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“The indescribable ministry of God’s mercy”
Abstract
Among the various themes of Norwid’s religious reflection, one that attracts particular attention but has largely been overlooked in previous research is the theme of divine mercy and mercy rendered to one’s neighbours. The poet’s writings (letters, prose and poetry) divulge the author’s effort (expressed, for instance, in his interesting neologisms) to penetrate and clarify this theological truth, to understand it more fully and interpret it in a new and deeper way.
“Mercy” is primarily an important tool of Norwid’s “speaking of God”; for him it is also a summary of the essence of the Gospel teaching (the poet calls the New Testament the “Testament of mercy”). The truth about mercy is situated at the centre of Norwid’s personalist anthropology (“Osobistość jest rzeczą miłosierdzia” [Personality is the thing of mercy]) and forms the fabric of his social thought (“social loving”, “the eleventh commandment”). Clues emerge from the poet’s writings indicating that he was inspired in this regard by, among others, St Paul’s theology of mercy and the teaching of 19th-century preachers (such as Fr Piotr Semenenko). Thus, Norwid can be seen as that Christian thinker who, anticipating the theological revelations of the 20th century, independently addressed this important issue of faith as early as in the 19th century.
Keywords:
mercy, theology, Norwid, Fr Piotr Semenenko, the Resurrectionists, St Paul, social teaching of the Church, anthropologyDetails
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