"Civilizational" Boundaries in Christian-Jewish Relations


Wise, “Civilizational” Boundaries in Christian-Jewish Relations Wise 1  http://escholarship.bc.edu/scjr/vol5 

Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 

A peer-reviewed e-journal of the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations 

Published by the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College 

 

“Civilizational” Boundaries in Christian-Jewish Relations 
 
 

A n dr e w K . Wi s e   
 

D a e m e n  C o l l e g e   

 

Volume 5 (2010) 

http://escholarship.bc.edu/scjr/vol5 

 

     



Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations                    Volume 5(2010): Wise 1-22 

Wise, “Civilizational” Boundaries in Christian-Jewish Relations                     Wise 2   http://escholarship.bc.edu/scjr/vol5 

―The Jewish question is neither racial nor religious, 
but civilizational.‖   - Feliks Koneczny

1
 

 
The Koneczny Renaissance in Poland 
   

Beginning in February 2007, members of the radical 
party Narodowe Odrodzenie Polski (National Rebirth of Poland 
- NOP)

2
 have gathered in Kraków each year to commemorate 

the life and work of Feliks Koneczny (1862-1949). The ―Konec-
zny Conference‖ coincides with the historian‘s birthday, and 
after the proceedings a small group marches to his grave in the 
Salvator Cemetery to pay homage to the man dubbed by one 
admirer the ―Copernicus of the Third Millenium.‖

3
 Participants at 

the inaugural event discussed the need for ―wiping out‖ in con-
temporary Poland the influence of the same non-Latin 
civilizations identified by Koneczny as threats in the interwar 
period: Turanian, Byzantine, and Jewish. Central to this vision 

                                                           
1
 Feliks Koneczny, ―Państwo w cywilizacji łacińskiej,‖ in Państwo i prawo w 

cywilizacji łacińskiej (Warszawa and Komorów, Wydawnictwo Antyk, 2001), 8. 
The manuscript was completed in October 1941. 
2
 The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and 

Racism reported in 2007 that the NOP was ―the most aggressively antisemitic 
organization in Poland.‖ See Antisemitism Worldwide 2007 – Poland,  
http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw2007/poland.html  (accessed 12 August 
2010).  
3
 Andrzej J. Horodecki, ―Ciemności europejskie,‖ Nowy Przegląd Wszechpol-

ski 11 (2004), no. 5-6,  
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2004_05_06/OKW-
Horodecki_CIEMNOZCI-EUROPEJSKIE.html (accessed 21 June 2006). In 
this essay Horodecki specifically calls for Koneczny‘s works to be required 
reading in religious education classes in middle schools. He has been active 
in the nationalist movement since his days as a member of the Polski 
Związek Katolicko-Społeczny (Polish Catholic-Social Union), which was 

founded in January 1981. Koneczny‘s ideas were an important component of 
nationalist ideology among a new generation of Polish activists that emerged 
in the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a frequent contributer to Myśl Polska, 
but more importantly as an editor and contributor to Nowy Przegląd 
Wszechpolski, Andrzej Horodecki has produced dozens of essays that apply 
Koneczny‘s civilizational paradigm to a myriad of contemporary problems. 

is the belief that these civilizations aim to diminish Catholicism, 
which is at the heart of Latin civilization. One young activist, 
Marcin Jendrzejczak, concluded that it is ―necessary in our hard 
times of culture wars to cooperate with Catholics and Latinists 
from all western regions in a sort of ‗white international‘...‖

4
  

 
At the 2008 Koneczny Conference, Kamil Sawczak de-

livered a paper ―On the Resolution of the Jewish Problem.‖
5
 

Citing Koneczny as an authority, the author contended that the 
―Jewish problem‖ is not a racial or religious issue, but a civiliza-
tional one. The presentation was filled with resentment about 
the ―civilizational sickness‖ that accompanies the ―Judaization‖ 
(zażydzenie) of Polish thinking. This is an old complaint, one 
that Catholic critics voiced frequently in the interwar period.

6
 

Linked in today‘s conspiratorial vision with the ―new world or-
der,‖ Sawczak identified Jewish influence in the 
bureaucratization of Polish society, the proliferation of pornog-
raphy,

7
 and most significantly in the focus on the ―letter of the 

                                                           
4
 Marcin Jendrzejczak, ―Nacjonalizm bizantyjski‖ (28 June 2007), Prawica.net, 

http://www.prawica.net/node/7547 (accessed 8 July 2010). Several dozen 
people reportedly attended the conference. Topics of speeches included: 
Dariusz Tarnowiecki, ―Polska między Wschodem a Zachodem;‖ Bartosz Bier-
nat, ―Cywilizacja Łacińska a Cywilizacja Zachodu;‖ and Zbigniew Lignarski, 
―Talmud a ideologia III Rzeszy.‖  See Nacjonalista.pl – Portal Narodowy-
Radykalny,  http://www.nacjonalista.org/galeria.php?id=110  (accessed 20 
November 2009). Also see Zbigniew Lignarski, ―Talmud ze swastyką w tle?‖ 
(20 May 2009), Archipelag-Instytut Norwida, 

http://archipelag.org.pl/newsdesk_info.php?newsPath=4&newsdesk_id=4 
(accessed 21 November 2009). 
5
 Kamil Sawczak, ―Poglądy: O rozwiązaniu kwestii żydowskiej. Referat 

wygłoszony na II Konferencji Konecznańskiej, Kraków, 9.02.2008,‖ Nacjonal-
ista.pl – Portal Narodowo-Radykalny, 

http://www.nacjonalista.org/artykuly.php?id=88 (accessed 2 April 2008). 
6
 See Ronald Modras, ―The Interwar Polish Catholic Press on the Jewish 

Question,‖ Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 
548 (November 1996): 179-180. 
7
 In his book on ―Jewish civilization,‖ Koneczny discusses this issue. See Fe-

liks Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska  (London: Wydawnictwa Towarzystwa 

http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw2007/poland.html
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2004_05_06/OKW-Horodecki_CIEMNOZCI-EUROPEJSKIE.html
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2004_05_06/OKW-Horodecki_CIEMNOZCI-EUROPEJSKIE.html
http://www.prawica.net/node/7547
http://www.nacjonalista.org/galeria.php?id=110
http://archipelag.org.pl/newsdesk_info.php?newsPath=4&newsdesk_id=4
http://www.nacjonalista.org/artykuly.php?id=88


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Wise, “Civilizational” Boundaries in Christian-Jewish Relations                     Wise 3   http://escholarship.bc.edu/scjr/vol5 

law‖ rather than its ethical content. Echoing Koneczny‘s fears 
from an earlier era, Sawczak proclaimed: ―The Judaization of 
Polish society has become a fact; thus the problem of the solu-
tion of the Jewish question stands before us.‖

8
  

   
In his Cywilizacja żydowska, Koneczny opined that 

―One cannot be civilized in two ways...Either we must de-
Judaize or we will perish miserably in Judaization. There is not 
any anti-Semitism in this thesis, but only a warning about civili-
zational mixtures...the Jewish question is neither religious nor 
racial, but civilizational. In the civilizational sense of the word, 
who will not be an anti-Semite?...In any country, who will thirst 
for civilizational Judaization?‖

9
 Indeed, Koneczny claimed that 

anti-Semitism was a defense of Latin civilization ―against the 
claims of Israel for world domination.‖

10
 

   
Koneczny and his heirs have consistently defined Po-

land‘s basic problem as a lack of civilizational purity. 
Koneczny‘s influence on extremist thinking goes back to the 
interwar period, especially among the so-called ―youth‖ who 
eagerly sought to combine their Catholicism and nationalism 
into a coherent ideology. Rafał Łętocha has identified an un-
doubted influence of Koneczny on the endek vision of history 
that emerged during World War II, and his ―clash of civiliza-
tions‖ theory can also be found in their wartime analyses.

11
 His 

influence is evident in concepts and terms, such as ―Latin    

                                                                                                                             
imienia Romana Dmowskiego, 1974), 383-384. In his introduction, Jędrzej 
Giertych notes that Koneczny claimed to have most of this book finished by 
1934, when his Plurality of Civilisations was completed. Giertych gives 1943 
as the final date of completion, with a few changes added after that. Ibid., 8. 
8
 Sawczak, ―O rozwiązaniu kwestii żydowskiej.‖  

9
 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 407-409.   

10
 Ibid., 388. 

11
 Rafał Łętocha, Katolicyzm a idea narodowa. Miejsce religii w myśli obozu 

narodowego lat okupacji (Lublin: Fundacja Servire Veritati Instytut Edukacji 
Narodowej, 2002), 88-89. 

civilization,‖ which were borrowed from his works. Also, their 
rhetoric has a Konecznian emphasis on ethics as a key factor 
in distinguishing civilizations.

12
  

   
While Koneczny‘s works fell into disfavor in communist 

Poland, several key manuscripts were published in exile by 
Jędrzej Giertych (1903-1992). Jędrzej‘s ideology is sometimes 
referred to as ―Christian Nationalism,‖ which is the title of a bro-
chure that he published in 1948.

13
 His thinking reflects the 

attitudes of the nationalist ―youths‖ who came of age in the in-
terwar period. In recent years, Jędrzej‘s son, Maciej (b. 1936), 
has served as the leading ideologue for the League of Polish 
Families (Liga Polskich Rodziń – LPR, formed in 2001), as well 
as a deputy to the European Parliament (2004-2009). More-
over, Maciej‘s son, Roman (b. 1971), served briefly (May 2006-
August 2007) as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Educa-
tion in a coalition government. Maciej, in particular, has 
elevated Koneczny‘s ―science of civilizations‖ to a new level of 
importance in nationalist ideology.

14
 

   
Jarosław Tomasiewicz opined that ―the influence of 

Koneczny on the contemporary endecja [nationalist movement] 
is difficult to overestimate. The ‗theory of civilizations‘ is a sort 
of ‗metatheory‘ for the Catholic nationalism of the endecja.‖

15
 

                                                           
12

 Ibid., 284-285. 
13

 See Jędrzej Giertych, Nacjonalizm chrześcijański, 3
rd

 ed. (Krzeszowice: 

Dom Wydawniczy ―Ostoja,‖ 2004). 
14

 Ulrich Schmid finds that the Giertychs have sought to blend Roman 
Dmowski‘s ideas with Koneczny‘s Catholic historical philosophy. See ―Eine 
glückliche Familie Die Giertychs und ihre Ideologie,‖ Osteuropa 56 

(November-December 2006), no. 11-12: 69. 
15

 Jarosław Tomasiewicz, Ugrupowania neoendeckie w III Rzeczypospolitej 
(Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, 2003), 219. Grzegorz Tokarz also 
finds that Koneczny‘s theories about civilizational conflict are important to 
contemporary nationalists.  In the opinion of nationalists, he argues, anti-
Semitism is ―an existential conflict.‖ See Grzegorz Tokarz, Ruch narodowy w 



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Today, nationalists argue that despite centuries of pressure 
from alien civilizations, ―the rebirth of Latin civilization must 
begin in Poland.‖

16
 As the ―apostle of Latin civilization‖ [empha-

sis in original],
17

 Poland must fulfill its messianic mission as 
described by Koneczny: ―Our duty and historical mission are 
one and the same: the spread of Latin civilization.‖

18
 While 

Koneczny was not a member of the endecja, ―the notion of ‗Lat-
in civilization‘—which is a key to his theory—has become the 
standard for the new endeks‖

19
 as they don their ―civilizational 

armor‖
20

 and fight to defend Poland‘s civilizational boundaries. 
For Koneczny and his heirs this struggle has been ―three-fold‖ 
in nature: ―material, moral, and intellectual.‖

21
 Koneczny insist-

ed that the ―issue of civilization—the psychical issue—is not 

                                                                                                                             
Polsce w latach 1989-1997 (Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu 
Wrocławskiego, 2002), 211-213. 
16

 Andrzej Horodecki, ―Kościół wobec personalizmu i gromadnościowości: 
Konsekwencje lekceważenia grzechu pierworodnego,‖ Nowy Przegląd 
Wszechpolski 11 (2004), no. 3-4, 
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2004_03_04/ZRE-
Horodecki_KOSCIOL-WOBEC.html (accessed 30 June 2008). 
17

 Andrzej Horodecki, ―Wychowanie do wolności w prawdzie,‖ Nowy Przegląd 
Wszechpolski 11 (2004), no. 9-10, 
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2004_09_10/PIS-
Horodecki_wychowanie-do-wolnosci.html (accessed 30 June 2008). 
18

 Feliks Koneczny, Prawa dziejowe. Oraz dodatek Byzantynizm niemiecki 

(London: Wydawnictwa Towarzystwa imienia Romana Dmowskiego, 1982), 
324. Koneczny‘s ―neo-messianistim‖ is noted by many scholars; for example, 
see Sonia Bukowska, ―Feliksa Konecznego historiozoficzna refleksja nad 
narodem,‖ Folia Philosophica 20 (2002): 247. On Koneczny‘s romanticism, 

see Joanna Nowak, ―Jedność w rozmaitości – czyli o romantycznych kor-
zeniach koncepcji narodu Feliksa Konecznego,‖ Sprawy Narodowościowe  30 
(2007): 75-94. 
19

 Tomasiewicz, Uprupowania neoendeckie, 219. 
20

 Editorial, ―Miłość przebija pancerze,‖ Nowy Przegląd Wszechpolski 14 
(2007), no. 1-2: 1, http://www.npw.pl/pdf/npw.2007.1-2.pdf (accessed 27 Au-
gust 2009). 
21

 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 251; and Feliks Koneczny, On the Plural-
ity of Civilisations, tr. Jędrzej Giertych, intro. Anton Hilckman, pref. Arnold 
Toynbee (London: Polonica Publications, 1962), 172. 

dependent on the bodily, the racial. We see that here the spirit 
is stronger than the body. The independence of civilization from 
race is a valuable contribution to the problem of the superiority 
of the soul over matter [emphasis in original].‖

22
 In their rhetoric, 

Koneczny and his heirs place a primary significance on morality 
and ethics. 
   

