Wojciech Sadlon Institute for Catholic Church Statistics Poland, Warsaw CIVIL CINDERELLA. RELIGION AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN POLAND The term ‘civil society’ belongs to one of the most often used in the modern social science. At the same time, there are only few terms which are less ambiguous 1 . ‘Civil society’ refers not only to political reality but includes as well philosophical and sociological meaning. The origin of the term goes back to the time when social sciences have not yet been delineated. The meaning of the term has been evolving during centuries. P. Załęski distinguishes three different semantics of civil society: (1) classical republicanism which refers to the Ciceronian concept of societas civilis and political community; (2) romantic (or modern), based on the separation of state and society and (3) postmodern, which distinguishes between ‘political’ and ‘welfare society’ and implies that civil society denotes primarily the freedom to associate 2 . Classical understanding of civil society goes back to Greek times when Aristote's koinōnía politike referred to ‘community’, which included a common set of norms and freedoms. In such republican tradition, civil society narrowly refers to a moral community. That is why A. Ferguson treats civil society as a derivative of moral perfection 3 . J.-J. Rousseau recognizes moral sentiments as a basis for civil society 4 . T. Hobbes derives social rules from laws of nature, whereas J. Locke, from moral goals 5 . F. Hutcheson quotes six moral human senses, including the sense of the public (sensus communis), which is a source of ‘kindness’ (benevolentia) 6 . Similar ideas are mentioned by A. Smith, who observes a tension between self-love (selfishness) and kindness. Selfishness arises spontaneously as a result of biological conditions and the nature of man. On the other hand, “how selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it” 7 . A. Smith points out that the nature of the social order is connected with Christian ‘love of neighbor’. According to P. Załęski, a romantic model of civil society arises in the late 18 th and early 19 th centuries in France, when the 1 J. Szacki, Społeczeństwo obywatelskie, „Przegląd polityczny” 1996, nr 32, p. 53. 2 P. Załęski, Neoliberalizm i społeczeństwo obywatelskie, Fundacja Nauki Polskiej, Toruń 2012. 3 A. Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1995. 4 J-J., Rousseau, The Social Contract, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1968. 5 D. Pietrzyk-Reeves, Idea społeczeństwa obywatelskiego. Współczesna debata i jej źródła, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń 2012. 6 F. Hutcheson, An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections with Illustrations on the Moral Sense, Literary Licensing LLC, Whitefish 2014. 7 A. Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1976 (1759), p. 9.