The visions of global salvation in Juliusz Słowacki’s messianic thought and the philosophical works of Teilhard de Chardin

Abstract

Juliusz Słowacki and Teilhard de Chardin did not have much in common. The former was a Polish poet who wrote in the first half of the 19th century using a literary-pictorial style. The latter, on the other hand, was a French philosopher working in the first half of the 20th century using a scientific and intellectual style. In spite of these differences, one may get the impression that they both followed the same goal: to learn and explain the principles of the development of the world, from its origin to its end, from Alpha to Omega. This aspiration was accompanied by a belief (in Słowacki’s case, a messianic one) that the progress of existence leads to salvation and takes place according to a certain plan. One of the main mecha- nisms of this plan is the process of lifting the consciousness through the evolution of various biological forms towards its final shape – unity with God who is both a person and the absolute which encompasses all of the creation. Although the poet and the philosopher used different communication codes, their works share a common vision of evolution as a transition from an unconscious, dispersed exist- ence to a united being in which the spirit, the knowledge and the mind can achieve a “global”, yet personalized level.