Piotr Skarga's The Soldier's Devotion and the Idea of the "Devout Christian Soldier"

There is no doubt, that if analyzed from the viewpoint of holy war, "The Soldier’s Service" broadens our general perspective on the issue. It can be characterized as a Jesuit version of the Roman Catholic approach to the problem and brings the complex, didactic and ascetic analysis of such closely related issues as the nature and ethos of the soldier’s profession and the various types of war in which the soldier can or should take part. Moreover, the text is of primary importance for Polish culture and, at the same time, it can be seen as a genuine Polish contribution to the debate about holy war, which is the subject of this book. Being aware of the complexity of the problem, we are going to limit our interest to the formal analysis of the semantic and argumentative element of the Christian soldier’s status and ethos, as it is presented in "The Soldier’s Service"