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The article presents the founding elements of the social and political thought of American philosopher and theologian David C. Schindler. The main aim of the article is to examine possible relations between Schindler’s work and the philosophical concept of ‘Trinitarian ontology’. It focuses on Schindler’s approach towards liberalism and analyses his critique of the modern conception of freedom. It suggests that the main pillars of his idea of the social order might be found in the notion of reality as the symbolical order, the conception of human beings as fundamentally relational, and the renewal of the traditional notion of freedom as rootedness in goodness. It concludes with the suggestion that the proper understanding of social reality requires certain ‘social ontology’, the metaphysical interpretation of social life as a part of a broad cosmological order which symbolically manifest the beauty of the source of being. And it is the social ontology based on the notion of freedom and relationality which analogically reflects the main principles of Trinitarian ontology.

The study recapitulates the results of activities of the Centre for Music Lexicography under the patronage of Institute of Musicology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, and especially its key project, the Czech Music Dictionary of Persons and Institutions. Initial works started in 2000 and next year is the 20th anniversary.

Paper follows public activities of Metoděj Habaň, a Czech Dominican priest and philosopher in 1960s. After a short introduction into Habaň’s life the paper focuses on two most distinctive contributions to the life of the Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia in that period of time: Habaň’s articles in the magazine Duchovni pastyř (A pastor) and his involvement in the ecumenical seminar in Jirchaře, first systematic interconfessional meetings in Czechoslovakia. In both activities Habaň represented rather conservative wing in the Church and it marks the first signs of polarity in the Czechoslovakian Church in the time of Second Vatican Council.

The study summarizes the activity in the field of music lexicography of Jiří Fukač (1936–2002), professor of musicology at the Brno-based Masaryk University, who successfully resumed the activities of the Brno School of Music Lexicography, constituted chiefly by efforts of Gracian Černušák, Vladimír Helfert and Bohumír Štědroň. Already as a student Fukač collaborated as both author and organizer on the two-volume Československý hudební slovník osob a institucí (Czechoslovak Music Dictionary of Persons and Institutions, 1963, 1965). In 1966 he and Jiří Vysloužil initiated foundation of Kabinet hudební lexikografie (Office of Music Lexicography) and preparations for the new subject-focused dictionary project, later called Slovník české hudební kultury (Dictionary of Czech Music Culture) started. Fukač’s contribution was crucial and it was his tireless effort including writing texts of individual entries, editing texts by others and effecting his organizational skills, that finally lead to the successful completion of the project in 1997. The result undoubtedly presents a fundament in Czech music lexicography in both conception and extent. Then Jiří Fukač started to work on further projects of music lexicography: he actively participated in preparations and realization of the big lexicographical project of the Sudeten German Music Institute in Regensburg titled Lexikon zur deutschen Musikkultur (Böhmen, Mähren, Sudetenschlesien) published in Munich in 2000, where he was member of the scholarly board of the project and contributed to the conceptual and methodological preparations. In 2000 Fukač together with Petr Macek and Mikuláš Bek started preparations for the new web-based project of the Czech Music Dictionary of Persons and Institutions. A fatal illness didn't allow him to proceed further.

The study summarizes the activities of the founder of university musicology in Brno Vladimír Helfert (1886–1945) at the Masaryk University where he lectured and made research between 1921 and 1939, in 1935–1936 also as dean of the Faculty of Arts. He raised a whole generation of musicologists and his pupils became involved significantly in the Brno and Moravian music scene and cultural life as early as the end of the 1920s. By the 1930s Helfert's Brno Musicological School acquired prestige as a progressive social, cultural and scholarly phenomenon. His legacy has been recognized by several further generations of musicologists until present.

The paper examines the situation and scholarly activities of Brno musicology in the last 25 years, follows musicological institutions at universities, especially the Institute od Musicology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, but also the Faculty of Music at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts and the Faculty of Education at the Masaryk University and summarizes the activities of other significant scholarly, research and documentary institutions (the Brno branch of the The Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Department of the History of Music of the Moravian Museum). Based on the presented facts, the paper attempts to incorporate the Brno musicology into wider context of present musicology and specifies the possible prospects for future development.

