Vincas Kudirka: bridges between catholic and national values (on the occasion of Vincas Kudirka’s one hundred fiftieth anniversary)

Straipsnyje aptariami dvasiniai lietuviškosios inteligentijos skirtingumai XIX a. pabaigoje, atsispindėję tuo metu ėjusių laikraščių programose. Analizuojami „Varpo“ redaktoriaus Vinco Kudirkos straipsniai ir jo poezija, ieškoma tautiškumo ir krikščioniškųjų nuostatų jungties. Apžvelgiama, kaip reiškiamos tautos vienybės, tautinio identiteto idėjos, svarstomos moralinių visuomenės pagrindų problemosOne detects toward the end of the 19th century signs of a clear ideological differentiation among Lithuanian intel-ligentsia. Two kinds of intelligentsia, secular and confessional, vie for the right to determine the fate of the nation. God or country, this is the dilemma that surfaces in public discourse. Vincas Kudirka is one the major and most distinctive mediators in attempts to resolve this conflict of values. As editor of the newspaper Varpas, he avoided dwelling on religious issues and, in his efforts to resolve questions of national identity, searched for meaningful links between nationality and Catholicism. Kudirka bound his hopes for common undertakings on behalf of the nation to the advent of a new generation of clergy. He believed in collaborative efforts by clergy and laymen undertaken to establish a moral codex for the nation. What was important for him, it was the link between the problem of God and the problem of Evil. At the end of the century, there was a lack of the true spirit of evangelism and examples of Catholic life. Criteria for the assessment of moral life were established for clergy who were his contemporaries. However, their contribution to the Lithuanian culture was acknowledged. Thus, Varpaspresents a clearly visible search for means to strengthen the relationships between the clergy and the laymen. Varpasde-fended the authority of science and sought to open up wider horizons. Kudirka viewed science as sacred: he wrote about science with amazement and admiration. Nevertheless, positivism, which praised natural sciences and ele-vated practice, remained sensitive to the religious needs of society. Kudirka believed in the possibility to unify scientific thinking and religious worldview. Disagreements between the two kinds of intellectuals at the end of the 19th century were not ideological in nature. [...]Vytauto Didžiojo universiteta