TOWIANSKI, ANDRZEJ. - Polish heterodox reformer, b. 1 Jan 1799 at Antoszwince (Vilna), d. in Switzerland on 13 May 1878. He carried on doctrinal-moral “mystical” activity first in his homeland, then from 1840 in Belgium (where he published his fundamental metaphysical work: *Biesiada* [“Banquet”], placed on the Index by Pius IX), in France (where he founded the “Paris Circle” and exercised influence on A. Mickiewicz) and in Switzerland (where he engaged in pedagogical activity).
He had followers mainly in France, Poland, and Italy; in Turin he formed a circle of T.’s admirers led by Tancredi Canonico. A. Fogazzaro also partly adhered to T. Even today he has followers. T. called the moral-social reform he promoted the “Work of God.” His anti-rationalist and anti-authoritarian metaphysical and moral system was influenced by St-Martin, Swedenborg, and T. Grabianka. T.’s metaphysics, the speculative foundation of the “Work of God,” was heteronomous and progressive. Spirits, pre-existent and migrating, in the form of homogeneous layers (“columns”) surround the earth. The starting point for the conversion of the soul, imprisoned in matter, is “the right of the abyss” (“science of evil”); from this arises “the offspring of the soul,” and through the “columns” of spirits one reaches God and Grace. Peoples too, rising from the abyss of evil through desire for great renewal, attain successive degrees of progress, which will be seven after Christ. The 2nd epoch was inaugurated by T. himself. Once the cycle of perfection is completed, there will no longer be any hell. In T.’s ethical system, alongside heroism, human solidarity and an anti-ascetic harmonistic tendency prevail, in addition to the doctrine of the “triple sacrifice.” T.’s works, in French and Polish (*Pisma A. T.*), appeared in 3 vols. (Turin 1884).