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Papers by Damian Mrugalski

"Christians of the Patristic Period in Relation to Nature", Studia Patristica 131, 2024

In the first three centuries AD, there was a debate in Platonic circles on the origin of the mate... more In the first three centuries AD, there was a debate in Platonic circles on the origin of the material world. Is the world generated or ungenerated? If it is generated, was it generated in time or out of time? Jewish and Christian thinkers of the first centuries AD joined this debate. Interestingly, their answer was not at all based on a literal interpretation of Genesis. The seven days of the work of creation, especially for the fathers of the Alexandrian tradition, should be interpreted allegorically, that is, as representing a logical rather than a temporal order. The Alexandrians would have agreed with many of the theses posited by the Greco-Roman Middle Platonists. The world could exist eternally as created by God. However, the argumentation of such a thesis differed. According to the Greco-Roman Middle Platonists, the world is eternal because Ideas, matter and God are eternal, and are thus the core cosmological principles. According to the Jewish and Christian Platonists, the world is eternal because the Good, which is God, is an infinite creative power. If God ceased his beneficent activity, he would cease to be God. The purpose of this article is to trace these two types of arguments concerning the origin of the world.

Vox Patrum, 2024

There is a belief among scholars of Augustine's philosophy that he derived the notion of the posi... more There is a belief among scholars of Augustine's philosophy that he derived the notion of the positively understood infinity of God from Plotinus. Another opinio communis holds that Origen inherited a negative understanding of infinity from the ancient philosophers and therefore considered God's power to be finite. This paper aims to demonstrate that both opinions are erroneous. Although Augustine was familiar with Plotinus' thought, his reflections on the infinity of God have more in common with the theses put forward by Origen than with Neoplatonism. In both authors, the issue arises when they are commenting on the same biblical passages, and both authors wrestle with the same aporia caused by accepting the doctrine of God's infinite power and knowledge. If, according to Aristotle's logic, infinity cannot be encompassed by anything, can the divine intellect encompass infinite ideas? Both authors answer this question in the affirmative.
The article posits that Augustine may have adopted the doctrine of the infinity of God directly from Origen, since he had access to many of his works translated into Latin, or through Novatian and Hilary of Poitiers, as they were both influenced by Origen's thought .

Verbum Vitae, 2023

This article examines Philo’s philosophical interpretation of the three theophanies in Exodus, wh... more This article examines Philo’s philosophical interpretation of the three theophanies in Exodus, which would, centuries later, continue to be considered by the great thinkers responsible for developing negative theology, such as Gregory of Nyssa and Dionysius the Areopagite. Although Exod 33:11 clearly states that the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as if someone were to speak to his own friend, according to Philo, the lawgiver neither saw the face of God, nor learned the proper name of God, nor was he able to comprehend the essence of God. These very statements became the inspiration for later apophaticism. The present article seeks to establish to what extent Philo’s theses were influenced by Plato’s philosophy or by later Middle Platonism, and to what extent Philo, by commenting allegorically on the Pentateuch, becomes the initiator of new ideas hitherto unknown in philosophical discourse. In the course of the analyses, three great questions of apophatic theology are discussed: 1. the unnameability of God; 2. the unknowability of God’s essence; and 3. the knowability of God’s nature by grace .

Verbum Vitae, 2023

Przegląd Tomistyczny, 2022

"The Encounter Between Greek Philosophy and Biblical Thought in Hellenistic Judaism and the Birth... more "The Encounter Between Greek Philosophy and Biblical Thought in Hellenistic Judaism and the Birth of Christology"

In the 20th century, there was a dispute between Protestant and Catholic scholars over the Hellenisation of Christianity, or rather the evaluation of the phenomenon of Hellenisation. According to Adolf von Harnack, Hellenisation destroyed or deformed the essence of Christianity. According to Joseph Ratzinger, on the contrary: the encounter between biblical thought and Greek philosophy helped to express the essence of Christianity adequately. Ratzinger has devoted many works to the polemic against Harnack’s thesis, pointing out that Hellenisation took place, not only after the death and resurrection of Jesus, but much earlier. However, Ratzinger does not cite many examples and arguments as confirmation of his thesis. This article is a kind of supplement to Ratzinger’s thesis. Its author shows how certain theoretical solutions arose within Hellenistic Judaism, i.e. in the time before the birth of Jesus, and how these were then used by Christians in their Christological argumentation. It was the philosophical interpretation of the Pentateuch made by Philo of Alexandria, but which also appears in the Bible itself (especially in the Sapiential Books), that helped the Fathers of the Church to perceive a pre-existent Logos in the theophanies of the Old Testament. This philosophical interpretation also gave rise to the concept of gaeneratio aeterna, i.e. the argument in favour of the eternal generation of the Son by the Father.

Damian Mrugalski OP, "The Notion of Divine Infinity and Unknowability: Philo, Clement and Origen of Alexandria in a Polemic with Greek Philosophy", in: "Hellenism, Early Judaism and Early Christianity: Transmission and Transformation of Ideas", ed. R. Fialová – J. Hoblík, Berlin 2023, 69-84., 2022

Plotinus is considered to be the inventor of the notion of divine infinity and unknowability. In ... more Plotinus is considered to be the inventor of the notion of divine infinity and unknowability. In fact, however, these themes already appear in Philo, Clement and Origen of Alexandria. The aim of this paper is to show how philosophical reflection on the Bible led to the emergence of a new philosophical concept, which was then later developed by the founder of Neoplatonism.