This study recapitulates the work of Czech musicologist and folklorist Karel Vetterl (1889–1979) in the Brno Radio. Vetterl worked for the Brno Radio from 1927 to 1946, his career progressed from programme assistant through the manager of music programmes to the director of the whole Brno Radio. After the war he was discharged for political reasons. Vetterl, one of the first pupils of Vladimír Helfert at the Brno University and his close collaborator, became one the main names among those responsible for programme production in the Brno Radio, which he made a modern radio institution of nationwide importance.

This treatise tries to analyse the changes of perception of the sphere of popular music and jazz. These changes took place in relation to the development of Czech society and politics after 1948. The analyse uses selected published exemples from the music press in the specified period of time. The remarkable phenomenon to observe is the development of frequently used terms that are characteristic of the period, especially the gradual evolutionary fluctuation of views, attitudes and opinions expressed by these terms. After the changes in society in 1948 when the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia took power, the problematics of popular music and jazz became a special matter of interest from the side of music media. First of all, there was the opinion, a right one by the way, that the given sphere touches huge masses of population and people can easily be influenced by it, thus the importance of popular music and jazz for the power and ideology in the light of their possible propaganda use. Further on, there was a negative feeling towards the "Western" or even "American" provenance of most of the production of successful modern popular music, so this production was soon heavily criticised and became one of the typical features in depiction of the vivid portrayal of the enemy. Last but not least, it was considered a topical task in this musical sphere to apply the ideologized aesthetic normative standards of "universal socialist" validity.

Czech Music Dictionary of Persons and Institutions in its conception links to the two-volume Czechoslovak Music Dictionary of Persons and Institutions (1963 and 1965). The editorial team of the Cabinet for Music Lexicography, part of the Institutte of Musicology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Brno (Jiří Fukač, Petr Macek and Mikuláš Bek), started the implementation of the project in 2001. Regarding the extent of the task, the Czech Music Dictionary of Persons and Institutions is primarily conceived as an electronic on-line database accesible via internet. The chosen presentation requires minimum maintenance costs, allows unlimited volume of addenda to individual entries to be attached, offers significant user-friendly comfort in the form of full-text search, and facilitates the feedback between the editorial board and the users etc. A special editorial software was developped for the Czech Music Dictionary of Persons nad Institutions which allows all the mentioned aspects to be applied. The dictionary can be reached at www.ceskyhudebnislovnik.cz. The text summarizes the updated version of rules of writing the entries and includes also a list af abbreviations.

The treatise follows Jiří Vysloužil's activity in the field of music lexicography from his early beginnings until present. His interest in this activity was first aroused by his university teacher Bohumír Štědroň who engaged him immediately in his project of the Czechoslovak Music Dictionary of Persons and Institutions (Československý hudební slovník osob a institucí). Already in 1966 Vysloužil, together with Jiří Fukač, founded the project of the Dictionary of Czech Music Culture (Slovník české hudební kultury). As the head of the Cabinet for Music Lexicography, he and his team directed the editorial activities until 1990, when he was succeeded by his long-term collaborator Jiří Fukač. This dictionary was published in 1997. Vysloužil also participated in most significant international musicolexicographical projects (The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London 1980; Pipers Enzyklopädie des Musiktheaters. Oper. Operette. Musical. Balett, Munchen - Zurich 1986 - 1997; Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Kassel 1995; The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London 2001; Lexikon zur deutschen Musikkultur Böhmen, Mähren, Sudetenschlesien, München 2002). Vysloužil is also author of the two-volume Music Dictionary for Everyone (Hudební slovník pro každého): I. factual volume, Vizovice 1995, 350 p.; II. nominal volume, composers and writers on music, Vizovice 1999, 650 p. Vysloužil also published several expert studies dedicated to the problems of music lexicography (especially the study K tradicím a současným úkolům naší hudební lexikografie, Opus musicum 2, 1970, No. 2, pp 33-36; No. 3, pp 65-6; German version: Über die Traditionen und die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben der tschechischen Musiklexikographie, SPFFBU 20, 1971, H6, pp 7-23).