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Abstract

In the broadest of terms, political theology can be defined as “the analysis of political arrangements (including cultural-psychological, social, and economic aspects) from the perspective of God’s ways with the world.”1 Since the world changes, as do the politics accompanying them, political theology is of necessity a dynamic branch of the theological enterprise. The editors to the second edition of The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Theology note a number of such changes that justify the expanded second edition of their handbook, including—what is most pertinent for understanding political theology at present in Poland—“the discourse on religion and violence, and new modalities of war.”2 A substantive chapter in this vein, by Emmanuel Katongole, starts with a news item concerning civil war in Ivory Coast in 2011. The author follows this sample news stressing the problems of “power struggle, corruption, sham elections, and civil war that characterize politics of much of sub-Saharan Africa.”3 Political theology is not new to Poland, but obviously the full- scale invasion by Russia of the neighboring Ukraine on February 24, 2022, together with the accompanying atrocities has had a similar impact in the field in the country to that of a number of the authors in the handbook. This article will provide an introductory view of a significant part of this ongoing response in the country.

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