W numerze:
Anna Banach, Androgyn w mitach i obrzędach religijnych.
Michał Wojciechowski, Religia i jej krytyka w greckich bajkach Ezopowych.
Andrzej Szufa, Filozofia na usługach mistyki.
Jacek Sieradzan, Czy Nietzsche był mistykiem chrześcijańskim?
Wojciech Klimczyk, Emila Ciorana sprawa z Bogiem, czyli religijność bez religii.
Tomas Bubik, Bernard Bolzano (1781-1848) jako teolog i filozof religii.
Andrzej Nowicki, Bronisław Trentowski (1808-1869) w niemieckich tygodnikach masońskich z lat 1862-1865.
Katarzyna Krupińska, Starożytny Egipt na nowo.
Henryk Hoffmann, Polskie biesy, czorty, purtki, jędze i inne.
Leonard J. Pełka, Nowa próba charakterystyki satanizmu polskiego.
Zuzanna Szczerbanowska, Polska doby przemian ustrojowych w oczach księży rzymskokatolickich (wnioski z badań).
Maciej Dębski, Nowa synteza badań nad religijnością społeczeństwa polskiego.
SUMMARIES
Anna Banach
ANDROGYNE IN MYTH AND RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES
In this article, the role of androgyny and its function in myth and religious ceremonies is presented. The appearance of mythological hermaphrodites – gods and people – usually does not meet the medical criteria of hermaphroditism. This fact, however, is not so important for the material presented in the first part of the article since here we are concerned with the phenomenon of the occurrence of hermaphroditism in the sphere of religious thinking. Mythological images of androgyne disclose the mode of how humans comprehend the reality of the sacred, which aims at integration of opposites. The second part of the article explains human desires to attain the status of being which combines both sexual aspects, and this is expressed through numerous ceremonies for which the sex of an individual is something unusually fluid and subject to fluctuation. Symbolic androgynization of an individual occurs very often as an essential point in initiation rituals as well as to other important events of people’s lives, such as marriage or childbirth. Combining the two sexes in one individual presents itself as a sort of key which makes it possible to understand better the meaning of a particularly privileged individual in a given society. Examples of such persons are found in the institution of shaman or berdache, whose special status is based on the symbolic integration of the femininity and the masculinity. Regardless of the kind of ceremony or the means of attaining the features characteristic of the opposite sex, the common denominator of rituals aiming at androgyny is liminality of position and function of an individual located on the borderland of two sexes.
Michał Wojciechowski
RELIGION AND ITS CRITICISM IN THE GREEK AESOPIC FABLES
More than 100 Greek fables from the Aesopic tradition contain direct or allegorical references to religion. These references have never been adequately studied. As a whole, they represent an anonymous, popular approach to religion in the early Hellenistic period, with some sources in the earlier epochs. These fables may be divided into three groups. The first presents gods and mythology, with the dominant role of Zeus, near to henotheism; other gods are not important. However, Prometheus is sometimes presented as creator. The second group takes up the problem of evil; its sources are fate, humans or gods, but divine justice is vindicated. The third contains criticisms of religion itself (with Hermes as the butt of jokes), idolatry and misguided prayer. Texts are quoted according to the recent Polish translation of the Aesopic fables published by the author of this article; notes refer to the editions of Chambry, Hausrath and Perry.
Andrzej Szufa
PHILOSOPHY AT THE SERVICE OF MYSTICISM
The article presents a totally new heuristic approach towards reading and interpretation of the complex philosophical issues present in the teachings of the renowned spiritual teacher Sri Ramana Maharishi. The crucial point of the interpretation is the assumption that the teachings of Maharishi do not form any definite and internally coherent philosophical system. Its structure resembles a ladder, whose rungs consist of certain metaphysical statements. It leads up to a point at which we begin to question common sense as well as to doubt what has always seemed well-proven and rational. It is a moment when we realize that all of our ideas concerning the issue of ‘what the world is really like’ are in fact secondary to the ultimate purpose we strive to achieve. Thus, to understand and accept Maharishi’s ideas and the model of reality he presents, first we need to consider him a genuine sage, one who managed to achieve the goal of goals – self-realization, being also the ultimate happiness resulting from understanding what reality is. The understanding, however, cannot be reached through reasoning alone; it is available only to a well-tuned mind, purified and trained in meditation; an intellect (personality) that voluntarily chooses its own annihilation. Therefore, all that we call ‘philosophy’, in the hands of a sage becomes no more than a useful tool, helping to direct our minds towards self-realization.
