Maria Fedoryka | Ave Maria University (original) (raw)

Publications by Maria Fedoryka

The Personalist Basis of the Church's Teaching on Human Sexuality and the Natural Law in the Work of John Paul II. Part I 1, 2023

Responding to Pope John Paul II's call to give the "ethical grounds and personalistic reasons" be... more Responding to Pope John Paul II's call to give the "ethical grounds and personalistic reasons" behind the Church's teaching on sexual morality, this reflection written over the span of two articles analyzes the norms of the natural law related to human sexuality from a personalist perspective. The key ideas of this study are drawn from two passages: one from Gaudium et spes which states that "The sexual characteristics of man and the human faculty of reproduction wonderfully exceed the dispositions of lower forms of life", the other from Humanae vitae stating that "Conjugal love reveals its true nature and nobility when it is considered in its supreme origin, God, who is love … and it is of supreme importance to have an exact idea of these." Part I provides an overview of natural law theory, explaining what it means that the natural law is not arbitrary, but rather that the moral norms governing our actions in relation to the beings in the world are rooted in the nature and value of those things. Second, on the background of John Paul II's idea that "the body is the person," this article brings to light a type of bodily act (which I call an "embodying act") that is not only bodily, but one that forms an organic union with an act of the spirit. Finally, we examine here the nature of love as consisting of two dimensions: of mutual self-giving as well as the fruitfulness arising from mutual self-gift. The analysis of "embodying acts" together with the analysis of love will be crucial for arriving at one of the main conclusions in Part II, namely, that the Church's moral norms governing the use of the spousal act are not grounded in the biological structure of sex, but in the laws of love.

Linacre Quarterly, 2023

Responding to Pope John Paul II’s call to give the “ethical grounds and personalistic reasons” be... more Responding to Pope John Paul II’s call to give the “ethical grounds and personalistic reasons” behind the Church’s teaching on sexual morality, this reflection written over the span of two articles analyzes the norms of the natural law related to human sexuality from a personalist perspective. The key ideas of this study are drawn from two passages: one from Gaudium et spes which states that “The sexual characteristics of man and the human faculty of reproduction wonderfully exceed the dispositions of lower forms of life” (51), the other from Humanae vitae stating that “Conjugal love reveals its true nature and nobility when it is considered in its supreme origin, God, who is love…and it is of supreme importance to have an exact idea of these.” (9) Drawing on the analysis of Part One, Part Two shows, first, that the spousal act is in its original structure an “embodying act” intrinsically fashioned to embody spousal love: the self-donation, the intimacy, and the fruitfulness proper to the spirit’s act of love animates the bodily act of sex from within, so that the spirit and the body form “one thing” in the spousal act. Secondly, this truth about the spousal act as structured by spousal love will mean that the norms governing human sexuality are not based on biological laws, but on the laws of love. Finally, Part Two culminates in a reflection on the individual norms of sexual morality, showing how each of them follows upon the nature of spousal love. The precepts of the natural law are our guides to properly reverencing the sacred sphere of human sexuality, which is a condition for our flourishing as human persons.

Crisis in the Church: On the Faith of Mary as the Pathway to Peace. Ed. Roger Nutt. Sapientia Press: Baltimore, 2019

The crisis in the Church is a crisis of betrayal: those who freely accepted the charge of safegua... more The crisis in the Church is a crisis of betrayal: those who freely accepted the charge of safeguarding Christ’s teachings, of being minsters of his sacraments, and of guiding his flock to salvation broke faith with both Christ and his flock. The betrayal consists of cover-ups, the protection and enabling of the criminals, and the subsequent failure of the bishops to repent of these. But the full extent of the crisis can be grasped only in light of the sacred character of human sexuality and its consequent centrality in the meaning and vocation of the human person. The special character of human sexuality, in turn, reveals why the intimate sphere is a unique locus of battle between God and his enemy for the human soul.

"God is Love": Personal Plurality as the Completion of Aristotle's Notion of Substance and Love as the Absolute Ground of the Divine Being, 2019

These reflections will, firstly, propose a philosophical solution to the Trinitarian problem of t... more These reflections will, firstly, propose a philosophical solution to the Trinitarian problem of the "three-in-one," and secondly, show how love is foundational to the divine being. Beginning with the Aristotelian notion of substance, I will show how substance undergoes a first modification in the consideration that substance finds its fullest realization in a person existing in a love-relation with another person. The highest instance of this, in turn, will prove to be found in persons whose very essences are constituted by such relationality and the communion resulting from it. This will force a second modification of substance: the unity of substance will turn out to have its highest instance in the moral unity of a plurality of persons existing in love-which leads to the solution of the "three-in-one" problem. I will end by reflecting on the foundational role of love with respect to absolute being.