While Gregory of Nyssa’s relation to Origen has been subject to much discussion, there has been l... more While Gregory of Nyssa’s relation to Origen has been subject to much discussion, there has been little attention to the direct or indirect influence of Clement of Alexandria. This colloquium aims to explore the extent to which it is legitimate to speak of an “Alexandrian tradition” that links these two Fathers. Some questions we would like to consider together are: Is it possible to find in Gregory a way of doing theology that originates with Clement? Is Origen’s legacy a necessary mediation? What are the similarities and differences in these Fathers’ appropriation of the Biblical tradition?

Verbum Vitae, 2021

"On the Notion of Hellenization": The term Hellenization refers to the spread of Greek culture an... more "On the Notion of Hellenization": The term Hellenization refers to the spread of Greek culture and its adoption by non-Greek peoples, in the era that begins with the conquests of Alexander the Great (i.e. from the second half of the 4th century BC onwards). The term is defined likewise or similarly in many modern dictionaries and encyclopedias of antiquity. The notion of Hellenization became problematic when, in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, historians of religion associated it with certain kinds of value judgements and sometimes even ideology. Therefore, some contemporary scholars propose abandoning the concept of ‘Hellenization’ in the study of antiquity, or to replace it with others that would describe the phenomena occurring in the Hellenistic era neutrally. This article shall present an overview of selected positions with regard to the notion of ‘Hellenization’ itself, and attempt to answer the question whether this ideologically loaded term can be avoided in contemporary research on the Hellenistic Age.

Verbum Vitae, 2021

The problem of Hellenization is revived in contemporary theological debate and its evaluation may... more The problem of Hellenization is revived in contemporary theological debate and its evaluation may vary. The editors of the Verbum Vitae invite you to take part in such a debate. The articles we are waiting for may concern very detailed issues, concerning the analysis of Greek philosophical concepts, language, rhetoric and literary genres present in the Old and New Testaments and in early Christian theology, as well as more general topics concerning culture, intellectual climate, or certain educational, political and religious institutions formed in the Hellenistic era.

We also invite authors of articles to examine the interaction and circulation of ideas and concepts present in Greco-Roman religion and philosophy as well as those used by authors of the Bible books and Christian theologians. Polemics with contemporary researchers who positively or negatively evaluate the influence of Hellenization on the development of Jewish and Christian theology are also welcome. The subject matter of the volume is therefore very wide, but it should be remembered that the respective articles should in some way be related to one of the three thematic sections of which each volume of the Verbum Vitae journal consists: 1. The Old Testament, 2. The New Testament, 3. The Fathers of the Church and Theology.

The Verbum Vitae journal is currently one of the three highest-scoring theological journals in Poland. In a new evaluation by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Poland (09.02.2021), our journal received 100 points. Moreover, the Verbum Vitae journal is present in SCOPUS, ATLA and EBSCO databases. The presence in the last two databases, in full text form, makes every text published in our journal available in PDF format in every university library in the world. In this way, the Verbum Vitae is an effective place to participate in the international academic debate.

“The Bible in the Patristic Period”, ed. Mariusz Szram and Marcin Wysocki, “Studia Patristica” 103, Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2021

In the patristic exegesis of the first three centuries AD, the Old Testament theophanies were usu... more In the patristic exegesis of the first three centuries AD, the Old Testament theophanies were usually considered as an argument for the pre-existence of the Logos, as well as for his Divine origin. Furthermore, according to Greek and Latin apologists, the phrase ‘I am who I am’ (Exod. 3:14) from the story of God’s revelation on Mount Horeb was pronounced, not by the Father, but by the Son who was always working with the Father. The theologians of the Alexandrian tradition interpreted Exod. 3:14 in a slightly different way. Their attention was mainly attracted by the verb ‘to be’, or, more precisely, by the designation of God as ‘being’ (ὁ ὤν), since such a participle form appears in the Greek translation of the Septuagint. According to Philo, Clement and Origen of Alexandria, it is only God who is a true being, because, unlike other beings, He is eternal and immutable in His existence. On the other hand, the Alexandrian thinkers also claimed that the term ‘being’ (τὸ ὄν) could not be a proper name of God. As the Divine essence is transcendent and infinite, it cannot be embraced by any definition or name. The God of the Alexandrians, therefore, remains unknowable and unnameable. Although in Alexandrian exegesis apophatics takes precedence over the ontologisation of the name of God, the allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures proposed by Philo, Clement and Origen retains its philosophical character. In fact, in its background it appeals to numerous philosophical concepts, and especially to the Platonic and Middle Platonic theory of participation and the doctrine of the primary and supreme Principles.