Jacek Sieradzan
WAS NIETZSCHE A CHRISTIAN MYSTIC?
This article presents the great philosopher in a new light. Nietzsche was raised in a Protestant family. In his youth he was a believing and practicing Christian. His analysis of experiences which may be described as mystical shows that when writing about resurrection, he interpreted them as Christian. This was so even when he referred to Indian imagery. Nietzsche considered his own mystical experiences as analogous to the experiences of Hindu mystics. Analysis of these Hindu experiences, however, reveals that they were taken from the criticism of Brahmin teachings done by Buddha Shakyamuni. Nietzsche likewise expressed the desire for inner transformation in terms that reflect the Christian concept of thēosis – or deification. In such a deified man we can see übermensch or saint. Nietzsche’s personal psychological crisis, which was known as „divine madness”, also had some characteristics of mystical transformation. The source of Nietzsche’s problem lies in this, that he adhered to anti- christian philosophy and believed that his experience was Hindu in nature, but in fact he himself was a Christian mystic. In this context, Nietzsche’s philosophy proclaiming total freedom was a sign of protest against Christian education and Christian spiritual experience as such.
Wojciech Klimczyk
EMIL CIORAN`S ARGUMENT WITH GOD,
OR RELIGIOUSNESS WITHOUT RELIGION
The article is an attempt to present the thoughts of Emil Cioran – the French thinker of Romanian origins, who remains surprisingly little known in Poland. The main goal of the text is to analyze that part of Cioran`s oeuvre that can be called religious. Even though Cioran himself was not religious, his books very often deal with the theme of the Absolute and its relation to empirical reality. Apart from this main goal, the article also tries to reconstruct the author’s main intellectual inspirations for The Temptation to Exist, in order to make his thoughts more clear and to set them in strong philosophical context.
The article begins with the account of Cioran`s view of the human condition, which seeks labels of nihilist and extreme pessimist that are beyond the usual. In this perspective Cioran is presented as one of the philosophers of existence, like Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer or Nietzsche, but more radical and ambiguous, because of his constant use of aphorism. After this first step, reconstructing the origins and form of the inevitable contamination of human nature and the world according to Cioran, the article moves on to deal with the theme of the Absolute in his works. At this point it is necessary to present the great interest Cioran had in the mysticism of Middle Ages and Renaissance, especially in Master Eckhart. This seems essential to understanding why Cioran was later so fascinated with the philosophy of the Far East and why he eventually became what might be called „an impossible Buddhist” – a fascinating example of intellectual longing for a different perspective mixed with deep understanding of the limits that are implied by one’s own culture. Cioran in this context reveals himself as a paradoxical thinker and this paradox seems to be the core of his works.
The article is an attempt to present systematically thoughts that are fragmented and deliberately unsystematic. In order to make the presentation clear it is focused on only one train of Cioran`s thought – his controversial religiousness without religion. The main goal is to show some characteristic themes and derivations in order to open the field for more complex research in the future. This article is thus only an introduction. Even though Cioran’s works seem often ambiguous and inconsistent, they are also inspiring. They force us to try to understand our lot and that is why the further research is necessary.
