Pillar II — Athens
The Emanation of Athens
Athens as the cradle of philosophy and science. The discovery of the Logos, the search for the Absolute, and the limits of reason in the teaching of Rev. Prof. Tadeusz Guz.
The Foundation of Civilization
Athens as the Cradle of Science and Philosophy
Among the three great civilizational sources that shaped European culture — Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome — ancient Greece holds a special place as the cradle of philosophy and science. Rev. Prof. Tadeusz Guz, a philosopher and priest who has been exploring the history of human thought for decades, has devoted a significant part of his teaching to this heritage. Today, the synthesis of these three traditions is embodied by the Athens of Roztocze — a unique cultural and sacred center being erected in Szozdy near Zwierzyniec, in the Professor's hometown.
The Logos as the Dawn of Science
The foundation of the Greek contribution to the history of human thought is the discovery of the Logos — the divine reason permeating reality. Rev. Prof. Guz frames this as follows:
"(...) The dawn of the clarity of the human spirit in its intellectual development was Greek metaphysics, pointing to the existence of an extraordinary, divine Logos, which is life, continuous and eternal duration — as Aristotle writes. The knowledge of this supreme truth also became the dawn of the birth of science. (...)"
By discovering the Logos, the Greek mind achieved something unprecedented in the history of civilization: it built a rational foundation for understanding the whole of reality. As Rev. Guz explains:
"(...) The history of science is resolved in its relationship to the Logos of God, the understanding of which, and above all the love for which, constitutes the foundation, essence, and ultimate goal of science. (...) The genius of the Greek intellect in this new era of thought lay in the rational discovery of the world as ordered, called the Cosmos; of man as a soul — psyche — along with its immortal intellect; and of the transcendent, eternal, that is, unchanging and necessary for the existence of the world, but never fully accessible to man, divine Logos. (...)"
God as the Absolute — The Limit and Achievement of Greek Philosophy
Greek thought approached the truth about God as far as reason alone, unassisted by Revelation, could reach. The God conceived by the Greeks was perfection itself — truth, goodness, and beauty — yet remained inaccessible:
"(...) The perfect God was conceived to such an extent as perfect truth, goodness, and beauty itself that He ultimately remained unattainable for man. Hence, according to the Greeks, the task of science was to rest in contemplation of Him by liberating oneself from the body of the world and action. This Greco-Roman attempt at a systematic grasp of reality based on the Logos discovered the Logos as the immanent order of existence. (...)"
Greek philosophers discovered that the Absolute exists and that it constitutes the ultimate reason for reality. Rev. Guz emphasizes the grandeur of this discovery while simultaneously pointing out its limitations:
"(...) Ancient Greek science proceeded from the premise that reality exists — for example, man — and that my reason should properly name man in terms of his origin, nature, and the purpose for which he exists in the Cosmos. (...) The ancient Greeks and Romans said that when I ask about the cause of man, it is constituted by the Absolute. But it is well known that ancient Greek science had one fundamental problem: it did not know the name of the Absolute. For this, Revelation in the Divine Person of Jesus of Nazareth was necessary, who became man born of the Immaculate Mother, the Most Holy Virgin Mary. And He revealed to us the fact that the cause of man's being is the personal God, who reveals Himself in Jesus of Nazareth as God the Father, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit — that is, one God existing in Three Divine Persons. (...)"
Socrates, who was the first in the history of philosophy to systematically search for this ultimate reason, did something astonishing — despite belonging to no religion:
"(...) Socrates was not a man of faith; he did not belong to any religion. And yet, after coming to the conviction that the Absolute exists, before his meetings in the Athenian marketplace, he would ask his disciples: let us begin with a prayer to the gods. (...)"
The Discovery of Man as a Spiritual-Bodily Being
Another great merit of Greek philosophy is the discovery of the complex nature of man. Rev. Prof. Guz reminds us that it was pagan thinkers who were the first to perceive the spiritual dimension of human existence:
"(...) already in classical philosophy, by the non-believing ancient Greeks like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, man was understood as a spiritual-bodily being. Thus, according to them, apart from the body, the essence of our human beingness was the spirit and the soul, transcendent to matter and unmixed with matter. (...)"
