Przejawy kultu zła w kulturze

Abstract

An important source of the new spiritual threats that Europe faces is its civilization crisis. For a long time it has been considered to be a “continent of questions about life” (S. Hoffmann). From the Greek and Latin antiquity Europe received a question about man, from Judaism, a question about God. Christianity, without ever ceasing to ask about man and God, combined them in one question which constitutes the basis of civilization thinking. For centuries the European political and social philosophy has also been inspired by a question about a possibility to realize the freedom of man. This freedom became a universalistic notion, intrinsically connected with the concept of human rights. The discussion mainly referred to a question whether the idea of freedom should be expanded from the perspective of an individual (individualistically – e.g. Hobbes), or a community (communalistically – e.g. Marks). Both concepts led the thinkers to the borders of a utopia of liberalism and communism. The situation showed a need to undertake a new auto reflection in order to understand anew the aspirations of contemporary man. New opinions and ideas have most frequently been a protest against disintegration of human freedom brought about by modernity, against depriving it of its source, or center. A proposal of a march towards freedom, which would free an individual from the ties of tradition often ends in enslaving, making him or her again dependent on norms and requirements of a group, justified by the search for a new unity of the world.