Tomáš Bubík
BERNARD BOLZANO (1781-1848)
AS A THEOLOGIAN AND PHILOSOPHER OF RELIGION
The beginning of every new science is the result of both various earlier studies and of the broader milieu. In case of the science of religion, its beginnings are connected with the gradual secularization of Europe, particularly of European schools and science, and with the decreasing of the influence of the Church in society as well as in everyday life. From the point of view of the science of religion, it is worth inquiring to what extent the ideas of particular thinkers, such as Bernard Bolzano, could have influenced the attitudes of the science of religion, and whether they could have had an impact on its development. Concerning the theological and philosophical ideas of Bernard Bolzano, we could say that his particular aim was to reconcile modernistic rationalist subjectivism with the „objectivism” of God’s revelation.
Surprisingly enough, Bolzano does not limit revelation only to Christianity, but he even includes other religions and considers various degrees and kinds of revelation. For Bolzano, the objectivity of the revelation is closely connected with human nature, especially with human reason, because, in fact, both the human and the Divine come together to form religion.
He attempts to prove that faith is not irrational in order to save Christianity but maintains that he major authority, when it comes to religion, is human reason. Occasionally, he is not far from relativism of both revelation and reason. In the end, the ambiguity of Bolzano’s theory was unacceptable for the Catholic Church as well as for the Christian philosophy. However, Bolzano was, more that anything else, an original Christian philosopher, the inheritor of the Enlightment, for whom the Catholic faith had the ultimate meaning.
Andrzej Nowicki
BRONISLAW TRENTOWSKI (1808-1869)
IN THE GERMAN MASONIC WEEKLIES IN THE YEARS 1862-1865
Most reputable historians of philosophy consider Trentowski as the brightest star in the Polish firmament. That which most distinguishes him from other Polish philosophers is his pluralism and radical individualism, granting every person the right to create his or her own religion as well as to build his or her own philosophical system. Such a posture brought him closer to Freemasonry. Initiated in 1838, he was a Freemason until his death in 1869, that is, for more than thirty years. His Masonic activity is little known in Poland because his book Die Freimaurerei in ihrem Wesen und Unwesen, published in Leipzig in 1873, as well as other Masonic writings, were printed only in German and were never translated into Polish.
In this paper, Trentowski’s articles printed in the Masonic weekly „Die Bauhütte” between 1862 and 1865, presenting him as the initiator of radical reforms in Freemasonry, are discussed for the first time in Poland. The articles capture profound links between his philosophical system and his Masonic activities and also show for the first time in Poland the circle of German Freemasons who were Trentowski’s friends when he was an émigré in Germany after taking part in the November Uprising in 1830. For researches in comparative religion, of particular interest are Trentowski’s thoughts on the attitude of Freemasonry toward religious symbols.
Translated by Stanisław A. Wargacki
Anna Banach
ANDROGYNE IN MYTH AND RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES
In this article, the role of androgyny and its function in myth and religious ceremonies is presented. The appearance of mythological hermaphrodites – gods and people – usually does not meet the medical criteria of hermaphroditism. This fact, however, is not so important for the material presented in the first part of the article since here we are concerned with the phenomenon of the occurrence of hermaphroditism in the sphere of religious thinking. Mythological images of androgyne disclose the mode of how humans comprehend the reality of the sacred, which aims at integration of opposites. The second part of the article explains human desires to attain the status of being which combines both sexual aspects, and this is expressed through numerous ceremonies for which the sex of an individual is something unusually fluid and subject to fluctuation. Symbolic androgynization of an individual occurs very often as an essential point in initiation rituals as well as to other important events of people’s lives, such as marriage or childbirth. Combining the two sexes in one individual presents itself as a sort of key which makes it possible to understand better the meaning of a particularly privileged individual in a given society. Examples of such persons are found in the institution of shaman or berdache, whose special status is based on the symbolic integration of the femininity and the masculinity. Regardless of the kind of ceremony or the means of attaining the features characteristic of the opposite sex, the common denominator of rituals aiming at androgyny is liminality of position and function of an individual located on the borderland of two sexes.
