“ Civilizational ” Boundaries in Christian-Jewish Relations

This article is a critical analysis of the work of Polish historian Feliks Koneczny (1862-1949), whose "science of civilizations" has experienced a renaissance in recent years. The primary focus is on his commentary about "Jewish civilization" and its relationship with "Latin civilization." In Koneczny’s view, these two civilizations are incompatible. Koneczny’s views on Christian-Jewish boundaries relate to the “Open Church-Closed Church” debate in Poland today. His worldview has been defended most vocally by Maciej Giertych, a key ideologue of the nationalist League of Polish Families (LPR). Radical groups, such as the NOP (National Rebirth of Poland), also use Koneczny as an authority to lend legitimacy to their statements of cultural racism.

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 delivered 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 civilizational 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. 6inked in today's conspiratorial vision with the -new world order,‖ Sawczak identified Jewish influence in the bureaucratization of Polish society, the proliferation of pornography, 7 and most significantly in the focus on the -letter of the 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 solution 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 civilizational 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 Poland'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 undoubted 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. 11His 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. 10Ibid., 388. 11Rafał 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. 12ile 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 brochure that he published in 1948. 13His thinking reflects the attitudes of the nationalist -youths‖ who came of age in the interwar 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).Moreover, Maciej's son, Roman (b.1971), served briefly (May 2006-August 2007) as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education in a coalition government.Maciej, in particular, has elevated Koneczny's -science of civilizations‖ to a new level of importance in nationalist ideology. 14rosław 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.‖ 1512 Ibid., 284-285. 13See Jędrzej Giertych, Nacjonalizm chrześcijański, 3 rd ed.(Krzeszowice: Dom Wydawniczy -Ostoja,‖ 2004). 14Ulrich 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 Today, nationalists argue that despite centuries of pressure from alien civilizations, -the rebirth of Latin civilization must begin in Poland.‖ 16As the -apostle of Latin civilization‖ [emphasis 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.‖ 18While Koneczny was not a member of the endecja, -the notion of ‗Latin 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.‖ 21Koneczny insisted that the -issue of civilization-the psychical issue-is not 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].‖ 22In 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 civilisational 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.‖ 23Hanna 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 the Jews who lived in Poland as Poles but as strangers or guests who abused the Polish hospitality.‖25Stefan 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 -civilizational threats.‖ 26Marian Bębenek also has found that Koneczny's views are embraced by the extreme Catholic nationalists in Poland. 27Writing in the -Never Again‖ periodical, Katarzyna Stańczak-Wiślicz adds that Koneczny's Cywilizacja żydowska is -a source of arguments for contemporary antisemitic 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. 28Indeed, Koneczny admirers believe that his science of civilizations is -the key to understanding the present world situation.‖ 29Mirosław Dakowski warns fellow Poles that a dangerous -mélange of various moralities‖ threatens 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 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 Poland'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 exist either historically or sociologically.‖ 37Thus, there never has been a -global civilization,‖ nor will one ever exist.
Koneczny developed several key concepts and -historical laws‖ that help us better understand the civilizational boundaries that separate Jews and Catholics.His early theoretical works refer to the concepts of logos (theory) and ethos (practice). 38One author notes that -logos is a thought, an opinion, 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. 40Over time Koneczny introduced his notion of 35  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 embraced by Koneczny as -the most persistent foundation‖ of his social theory. 41s 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 spiritual, which make up reality.‖42The spiritual side of life was more important, and Koneczny argued that only in Latin civilization was it dominant.Significantly, Koneczny took the position that civilizational differences were not seen so much in the material realm, such as technological developments, but in the -spiritual‖ sphere of human thought. 43Koneczny cleverly applied this notion to the story of Poland itself, holding that -the nation is the soul, whose body is the state.‖ 44A stateless nation for over a century, Poland nevertheless could claim civilizational 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 civilizations...which developed weakly in general or did not develop in Wise, "Civilizational" Boundaries in Christian-Jewish Relations Wise 7 http://escholarship.bc.edu/scjr/vol5 certain areas.‖ 45In 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. 46The Thomist revival was inspired in part by Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), whose Aeterni Patris (1879) and Rerum Novarum (1891) were regarded as seminal documents. 47An historian who focused on the medieval period, 48 Koneczny joined other Catholic scholars who used Thomism as -an intellectual grid‖ to formulate responses to the challenges of modernity. 49Indeed, Koneczny cited Thomism as a foundation for -normality‖ in Latin civilization. 50During the interwar period and through World War II, both Thomism and the medieval 45 Pucek, -Feliks Koneczny,‖ 173. 46Koneczny'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 ideal of a harmonious and unified Christendom proved very appealing to Polish nationalists. 51ton Hilckman (1900-1970) explained that -[t]he attitude 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.‖ 52oneczny posited that -it is not possible to be civilized in two ways.‖ 53According to Koneczny's -law of commensurability,‖ a lack of cohesion among the different categories of the quincunx is the main source of societal decline. 54Societies can flourish, according to Koneczny, only when all categories of the quincunx are in civilizational harmony.He believed that Poland lacked this clarity. 55e of Koneczny's -historical laws‖ stated that civilizational mixing leads to moral and psychological damage and a general decline in the -culture of action.‖ 56Another 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 Civilisation,‖ 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. 53Koneczny, Plurality of Civilisations, 322. 54Sonia Bukowska, -Feliks Konecznyinduksyjna nauka o cywilizacji a prawa dziejowe,‖ Folia Philosophica 8 (1991): 211. 55Feliks Koneczny, -O kierunek polskości,‖ 220. 56Piotr Grabowiec sees the notion of a -culture of action‖ as a key to understanding 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 społeczeństwa obywatelskiego, 30.