Kronos, 2020

John Dillon, in his monograph “The Roots of Platonism”, put forward the thesis that the doctrine ... more John Dillon, in his monograph “The Roots of Platonism”, put forward the thesis that the doctrine of Ideas as God’s thoughts had already appeared in the Old Academy and was continuously present in the Platonic tradition preceding the emergence of Middle Platonism. However, so far researchers have assumed that the first thinker who explicitly identified Ideas with God’s thoughts was a Jewish thinker, Philo of Alexandria. Dillon supported his argumentation on very uncertain and unclear sources, which are some of the statements contained in fragments of Speusippus, Xenocrates, and Antiochus of Ascalon. According to the Irish researcher, Philo was familiar with this philosophical tradition, and therefore his doctrine of the Logos of God, in which the world of Ideas is located, is by no means original. In this paper, Mrugalski aims to prove that the Jewish thinker of Alexandria was able to build his doctrine of Ideas as God’s thoughts himself. In fact, this concept arises within the allegorical commentary on the Pentateuch, which, on the one hand, uses numerous philosophical concepts and, on the other, continues to be a biblical commentary. Meanwhile, biblical theology hypostatized divine attributes such as the wisdom of God or the Logos long before Philo and assigned them eternity and creative power. It is true that the thinker of Alexandria knew and even quoted the works of Plato, Aristotle, or the Stoics. Sometimes he also argued with their concepts. Yet we are not sure whether Philo knew the fragments of the philosophers of the Old Academy to which Dillon refers. Moreover, we are not sure whether the doctrine of Ideas as God’s thoughts appears in these fragments at all. However, we have access to the biblical texts on which Philo commented, and we can trace the argumentation within which he came to the conclusion that God is an intellect that eternally thinks and by thinking creates the world, first the intelligible one and then the perceptible one.

Ecclesia Orans, 2020

Il lato positivo del libro di Vincenzo Lomiento, oltre ad una buona introduzione storica, è quell... more Il lato positivo del libro di Vincenzo Lomiento, oltre ad una buona introduzione storica, è quello di ripercorrere il modo di pensare di Origene nel suo "Commento al Vangelo di Giovanni", basato solo sul testo stesso. Questa procedura, in ulteriori ricerche, può mostrare che ci sono alcune differenze (o similitudini) rispetto ad altre opere esegetiche dell’Alessandrino. La monografia di Lomiento può essere anche un buon manuale per coloro che stanno appena familiarizzando con l’opera di Origene, o con l’esegesi patristica in generale. Certamente nel "mare magnum" della letteratura specializzata c’è spazio anche per un saggio che presenta in modo relativamente semplice i temi origeniani e non entra nella complessità degli argomenti che interessano il ricercatore più avanzato.

Studia z Historii Filozofii, 2019

Many Christian thinkers of the first centuries after Christ believed – or apologetically postulat... more Many Christian thinkers of the first centuries after Christ believed – or apologetically postulated – that Plato would have read Moses, because, in his dialogue Timaeus, Plato included the biblical doctrine of the creation of the world. Some of them claimed that Plato understood what he read in Moses’ writings, while others held that Plato did not really understand Moses, since Plato taught that the world was made of ungenerated matter. Both analyses fit into a broader context: the discussion among Middle Platonists surrounding the literal and allegorical interpretations of Timaeus. It is in this framework that the doctrine of the creation of the world from nothing(ex nihilo) appeared. The purpose of this article is to lay out the philosophical discussion about the origin of the world as it developed between the first and third centuries AD. In connection with this, we test the thesis of Gerhard May in his monograph Creatio ex nihilo, which claims that the doctrine of creation from nothing was established in the theology of the Church only after Christian thinkers perceived the destructive influence of Plato’s cosmological theories, which had led to the rise of Gnosticism.

Przegląd Tomistyczny, 2019

ESCHATOLOGICAL UNKNOWABILITY OF THE ESSENCE OF GOD: AN ATTEMPT TO OVERCOME THE METAPHYSICS OF ARI... more ESCHATOLOGICAL UNKNOWABILITY OF THE ESSENCE OF GOD: AN ATTEMPT TO OVERCOME THE METAPHYSICS OF ARISTOTLE IN THE DOCTRINES OF GREGORY OF NYSSA AND THOMAS AQUINAS.
In his Metaphysics, Aristotle puts forward the thesis that the infinite is unknowable. In fact, the finite human intellect is unable to embrace any infinite form. Anyway, such an infinite form does not exist according to the Stagirite. The infinite can only exist in potency, not in act. In his Physics, on the other hand, the philosopher states that “nothing is perfect unless it has an end”. The Fathers of the Church struggled with these and similar theses. Considering God as an infinite being, they also had to answer the question whether his essence is knowable for the human intellect. For Scripture says that “we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn. 3:2). The Greek Fathers’ answer, however, was negative. Because of its infinity, the essence of God cannot be fully comprehended, not even by the souls of saved men. Thomas Aquinas, although he also considered that the essence and power of God is infinite, in contrast to Aristotle, and thus impossible to fully comprehend, postulates that saved men will be able to see the essence of God – this is what eschatological visio beatifica is all about. Of course, this cannot be achieved without the help of God, who by his grace will enable the created human intellects to do what exceeds their natural abilities. It transpires, however, that this eschatological knowledge of the essence of God will never be complete. The aim of this article is to present two different theological approaches related to the issue of the eschatological unknowability of God’s essence by saved men. The first one is the position of Gregory of Nyssa, who assumes the unknowability of the essence of God, although he does not reject the infinite increase in the knowledge of God by man. The second is the position of Thomas Aquinas, who assumes the knowability of the essence of God, but states that it can never be a complete comprehension. These two positions, although they seem to be very different, are similar and convergent in many respects.

