A few words about the seventeenth-century work Přemyšlování o dokonalosti křesťanské – English Reflections on Christian perfection in the period after White Mountain during the Thirty Years' War

Abstract

This article presents the first years of John Amos Comenius after the defeat of the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 and what repressions were immediately applied to dissenters who did not convert to Catholicism in the Habsburg concept. Comenius had to hide, he was separated from his pregnant wife. Longing for her caused him to write a medium-sized Christian-philosophical treatise for her in 1622, entitled Přemyšlování o křesťanské dokonalosti, English: Reflections on Christian Perfection. He comforts and reassures his wife, writing to her to always willingly imitate God even in tears, regardless of happiness and unhappiness, joy and sorrow, laughter and tears. All „Christian perfection” really depends on several factors, i.e. mainly on acting, carrying out and enduring all God's will. Comenius from the bottom of his heart wants God to be our greatest consolation, our most precious treasure and our noblest share. This article, together with the translation of this work (i.e. dedication, 12 chapters, conclusion, prayer with a preface to the new edition) is intended to broaden Polish comeniology in many respects.