ABOUT US
Ethos. Kwartalnik Instytutu Jana Pawła II KUL (Ethos: Quarterly of the John Paul II Institute, KUL) is an international multidisciplinary scholarly journal published since 1988 by the John Paul II Institute at the Faculty of Philosophy, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. The journal was founded on the initiative of Prof. Tadeusz Styczeń, SDS, the then director of the John Paul II Institute, who was motivated by the idea of creating a scholarly periodical focused on a broadly conceived reflection addressing the intellectual challenges of modernity and pursued from the personalistic perspective inspired by the philosophical thought of Karol Wojtyła, which he later fully expressed in his teaching as Pope John Paul II. The goal of Ethos. Kwartalnik Instytutu Jana Pawła II KUL is inviting a steady, scholarly dialogue of the highest standard among intellectuals diligently seeking for truth, and thus a continuation of the project John Paul II began by holding seminars for academics in Castel Gandolfo. The successive issues of the journal are thematic, while the articles it publishes address particular problems from the vantage points of ethics, philosophy, theology, and the humanities in general. All the article submissions are subject to external, double-blind peer-review. The first issue was focused on the theme of ethnic minorities. The themes of the forthcoming issues are announced at a year’s notice and can be found on the journal’s back cover as well as on its website. The journal comprises regular sections entitled “Notes and Reviews” and “Reports,” as well as the “Bibliography of Pontifical Addresses,” the latter related to the theme of a given issue. Initially, the section comprised the addresses of John Paul II only, to include, in the later years, also those of Benedict XVI and Francis. Each issue embraces also the section entitled, after Karol Wojtyła’s poem, “Thinking about the Fatherland...,” and a concluding essay. The implications of the pontifical teaching for culture are analyzed in the recurring section “The Pontificate in the Eyes of the World.” Occasionally, the journal publishes material which is not peer-reviewed, but significant otherwise. In each issue, the essay “From the Editors,” as well as the table of contents, is published both in Polish and in English. All the articles are followed by their abstracts. The primary language of the journal is Polish, and articles in languages other that Polish are published in their original language versions (i.e., in a respective congress language), followed by their Polish translations. Two special issues of Ethos. Kwartalnik Instytutu Jana Pawła II KUL have been published, entitled, respectively, Zum Ethos der Freiheit (1993) and John Paul II’s Vision of Europe (1996). Among the scholars who have contributed to the shape of the journal were: Fr. Tadeusz Styczeń, Wojciech Chudy, Fr. Andrzej Szostek, Karol Klauza, Jerzy Gałkowski, and Stefan Sawicki. The author of the cover design, beginning with the first volume, has been Leszek Mądzik. Among international scholars who have contributed their papers to Ethos. Kwartalnik Instytutu Jana Pawła II KUL were Giovanni Reale, Rocco Buttiglione, Robert Spaemann, Norman Davis, George Weigel, Joseph. Ratzinger, Angelo Scola, Josef Seifert, John Crosby, Karl Dedecius, Adam Potkay, Joel Marks, Masakatsu Fujita, and Gerald Beyer. Each year a number of seminars are held inspired by the themes of particular issues, with the participation of the authors of selected papers and invited audience, including special guests. Each successive director of the John Paul Institute takes his or her turn as the editor-in-chief of Ethos. Kwartalnik Instytutu Jana Pawła II KUL. Thus, its first editor-in-chief (from 1988) was Fr. Tadeusz Styczeń, who was succeeded by Fr. Alfred Wierzbicki (in 2006). The current editor-in-chief, Ewa Agnieszka Kowalik, took over in 2014. The original editorial team was made up by Deputy Editor-in-Chief Wojciech Chudy (succeeded, in 2001, by Jarosław Merecki, who has still held this function), Fr. Marian Radwan, Karol Klauza (the then managing editor, in later years replaced successively by Fr. Andrzej Szostek, Fr. Jarosław Merecki, Cezary Ritter, Fr. Piotr Ślęczka, and, from 2008, Dorota Chabrajska). The journal has an international Editorial Board. Among its first members were Fr. Andrzej Bronk, Krzysztof Dybciak, Fr. Leon Dyczewski, Jerzy Gałkowski, Andrzej Rodziński, Stefan Sawicki, Krystyna Stawecka, Tomasz Strzembosz, and Fr. Jan B. Szlaga. A list of the current members of the Editorial Board can be found on the journal’s cover. Since 2009, abstracts of all the scholarly papers published in Ethos. Kwartalnik Instytutu Jana Pawła II KUL are indexed by The Philosopher’s Index. Since 2015, the journal has been indexed by EBSCO Information Services. Ethos. Kwartalnik Instytutu Jana Pawła II KUL is also listed by the European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIH Plus) and registered with Index Copernicus International Journals Master List. Until 2009, Ethos. Kwartalnik Instytutu Jana Pawła II KUL was co-published by the John Paul II Foundation, Rome, and an international spokesperson (initially, Fr. Marian Radwan, succeeded in 1995 by Fr. Stefan Wylężek) was among members of its Editorial Team.