Roczniki Filozoficzne, 2019

AGNOSTOS THEOS: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INFINITY AND THE UNKNOWABILITY OF GOD IN THE DOCTRINES O... more AGNOSTOS THEOS: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INFINITY AND THE UNKNOWABILITY OF GOD IN THE DOCTRINES OF THE MIDDLE PLATONISTS.
In the times preceding the emergence of Neo-Platonism (1st–3rd century BC), the philosophers now known as Middle Platonists elaborated an extensive reflection on the possibility of knowing God, and the ways that could lead to acquiring knowledge about the transcendent. According to Plato, “To discover the Maker and Father of this Universe were a task indeed; and having discovered Him, to declare Him unto all men were a thing impossible” (PLATO, Timaeus 28c). The Middle Platonists believed that God, whom they sometimes identified with the Platonic One and Good, is possible to know but not possible to express. Even though the knowledge of God is accompanied by all the difficulties associated with the process of intellectual and ethical improvement, and although what one comes to know in this process is ultimately impossible to express in human language, gaining knowledge of God and becoming like Him is nevertheless the goal of all Platonic philosophy. Jewish and Christian thinkers working at this time came to similar conclusions. These include Philo of Alexandria, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, who are themselves sometimes deemed Middle-Platonic philosophers. Unlike their pagan colleagues, they believed that man’s process of coming to know God would go on forever. They thought that the finite human mind would never be able to contain the infinite, and they held that the essence and power of God are indeed infinite. The goal of this article is to expose the relationship between the infinity and the unknowability of God, and at the same time to point out the differences in the theses put forward on this question by pagan Middle Platonists and those who accepted Judeo-Christian revelation.

Więź, 2019

"VORREI UNA CHIESA DIVERSA, MA NON SENZA LA CHIESA - L'INTERVISTA DI DAMIAN MRUGALSKI OP A GIANNI... more "VORREI UNA CHIESA DIVERSA, MA NON SENZA LA CHIESA - L'INTERVISTA DI DAMIAN MRUGALSKI OP A GIANNI VATTIMO".
- Mrugalski: "Che cosa è la Chiesa per lei?
- Vattimo: "È la comunità di quelli che hanno letto il Vangelo e cercano di prenderlo come modello, ovvero prendono sul serio il messaggio di Cristo. Però sono contro certe visioni della Chiesa più gerarchiche, più strutturate o più temporali. In ogni modo non sarei per: “Dio sì, la Chiesa no”. Anzi è più facile dire Chiesa sì Dio no, perché Dio non so dov’è e qual è. Ma la Chiesa mi parla di Lui. Poi, sono convinto che posso autenticare ogni esistenza solo in rapporto con gli altri, con il prossimo. In realtà io senza la Chiesa non posso vivere, anche se questa Chiesa gerarchica mi crea problemi".
- Mrugalski: "Ma per i cattolici la Chiesa non solo trasmette il messaggio, ma anche gestisce i sacramenti, ovvero è lo strumento della grazia di Dio. Lei invece in molti dei suoi scritti si concentra solo sul messaggio dell’amore, criticando, o forse anche rifiutando, tutto ciò che è legato all’amministrazione della grazia e al governo nella Chiesa".
- Vattimo: "È vero che tutto quello che contrasta con messaggio dell’amore non mi va bene. Se per esempio il potere pontificio contrasta con comandamento dell’amore, al diavolo il potere pontificio. Sono convinto che non devo espungere dal Vangelo tutto ciò che non mi piace, però ho un principio critico nel Vangelo stesso. Se c’è una cosa essenziale è quella, poi tutte le altre se concordano con questa le accolgo. Si può dire che io faccio un discorso di scelta autonoma, però non senza ragione, cioè leggo la Tradizione e vedo anche il patrimonio dei santi. Però quali sono i santi che sono davvero più santi? Mica quelli che hanno fatto le crociate. Perché? Perché questo non concorda con il comandamento dell’amore che trovo nel Vangelo. Però, non ho mai potuto essere protestante, perché non mi sono mai sognato della sola Scrittura.
- Mrugalski: "Perché?"
- Vattimo: "Perché la sola Scrittura non sta da sola. Io sono profondamente cattolico. Le due fonti della rivelazione sono per me la Scrittura e la Tradizione".

