Concerning Andrzej Niemojewski's Legendy

Abstract

Legendy could be linked by a multitude of detailed notes (a superfluous undertaking in the present connection) with Renan's La vie de Jésus, from among whose key words Niemojewski drew his title. The basic view of the hero as a human individual is almost identical in both works. The difference lies in the two writers' attitudes. Renan is fascinated by Jesus as a person realising his own humanity and a founder of a universal religion which embodies ideal values. Niemojewski shows profound respect, but also an objectivistic distance towards the uncommon and positive phenomenon of the Rabbi of Nazareth, who lived a life of good and truth and preached them unswervingly and in so doing made a valuable contribution to the history of mankind. But contrary to Renan, Niemojewski's mankind no longer needed the idea of godhead or religion.