that -lower‖ civilizations generally overcome -higher‖ civilizations in confrontations. 57In historical terms, the Roman civilization declined as it became culturally Orientalized; likewise, modern Latin civilization was now confronted with a varievariety 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 contacts. 58Moreover, 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. 59his is why Koneczny concluded that Latin civilization was in peril.
Koneczny was not alone in his calls for civilizational purity, as other commentators in the interwar period complained that -our civilization is poisoned.‖ 60The 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 interwar period as the -re-Catholicization‖ of Europe became the 57 Jan Skoczyński, Idee historiozoficzne Feliksa Konecznego (Kraków: Nakładem Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 1991), 110-112. 58 ideal, with Poland renewing its historical role of -bulwark of Christendom.‖ 62While nationalists commonly rejected racism as a materialist conception, they began to absorb theories that focused on spiritual, psychological, or cultural differences. 63oneczny'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 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. 65Societal progress, according to Koneczny, only takes place when there is civilizational agreement among all five elements of the quincunx. 66his yearning for purity and harmony reflects Koneczny's historical context: a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state, Poland seemed bedeviled by civilizational uncertainty.Koneczny believed that internal cohesion was needed for Poland to survive. 67 Koneczny's eyes -the main sickness‖ of Poland even after World War II, 68 since it implied the mingling of rival ethical systems.This led to ethical confusion, or a -Bedlam of ethics,‖ 69 and impeded moral progress. 70And ethical concerns, as many scholars point out, are at the center of Koneczny's -science of civilizations.‖ 71Marian Bębenek labels Koneczny -ethocentric‖ and concludes that his ideal society represents a sort of -ethocracy.‖ 72Koneczny'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 -intellectual influence of Jewish civilization‖ 73 and the consequent -Judaization‖ of Polish society.
These ideas were especially embraced by the nationalist youth movement, which was inspired by visions of a -new medievalism.‖ 74A distinct Polish medievalism thus emerged, with a call for a -return to the middle ages‖ invoking a time when Catholicism had greater cultural influence. 75Other countries 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 culturalist perspective than a racial one in his analysis of Jewish civilization. 80Koneczny is concerned primarily with the way in which Jewish ethics represent something totally opposite to the Catholicized morality of Latin civilization. 81 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.‖ 82Describing the rhetoric in the Catholic press from the interwar period, Anna Landau-Czajka found that what -distinguished Jews from Christians was not their blood, but the character or psyche which resulted from their religion or customs.It was a psyche completely different from that of Catholics, such as to rule out completely the possibility of the two peoples, Polish and Jewish, 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.‖ 84Indeed, he detected only -the tiniest provision of the intellectual categories of being.‖ 85As an example of these shortcomings, Koneczny noted that for Jews -historical thought itself is very, very difficult.From my own experience, I know that for Jewish students it is difficult to acquire this sense, difficult to understand the historical 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. 87r Koneczny, Jewish civilization was frozen in time.Already in his Plurality of Civilisations (1935), Koneczny was maintaining that -the whole of community life-the whole structure of Jewish civilization with a mass of detail-is contained in the rules of the Old Testament.It is a sacral civilization.‖ 88Jewish 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 Jehovah.Jewish civilisation would become even more strongly sacral.‖ 89e fundamental flaw in Jewish civilization is that it is -sacral,‖ which leads Jews to embrace -apriori thinking‖ and a suspiciousness towards secular learning. 90As early as 1926, Koneczny was writing in Ateneum Kapłańskie (the most important organ for the Polish clergy during the interwar period) 91 86 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 177. 87Feliks Koneczny, Prawa dziejowe (2001), 36. 88Koneczny, Plurality of Civilisations, 252. 89Ibid.Koneczny adds that a third source, the cabbala, was later added to the mix.Ibid., 253. 90 that -of all religions the Jewish one is most identical with a civilization.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.‖ 92He 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.‖ 93Koneczny 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 adherents 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.‖ 94For Jewish civilization, this meant that there was no -creative originality.‖ 95neczny placed special emphases on Jewish -legalism,‖ 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, invented...Mosaic law was a prototype of apriori law.‖ 96
