{"id":1089,"date":"2023-09-11T12:03:23","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T10:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pchph.uniwersytet.ignatianum.edu.pl\/?post_type=autor&p=1089"},"modified":"2023-09-12T10:19:54","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T08:19:54","slug":"zofia-j-zdybicka","status":"publish","type":"autor","link":"https:\/\/pchph.ignatianum.edu.pl\/en\/authors\/zofia-j-zdybicka\/","title":{"rendered":"Zofia J. Zdybicka"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Zofia J\u00f3zefa Zdybicka <\/strong>\u2013 a female philosopher, university teacher, noun, and a founder of a new concept of the philosophy of religion referring to the classical metaphysical realism. She worked in close cooperation with Mieczys\u0142aw A. Kr\u0105piec, Karol Wojty\u0142a (St. John Paul II) and Stanis\u0142aw Kami\u0144ski. In 1948 she joined the Congregation of the Ursuline Sisters of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus. She occupied responsible posts in the Congregation\u2019s General Council and in 1983\u20132003 she was the superior of its Lublin Centre. She performed didactic, administrative and editorial work at the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL), including the work of the dean of the Faculty of Christian Philosophy in 1986\u20131987 and 1990\u20131999. She was one of the greatest metaphysicians and philosophers of religion; in Poland she was the actual founder of that, still new, field of study. She taught several generations of students who continue the traditions of the Lublin Philosophical School. She retired in 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was born on 5th<\/sup> August 1928 in Kra\u015bnik Lubelski as a daughter of Feliks and Helena (family name: \u0141ukasik). In 1948 she passed her secondary school finals at the August and Julius Vetters\u2019 Merchant\u2019s Secondary School in Lublin. In 1956 she started studying at the Faculty of Christian Philosophy of KUL. She obtained all possible academic degrees \u2013 first the master\u2019s degree, and then the doctor\u2019s degree for a thesis written under the supervision of prof. M.A. Kr\u0105piec. She passed her postdoctoral examination in 1970. A few years later she became the head of an innovative \u2013 not only in Poland \u2013 Chair of the Philosophy of Religion. She was granted the title of an associate professor and the post of the KUL university teacher in 1978, and in 1988 she obtained the degree of a full professor of humanities. She updated her education as a research fellow<\/em> at the Yale University (New Haven, USA 1977\/1978), at the Catholic University of America in Washington (1978) and \u2013 multiply \u2013 at the Catholic University of Louvain. For many years (at KUL) she was the president of the Senate Commission for Contacting Foreign Scientific Institutions, a member of the Editorial Commission, the Commission in Charge of Learning, the Commission in Charge of the Youth, the Commission in Charge of Buildings and a member of the Board of the KUL Scientific Society. She co-edited the magazine \u201cRoczniki Filozoficzne\u201d [Philosophical Annuals<\/em>], she joined the Scientific Board of the John Paul II Institute at KUL, she edited the part Philosophy of Religion<\/em> in \u201c<\/em>Encyklopedia Katolicka\u201d [<\/em>The Catholic Encyclopaedia<\/em>]<\/em>, she worked as a member of the scientific committee of \u201cPowszechna encyklopedia filozofii\u201d [<\/em>The Universal Encyclopaedia of Philosophy<\/em>] and the scientific committee of the book series \u201c<\/em>Biblioteka Filozofii Realistycznej\u201d [The Library of Realistic Philosophy<\/em>].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is a member of the following scientific associations: The Committee of Philosophical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) PAN (1987\u20131989), the Polish Philosophical Society, the KUL Scientific Society, the American Biographical Institute, Societas Internationale St. Thomae Aquinatis, Pontificia Academia Sanctae Thomae Aquinatis, the Polish Society of St Thomas Aquinas \u2013 a Branch of Societ\u00e0 Internazionale Tommaso d\u2019Aquino. She organised a lot of scientific conferences, including the World Congress of Christian Philosophy in Lublin entitled \u201cWolno\u015b\u0107 we wsp\u00f3\u0142czesnej kulturze\u201d [Freedom in the<\/em> Contemporary Culture<\/em>] (20\u201325.08.1996). She participated in the meetings of the Primatial Social Council and the Polish Episcopate Council for Culture, for Catholic Education, for Dialogue with Non-believers, as well as the Commission \u201cIustitia et Pax.