European Identity. North and South: the main line of divide

In the course of his deliberations, prof. Cichocki will point our attention to the importance of distinguishing historical and cultural significance of the two axes dividing Europe - East-West and North-South. The division into West and East is historically shallow, as it dates back only to the Enlightenment. The deeper division arises from the underlying tension between the Latin South and the barbaric North. It produces the spiritual dynamics that gave birth to European culture. In a world defined by the geopolitical interests of the powers of East and West this consideration is an attempt to recreate the forms which for centuries invigorated the European cultural and intellectual life.

Prof. Marek A. Cichocki - born in Warsaw in 1966. Professor of the College of Europe in Natolin, co-founder of "Political Theology" and editor-in-chief of "New Europe, Natolin Review". He received his doctorate and habilitation in philosophy at the Polish Academy of Sciences in 2013. In 2000-2003 he was program director of the Center for International Relations in Warsaw. He was also an advisor to the late President of Poland Lech Kaczyński. Author of well-known and awarded books: "Kidnapping Europe". (2004) and "North and South, essays on Polish culture and history" (2018).

Monthly lectures, “JP2 Lectures,” from scholars around the world are offered by the new St. John Paul II Institute of Culture at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas – the Angelicum in Rome, the Roman alma Mater of fr. Karol Wojtyła.