Mała pochwała katolicyzmu. Kościół i polityka w późnej nowoczesności

Monsieur Jourdain, the main character of a comedy by Moliere, is surprised to discover that, unbeknownst to himself, he speaks in prose. A similar surprise may be in store for readers of Mała pochwała katolicyzmu [A Small Praise of Catholicism] when they realise the sheer breadth of contemporary concepts, principles, and Western institutions that are the legacy of Christianity, and which would have never come into being beyond this religion’s sphere of influence. Readers may treat these things as self-evident, however, as comparisons to other cultures and civilizations demonstrate, they could not be less obvious. In fact, the Westerners of today inhabit a world that has be thoroughly shaped by the Scripture and tradition of the Church; their very existence is suffused with Christian elements, and they don’t even realise it.

The author of the book, Professor Michał Gierycz, a political philosopher at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, is interested in the implications that stem from this paradoxical situation. These are twofold: on the one hand, societies have lost the awareness of their spiritual roots; on the other, Christians find themselves living in a world that has suddenly ceased to be theirs, because what was the norm yesterday has today become bizarre or contemptible. As it turns out, although they all speak the same language, they nevertheless ascribe different meanings to the same words. The inhabitants of Europe, for example, support “European values,” yet they each understand this notion in their own way. This inevitably leads to tensions, ruptures, and conflicts, and necessitates the use of divergent strategies of action. It also raises a question about the future of our communities: are they capable of weathering the storm ahead without a shared axiological basis? The absence of such a bond amid a cacophony of languages resulted in the collapse of the Tower of Babel.

Michał Gierycz analyses the most important areas of this internal conflict within the Western world. These include our understanding of politics, democracy, secularism, morality, equality, and sexuality. The author unveils the hidden intricacies of ostensibly self-evident ideas with such clarity that the reader would be forgiven for feeling, at some point, a bit like Moliere’s Monsieur Jourdain.