Universalism as we understand it here means extending our thoughts, imagination, and actions on universal matters, reaching beyond the particularism of our own individual existence. Applying this concept to matters of culture may raise questions. For culture -- every culture -- develops on the ground of needs, values, images, knowledge, beliefs, and patterns of behavior that are universal inasmuch as they are proper to some extent to all people. These elements of culture based on the treasure gathered by "the others", even if the roots and sources of this gathered treasure sink somewhere into the dawn of history. Differences then are something secondary and transient, often imposed by recent conditions. Yet horizons of "proposals" offered by particular cultures, the stuff that human groups query and from which they choose may be and are in fact different -- wider or narrower.

To my understanding, "portability" or the ability to transplant elements of a culture is not a measure of universalism, for narrow egoism, conceitedness, chauvinism also happen to be fashionable, and hence "portable". What is essential are patterns and imperatives in the service of universal values and ideas.

In principle, engagement in this service is taught by all religions and ideologies claiming to be universally humane. Moreover, every national culture should be enlightened with universalism, just as every Christian should be a devoted altruist. Unfortunately, as we know, it is not always so in practice. Glorious chapters in the history of "Cain’s tribe" seem to be so rare that it is right to remember them, without falling into euphoria, in order to stimulate and to educate present generations.

At the same time, it is impossible to deny that Polish culture has already many fruits that are widely known in the world and are discovered from time to time with enthusiasm by representatives of even very remote cultural circles. Alien admirers of our culture noticed, for instance, that the Polish "to be or not to be" is a question concerning the destiny of many countries. A French historian Ambroise Jobert, from 1953, the middle of the gloomy Stalinist epoch, noted that on the eve of celebration of the millennium of Poland’s baptism the Catholic Church in Poland was involved in "an experience of universal scope" (dans une expérience d’une portée universelle), that is, of coexistence and collaboration with other ideologies, yet fully preserving its identity. Such an experience is nothing new in Poland.

Since the second half of the Xth century the unknown and isolated duchy of Polans became Poland -- a member of the Christian community of nations. Poles, accepting baptism -- which was also a political act -- persisted from the beginning in putting the idea and spirit of Christianity in the first place. Moreover, what was not typical of that epoch, they subordinated politics to this primordial idea. The consequence of this persistence was confident service to the spiritual protection of Popes and radical opposition to the temporal centralism of emperors. They were courageous in reaching for the crown as symbol of full sovereignty, but rejected a king stained with priestly blood and lacking the respect of law required of monarchs. Its consequence was also tolerance, so characteristic of the Polish state and society beginning from the XIVth century -- the conviction that nobody has the right to convert anybody by means of physical violence.

Tolerance was a natural need of a multiethnic and multireligious state. As we know, however, these questions were solved in various ways in other states. The Polish Counterreformation cannot be compared to counterreformational actions of ruling groups for instance in France, Spain, or Germany, nor with deeds of Protestants in the north of Europe. As early as in the XIVth century Poles created a state that -- with all its imperfections -- for four centuries, until the moment of its partition, formed the first political organism in the middle of Europe. On the basis of their personal agreement it unified people of various denominations and languages, as well as of various descent. It was a state in which one’s fellow citizens were of various ethnic groups, and this state of affairs became a tradition.

Voluntary unification -- in the name of the ideal of Christian love of neighbor and of liberty of conscience -- attracted to the Polish culture not only Lithuanians, Belorussians, Ukrainians, and Armenians, but also Germans (former enemies who sought the protection of the Polish crown and retained their autonomy) and Tatars. Asylum was sought in our country also by old-believers and Czech brethren, the Irish and Swedes. Jews enjoyed liberties which for a long time they had been granted neither in the West nor in the East.

It will always remain an open question whether the great founders of these polonized families would have been who they were had they not been polonized, that is, had not the culture of their ancestors confronted Polish culture, thereby enlarging their "horizons" of choice. Their polonization was incontestably voluntary, and they deserve "understanding" who yielded to polonization by their own choice. They succeeded in realizing a pluralistic state, based on the co-responsibility of a fraternized population and on respect for fellow citizens. In this system, some were allowed to offer their coats of arms and to work out liberties, others to praise their land and history in the Polish language and to join native musical motives with foreign ones.

Polish Christian culture, with its tolerance of a federative state, matured for a long time. Experiencing rises and falls, it flourished fully only in the period of the Four Years’ Seym and of the oldest peacefully achieved Constitution in Europe, that of May 3^rd, directly before the catastrophe of the partitions. It is remarkable at the same time that further development of its universalistic engagement was achieved after Poland’s partition -- in misfortune -- as a fruit born of painful experience.

A great role was played also by the inclusion of Poland in the interplay of world powers, as well as in Napoleon’s great plans. All this brought Poland closer to the West, together with a vision of Europe united on a much greater scale than in the time of the monarchy of Charlemagne. That is why Napoleon, even if he did not resurrect Poland, but only a small part in the form of the Warsaw Duchy, was long remembered in this country. Even in the XXth century he still inspired poets and was a popular figure in home sanctuaries.

The factor, however, that most contributed to Poland’s emancipation from its local limits and to its durable engagement in world affairs of universal importance was not a leader, nor any single person, but a group -- a layer called the intelligentsia. It was born of catastrophe, and imbued with unreal, as it seemed, ideals, in contrast to the steady bourgeoisie of more fortunate countries. Above all, however -- let us stress -- it was more Christian, in its majority religious and progressive, and often even revolutionary in terms of looking for greater social justice. Over the course of changing generations, the intelligentsia greatly influenced, the entire nation’s way of thinking and feeling, as well that of neighboring nations. It was a specific influence, but not particularist or ephemeral.