Since its formation, leaders of the League of Polish 
Families have consistently used Konecznian terminology. This 
is evident in many phrases, such as ―the unbridgeable civilisa-
tional difference,‖ ―the law of the impossibility of the 
civilisational synthesis,‖ ―the law of harmfulness of the merging 
of civilisations—civilisations cannot coexist,‖ and ―contact of 
different civilizations is the greatest challenge for society.‖

23
 

Hanna Kwiatkowska has found similar echoes of the past in the 
pages of Nasz Dziennik,

24
 noting ―an ideological continuation 

from the thoughts of the pre-WWII nationalists such as R[oman] 
Dmowski and Prof. F. Koneczny, whose writing[s] are very 
much promoted in the newspaper. The newspaper never sees 

                                                           
22

 Koneczny, Plurality of Civilisations, 216. 
23

 Joanna Kurczewska, et al. The European Dilemma: Institutional Patterns 
and Politics of „Racial‟ Discrimination. Project Report: Work Package 6. Dis-
course Analysis of Politics: LPR‟s Rhetoric (Warsaw: Institute of Public 

Affairs, 2005), 
http://www.isp.org.pl/files/11297950200606281001164194296.pdf (accessed 
30 June 2008), 73. 
24

 Established in 1998, Nasz Dziennik ―quickly became the most influential 

religious paper in Poland‖ and sells an estimated 200,000 copies every day. 
The daily is closely linked to Radio Maryja, which since its founding in 1991 
has been formally run by the Order of Holy Redeemer (Ojcowie Redempto-
ryści), but is really managed by its Director, Father Tadeusz Rydzyk. See 
Stanisław Burdziej, ―Voice of the Disinherited? Religious Media after the 2005 
Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in Poland,‖ East European Quarterly 
42 (June 2008), no. 2: 208. Koneczny is frequently referenced in Nasz Dzien-
nik and Radio Maryja commentaries, including those by Father Rydzyk. See 
Rafał Maszkowski, ―Inny świat – obraz Żydów w Radiu Maryja,‖ Kwartalnik 
Historii Żydów (2006), no. 4: 671. 

http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2004_03_04/ZRE-Horodecki_KOSCIOL-WOBEC.html
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2004_03_04/ZRE-Horodecki_KOSCIOL-WOBEC.html
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2004_09_10/PIS-Horodecki_wychowanie-do-wolnosci.html
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2004_09_10/PIS-Horodecki_wychowanie-do-wolnosci.html
http://www.npw.pl/pdf/npw.2007.1-2.pdf
http://www.isp.org.pl/files/11297950200606281001164194296.pdf


Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations                    Volume 5(2010): Wise 1-22 

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the Jews who lived in Poland as Poles but as strangers or 
guests who abused the Polish hospitality.‖

25
 

 
   Stefan Zgliczyński of Stowarzyszenie Nigdy Więcej 
(Never Again Association, an anti-racist watchdog group) has 
correctly identified Koneczny as the ―unquestioned authority‖ 
today among nationalists who construct defenses against ―civi-
lizational threats.‖

26
 Marian Bębenek also has found that 

Koneczny‘s views are embraced by the extreme Catholic na-
tionalists in Poland.

27
 Writing in the ―Never Again‖ periodical, 

Katarzyna Stańczak-Wiślicz adds that Koneczny‘s Cywilizacja 
żydowska is ―a source of arguments for contemporary anti-
semitic discourse.‖ She argues that Koneczny‘s vision of ―anti-
Semitism as a positive program leading to the ‗dejudaization‘ 
and rescue of Latin civilization‖ provides a ―scientific‖ basis for 
similar arguments today.

28
 Indeed, Koneczny admirers believe 

that his science of civilizations is ―the key to understanding the 
present world situation.‖

29
 Mirosław Dakowski warns fellow 

Poles that a dangerous ―mélange of various moralities‖ threat-
ens Poles with civilizational chaos and that they must decide to 
which civilization they want to belong. Moreover, Koneczny is 
often cited as an authority by those who seek to marginalize the 

                                                           
25

 Hanna Kwiatkowska, ―Conflict between the Image of the Jews and the Self-
Image of the Poles in the Light of the Articles Published in ‗Nasz Dziennik‘ 
1998-2003,‖ Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia 2 (2003): 91. 
26

 Stefan Zgliczyński, Antysemityzm po polsku (Warszawa: Instytut 

Wydawniczy Książka i Prasa, 2008), 114. 
27

 Marian Bębenek, ―Paradygmat polityki w cywilizacji łacińskiej,‖ in Feliks 
Koneczny dzisiaj. Praca zbiorowa, ed. Jan Skoczyński (Kraków: Księgarnia 
Akademicka, 2000), 90.  
28

 Katarzyna Stańczak-Wiślicz, ―W pułapce kołobłędu, czyli antysemityzm 
uczonego,‖ Nigdy Więcej 16 (Winter-Spring 2008): 18. 
29

 Mirosław Dakowski, ―Potencjały rozpraszające a instynkt samozachow-
awczy narodów (cywilizacja według Feliksa Konecznego),‖ (12 March 2007), 
Strona Mirosława Dakowskiego, 
http://dakowski.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=
49 (accessed 23 August 2009). 

Jewish roots of Christianity as another way to create civiliza-
tional boundaries between the two faiths.

30
 In order to better 

understand why and how Koneczny‘s vast intellectual legacy 
can be used in this way, we must first become familiar with his 
work on what he termed the ―science of civilizations.‖ 
    
The Quest for Civilizational Purity 
   

Koneczny‘s ―science of civilizations‖ matured during a 
peculiar period of war, revolution, and cultural anxiety.

31
 De-

spite witnessing the rebirth of the Polish state, he feared threats 
from all around: To the east, there was ―Turanian‖ Russia. To 
the west, there was ―Byzantine‖ Germany. Finally, there was 
the danger within, represented by the ―flowering in Poland of 
Jewish civilization.‖

32
 These three civilizations threatened the 

existence of ―Christian-classical civilization, represented in Po-
land by Catholicism.‖

33
 Like other civilizational schemes 

concocted in the 20
th
 century, Koneczny‘s is highly normative.

34
 

Koneczny even conceded that ―it is difficult not to admit that a 

                                                           
30

 Ewa Maj, ―Sposoby zaprzeczania Zagładzie: przypadek środowisk neoen-
deckich‖ (14 October 2003), Forum Żydzi- Chrześcijanie-Muzułmanie,   
http://www.znak.org.pl/?lang1=pl&page1=studies&subpage1=studies00&infop
assid1=83&scrt1=sn (accessed 12 August 2010).  
31

 Marek N. Jakubowski, Ciągłość historii i historia ciągłości Polska filozofia 
dziejów (Toruń: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 2004), 214-
216. 
32

 Feliks Koneczny, Polska między wschodem a zachodem (Lublin: ―Onion,‖ 
1996), 47. 
33

 Ibid., 48. 
34

 Zbigniew Pucek, ―Feliks Koneczny: teoria pluralizmu cywilizacyjnego,‖ in 
Szkice z historii socjologii polskiej, ed.  Kazimierz Z. Sowa (Warszawa: PAX, 
1983), 158. 

http://dakowski.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=49
http://dakowski.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=49
http://www.znak.org.pl/?lang1=pl&page1=studies&subpage1=studies00&infopassid1=83&scrt1=sn
http://www.znak.org.pl/?lang1=pl&page1=studies&subpage1=studies00&infopassid1=83&scrt1=sn


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Wise, “Civilizational” Boundaries in Christian-Jewish Relations                     Wise 6   http://escholarship.bc.edu/scjr/vol5 

hierarchy of civilizations exists.‖
35

 Latin civilization was the best, 
of course, and Jewish civilization was ―at the very bottom.‖

36
  

   
Poland has a special role in world history as a defender 

of Latin civilization, and Koneczny‘s works provided a thorough 
analysis of its salient characteristics that are referenced by 
many nationalists today as they argue for a purification of Po-
land‘s culture. In Koneczny‘s mind, the process of purification 
entailed purging Poland of influences from alien civilizations. 
Koneczny believed in the ―plurality of civilizations;‖ he rejected 
the notion of any sort of overarching ―supra-civilization‖ to 
which all humanity belongs. As he put it: ―Mankind does not ex-
ist either historically or sociologically.‖

37
 Thus, there never has 

been a ―global civilization,‖ nor will one ever exist.  
   

Koneczny developed several key concepts and ―histori-
cal laws‖ that help us better understand the civilizational 
boundaries that separate Jews and Catholics. His early theoret-
ical works refer to the concepts of logos (theory) and ethos 
(practice).

38
 One author notes that ―logos is a thought, an opin-

ion, an idea, a conception. But ethos is the practical side of 
life...‖

39
 A harmony between logos and ethos, between thought 

and action, is not constant, but it is required for a civilization to 
make progress.

40
 Over time Koneczny introduced his notion of 

                                                           
35

 Koneczny, Prawa dziejowe, 100. 
36

 Leszek Gawor, O wielości cywilizacji: Filozofia społeczna Feliksa Konec-
znego (Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej, 2002), 
124. 
37

 Koneczny, Prawa dziejowe, 31. 
38

 The title of one of Koneczny‘s earliest works in civilizational theory is Pol-
skie logos a ethos: Roztrząsanie o znaceniu i celu polski, 2 vols., 2

nd
 ed. 

(Komorów: Wydawnictwo Antyk, 1997). It was originally published in 1921. 
39

 Marian Szczęsny, ―Rola chrześcijaństwa w tworzeniu cywilizacji łacińskiej 
według Feliksa Konecznego,‖ Studia Teologiczne 20 (2002): 397. 
40

 Jan Skoczyński, Koneczny: Teoria cywilizacji (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo 
IFiS PAN, 2003), 63-64. 

the ―quincunx of existential values‖ or ―categories of being,‖ 
which explains the innermost essence of each civilization: 
Health, Prosperity, Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. The first two 
categories belong to the ―material world,‖ while the next two 
belong to the ―spiritual world;‖ the final, Beauty, belongs to both 
worlds. Piotr Grabowiec pointed out that Thomism was em-
braced by Koneczny as ―the most persistent foundation‖ of his 
social theory.

41
  

   
His quincunx clearly demonstrates how ―Koneczny 

builds his theory on a foundation of dualism. That is why he 
emphasizes the existence of two substances, material and spir-
itual, which make up reality.‖

42
 The spiritual side of life was 

more important, and Koneczny argued that only in Latin civiliza-
tion was it dominant. Significantly, Koneczny took the position 
that civilizational differences were not seen so much in the ma-
terial realm, such as technological developments, but in the 
―spiritual‖ sphere of human thought.

