Zwischen ‚antemurale‘ und ‚wspólny dom‘: Polen und Europa im Denken Józef Tischners

Abstract

This article reflects on Józef Tischner’s changing concepts of Europe from the mid 1980s until the late 1990s in the context of Polish discourses on Europe in the second half of the 20^th century. It is argued that the Polish adoption of democracy in 1989 had a tremendous impact on the image of Europe as shaped by Tischner. In the 1980s – in the face of social and economic agony – the ‘priest of Solidarność’ draws upon the Romantic and messianistic imagery of Poland as the ‘bulwark of Christianity’. He therefore claims Polish moral and spiritual superiority not only over the Soviet Union but over Central and Western Europe as well. Hence, Tischner does not engage in myths of Central European unity frequently being discussed at the time. Right after the ‘annus mirabilis’ of 1989 Tischner swiftly turns to the new hegemonial paradigm of liberalism and pragmatism. Though maintaining an image of Europe as a community of shared Christian values, Tischner steps up in favour of capitalism and democratic pluralism, hereby following the example set by the ‘West’. Consequently, he became one of the most vehement critics of Polish neo-martyrdom of the 1990s. By applying the metaphor of a ‘common home’ to a unifying Europe, Tischner not only supports Poland’s joining of the EU, but also develops a prospect for a shared European future. Józef Tischner’s ideas of Europe can therefore be traced along the outlines of Polish discourses on Europe evolving from ‘myth’ to ‘metaphor’ as described by Walter Koschmal (2006).