Więź, 2019

Czy postmodernistyczny pluralizm jest zagrożeniem i oznaką czasów ostatecznych, jak sugeruje Guar... more Czy postmodernistyczny pluralizm jest zagrożeniem i oznaką czasów ostatecznych, jak sugeruje Guardini, czy może szansą i nową duszpasterską perspektywą dla Kościoła? Czy ów pluralizm musi zakładać odrzucenie metafizyki i rezygnację z dogmatów wyrażonych w języku metafizycznym, czy też może raczej – nie rezygnując z głównych prawd wiary – budzić nową wrażliwość, zwracającą uwagę na niepowtarzalny charakter jednostek składających się na Kościół oraz na działającą w nich łaskę, zawsze nową i równie niepowtarzalną? Z pewnością jednak nie możemy dzisiaj, jak to niegdyś czynił Leszek Kołakowski, drwić z pojęcia „postmodernizmu”. W postmodernistycznym pluralizmie myślenia, mówienia i działania jesteśmy zanurzeni. Wystarczy włączyć dowolny telewizyjny kanał informacyjny. Być może w niektórych z nich przebija jeszcze nostalgia za wielką „metanarracją” potrafiącą scalić i uporządkować w jedną spójną opowieść liczne „małe narracje”, które niestety nie zawsze w pokojowy sposób chcą ze sobą koegzystować. A może jednak – zamiast tęsknić za czymś nierealnym – warto zastanowić się, jaką rolę mogą odegrać chrześcijanie w dobie radykalnego pluralizmu? Nie jest to pytanie nowe, bo zmagali się z nim również nasi bracia z pierwszych wieków chrześcijaństwa, którzy w pluralistycznym Imperium Rzymskim pragnęli głosić (i z sukcesem głosili) Dobrą Nowinę, mającą przecież charakter uniwersalny. Czy jednak – jak zapytuje Vattimo – musi być ona związana z metafizyczną strukturą, która zawsze jest uwarunkowana historycznie?

Verbum Vitae, 2019

ETERNAL AND TIMELESS CREATION: THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOURCES OF ORIGEN’S CONCEPT OF GENERATIO AETERNA... more ETERNAL AND TIMELESS CREATION: THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOURCES OF ORIGEN’S CONCEPT OF GENERATIO AETERNA.

"Timaeus", a dialogue of Plato regarded by scholars as “the Platonists’ Bible”, was interpreted allegorically even in the time of the Old Academy (4th century BCE). In the Hellenistic period (1st-3rd centuries CE), especially among the philosophers known as Middle Platonists, there was great debate over the theses that appear in it. The main question was whether the world was created in time or ab aeterno, and most of the Middle Platonic philosophers believed that the world must be eternal. By the first century CE, this discussion had also been joined by Jewish and Christian Platonists such as Philo of Alexandria, Clement of Alexandria and Origen. In their opinion, God, because he is unchanging but at the same time good, must not have started to operate only at the moment of the creation of the world, but before. Yet the Scriptures state that the world began to exist at a particular point in time. Therefore, Christian Platonists postulated the eternal generation or production of the world of ideas (kosmos noetos), which, since it is the world of God’s thoughts, exists ab aeterno in the Divine Logos. The concept of generatio aeterna (that is, the eternal generation of the Son by the Father), which we find in Origen’s works, is related to this ongoing discussion about the eternal nature of the world. This article aims to present the facets of this ancient debate while emphasizing the links between the arguments advanced by the Middle Platonists and those found in the various hypotheses of Origen.

Vox Patrum, 2018

POTENTIA DEI ABSOLUTA ET POTENTIA DEI ORDINATA IN ORIGEN? A NEW ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN THE CONTROVERS... more POTENTIA DEI ABSOLUTA ET POTENTIA DEI ORDINATA IN ORIGEN? A NEW ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN THE CONTROVERSIAL FRAGMENTS OF "DE PRINCIPIIS".

The medieval dispute over the absolute and the ordered, power of God (potentia Dei absoluta et potentia Dei ordinata) began with a tract by Peter Damian entitled De divina omnipotentia. One of the questions posed in this work was whether God could indeed do everything, including those things that God did not in fact do. The same question, and a similar answer, appears in Origen’s work Contra Celsum: God can do everything except that which is evil. The impossibility of doing evil, however, does not diminish the omnipotence of God, because evil, is by its very nature, non-being. Beyond that, Origen, in numerous statements appearing in his exegetical works, distinguishes between the absolute power of God, which is infinite, and the power of God that creates the world and operates within it, which has a certain God-given limit – that is, this power is adapted to the abilities of the creatures who receive it. The purpose of this article is to show that, in the light of the distinction of the potentia Dei absoluta and the potentia Dei ordinata, fragments of De principiis (II 9.1 and IV 4.8), in which a finite world and finite power of God are posited, can be interpreted in a new way. Many contemporary scholars, on the basis of these fragments, conclude that Origen inherited from the Greek philosophers a negative understanding of infinity as something imperfect, but the analysis carried out in this article shows something different. In talking about a certain range of God’s power, which is available to creatures, or in which creatures participate only partially, Origen does not actually exclude the proposition that, in God himself, power – existing in an absolute way – can be Infinite.

Verbum Vitae, 2018

A GOD INCAPABLE OF ANGER. DEFENDING THE APATHEIA OF GOD IN ALEXANDRIAN THEOLOGY: PHILO, CLEMENT A... more A GOD INCAPABLE OF ANGER. DEFENDING THE APATHEIA OF GOD IN ALEXANDRIAN THEOLOGY: PHILO, CLEMENT AND ORIGEN.

Ancient Alexandria was the locus of an encounter between Greek philosophy and the Bible. It is where the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, came into being, and also there that the first philosophical commentaries on the Greek Pentateuch appeared. The trained philosophers who examined this inspired text came across many anthropomorphic representations of God that they could not accept – precisely because of their education and their philosophical culture, which they valued as much as their faith. Yet insisting, for example, that God cannot have a body because He is transcendent, or that God cannot be angry because He is impassible, does nothing to explain why anthropomorphism occurs in the Bible. This article explores how the Alexandrian thinkers of the first three centuries CE, whether Jewish or Christian, explained the appearance of anthropomorphic representations of God in the sacred text, and the important functions they attributed to these controversial images.