43
 Koneczny cleverly ap-

plied this notion to the story of Poland itself, holding that ―the 
nation is the soul, whose body is the state.‖

44
 A stateless nation 

for over a century, Poland nevertheless could claim civilization-
al supremacy over its colonizers, especially ―Byzantine‖ 
Germany and ―Turanian‖ Russia, where spiritual concerns were 
overshadowed by material ones. Indeed, Zbigniew Pucek has 
determined that the ―relativizing interpretation of the quincunx 
allows for the introduction of the idea of defective civiliza-
tions...which developed weakly in general or did not develop in 

                                                           
41

 Piotr Grabowiec, Model społeczeństwa obywatelskiego w historiozofii Fe-
liksa Konecznego (Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 

2000), 27.  
42

 Ibid., 33.  
43

 Zbigniew Pucek, Pluralizm cywilizacyjny jako perspektywa myśli soc-
jologicznej (Kraków: Akademia Ekonomiczna, 1990), 109. 
44

 Feliks Koneczny, ―O kierunek polskości,‖ Cywilizacja 4/5 (2003), 218. Orig-
inally published in Tęcza 2 (26 V 1928), z. 21: 1-2. 



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certain areas.‖
45

 In Koneczny‘s judgement, Latin civilization was 
the only complete civilization, while all others were defective. 
   

The concept of the quincunx of existential values fit 
nicely within the Thomist revival among Catholic intellectuals in 
Europe.

46
 The Thomist revival was inspired in part by Pope Leo 

XIII (1878-1903), whose Aeterni Patris (1879) and Rerum No-
varum (1891) were regarded as seminal documents.

47
 An 

historian who focused on the medieval period,
48

 Koneczny 
joined other Catholic scholars who used Thomism as ―an intel-
lectual grid‖ to formulate responses to the challenges of 
modernity.

49
 Indeed, Koneczny cited Thomism as a foundation 

for ―normality‖ in Latin civilization.
50

 During the interwar period 
and through World War II, both Thomism and the medieval  

                                                           
45

 Pucek, ―Feliks Koneczny,‖ 173. 
46

 Koneczny‘s debt to Aristotlean Thomism is frequently pointed out in the 
context of his emphasis on commensurability among the existential values of 
the quincunx, which calls for harmony and balance between the material and 
spiritual. See Ryszard Polak, Cywilizacje a moralność w myśli Feliksa Konec-
znego (Lublin: Fundacja Servire Veritati Instytut Edukacji Narodowej, 2001), 
31, 35; and Mieczysław Ryba, ―Człowiek, naród, państwo w cywilizacji 
łacińskiej,‖ Cywilizacja 1 (2002), 8; available online at 
http://cywilizacja.ien.pl/?id=77 (accessed 27 August 2009). Koneczny fre-
quently mentioned Thomism in his works. For example, see Rozwój 
moralności, reprint ed. (Warszawa and Komorów: Wydawnictwo Antyk, 1997), 

268, 277. It was originally published in 1938. 
47

 Paul Robichaud, Making the Past Present: David Jones, the Middle Ages & 
Modernism (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 
2007), 140. 
48

 See Anna Frątczak, Feliks Koneczny o państwie i wartościach (Kraków: 
Ośrodek Myśli Politycznej; Księgarnia Akademicka, 2003), 111-113. 
49

 Peter Kivisto, ―The Brief Career of Catholic Sociology,‖ Sociological Analy-
sis 50 (Winter 1989), no. 4: 351. 
50

 Feliks Koneczny, Prawa dziejowe, 2nd rev. ed. (Komorów: Wydawnictwo 
Antyk Marcin Dybowski, 2001), 58.  

ideal of a harmonious and unified Christendom proved very ap-
pealing to Polish nationalists.

51
 

   
Anton Hilckman (1900-1970) explained that ―[t]he atti-

tude towards these values [of the quincunx], the valuation of 
them and the determination of the relation between them can 
be very different. The understanding of these differences gives 
a key which opens the riddle of the diversity of civilizations.‖

52
 

Koneczny posited that ―it is not possible to be civilized in two 
ways.‖

53
 According to Koneczny‘s ―law of commensurability,‖ a 

lack of cohesion among the different categories of the quincunx 
is the main source of societal decline.

54
 Societies can flourish, 

according to Koneczny, only when all categories of the quin-
cunx are in civilizational harmony. He believed that Poland 
lacked this clarity.

55
 

   
One of Koneczny‘s ―historical laws‖ stated that civiliza-

tional mixing leads to moral and psychological damage and a 
general decline in the ―culture of action.‖

56
 Another indicated 

                                                           
51

 On this matter, see Bogumił Grott, Nacjonalizm i religia. Proces zespalania 
nacjonalizmu z katolicyzmem w jedną całość ideową w myśli Narodowej 
Demokracji 1926-1939 (Kraków: Nakładem Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 
1984), 140-141; and Łętocha, Katolicyzm a idea narodowa, 92-94;  
52

 Anton Hilckman, ―Feliks Koneczny and the Comparative Science of Civili-
sation,‖ in Koneczny, Plurality of Civilisations, 11. Koneczny claimed that 
there are seven civilizations. Four are ancient: Brahmin, Jewish, Chinese, and 
Turanian. Three developed in the middle ages: Byzantine, Latin, and Arabic.  
53

 Koneczny, Plurality of Civilisations, 322. 
54

 Sonia Bukowska, ―Feliks Koneczny – induksyjna nauka o cywilizacji a 
prawa dziejowe,‖ Folia Philosophica 8 (1991): 211. 
55

 Feliks Koneczny, ―O kierunek polskości,‖ 220.  
56

 Piotr Grabowiec sees the notion of a ―culture of action‖ as a key to under-
standing Koneczny, as it represents for him a ―connection between thought, 
word, and action, as well as internal convictions about the correctness of 
one‘s aims. Thinking in the context of aims creates a culture of action. . .‖ This 
effectively represents a link between logos and ethos. See Model społec-
zeństwa obywatelskiego, 30. 

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that ―lower‖ civilizations generally overcome ―higher‖ civiliza-
tions in confrontations.

57
 In historical terms, the Roman 

civilization declined as it became culturally Orientalized; like-
wise, modern Latin civilization was now confronted with a varie-
variety of ―Oriental‖ threats. This included the danger within: 
Jewish civilization. Robert Piotrowski has detected hygienic 
ideas in Koneczny‘s civilizational discourse, with a pathological 
aspect being an important feature of inter-civilizational con-
tacts.

58
 Moreover, as both Piotrowski and Sonia Bukowska 

have pointed out, members of Latin civilization bear a heavy 
burden in maintaining their civilizational purity, since ―higher‖ 
civilizations require more effort to preserve than ―lower‖ ones.

59
 

This is why Koneczny concluded that Latin civilization was in 
peril. 
   

Koneczny was not alone in his calls for civilizational pu-
rity, as other commentators in the interwar period complained 
that ―our civilization is poisoned.‖

60
 The need for cultural (or 

civilizational) purification was becoming a key part of endek 
thinking,

61
 and Koneczny‘s theories were embraced as ―scien-

tific‖ validation.
 
The idea of a ―Catholic state of the Polish 

Nation‖ thus emerged as a favorite endek notion during the in-
terwar period as the ―re-Catholicization‖ of Europe became the 

                                                           
57

 Jan Skoczyński, Idee historiozoficzne Feliksa Konecznego (Kraków: 
Nakładem Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 1991), 110-112.  
58

 Robert Piotrowski, Problem filozoficzny ładu społecznego a porównawcza 
nauka o cywilizacjach (Warszawa: Dialog, 2003), 69, 128. For examples, see 
Feliks Koneczny, Prawa dziejowe (2001), 165, 172.  
59

 Piotrowski, Problem filozoficzny, 78; and Sonia Bukowska,  Filozofia polska 
wobec problemu cywilizacji. Teoria Feliksa Konecznego (Katowice: 
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, 2007), 132-133. 
60

 Bogumił Grott, Nacjonalizm Chrześcijański: Narodowo-katolicka formacja 
ideowa w II Rzeczypospolitej na tle porównawczym, 2

nd
 ed. (Kraków: 

Wydawnictwo ―Ostoja‖, 1996), 85. 
61

 Bogumił Grott, ―Mediewalizm w koncepcjach Obozu Wielkiej Polski ze 
studiów nad religijnymi uwarunkowaniami myśli politycznej,‖ Zeszyty Nau-
kowe Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Studia Religiologica 7 (1982): 61. 

ideal, with Poland renewing its historical role of ―bulwark of 
Christendom.‖

62
 While nationalists commonly rejected racism 

as a materialist conception, they began to absorb theories that 
focused on spiritual, psychological, or cultural differences.

63
 

Koneczny‘s ―science of civilizations‖ thus filled an ideological 
need. His civilizational hierarchy rejected ―Others‖ as inferior 
and dangerous to Polish culture, but not in terms of biological 
racism. Rather, he stressed a sort of ―civilizational fundamental-
ism‖ that advocated cultural purity in the face of threats from 
inferior civilizations. As Koneczny opined: ―Race does not rule, 
but civilization; not matter, but spirit.‖

64
 

   
He clearly stated that ―civilizational unity is the only way 

to the development of culture,‖ and as early as 1921 he was 
warning that foreign civilizational influences, including Jewish 
civilization, would lead to societal problems and the collapse of 
the state if allowed to flourish in Poland.

65
 Societal progress, 

according to Koneczny, only takes place when there is civiliza-
tional agreement among all five elements of the quincunx.

66
 

This yearning for purity and harmony reflects Koneczny‘s his-
torical context: a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state, Poland 
seemed bedeviled by civilizational uncertainty. Koneczny be-
lieved that internal cohesion was needed for Poland to 
survive.

67
 Indeed, civilizational mixing would remain in    

                                                           
62

 See Bogumił Grott, ―The Conception of ‗Roman-Catholic Totalism‘ in Po-
land before World War II,‖ Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. 
Studia Religiologica 8 (1982): 101-107. 
63

 Bogumił Grott, ―Chrześcijańskie i świeckie inspiracje w doktrynach 
nacjonalizmu polskiego,‖ Przegląd Humanistyczny (1994), no. 4: 85. 
64

 Koneczny, Prawa dziejowe (2001), 164.  
65

 Koneczny, Polskie logos a ethos, vol. 2: 473-474.   
66

 Stanisław Jedynak, ―Aksjologiczne zagadnienie rozwoju cywilizacji według 
Feliksa Konecznego.‖ Przegląd Humanistyczny 32 (1988), no. 3: 122. 
67

 Andrzej Bokiej, Cywilizacja łacińska: studium na podstawie dorobku histori-
ozoficznego Feliksa Konecznego (Legnica: Wyższe Seminarium Duchowne 
Diecezji Legnickiej, 2000), 55. 



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Koneczny‘s eyes ―the main sickness‖ of Poland even after 
World War II,

68
 since it implied the mingling of rival ethical sys-

tems. This led to ethical confusion, or a ―Bedlam of ethics,‖
69

 
and impeded moral progress.

70
 And ethical concerns, as many 

scholars point out, are at the center of Koneczny‘s ―science of 
civilizations.‖

71
 Marian Bębenek labels Koneczny ―ethocentric‖ 

and concludes that his ideal society represents a sort of 
―ethocracy.‖

72
 Koneczny‘s fear was that morality can regress 

through exposure to non-Latin ethical principles. Most important 
for our discussion, he was concerned about the growing ―intel-
lectual influence of Jewish civilization‖

73
 and the consequent 

―Judaization‖ of Polish society.  
   

These ideas were especially embraced by the national-
ist youth movement, which was inspired by visions of a ―new 
medievalism.‖

74
 A distinct Polish medievalism thus emerged, 

with a call for a ―return to the middle ages‖ invoking a time 
when Catholicism had greater cultural influence.

75
 Other coun-

tries in Europe were experiencing a similar development. In 
France, for example, the Middle Ages were glorified in part   
because ―medieval culture was perceived as alien to the 
                                                           
68

 Feliks Koneczny, ―Polskie Logos a Ethos,‖ Tygodnik Warszawski 3 (6 July 
1947), no. 27: 4. 
69

 This is the title of an article by Koneczny. See Feliks Koneczny, ―Harmider 
etyk,‖ in O cywilizację łacińską  (Krzeszowice: Dom Wydawniczy 
„Ostoja,‖2006), 38-44. Originally published in Myśl Narodowa 16 (7 VI 1936), 
no. 24: 369-371. 
70

 Koneczny, Rozwój moralności, 25-27.  
71

 Stefan Zabieglik, ―Feliksa Konecznego teoria cywilizacji,‖ Toruński Prze-
gląd Filozoficzny 5/6 (2003), 118. 
72

 Bębenek, ―Paradygmat polityki,‖ 86-88. 
73

 Koneczny, Rozwój moralności, 213-214. 
74

 Witold Wojdyło and Grzegorz Radomski, ―W obronie niezależności narodu. 
Ruch narodowy w Polsce wobec wspólnot wyższego rzędu oraz idei inte-
gracyjnych w Europie w XX w.,‖ Przegląd Humanistyczny 50 (2006) , no. 3: 

91-92. 
75

 Grott, ―Mediewalizm w koncepcjach Obozu Wielkiej,‖ 68. 

