State, Culture and Religion in the Preamble of the 1997 Constitution of the Republic of Poland:Considerations in Relation to the Aristotelian-Thomistic Tradition

This paper demonstrates the symbiotic, real bond between the existence of the state, culture and religion, through which a person living in a national community can strive to achieve Aristotelian eudaimonia. The expression of this bond can be found, among other things, in the solemn Preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of April 2, 1997, in which the Constituent Assembly, establishing the very foundation of the state’s order, referred to God, emphasizing the importance of Poland’s Christian heritage. This heritage draws its identity not from a cultural vacuum, but from the achievements of Latin civilization, which served as the building blocks that formed the long history of the Piast State, beginning in the tenth century. This paper is therefore intended to answer the question of whether the Third Republic, in the twenty-first century, is also a continuation of the great cultural heritage of Latin civilization.