this had become true can be found in this study which is also devoted to the associated professor Marian Heitzman, Ph.D. who was the first to teach ethics at the College.

The subject of the text is the Silesian Library in Katowice in the years 1939-1945. The author briefly describes its genesis, meaning and general characteristics. The Upper Silesian Library in Beuthen in the pre-war years is also shortly described. Based on the literature on this subject and sources, the history of the Library is discussed during the Second World War. An attention is also drawn to the guidelines of German cultural policy in the province of Upper Silesia with reference to the
libraries. It is important in the future to find the other documents about the Upper Silesian Library. In addition, it is necessary to expand the sources on German archives.

Among people honoured by the Yad Vashem Institute with the Righteous Among the Nations medal, the largest group consists of the Poles. One of them was rev. Mieczysław Zawadzki, for many years the parish priest of the Holy Trinity Parish in Będzin. As early as in the first days of September 1939, he saved the lives of many Jews and continued to help them in the subsequent years. Several years after the war, the saved ones contacted the priest and corresponded with him on a regular
basis until his death in 1975. This article presents the circumstances that led to rev. Mieczysław Zawadzki’s involvement in helping the Jews of Będzin, placing him among the Righteous Among Nations. Moreover, the text briefly describes his pastoral and social work in the light of the anti–church policy of the Polish People’s Republic authorities.