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 -elephantiasis of law‖ thus emerged: -the more law the better!‖ 98 Another important factor for Koneczny was the notion of Jewish -chosenness.‖ 99He concluded that this special relationship with God and the -faith that all must end with the Jews ruling the world‖ was the most immutable, distinguishing characteristic of Jewish civilization. 100Koneczny thus identified an -ethic of exclusivity‖ that -generated contempt, then hatred, for foreigners.In all of universal history, Jews have developed hatred to the highest degree...‖ 101 This all highlights the -defective‖ nature of Jewish civilization.This -collective predestination‖ reflects Jewish emphasis on the collective, rather than the individual, and precludes a personal relationship with God that is found in Catholicism. 102neczny 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.According to Koneczny, -Jewish civilization experienced significant changes among other ‗nations,' but what is most interesting 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, -'Elephantiasis' prawodawcza,‖ Myśl Narodowa 12 (18 December 1932), no.55: 798-801. 99Ibid., 100, 105, and 108. 100 Koneczny, Plurality of Civilisations, 256. 101Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 40. 102Ibid., 163-67.supplement of a defective civilization in many directions and lifting it to a higher level in each case.‖ 103For 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, beyond which it becomes a brake on higher development.‖ 104A 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 mixture.How many purely Jewish notions are running among us!Our literature, legal ideas, political views-all of them have been subjected to judaization.A civilizational mixture endangers us-and with the same sort of results as in Russia.‖ 105For 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.‖ 106Koneczny used the stereotype of infection to argue that -Judaization‖ would weaken Poland, as would a disease. 107The lack of ethics in economics, for example, was blamed on the -spiritual influence 103  of Jews.‖108While Jews borrowed and learned from the aposterior 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. 109oneczny concluded that if -the success of an association depends 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.‖110This rhetoric found an audience within the growing public 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 -dangerous Jewish soul‖ than the -dangerous Jewish race.‖111Perhaps 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 compass. 112Jewish 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 Wise, "Civilizational" Boundaries in Christian-Jewish Relations Wise 13 http://escholarship.bc.edu/scjr/vol5 reliance on the -letter of the law.‖ 113Koneczny here depicted Latin civilization as the antithesis of Jewish civilization; indeed, he noted that -we Latins, we follow the Romans‖ in legal views. 114He 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 ethics...[but] law was not and is not sacral among Catholics, [it] is not possessed of a religious character.There is a link with Roman 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 civilization 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.‖ 116He thus sees a continuation of the old conflict between Judaism and Christianity, except now in the guise of a civilizational struggle.The connection between German militarism and opportunities for Jewish domination was 113 Koneczny referred to this as the -Shylock method.‖Ibid., 37.In his analyses, Adolf Nowaczyński used the term -Shylockracja.‖See Małgorzata Domagalska, Antysemityzm dla inteligencji?Kwestia żydowska w publicystyce Adolfa Nowaczyńskiego na łamach "Myśli Narodowej" (1921-1934) i "Prosto z mostu" (1935-1939) (na tle porównawczym) (Warszawa: Żydowski Instytut Historyczny, 2004), 180, 182. 114Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 176. 115Koneczny, Plurality of Civilisations, 275. 116Koneczny, Polskie logos a ethos, vol.2: 539.Ewa Maj has explored commentary 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 foundation of European nations.‖See Ewa Maj, Związek Ludowo-Narodowy, 1919-1928: Studium z dziejów myśli politycznej (Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej, 2000), 194.most evident to Koneczny in the alleged German-Jewish plan for -Judeopolonia,‖ a Jewish state on Polish territory.117Forestalled 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.‖118Commenting 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. 119is insensitivity is perhaps most evident in Koneczny's discussion of the impact of Jewish culture in Germany.The Nazi idea of German world supremacy allegedly developed under the influence of Jewish notions of the -chosen people‖ and collective predestination.Koneczny was not alone, as other commentators in Poland also found -striking analogies between the Talmud and Mein Kampf.‖ 120Koneczny concluded that -Germans have assimilated Jewish civilization most visibly.Hitler murders Jews, but he thinks and feels in the Jewish manner.‖ 121Konecznian commentary today still makes these vulgar connections.Holocaust denier Dariusz Ratajczak (1962-2010) cited Koneczny in this regard, noting the shared -rebellion against Christianity and Latin civilization‖ found in the Wise, "Civilizational" Boundaries in Christian-Jewish Relations Wise 14 http://escholarship.bc.edu/scjr/vol5 -ideas of Jewish civilization‖ and -the Hitlerite worldview.‖ 122Andrzej 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. 123neczny's treatise on -Jewish civilization‖ represented what one reviewer termed -‗high anti-semitism' revived.‖ 124When 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 civilization, 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. 126Yet 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.'‖

Christian-Jewish Boundaries: Civilizational or Religious?