Jew.‖
76

 Laura Morowitz has found that in France ―during the fin-
de-siècle, medievalism and anti-Semitism were often linked. 
Ideologies contributing to the spread of anti-Semitism–anti-
materialism, anti-modernism, fanatical neo-Catholicism–could 
lead simultaneously to a glorification of the medieval era. Fear 
of modernity manifested itself in hatred of the Jew (who sym-
bolized urbanism, industrial capitalism, the collapse of 
traditional Christian values).‖

77
 Polish nationalists today still dis-

cuss the medieval era with a touch of nostalgia. Yearning for 
Konecznian societal solidarity and civil harmony, Andrzej 
Horodecki has dreamed of the more ―civilizationally pure‖ me-
dieval period. As he put it: ―Hatred of the Middle Ages is a 
hatred of a time when Jewish civilization did not yet have a de-
cisive influence on life in Christian states.‖

78
  

   
Koneczny and “Jewish Civilization” 
   

Koneczny‘s most notorious commentary on the Jewish 
threat to Poland and Latin civilization is his posthumously pub-
lished Cywilizacja żydowska (1974), but his works from the 
interwar period consistently addressed the civilizational bound-
aries between Poles and Jews. Koneczny‘s substitution of 
―civilization‖ for ―race‖ in his theoretical writings is clearly evi-
dent in his opening sentences of Cywilizacja żydowska: ―The 
Jewish question among nations is not a racial one, nor is it a 
confessional one. The question of Jewry is one of an entirely 
different civilization, or separate method of collective life.‖

79
 As 

Robert Piotrowski pointed out, Koneczny is much closer to a 

                                                           
76

 Laura Morowitz, ―Anti-Semitism, Medievalism and the Art of the Fin-de-
Siecle,‖ Oxford Art Journal 20 (1997), no. 1: 38. 
77

 Ibid., 35. 
78

 Andrzej Horodecki, ―Totalna walka z cywilizacją łacińską, część II,‖ Nowy 
Przegląd Wszechpolski 9 (2002), no. 5-6, 
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2002_05_06/PIS-Horodecki__Totalna-
Walka.htm (accessed 21 June 2006).  
79

 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 12.   

http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2002_05_06/PIS-Horodecki__Totalna-Walka.htm
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culturalist perspective than a racial one in his analysis of Jew-
ish civilization.

80
 Koneczny is concerned primarily with the way 

in which Jewish ethics represent something totally opposite to 
the Catholicized morality of Latin civilization.

81
  

   
He was not alone; endek rhetoric of the interwar period 

had become focused on Jewish culture rather than race, and 
the threat to Catholicism‘s ―moral-cultural code.‖

82
 Describing 

the rhetoric in the Catholic press from the interwar period, Anna 
Landau-Czajka found that what ―distinguished Jews from Chris-
tians was not their blood, but the character or psyche which 
resulted from their religion or customs. It was a psyche com-
pletely different from that of Catholics, such as to rule out 
completely the possibility of the two peoples, Polish and Jew-
ish, inhabiting the same territory. Jews were different not only 
because of their religion and customs, but also because of the 
way they thought, their morality, culture, and principles...‖

83
 

   
Koneczny was quite explicit in his judgment of ―Jewish 

civilization.‖ In his learned opinion, since its origins it had been 
―an incomplete civilization, defective, not possessing all the 
categories of being, without Truth and Beauty.‖

84
 Indeed, he 

detected only ―the tiniest provision of the intellectual categories 
of being.‖

85
 As an example of these shortcomings, Koneczny 

                                                           
80

 Piotrowski, Problem filozoficzny, 84. 
81

 Bukowska,  Filozofia polska wobec problemu cywilizacji, 96. 
82

 Joanna Beata Michlic, Poland‟s Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew 
from 1880 to the Present (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006), 86-
88. 
83

 Anna Landau-Czajka, ―The Image of the Jew in the Catholic Press during 
the Second Republic,‖ in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry 8. Jews in Independ-
ent Poland, 1918-1939, ed. Antony Polonsky, Ezra Mendelsohn and Jerzy 
Tomaszewski (London, Washington: The Littman Library of Jewish Civiliza-
tion, 1994), 167. 
84

 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 43. Likewise, Judaism is ―a defective 

religion.‖ Ibid., 32. 
85

 Koneczny, Plurality of Civilisations, 252. 

noted that for Jews ―historical thought itself is very, very diffi-
cult. From my own experience, I know that for Jewish students 
it is difficult to acquire this sense, difficult to understand the his-
torical nature of people and things...‖

86
 He consistently 

maintained in his works that the civilizational question is more a 
matter of mentality than one of race. Thus, the key concern with 
Jewish civilization was the threat that the ―Jewish way of think-
ing‖ posed to Latin civilization.

87
 

   
For Koneczny, Jewish civilization was frozen in time. Al-

ready in his Plurality of Civilisations (1935), Koneczny was 
maintaining that ―the whole of community life—the whole struc-
ture of Jewish civilization with a mass of detail—is contained in 
the rules of the Old Testament. It is a sacral civilization.‖

88
 Jew-

ish civilization ―added in time a second source-book of Jewish 
religion and civilisation—the Talmud... It may safely be said that 
there is nothing in heaven or earth which is not debated there, 
but always exclusively from the sacral angle... Not a corner of 
life escapes the restraint of rules allegedly coming from Jeho-
vah. Jewish civilisation would become even more strongly 
sacral.‖

89
  

   
The fundamental flaw in Jewish civilization is that it is 

―sacral,‖ which leads Jews to embrace ―apriori thinking‖ and a 
suspiciousness towards secular learning.

90
 As early as 1926, 

Koneczny was writing in Ateneum Kapłańskie (the most im-
portant organ for the Polish clergy during the interwar period)

91
 

                                                           
86

 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 177. 
87

 Feliks Koneczny, Prawa dziejowe (2001), 36.  
88

 Koneczny, Plurality of Civilisations, 252. 
89

 Ibid. Koneczny adds that a third source, the cabbala, was later added to the 
mix. Ibid., 253. 
90

 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 32. 
91

 Dariusz Libionka, ―Antisemitism, Anti-Judaism, and the Polish Catholic 
Clergy during the Second World War, 1939-1945,‖ in Antisemitism and its 



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that ―of all religions the Jewish one is most identical with a civi-
lization. The Talmud is this civilization, because it contains the 
method of collective life in all its details, not neglecting a single 
category, but with several huge defects (such as the lack of 
scholarship)... In Jewry religion and civilization are the same.‖

92
 

He added that while religion ―is the most important part of a 
civilization...only religions of a lower order create civilizations 
and these are also of a lower type.‖

93
 Koneczny later concluded 

that in ―sacral civilisations religion acts as a brake on progress. 
A religion which defines everything in categories of being must 
at the same time petrify everything, and in consequence its ad-
herents are often helpless in face of new currents emerging in 
the process of time. Where everything is established a priori, 
where there is no doubt and no inquiry, progress is excluded 
and instead there is danger of stagnation.‖

94
 For Jewish civiliza-

tion, this meant that there was no ―creative originality.‖
95

 
   

Koneczny placed special emphases on Jewish ―legal-
ism,‖ which is evident in Mosaic law. He believed that the 
―contractual‖ agreement between them and their god meant 
that Jews placed law before ethics. Koneczny found that ―over 
the course of centuries there emerged here and there apriori 
law. It imparted sanction not to existing circumstances and was 
not created in a natural manner, but it was imagined, invent-
ed...Mosaic law was a prototype of apriori law.‖

96
 Koneczny 

                                                                                                                             
Opponents in Modern Poland, ed. Robert Blobaum (Ithaca and London: Cor-
nell University Press, 2005), 236. 
92

 Feliks Koneczny, Religie a cywilizacje (Krzeszowice: Dom Wydawniczy 
„Ostoja‖, 2004), 10. Originally published in Ateneum Kapłańskie 12 (1926), t. 
17: 1-14, 117-131. 
93

 Ibid., 39. 
94

 Koneczny, Plurality of Civilisations, 284. Another civilizational theorist from 

the time, Arnold Toynbee,  regarded Jews as ―fossilized relics.‖ See Arnold 
Toynbee, A Study of History (London: Oxford University Press, 1935), vol. 1: 
51. 
95

 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 256. 
96

 Ibid., 38. 

believed that this focus on apriori law is a fundamental feature 
of Judaism, and consequently Jewish civilization. He stressed 
that ―[a]mong Jews...law is not based on ethics, but precisely 
the opposite: ethics are based on law.‖

97
 He theorized that this 

sacralized law became the regulator for all aspects of Jewish 
life, leaving no room for the development of ethics. An ―ele-
phantiasis of law‖ thus emerged: ―the more law the better!‖

98
  

   
Another important factor for Koneczny was the notion of 

Jewish ―chosenness.‖
99

 He concluded that this special relation-
ship with God and the ―faith that all must end with the Jews 
ruling the world‖ was the most immutable, distinguishing char-
acteristic of Jewish civilization.

100
 Koneczny thus identified an 

―ethic of exclusivity‖ that ―generated contempt, then hatred, for 
foreigners. In all of universal history, Jews have developed ha-
tred to the highest degree...‖

101
 This all highlights the ―defective‖ 

nature of Jewish civilization. This ―collective predestination‖ re-
flects Jewish emphasis on the collective, rather than the 
individual, and precludes a personal relationship with God that 
is found in Catholicism.

102
  

   
Koneczny posited that even while Jewish civilization 

embraced the ―ethic of exclusivity,‖ Jews have been forced to 
live among other peoples, to live within other civilizations. Ac-
cording to Koneczny, ―Jewish civilization experienced 
significant changes among other ‗nations,‘ but what is most in-
teresting is that the changes occurred for the better: the 

                                                           
97

 Ibid., 39. 
98

 Ibid., 176. For Koneczny‘s discussion of this ―sickness‖ in the form of 
excessive legislation and bloated government, see Feliks Koneczny, ―‘Ele-
phantiasis‘ prawodawcza,‖ Myśl Narodowa 12 (18 December 1932), no. 55: 
798-801. 
99

 Ibid., 100, 105, and 108. 
100

 Koneczny, Plurality of Civilisations, 256. 
101

 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 40. 
102

 Ibid., 163-67. 



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supplement of a defective civilization in many directions and 
lifting it to a higher level in each case.‖

103
 For example, Jews 

embraced other languages in order to express a higher order of 
abstract thought, since Hebrew was itself ―a language able to 
facilitate civilizational development only to a certain level, be-
yond which it becomes a brake on higher development.‖

104
  

   
A chief concern for Koneczny, however, was that the 

Jewish presence had weakened the civilizational integrity of 
Latin Christendom. Writing in 1928, he explicitly described the 
struggle in Poland between Jewish and Latin civilizations. He 
expressed the fear that ―Christian-classical civilization‖ will 
cease to be, instead ―becoming gradually a kind of strange mix-
ture. How many purely Jewish notions are running rampant 
among us! Our literature, legal ideas, political views—all of 
them have been subjected to judaization. A civilizational mix-
ture endangers us—and with the same sort of results as in 
Russia.‖

105
  

   
For Koneczny, the health of Latin civilization in Poland 

was inextricably linked with the integrity of Catholicism. ―Poland 
either will be Catholic, or it will not be.‖

106
 Koneczny used the 

stereotype of infection to argue that ―Judaization‖ would weak-
en Poland, as would a disease.

107
 The lack of ethics in 

economics, for example, was blamed on the ―spiritual influence 

                                                           
103

 Ibid., 153. See also Feliks Koneczny, ―Nauka a cywilizacje,‖ in O 
cywilizację łacińską (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo „Milla,‖ n.d.), 16. Originally 
published in Myśl Narodowa 16, no. 49 (29 XI 1936): 765-767. Here Konec-
zny conversely argued that if surrounded by a less intellectually stimulating 
civilization, then Jewish civilization would suffer. 
104

 Ibid., 141. 
105

 Feliks Koneczny, Kościół w Polsce wobec cywilizacji (Krzeszowice: Dom 
Wydawniczy ―Ostoja,‖ 2005), 15-16. First published in Ateneum Kapłańskie 
14 (1928), no. 22: 413-429. 
106

 Koneczny, Polska między wschodem a zachodem, 51. 
107

 Stańczak-Wiślicz, ―W pułapce kołobłędu,‖ 19. 

of Jews.‖
108

 While Jews borrowed and learned from the aposte-
rior ways of non-Jews, they in turn ―infected them with their 
apriorism;‖ ―Jewish thinking‖ (apriorism) was a disease that if 
contracted weakened civilizations and led to their stagnation.

