The Idea of Catholic University

The Idea of Catholic University

Prof. Ryba’s book is a study of early years of John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (KUL), created in 1918, in the year when the reborn Polish Commonwealth was back on the map of Europe after 123 years of the invaders’ rule. Key actors and events of those early days are shown here against the backdrop of the universal struggle: the fight for the future shape of human culture which, in this case, was directly linked with the struggles for the soul of the Polish nation and the preservation of its culture in 1920s and 30s. This book gives a profound insight into the ideas and mindsets of the founders and early faculty of KUL. Author’s considerations are focused on the spirit that lies at the foundations of this university and forms the base of its identity. Arguably, this approach reveals not only a local, Polish and Lublin-based, set of ideas but also speaks volumes of the spirit of Polishness, unveiling a well-established, and enduring way in which Poles (and Polish Catholics in particular) perceive matters of culture, civilization, and their future.

Już 100 lat temu w Polsce widziano zagrożenie prądami modernizmu, już wtedy stawiano diagnozy o powierzchowności katolicyzmu wśród polskiej inteligencji, która miała być elitą społeczeństwa. I to wtedy zapadła decyzja o konieczności wykształcenia polskiej inteligencji katolickiej, która dałaby odpór laickim poglądom. Ksiądz Idzi Radziszewski, pomysłodawca i założyciel KUL-u, wybitny tomista, który swój doktorat napisał po łacinie na Uniwersytecie w Louvain, zrealizował projekt erygowania katolickiej uczelni nie bez przeciwności, zwłaszcza finansowych, ale dziś możemy obchodzić 100-lecie istnienia tej uczelni, której absolwentami jest wiele znaczących osobistości, m.in. Prymas Tysiąclecia Stefan Wyszyński.

Contents

Abbreviations
Dr. Hab. Przemysław Czarnek, The Voivode of the Lublin Region, A Message to the Reader

Prof. Henryk Kiereś, University as a Masterpiece of Human Culture

Introduction

Chapter I
The Spirit of the Time
1. The Enlightenment
2. The 19th Century: the Church is Faced with a Crisis of Western Culture
3. Newman and Mercier
4. The Heresy of Modernism

Chapter II
Coming to the Rescue of Catholic Culture
1. Radziszewski’s Attitude Towards the Legacy of Positivism — a Student of Mercier
2. Catholic University in Poland

Chapter III
The Role and Impact of the University of Lublin
1. The City of Lublin as a Location — the Beginnings
2. The Ideological Climate of the Reborn Poland
3. Independence From the State

Chapter IV
Secular or Catholic Poland?
1. “Studiorum Ducem”
2. After the May Coup — Battling Materialism
3. Eastern Borderlands
4. The University as a Community

Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendix 1
Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter “Aeterni Patris” on the Restoration of Christian Philosophy, 1879 (full text)

Appendix 2
Card. Désiré–Joseph Mercier, Condemnation of Modernism, 1908 (full text)

Appendix 3
Fr. Idzi Benedykt Radziszewski, Catholic University in Poland, 1923 (excerpt)

Appendix 4
Pope St. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter “Fides et Ratio” on the Relationship Between Faith and Reason, 1998 (excerpt)

Appendix 5
Card. Stefan Wyszyński, The Primacy of Person over Things, 1976 (excerpt)

Index