John Paul II and the Polish Messianism. Introduction to the Liturgy of History

Abstract

Karol Wojtyła, before he was ordained for a priest, was, as everybody knows, an amateur poet, a promising playwright, and an outstanding actor. It is not widely acknowledged, though, that he was also deeply influenced by Romantic Messianism, an original complex of philosophical, religious and social ideas, created by a number of nineteenth-century Polish poets and thinkers. Quite surprisingly, Polish commentators of John Paul II usually disregard this particular context, because, as they believed, it might somehow undermine the universal meaning of the pope’s teaching. Contrary to this view, I propose a program of systematic study of messianic influences on John Paul II. I believe that Polish Romantic Messianism is the key to understanding the thought of the Polish pope. I argue that John Paul II in his theology of history, theology of suffering, and theology of the nation actually developed three crucial ideas of Polish Messianism: millenarism, passionism and missionism. It seems, then, that the work of John Paul II, as the final form of Polish Messianism, is also the key to understanding the heritage of Polish Romantic thought.