"Christians of the Patristic Period in Relation to Nature", Studia Patristica 131, 2024

Vox Patrum, 2024

Verbum Vitae, 2023

Przegląd Tomistyczny, 2022

Verbum Vitae, 2021

“The Bible in the Patristic Period”, ed. Mariusz Szram and Marcin Wysocki, “Studia Patristica” 103, Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2021

Kronos, 2020

Ecclesia Orans, 2020

Studia z Historii Filozofii, 2019

Przegląd Tomistyczny, 2019

Roczniki Filozoficzne, 2019

Więź, 2019

Verbum Vitae, 2019

Vox Patrum, 2018

Verbum Vitae, 2018

Verbum Vitae, 2023

The earliest representations of God (or gods) in many religious traditions were associated with v... more The earliest representations of God (or gods) in many religious traditions were associated with various kinds of anthropomorphisation. On the other hand, the earliest Greek philosophers already criticised this anthropomorphic thinking about the gods. We find such a criticism in a passage by Xenophanes (6th century BC): “But if horses or oxen or lions had hands or could draw with their hands and accomplish such works as men, horses would draw the figures of the gods as similar to horses, and the oxen as similar to oxen”. An analogous tension likewise emerges in the Bible, which of course abounds in anthropomorphic images of God and yet contains statements such as: “God is not a human being” (Num 23:19); “No man can see the face of God and live” (Exod 33:20); “No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18); and finally, the famous statement: “I am who I am” (Exod 3:14). This last formulation, in the philosophical interpretation of the Bible by many Fathers of the Church, did not represent a revelation of God’s name, but rather pointed to the fact that the only thing human intellect is capable of grasping about God is his existence.
Such early critiques of anthropomorphism gave impetus to later, more in-depth reflections on how, or even whether, humans might gain knowledge of God. Thus was born apophatic theology, which, according to the meaning of the Greek word ἀπόφασις, seeks to gain insight into God (divinity) through negation, that is, by expressing what God is not rather than what he is. We find such a theology already in the doctrines of Greek philosophers, and later in the works of Jewish and Christian thinkers and mystics of the first centuries AD. Some of them denied even any possibility of knowing the essence of God, or of adequately speaking about Him. Over time, however, negative theology gave place to cataphatic, or positive, theology.
In our own day, apophatic theology is experiencing a revival, for a number of reasons. First, at the beginning of the 20th century there emerged a growing interest in Eastern Orthodox theology, one of whose main features is precisely apophaticism. It is apophaticism, according to Vladimir Lossky, that distinguishes the Orthodox Church from the Western philosophical and theological tradition. Secondly, contemporary secularism and atheism, and in the same way religious and cultural pluralism, simply do not favour the development of cataphatic theology. In the opinion of many contemporary thinkers, positive theology with its "hard" theses makes interreligious dialogue practically impossible. Moreover, the exponents of the philosophical current called postmodernism, in rejecting metaphysics -- which for centuries has enclosed all reality, both divine and human, within "rigid" and "enclosed" notions -- try instead to speak about "what is in between", about "difference", about what has always been overlooked by the metaphysical tradition.
The editors of the Verbum Vitae quarterly have thus decided to take part in the ongoing debate surrounding negative theology. Topically, we are proposing a rather broad sweep, covering both the issue of the anthropomorphic representation of God in various religious traditions, and its criticism, as well as the development of negative theology throughout the centuries. Although Verbum Vitae is a biblical-theological quarterly, we also accept texts that present research in the fields of philosophy, religious studies, literature studies and art history, as long as the work is closely (and obviously) related to the topic at hand.

Verbum Vitae, 2021

"Greek Philosophy and Hellenization in the Bible and Christian Theology" The term Hellenization... more "Greek Philosophy and Hellenization in the Bible and Christian Theology"

The term Hellenization refers to the spread of Greek culture and its adoption by non-Greek peoples, in the era that begins with the conquests of Alexander the Great (i.e. from the second half of the 4th century BC onwards). The term is defined likewise or similarly in many modern dictionaries and encyclopedias of antiquity. The notion of Hellenization became problematic when, in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, historians of religion associated it with certain kinds of value judgements and sometimes even ideology. Therefore, some contemporary scholars propose abandoning the concept of ‘Hellenization’ in the study of antiquity, or to replace it with others that would describe the phenomena occurring in the Hellenistic era neutrally. This article shall present an overview of selected positions with regard to the notion of ‘Hellenization’ itself, and attempt to answer the question whether this ideologically loaded term can be avoided in contemporary research on the Hellenistic Age.

Il Dio trascendente nella filosofia alessandrina giudaica e cristiana: Filone e Clemente, Roma 20... more Il Dio trascendente nella filosofia alessandrina giudaica e cristiana: Filone e Clemente, Roma 2013.

