Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Szkice do Systemu Personalizmu, by Ks. Czeslaw Stanislaw Bartnik. 2006. KUL, Lublin

The Philosophy of Personalism and the Current Culture War in Poland

AN OUTLINE OF THE SYSTEM OF PERSONALISM is the approximate English-language translation of this Polish-language book, which includes an English-language translation. (p. 247-on). Father Bartnik, a defender of Polish Catholicism, has appeared a number of times on RADIO MARYJA.

CANCEL CULTURE: ATTEMPTS TO MARGINALIZE AND DISCREDIT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN POLAND

The “separation of church and state” is an old line. Bartnik writes (translating from Polish): “Ever since the 19th century, both the individualists and collectivists are involved in an extensive process of atheization, which includes hostility towards nations in the sense of them being repositories of religion and morality.” (p. 184). The goal of this process is the complete privatization of religion, as described by Bartnik (translating from Polish): “The essential goal is to deprive the Catholic Church of any rooting in the social and political institutions of a nation, and to relegate it to a cult or personal hobby that is divorced from the public forum.” (p. 189).

The Polish Catholic Church is under attack because it threatens the monopoly, in the shaping of public policies, of the socialists, cosmopolitans, and secularists. Worse yet, it may infect the moribund Catholic Churches of other European nations with the same spirit. (p. 188). Bartnik adds that (translating from Polish): “It is important to note that one of the leaders of the European Union said that the banning of religious expression is the highest act of tolerance that a nation’s leaders can perform.” (p. 191). To the American reader, the citing of “tolerance” as an excuse for the silencing of Christian expression is all too familiar.

So how to assess this book? In view of the Cross-removal wars in Poland, as in the summer of 2010, and the multiple LGBT provocations of 2019-2020,  long after this book was published, it becomes obvious that this book is as relevant as ever.

POLISH NATIONALISM MUST BE FOUNDED ON CHRISTIAN CULTURE

The Catholic Church rejects any form of nationalism based on presumed biological characteristics. (p. 189). Distorted conceptions of the nation, such as the POPULUS GENTIUM of the Roman Empire, the NATIO CHRISTIANA of medieval Europe, the nation as understood under Communism, and the NATIO EUROPAEA of the European Union–all these are rejected by the Church. (p. 190). Instead, the nation must be founded on Christian culture, which serves as a foundation of public morality. This kind of nation serves as an antidote for individualism, which eschews the family as a foundational institution.