Dietrich von Hildebrand denominated the generation of new human life as the " superabundant end "... more Dietrich von Hildebrand denominated the generation of new human life as the " superabundant end " of the spousal act not to deny but to refine the scholastic view that the child is the " end of the act, " simply. The act at the source of human generation is not straightforwardly generative; rather, its generativity is metaphysically grounded in it as a concrete act of union between the spouses. There are thus in some sense two finalities structuring the act, with a specific order between them: union and the fruitfulness following superabundantly from it. In this essay I bring to evidence the framework underlying von Hildebrand's position by examining love as the forma of the spousal act and the significance of sexuality as an embodied act. I will conclude with some thoughts on how the concept of superabundance accommodates certain truths about the spousal act more readily than does the simple notion of finality.

We Americans face a state of affairs relating to marriage and family … (where we) must now attemp... more We Americans face a state of affairs relating to marriage and family … (where we) must now attempt to show why the divinely-instituted laws of marriage and family are binding not only for Christians, but hold true for everyone. The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity. (One is unable to notice something—because it is always before one's eyes.) The real foundations of his inquiry do not strike a person at all….And this means: we fail to be struck by what, once seen, is most striking and most powerful. 1 Ludwig Wittgenstein's words here apply to the man-woman difference: in the reality of marriage in its entirely self-evident and foundational character, as well as in its absolute centrality to human existence. Not long ago, the idea of having to explain them would have seemed absurd to most. 2 This distinction between man and woman, the magnificent reality of romantic and spousal love, the permanent and devoted union of marriage for which this love yearns, and its happy " overflow " into the creation of a family, has so deeply structured our understanding of the world, and the human person, that it would never have occurred to us to think about the " why " behind them. We Americans face a state of affairs relating to marriage and family that has forced us to " (lose) the innocence of taking man and woman for granted. " 3 We must now attempt to show why the

Contrary to the conviction of thinkers such as Nietzsche and Sartre, the early father of the chur... more Contrary to the conviction of thinkers such as Nietzsche and Sartre, the early father of the church Iranaeus of Lyon understood contingency not as the human person’s lack of independence and self-sufficiency, but as the privilege of the creature to exist in a loving “metaphysical embrace” with God. In agreement with philosopher-theologians such as Bonaventure, I would claim that through a philosophical analysis of contingent being, one can come to the conclusion of the metaphysical centrality of love in the being of the human person. A reflection on these thinkers will lead to a reconsideration of contingency from a personalist point of view, and the implications of this for the meaning of the human person and his genuine fulfillment as person.

University Faculty for Life - Life and Learning Conference Proceedings, 2007

The primary evil of abortion is found in its violation of a person’s right to life and of God’s a... more The primary evil of abortion is found in its violation of a person’s right to
life and of God’s absolute sovereignty over the life and death of the human
person. Another, entirely different kind of evil is found in its repercussions
in the psyche of the parents, and especially of the mother of the aborted
child. Both of these issues are frequently discussed in the abortion debate. In what follows, I will suggest another perspective on abortion, one not commonly addressed: a metaphysical and existential perspective, which examines how abortion constitutes a retroactive destruction of the union of the couple in the spousal exchange. The analysis will involve two parts: first, the mutual entailment of love and life and, second, a metaphysics of embodied existence. These considerations will bring to light the way in which abortion strikes at the heart of the exchange of persons accomplished in the spousal act.

The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, 2016

It is possible to defend the Church’s teaching that contraception is incompatible with God’s pla... more It is possible to defend the Church’s teaching that contraception is incompatible
with God’s plan for sexuality in many different ways. This essay sketches
the fundamental views of reality common to all the defenses and the main lines
of the most prominent defenses, some based on natural law (of which there are
several versions), on the theology of the body, and on the physical, psychological,
and social consequences of the use of contraception. While all the defenses have
merit, the argument based on the recognition that sexual intercourse is meant to
be a complete self-gift has a special power of its own. National Catholic Bioethics
Quarterly 16.3 (Autumn 2016): 449–474.

American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 2005

Dietrich von Hildebrand, a close friend of Max Scheler since 1907, wrote this assessment of Sche... more Dietrich von Hildebrand, a close friend of Max Scheler since 1907, wrote
this assessment of Scheler’s personality and philosophical style in 1928, just months
after Scheler’s death. (Dietrich von Hildebrand, “Max Scheler als Personlichkeit,”
Hochland 26, no. 1 [1928/29]: 70—80.) He explores the extraordinarily rich lived
contact with being out of which Scheler philosophized. At the same time he acknowledges the lack of philosophical rigor in many of Scheler’s analyses. He brings
out the restlessness of Scheler’s mind and person that resulted from a one-sided
passion for coming to know things; Scheler was not able to dwell with things or
persons once he had come to know them. Von Hildebrand also explores the relation
of Scheler’s thought to Catholicism and offers an interpretation of Scheler’s
abandonment of Catholicism in his last years.

Review of Metaphysics, 2020

Content review of Dietrich von Hildebrand's masterpiece on moral blindness and ersatz-morality, h... more Content review of Dietrich von Hildebrand's masterpiece on moral blindness and ersatz-morality, his book Graven Images.

Books by Maria Fedoryka