Dr Jakub Koryl from the Chair in Early Polish Literature History of the JU Faculty of Polish Studies has been awarded with this year’s RefoRC Paper, which are presented annually for publications related to era of the 16th century Reformations by the international scientific consortium RefoRC. The organisation is one of the most important institutions concerned with early modern Christianity.
‘Nietzsche once noticed that the German soul abounds in labyrinths, caves, hiding places and dungeons – even Germans can hardly find a way out of it. Although I myself did approach it from a greater distance, or simply from a non-German standpoint, my effort was kindly appreciated and somehow confirmed from a much closer perspective. It’s truly an honour for me’, said Dr Koryl in an interview.
Later in that same interview, he added: ‘Reading Luther in Latin and then in German turned out to be a striking experience for me. For two different languages were followed up with two persons who were totally unlike each other: ringing, truly musical and lively German of the vigorous, sometimes coarse Luther and schoolish, clumsy Latin of a faceless person. I realised again that such difference was not a matter of linguistic proficiency. It was German alone, not Latin, that was the house of Luther’s being, as Heidegger would say’.
Dr Jakub Koryl graduated from the JU Faculty of Polish Studies and the JU Institute of Classical Philology. He received his PhD in 2012. He is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Polish Studies at the Jagiellonian University. He has also taught at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Research ‘Artes Liberales’ at the University of Warsaw. Dr Koryl is an archivist at the Polish Estreicher Bibliography at the JU Faculty of Polish Studies and a secretary for research and publishing of the Committee on the Study of the Reformation in Poland and East-Central Europe of the University of Warsaw. His scientific interests include: intellectual history of early modernity, history of concepts, biblical exegesis, hermeneutics, Protestant theology and German philosophy of the twentieth century, and epistemology of the humanities.
