Idea kultury w myśli i nauczaniu Jana Pawła II

Abstract

Culture is one of the most important and most frequently tackled issues in the teaching of John Paul II. The paper focuses on an anthropological and personalistic character of the pope's reflection on culture. Among the sources of inspiration employed by the Holy Father in constructing a vision of culture documents of the Second Vatican Council are mentioned together with reflections on St. Paul's, Cicero's, St. Thomas Aquinas', G. Marcel's and J. Maritain's texts. The paper discusses the determiners which constitute the notion of culture in the pope's teaching (culture as a way of existence and a form of humanization of man, Christocentrical character of culture, its role in God's plan of Redemption, upbringing as the most important task of culture, references to Transcendence, nature, community and tradition as factors which help make the shape of culture more objective and the relationship between culture and the identity of a nation). The Holy Father draws our attention to essential functions of culture: formative, humanizational, integrational, mediatory. An important role in the thought of John Paul II is a reflection on the relationship between the Church and culture, the role of Christianity in the making of culture, the issues of evangelisation of cultures and inculturation of faith. The pope is especially concerned with current threats to culture and symptoms of its crisis. At the foundations of such issues as assent to taking human life, permissiveness, consumerism, increase of violence, conflicts, crises of truth lies an improper anthropological vision. The pope's answer to the symptoms of the crisis of culture is a programme of building a civilisation of love, founded upon principles of priority of person over thing, priority of ethics over technology, priority of existence over possession, priority of mercy over justice. Multidimensional considerations of John Paul II on the gist, aims, functions and threats to culture constitute a great contribution into the contemporary cultural thought.