The Polish government has created two new academic disciplines, biblical studies and family studies. “Both are especially needed in Poland,” says education minister Przemysław Czarnek.
Speaking at the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL), Czarnek revealed that he has signed an ordinance creating the new fields of study. He noted that the country already has a number of leading researchers in the areas, and “we have great potential to really develop” them further, particularly at KUL.
The discipline of family studies is especially vital because, “without family we won’t exist in 50 years”, added Czarnek, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
However, “for several years in Poland – and for several decades in western Europe – we have seen a powerful attack on the family”, he warned. That has resulted in “a crisis of the family”, which is “why it is so important to establish the field and discipline of family studies”.
“Science is the search for truth. We need to find the truth about family and show this truth to society,” explained the minister. He also added that “we want to strengthen Polish biblical studies so that a centre can be created in Poland similar to that in Jerusalem, Switzerland and the United States”.
As well as being education minister, Czarnek is himself also a law professor at KUL. Since joining the government in 2020, he has become known as one of its most conservative and controversial voices, pushing for religion to play a greater role in education and regularly attacking “LGBT ideology”.
Last month, Czarnek warned that “Poland will either be Christian or it will not exist”. Last year, he called for children to receive a Christian education in order to “save Latin civilisation” and suggested that schools should use the writings of Pope John Paul II to teach business and sexuality.
Czarnek’s appointment as education minister aroused protests among many academics, hundreds of whom signed letters calling for him to be dismissed and for an international boycott against him.
In response to the minister’s latest announcement, Jan Hartman – a professor of philosophy at the Jagiellonian University and prominent anticlerical activist – argued in an article for Polityka that the new fields of biblical and family studies are simply a way for the government to channel more state money towards the church.
Ze słów ministra Przemysława Czarnka wynika, że beneficjentem utworzenia dyscypliny o nazwie „nauki biblijne” ma być głównie KUL, który i tak kosztuje państwo krocie.https://t.co/ojwgu5vuD0
— Tygodnik POLITYKA (@Polityka_pl) October 18, 2022
Main image credit: Jakub Orzechowski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
