Wobec tajemnicy i skandalu zła – teodycea Karola Ludwika Konińskiego

The article presents religious and philosophical views of journalist and writer Karol Ludwik Koniński (1891–1943), which he included in his intimate journal, written mostly during the war and the occupation period. He intertwines his observations of daily dramatic events with reflections on the metaphysical and ethical status of evil present in the world. Koniński was inspired in his theodicy, trying to reconcile the image of merciful God with the severity of evil present in the world, the views of Gnostics and Origen. He took the view that God was not fully omnipotent, and emphasized that on a cosmic scale the process of overcoming multiform evil by God, who is Love, is constantly taking place. Koniński’s theodicy therefore constitutes religious evolutionism. He combined Gnostic sensitivity to the presence and severity of evil with the belief in the ultimate, full apocatastasis. Koniński’s reflection does not accept some of the dogmas of Roman Catholicism, it also includes a critique of the views of St. Augustine and scholastic theology. The author of the article puts forward a thesis that Koniński, due to his in-depth analysis of the subject of evil and his sensitivity to the dramatic dimension of human and non-human existence, can be attributed to a particular current of the philosophy of the heart, in Pascal’s understanding of this concept.