\u201d She was a consultant to the Polish Episcopate Scientific Council. She was granted the Gold Cross of Merit (1978), the Officer\u2019s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2000), the award of the Scientific Council of the \u201c\u017bycie i My\u015bl\u201d [Life and Thought<\/em>] magazine: \u201cThe Book of the Year\u201d (1978), the title of the \u201cWoman of the Year 1998\u201d (American Biographical Institute) and the Award of the Rector of KUL (1996). In 2014 she was given the award of Idzi Radziszewski, which is granted to scientists each year by the KUL Scientific Association. Also, she received the prestigious Fenix award which is given to authors during the Catholic Editors\u2019 Fair (2011).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zofia J\u00f3zefa Zdybicka\u2019s scientific achievements are impressive. They include numerous doctoral theses prepared and defended under her supervision, active participation in the scientific and cultural life of Poland, and \u2013 above all \u2013 more than 300 written works. The most important ones are: \u201cPartycypacja bytu. Pr\u00f3ba wyja\u015bnienia relacji mi\u0119dzy \u015bwiatem a Bogiem\u201d [The Participation of Being: An Attempt to Explain the Relations Between the World and God<\/em>] (Lublin 1972); \u201cPoznanie Boga w uj\u0119ciu Henri de Lubaca\u201d [Knowledge of God<\/em> According to Henri de Lubac<\/em>] (Lublin 1973); \u201cCz\u0142owiek i religia. Zarys filozofii religii\u201d [Person<\/em> and Religion: The Outline of the Philosophy of Religion<\/em>] (Lublin 1977, 1993; new amended edition, Lublin 2006; English edition \u2013 Person and Religion: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion<\/em>, trans. Th. Sandok, New York 1991); \u201cReligia i religioznawstwo\u201d [Religion and Religious Science<\/em>] (Lublin 1988, 1992); \u201cOtworzy\u0107 serce. Apostolstwo matki Urszuli Led\u00f3chowskiej\u201d [Opening One\u2019s Heart: The Apostleship of Mother Ursula Led\u00f3chowska<\/em>] (Warsaw 2003; Italian edition \u2013 Orsola Led\u00f3chowska. <\/em>Santa dei tempi difficili e segno di speranza, <\/em>trans. Z. Brzozowska, Citt\u00e0 del Vaticano 2004); \u201cB\u00f3g czy sacrum?\u201d [God or<\/em> Sacrum?<\/em>] (Lublin 2007), \u201cJan Pawe\u0142 II, filozof i mistyk\u201d [John Paul II, a Philosopher and<\/em> Mystic<\/em>] (Lublin 2009); \u201cPu\u0142apka ateizmu\u201d [The Trap of Atheism<\/em>] (Lublin 2012).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main area of research carried out by Z. Zdybicka includes the issues concerning the relations: the world\u2013God, the man\u2013God, as well as all the problems resulting from those relations. She pays special attention to the transcendence and immanence of God in relation to the world, to the fundamental issue of the participation of accidental beings in the Absolute. She joins the discussion on the human possibility to know God \u2013 to discover His attributes. She puts a lot of scientific effort into the issue of atheism(s), showing its (their) historical image, as well as modern (generally a priori) factors that confirm a \u201cstrong\u201d existence of atheist or atheising attitudes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the crucial scientific accomplishments of Z. Zdybicka are related to the philosophy of religion. The question of what religion is and why it exists organises her scientific work into a methodologically uniform whole. What is important is the fact that she does not try to explain a particular religion, but she attempts to indicate an internal structure of religion as such \u2013 to show the nature and the metaphysical essence of each religion. According to Zdybicka, religion is an ontic person-person relation between a personal human being and the personal Absolute in which a human person participates as in the ultimate source of his\/her existence and the ultimate meaning of life. Such relation is real and existential, necessary, intersubjective, moral, dynamic, consisting of two-way activities, but perfecting the human subject. Thus, it is crucial for human culture as it influences many aspects of most areas of human activity, although the processes of secularisation, desacralisation or liberal freedom seem to be more and more important in the awareness of the inhabitants of the contemporary West.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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