Greek philosophy discovered man as a entity composed of soul, spirit, and body. However, here too the boundary of this thought becomes apparent:
"(...) The soul, in Greek or Roman thought, was conceived as something general. According to the Greeks and Romans, only the intellect was immortal, whereas everything else that constitutes the entire shape of our spiritual existence was mortal. (...)"
The same applies to the concept of the person — Greek philosophy intuited its existence but was unable to clearly articulate it:
"(...) in ancient Greek philosophy before the revelation of Jesus of Nazareth, there was indeed no concept of the person, only the concept of hypokeimenon, or suppositum — the subject was discovered, something wonderful, but that subject was de facto nature. (...) Aristotle had the intuition that there must be something more in man than this compositum of the nature of soul, spirit, and body, but it was not articulated. (...)"
Virtue and Knowledge — The Boundary of Greek Ethics
Greek philosophy understood human perfection primarily through the prism of the intellect and knowledge. Rev. Guz points out the beauty of this intuition while noting its fundamental limitation:
"(...) the ancient Greeks conceived God as truth, or wisdom, and therefore Socrates, along with Plato and Aristotle, believed that it was enough to teach a person, that is, to educate his intellect — because if a person acquired wisdom, that is, knew, that is, acquired knowledge, it meant he became perfect at that very moment. (...)"
However, what was missing — as Rev. Guz emphasizes — was that which opens the fullest dimension of human existence:
"(...) The ancient Greeks and Romans did not fully know what follows from the fact that there exists the Lord God, who is the most perfect being, who is Truth itself and Wisdom itself. What follows from this? They did not find that bridge to the love of God. And we, the children of God who know the Revealed God, know perfectly well: our Lord God is not only eternal Truth, He is not only eternal Reason who Himself is absolute truth and knows every existing truth absolutely perfectly. Our Lord God is also, in His beingness, an eternal free entity with a free will, who is eternally fulfilled as Love. (...)"
The Greeks discovered beauty as the "house of truth and goodness," but only in the light of Revelation is the fullness of this architecture of values disclosed:
"(...) Just as for the Greeks beauty was the house of truth and goodness, so according to St. Paul, love is precisely the most perfect palace for truth, goodness, beauty, and the remaining moral and personal virtues in general. And the crown of this magnificent palace of a loving heart will be nothing less than holiness. (...)"
Socrates and Goodness as the Ultimate Reason for Reality
The central theme of Greek ethical and metaphysical thought is the search for the good. Rev. Guz describes Socrates' path in a way that demonstrates how closely he approached revealed truth:
"(...) Socrates searches for this ultimate reason for all reality, and he finds this reason precisely in the idea of the good. (...)"
Rev. Guz's observation regarding the understanding of evil is also significant, highlighting another boundary of ancient thought:
"(...) Already the ancient Greeks said that evil is the negation of reality. So, in other words, something that is the negation of reality is the negation of good. And something that denies good cannot be good. (...)"
Despite this, neither Greek nor Roman philosophy was able to ultimately overcome the problem of evil:
"(...) neither Greek nor Roman philosophy could cope with a proper understanding of evil, and therefore they opted for the so-called fatum in the sense of a blind fate that could not be explained (...)"
Socrates, Plato, and the Creator
Another limit of Greek thought pointed out by Rev. Guz is the inability to conceive of God as Creator. This knowledge required Revelation:
"(...) Plato and Socrates are not yet able to think of God as Creator because they do not have the Judeo-Christian Revelation at their disposal. (...) The Revelation of the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity — the Son of the Father — takes place in a time that is already metaphysically prepared. Both the chosen people are prepared by way of grace, and the entire world of Greek thinkers is also prepared, as well as the Roman thinkers, as the center of the world of civilization at that time. Prepared in what way? Prepared in that there exists one God. Thus, reason and faith agree on this: there exists one God, and from the position of this God, the reality of man and the universe should now be interpreted. (...)"
Greek cosmology — splendid and pioneering — was at the same time fundamentally constrained by the absence of this central truth. Rev. Guz also highlights the role played in the history of science by the exclusion of lack and evil from the concept of God:
"(...) Socrates together with Plato are the first philosophers and scholars in the history of science who excluded any lack and any evil from the being of God. And in this way, they paved the way for the emergence of science for all humanity. (...)"
