Christian Tradition and (Post) Modernity in the Context of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński’s Personalist Concept of Culture (2)

Ryszard Ficek

Diocese of Rockville Centre
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5238-6767

Abstract

The subject of this article is to present the Christian cultural tradition in the context of (post) modernism from the perspective of the personalistic vision of culture presented by Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. The author’s interpretation of source materials aims to show Christian culture as a “sphere of earthly reality” shaping the human person in its integral dimension, i.e., both in the individual and social dimensions and the temporal and supernatural. In the personalistic-praxeological sense, Christian culture is rooted in the biblical-traditional values, which – perceived as a gift and obligation – are developed primarily in the sphere of the daily Christian life, especially in the dimension of family and nation. The author of the article asks whether the aretology of Cardinal Wyszyński’s personalistic concept can be applied to the specific realities of the up-to-date fact of cultural life? The answer to such questions is essential, especially in the context of the currently proclaimed “ideological pluralism” characteristic of the contemporary post-modern culture that emphasizes the moral ambivalence of “liquid” postmodernity.

Keywords:

Second Vatican Council, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, culture, modernism, evangelization