Religia jako pragnienie zbawienia – nowe tysiąclecie

RELIGION AS A DESIRE OF SALVATION – THE NEW MILLENIUMThe author of the essay attempts to answer the question concerning the future of religion. Will religion survive in any form in the next millennium? The above question leads him to yet another query, this time concerning the very foundations of religion within man. Searching for the sources of human religiosity the author analyzes two literary figures which describe man’s condition – namely the metaphor of a cave, and the story of Job. On the basis of these two figures, he formulates a hypothesis concerning the connection between man’s religiosity and some negative experiences – such as the experience of a lack, the experience of evil etc. The non-removable character of these experiences is conducive to a hypothesis concerning the nonremovability of religion from man’s life. In the light of these analyses, the author formulates a hypothesis that in religion one is able to realize one’s striving after good which is the opposite of the experienced evil. Such an interpretation of religion, leads the author to the final conclusion that as long as man remains a being who is constantly under threat, and a being that experiences evil in a variety of its different forms, religion is not in danger of a sudden disappearance.