The priority of cultural matters resulted in an intelligentsia born of traditions, education, and relative poverty, as well as from particular habits of homelessness due to their condition as wanderers and emigrants. Culture became the most handy luggage of wanderers. It was culture that opened various milieus and granted prestige everywhere -- even if one arrived empty-handed.

The Polish concern about world affairs may be called Polish "claims" to the world. It often happened to be somehow exaggerated. The sense, however, is deeply human, based on a conviction that the whole world is a system of means for communicating, and that it is the duty of every nation to be sensitive to everything what is human, whatever is going on on our planet.

The civil ethos of the intelligentsia made of Poles at that time a society with widely recognized moral values, and in many countries even famous for its honesty. People did not stretch out their hands to the dishonest and to the asocial (e.g., renegades). Honesty was understood in its active sense, as not only an imperative to keep agreements, but also to help and to bear common civic responsibility.

As a result of the negation of the state and the laws under partitions Poles generally inclined towards anarchism and at the same time became masters in using informal structures. They astonished their invaders with this ability. This, of course, had its negative sides and we should not idealize the ethos created by the intelligentsia. Yet, its positive element lay in objecting to the apotheosis of conforming to the existing situation dominant in many other cultures, and to be the conception of a social order based exclusively on negotiated material and private interests. The Polish ethos proclaimed something quite opposite: the primacy of ethics and of the common good over private profits.

For, even against your will, you may become a monster

These are the words of the great poet and philosopher Cyprian Norwid, who was a rigid judge of his own nation and social stratum in the name of universal principles which surpassed all particularisms.

Nations in this frame of reference cease to be accidental products of history or interest groups; they gain their subjective essence and meaning, assuming responsibility for the whole of mankind. Their service, efforts and sacrifices, focusing the conscious actions of engaged individuals, are subject to the same eschatological settlement of accounts as their members. "Our nation is called to predict to the peoples the gospel of nationality, morality, and religion, and of contempt for budgets that constitute the only principle of politics in today’s world," wrote Mickiewicz to Joachim Lelewel. These words are the more substantial as we remember another postulate of the poet, namely, in the slogan "for your freedom and ours" to accent the word "your", even if this were -- as he wrote -- "in spite of all diplomatic logic".

How close this is to the contemporary position of Fr. Józef st -- several generations later -- who, meditating upon the hopes awakened by Pope John Paul II, perceives "the Poles’ dignity as inheritors of the heroic history of their nation, the dignity of human work that the Socialists had in mind, the significance of liberty, of traditional tolerance, of faithfulness to truth and of courage in devotion".

Messianism thus conceived, perceiving human dignity in the dignity of national efforts and sacrifices, has nothing to do with chauvinism. Its is humanistic and universalistic par excellence, serving the common good. If the notion of "Christ of nations" appeared once among messianists, should we not see in it rather a poeticized echo of the Christian teaching of Thomas ä Kempis on following Christ in general?

The cultural patterns of contemporary Polish religiosity arouse the curiosity of various observers. That Poles pass for a society that is particularly attached to Christian faith and culture does not always increase the number of their friends in the world. Some observers suspect them of lacking universal attitudes and they themselves do not fully appreciate the universal advantages of this trait -- the chance on this religious platform of being everywhere close to all those whose ardor of faith is not yet extinguished. The possibilities are much greater than has been realized so far, both on distant and in nearer arenas. For instance in striving to approach neighboring peoples Poles should to a greater extent profit from the mediation of the Catholic and more religious Slovakia; in cooperating with the Third World, we should more often approach Christians who live there and tighten bonds with them. We should also know better the multiple religions; this could bring us closer to others in the frame of a broadly understood ecumenism. That, however, is a separate subject.

In culture the majority of existing models are only proposals, accompanied by a temptation to reject them. Engagement in common affairs and destiny is necessarily challenged by the alternative of a narrow-minded care of one’s own bailiwick. For the same reason sinners go to the same schools as saints, in houses of revolutionaries conservatives are born, and ascetics have sybarites for brothers. However, as was said more than two hundred years ago by F. Skarbek, even if people devoured by an altruistic current and consciously devoting their forces to the common cause are everywhere in the minority, yet history is shaped first of all by their activity. When the wisdom, bravery and goodness of this group prevail, nations experience periods of prosperity; when these qualities are absent, days of defeats and falls follow.

The Polish culture -- just as every national culture -- incessantly oscillates between the two poles of its traditional possibilities and proposals. As those who share it or profit from its treasure we constantly have to search and to choose. We also know that in the course of history no choice is or can be ultimate. As long as a culture is alive, we can only take steps. It is, however, good when we aim at noble goals. It is also good when through "the proposals" that give us our ability to choose there is revealed the horizon of a truly broad care of universal human values.

In this chapter, I have tried to signal certain phenomena that testify to the existence of this "horizon" in Polish culture. It is a patrimony that is worth attention, and not only for our private use. The Polish seed, thrown on other ground, has grown even more beautifully and exuberantly than on the shores of the Vistul. Here also lies the specific universalism of this seed.

This feature is often considered romantic idealism of which Poles are supposed to be the epigones or, according to the others, the greatest champions. The estimate will always be subjective, but it will remain a fact that Polish desires often were oriented towards common and universal affairs in the name of universal humanity. It is no exaggeration to state that contents of Christian love of neighbors and justice deeply penetrated Polish culture, inciting brilliant ideals that served the common good, and not only our own interests. In any case, in Poland many creative, socially active people chose this direction.