I am Krzysztof Karczewski and I am a doctor of social sciences in the field of politics. Furthermore, I am a believer, and more specifically I am Orthodox. For 2 years I have participated in the Divine Liturgy. Earlier, before I decided to act actively in the public life of the Orthodox Church, I was in fact rather an individual scientist, who in any ways studied from outside, among others, religiousness, rites, and above all the worldviews of religion. And earlier, erstwhile I attended simple school, I didn’t even feel the request to belong to Christian spirituality. Yes, of course, from a long time of childhood I was curious in the “external researcher” of spiritual problems and from childhood I knew straight the issues of the Roman Catholic Church. After all, I was born in a traditional, peasant-working Catholic family, and this is common in Poland.
What is the reason for specified a large and profound change in planet view? Why did I decide to participate actively in the activity of the Orthodox Church in Polish lands? Why did I not choose the way according to the Catholic tradition, the same way as Poles? Why did I choose Orthodoxy, not e.g. Catholicism or a certain denomination in the womb of Protestantism?
I was fascinated by mysticism and mystery from childhood. Moreover, it has charmed the magnificent and full of stylistic and symmetrical splendor of the richness of the interior of the Orthodox Church – the wealth that is inextricably linked to this mysticism and mystery. Icons, quite a few gold, quite a few candles (especially with the unlit background of the interior of the Orthodox Church building), plays quite a few colors, details, shadows and lights, a kind of innocent and affectionate stimulation of my senses – it all stimulated my imagination and my deepest emotional layers. After all, all religion, or defined, coherent strategy of dogmas, which allows us to realize the sense of space in the universe, to describe and explain, someway we function and function the full world, which causes and purposes of existence, refers primarily to uncritical, instinctive experiences, feelings, frequently feelings that we do not realize only by reason and logic.
And I've been most fascinated since childhood by what's behind the iconostasis. I was just truly curious about what was behind that beautiful gate. I imagined then that this gate was the gateway to the supernatural world, the divine planet of the Immortal Winner over Death. As I watched television, where the interior of the Orthodox church and the iconostasis was shown, I immediately felt the desire to see with my own eyes what was behind the closed gates.
So this was the first reason for my interest in Orthodoxy – an aesthetic cause. After all, I am a perfectionist and aestheticist. I have developed artistic abilities (e.g. I compose poems) and so I am very delicate to diverse and gigantic beauty.
Inside the buildings of Orthodox churches, they involuntarily make a subtle image.
Furthermore, due to my analytical head (I am besides a investigator of spiritual and political ideas) I was curious in the Orthodox worldview. And here I was positively struck by how much the Orthodox Tradition focuses on divinity, on holiness, and besides on Hope. In particular, I was happy to respond to the news that Orthodoxy teaches not only about salvation, but besides about man’s deification, or God’s voluntary release of man to share in God’s life and divine nature by means of a certain share. besides about the world's destruction. In addition, interestingly enough, erstwhile I was a student at the University of Szczecin, I besides studied pre-Christian Slavic traditions. The interest in Slavicism for me was the next step in bringing me closer to the tender and divine embrace of the Orthodox Church and its Tradition, due to the fact that I slow realized that there was any parallel between any elements of pre-Christian Slavic traditions and Orthodox dogmatics, and especially the popular explanation of Orthodoxy. At the time I accepted the philosophical thought that although divinity (holyness) in itself is transcendent towards the material world, the physical world, the visible, the natural world, but besides the divinity (or more specifically: divine energies in the sense of Gregory of Palamas) intervenes in the functioning of the material world, is omnipresent, immanent in the material world, and man becomes united with God. After all, the origin of the thought of man's deification is the quote: "God has become man so that people can become gods" (quote for: W. N. Łosski, Mystical Theology of the east Church, Krakow 2007, p. 16). Of course, ideas rather akin to panenteistic positions, which be especially in Orthodoxy, are something distinct from pantheism, which is present in various pre-Christian traditions, as pantheism has different faces: from more mystical to materialistic. However, there is an astonishing similarity (not simply identifying!) between the actual poorness of nature among the traditions of the pre-Christian Indo-European peoples (including the Slavs) and the Orthodox thought of the deification and dogma of Jesus Christ as a God-man.