109
 

Koneczny concluded that if ―the success of an association de-
pends on the suitability and uniformity of its system, that no 
lasting and strong association can be organised on conflicting 
systems, then what I regard in history as the law of laws—for 
me the achievement and outcome of the labours of an entire 
life—must also be true: It is not possible to be civilised in two 
ways.‖

110
 

   
This rhetoric found an audience within the growing pub-

lic debate in interwar Poland about the dangers of Jews 
spreading a ―spiritual disease‖ within Polish culture; indeed, 
even radical nationalists were more concerned about the ―dan-
gerous Jewish soul‖ than the ―dangerous Jewish race.‖

111
 

Perhaps the most insidious effects could be found in the Jewish 
emphasis on law before ethics, or what Koneczny calls ―the 
Jewish method of legal thinking‖ that he argued had come to 
dominate in Europe. This resulted in law losing its moral com-
pass.

112
 Jewish civilization inverted the relationship between 

law and ethics in comparison to Latin civilization, in which laws 
are created in response to ethical determinations of situations 
as they arise. In Jewish civilization, in comparison, there was a 

                                                           
108

 Feliks Koneczny, ―Amoralność życia gospodarczego,‖ in O sprawach 
ekonomicznych  (Kraków: Wydawnictwo WAM, 2000), 121-122. Originally 
published in Myśl Narodowa 13 (2 July 1933): 413-414.  
109

 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska,  168; and Feliks Koneczny, Etyki a 
cywilizacje (Krzeszowice: Dom Wydawniczy „Ostoja,‖ 2004), 7. Originally 
published in Przegląd Powszechny 48 (1931), t. 189: 129-148, 332-345. 
110

 Koneczny, Plurality of Civilisations, 322. 
111

 Michlic, Poland‟s Threatening Other, 100, 171. 
112

 Koneczny, ―Państwo w cywilizacji łacińskiej,‖ 8.  



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reliance on the ―letter of the law.‖
113

  Koneczny here depicted 
Latin civilization as the antithesis of Jewish civilization; indeed, 
he noted that ―we Latins, we follow the Romans‖ in legal 
views.

114
 He elaborated on the Christian-Jewish civilizational 

boundaries even further in the context of law and ethics: ―The 
most important thing is that the Church derives law from eth-
ics...[but] law was not and is not sacral among Catholics, [it] is 
not possessed of a religious character. There is a link with Ro-
man civilisation, for it was among the Romans that law first 
ceased to be sacral. The Church accepted this state of affairs, 
giving the faithful a free hand in the secular development of 
law.‖

115
 

   
There are peculiar twists in this analysis of Jewish civili-

zation and Judaism, especially in regard to Jewish cultural 
influences in Germany. As early as 1921 he was explaining that 
Jewish funding of German militarization cleared the ―path to 
domination for Judaism, but it was the ruin of Christian-
Classical civilization.‖

116
 He thus sees a continuation of the old 

conflict between Judaism and Christianity, except now in the 
guise of a civilizational struggle. The connection between Ger-
man militarism and opportunities for Jewish domination was 

                                                           
113

 Koneczny referred to this as the ―Shylock method.‖ Ibid., 37. In his anal-
yses, Adolf Nowaczyński used the term ―Shylockracja.‖ See Małgorzata 
Domagalska, Antysemityzm dla inteligencji? Kwestia żydowska w pub-
licystyce Adolfa Nowaczyńskiego na łamach “Myśli Narodowej” (1921-1934) i 
“Prosto z mostu” (1935-1939) (na tle porównawczym) (Warszawa: Żydowski 

Instytut Historyczny, 2004), 180, 182. 
114

 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska,  176. 
115

 Koneczny, Plurality of Civilisations, 275. 
116

 Koneczny, Polskie logos a ethos, vol. 2: 539. Ewa Maj has explored com-

mentary by nationalist ideologues who also saw a similarity in Jewish and 
German desires for ―domination of the world, for the disruption of the existing 
social and political order, for the weakening of Christianity as the moral foun-
dation of European nations.‖ See Ewa Maj, Związek Ludowo-Narodowy, 
1919-1928: Studium z dziejów myśli politycznej (Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uni-
wersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej, 2000), 194. 

most evident to Koneczny in the alleged German-Jewish plan 
for ―Judeopolonia,‖ a Jewish state on Polish territory.

117
 Fore-

stalled by Germany‘s defeat in World War I, Jewish hopes had 
since turned eastward, to Bolshevik Russia. During World War 
II, Koneczny lamented that ―[w]e Poles are only waiting for the 
time when they will not be among us, but we among them.‖

118
 

Commenting in 1945, Koneczny noted that all of Poland had 
indeed come under Jewish control in the form of communism. 
Insensitive to the horrible realities wrought by the Holocaust, 
Koneczny concluded that Judeopolonia was being created by 
the Russians.

119
 

   
This insensitivity is perhaps most evident in Koneczny‘s 

discussion of the impact of Jewish culture in Germany. The Na-
zi idea of German world supremacy allegedly developed under 
the influence of Jewish notions of the ―chosen people‖ and col-
lective predestination. Koneczny was not alone, as other 
commentators in Poland also found ―striking analogies between 
the Talmud and Mein Kampf.‖

120
 Koneczny concluded that 

―Germans have assimilated Jewish civilization most visibly. Hit-
ler murders Jews, but he thinks and feels in the Jewish 
manner.‖

121
 Konecznian commentary today still makes these 

vulgar connections. Holocaust denier Dariusz Ratajczak (1962-
2010) cited Koneczny in this regard, noting the shared ―rebel-
lion against Christianity and Latin civilization‖ found in the 

                                                           
117

 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 352-363. For a recent Konecznian anal-
ysis of German-Jewish plots for the creation of a ―state within a state,‖ see 
Andrzej Leszek Szcześniak, Judeopolonia: żydowskie państwie polskim (Ra-

dom: Polskie Wydawnictwo Encyklopedyczne, 2004). 
118

 Koneczny, Prawa dziejowe (2001), 220.  
119

 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 363. 
120

 Landau-Czajka, ―Image of the Jew in the Catholic Press,‖ 160. 
121

 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 389. For similar commentary, also see 
Koneczny, Prawa dziejowe (2001), 283-287.  



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―ideas of Jewish civilization‖ and ―the Hitlerite worldview.‖
122

 
Andrzej Horodecki not only assigned Hitler‘s notion of Germans 
as a chosen people to Judaism, but he blamed it for Stalin‘s 
revulsion to Christianity. In this way, he uncovered Jewish roots 
for two totalitarianisms.

123
 

   
Koneczny‘s treatise on ―Jewish civilization‖ represented 

what one reviewer termed ―‗high anti-semitism‘ revived.‖
124

 
When Koneczny‘s book was published in London in 1974, it 
seemed like a blast of fear and intolerance from the past. In a 
critical review of Cywilizacja żydowska, S. L. Shneiderman 
judged that while ―Hitler had his racial purity...Koneczny has his 
cultural purity...Obsessed with defending the purity of Latin civi-
lization, Koneczny looks into the crystal ball and predicts that 
when the War ends, ‗Jewish influence in Europe will have 
grown immensely‘...‖

125
 Polish scholars have since pointed out 

the ―completely grotesque‖ depiction of Jewish influences on 
Nazism.

126
 Yet Koneczny‘s ideas fit firmly within the framework 

of nationalist discussions of the ―Jewish question‖ during the 
interwar period and wartime, which included rhetoric of ―‗the 
dangerous physical exposure‘ to Jews and the ‗Jewish way of 
thinking.‘‖

127
  

   

                                                           
122

 Dariusz Ratajczak, ―O cywilizacjach,‖ (19 January 2009), 
dariuszratajczak.blogspot.com. 
http://dariuszratajczak.blogspot.com/2009/01/o-cywilizacjach.html (accessed 
26 May 2009). 
123

 Andrzej Horodecki, ―Sejmowe słodycze,‖ Myśl Polska (5-12 January 
2003), no. 1-2, http://www.myslpolska.icenter.pl/ (accessed 26 March 2005). 
124

 S. L. Shneiderman, ―‘High‘ Anti-Semitism Revived,‖ Midstream 
22(August/September 1976): 76-81. 
125

 Ibid., 80. 
126

 Andrzej Piskozub, ―Feliks Koneczny (1862-1949) jako pionier nauki o 
cywilizacji w Polsce,‖ Kultura i Edukacja (1999), no. 1: 137. 
127

 Joanna Michlic, ―The Soviet Occupation of Poland, 1939-41, and the Ste-
reotype of the Anti-Polish and Pro-Soviet Jew,‖ Jewish Social Studies: 
History, Culture, Society, n.s. 13, (Spring/Summer 2007), no. 3: 140. 

Christian-Jewish Boundaries: Civilizational or Religious?  
   

Koneczny and his heirs have focused on what they re-
gard as issues of civilizational differences between Jewish 
civilization and Latin civilization. Since Jewish civilization is 
deemed ―sacral‖ in the Konecznian paradigm, however, the dis-
tinction between it and Judaism is difficult to draw and criticism 
of Jewish civilization can easily devolve into a critique of the 
Jewish faith. And while Latin civilization is not ―sacral,‖ the per-
vasive influence of Catholicism is frequently cited as a source 
of its strength and appeal. Koneczny‘s construction of civiliza-
tional boundaries between Latin and Jewish civilizations, 
therefore, has a corollary effect of erecting barriers between 
Catholics and Jews. 
   

Koneczny feared the ―moral and spiritual Judaization of 
Europe,‖

128
 which he envisioned might even lead to a sort of 

―religious synthesis‖ of the two faiths.
129

 Indeed, he claimed that 
―[t]he Judaization of the Church would be the pinnacle of suc-
cess for Israel.‖

130
 It is important to recall that he regarded 

Protestantism as a Judaized version of Christianity. In 
Cywilizacja żydowska and other studies, he argued that while 
Protestants had embraced ―rejudaizing‖ by emphasizing the 
teachings of the Old Testament, Catholicism remained critical 
in its stance toward Judaism.

131
 Discussing the early history of 

the Church, Koneczny bluntly declared that ―Judaism did not 
exert any essential influence on Christianity in matters of 
faith.‖

132
 Koneczny also faulted historiographical approaches 

                                                           
128

 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 372. 
129

 Ibid., 386. 
130

 Ibid. 
131

 Ibid., 17. For a concise discussion, see Feliks Koneczny, Protestantyzm w 
życiu zbiorowym (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo „Milla,‖ n.d), 16-18. This work 
was originally published in 1938. 
132

 Ibid., 125. For further commentary, see Andrzej Bokiej, Cywilizacja 
łacińska: studium na podstawie dorobku historiozoficznego Feliksa Konec-

http://dariuszratajczak.blogspot.com/2009/01/o-cywilizacjach.html
http://www.myslpolska.icenter.pl/


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that placed undue emphasis on ancient Israel as the center of 
attention for pre-Christian history. He blamed Jacques Benigne 
Bossuet (1627-1704), in particular, since due to his efforts ―the 
history of Israel became as if the essential component of our 
religion.‖ Bossuet stressed the unity of religions, Koneczny 
claimed, thus paving the way for the ―historical unity of the 
Christian and Jewish faiths...‖

133
 Koneczny concluded that in 

this way ―Bossuet became the father of judeocentrism.‖
134

 
   

One of Koneczny‘s key authorities on this matter was 
Tadeusz Zieliński (1859-1944), whose Hellenizm a Judaizm 
(1927) posited that the classical pagan world connected ―psy-
chologically‖ more readily than Judaism with Christianity.

