The church and the left /

Polish newspaper editor Michnik, a theorist of the Solidarity movements and a major player in the 1989 negotiations that ended Communist rule, here illuminates the rationale for the country's leftist intelligentsia's alliance with the staunchly conservative Roman Catholic Church. In incisive essays that assume familiarity with the Polish scene, he argues that the Church's resistance to Stalinist control constituted a strong defense of human liberties, and discusses how the regime of Communist leader Wladyslaw Gomulka turned first against the secular left, then against the Church. Calling for a dialogue between the left and Christianity, Michnik warns against a resurgent, all-embracing, fundamentalist Church. Written in 1976 and published in Poland in 1981, this book includes a 1979 essay on John Paul II's first pilgrimage as pope to his native Poland, and a 1987 essay in which Michnik warns against provincial nationalism and (in an about-face) counsels liberals to maintain their distance from the Church. Ost is the author of Solidarity and the Politics of Anti-Politics. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Michnik, a leading Polish intellectual in the 1970s, played a key role in shaping the ideas that were the underpinnings of the powerful anti-Communist Solidarity trade union. In this book, first issued in 1976 but supplemented with writings through 1987, Michnik expounds his political philosophy, which, at that time, justified the otherwise unlikely alliance of the Catholic Church and Polish dissidents in opposition to Communist rule. Since the relationship of politics and religion continues to be a pressing issue in Poland and other Central European countries today, some of Michnik's earlier positions still resonate; others have been modified or overtaken by events. The narrow focus and the turgid writing make this a book that will appeal mostly to specialists. Recommended for large collections on Central European politics and society.-- Harry Frumerman, formerly with Hunter Coll., CUNY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.