The Ideology of Liberalism and Socialism in the Context of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński’s Personalist Concept of Social Life

Abstract

The article presents Stefan Wyszyński’s personalist concept of social life in the context of the ideology of liberal capitalism and the ideological conceptions rooted in socialist ideas. The main aim of these analyses is to portray the above systems not as much in antinomic as in analogous terms. Liberal ideology and the related capitalism arose in the mid-19th century and have constantly evolved since then, often changing their main features. Socialist ideology, on the other hand, was formed as a concept opposed to the capitalist reality of the 19th century. However, it never truly existed in a particular form, and the system described as “socialism” was, in fact, a hybrid of liberal-capitalist ideas and – to a degree – a neo-feudal bureaucracy. A more detailed analysis of the above doctrines and their critical reinterpretation in the context of Wyszyński’s personalist thought reveals and highlights the dangers associated with the ideologically motivated promotion of extreme, often distorted concepts of the human person and their application in the specific realities of the contemporary world.