135
 As 

Zieliński put it: ―Christianity emerged from Judaism—this is of-
ten written and stated—but despite this it is false.‖ There ―was 
no psychological continuity between Judaism and Christianity;‖ 
rather, ―continuity existed between Hellenism on the one side 
and Christianity on the other. This means that the religion of the 
Hellenes was better prepared mentally to receive Christianity 
than Judaism.‖ Thus there emerged a ―paradox‖: ―the true Old 
Testament of our Christianity is the religion of the Hellenes.‖

136
 

Zieliński insisted that this was not heretical, since he simply 

                                                                                                                             
znego (Legnica: Wyższe Seminarium Duchowne Diecezji Legnickiej, 2000), 

99-100. 
133

 Feliks Koneczny, ―Geneza Judeocentryzmu,‖ Myśl Narodowa 9 (6 January 
1929), no. 1: 3-4. 
134

 Ibid., 5 
135

 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 120. Koneczny used other controversial 
sources in his work. For example, he extensively cited Rev. Stanisław Trze-
ciak (1873-1944). His Mesjanizm a kwestia żydowska (1934) ―belonged to the 
‗classics‘ of interwar antisemitic literature. . . He was a national and interna-
tional ‗expert‘ on the ‗Jewish question,‘ his international fame resting on his 
activitiy in the Nazi-sponsored Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage (Insti-
tute for Research of the Jewish Question), headquartered in Erfurt.‖ See 
Libionka, ―Antisemitism, Anti-Judaism, and the Polish Catholic Clergy,‖ 257. 
136

 Tadeusz Zieliński, Hellenizm a Judaizm (Warszawa, Kraków: Wydawnic-
two J. Mortkowicza, 1927), vol. 1: 2-3. 

identified the obvious ―psychological continuity.‖
137

 This under-
standing of the theological boundaries between Judaism and 
Christianity was not uncommon in Polish nationalist circles dur-
ing the early 20

th
 century and interwar period.

138
 It bears 

mentioning that Jędrzej Giertych, a leading ideologue of the 
endek youth in the 1930s and publisher of Koneczny‘s works in 
postwar London, denied any Jewish-Christian ties in the tradi-
tional sense.

139
  

   
The resurrection of Koneczny‘s theories in recent years, 

especially his notions about civilizational boundaries that sepa-
rate Christians and Jews, has proven problematic for Catholic 
intellectuals. For example, some commentators have attempted 
to make it seem as if Koneczny‘s worldview is an integral part 
of Catholicism. Krzysztof Nagrodzki, for example, finds parallels 
between then-Cardinal Ratzinger‘s thinking and the Konecznian 
―laws of history‖: one cannot be civilized simultaneously in two 
ways; the inevitable clash of civilizations; and the contention 
that ―lower‖ civilizations will dominate and defeat ―higher‖ civili-
zations without constant vigilance in defense of traditional 
values.

140
 Commentators also discuss Koneczny‘s ideas in the 

                                                           
137

 Ibid., 3. 
138

 See Bogumił Grott, Nacjonalizm i religia, 128-129; Bogumił Grott, 
Nacjonalizm Chrześcijański, 82-83; and Łętocha, Katolicyzm a idea 
narodowa, 250-251. 
139

 Artur Domosławski, ―Saga rodu Giertychów – część II,‖ gazeta.pl.  
http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/kraj/1,62905,1074233.html (accessed 10 June 2005). 
Originally published in Gazeta Wyborcza (18 October 2002). 
140

 Krzysztof Nagrodzki, ―Analiza współczesności kard. Josepha Ratzingera,‖ 
Myśl Polska (11-18 September 2005), no. 37-38, 
http://www.myslpolska.icenter.pl/ (accessed 28 January 2006). The notion of 
―lower‖ civilizations overcoming ―higher‖ ones is frequently discussed in 
Konecznian analyses. It encapsulates Social Darwinian notions of ―survival of 
the fittest,‖ a fear of ―Others,‖ and the centrality of cultural traditions in one‘s 
identity. For example, see Andrzej Horodecki, ―Wojna światów,‖ Myśl Polska 

(4-11December 2005), no. 49-50, http://www.myslpolska.icenter.pl/ (accessed 
28 January 2006). 

http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/kraj/1,62905,1074233.html
http://www.myslpolska.icenter.pl/
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context of the teachings of Pope John Paul II.
141

 For example, 
the term ―Latin civilization‖ is sometimes equated with the no-
tion of ―civilization of love,‖ a concept embraced by Popes Paul 
VI and John Paul II.

142
 Jarosław Paszyński even claims that the 

―civilization of love‖ is ―nothing other than a new name for Latin 
civilization.‖

143
 

   
Another Giertych—Maciej‘s younger brother, Wojciech 

(b. 1951)—is also worth mentioning in the context of Konec-
zny‘s renaissance. Father Wojciech was appointed as Papal 
Theologian in December 2005.

144
 In a lecture delivered in 

March 2006 at the Warsaw Dominican monastery, Father 
Wojciech cited Koneczny in the first sentence. He pointed out 
that Koneczny would regard current attempts to create civiliza-
tional mixtures as ―absurd.‖

145
 And his article on ―The Moral 

Natural Law‖ included extensive references to Koneczny‘s ―sci-
ence of civilizations‖:  

 
Koneczny claimed that it is not possible to be civilized in 
two differing ways at the same time, because it is  

                                                           
141

 For example, see Henryk Nowik, ―Ekshortacja Jana Pawła II Kościół w 
Europie w kontekście historiozoficznym,‖ Nowy Przegląd Wszechpolski 11 
(2004), no. 1-2, http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2004_01_02/ZRE-

Nowik_Ekshortacja-jana-pawla.html (accessed 21 June 2006); and Editorial, 
―Jan Paweł II odnowiciel,‖ Nowy Przegląd Wszechpolski 13 (2006), no. 5-6: 1, 
http://www.npw.pl/pdf/npw.2006.5-6.pdf (accessed 27 August 2009). 
142

 Maciej Giertych, ―Z nauczania Feliksa Konecznego,‖ Opoka w Kraju11(32) 

(March 1995),  http://opoka.giertych.pl/ (accessed 15 August 2010).  
143

 Jarosław Paszyński, ―Tożsamość Polski a cywilizacje,‖ Człowiek w Kul-
turze 10 (1993): 85. 
144

 Maciej Giertych, ―Teolog domu papieskiego,‖Opoka w Kraju 55(76) (De-

cember 2005), 16, http://opoka.giertych.pl/55.pdf (accessed 15 August 2010). 
Maciej proudly declared that his brother was named on 1 December 2005 as 
―theologian of the papal home.‖  
145

 Wojciech Giertych, ―Niewykorzystany kapitał?‖ W drodze (2008), no. 3, 

http://www.mateusz.pl/goscie/wdrodze/nr415/04-wdr.htm (accessed 28 No-
vember 2008). 

common ethical convictions that generate social cohe-
siveness and condition civilizations. Ethical standards 
are more decisive for a civilization than dogmatic subtle-
ties…. In the past, when people belonging to different 
civilizations lived geographically close to each other, 
they had to live in separate social groups according to 
the mores of the entity to which they belonged, without 
mixing, because mixtures of differing civilizations cannot 
function in the long run. The transfer from one civiliza-
tion to another would entail the embracing of a 
completely new set of ethical values that would require 
social uprooting... When civilizations mix, Koneczny 
claimed, it is normally the less morally demanding civili-
zation that wins, because the maintaining of a 
demanding ethos requires effort and perseverance. 
 
Among the civilizations that he had studied, Koneczny 
specified the Latin civilization as the most demanding, 
because it requires that all dimensions of life, including 
the social and political, be bound by ethical norms. To-
day, however, Western Europe is rapidly losing, or 
totally transforming, its age-old Christian ethical convic-
tions, and in this it is drifting away from the moral 
foundations in which for centuries it was anchored.

146
  

                                                           
146

 See Wojciech Giertych, ―The Moral Natural Law: Problems and Pro-
spects,‖ Catholic Online (25 February 2007).  
http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=4093 (accessed 26 Febru-
ary 2007). Koneczny advocated natural law over positivist law, fitting with his 
insistence on the primacy of ethics and morality in public life. In his view, ethi-
cal considerations should shape the law, rather than the reverse. Koneczny 
closed associated Judaism with the latter view, frequently criticizing Jews‘ 
adherence to ―the letter of the law‖ rather than ethics. The debate about the 
distinction between natural law and positive law emerged in the controversy 
over the preamble for the constitution in the late 1990s. Geneviève Zubrzycki 
summarizes the distinctions: ―Natural law refers to ‗principles of law and mo-
rality, supposedly universal in scope and binding on human conduct‘ . . . 
Following St. Thomas Aquinas, it was believed to be God-given, but from the 

http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2004_01_02/ZRE-Nowik_Ekshortacja-jana-pawla.html
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2004_01_02/ZRE-Nowik_Ekshortacja-jana-pawla.html
http://www.npw.pl/pdf/npw.2006.5-6.pdf
http://opoka.giertych.pl/
http://opoka.giertych.pl/55.pdf
http://www.mateusz.pl/goscie/wdrodze/nr415/04-wdr.htm
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Other Polish clergy have been less receptive to 
Konecznian concepts. Father Romuald Jakub Weksler-
Waszkinel is particularly critical of Koneczny‘s rejection 
of the Jewish roots of Christianity and the influence this 
view has on Catholics who embrace his theories.

147
 For 

example, Andrzej Horodecki cites Koneczny as an au-
thority as he flatly rejects any notion of a ―Judeo-
Christian tradition‖ in Europe. In his mind, this connotes 
―civilizational chaos.‖

148
 Weksler-Waszkinel is disturbed 

in part because this is contrary to doctrine that emerged 
as a result of decisions made at Vatican II (as well as 
the teachings of John Paul II), which held that Judaism 
was a root religion for Christianity.

149
 Koneczny‘s       

                                                                                                                             
Reformation onward, natural law was given secular foundations in human 
nature and reason. Natural law stipulates that there is a normative system 
given in nature; that norms are not subject to change in time or place. The 
logic of positive law is different: it is the law that defines the normative sys-
tem; norms are a human creation and therefore are subject to change and 
interpretation. The law could then define norms that are against natural law or 
humanity. (Nazi Germany is often given as an example of the dangers of a 
strict positive law.) This is why it is often insisted that positive law be based 
on natural law. The Polish case is complex in that regard.‖ See Geneviève 
Zubrzycki, ―‗We, the Polish Nation‘: Ethnic and Civic Visions of Nationhood in 
Post-Communist Constitutional Debates,‖ Theory and Society 30 (2001), no. 
5: 667. 
147

 Ryszard Montusiewicz, ―Jezus i judaizm. Z ks. Prof. Romualdem Jakubem 
Wekslerem-Waszkinelem rozmawia Ryszard Montusiewicz,‖ Forum: Żydzi-
Chrześcijanie-Muzułmanie,  
http://znak.org.pl/?lang1=pl&page1=pressreview&subpage1=pressreview00&i
nfopassid1=3669&scrt1=sn 

(accessed 21 August 2009). Weksler-Waszkinel was born to a Jewish family 
in 1943 in Wilno. Before her death, his mother asked a Christian family to 
raise him. They did, but when he decided to become a priest they were 
shocked. He is also critical of Tadeusz Zieliński, whose Hellenizm a judaizm 

(1927) was a source for Koneczny‘s commentary in his posthumously pub-
lished Cywilizacja żydowska (1974). 
148

 Andrzej Horodecki, ―Polowanie na Polskę,‖ Myśl Polska (28 March 2004), 
no. 13, http://www.myslpolska.icenter.pl/ (accessed 22 March 2005). 
149

 Ks. Romuald Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel, ―Antysemityzm bez Zydów,‖ 
Miesięcznik “Znak” (December 2008), 

renaissance is thus a point of concern to advocates of 
Christian-Jewish amity, such as Weksler-Waszkinel; he 
notes that ―according to Koneczny, Jewish civilization 
was the greatest enemy of Latin civilization...‖

 150
  

Archbishop Józef Życiński alludes to this attempt at the 
separation of Christianity from its Jewish roots when he con-
demns the way some Poles regard Koneczny as more relevant 
than Abraham in their understanding of Catholicism. ―This leads 
to painful consequences‖ for the ―disorientated person‖ who 
focuses on materials that ―have nothing in common with the 
Catholic tradition.‖

151
 A disparity of views toward Jewish-

Christian relations is an element of the tensions found in Po-
land between the progressive ―Open Church‖ and the ―Closed 
Church,‖ which supports a more traditionalist approach ―based 
on the pre-1939 model of Polish Catholicism.‖

152
 Critics have 

accused the Closed Church of failing to adopt the pronounce-
ments of the Second Vatican Council that ―upheld the view that 

                                                                                                                             
http://www.tezeusz.pl/cms/tz/index.php?id=3773 (accessed 5 January 2010). 
For a Konecznian critique of Vatican II, see Andrzej Horodecki, ―Wobec 
dziedzictwa wiary,‖ Nowy Przegląd Wszechpolski 14 (2007), no. 1-2: 26, 
http://www.npw.pl/pdf/npw.2007.1-2.pdf (accessed 27 August 2009). 
150