Michał Wojciechowski
RELIGION AND ITS CRITICISM IN THE GREEK AESOPIC FABLES
More than 100 Greek fables from the Aesopic tradition contain direct or allegorical references to religion. These references have never been adequately studied. As a whole, they represent an anonymous, popular approach to religion in the early Hellenistic period, with some sources in the earlier epochs. These fables may be divided into three groups. The first presents gods and mythology, with the dominant role of Zeus, near to henotheism; other gods are not important. However, Prometheus is sometimes presented as creator. The second group takes up the problem of evil; its sources are fate, humans or gods, but divine justice is vindicated. The third contains criticisms of religion itself (with Hermes as the butt of jokes), idolatry and misguided prayer. Texts are quoted according to the recent Polish translation of the Aesopic fables published by the author of this article; notes refer to the editions of Chambry, Hausrath and Perry.
Andrzej Szufa
PHILOSOPHY AT THE SERVICE OF MYSTICISM
The article presents a totally new heuristic approach towards reading and interpretation of the complex philosophical issues present in the teachings of the renowned spiritual teacher Sri Ramana Maharishi. The crucial point of the interpretation is the assumption that the teachings of Maharishi do not form any definite and internally coherent philosophical system. Its structure resembles a ladder, whose rungs consist of certain metaphysical statements. It leads up to a point at which we begin to question common sense as well as to doubt what has always seemed well-proven and rational. It is a moment when we realize that all of our ideas concerning the issue of ‘what the world is really like’ are in fact secondary to the ultimate purpose we strive to achieve. Thus, to understand and accept Maharishi’s ideas and the model of reality he presents, first we need to consider him a genuine sage, one who managed to achieve the goal of goals – self-realization, being also the ultimate happiness resulting from understanding what reality is. The understanding, however, cannot be reached through reasoning alone; it is available only to a well-tuned mind, purified and trained in meditation; an intellect (personality) that voluntarily chooses its own annihilation. Therefore, all that we call ‘philosophy’, in the hands of a sage becomes no more than a useful tool, helping to direct our minds towards self-realization.
Jacek Sieradzan
WAS NIETZSCHE A CHRISTIAN MYSTIC?
This article presents the great philosopher in a new light. Nietzsche was raised in a Protestant family. In his youth he was a believing and practicing Christian. His analysis of experiences which may be described as mystical shows that when writing about resurrection, he interpreted them as Christian. This was so even when he referred to Indian imagery. Nietzsche considered his own mystical experiences as analogous to the experiences of Hindu mystics. Analysis of these Hindu experiences, however, reveals that they were taken from the criticism of Brahmin teachings done by Buddha Shakyamuni. Nietzsche likewise expressed the desire for inner transformation in terms that reflect the Christian concept of thēosis – or deification. In such a deified man we can see übermensch or saint. Nietzsche’s personal psychological crisis, which was known as „divine madness”, also had some characteristics of mystical transformation. The source of Nietzsche’s problem lies in this, that he adhered to anti- christian philosophy and believed that his experience was Hindu in nature, but in fact he himself was a Christian mystic. In this context, Nietzsche’s philosophy proclaiming total freedom was a sign of protest against Christian education and Christian spiritual experience as such.
Wojciech Klimczyk
EMIL CIORAN`S ARGUMENT WITH GOD,
OR RELIGIOUSNESS WITHOUT RELIGION
The article is an attempt to present the thoughts of Emil Cioran – the French thinker of Romanian origins, who remains surprisingly little known in Poland. The main goal of the text is to analyze that part of Cioran`s oeuvre that can be called religious. Even though Cioran himself was not religious, his books very often deal with the theme of the Absolute and its relation to empirical reality. Apart from this main goal, the article also tries to reconstruct the author’s main intellectual inspirations for The Temptation to Exist, in order to make his thoughts more clear and to set them in strong philosophical context.
