Stefan Grabiński, a famous Polish author of weird fiction, who is known especially for his collection of short stories Demon ruchu (The Motion Demon, 1919), lived and worked in a period marked by a new artistic style – expressionism. Although Grabiński came from Lviv, often regarded as a province in Poland after the Great War, he could have a contact with the latest ideas concerning art and philosophy. Indeed, both in his short stories and in his novels may be found some traits typical for the expressionist poetics as, for example, a subjective perspective, a color sensitivity or a tendency to violent and dynamic use of formal elements. Grabiński was fascinated by a German literature – he read Gustav Meyrink, E.T.A. Hoffmann and an expressionist magazine “Der Orchideengarten”. Moreover, he liked going to the cinema where he could watch, for example, a famous German expressionist film – The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The only text by Grabiński which was adapted into film in his life was a short story Kochanka Szamoty (Szamota’s Mistress, 1922). Although this seemed to be a great material for an expressionist film, the director – Leon Trystan – decided to realize it in an impressionist poetics.
The aim of this article is to analyze and interpret way in which a topos of Cain was evoked in literary works and other texts of culture in the light of the concept of transgression. An approach adapted in analysis will be inspired by comparative hermeneutics, yet not only literary contexts will be taken into consideration, but also religious, philosophical, and scientific ones. In the very structure of the topos one can discern a series of binary oppositions, which become valuated in various ways in different historical contexts. It is above all the opposition between destructive and constructive component of the theme. Interpretations of the topos in the works of George Byron, Władysław Orkan, and Jerzy Andrzejewski are discussed deeper. The analysis leads to the conclusion that in the historical development of a significant change in its valuation is taking place. Regarded as a symbol of evil in the Middle Ages, it is ennobled as a patron of rebels, reformers and creators in the twentieth century.
As we know the idea of papacy defined during the First Vatican Council is one of the biggest problems for the unity of Christian Churches. The author of this article attempts to re-interpret the statements of the Council relating to this matter. It will be done against the background of the theology of faith that definitely relates the content of faith (fides quae) to the fides qua. In this way, certain statements regarding faith, also referring to the pope, are relativized, but not in the sense of elimination, but in the sense of their intense reference to the center of biblical faith. We have also the possibility to give every time a new shape of papacy, understood as a “ministry of unity”.