 Romuald Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel, ―Księdza Stanisława Musiała zma-
gania z pamięcią,‖ Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały 2 (2006): 443.  For 
further commentary on Koneczny, see also Romuald Jakub Weksler-
Waszkinel, ―A Breakthrough in the Teachings of the Church on Jews and Ju-
daism,‖ in Imaginary Neighbors: Mediating Polish-Jewish Relations after the 
Holocaust, ed. Dorota Glowacka and Joanna Zylinska (Lincolin and London: 
University of Nebraska Press, 2007), 227. 
151

 See Józef Życiński (arcybiskup), ―Siła słabych,‖ Gazeta Wyborcza (5 April 
2007), 
http://www.gazetawyborcza.pl/gazetawyborcza/2029020,79328,4042232.html 
(accessed 15 April 2007).   
152

 Joanna B[eata] Michlic, ―Antisemitism in Contemporary Poland. Does It 
Matter? And For Whom Does It Matter?‖ In Rethinking Poles and Jews: Trou-
bled Past, Brighter Future, ed. Robert Cherry and Annamaria Orla-Bukowska 
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007), 160. 

http://znak.org.pl/?lang1=pl&page1=pressreview&subpage1=pressreview00&infopassid1=3669&scrt1=sn
http://znak.org.pl/?lang1=pl&page1=pressreview&subpage1=pressreview00&infopassid1=3669&scrt1=sn
http://www.myslpolska.icenter.pl/
http://www.tezeusz.pl/cms/tz/index.php?id=3773
http://www.npw.pl/pdf/npw.2007.1-2.pdf
http://www.gazetawyborcza.pl/gazetawyborcza/2029020,79328,4042232.html


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Jews were Catholics‘ ‗elder brothers in spirit‘ with whom ‗Chris-
tianity has a special bond.‘‖

153
  

 
The teaching of Koneczny‘s ideas has also become 

more widespread at some institutions, especially Catholic Uni-
versity of Lublin (KUL). Most important there is the Lublin 
School of Philosophy,

154
 where Father Mieczysław Albert 

Krąpiec (1921-2008) was a leading figure in the ―renaissance of 
Koneczny‘s thought‖ in the 1990s.

155
 Mieczysław Ryba attrib-

utes the resurgence of interest in Koneczny at KUL to the 
efforts of Krąpiec. He regards this as one of his most important 
legacies.

156
 Perhaps, as one observer noted, ―the interest in 

Koneczny‘s thought among contemporary Thomists [at KUL] 
should not seem strange to us.‖

157
 Yet Joanna Beata Michlic 

has observed that the ―support of the Closed Church in the 
post-1990 period by members of the university faculty is intel-
lectually disturbing, because in the 1980s the Catholic 
University of Lublin was known for its liberal and progressive 
traditions.‖

158
 Weksler-Waszkinel adds that the KUL case is  

                                                           
153

 Joanna Michlic and Antony Polonsky, ―Catholicism and the Jews in Post-
Communist Poland,‖ in Jews, Catholics, and the Burden of History, ed. Eli 
Lederhendler (Oxford University Press, 2006), 40-41. 
154

 Radosław Brzózka, ―Czytajmy Feliksa Konecznego,‖ Cywilizacja 1 (2002): 
68. 
155

 Mieczyslaw Ryba, ―O cywilizacjach,‖ 
http://home.chello.no/~jskorups/KMFK/mieczyslaw_ryba3.htm (accessed 25 
August 2009). On Krąpiec and Koneczny, also see Piotr Jaroszyński, ―Ojca 
M.A. Krąpca bój o polską kulturę (cz. 2),‖ Nasz Dziennik (21-22 May 2008).  

For comments by a recent student, see Mirosław Król, ―Pomagał zrozumieć 
człowieka i jego dzieje,‖ Nasz Dziennik (16 May 2008). In one of many trib-
utes to Krąpiec at the time of his death, the author recalls that he and fellow 
students from the History Department attended Krąpiec‘s lectures in order to 
learn about Koneczny. 
156

  Mieczysław Ryba, ―O ludzką politykę,‖ Nasz Dziennik (16 May 2008). 
157

 Artur Soboń, ―Koncepcja historiozoficzna Feliksa Konecznego,‖ 
http://ciapek.uci.agh.edu.pl/~kwlodarc/tekstyo/asobon.html (accessed 28 
June 2004). 
158

 Michlic, Poland‟s Threatening Other, 269. 

especially discouraging, since John Paul II taught there during 
an earlier progressive period.

159
  

 
Civilizational Fundamentalism in Poland Today 
 

In recent years Konecznian critics have decried a per-
ceived civilizational chaos in Poland that is caused by ―open 
society,‖ ―multiculturalism,‖ or ―guests from other civiliza-
tions.‖

160
 The problem is obvious: ―Cosmopolitanism is 

synonymous with the resignation and renunciation of the idea 
of Latin civilization.‖

161
 The solution is equally clear: Poland 

needs to spearhead a ―reevangelization of Europe‖
162

 based on 
the values of Latin civilization that will lead to its rechristianiza-
tion.

163
 Only with a return to the ethics of Latin civilization and a 

―moral reconstruction‖
164

 can Polish culture be healthy. Some 
Konecznian critics, such as Józef Kossecki, blame the influ-
ence of Jewish civilization for the economic ills of the old 
socialist system, as well as capitalism of the post-communist 
era. The common denominator, it seems, is the tendency of 
apriori thinking, which leads to the implementation of           

                                                           
159

 Weksler-Waszkinel, ―Antysemityzm bez Zydów.‖  
160

 For example, see Andrzej J. Horodecki, ―Bez dyskusji,‖ Myśl Polska (5 

September 2004), no. 36,  http://www.myslpolska.icenter.pl/ (accessed 19 
March 2005). 
161

 Elżbieta Holz, ―Kuc – czy pony? Cywilizacja łacińska a współczesne post-
awy polskiego środowiska jeździeckiego,‖ Nowy Przegląd Wszechpolski 9 
(2002), no. 1-2, http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2002_01_02/OKW-
Kuc_czy_pony.htm (accessed 21 June 2006). 
162

 Tomasz Jaźwiński, ―Rządowa deklaracja w sprawie moralności i etyki nie 
ma znaczenia,‖ Myśl Polska  (2 March 2003), no. 9, 

http://www.myslpolska.icenter.pl/ (accessed 26 March 2005). Also see An-
drzej Horodecki, ―Ciemności europejskie.‖   
163

 Editorial, ―Jan Paweł II odnowiciel,‖ 1. 
164

 Adrian Nikiel, ―Eko-filozofia czy ekologia chrześcijańska?‖ Wydawnictwo 
“Zielone Brygady,” http://www.zb.eco.pl/publication/eko-filozofia-czy-ekologia-
chrzescijanska-p217511 (accessed 6 May 2009). 

http://home.chello.no/~jskorups/KMFK/mieczyslaw_ryba3.htm
http://ciapek.uci.agh.edu.pl/~kwlodarc/tekstyo/asobon.html
http://www.myslpolska.icenter.pl/
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2002_01_02/OKW-Kuc_czy_pony.htm
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2002_01_02/OKW-Kuc_czy_pony.htm
http://www.myslpolska.icenter.pl/
http://www.zb.eco.pl/publication/eko-filozofia-czy-ekologia-chrzescijanska-p217511
http://www.zb.eco.pl/publication/eko-filozofia-czy-ekologia-chrzescijanska-p217511


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preconceived and inflexible economic programs that do not 
take into account the social realities of a given situation.

165
 

 
Andrzej Horodecki is a pundit who consistently views 

the world through a Konecznian lens. For example, he consid-
ers globalism a ―Byzantine-Jewish civilizational mixture taking 
the form of a global pseudo-civilization, which aims to construct 
a so-called ‗open society.‘‖

166
 Globalization is thus labeled a 

―new totalitarianism,‖ and even ―a Satanic totalitarian doc-
trine.‖

167
 The tool of ―the elite of the ‗world intellectual 

aristocracy‟‖ [emphasis in original], globalization certainly will 
undermine the purity of Latin civilization in Poland, where politi-
cians representing Byzantine, Turanian, and Jewish 
civilizations have recently been “practically uncontrolled” [em-
phasis in original].

168
 Horodecki is deeply concerned that the 

―dictatorship of the minority‖ that manifested itself in the form of 
Jewish domination during the communist era now threatens to 
reemerge.

169
 Using one of Koneczny‘s historical laws, 

                                                           
165

 Józef Kossecki, Podstawy nowoczesnej nauki porównawczej o 
cywilizacjach. Socjologia porównawcza cywilizacja (Katowice: „Śląsk‖ Sp. z 

o.o. Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 2003), 48-49, and 120.  
166

 Andrzej Horodecki, ―Gdzie jest inicjatywna polityka Polska?‖ Nowy Prze-
gląd Wszechpolski 7 (2000), no.5-6, 
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2000_05_06/TMS-Horodecki_Gdzie-
jest-inicjatywna.htm (accessed 21 June 2006).  
167

 Jan Piwowarski, ―Oddolne zorganizowanie się Polaków warunkiem przetr-
wania Narodu i Państwa Polskiego,‖ Nowy Przegląd Wszechpolski 8 (2001), 
no. 5-6, http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2001_05_06/TMS-

Piwowarski_Oddolne-organizowanie-sie.html (accessed 21 June 2006). Also 
see Andrzej Horodecki, ―Neototalitaryzm,‖ Myśl Polska (2-9 November 2003), 
no. 44-45, http://www.myslpolska.icenter.pl/ (accessed 22 March 2005). 
168

 Andrzej Horodecki, ―Totalna walka z cywilizacją łacińską, część I,‖ Nowy 
Przegląd Wszechpolski 9 (2002), no. 3-4, 
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2002_03_04/PIS-Horodecki_Totalna-
walka-z-CL.htm (accessed 21 June 2006).  
169

 Andrzej Horodecki, ―Wobec zamachu na patriotyzm,‖ Nasza witryna, 

http://www.naszawitryna.pl/jedwabne_297.html (accessed 7 May 2008). Orig-
inally published in Myśl Polska (22 June 2001), no. 24-25 and in Nowy 

Horodecki bemoans this as an example of the ―lower‖ Jewish 
civilization dominating the ―higher‖ Latin civilization. This, he 
assumes, is one of the costs of the transition to democracy.

170
  

 
Another cost of the continued interaction with Jewish 

civilization is the ―moral schizophrenia‖ that has typically 
emerged as a sickness associated with civilization mixing.

171
 

Bemoaning Poles‘ ―ignorance of the fundamental difference be-
tween Latin and Jewish civilizations,‖ Horodecki reminds 
readers that the two are incompatible and cannot be partners in 
any sort of civilizational dialogue.

 172
 Moreover, even conversion 

to Christianity from Judaism does not mean an automatic 
membership in Latin civilization, since it is so radically different 
from Jewish civilization.

