Mateusz Stróżyński, Ph.D (2007), professor at Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland), has published articles, translations, and monographs on the Platonic tradition, including Adam Mickiewicz, Metaphysical Poems (Brill, 2023; with J. Fiećko and J.S. Boparai) and Plotinus on the Contemplation of the Intelligible World (CUP, 2024).

• ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Younger Europe, Freedom and the Image of God1 The West, the East, and the In-Between2 From Plato and the Scripture to French Newspapers3 Every Soul Is a Child of That Father4 The Image of God5 Children of the Free Woman6 Between Two Tyrannies7 The Structure of This Book1 Cherubinic Wanderers (Jan Ámos Komenský and Johannes Scheffler)1 In the Footsteps of God2 Divine Nothingness3 Wikipedia or Paideia?4 Initium Calamitatis Regni Poloniae2 The World Couldn’t Catch Them (Hasidic Jews and Hrihory Skovoroda)1 Between Spinoza and Sabbatai Zevi2 The Third Rome3 The Messiahs4 Alia res sceptrum, alia res plectrum5 Living in Holiness6 What Is Freedom?7 Two Kinds of Tyranny3 Two Emperors and the Sun of Freedom (Adam Mickiewicz and Alexander Pushkin)1 The Russian Experiment with Liberalism2 Muscovite Friends3 The Statue of Peter I4 God and Freedom (Adam Mickiewicz and Pyotr Chaadaev)1 The Mystic-Politician2 Philosophy as Mental Illness3 A More Immediate Feeling of God4 Living the Divine Life5 The Slavs Don’t Possess Anything5 The World of Souls (Vladimir Solovyov and Wincenty Lutosławski)1 Suffused with a Golden Azure2 A Possession for Ever3 Divine Humanity4 I Have Lived on This Earth Before5 Theocracy and Panmongolism6 The Scythians and Their Jesus Christ (Andrei Bely and Alexander Blok)1 Two Poets and Divine Wisdom2 Christianity as a Mystical Fact3 Jesus the Bolshevik4 The Poet and the Crowd5 Darkness at Noon7 Life Founded upon Seeing What Is (Wincenty Lutosławski and Jan Patočka)1 Between the Two Wars2 A Small Central-European Nation3 The Whole Showing4 Christianity as the Abysmal Deepening of the Soul8 What Plato Did for You? (Valentin Tomberg)1 Awakening of Deep Soul Forces2 The Fall of the Law3 The Magician9 Searching for Truth (Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and Józef Czapski)1 The Mystery of Existence2 A World Entirely Different3 Dark Night of the Soul4 The Pill of Happiness5 Necessity and Grace6 The Chains and the CrossConclusionBibliographyIndex

Mateusz Stróżyński, Ph.D (2007), professor at Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland), has published articles, translations, and monographs on the Platonic tradition, including Adam Mickiewicz, Metaphysical Poems (Brill, 2023; with J. Fiećko and J.S. Boparai) and Plotinus on the Contemplation of the Intelligible World (CUP, 2024).

• ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Younger Europe, Freedom and the Image of God1 The West, the East, and the In-Between2 From Plato and the Scripture to French Newspapers3 Every Soul Is a Child of That Father4 The Image of God5 Children of the Free Woman6 Between Two Tyrannies7 The Structure of This Book1 Cherubinic Wanderers (Jan Ámos Komenský and Johannes Scheffler)1 In the Footsteps of God2 Divine Nothingness3 Wikipedia or Paideia?4 Initium Calamitatis Regni Poloniae2 The World Couldn’t Catch Them (Hasidic Jews and Hrihory Skovoroda)1 Between Spinoza and Sabbatai Zevi2 The Third Rome3 The Messiahs4 Alia res sceptrum, alia res plectrum5 Living in Holiness6 What Is Freedom?7 Two Kinds of Tyranny3 Two Emperors and the Sun of Freedom (Adam Mickiewicz and Alexander Pushkin)1 The Russian Experiment with Liberalism2 Muscovite Friends3 The Statue of Peter I4 God and Freedom (Adam Mickiewicz and Pyotr Chaadaev)1 The Mystic-Politician2 Philosophy as Mental Illness3 A More Immediate Feeling of God4 Living the Divine Life5 The Slavs Don’t Possess Anything5 The World of Souls (Vladimir Solovyov and Wincenty Lutosławski)1 Suffused with a Golden Azure2 A Possession for Ever3 Divine Humanity4 I Have Lived on This Earth Before5 Theocracy and Panmongolism6 The Scythians and Their Jesus Christ (Andrei Bely and Alexander Blok)1 Two Poets and Divine Wisdom2 Christianity as a Mystical Fact3 Jesus the Bolshevik4 The Poet and the Crowd5 Darkness at Noon7 Life Founded upon Seeing What Is (Wincenty Lutosławski and Jan Patočka)1 Between the Two Wars2 A Small Central-European Nation3 The Whole Showing4 Christianity as the Abysmal Deepening of the Soul8 What Plato Did for You? (Valentin Tomberg)1 Awakening of Deep Soul Forces2 The Fall of the Law3 The Magician9 Searching for Truth (Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and Józef Czapski)1 The Mystery of Existence2 A World Entirely Different3 Dark Night of the Soul4 The Pill of Happiness5 Necessity and Grace6 The Chains and the CrossConclusionBibliographyIndex

Mateusz Stróżyński, Ph.D (2007), professor at Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland), has published articles, translations, and monographs on the Platonic tradition, including Adam Mickiewicz, Metaphysical Poems (Brill, 2023; with J. Fiećko and J.S. Boparai) and Plotinus on the Contemplation of the Intelligible World (CUP, 2024).

• ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Younger Europe, Freedom and the Image of God1 The West, the East, and the In-Between2 From Plato and the Scripture to French Newspapers3 Every Soul Is a Child of That Father4 The Image of God5 Children of the Free Woman6 Between Two Tyrannies7 The Structure of This Book1 Cherubinic Wanderers (Jan Ámos Komenský and Johannes Scheffler)1 In the Footsteps of God2 Divine Nothingness3 Wikipedia or Paideia?4 Initium Calamitatis Regni Poloniae2 The World Couldn’t Catch Them (Hasidic Jews and Hrihory Skovoroda)1 Between Spinoza and Sabbatai Zevi2 The Third Rome3 The Messiahs4 Alia res sceptrum, alia res plectrum5 Living in Holiness6 What Is Freedom?7 Two Kinds of Tyranny3 Two Emperors and the Sun of Freedom (Adam Mickiewicz and Alexander Pushkin)1 The Russian Experiment with Liberalism2 Muscovite Friends3 The Statue of Peter I4 God and Freedom (Adam Mickiewicz and Pyotr Chaadaev)1 The Mystic-Politician2 Philosophy as Mental Illness3 A More Immediate Feeling of God4 Living the Divine Life5 The Slavs Don’t Possess Anything5 The World of Souls (Vladimir Solovyov and Wincenty Lutosławski)1 Suffused with a Golden Azure2 A Possession for Ever3 Divine Humanity4 I Have Lived on This Earth Before5 Theocracy and Panmongolism6 The Scythians and Their Jesus Christ (Andrei Bely and Alexander Blok)1 Two Poets and Divine Wisdom2 Christianity as a Mystical Fact3 Jesus the Bolshevik4 The Poet and the Crowd5 Darkness at Noon7 Life Founded upon Seeing What Is (Wincenty Lutosławski and Jan Patočka)1 Between the Two Wars2 A Small Central-European Nation3 The Whole Showing4 Christianity as the Abysmal Deepening of the Soul8 What Plato Did for You? (Valentin Tomberg)1 Awakening of Deep Soul Forces2 The Fall of the Law3 The Magician9 Searching for Truth (Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and Józef Czapski)1 The Mystery of Existence2 A World Entirely Different3 Dark Night of the Soul4 The Pill of Happiness5 Necessity and Grace6 The Chains and the CrossConclusionBibliographyIndex