“A thousand years is like one Night.” Karol Wojtyła’s Reflections on Man and the Story of Man, on the Occasion of the Millennium of the Baptism of Poland

Mirosława OŁDAKOWSKA-KUFLOWA

Katedra Literatury Współczesnej, Instytut Filologii Polskiej, Wydział Nauk Humanistycznych, Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland , Poland

Abstract

In 1966, Karol Wojtyła, the then Archbishop of Cracow, inspired by the Millennium of the Baptism of Poland, wrote a poem entitled Easter Vigil 1966. The poem evokes the profile of Prince Mieszko I, the Polish ruler who took the decision to accept the Christian baptism. The poem comprises a philosophical and religious meditation making use of poetic language and employing the stylistic means characteristic of poetry. The objective of the meditation is to show the beginning, the meaningfulness, and the goal of the humanity, and to do so based in a specific vision of man. The anthropology put forward by the author has Christian roots and manifests marks of a polemic with the materialistic view of the world, the outlook officially accepted in Poland in the communist times. In his philosophy of history, Wojtyła clearly refuted the official Marxist doctrine. Today, the problems he addresses in his poem, as well as the ideas and arguments he incorporates, assume a new relevance in the face of the new intellectual fashion for the so-called new humanities, also called performative humanities or non-anthropocentric humanities, which spring from the Marxist tradition and are rooted in historicism.

Translated by Dorota Chabrajska

Keywords:

Karol Wojtyła, poetic meditation, baptism of Poland, anthropology, philosophy of history