Jasienicowa wizja dziejów Kościoła (Polska Piastów, Polska Jagiellonów)

Abstract

It seems that people are still very interested in Paweł Jasienica’s essays. “The master of writing in between lines” - as Jasienica was called - is still imparling influence through his works on public opinion and shaping its collective memory. A place has been found for the Church in the image about the past, for its role in the religious, political and social life. It is true that Jasienica did not write a history of the Church, not even a history about the state, yet his history of man, entangled in various events over the centuries, is not free from that which a given man was absorbed in, so it is not free from religion, either. There is a lot of room in the gallery of historical figures for the clergymen. It is their commitment that became a pretext for Jasienica to articulate opinions on the Church, an institution which he not always understood. This lack of understanding made it that Jasienica, delicately speaking, often departed from the truth. This, however, in no way diminishes the value of his essays, yet arouses concern, for the writer was able to convince his readers to his opinions and evaluations. In such circumstances, thus created image of the Church, not always true, could have been deemed genuine, and as such could have shaped the approach to church affairs. This outlined vision of the history of the Church is not a polemic with the author of the essays, it only attempts to grasp as a whole that which the writer in various places of his series entitled “Poland” has written about the Church.