Moreover, I studied heroic ethics powerfully in the Indo-European peoples in simple school. I was interested, for example, in the epos of heroes. First, I briefly became curious in the Northern German (e.g. Vikings), Western (e.g. Sasami) and east (e.g. Visigoths and Ostrogots), and Celts (in peculiar Brits and Gaels), Sarmats, Scythians, and then Slavs, of course, e.g. extremities of the rich Old Rusi (Ilja Muromiec, Dobryania Nikitatz, Alosz Popowicz, etc.). Later, erstwhile I was conducting exercises on subjects in the field of political science, I noticed that it was Orthodoxy that softened, refined and subjected to heroism, feat, courage, valor—and yet these are crucial elements in heroic ethics—Christian principles (faith in the 1 God, love, mercy, brotherhood, love). Yes, I was besides very curious in mythologies and worldviews, along with their heroic ethics of another non-indo-European peoples of Siberia and, more broadly, Eurasia (including Mongolian peoples, Turkish, Tunisian, Manchurian, Paleosyberian), as well as mythologies and worldviews of North American Indians, Black African peoples or Australia, but I was most curious in the worldview of Indo-European peoples, and later in the Christian theology (Legal and Catholic) as I was and inactive am aware of my own ethnocultural roots, or more specifically: Christian (Legal)-Slavic.
In addition, at the time I was besides fascinated by the "trifunctional ideology", discovered by French philologist Georges Dumezil and performed in the worldview of Indo-European peoples. This model of worldview is simply a hierarchized strategy of values and ideas, and at the same time an organic, symphonic social unity, in which they rank hierarchically and interact with each another for a higher intent separate social layers with their different systems of values and behaviours and mentalities. I noticed that this ideology was preserved in Catholic medieval Europe (here in the form of: the 1st oratores, the 2nd bellatores, the 3rd laboratories), but besides – fortunately! – in the Byzantine Empire and in Russia, i.e. in the Orthodox cultural circle.
Another reasons for my interest in Orthodoxy were the imperial thought and the sacralization of the function of emperor (e.g. Byzantine basileus and the Russian Tsar). In my youth I was fascinated by both the imperial thought (universal, missionary and sacral-political category) – not the imperialist idea! (For, as we know, imperialism is simply a product of capitalism, industrialization and enlightenment, imperialism is characterized by the exploitation of all resources in overseas territories and the rooting up of ethnocultural identity and a forceful process of westernization), as well as the structure, objectives and functioning of the empire. After all, in higher education I dealt with inter alia relations between religion and state, psychology of religion and the influence of religion on mentality, politics and state. Even then I was fascinated by the elaborate ceremony of imperial power of the Byzantine Empire, the images and titles of basileus and the parallel between the King of the Kings Jesus Christ in heaven and basileus as the only and highest institution connecting God and the planet of men, functions of which were, among others, judicial (court over men) and executive (defence of the natural laws and laws of God and the resulting Christian moral principles). From board to board I read, for example, B. Uspenski's book on the characteristics of the Tsar and Patriarch in Russian culture and statehood, which took over the Byzantine heritage. Later, in the process of learning the past of the Byzantine Empire and Russia, I realized that Orthodoxy was a religion more pro-imperial and pro-state than Catholicism, which persistently demanded the segregation of the ecclesiastical and state spheres, balancing dangerously on the border of partial desacralization of the state, and then entering practically into a sphere reserved only for the circles and for the empire, into the realm of profanum, violating the harmonious symphonic cooperation between sacerdotium and regnum.
