Daria Mazur

The article is an attempt to combine film and theological thoughts in relation to the film Wszystkie nasze strachy, in which the protagonist is modeled on the contemporary Polish visual artist Daniel Rycharski. His declarations, experience, and attitude confirm the validity of using the tropes related to the elements of the concept of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s religionless Christianity for analyzing the film. The concept provides arguments that expand the possibility to consider the film and the protagonist’s creation in the perspective of the postmodern identity discourse with the contents that correspond with the phenomena and processes inscribed in the postsecular tendencies. The interpretations presented in the article take into account the context of non-heteronormativity and the manifestations of homophobia in a small rural community presented in the story, and also focus on the category of relationality, contemplativeness, identification, and movement, as well as the antinomy of religion and faith and Christocentrism. 

This article presents an attempt at an analysis of the fictionalised documentary Czyściec by Michał Kondrat (2020) in the context of the contemporary teaching of the Church and postulate of a popcultural turn in Catholic theology, formulated by Józef Majewski. Directing strategies, topoi, and graphic metaphors from this hybrid film – the script of which refers to Stefania Horak’s mystical experiences – are interpreted in the context of a long tradition of reflections on the topic of purgatory and the key principles of the post-conciliar teachings of the Catholic Church on this subject. These analyses and interpretations enable consideration of whether the said film aims at refreshing the forms of expression of purgatory-related topics. They also let the reader explore whether the mass-culture elements included in the film can help the viewer become more spiritually mature and whether they deepen the eschatological reflection.

Many scientists have analysed the genesis and conditions of functioning of Bolesław Piasecki group in Poland after 1945. The monograph Socpax realism allowed to fill the gap in research on Polish literature between 1949–1956, connected with the literary current, developing then around the weekly PAX journal Today and Tomorrow, which was a peculiar realisation of social realism subroutine. The monograph ascertains that, in the frame of the model of literary life of the time, the literary circle tried to dissect a new formula of creativity, which was to reflect the nominal catholic writers’ declarations of engagement in building socialism and to serve to propagate the attitude of cooperation of Church members with Marxists. Scientific response on this matter allowed the article to reflect on the character and function of references to Christian and sacral elements in socpax realism current. In the frame of three strategies, they were instrumentally involved in ideological and political discourse, serving to legitimise socialism and institutionalise the privileged position of Piasecki group striving for authority. Reflection on the paradoxical integration of ‘catholic’ literature with Stalin’s atheistic vision of reality, where fight with political opponents (including Church and religion) was a constant element, allows to reveal the sources and features of the mechanism of camouflage connected with the hybrid worldview propounded by PAX.