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Summary
Grzegorz Lewicki
P
ressje Quarterly brings together young thinkers and artists from various intellectual circles to provide a forum for open intellectual debate
across social, cultural, legal and philosophical issues that matter to Poland in the twenty-first century. In the spirit of tolerant debate Pressje asks the
questions which are often discriminated, downplayed or neglected elsewhere;
it highlights the issues which would otherwise never receive sufficient attention in the politically correct universe. Working within the broad framework of
ideas popularly described as conservatism Pressje tries to transgress modern and postmodern discourses while preserving some of their noble tenets
and deconstructing the ones that might be harmful to the vitality of Western
civilization.
The term “messianism” refers to much more than finding a meaning of
a nation’s role in universal history or rationalizing suffering of a people. In the
broadest interpretation it refers to a programme of reshaping and rebuilding
a civilization in the spirit of Christianity. Current issue of Pressje” invites you
to step into dungeons of the frequently misinterpreted Polish messianism to
see what truly rests within.
Paweł Rojek and Krzysztof Mazur first recall some thoughts by Tomasz
Merta, a Polish intellectual tragically deceased in Smolensk plane crash that
killed Polish president, politicians and military officers (April 2010). They
gladly acknowledge that against the will of “the caretakers of Polish identity”
messianism is alive, but they complain it has been frequently misinterpreted
and deformed. In the leading text of the issue Paweł Rojek carefully dissects
“messianism” to show it in fact consists of the three interrelated, but distinct
ideas: millenarism, missionism and passionism. Millenarism is a conviction
that a civilization should be reshaped in accordance with Christian values,
missionism – that nations do and should play a role in history and passionism
– that collective suffering may not be deprived of meaning. Rojek thought-
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fully applies this triple filter to a gamut of Polish thinkers to show “who says
what” in a table, thus drying out a conceptual morass that has been present
in Polish thought for decades. Karol Wilczyński claims Rojek’s triplet may
be metaphorically coupled with three Biblical ideals: “a king” (millenarism),
“a prophet” (missionism) and “a priest” (passionism). The first calls for action,
the second ensures vision, and the third gives meaning.
Having acquired new tools, we ventilate messianic dungeon. Jędrzej Grodniewicz opens up a tomb of Adam Mickiewicz, a poet crucial for understanding
Polish identity, to conclude messianism should put more emphasis on social
change (millenarism) than on justifying collective tragedies (passionism). In
the same spirit, Marta Kwaśnicka follows Norwid to stigmatize the cult of suffering as a dead end of messianism. In turn Rafał Łętocha describes messianism of Jerzy Braun and the shortcomings of apocalypticism – a conviction
that the invariable rottenness of the world leaves space for nothing more than
contemplation of the upcoming apocalypse.
In a section on neo-messianism we review apocalypticism in detail by analyzing ideas advocated by the editors of “44 Apocalyptic Magazine”. It occurs
that they follow distinct types of apocalypticism. The distinctions are explicated in an analysis of a debate between Filip Memches and Wojciech Wencel. The section is completed with a text on mystical passionism followed by
a strictly analytical work scrutinizing relation between different messianisms
and different models of rationality.
A separate section recalls the heritage of Jerzy Braun (1901−1975) –
a poet, social activist and a leader of the underground Polish resistance during World War II. Professor Jacek Bartyzel argues in accordance with Braun’s
thought that a properly interpreted messianism is in fact a remedy to catastrophism and a golden ratio. It is neither too cosmopolitic, nor nationalistic, as
it assumes a positive, yet non-egoistic role of a nation – to serve the others
with its resources and values. Krzysztof Mazur points out that Braun’s messianism was an important inspiration for Pope John Paul II and accuses Polish
intellectuals of overlooking or deliberately ignoring messianistic component
in Wojtyła’s thought.
Another section analyzes messianism as seen by Vladimir Solov’ev
(1853−1900). We give floor to the author himself by translating – for the first
time – one of his texts into Polish. Solov’ev claims that Russia in order to
survive must base its values upon Christianity. We juxtapose this claim with
a polemics from 1889 by Stanisław Tarnowski (1837–1917), a leader of Polish
conservatives, who says that before adopting Christianity to change the world,
Russia must first truly convert into it and then reconcile with Poland.
We are fully aware one can sometimes get lost in a messianistic maze.
That is why before proceeding to further sections we suggest reading our
“messianistic calendar” that keeps things in a proper order.
Jürgen Habermas is our grand guest figure. We reprint his essay “An
awareness of what is missing”, which criticizes Pope Benedict XVI. Religion –
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says Habermas – must accept the authority of secular reason to speak about
the world and conversely, secular reason must withdraw its authorities from
the field of religion. We critically analyze the essay from three perspectives:
classical, Marxian and existentialist.
Apart from all this, we continue discussions that sparked in previous issues. Among others, Piotr Sikora, a laureate of Tischner Prize defends himself
against Paweł Rojek, who had accused his recent work in theology of denying basic dogmas of Christianity. Should this not be enough, the abundance of
the reviewed journals and books patiently awaits attention; a literary section
presents poems and a valuable opinion on Polish poetry written after Smolensk plane crash.
At the very end, a penultimate chapter of the memories by Soviet totalitarian labour camp (GULAG) survivor puts things into perspective: it allows to
meditate on the conseuences of a false, political messianism.
„ P r e s s j e ”, t e k a 2 2 − 2 3
Polska
ejdetyczna
Klub Jagielloński
Kraków 2010
384 strony
oprawa miękka
cena 25 zł, przesyłka za darmo
Spróbowaliśmy sformułować nową definicję polskości. Rozróżniliśmy polski
etnos, etos i eidos. Ideą, czyli eidosem Polski, jest naszym zdaniem wolność.
Polska wolność stała u podstaw prometeizmu, naszej przedwojennej doktryny polityki zagranicznej, dlatego zajęliśmy się tym tematem w drugiej części
teki. Opublikowaliśmy też ważny artykuł Jadwigi Staniszkis wraz z naszymi
komentarzami oraz wywiad z Bronisławem Łagowskim.
Bardzo doceniam w waszych działaniach to, że traktujecie Polskę poważnie,
jako zagadnienie, nad którym trzeba się zastanawiać, nad którym trzeba pracować, które do czegoś zobowiązuje.
Andrzej Nowak, „Arcana”
W sposobie myślenia Krzysztofa Mazura i publicystów tego numeru „Pressji” ujęła mnie próba ożywienia myślenia o polskości. Tego chyba przez wiele
dziesięcioleci w Polsce nie robiono.
Jan Rokita, Uniwersytet Jagielloński
Eidos, który lansują „Pressje”, to wolność jednych kosztem zniewolenia innych.
Jan Sowa, „Ha!Art”
Bardzo mnie zainteresował tekst Krzysztofa Mazura, nie jako teoretyczny wykład
polskości, lecz jako akt polskości. Polskość dzieje się właśnie w takich tekstach.
Szczepan Twardoch, pisarz
Wydawnictwo na naprawdę przyzwoitym poziomie; szczerze polecam niezależnie od preferencji politycznych. Mimo bycia delikatnie prawoskrętnym
pismo zachowuje godny pochwały dystans i unika zacietrzewienia charakterystycznego dla wielu periodyków z obu osi politycznego spektrum. Jednocześnie […] potrafi stawiać mocne i wyraziste tezy.
Mania Variosa, bloger
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