Stefan Swieżawski wobec Soboru Watykańskiego II

Piotr GUTOWSKI

Department of the History of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy, Institute of Theoretical Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland , Polska

Abstrakt

Stefan Swieżawski, eminent Polish historian of philosophy and himself a philosopher, was a professor at the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, and the only Polish auditor at the Second Vatican Council. Swieżawski was an enthusiastic advocate of the reforms introduced by the Council and, simultaneously, a devoted follower of the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas (whereas
Thomists were usually on the anti-reform side). With a view to the Conciliar debates, he participated in the discussions concerning the role of philosophy in Christian education and theology, and the role of Thomism in the tradition of the Church. Swieżawski stressed the significance of a metaphysical philosophy both as a barrier against fideism, which he considered a threat to religion, and as a field of debate with non-believers. While he would criticize Thomism as the «mandatory» philosophy, more often than not ideologized and associated with the monarchical aspirations on the part of the Roman Catholic Church, he passionately defended the genuine doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas, which – in his opinion – comprised a highly valued (also from the religious viewpoint) conception of being. Swieżawski articulated his standpoint in the book La philosophie à l’heure du Concile, which he co-authored with Jerzy Kalinowski. At the close of the Council, he presented that volume to Pope Paul VI. By introducing the distinction between the ideologized variety of Thomism and the genuine doctrine of St. Thomas, Swieżawski helped weaken the impression that the doctrine of the Angelic Doctor was the foundation of the vision of the Church the Council had rejected. Swieżawski’s ideas concerning the relation between philosophy and theology found support from E. Gilson and J. Maritain, and influenced his friend Karol Wojtyła, whose post-doctoral dissertation he reviewed and who might have later drawn on some of these insights while drafting, as Pope John Paul II, his encyclical Fides et Ratio. Being a supporter of the reforms begun with the Second Vatican Council, Swieżawski did not always find understanding with the Church in Poland, which had to struggle for survival under the communist rule. Some of the hierarchs were afraid that the novelties (such as, for instance, a greater involvement of the laity in Church matters) would be used by the regime to strengthen the surveillance of religious institutions. Despite those anxieties, which he himself shared, Swieżawski insisted that Polish Bishops act with a view to genuine Christian ministry and witness rather than to fighting the opponents of the Church and ruling the Catholic laity. He criticized shallow «folk religiosity» and was against informing Christianity with nationalist ideas. In particular, he urged that the case of Jan (John) Hus, who, in his opinion, was by no means a heretic, but rather a forerunner of the ideas put forward at the Second Vatican Council, should be reexamined.

Translated by Dorota Chabrajska

Słowa kluczowe:

Stefan Swieżawski, Jerzy Kalinowski, Stefan Wyszyński, Karol Wojtyła– John Paul II, Second Vatican Council, Thomism, St. Thomas Aquinas, Jan (John) Hus