Tożsamość kulturowa w perspektywie integracji europejskiej
Streszczenie
The beginning of the 21st century is the time of a new challenge for the Polish nation. Standing on
the threshold of a new century, it has also stood on the ‘threshold’ of the united Europe.
Culture is a binder thanks to which it is possible to discover and to maintain peoples’ identity
and the bonds connecting individual members of the nation. The multitude of nations is a variety which
makes Europe not a monolith in relation to culture; instead, it constitutes a mosaic of different cultures
and philosophies of life.
The Church does not try to identify with any of the culture patterns, but it seeks its place among
the diversity of their forms. However, one can talk about the development of a Christian culture model
resulting from the faith and the presence of the evangelical message in the whole of the Christians’ life.
In the survey concerning Poland’s accession to the European Union, Polish people have expressed
their hopes and fears connected with the process of integration. As many as 11% of the people surveyed
expressed their anxiety related to the adverse effect upon culture and customs. The Church in its social
instruction continuously emphasizes the necessity of maintaining one’s own cultural identity by
particular ethnic, national and regional groups. The united Europe is to become not exactly a federation
of countries, but rather the home of homes. In the everyday life of the new united Europe the system of
norms, values and patterns of religious and cultural behaviour are going to be verified. Both the sceptics
and the enthusiasts of the integration process are looking for a place and a role for the Polish Christians
in the secularized European society.
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