An example of this was the Danish Catholic clergyman Absalon, Bishop Roskilde from 1158 to 1191 and Archbishop Lund from 1178 to 1201 (and thus until his death). This Danish bishop during the reign of Danish king Canut VI ruled in practice over all Denmark. He personally participated (as a leader and co-organiser) in the naval expeditions between them against the Polubsk Slavs. Saxo Gramatyk credited him with much merit, specified as his participation with Danish King Waldemar I in conquest and forced conversion of the Ranes in Rügen, where he was almost by himself to destruct statues of Slavic deities in 1168, to save the Danish fleet from demolition during the expedition to West Pomerania in 1170, and to command at the conflict close Cape Darsin in 1184 in which the forces of Pomeranian Prince Bogusław I were defeated.
Another example was the bishopric of Dorpat. It was founded in 1224 by Bishop Albert, a papal legate. The head of this bishopric was naturally a bishop (a priestly person), but he ruled within this bishopric as an earthly master, including vassals, conducted abroad policy and led armed expeditions, e.g. an armed expedition, composed of an army of the Teutonic Order and a combined order of sword cavalry, commanded by Bishop Dorpat Herman I, who was destroyed in the conflict of Lake Czudzki in 1242 by the Duke of Novgorod Alexander Newski.
And Orthodoxy rejects as far as the relation between the Church and the state is afraid as dogmatically as papacy (obviously) as cesaropapism. It teaches that Basileus / car is simply a “bishop for external affairs” and the patriarch is simply a spiritual head of the political community. Already in higher education, I had the cognition that Orthodoxy retained sacred respect for imperial power, referring to the alleged imperial theology of Eusebius of Caesarea – the author of the work on the life of the first Christian Roman emperor Constantine the Great.
Thus I realized that it was Orthodoxy that retained the doctrine of the symphony of 2 authorities and, unlike Catholicism, has always accepted the attributes of the power of basileus / tsar and the Empire, has always accepted the strict scope of the power of imperial power, unless it violates the doctrine of the Orthodox tradition and its worldview. Let us callback that it was the Roman Catholic Church in the mediate Ages that was unfortunately an active associate in the dispute with the empire and took over from the Roman emperor the name Pontifex Maximus (literally "Big Builder").
I was fascinated by the way Orthodoxy lovingly refined and formed this tradition, changing from the "wild" tradition of Slavs into its own Slavic version, consistent with the Orthodoxy. I was full of admiration, noting in the course of my investigation that Orthodox missionaries carried out a mission of Christianity among the Slavs, rejecting and condemning (rightly!) these pre-Christian practices and rituals of the old Slavs, which seemed senseless to them, (e.g. polytheism, or belief in many gods—from a Christian standpoint it is evidently idolatry) and bloody, but at the same time they retained, incorporating into Orthodox Tradition and changing only these archetypes (fertility, earth, nut, grain, apple, heaven, etc.) and rituals which could coincide with the unchanging, eternal Christian religion (of course after their transformation). I realized that the Orthodoxy – actual Christianity – triumphed, like a caring and loving father who cares for and forms his "grey" children so that they will shortly be conscious Christians. I understood that Christianity (this is Orthodoxy) is the fact of God, the best religion that best satisfies these beautiful emotions, by which we can preserve our humanity: love, mercy, tenderness, brotherhood, universal consent, universal unity (including the unity of divinity and the material world, maintaining the superiority of holiness over the impermanent planet of flesh and substance of course). It was Orthodoxy that gave the Slavic tradition before the Christian form, namely: religion about the actual God, Christian moral principles: love for God, as well as love for fellow humans, compassion, common assistance (especially in relation to children, women, old people), community, solidarity, contemplation, discipline, humility, repentance and grief for sins. In college, I slow began to realize that bringing a man into the planet of flesh and substance alone is dangerous to him, and man can lose out in the deafening of sensual sensations, man can destruct his soul, changing from a individual to an animal-like, man can become a slave to his own needs and imaginary desires, man can become just a stupid child. Moreover, I became certain that actual Christianity was not Catholicism or – even more so – Protestantism. I slow realized that actual Christianity was the teaching of the Good News, the fact of God, the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ as a God-man, and is exclusively in Orthodoxy.