T.S. [T. Styczeń], “Dlaczego Ethos?” Ethos 1, no. 1 (1988): 3–7.
Agnieszka Lekka-Kowalik
A. Lekka-Kowalik, „Ethos”, Encyklopedia 100-lecia KUL, ed. E. Gigilewicz, Lublin: Wydawnictwo KUL 2018, s. 212.
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Ethos. Kwartalnik Instytutu Jana Pawła II KUL (Ethos: Quarterly of the John Paul II Institute, KUL) is, first and foremost, a philosophical journal. However, what motivated its founders was principally the idea of creating a scholarly periodical addressing the issue commonly described as engagement with culture, or the dialogue between the Church and culture. I believe one might venture to say that the dialogue in question, continued in Ethos today, is marked by benevolence and prudence, the former being a hallmark of a gentleman, as characterized by St. John Henry Newman in his essays collected in the volume The Idea of University. He points out that “knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith.... It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind.... I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity.”
What matters, then, is benevolence combined with prudence, akin to that St. Basil famously described in his “Address to Young Men on the Right Use of Greek Literature” by saying: “Since [the poets’] writings are of all degrees of excellence, you should not study all of their poems without omitting a single word. When they recount the words and deeds of good men, you should both love and imitate them, earnestly emulating such conduct. But when they portray base conduct, you must flee from them and stop up your ears, as Odysseus is said to have fled past the song of the sirens.”
These present here know better than me that the late Professor Tadeusz Styczeń, SDS, showed prudence worthy of St. Basil the Great, which was all the nobler because it sprang not only from the wisdom we find in St Basil, and by no means from a concern for the so-called public image, but rather from a sincere love for his friend Pope John Paul II.
In this context, one should perhaps make a reference to poetry because it is of great importance for this dialogue with culture. We need to appreciate T. S. Eliot’s observation that the state of a language’s poetry reflects its cultural health and consciousness. Crucially, we need to determine whether the culture in question has something important to communicate: important inasmuch as it is not a silly parroting of what influential poets express in their languages, but also important because others find it interesting and untrammeled by a cultural isolationism. Let me note that, among the milieu of the editors of Ethos, precisely such a notion of poetry has been promoted by Professor Stefan Sawicki, who believes that the poetry of Cyprian Norwid provides us with a stable guideline.
Thus, with its benevolent attitude towards culture, Ethos, has only aspired to echo St. Augustine, who, when reflecting in his Confessions on the fascination with what he calls “the wine of error,” admonished his readers: “Woe to you, torrent of human custom! ‘Who can stand against you?’ (Ps. 75:8) When will you run dry? How long will your flowing current carry the sons of Eve into the great and fearful ocean which can be crossed, with difficulty, only by those who have embarked on the Wood of the cross (Wisd. 14:7)?”
Together with St. Augustine, let us then follow the exhortation, “Tolle, lege!”
dr hab. Tomasz Garbol
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