Juozas Girnius - teistinis egzistencialistas

LTApžvelgdami XX amžiaus lietuvių filosofijos panoramą, vienu tarp pirmųjų matome Juozo Girniaus vardą. Jis priklauso tai nepriklausomoje Lietuvoje išaugusiai inteligentų kartai, kurios gyvenimą karas ir okupacijos perlaužė į dvi dalis. Vienų laukė tremtinio dalia Vakaruose, kitų - skaudus ir dviprasmiškas prisitaikymas okupacijos sąlygomis, trečių - Sibiro lageriai. Girnių ištiko pirmųjų likimas. Okupacija dešimtmečiams atskyrė jį nuo Lietuvos, bet nepalaužė jo dvasios tvirtybės, nepakeitė esminio nu-sistatymo - skirti gyvenimą filosofijai ir lietuvybei. Tremtis neabejotinai pakoregavo jo apmąstymų ir raštų tematiką, bet nenuslopino paties svarbiausio - gebėjimo mąstyti giliai ir autentiškai, jausti atsakomybę už savo mintis ir žodžius. Kūrybiniai tokio mąstymo vaisiai pasižymi tuo, kad nebijo laiko, nepaiso nuotolių, politinių ribų ir užtvarų. Todėl Girniaus vardas ir mintys prasiskverbdavo pro geležinę uždangą ir pasiekdavo tautiečius Lietuvoje. Pasiekdavo tai radijo bangomis, tai kaip vienas kitas slaptais keliais atkeliavęs jo knygų egzempliorius, jo redaguotų „Aidų" numeris [p. 109].

ENJuozas Girnius (1915-1994) is one of those Lithuanian intellectuals, whose life has been split by the events of the Second World War into two parts - one part of life spent in the homeland and the other in exile. Born in the village Sudeikiai in Lithuania, 1932 he entered the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology of Vytautas Magnus university in Kaunas to study philosophy. Being educated by professors S.Salkauskis and P. Kuraitis in traditional thomistic spirit, he nevertheless became interested in existentialism and chose for his graduation thesis the subject "The basic tenets of Heidegger's existential philosophy". With analytical skills he demonstrated his critical approach to existentialism at the same time revealing his own traditional catholic attitude towards the problems of human existence. The thesis being successfully defended gave him an opportunity to study the philosophy in 1936-1937 in Louvain and Freiburg im Breisgau, where he attended Heidegger's lectures and seminar, also the lectures of others famous thinkers. Successfully started academic career was interrupted by the second Soviet occupation. In spite of this he maintained his philosophical interests. In Germany he attended K. Jasperš's and N.Hartmann's lectures, in 1951 at Montreal university he defended doctor thesis entitled "Liberty and Being. Existential metaphysics of Karl Jaspers," published in Lithuanian in 1953. In this work he continued his critical catholic attitude towards the existentialistic concept of human being and morality.Later J. Girnius devoted himself in full to Lithuanian cultural and public activity in exile. In 1953- 1969 he edited the Lithuanian encyclopedia in Boston, 1965-1980 edited the journal "Aidai." At the same time he was very actively involved into ideological debates and became one of the main authors of the Lithuanian national catholic ideology ateitininkai. The ideological matters were considered in such books as "Nation and national fidelity" (Tauta ir tautinė ištikimybė, 1961), "Ideal and time"(Idealas ir laikas, 1966), in which he asked and tried to give answers what does it mean to be Lithuanian in exile? His last and main work is book "A godless man" (Zmogus be Dievo.VMA), in which he critically analysed the concepts of atheistic existentialism. Girnius's philosophy was permeated mainly by three ideological trends, namely - existentialism, Catholicism and Lithuanian nationalism. He identified his own philosophy as theistic existentialism, thus considering himself not confessional, but an independent thinker. He did not accept the thomistic essentialism, sharing nevertheless the traditional catholic values and attitudes regarding such subjects as human being, moral values, faith, freedom, responsibility, immanence and transcendence. He was attracted rather by the eternal questions, hidden in the existentialist concepts, than by the existentialistic its interpretation. Therefore J. Girnius can be treated from one side as more existentialistic, from the other - more catholic thinker.