Summary

 

The issue of otherness has accompanied our culture since its very emergence - at the very least since the time when ancient Greeks first began to pin the derisive name of "barbaros" onto anyone unfortunate enough not to speak the tongue of Homer. The obsession which led to the Crusades, the lengthy era of colonialism, the 20th century’s unique tragedy of the Holocaust, topped with the intractable problems of the Middle East - these are occurrences which do not permit us to maintain a posture of detachment when questions are asked about our own attitude towards things or people different from ourselves.

In Znak’s New Year issue we have chosen to take a brief trip round the meanderings of otherness to explore the various forms it takes, including proximity (when the other becomes a neighbor), and that of when it assumes the shape of unmitigated strangeness (as happens when the other turns into an enemy). In a hitherto unpublished article by F. Józef Tischner, the beloved pastor-philosopher treats the Other as being two-dimensional. Thereafter our readers will find the text of the inaugural lecture given by Ryszard Kapuściński at the official opening of the Tischner European University in Krakow. In that lecture, the author accounts for such phenomena of modern-day global civilization as cannot but cause concern in terms of Tischner’s philosophy of drama. Jacek Filek writes about our fear of strangers and what it springs from, about our intolerance of any lifestyle different from our own, and the reasons for our unwillingness to open ourselves up more. Krzysztof Szwajca describes the set of self-identity problems faced by the children of those murdered in the Holocaust.

This issue also brings the first part of Krzysztof Michalski’s deliberations on temporal issues, eternity, and the passage of time, as well as Marek Gadzała’s reflections woven around the Iraqi-American conflict and based on Znak’s July issue (The Christian Goes to War). In his "Delicious Flavor of the Orient" Piotr Kłodkowski tells about the uniqueness of Eastern tea houses, whereas Małgorzata Łukasiewicz in the "rose column" relates Henry D. Thoreau’s life on Walden Pond. Małgorzata Kitowska-Łysiak analyzes the influence Andrzej Wróblewski has had on modern Polish painting.

Our January Znak opens with a bright commentary by F. Jan Kracik on the new interpretation of the Church Commandments put forth by the Polish Episcopate.

POCZĄTEK STRONY