Historia jako narzędzie polemiki w piśmiennictwie Piotra Skargi. Analecta Literackie i Językowe XV
History as a instrument of polemics in the writings of Piotr Skarga. Analecta Literackie i Językowe XV

Author(s): Dawid Szymczak
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Theology and Religion, History of Religion
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Old-Polish literature;Counter-Reformation;history of Church, Jesuits;philosophy of history;theory of history
Summary/Abstract: The aim of the book is analysis of the problem of history in the writings of one of the most well-known Polish Jesuits – Piotr Skarga (1536–1612). His extensive literary work contained numerous references to the history of the Church. Skarga consciously drew on the tradition of understanding history and literary conventions in the 16th century. Thus, the Jesuit took a predefined position on history – its scope, function and role. For Skarga, in fact, history was the second foundation, apart from Catholic teaching, for the expression of a relatively coherent and uniform vision of the world.The subject of the analysis are works from the entire almost forty-year period of the Jesuit's literary activity. The scope of the discussion includes both polemics with representatives of Eastern Christianity and dissenters, as well as sermons, motives, prayers and the popular Lives of Saints. The analysis is complemented by a chapter on the importance of rhetoric in creating a vision of history.Piotr Skarga consciously used the rules and assumptions of the ancient art of speech, as well as referred to the postulates of the 16th-century theologians. Their findings allowed him to treat each historical account as a story subject to persuasion.Detailed analysis proved that all the most important problems of the old Polish historical thought are captured in the works of Piotr Skarga. This proves the special position that history occupied in the writings of the royal preacher. It was not limited to a number of auxiliary evocations, devoid of original content due to unilateral and uncritical use but was a well-thought-out, complex and multi-faceted tool for achieving the basic goals on the way to transforming Polish society in the spirit of the post-Tridentine religiosity.

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