Recepcja idei „nowego średniowiecza” w polskiej myśli nacjonalistycznej

Abstract

The research aim of this article is to analyze the ideo-political reflections of the publicists and
activists connected with the young nationalists movement in the 1930s on the background of the political philosophy included in the book by a Russian thinker Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-
1948) New Middle Ages. The fate of a man in a contemporary world, translated by Marian
Reutt - idealistically and organizationally connected with the nationalist formation of the
1930s the research ambition of the author is to show the idea of “new Middle Ages”, accenting
the meaning of collective ethics (Decalogue ethics) as a factor of social solidarity, which is
now called “civic religion”, which means values and rules fundamental for the concept
of a national country - in a shape dictated by the publicist of the “Myśl Narodowa” in the
years of the Third Republic. The author refers to the contemporary phenomenon of idea
secularization and the atrophy of the “civic religion”, which - as Berdyaev convinces - is an
opportunity to manipulate the consciousness of an entity and allows for releasing in it a state
of uncritical adaptation of the politically dangerous offers (various forms of totalitarianism).
Furthermore, in the face of the progressive dechristianisation and ateisation of the society,
the postulates by Berdyaev and his young nationalist successors lose the value of usefulness
and are included into the catalog of the idealist system concepts, becoming an utopian version
of the democratic system.
Key words: nationalism, political theology, New Middle Ages idea