Esaminando il concetto della trascendenza di Dio nel pensiero giudaico e cristiano dei primi secoli, argomento ampio e complesso, l’autore si concentra su una sola tradizione teologica, quella alessandrina, e analizza in particolare le idee contenute nelle opere di due dei maggiori esponenti: Filone e Clemente. Tale scelta è giustificata dal fatto che, nell’ambiente alessandrino, l’uno è il primo giudeo, l’altro il primo maestro cristiano i cui scritti ci sono pervenuti. Inoltre, ambedue gli autori affrontano il medesimo problema, ovvero come parlare di Dio e della fede rivelata in un linguaggio comprensibile all’uomo ellenizzato, inserendo la propria religione nell’ambito della cultura greca. Per comprendere meglio i concetti filosofici contenuti nelle loro opere, nel capitolo introduttivo D. Mrugalski presenta una breve storia della nozione della trascendenza nella filosofia greca, dove evidenzia soprattutto le idee dei filosofi antichi che sono state riprese o reinterpretate dai due alessandrini. Di seguito, nei due capitoli principali, esamina il concetto della trascendenza divina in Filone e in Clemente di Alessandria. A questo proposito tocca argomenti quali: la trascendenza ontologica, la funzione degli intermediari tra Dio e il creato, la trascendenza epistemologica e infine le questioni aporetiche legate al tema della dissertazione. Nell’analisi Mrugalski mostra le influenze, evidenti o possibili, degli autori antichi sul pensiero di Filone e di Clemente. Si tratta di filosofi come Eraclito, Platone, Aristotele e gli stoici, di cui si trovano riferimenti precisi in ambedue gli alessandrini; e nel caso di Clemente, anche di Filone stesso, degli gnostici e dei medioplatonici dell’epoca. Nel corso della ricerca l’autore giunge a interessanti conclusioni. Dimostra infatti in che modo Filone, per la prima volta nella storia della filosofia, perviene al concetto del Logos inteso come mondo delle idee. Esamina anche la sua dottrina della creazione e, attraverso la dettagliata analisi di alcuni passi nei quali sembra comparire la formula ex nihilo, dimostra che la dottrina della creazione dal nulla non era ancora presente negli scritti dell’ebreo di Alessandria, con ciò dissentendo dalla interpretazione proposta da H. A. Wolfson e dalla così detta “scuola di Milano”. Per quanto riguarda la dottrina del maestro cristiano, Mrugalski argomenta che, in realtà, era stato Clemente di Alessandria, e non Plotino, come si sostiene in molti manuali di filosofia, ad attribuire per la prima volta il termine apeiron a una realtà perfetta, cioè a Dio, e a restituire in questo modo connotazione positiva al concetto di “infinito”. A tal proposito l’autore mostra come tale dottrina si trovi già in modo embrionale negli scritti di Filone conosciuti e citati da Clemente. Secondo D. Mrugalski il concetto dell’assoluta trascendenza divina introdotto da ambedue gli alessandrini influisce persino sull’escatologia giudaica e cristiana. Infatti, né Filone né Clemente ammettono che l’anima umana, anche dopo la morte del corpo, possa unirsi all’essenza del Dio trascendente o arrivare a comprenderla. Dato che Dio è infinito – osserva l’autore – il processo di perfezionamento e di assimilazione a lui, iniziato sulla terra, continua nell’aldilà senza mai avere termine. Questi e molti altri concetti filosofici D. Mrugalski espone in maniera chiara e semplice, comprensibile anche per chi non sia esperto in filosofia antica.

Logos Filozoficzne i teologiczne źródła idei wczesnochrześcijańskiej, 2006

THE LOGOS. THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL SOURCES OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION, Kraków: W... more THE LOGOS. THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL SOURCES OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION, Kraków: WAM 2006.

