Społeczny wymiar osoby ludzkiej w refleksji wiary

Abstract

A somewhat obsolete concept of the Marxist collectivism, similarly to the liberal individualism, is not a solution to crucial problems of the man. This is, among other things, due to a lack of interest in the interior structure of his being. However, in the case of these concepts we deal with a problem which is solved in a slightly different manner by both of them. This refers to a social dimension, which is inseparable from the human person. One cannot deny that the man lives and acts together with others, in a society. Therefore, there arises a question concerning the nature of a community. What is it and what are the relations between a society and an individual? Arguments continuing for centuries in this area oscillated most frequently between the priority of an individual or a society. Both approaches, not infrequently going to extremes, should be considered as one-sided and fragmentary. Personalism seems to be a final reconciliation between the two. An assessment of both social and individual dimension of the human existence undertaken by this approach is based on an internal, unique and incomparable structure of a personal existence. The greatest values, such as love, truth and freedom, owing to which a person can develop, can be realized only with respect to others and with other people. Any attempt to realize one’s good to the cost of another individual or society quickly turns against the good of individuals and the whole society. This is always a two-sided process. We all need one another. The greatest evil of collective and individualistic systems consists in a negation of a human. A man, even if he/she acts with others and for others, acts as a subject, as a person. Hence, a human individual and a society find a thorough explanation in the concept of Christian personalism, which is open to a supernatural dimension. While comparing the truth about God and the man included in the Revelation we perceive certain similarity between the unity of Divine Persons and a unity of humans. The man is similar to God not only owing to the spiritual nature of an immortal soul but also owing to a social nature, which imposes certain obligations on a human individual and the whole society. In a community, people realize themselves through a disinterested gift from themselves, and a community understood in this way deserves the name of communio, which far exceeds the understanding of a society as a fairly loose relationship.