The article begins with the account of Cioran`s view of the human condition, which seeks labels of nihilist and extreme pessimist that are beyond the usual. In this perspective Cioran is presented as one of the philosophers of existence, like Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer or Nietzsche, but more radical and ambiguous, because of his constant use of aphorism. After this first step, reconstructing the origins and form of the inevitable contamination of human nature and the world according to Cioran, the article moves on to deal with the theme of the Absolute in his works. At this point it is necessary to present the great interest Cioran had in the mysticism of Middle Ages and Renaissance, especially in Master Eckhart. This seems essential to understanding why Cioran was later so fascinated with the philosophy of the Far East and why he eventually became what might be called „an impossible Buddhist” – a fascinating example of intellectual longing for a different perspective mixed with deep understanding of the limits that are implied by one’s own culture. Cioran in this context reveals himself as a paradoxical thinker and this paradox seems to be the core of his works.
The article is an attempt to present systematically thoughts that are fragmented and deliberately unsystematic. In order to make the presentation clear it is focused on only one train of Cioran`s thought – his controversial religiousness without religion. The main goal is to show some characteristic themes and derivations in order to open the field for more complex research in the future. This article is thus only an introduction. Even though Cioran’s works seem often ambiguous and inconsistent, they are also inspiring. They force us to try to understand our lot and that is why the further research is necessary.
Tomáš Bubík
BERNARD BOLZANO (1781-1848)
AS A THEOLOGIAN AND PHILOSOPHER OF RELIGION
The beginning of every new science is the result of both various earlier studies and of the broader milieu. In case of the science of religion, its beginnings are connected with the gradual secularization of Europe, particularly of European schools and science, and with the decreasing of the influence of the Church in society as well as in everyday life. From the point of view of the science of religion, it is worth inquiring to what extent the ideas of particular thinkers, such as Bernard Bolzano, could have influenced the attitudes of the science of religion, and whether they could have had an impact on its development. Concerning the theological and philosophical ideas of Bernard Bolzano, we could say that his particular aim was to reconcile modernistic rationalist subjectivism with the „objectivism” of God’s revelation.
Surprisingly enough, Bolzano does not limit revelation only to Christianity, but he even includes other religions and considers various degrees and kinds of revelation. For Bolzano, the objectivity of the revelation is closely connected with human nature, especially with human reason, because, in fact, both the human and the Divine come together to form religion.
He attempts to prove that faith is not irrational in order to save Christianity but maintains that he major authority, when it comes to religion, is human reason. Occasionally, he is not far from relativism of both revelation and reason. In the end, the ambiguity of Bolzano’s theory was unacceptable for the Catholic Church as well as for the Christian philosophy. However, Bolzano was, more that anything else, an original Christian philosopher, the inheritor of the Enlightment, for whom the Catholic faith had the ultimate meaning.
Andrzej Nowicki
BRONISLAW TRENTOWSKI (1808-1869)
IN THE GERMAN MASONIC WEEKLIES IN THE YEARS 1862-1865
Most reputable historians of philosophy consider Trentowski as the brightest star in the Polish firmament. That which most distinguishes him from other Polish philosophers is his pluralism and radical individualism, granting every person the right to create his or her own religion as well as to build his or her own philosophical system. Such a posture brought him closer to Freemasonry. Initiated in 1838, he was a Freemason until his death in 1869, that is, for more than thirty years. His Masonic activity is little known in Poland because his book Die Freimaurerei in ihrem Wesen und Unwesen, published in Leipzig in 1873, as well as other Masonic writings, were printed only in German and were never translated into Polish.
In this paper, Trentowski’s articles printed in the Masonic weekly „Die Bauhütte” between 1862 and 1865, presenting him as the initiator of radical reforms in Freemasonry, are discussed for the first time in Poland. The articles capture profound links between his philosophical system and his Masonic activities and also show for the first time in Poland the circle of German Freemasons who were Trentowski’s friends when he was an émigré in Germany after taking part in the November Uprising in 1830. For researches in comparative religion, of particular interest are Trentowski’s thoughts on the attitude of Freemasonry toward religious symbols.
Translated by Stanisław A. Wargacki
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