Stefan Wyszyński’s Personalistic Vision of Upbringing

The Person and the Challenges Volume 11 (2020) Number 2, p. 79–90 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15633/pch.3751 Urszula Gruca-Miąsik ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3797-8489 University of Rzeszow, Poland Magdalena Parzyszek ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8270-3388 Catholic University of Lublin, Poland Stefan Wyszyński’s Personalistic Vision of Upbringing Abstract The personalistic concept of man, especially the one based on the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, underscores the full autonomy of the human person, his freedom, the gradual discovery of the truth and good, and choices in accord with this cognition. The key issue in Stefan Wyszyński’s personalism is the integral vision of the human person. This personalism is a system of upbringing that respects the nature and value of man who ‘humanizes’ the world and expresses himself while constantly evolving. He gives a personal, social and dynamic character to the community in which he functions. He has a right to be brought up in keeping with his nature and ultimate destiny. Keywords Personalism, Christian personalism, upbringing. The Person and the Challenges Volume 11 (2020) Number 2, p. 79–90 80 1. Introduction Questions regarding man, his identity, life and its transcienceare the subject of reflection within many academic disciplines. Anthropologists, philosophers, theologians, psychologists and specialists in pedagogy search for the answers while new social currents that emerge claim to be of personalistic character. Contemporary personalism includes a variety of currents: Thomistic, axiological, existential and socio-economic. The analysis of personalism reveals its various dimensions: metaphysical, epistemological, ethical and theological.1A personalistic concept of man, especially the one based on the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, underscores the full autonomy of the human person, his freedom, gradual discovery of truth and good, and choices in accord with this cognition.2 2. Who is a human being? According to new concepts and trends man himself is a god. It is as if he had only rights ‘at the expense’ of God, neighbours, the society and the state. Everything is subjected to man’s judgement who is morally free, moreover, free from social obligations. Only private morality is acknowledged while religion is perceived as a private matter. Man’s objective in life is his worldly happiness which he may try to achieve by all possible means. The highest economic law is the freedom to grow rich.3 On the other hand, in communism an individual ceases to have any meaning, any personal value. His only value is, as though, bestowed by the state and realized through life within society. As such he is denied the rights correlated with the person: freedom, thinking and agency. He must obey supreme authority above all. ‘A person is a subject of total contempt, inexorable hardness of the political system, the inhumanity of bureaucratic lawlessness, despotism 1 Cf. S. Kowalczyk, Człowiek w myśli współczesnej. Filozofia współczesna o człowieku, Michalineum, Warszawa 1990, p. 377. 2 Cf. U. Gruca-Miąsik, Rozumowanie moralne – osoba, rozwój, wychowanie, UR, Rzeszów 2018, p. 88. 3 Cf. S. Wyszyński, Miłość i sprawiedliwość społeczna, Pallottinum, Poznań 1993, p. 46. Urszula Gruca-Miąsik, Magdalena Parzyszek Stefan Wyszyński’s Personalistic Vision of Upbringing 81 and terror. In practice we deal with citizens turned into slaves for the benefit of collectivity.’4 In this worldview man is also denied thefreedom to believe in God and worship Him. His spiritual dimension is not recognized. Moreover, a world devoid of God and religious morality is the aim to be achieved. Technology becomes a new god, while proletarian equality is perceived as the greatest happiness. Man’s destiny and objectives in life are also negated. If God is to be ‘expelled’ from the world, then man should not seek happiness in communion with Him. The only legitimate aims in life are those approved by the state. Since spiritual values are of no importance, the goal of man’s life is the good of the state, society, temporal happiness and one’s own benefits. What follows is the deification of matter.5 3. Stefan Wyszyński’s Personalism The key issue in Stefan Wyszyński’s personalism is the integral vision of the human person. The person is of the greatest value (after God).6 He is perceived as rational, self-aware, spiritual values-oriented, and free in his actions. As such, he should be considered on many different levels (e.g. metaphysical, moral, social and religious). On the metaphysical level, the person is a unique being that is alive, rational, independent, self-aware and responsible for oneself. He is the subject of creative and free action. Endowed with reason and will which are of spiritual character,7 man is directed towards the highest manifestations of being: truth, what is good, beauty and God as the source of being and values. Supernatural elements in the 4 5 6 S. Wyszyński, Miłość i sprawiedliwość społeczna, Pallottinum, Poznań 1993, p. 47. Cf. S. Wyszyński, Miłość i sprawiedliwość społeczna, Pallottinum, Poznań 1993, p. 47. S. Wyszyński, Nauczanie społeczne 1946–1981, Ośrodek Dokumentacji Studiów Społecznych, Warszawa 1990, p. 681. 7 ‘Man is a person, a rational and free being, a master of creation. (…) Thereis no personality, rationality, freedom but in man.’ S. Wyszyński, Społeczność przyrodzona i nadprzyrodzona, Warszawa 18.02.1957, vol. 2, p. 61. One can notice a reference to Jacques Maritain who claimed that a person is a universe of a spiritual nature, endowed with freedom of choice and thus constituting a completeness independent of the world. J. Maritain, Humanismeintégral, Fernand Aubier, Paris 1947, p. 16. The Person and the Challenges Volume 11 (2020) Number 2, p. 79–90 82 form of grace,8 faith, hope and love elevate man to a higher level of spiritual existence, thus making him a participant in God’s life, opening him to the world of the mysteries of faith. On this plane, the human person attains the highest dignity transcending the order of the natural world. Another level that must be underlined is the moral one. Here, the person appears as the subject of rights and obligations; he ‘enacts’ values that he discovers as well as creates. Endowed with conscience,9 he is responsible for his actions. His free will, together with conscience, is what enables growth, seeing one’s fault, creating moral, legal and social order based on objective norms that are voluntarily recognized and accepted. As such man regulates his own fate.10 On the social plane the person is open to the world of others. ‘He may live and develop his properties only thanks to his bonds with other people.”11 He lives in dialogue with others thus creating the space of free and rational beings of whom each is a subject and object of law. Moreover, each person has intrinsic worth, and yet he needs other persons if he is to evolve and find happiness. T (...truncated)