Zanikanie świętości. Natura i źródła procesu desakralizacji w kulturze Zachodu
Decline of the Sacredness – Nature and Sources of Desacralisation of Western World

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article was to indicate the essential elements of the process of desacralization of Western culture. In the first part, I individuated fundamental elements characterizing the “traditional” concept of culture, whose main feature was the lack of a sharp distinction between the realm of the sacred and the profane grounded in the idea of cosmic order. The second part concerns the genesis of desacralization, which – in the case Western culture – is associated with the idea of the sophists’ concepts and ideas of the Renaissance. In both cases, desacralization is associated with anthropocentrism. The essence of anthropocentrism is the perception of reality, in which man perceives himself not as an integral part of the divine order, which he should recognize and accomplish in the right way, but as an autonomous creator, directing the world according to his own laws. The question whether these human laws are in harmony with the divine order or remain in contradiction with it appears to be secondary – essential is genesis and nature of order in the human world

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