Abstrakt: | The inquiry aims at indicating that the interpretation of Polish experience of
multiculturalism performed by John Paul II may become an inspiration for
intercultural education and comparative pedagogy of religion. This can occur
mainly because the issue of particularity and universality, which is considered
significant for research into intercultural education, is present in the interpretation
of Polish experience of multiculturalism carried out by John Paul II. He
combined Polish experience of multiculturalism with his own personal experience
which shaped his identity as well as with moral experience and experiencing
the Christian faith. For those who share axiological convictions promoted
by John Paul II, his interpretation of Polish experience of multiculturalism has
become crucial. They can see significant merits of the papal interpretation
of the Polish ethos. If this interpretation is granted rightness, it acquires the
qualities of an intellectually and morally important point of reference for the
axiological and educational sense of Polish experience of multiculturalism.
The issues of intercultural education and comparative pedagogy of religion
were frequently undertaken by John Paul II. In his book Pamięć i tożsamość.
Rozmowy na przełomie tysiącleci /Memory and Identity: Conversations at the
Dawn of a Millennium/, in which John Paul II recapitulates his philosophical
and theological considerations on culture, his convictions concerning Polish
experience of multiculturalisms are also expressed: ‘Polishness is in fact multitude
and pluralism, not narrowness and confinement. It seems, however, that
this »Jagiellonian« dimension of Polishness [...] ceased to be, unfortunately,
something obvious in our times’74. What is essential for intercultural education
is the recognition that Polishness is marked by ‘multitude and pluralism,
not narrowness and confinement’, because in this way axiological principles
of shaping beliefs and attitudes in interpersonal relations are created in the
complex situation of multiculturalism. |