BILIŃSKI Krzysztof

Born on 3 April 1962 in Wroclaw; son of the Polish army officer Stanisław Biliński and the dentist Janina, née Cybulak. He attended the Juliusz Słowacki Grammar School (No. IX) in Wroclaw. After completing advanced secondary education in 1981, he took a degree in Polish Studies at the University of Wroclaw (UWr). He graduated with a master's degree in 1986, which was awarded for his dissertation Techniki perswazyjne w piśmiennictwie religijnym Świadków Jehowy i Adwentystów Dnia Siódmego (Persuasive techniques in the religious writings of Jehova's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists), supervised by Prof. Prof. Jacek Kolbuszewski. He worked as a Polish teacher at Grammar School No. XIV between 1986 and 1989, and then at Grammar School No. II in Wroclaw until 1990. He made his debut in 1986 with the poem Jesteś Boże zagadką... (God, you are a mystery...), which appeared in "Nowe Życie" (no. 3), the bi-weekly periodical of the Wroclaw Metropolitan Curia. His debut article, Literacka panorama XIX-wiecznego Wrocławia (A literary panorama of nineteenth-century Breslau/Wroclaw), appeared in 1988 in "Gazeta Robotnicza" (no. 152; reprinted in "Wieczór Wrocławia", 1992 no. 253). His articles and reviews continued to appear in "Gazeta Robotnicza" (to 1989) and in the periodicals "Mariawita" (1989), "Wieczór Wrocławia" (1989-92) and "Zaranie Śląskie" (1989). His first research article, Uwagi o życiu i twórczości ks. Franciszka Statecznego (Notes on the life and work of Father Franciszek Stateczny), was published in 1989 in "Annales Silesiae" (vol. XIX). He was awarded a doctoral degree in 1990 for his thesis Literackie przejawy modernizmu katolickiego w Polsce. O twórczości Franciszka Statecznego i Antoniego Szandlerowskiego (Literary manifestations of Catholic Modernism in Poland: On the works of Franciszek Stateczny and Antoni Szandlerowski), which was supervised by Prof. Jacek Kolbuszewski. In 1990, he was appointed lecturer at the Department of Nineteenth-Century Polish Literature at the Institute of Polish Philology at the University of Wroclaw. His research focused on the history of Polish literature from the Romantic, Positivist and Young Poland periods. He has also explored religious tropes and motifs, with a particular focus on Biblical motifs. He has also conducted research on literary theory, as well as the ideas of Yuri Lotman (in collaboration with a research institute in Nitra) and Charles Sanders Peirce. His articles and studies have appeared in journals and periodicals including "Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis. Prace Literackie" (1992, 1994-95, 1997, 2001-02, 2004, 2008 and 2010), "Annales Silesiae" (1992-94 and 1998-99), "Ruch Literacki" (1994-96 and 2001), "Śląskie Miscellanea" (1994-96 and 2000), "Mariawita" (1995-96), "Prace Polonistyczne" (1995, 1997), "Pamiętnik Literacki" (1996-97), "Przegląd Humanistyczny" (1996-97 and 1999-2000), "Litteraria" (1997, 1999, 2001-02 and 2012), and "Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne. Seria Literacka" (1997-98), "Warsztaty Polonistyczne” (1998), "Śląsk" (1999 and 2000), "Zagadnienia Rodzajów Literackich" (2001 and 2003), "Fakty i Mity” (2002 and 2014; under the pen name Bronisław Foszt), "Signa Temporis" (2005-06 and 2009), "Literatura Ludowa" (2008-09), "Roczniki Biblijne" (2010), "Gazeta Wrocławska" (2011-13) and "Odra" (2011). In 1999, he was awarded a habilitation degtree in literary studies from the Faculty of Philology at the University of Wrocław for his study Biblia i historiozofia. „Kordian” jako synteza wczesnej twórczości Juliusza Słowackiego (The Bible and Historiosophy. "Kordian" as a synthesis of Juliusz Słowacki's early works). He was awarded the UWr Rector's Prize on four occasions (1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000) for his research, teaching and administrative activities. In 2002 he was made associate professor at the University of Wroclaw, while in November 2006 he was made state-appinted professor before becoming full professor at UWr in 2008. In 2007/08 he served as co-editor with Artur Jemielita of the internet portal Ekumeniczne Wiadomości Starokatolickie CREDO (CREDO: Ecumenical Old Catholic News). He published numerous articles and essays on the portal. In April 2008 he became a member of the doctoral studies commission at the Faculty of Philology at the Palacký University Olomouc. In October 2008 he was appointed professor at Wyższa Szkoła Teologiczno-Humanistyczna (the College of Theology and Humanities) in Podkowa Leśna, an institution run by the Church of the Seventh Day Adventists. He has taught courses on the history of philosophy, logic, theories of knowledge, ethics, cultural anthropology, eristics and rhetorics, both in Podkowa Leśna and in the College's Nysa office. He has also served as a member of its Senate. In June 2009 he was awarded the honorary title of a bachelor in Adventist theology from the College in Podkowa Leśna. Between 2009 and 2013 he took a doctoral degree at Chrześcijańska Akademia Teologiczna (Christian Theological Academy), specializing in comparative and ecumenical theology. He has collaborated with periodicals published by the New Apostolic Church: "Chleb Żywota" (2009-14; including the cycle Ideał życia chrześcijańskiego w Listach Apostoła Piotra – The ideals of Christian life in the letters of the Apostle Peter, in 2013/14) and "Nasza Rodzina" (2015-16; including the cycle Ideał życia chrześcijańskiego w Listach Apostoła Piotra – The ideals of Christian life in the letters of the Apostle Peter). In October 2011 he became director of the Department of the History of Positivist Literature and the Young Poland period (Zakład Historii Literatury Pozytywizmu i Młodej Polski) at the Institute of Philology at the University of Wroclaw . In December of the same year he became a member of the Academic Council of the Institute of Regional Studies at the Silesian Library in Katowice (Instytut Badań Regionalnych Biblioteki Śląskiej w Katowicach). In May 2012 he was awarded a doctoral degree in pedagogy for his thesis Ideał życia chrześcijańskiego w Listach świętego Piotra (The ideal of Christian life in the Letters of St Peter) from the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra. In June of the same year he became a lecturer at the Old Catholic Church’s online school, the Sacred Heart of Jesus Theological Seminary. He became a member of Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Polonistyki Wrocławskiej (Friends of Wrocław Polish Studies) in 1992 and the Towarzystwo Literackie im. Adama Mickiewicza (the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Society) in 1996, serving as the chairman of the Wrocław branch between 1996 and 2002, while between 1998 and 2000 he was a member of its General Board. In 1996, he joined the Spanish Semiotics Association (AES), Wrocławskie Towarzystwo Naukowe (Wrocław Scientific Society) in 1999), Karkonoskie Towarzystwo Naukowe (Karkonosze Scientific Society) in 2007, Kieleckie Towarzystwo Naukowe (Kielce Scientific Society) in 2007, and Polskie Towarzystwo Semiotyczne (the Polish Semiotics Society) in 2007. He lives in Wroclaw.