Interview with Professor Zbigniew Stawrowski on The Clash of Civilizations or Civil War

Abstract

Abstract Western society is facing a clash of civilizations, but the fault line lies not between the West and Islam but within Western society itself, as two competing models of freedom and the principles underlying the modern state, each employing terms like “rights” and “justice” but holding totally opposite meanings, vie to prevail. The contemporary Polish philosopher Witold Stawrowski’s new book, The Clash of Civilizations or Civil War, considers this fracture at the heart of modern Western thought and offers provocative ways of reconceptualizing current debates that re-enshrine religious freedom as the first human right. In the process, he draws on the Polish tradition of religious freedom as a way of overcoming the practical approach of religious segregation that flowed from the Peace of Augsburg’s cujus regio, ejus religio (whose roots are essentially traceable to Antiquity). He discussed his book and some implications of its thought, especially in an American context, with Dr. John M. Grondelski.