Furthermore, erstwhile I was a technological worker, with undisclosed joy I analysed the texts of Orthodox theologians (and above all the well-known Polish Orthodox clergyman Henry Paprocki) and stated that only Orthodoxly emphasizes the council, community, spiritual community and consequently besides the community mentality, as well as maintaining Tradition and Church hierarchy. I was fascinated by Orthodoxy due to the fact that from childhood I thought that a planet view based on principles: omniunity, diversity and hierarchy is always aesthetically beautiful and proper, a model of “unity in multiplicity”, I always admired the model of the body internally hierached on the basis of brotherhood and love. So I warmly supported and proceed to support that the accession to communion is at the same time a union with God and a union. I believe that in general Orthodoxy teaches that thanks to the soul of the individual he becomes a person, and so – attention – a spiritual being, having a part of God (given from God), in a way just social, and thus capable of fulfilling a number of social roles, roles in a peculiar social group. After all, as the Russian philosopher Semion Frank teaches, in the soul is everything common, social. Why did I so fervently and eagerly agree with the Orthodox doctrine of ordination, communityity; the doctrine of how much deeper than Catholicism? Since childhood, I have looked around me in Poland at people. In addition to the large attitudes of average Poles, I have also, unfortunately, seen cases of jealousy, unhealthy competition, hypocrisy, obsession with excessive, false individual “decentness” and so both the Polish nation and the Polish state have fallen and succumbed to interior demolition and decay since the 17th century. Henryk Paprocki beautifully stated that he always teaches Orthodoxy more about Hope and Divinity, about Godman and about communityity, and little about guilt, about first sin. I can compose out the virtues of Orthodoxy, thanks to which I have already begun to support this true, pristine Christianity as an academic:
– immense mysticism and mystery of Orthodox rites,
– a greater emphasis on divinity and hope, little on guilt, on first sin, which, according to Catholicism, is inherited from generation to generation
– the thought of man's and the full world's eradication, a greater emphasis on man's ability to participate voluntarily in God's life already in this world,
– a greater emphasis on community.
Then, erstwhile I graduated from a studio in Szczecin and chose a technological career, for example, I started conducting exercises in political discipline for students at Szczecin universities, where I obtained a occupation for the work, after a longer reflection, I yet realized that a man must have a clear and clear worldview, and preferably a spiritual worldview. After all, a spiritual man is simply a man with “an integral personality” (a beautiful expression of the Slavophile Igor Kiriewski), in which he activates not only his senses, but besides intuition and direct contact with God. Even then I read Mircea Eliade's works with passion, and I was already affirmative and treated myself with respect for religion in general. I have considered and inactive believe that religion and religion are the most crucial elements in shaping a conscious man. Furthermore, as an academic worker, I, as a fascinate of religiousness, began to establish myself in the fact that it is Orthodoxy that gives us full Christian faith, Orthodoxy as the only true, since the pristine Christian Tradition, and Christianity, as I said, is the fact of God in general. At the time, I was no longer an agnostoc or an atheist. I was already disposed to be religious, even more to east Christian religion, to Orthodoxy. This is my second reason for interest in Orthodoxy – an intellectual and logical cause, so to speak.
In addition, it must be said that in parallel with the sprouting interest, and later fascination and support for religiousness, and yet by Orthodoxy, the interest in Russian culture and Russians was born in childish times. Here, too, my way led in precisely the same way as in the case of my relation with the law, and thus through the same stages:
Indifference,
Interest,
Fascinating.