Koneczny and his heirs have focused on what they regard as issues of civilizational differences between Jewish civilization and Latin civilization.Since Jewish civilization is deemed -sacral‖ in the Konecznian paradigm, however, the distinction 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 pervasive influence of Catholicism is frequently cited as a source of its strength and appeal.Koneczny's construction of civilizational 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. 129Indeed, he claimed that -[t]he Judaization of the Church would be the pinnacle of success for Israel.‖ 130It 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. 131Discussing the early history of the Church, Koneczny bluntly declared that -Judaism did not exert any essential influence on Christianity in matters of faith.‖ 132Koneczny also faulted historiographical approaches 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.‖ 134e 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. 135As Zieliński put it: -Christianity emerged from Judaism-this is often 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.‖ 136Zieliński insisted that this was not heretical, since he simply znego (Legnica: Wyższe Seminarium Duchowne Diecezji Legnickiej, 2000), 99-100. 133Feliks Koneczny, -Geneza Judeocentryzmu,‖ Myśl Narodowa 9 (6 January 1929), no.1: 3-4. 134Ibid., 5 135 Koneczny, Cywilizacja żydowska, 120.Koneczny used other controversial sources in his work.For example, he extensively cited Rev. Stanisław Trzeciak (1873-1944).His Mesjanizm a kwestia żydowska (1934) -belonged to the ‗classics' of interwar antisemitic literature. . .He was a national and international ‗expert' on the ‗Jewish question,' his international fame resting on his activitiy in the Nazi-sponsored Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage (Institute for Research of the Jewish Question), headquartered in Erfurt.‖See Libionka, -Antisemitism, Anti-Judaism, and the Polish Catholic Clergy,‖ 257. 136Tadeusz Zieliński, Hellenizm a Judaizm (Warszawa, Kraków: Wydawnictwo J. Mortkowicza, 1927), vol.1: 2-3.identified the obvious -psychological continuity.‖ 137This understanding of the theological boundaries between Judaism and Christianity was not uncommon in Polish nationalist circles during the early 20 th century and interwar period. 138It 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 traditional sense. 139e resurrection of Koneczny's theories in recent years, especially his notions about civilizational boundaries that separate 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‖ civilizations without constant vigilance in defense of traditional values. 140Commentators also discuss Koneczny's ideas in the context of the teachings of Pope John Paul II. 141 For example, the term -Latin civilization‖ is sometimes equated with the notion of -civilization of love,‖ a concept embraced by Popes Paul VI and John Paul II. 142  common ethical convictions that generate social cohesiveness 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 civilization 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 civilization 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.Today, however, Western Europe is rapidly losing, or totally transforming, its age-old Christian ethical convictions, and in this it is drifting away from the moral foundations in which for centuries it was anchored.).Koneczny advocated natural law over positivist law, fitting with his insistence on the primacy of ethics and morality in public life.In his view, ethical 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 morality, supposedly universal in scope and binding on human conduct' . . .Following St. Thomas Aquinas, it was believed to be God-given, but from the 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. 147For example, Andrzej Horodecki cites Koneczny as an authority as he flatly rejects any notion of a -Judeo-Christian tradition‖ in Europe.In his mind, this connotes -civilizational chaos.‖ 148Weksler-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 -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.‖176In 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 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 mechanical, never organic, and they soon perish because they are inconsistent.There are no historical examples of civilisational mixtures surviving for any length of time. 178ilding 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 civilisational norms with the spouse.As a result, the civilisational barrier becomes also a biological one...However, it is not the 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 marrying 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 professed our values,‖ he noted that if she were not Catholic it would be very difficult for this to be the case. 181ertych commented at some length on how the civilizational 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.