Czesław Miłosz’s religious identity and his Gnostic inspirations

Abstract

The writings of Czesław Miłosz, who was influenced by Gnosis, concern universal questions regarding the experience of human existence in the world, and verify modern view of reality and the matter of human religiosity.

The article is focused on the influence of Manichaeism and Gnosticism on Miłosz’s works. Each part of it – there are eight of them – concerns a different aspect of the poet’s religious reflection.

Miłosz’s religious inspirations, his conception of God and the Devil, the poet’s theosophical reflection, the problem of erosion of religious imagination, the experience of Determinism in the world, and the idea of resurrection of all beings are all presented in the article. The two last parts concentrate on the matter of religious identity of Miłosz himself, trying to determine whether he was a Catholic or not.

In the article’s conclusion, the writings of Miłosz are presented as an integral religious and metaphysical project. The writer himself is presented as a Christian seeking for the truth about reality.