And so in the primary school in Dziwnow, where I lived, I remember that there were no Russians, but my father told me that the Russians are simply very calm, sometimes even passive and a small sad, and in peculiar they make the most beautiful literature and art. I besides mention Russian music from my childhood (here first of all Vladimir Wysocki). Later, in college, and especially after graduating from these studies, and where I worked as an academic at universities, I engaged in researching Russian philosophical and political thought. In particular, I was curious in Russian, Orthodox and conservative thoughts, Russian thinkers and writers (Aleksej Chomiakow, Igor Kiriewski, Nikolay Danilewski, Konstantin Leontjew, Fyodor Dostojewski, Włodzimierz Solovjow, Sergei Bulgakov, Paweł Floreński, Nikolay Bierdiaev, Semion Frank, Lew Karsawin, Ivan Iljin, etc., as well as – more contemporary – Petersburg and the laudable metropolitan Jan (Snyczow), or Alexander Dugin). Although I began to survey peculiarly European and American conservative (antiliberal) thoughts in my studies at the University of Szczecin, at the end of these studies I besides rapidly began to survey Russian conserative and Orthodox thought as, of course, Russian thought is based on Orthodoxy and its worldview.
And here, after graduation and after a fewer years of technological work, I already had an emotional and intellectual basis for a conscious and most crucial decision in my life. Finally, I had the basis for the next and final stage.
Shortly after this, my individual life began to test me – first there were terrible problems (e.g. the failure of work at universities in Szczecin – I fishy that due to my "incorrigible" from the point of the university's authorities, pro-pro-pro-Russian views, as well as serious wellness problems), and later I got to know the most beautiful moments – I met sincere love. Here I began to think about God seriously: if I met this love, then there is God.
And here, in those momentous moments erstwhile I thought of my life shift, abruptly inspired by any Russians who I met on the Internet, and above all by a charming woman, abruptly I decided to become a conscious Orthodox and active associate of the Autokephalist Polish Orthodox Church. About 2 years ago, I yet called the Orthodox priest who runs the Orthodox parish in Gryfice and asked him if I could be Orthodox conscious and what required me to become Orthodox conscious, and this priest willingly agreed to my active participation. Now I mostly go to the Divine Liturgy on Sunday to Gryfic, I made confession from the beginning. Now I'm aware of the Orthodox.
Yes, it is not easy to become Orthodox in Poland, where most Poles believe that actual Christianity is only Catholicism and Orthodoxy is expected to be “schism”. My Catholic household was surprised: “Why? Why did you choose Orthodox? After all, you were baptized in a Catholic rite.” I explained to this household that Catholicism had unfortunately begun to change the words in the "Symbol of Faith" contrary to the first Christian Councils (Filioque), began its unhealthy tendencies of fascination with the material planet and succumbed to human lusts, and, above all, to greed and debauchery, e.g. indulgences, the desire to subdue another religions and states to the Roman Catholic Church, its kind of "invasion" of the Roman Catholic Church in the sphere reserved exclusively for the state authority, the creation of the "Church State", the acquisition of the title of pontifex maximus from the Roman emperors and the tendencies of papacy (papal hyerocracy) in the mediate Ages, including the bull Gregory VII's "Dictatus papae", the dispute over the investment between the Innocenty III and the Roman emperor, direct participation in the struggles between the propaganda gwelfs and the giblels, who advocated for Emperor Frederick II Houftatus Papae, 13.
Yes, in my view today, in the face of the most dangerous dangers to the Orthodoxy and in general religiousness, morality, communities and traditions in the world, which are collectively philosophical currents from the West: liberalism, postmodernism, atheism, agnosticism, materialism, consumerism, permissiveism, egoism, relativism, indifferenceism, Catholicism is actually a small little dangerous, but Catholicism is the first phase of heresy than legitimate Christianity.
I was already consistent and persistent at the time. This was the first time that a breakthrough was made – from the position of a scientist who was fascinated with Orthodox, to a believing and active Orthodox position, from the position of a fascinating observer from outside to the position of an active Orthodox participant.
