W zderzeniu z naturą - świętość Brata Alberta : naturalne uwarunkowania życia duchowego świętego Alberta Chmielowskiego

Abstract

The work is a study of the role of natural factors (psychophysical and socio-cultural) that influenced the shape of the spiritual life of Saint. Albert Chmielowski (1845–1916). Although the first cause of his spiritual life was supernatural grace, natural factors also influenced to some extent the way it was manifested. In the analysis of psychophysical factors affecting the spiritual life of Brother Albert, in which psychological theoretical models have been used (RB Cattell’s sixteen-factor model, P. Costa and R. McCrae’s five-factor model, GW Allport’s criteria of personality maturity and the K. Dąbrowski’s theory of positive disintegration), showed their influence on some areas of Saint. Albert’s spiritual life. Similarly, socio-cultural factors (including the role of the family environment, participation in the armed struggle, artistic activity, and the impact of culture and society at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in Poland and in the world) influenced in a bottom-up manner on creating Chmielowski’s spiritual profile. The richness of his nature (artistic talents, various experiences, and especially experienced suffering) bore fruit thanks to the cooperation with grace, deep spiritual life, which was a synthesis of active service with a contemplative life, the centre of which was Humble Christ (Ecce Homo). The thesis, referring to the theological axiom: “grace builds on nature and improves it”, shows the complex and broad influence of various natural dynamisms which God uses to develop human’s talents, bringing him to holiness. For the people interested in Saint Albert’s spirituality and Polish spirituality in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the publication can help to understand the process of developing the spiritual life against the background of an epoch. The study can also serve the congregations founded by Saint Albert for which a deepened study of their founder’s spiritual personality and its psychophysical and environmental conditions is always valid. The research on the determinants of the spiritual life can also be useful for monastic, seminary teachers or the leaders of religious groups showing that for spiritual formation it is crucial to take the human development into account (e.g. the knowledge of personality features and alumni’s typical conditions). The work can also be used by psychologists, psychotherapists and teachers that take into consideration the spirituality in developing some attitudes and working on the integral development of others. Both the historians and art historians making a research into Adam Chmielowski’s artistic biography can find some hints referring to the connections between the culture, art and the spiritual life.