The concept of the Logos is one of the oldest philosophical concepts. It sprang forth from the questions about ‘arche’, which were formulated by the first natural philosophers in the VIIth century BC. The term ‘logos’ was first used in its philosophical meaning by Heraclitus of Ephesus. It was also he who outlined the first characteristic of Logos as the Universal Principle, to which the subsequent generations of philosophers referred. Some of the philosophical doctrines following the Heraclitus’s one contained many elements taken from this conception. The philosophy of the Stoical School was such a doctrine. A thesis can be proposed, then, that it was the Stoics who were the direct (despite the considerable time span) continuators of Heraclitus’s thought. Both conceptions contained the following common theses: 1° the Logos, for them, made up the immanent universal principle, responsible for its order and harmony; 2° It had the qualities of a rational, and even divine nature; 3° It was eternal and lasted despite the world burning down repeatedly; 4° It was connected with the rising of all things, as well as being responsible for the world „being born” as a whole; 5° It was present in each being while in man It manifested itself in their ultimate authority – reason; 6° living according to (or against) the Logos had ethical, and also epistemic consequences. Moreover, in both doctrines the term ‘logos’ appeared in logical and social issues. The comparison above makes it possible to assume that the Stoics became creative continuators of Heraclitus’s thought. Another line of development of the conception discussed here was connected with the appearance of the notion of the transcendence of the Logos. The beginnings of this idea can be seen in the similar conception – nous of Anaxagoras, and its expansion can be observed in the thoughts of Plato and Aristotle. In the philosophy of the latter Nous meant the transcendental and spiritual cause of everything, identical with the ultimate Good and Beauty. The transcendental Logos appeared, however, only in the Jewish philosophy of the beginnings of the common era, of which Philo of Alexandria was a distinguished representative. In Philo’s thought, compared to Heraclitus’s and the Stoics’ conceptions, a number of radically new elements can be observed. They were basically connected to the transcendence of the Logos and threads deriving from the Bible. Seemingly, there is no correspondence between the earlier conceptions and Philo’s concept of the Logos, and the philosopher created a completely new conception – different from already existing. Philo was, however, deeply rooted in the Greek philosophy and in the Logos of his conception many elements can be observed which were taken, or, at least, common with the philosophy of Heraclitus and the Stoics. From among them the following can be listed: 1° the Logos has a rational and divine nature; 2° It participates in creating all beings; 3° leaving out the transcendence of Philo’s Logos, It is also an immanent being acting in the world; 4° It is responsible for the order and the harmony in the world; 5° the reason (logos) of man is their ultimate authority and this is what makes them similar to God the most; 6° living in compliance with the Logos is the way to gain virtues and know the Truth; 7° in all three doctrines fragments can be found, in which the Logos is depicted as a personification.
It should be stressed that Philo is, above all, a biblical thinker. The concept of the Logos which he framed was a synthesis of philosophical theories with the teaching stemming from the texts of the Holy Scriptures. So mature and, in many points, so compliant with the Christian teaching a theory couldn’t probably have appeared, if it had not been for the numerous mentions of the Logos of God in the Old Testament. Whereas, as I have proved in chapter III of this work, in particular biblical books a clear development of the theology of the Word of God can be observed. It is connected with the process of hypostatization of the Divine activities and attributes, described by me in great detail. The Word of God (logos thou theou), which in the earliest prophecies had a form of only a statement or a command, in time, acquired the attributes of a separate being, which had an independent form of existence (the so called hypostasis). This phenomenon could be seen even more clearly in the Greek translation of the Bible (Septuaginta), which was used by Philo and the majority of the Fathers of the early Church. In the sapient books, which were written basically in the Hellenic period, the Logos was already depicted as the heavenly messenger, who carries out the will of God among people.
The important role in the shaping of the Judeo-Hellenic conception was played by the texts of the Old Testament concerning the God’s messengers (angeloi), and especially a unique category of „ the Angel of the Lord” (angelos kuriou). It is perhaps because of this that the Alexandrian could place the personified Logos either on the side of the transcendence or on the side of the immanence. As in some parts of the inspired text the Angel of the Lord appeared as the transcendental God Himself, showing himself before people in a visible form, and in other – as His messenger. While in the Book of Wisdom – which was written already in the Hellenic period – this category was identified with the Logos, which brought Israel out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.
It should be stressed here that the Logos of the old Testament assumed very often the divine qualities even if the individual texts did not clearly attribute to It the feature of hypostasis. Septuaginta, for instance, with reference to the Word of God , used the same expressions which were used in other places to refer to Jehovah exclusively. The individual biblical authors spoke about Its pre-existence, eternity, invariability and omnipotence. Moreover, they ascribed to It creative, soteric and eschatological functions.
It is worth mentioning here the two elements of the concept of the Logos, fundamentally new in comparison with the philosophical theories, which appeared only in the theology of the Old Testament. Namely, the Logos of God, apart form the fact that It governed the laws of nature, was also identified with the Wisdom of God, which was shown in the written Law (Torah). That detailed Law was not revealed to other nations apart from Israel. Although that concept was developed more within Palestinian Judaism which personified Torah to a greater extent than Logos, Philo used that as well. In his theory of ethics he postulated, namely, obedience to not only Logos (Wisdom), but also – which was relevant particularly for the members of the Chosen Nation – to Torah, containing the details of the natural law.
The personified Logos (and that is another biblical novelty) – particularly in the books written already in the Hellenic period – assumed the role of the Lord of the History as well. It is the Logos that, in the reinterpretation of the Book of Wisdom, led Israel out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery and , at the same time, kept all the other nations alive so that they, too, could be converted and recognize the One True God. The Hellenic universality in connection with the theology of the former Israel contributed then – and on the biblical level – to the rise of an extraordinarily rich conception of the Logos comprising God and the world, nature and history, Israel and pagan nations.
The biblical premises mentioned here let Philo formulate a theory in which the philosophical concept of the Logos was improved with many new elements. And so, with the Hellenic Judaism in the genetic line of evolution of the concept of the Logos we observe the transition from immanence to transcendence, from the force governing the laws of nature to the Lord of the History, from the impersonal Universal Principle to the personified Being creating the world. It should be emphasised that all those elements appeared in the process of the development of this philosophical thought just because they were mentioned in the inspired text which Philo used.
In this context a thesis can be proposed that Philo’s doctrine became a keystone connecting the Greek philosophy with the Christian thought. It is thanks to that, that some philosophical ideas, so closely connected with the biblical Revelation, became close to Christians, who sought scriptural and rational arguments in order to justify and defend their faith. Referring to such a long philosophical-religious tradition connected with the concept of the Logos they could prove that their religion was not new at all, but that its roots went back to the oldest Old Testament Prophecies and it was their religion that answered the most fundamental questions.