Aristotle and the First Principle of Thinking
Rev. Guz also points to Aristotle's fundamental importance for logic and science. The law of non-contradiction — discovered by the Stagirite — is a condition for the existence of every being and every rigorous thought:
"(...) Aristotle writes in the Metaphysics that what is self-contradictory does not exist. Meaning, already according to Aristotle, to exist — even in the sense of inanimate matter — can only be a being that is internally non-contradictory. That is why communism is so absurd. Communism as a system exists, except that the kind of reality it interprets has never existed, does not exist, and will never exist as the reality served to us. (...)"
The field of philosophy practiced by Rev. Guz obliges him — following Aristotle — to reach the primary reasons:
"(...) The field of science in which I have been engaged for twenty-eight years now requires me as a philosopher to search for the primary reasons for what is, that is, for all reality. According to Aristotle, a person speaks properly — that is, in accordance with the truth — about the examined reality only when, through the process of cognition, he reaches the sources. (...)"
An Appeal to Return to Classical Sources
Rev. Prof. Guz repeatedly calls for a return to the Greek heritage — not as an archaeological relic, but as a living source of wisdom. This also applies to ancient languages:
"(...) Polish youth today often do not understand the point of studying Latin or Greek, but dear young people, how many wonderful philosophical or mystical works there are — true pearls, great gems — that have not been translated from these ancient languages. (...) And I would like to encourage Polish youth to study classical languages, because in them, humanity, inspired by God, encoded many treasures, storehouses of wisdom, and it would be worth studying Latin or Ancient Greek if only to translate these works into Polish, to become translators. (...)"
This applies equally to the principles of thinking — returning to fundamental intellectual structures:
"(...) in our rationality, we have lost basic intellectual structures, such as the principle of identity, non-contradiction, and sufficient reason. (...) We have a lot of meaningful work to do in order to strengthen ourselves in such a healthy — in both a natural and supernatural sense — identity. And to guide every other human being precisely toward this rationality. (...)"
The Incarnation of the Idea
The Athens of Roztocze: The Embodiment of Greek Heritage
Rev. Prof. Guz translated the synthesis of his teaching on Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem into a concrete architectural and spiritual work — the "Athens of Roztocze" center in Szozdy. As he wrote himself in one of the foundation's first brochures:
"The Athens of Roztocze is a synthesis project of Jerusalem as a symbol of God's Revelation of the Old and New Testaments; of the antiquity of ancient Greece as the cradle of philosophy and science in general; of ancient Rome with Roman law, remarkably faithful to natural law, and at the same time the capital of the Holy Catholic Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, as true God and at the same time true Man, established by the will of Its Divine Founder upon the College of Apostles headed by St. Peter."
The House of Ancient Philosophy — the first building visible after passing through the gate — welcomes visitors with a statue of Christ the King, who stands as the key to understanding both Greek philosophy and all of reality. As Rev. Guz explains:
"Those entering Athens are greeted by the Incarnate Logos of the Eternal God the Father — the Eternal Son of God the Father and at the same time our Lord Jesus Christ, the only true Messiah. He is the key to understanding the entire universe, all creation, because in Him, with Him, and for Him, God the Father together with the Holy Spirit created the whole universe. And that is why we placed Christ here, to welcome all who come to this place."
The architecture of the House of Ancient Philosophy, with its eight columns featuring Ionic capitals, invokes ancient symbolism: in antiquity, the number eight, composed of two infinity symbols, expressed the tribute paid to Eternal Being by the person of philosophy and science.
Conclusion
Rev. Prof. Tadeusz Guz's teaching on ancient Greece is far from archaeological archivism. Athens — the cradle of philosophy, science, the rational discovery of the Logos, and the spiritual dimension of man — remains for Rev. Guz a living source that did not die with Socrates or Aristotle. It was incorporated into the stream of Christian thought, purified, and fulfilled by Revelation. The history of science — as Rev. Guz says — "is resolved in its relationship to the Logos of God," and the Greek Logos was the first great step toward Him who said of Himself: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."
Quotes are taken from the broadcast series "Unfinished Conversations with Rev. Prof. Tadeusz Guz" aired on Radio Maryja and TV Trwam, as well as from other public addresses by Rev. Prof. Tadeusz Guz. Selection of quotes and contextual structure based on the text by Aldona Ciborowska and Edward Małachowski.