In addition, then there were another problems for me. Well, the nearest Orthodox church is in Gryfice, and I live temporarily in the countryside, close the Baltic Sea. The Divine Liturgy are mostly in the morning on Sundays, and buses run out of the summertime on Saturdays until around 5:00 p.m. and on Sundays only in the evening. What to do – erstwhile I have any extra money, I gotta order the cheapest area for 1 day (from Saturday to Sunday), then I am on the Divine Liturgy, and then I wait long for the evening bus to the seaside town, and yet I walk to the village for 3 kilometres. And erstwhile I don't have that extra money, I just sleep in the open and, unfortunately, cold air, i.e. in a city park or a railway station in Gryfice.
And not only did I proceed to survey the texts of Orthodox theologians and philosophers, but I practiced and cultivated Christian faith. all time I was in the Divine Liturgy, I always lit candles for my loved ones and prayed to God. The Orthodox priest who runs the Orthodox Church in Gryfice gave me a collection of books. I read them all, and I was peculiarly fascinated by the book “I Believe in One, a Catholic Church. Certificate of conversion to Orthodoxy’. It is simply a rich list of crucial papers of Christian councils and Orthodox interpretation. Moreover, it is simply a circumstantial Orthodox compendium of arguments in dispute with the infamous. She helped me to establish my fresh convictions regarding Orthodoxy. I was even more convinced that I chose the right way – Orthodoxy. Inspired by my beloved female and another Russians, now after my conversations with the aforementioned Orthodox priest and after reading these books, without any hesitation I find myself conscious and active Orthodox. And that's what makes me happy and proud. I want to prosecute the best possible Christian moral principles that Orthodox people preach. After all, I am naturally a perfectionist. I want to make a traditional, normal, strong, full of sincere love, Orthodox, God-blessed family, with a real female and with many children, a household that respects Orthodox principles.
I will say more: starting with primary school, where I came into contact with the Christian faith, where at the time my Catholic catechist taught me, I can describe my way to active Orthodoxness as a road through 4 phases:
1. Indifference,
2. Interest,
3. Fascinating,
4. Internalization (total and faithful acceptance of the Christian religion (the Orthodox one).
To sum up, so far in Poland alone in Poland, but I am more determined and calm than always before, due to the fact that I know that I am part of the Orthodox community, I belong to the Orthodox Church and will shortly be in Russia. And while I would actually like to be a associate of the Russian Orthodox Church – after all, Moscow is the 3rd Rome, the Polish Autokephal Orthodox Church is the best option I have always met in my life. I am more firm and calm due to the fact that Orthodoxy forms me and my mentality, gives me firm spiritual discipline, gives me an Orthodox view. Finally, I am firm and calm, for God is always with me. I trust God, my beloved woman, and those who supported me spiritually and materially. I want to establish a traditional, Orthodox, loving household with my beloved and with our future children and besides support the Orthodox Church, another Russians. Now I look to the future with hope and religion in Christ, for I believe that God cares for us and cares for us.
I believe in God and in the Orthodox Church, I believe that God gave me the best: warmth, love, tenderness, faithfulness from my beloved and another Russians. I am grateful to God and I want to fulfill my God-given mission: to give love to my beloved woman, our future children and those who have supported me in my full life.
I would add that Orthodoxy is not just a collection of rites, rituals, fashions, etc. Orthodoxy is primarily a worldview, a holistic model of the explanation of the full cosmos around us, an all-embracing way of everyday life, reasoning and perception of the world. To be Orthodox is to think and feel Orthodox. In my opinion, Orthodoxy is not endless guilt, constant mortification, passiveness, and sorrow. Orthodoxy is love, happiness and joy erstwhile I see my beloved woman, as well as, in turn, my another brothers (mostly Orthodox Russians) and the full world: heaven, clouds, earth, bread, harvest, forest, fruit, etc., for God himself created us in his image and likeness, due to the fact that God is present everywhere around us. Orthodoxy is the sobority, unity, brotherhood, superiority of the spirit over the body, not any cult of “unit”, consumption and money. Orthodoxy is besides – in crisis situations – activism, valor and valor, it is simply a hard fight against forces of evil, it is simply a ruthless defence of order against the devil's temptations.
Dr. Krzysztof Karczewski.
