Discourse of the Stations of the Cross Service on War

Abstract

A number of religious texts have recently appeared that adress the war in Ukraine. The aim of the study is to check whether such experiences were presented in a similar way in the earlier religious discourse. This study is a part of the research on the evolution of the Stations of the Cross as a genre of religious discourse and, because of that, it uses the methods of linguistic genology. The source database consists of 504 texts in Polish published from 1743 to 2024; 18 of them approach the topic of war.

It can be noticed that newer texts published after the World War I more often refer to specific historical events. War is gradually no longer considered a God’s punishment, but is rather treated as a call to action, sometimes to very specific help for the victims, which is particularly visible in texts devoted to the war in Ukraine. Contemporary texts on the World War II also serve to commemorate the victims. It seems that, especially after the Second Vatican Council, there has been a certain shift in attention from the Passion events to the contemporary problems. The modern Way of the Cross responds very vividly to all important events and trends, such as the coronavirus pandemic or the war in Ukraine. The authors of the texts of this service intend to accompany modern people in difficult experiences, interpret them and give encouragement.

The impulse for dynamic changes in the service was certainly given by the Council’s concept of aggiornamento, i.e. updating, adapting the Church to new times, but these phenomena can also be associated with the trends present in the so-called new evangelization, as well as with the appreciation of originality and creativity visible in contemporary culture.