May 5, 2023
Catholic University of America Press recently
launched a major new series: the
English Critical Edition of the Works of
Karol Wojtyła/John Paul II. The first volume of the series was
a new translation of Wojtyła’s 1969 book Person and Act,
along with related essays.
In Person and Act Wojtyła set forth
the foundation of his blend of phenomenology, Thomism and
personalism, a foundation underlying much of his other
philosophical and theological writing. The first English
translation is generally considered to be quite inaccurate, and,
crucially, removed the Latin terms by which Wojtyła refers to the
Thomistic and scholastic tradition, leading to a false impression
that Wojtyła was much more of a pure phenomenologist and less of a
Thomist than he really was. Thus the new translation by Gregorz
Ignatik is a significant moment for the reception of Wojtyła/John
Paul II’s thought in the Anglosphere.
In this episode, Timothy Flanders joins Thomas
Mirus to discuss Person and Act as they attempt to
boil down some of the key points of this rather challenging book,
to set Wojtyła’s philosophy in its intellectual, cultural, and
religious context, and showing why his insights about human
consciousness, the experience of morality, and the person are
important for us as well.
Points discussed include:
- How Wojtyła’s use of phenomenology and
personalism relates to the traditional Aristo-Thomistic
anthropology - The importance of phenomenological methods
for the “healing of experience” and giving an objective account of
the subjective - Correcting modern errors about
consciousness - The concept of the person in relation to the
traditional concept of human nature - The need to integrate cognition with
experience and the danger of the “emotionalization of
consciousness” - The centrality of morality to personhood
Links
The Meaning of Catholic https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaMoKEEA-KKDNgx3icjA36Q
Person and Act and Related
Essays https://www.cuapress.org/9780813233666/person-and-act-and-related-essays/
Recommended secondary sources:
Accessible:
Crosby, The Personalism of John Paul
II https://www.amazon.com/Personalism-John-Paul-II/dp/1939773148
Jablonska, A Pope for All
Seasons
https://www.amazon.com/Pope-All-Seasons-Testimonies-Inspired/dp/1621388840
Less accessible:
Buttiglione, Karol Wojtyla: The Thought of
the Man Who Became Pope John Paul II https://www.amazon.com/Karol-Wojtyla-Thoughtof-Became-Thought-ebook/dp/B002BWPTOW
Weigel, Witness to Hope: The
Biography of Pope John Paul II
https://www.amazon.com/Witness-Hope-Biography-Pope-John/dp/0062996010/
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