Irresolute Heresiarch

Reviews / Votes

"There is a strange contrast between the tenor of much of the poetry of Czeslaw Milosz, and his concern at least towards the end of his life 'to write poetry that should not depart from Catholic orthodoxy.' In his ground breaking book Dr Kraszewski considers by careful analysis of the poet's works whether he succeeded. However, the book's importance goes beyond this particular poet. By considering Milosz's poetry in the context of three other writers who were both modern (in the literary sense of the word) and whose work was recognizably Catholic, Kraszewski addresses the general question of Catholicism and modern (or modernist) poetry in general, and thus provides criteria for other scholars to follow." - Rev. Janusz A. Ihnatowicz, STD, Professor Emeritus of Theology, University of Saint Thomas; Poet, recipient of the 2011 Literary Award of the Union of Polish Writers in Emigration"Charles Kraszewski's Irresolute Heresiarch is a deeply probing, erudite, and splendidly written exploration of the complex nature of Czeslaw Milosz's attitudes toward Christianity and Catholicism in the entire body of his poetry. While respectful of Milosz's achievement and legacy, Kraszewski is not a blind worshipper as others who have written on him. He lays bare his inconsistencies, contradictions, and weaknesses as a poet, and as a Catholic, and demonstrates how these have shaped his views of man, God, and Christ. Enriched by his thorough knowledge of the Catholic tradition, Kraszewski is well equipped to deal with so central an issue as the belief that despair lies at the very foundation of Milosz's poetic creation. Irresolute Heresiarch abounds in meaningful and enlightening references to other poets from Dante to the postmoderns. In an excellent concluding chapter, Kraszewski places the Polish Nobel Prize laureate in the context of such other Catholic modern poets as T. S. Eliot, the Czech Jan Zahradnicek, and the Quebecois Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, and shows how the persistent presence of anti-Christian themes in his poetry differentiates Milosz from these other poets. For anyone interested in a revealing yet balanced understanding of one of the great poets of our age, Irresolute Heresiarch - its title well chosen - is must reading."- Harold B. Segel, Professor Emeritus of Slavic Literatures and of Comparative Literature, Columbia University''There is much of interest throughout these pages, though much to disagree with as well. The scholar weaves extensive webs of commentary in which fragments taken from one poem cast an unexpected light on another. He also situates the poems in a rich context of biographical facts, letters, essays, and ideas borrowed from the Church Fathers (St. Augustine, St. Anselm, and St. Thomas Aquinas), Gnostic writers, Polish Romantic classics like Zygmunt Krasinski, and more.''- Maja Trochimczyk, 'The Sarmatian Review', 34:2 (April 2013), 1759-1762, p. 1761."[T]he reader obtains a solid monograph on the celebrated Polish Nobel Prize laureate that follows the movement of the poet's Weltanschauung, trying to perceptively identify its most significant moments and swerves." - Tadeusz Slawek, Slavic Review 72:2 (Summer 2013), 396-397.