173
 Between Latin and Jewish civiliza-

tions, therefore: ―A state of war continues!‖
174

 As Radosław 
Brzózka notes: ―The moral life of society [in Latin civilization] 
ought to be...dynamic—Koneczny postulated—it ought to rely 
on an active struggle with evil, which is present in foreign civili-
zational influences.‖

175
  

                                                                                                                             
Przegląd Wszechpolski 8 (2001), no. 1-2, 
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2001_01_02/PIS-Horodecki_Wobec-
zamachu.html (accessed 21 June 2006). 
170

 Andrzej Horodecki, ―Totalna walka z cywilizacją łacińską, część II.‖   
171

 Andrzej Horodecki, ―Rozum zagrożony,‖ Nowy Przegląd Wszechpolski 14 
(2007), no. 5-6: 39, http://www.npw.pl/pdf/npw.2007.5-6.pdf (accessed 27 
August 2009). 
172

 Andrzej Horodecki, ―Walka cywilizacjyjna,‖ Nowy Przegląd Wszechpolski 8 

(2001), no. 3-4, http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2001_03_04/TMS-
Horodecki_Walka-Cywilizacyjna.html (accessed 21 June 2006).  
173

 Andrzej Horodecki, ―Wobec zamachu na patriotyzm.‖ Koneczny devoted 
an entire chapter (―The Dejudaized Jew‖) of Cywilizacja żydowska to this 
problem. See Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 395-406. Interestingly, Kamil 
Sawczak also refers to Koneczny‘s thoughts on this issue. See Sawczak, ―O 
rozwiązaniu kwestii żydowskiej.‖ 
174

 Andrzej Horodecki, ―Walka cywilizacjyjna.‖   
175

 Radosław Brzózka, ―Polityka międzynarodowa w cywilizacji łacińskiej: 
Konecznikana,‖ Cywilizacja 4/5 (2003): 35. 

http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2000_05_06/TMS-Horodecki_Gdzie-jest-inicjatywna.htm
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2000_05_06/TMS-Horodecki_Gdzie-jest-inicjatywna.htm
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2001_05_06/TMS-Piwowarski_Oddolne-organizowanie-sie.html
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2001_05_06/TMS-Piwowarski_Oddolne-organizowanie-sie.html
http://www.myslpolska.icenter.pl/
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2002_03_04/PIS-Horodecki_Totalna-walka-z-CL.htm
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2002_03_04/PIS-Horodecki_Totalna-walka-z-CL.htm
http://www.naszawitryna.pl/jedwabne_297.html
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2001_01_02/PIS-Horodecki_Wobec-zamachu.html
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2001_01_02/PIS-Horodecki_Wobec-zamachu.html
http://www.npw.pl/pdf/npw.2007.5-6.pdf
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2001_03_04/TMS-Horodecki_Walka-Cywilizacyjna.html
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2001_03_04/TMS-Horodecki_Walka-Cywilizacyjna.html


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The most vocal and high-profile advocate of Koneczny‘s 
worldview today is Maciej Giertych. He explicitly stated in his 
controversial 2007 booklet, Civilisations at war in Europe: 
―What I am going to present...is based on the teaching of Feliks 
Koneczny, a Polish historian and philosopher, who developed 
his own school of thinking on civilisational differences.‖

176
 In this 

booklet, Giertych expressed his worldview as a true ―koneczni-
anista‖:

177
 

 
Civilisations differ so much that it is not possible to be 
civilised in two different ways. Civilisations, by their very 
nature, must be at war with each other. This war has 
nothing to do with military activity or force. It is a war of 
ideas.  

 
When a civilisation ceases to fight for its own identity, 
when it treats other civilisations as being of equal value, 
the lower one wins. ‗Lower‘ means the one that is less 
demanding. Civilisational mixtures can only be mechan-
ical, never organic, and they soon perish because they 
are inconsistent. There are no historical examples of 
civilisational mixtures surviving for any length of time.

178
  

 
Building on Koneczny, Giertych also elaborated on the 

way civilizational boundaries are constructed. ―Civilisation is a 
very strong marriage barrier. People normally look for a spouse 
in the same civilisation as their own. They expect to share civi-
lisational norms with the spouse. As a result, the civilisational 
barrier becomes also a biological one... However, it is not the 

                                                           
176

 Maciej Giertych, Civilisations at war in Europe (Bruxells: Maciej Giertych, 
2007), 3. Available online at Opoka w Kraju (http://opoka.giertych.pl/ ).   
177

 This term is used by other scholars. For example, see Jakubowski, 
Ciągłość historii, 258. 
178

 Giertych, Civilisations at war, 4-5.  

race that makes a civilisation. It is civilisation that can make a 
race...‖

 179
  

   
Critics have detected in Giertych‘s ideas the echo of a 

discourse from the interwar period that replaced the concept of 
―race‖ with the euphemism of ―civilization.‖

180
 In an interview 

with Gazeta Lubuska conducted after the publication of his 
Koneczny primer (Civilisations at war in Europe, 2007), Maciej 
Giertych was directly asked by the reporter: ―Pan Professor, are 
you a racist?‖ Giertych replied: ―Of course not.‖ In response to 
another question about whether he would object to his son mar-
rying a Jewish woman, Giertych voiced reservations about 
―intercivilizational marriages.‖ While he would not oppose such 
a union if she ―belonged spiritually to our civilization and pro-
fessed our values,‖ he noted that if she were not Catholic it 
would be very difficult for this to be the case.

181
  

 
Giertych commented at some length on how the civiliza-

tional boundary is drawn between Christians (particularly 
Catholics) and Jews. Basing his commentary on Konecznian 
ideas, Giertych posits that:  

Jews are not pioneers. Jews do not go conquering the 
wild world or overpowering the hazards of nature. They 
settle among other civilisations, preferably among the 
rich. They tend to migrate from poorer to richer lands. 
They do so always as a group, immediately forming 
their own separate community. Jews do not represent 

                                                           
179

 Ibid., 7. 
180

 Rafał Maszkowski, ―Otwarte społeczeństwo i jego radio,‖ Stowarzyszenie 
Nigdy Więcej (Never Again Association), (2004), 
http://www.nigdywiecej.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=9
1 (accessed 26 August 2009). 
181

―Bronię naszej cywilizacji przed polityką bez etyki,‖ Gazeta Lubuska  (31 
March/1 April 2007); ―Monitoring prasy,‖ 03-2007, p. 777,  Żydowski Instytut 
Historyczny (Jewish Historical Institute), Warsaw.  

http://opoka.giertych.pl/
http://www.nigdywiecej.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=91
http://www.nigdywiecej.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=91


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any specific race. It is a great misunderstanding to con-
sider anti-Semitism as racism... However, the fact that 
they stick to their own community, their own civilisation, 
their own separateness, results in biological differences 
developing. It is not the race that forms the Jewish civili-
sation but the civilisation can cause a biological 
separateness.

182
  

This is all for the best, it would seem, since 
Giertych argues that aspects of Jewish civilization, es-
pecially its ―situational ethics,‖ pose a ―spiritual threat‖ to 
Latin civilization and must be avoided.

183
 This concern is 

shared by other civilizational fundamentalists who have 
warned Poles about the need to regulate interaction 
with ―lower‖ civilizations.

184
 

Giertych received broad public criticism at home and 
abroad for his booklet, which was published in English in order 
to expose an international audience to the ideas of Koneczny. 
Most of the criticism targeted his discussion of ―Jewish civiliza-
tion,‖ which repeated many of the same themes expressed by 
Koneczny during the interwar period and in posthumous publi-
cations (especially Cywilizacja żydowska).

185
 Rafał Pankowski 

                                                           
182

 Giertych, Civilisations at war, 23. 
183

 Ibid., 24. Giertych has warned elsewhere about the need to prevent pollu-
tion by foreign civilizational elements. See ―Rozumienie świata a podziały 
cywilizacyjne prof. dr hab. Maciej Giertych,‖ Nasza witryna,  
http://www.naszawitryna.pl/jedwabne_497.html (accessed 6 November 2007). 
Originally published in Nasz Dziennik (6 February 2001). 
184

 Editorial, ―Czy jestem Polakiem?‖ Nowy Przegląd Wszechpolski 13 (2006), 
no. 1-2, http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2006_01_02/index.html (ac-
cessed 20 June 2006). 
185

 A review of Polish press reports collected by the Jewish Historical Institute 
(Warsaw) from February-April 2007 indicates that over 50 articles appeared in 
reaction to the Giertych booklet during those months. Analysis focused mainly 
on Giertych‘s comments about Jews, and the terms ―shock‖ or ―shocking‖ 
were commonly used. See ―Monitoring prasy,‖ 02-2007, 03-2007, and 04-
2007.  Żydowski Instytut Historyczny  (Jewish Historical Institute), Warsaw. 

of ―Never Again‖ noted that the book was ―consistent with his 
previous writings, as disappointing as that may be.‖ Piotr 
Kadlcik, president of the Union of Jewish Religious Communi-
ties in Poland, did not find explicit anti-Semitic comments, but 
added that the book contained ―dangerous thoughts that could 
elicit anti-Semitism.‖

186
 

   
Writing in his periodical Opoka w Kraju in April 2007, 

Giertych explained that he ―wanted to popularize‖ Koneczny‘s 
ideas outside of Poland. As a result, he says, ―I was proclaimed 
an anti-Semite, a racist, a xenophobe, a violator of the values 
on which the European Union was constructed, etc.‖ Despite 
the criticism, he is glad for the publicity in a way, since it might 
―build interest in the works of Koneczny, and finally this author 
will gain the international recognition that he deserves.‖

187
 

Giertych certainly had his defenders, too. Mirosław Dakowski 
wrote an open letter in February 2007 to President Kaczyński, 
in which he made clear that Giertych‘s book was based on 
Koneczny‘s ideas, which were explicitly ―anti-racist.‖

188
 Others 

                                                           
186

 Dinah A. Spritzer, ―Jews are a Detriment to Europe, Polish Politician 
Says,‖ The Jerusalem Post (19 February 2007) 
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1170359892598&pagename=JPArt
icle%2FShowFull (accessed 6 January 2010). 
187

 Maciej Giertych, ―Wojna cywilizacji w Europie,‖ Opoka w Kraju 61(82) 

(April 2007): 1-2, http://opoka.giertych.pl/owk61.htm (accessed 30 June 
2008). Giertych responded to his critics in many interviews with the press. In 
a second booklet from 2007, he recalled that ―My publication of a booklet enti-
tled ―Civilisations at war in Europe‖ which presents the endless ideological 
struggle between various civilizations that have made Europe over the centu-
ries and which pertains very much to the conflicts we are dealing with today, 
has created quite a turmoil in the Parliament and particularly in the media. 
Having distributed this booklet to the pigeonholes of all Members of the Euro-
pean Parliament I was accused of all sorts of sins, including racism, anti-
Semitism and disrespect for human values. The booklet pertains very much to 
the issue of European values. I believe I defend them and I am accused of 
abusing them.‖ See European values (Bruxells: Maciej Giertych, 2007), 6.  
188

 Mirosław Dakowski, ―Nie potępiajmy Konecznego!‖ Myśl Polska (23 Feb-
ruary 2007),  

http://www.naszawitryna.pl/jedwabne_497.html
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2006_01_02/index.html
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1170359892598&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1170359892598&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
http://opoka.giertych.pl/owk61.htm


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have questioned why Koneczny should be marginalized, since 
many pre-war authors wrote more harshly about Judaism.

189
 

Piotr Jaroszyński of the Lublin School of Philosophy frequently 
comments on Koneczny in Nasz Dziennik and Radio Maryja. 
He has advised that ―Jewish civilization is a very sensitive topic, 
because it is to a certain degree today embraced by the cen-
sorship of political correctness [emphasis in original]‖ and there 
are consequences if one is labeled an anti-Semite. He added 
that ―Koneczny does not attack a race, a nation, or a religion. 
For Koneczny was neither a racist, nor a fascist, nor a xeno-
phobe; he was an analyst of civilization. It is possible to agree 
or not with this analysis, but it is not possible to classify him as 
anti-Semitic [emphasis in original].‖

 190
 

   
Koneczny‘s heirs today reject any efforts at civilizational 

compromise as ―naive ecumenism‖
191

 that would result in what 
Koneczny termed a ―civilizational caricature.‖

192
 Rather than 

decline into ―cultural and political nothingness,‖ Poles should 
cherish their role in Latin civilization, which is grounded in Ca-
tholicism. Early in the Communist period, Koneczny 
proclaimed: ―We support three great pillars of our existence, 
and these are: Catholicism, Latin civilization, and            

                                                                                                                             
http://www.myslpolska.org/?idx=janek_art&lusterko=193442 (accessed 16 
March 2007). 
189

 Karol Brandt, ―Niezapomniany Feliks Koneczny,‖ Myśl Polska (2-9 August 
2009), no. 31-32,  http://www.myslpolska.org/node/10210 (accessed 21 Au-
gust 2009). 
190

 Piotr Jaroszyński, ―Koneczny o tożsamości Zachodu,‖ in Przywracanie 
pamięci (Warszawa: Dom Polski, 2007), 119. 
191

 Andrzej Horodecki, ―Nie ma patriotyzmu bez personalizmu,‖ Nowy Prze-
gląd Wszechpolski 11 (2004), no. 1-2, 
http://www.npw.pl/ARCHIWUM_NPW/2004_01_02/PIS-Horodecki_nie-ma-
patriotyzmu.html (accessed 21 June 2006). 
192

 Koneczny, Polska między wschodem a zachodem, 2. 

Polishness.‖
193

 In post-Communist Poland, his heirs have re-
vived this credo as a rallying cry to construct civilizational 
boundaries between Jews and Christians.  
 

                                                           
193

 Feliks Koneczny, ―Warunki powodzenia,‖ in Zwierzchnictwo moralności 
ekonomia i etyka (Komorów: Wydawnictwo Antyk, 2006), 67. Originally pub-
lished in Niedziela 17 (21-27 December 1947), no. 51: 472. 

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