Catholic Theology and the Younger Europe in the Times of Globalization

Dominik Kubicki

Adam Mickiewicz University , Poland

Abstract

In view of the contemporary integration of the EU member states and in the context of the fast globalizing world of today, the author raises the issue of civilizational backwardness, which by the political and intellectual representatives of the Western world (and hence its societies) is widely identified with the notions of post-totalitarian and postcommunist Central and Eastern European societies, and thus with the Polish society and those practising theology in the Catholic Church in Poland at the beginning of the 21st century. In the first part of his reflection, the author postulates defining the civilizational 'youngerness' with respect to the evident relativity of the idea of civilizational backwardness in the historical perspective, especially taking into consideration the ever-changing political, cultural and civilizational domination in Europe. Later on he outlines the hope which he cherishes towards those practising theology and reflecting upon the evangelical message, who bring it into effect through their faith and spread it on in their communities in local churches of the Catholic Church in Poland. Those faith communities, with their morally creative members, stem from the tradition of Polish social, philosophical and theological thought, shaped in the course of the vicissitudes that the Polish society and the country itself underwent due to Poland's specific location on the border between the European East and West.