Adrian J Reimers | University of Notre Dame (original) (raw)
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Papers by Adrian J Reimers
Teologia i Moralność, Jun 18, 2024
The theory of "fundamental option" or "fundamental freedom" constitutes an important theme in con... more The theory of "fundamental option" or "fundamental freedom" constitutes an important theme in contemporary moral theology, a theme criticized in John Paul II's encyclical Veritatis Splendor. Under this theory, it is almost impossible for a person to commit a mortal sin, that is, a sin that turns the agent against God and deprives him of sanctifying grace. This central conception governing this theory is that such a sin must involve an express turning of one's entire self (or will) away from God. However, within the limitations of space and time and the fi nitude of human nature, such a complete turning against God is diffi cult to conceive. This paper argues that the issue of sin is misconceived and that the philosophical premise of a fundamental disposition of one's freedom is not tenable. Sin is a theological category and must be grasped in theological terms. The paper turns to Pope Saint John Paul II's Encyclical Dominum et Vivifi cantem, which proposes that sin is revealed by and properly understood in terms of the crucifi xion of Christ. The paper concludes with some refl ections on those who were directly involved in the crucifi xion.
Christian Wisdom Meets Modernity
![Research paper thumbnail of VARGAS, ALBERTO I., Genealogía del miedo: Un estudio antropológico de la modernidad desde Leonardo Polo, Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, 2017, 237 pp. [RESEÑA]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/95728317/thumbnails/1.jpg)
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Karol Wojtyla's Personalist Philosophy
Roczniki Teologiczne, Mar 15, 2022
Throughout his philosophical writings and, indeed, into his papacy, Karol Wojtyła addresses and w... more Throughout his philosophical writings and, indeed, into his papacy, Karol Wojtyła addresses and warns against two common errors in modern philosophy. The first is the reduction of our concept of reality to materialistic premises. In Love and Responsibility, he distinguishes the "biological order", which is the order studied according to the canons of biological sciences, from the "order of being," which is the order of reality knowable to metaphysics. This confusion leads to misunderstanding in ethics. The second error is complementary to the first and consists in what Wojtyła calls the "hypostatization of consciousness," which is the reduction of personal experience entirely to the contents of consciousness. The historical roots of this error trace back to Descartes and his identification of himself as a "thinking thing," whose body is simply an extended 3-dimensional solid in space and time. Both errors arise from a neglect or even a rejection of metaphysics, without which it is impossible to give an adequate account of the human being.
Karol Wojtyla's Personalist Philosophy
Philosophy and Canon Law, 2021
The formation of the human conscience is a controverted question in both philosophical ethics and... more The formation of the human conscience is a controverted question in both philosophical ethics and moral philosophy. Conscience refers to one’s conception and understanding of the moral good. An especially significant manifestation of the problem of conscience in the 20th and 21st centuries is the impact of ideology on the individual person’s moral sense. This article considers the impact of two 19th century philosophies―Mill’s utilitarianism and Marxism―on contemporary moral thought insofar as the interaction of these two produce a powerful materialist ideology to determine the modern European and American conscience. We then turn to the thought of Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyła), who in his encyclical Veritatis Splendor and in his earlier philosophical writings developed an account of moral truth by which the dangers of materialistic ideology can be overcome. It is argued, with John Paul II, that only in the context of truth can a coherent account of freedom of conscience under t...
There is no dispute in neuroscience that structure and function are related, but it is difficult ... more There is no dispute in neuroscience that structure and function are related, but it is difficult to identify how exactly this relationship occurs. The phrenological view advocates for the idea that each area of the brain corresponds to a particular function. This view then evolved into a modular view, meaning that each brain network corresponds to a singular function. But these views have serious limitations and a more systemic one is in order. It is thought that brain function is related to dynamic and temporary neural assemblies. What seems obvious is that the relationship between structure and function is not straightforward. In this article, we will see how the non-function of brain areas and the non-univocal relationship between structure and function can serve as an opportunity to offer a new concept, i.e., “functionalization”, which the philosopher Leonardo Polo proposed. Polo understood functionalization as a part of function. We believe that the presence of this “intermedia...
One of the central principles of modern political philosophy, dating from the time of John Locke,... more One of the central principles of modern political philosophy, dating from the time of John Locke, is that of human rights. Locke characterized a right as something pertaining to the individual human being as free and equal to every other human being. To this notion of inherent rights, John Stuart Mill added that a right must be something in virtue of which a person can make a claim on another or on the state. Third, the modern notion of right presupposes the concept of dignity. In contemporary societies, we are witnessing an inflation of rights, which raises two questions: 1) are new rights truly being discovered, and 2) how can we discern the legitimacy of these rights? J. S. Mill’s utilitarianism holds the touchstone of good and evil to be individual happiness, and that over his own self the individual is sovereign. From this it follows that only the individual can know what is his own true good. Therefore, he ought to expect that society will support or at least not interfere wit...
Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal
Toward the end of his theology of the body catecheses-in the very last audience-Pope John Paul II... more Toward the end of his theology of the body catecheses-in the very last audience-Pope John Paul II remarked that "the term 'theology of the body' goes far beyond the contents of the reflections" on marital love presented in Man and Woman He Created Them. In Holy Eros, Adam G. Cooper develops this theology of the body in relation to the liturgy. The result is a rich and thought-provoking study, which, for its size, is of surprisingly broad scope. Holy Eros does not purport to be an interpretation of Saint John Paul II's catechesis on human love and marriage. Nor is it an attempt to derive a theology of liturgy from Man and Woman He Created Them.
Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies
The thesis of this essay is that Karol Wojtyła / Pope John Paul II develops a rich understanding ... more The thesis of this essay is that Karol Wojtyła / Pope John Paul II develops a rich understanding of the concept of person and of human personhood not by redefining “person” but by availing himself of the traditional definition offered by Boëthius who viewed the person as an individual substance of a rational nature. Objections to this definition are overcome by Wojtyla’s deep understanding of the spiritual characteristics of reason and will. The person acquires from these faculties one’s distinctive characteristics of freedom and creativity, which are manifest and fulfilled in one’s capacity for love. Thus it is that although the person exists as a material substance in the world of physical things, one’s personal existence is constituted by relationships with other persons.
Teologia i Moralność, Jun 18, 2024
The theory of "fundamental option" or "fundamental freedom" constitutes an important theme in con... more The theory of "fundamental option" or "fundamental freedom" constitutes an important theme in contemporary moral theology, a theme criticized in John Paul II's encyclical Veritatis Splendor. Under this theory, it is almost impossible for a person to commit a mortal sin, that is, a sin that turns the agent against God and deprives him of sanctifying grace. This central conception governing this theory is that such a sin must involve an express turning of one's entire self (or will) away from God. However, within the limitations of space and time and the fi nitude of human nature, such a complete turning against God is diffi cult to conceive. This paper argues that the issue of sin is misconceived and that the philosophical premise of a fundamental disposition of one's freedom is not tenable. Sin is a theological category and must be grasped in theological terms. The paper turns to Pope Saint John Paul II's Encyclical Dominum et Vivifi cantem, which proposes that sin is revealed by and properly understood in terms of the crucifi xion of Christ. The paper concludes with some refl ections on those who were directly involved in the crucifi xion.
Christian Wisdom Meets Modernity
Karol Wojtyla's Personalist Philosophy
Roczniki Teologiczne, Mar 15, 2022
Throughout his philosophical writings and, indeed, into his papacy, Karol Wojtyła addresses and w... more Throughout his philosophical writings and, indeed, into his papacy, Karol Wojtyła addresses and warns against two common errors in modern philosophy. The first is the reduction of our concept of reality to materialistic premises. In Love and Responsibility, he distinguishes the "biological order", which is the order studied according to the canons of biological sciences, from the "order of being," which is the order of reality knowable to metaphysics. This confusion leads to misunderstanding in ethics. The second error is complementary to the first and consists in what Wojtyła calls the "hypostatization of consciousness," which is the reduction of personal experience entirely to the contents of consciousness. The historical roots of this error trace back to Descartes and his identification of himself as a "thinking thing," whose body is simply an extended 3-dimensional solid in space and time. Both errors arise from a neglect or even a rejection of metaphysics, without which it is impossible to give an adequate account of the human being.
Karol Wojtyla's Personalist Philosophy
Philosophy and Canon Law, 2021
The formation of the human conscience is a controverted question in both philosophical ethics and... more The formation of the human conscience is a controverted question in both philosophical ethics and moral philosophy. Conscience refers to one’s conception and understanding of the moral good. An especially significant manifestation of the problem of conscience in the 20th and 21st centuries is the impact of ideology on the individual person’s moral sense. This article considers the impact of two 19th century philosophies―Mill’s utilitarianism and Marxism―on contemporary moral thought insofar as the interaction of these two produce a powerful materialist ideology to determine the modern European and American conscience. We then turn to the thought of Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyła), who in his encyclical Veritatis Splendor and in his earlier philosophical writings developed an account of moral truth by which the dangers of materialistic ideology can be overcome. It is argued, with John Paul II, that only in the context of truth can a coherent account of freedom of conscience under t...
There is no dispute in neuroscience that structure and function are related, but it is difficult ... more There is no dispute in neuroscience that structure and function are related, but it is difficult to identify how exactly this relationship occurs. The phrenological view advocates for the idea that each area of the brain corresponds to a particular function. This view then evolved into a modular view, meaning that each brain network corresponds to a singular function. But these views have serious limitations and a more systemic one is in order. It is thought that brain function is related to dynamic and temporary neural assemblies. What seems obvious is that the relationship between structure and function is not straightforward. In this article, we will see how the non-function of brain areas and the non-univocal relationship between structure and function can serve as an opportunity to offer a new concept, i.e., “functionalization”, which the philosopher Leonardo Polo proposed. Polo understood functionalization as a part of function. We believe that the presence of this “intermedia...
One of the central principles of modern political philosophy, dating from the time of John Locke,... more One of the central principles of modern political philosophy, dating from the time of John Locke, is that of human rights. Locke characterized a right as something pertaining to the individual human being as free and equal to every other human being. To this notion of inherent rights, John Stuart Mill added that a right must be something in virtue of which a person can make a claim on another or on the state. Third, the modern notion of right presupposes the concept of dignity. In contemporary societies, we are witnessing an inflation of rights, which raises two questions: 1) are new rights truly being discovered, and 2) how can we discern the legitimacy of these rights? J. S. Mill’s utilitarianism holds the touchstone of good and evil to be individual happiness, and that over his own self the individual is sovereign. From this it follows that only the individual can know what is his own true good. Therefore, he ought to expect that society will support or at least not interfere wit...
Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal
Toward the end of his theology of the body catecheses-in the very last audience-Pope John Paul II... more Toward the end of his theology of the body catecheses-in the very last audience-Pope John Paul II remarked that "the term 'theology of the body' goes far beyond the contents of the reflections" on marital love presented in Man and Woman He Created Them. In Holy Eros, Adam G. Cooper develops this theology of the body in relation to the liturgy. The result is a rich and thought-provoking study, which, for its size, is of surprisingly broad scope. Holy Eros does not purport to be an interpretation of Saint John Paul II's catechesis on human love and marriage. Nor is it an attempt to derive a theology of liturgy from Man and Woman He Created Them.
Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies
The thesis of this essay is that Karol Wojtyła / Pope John Paul II develops a rich understanding ... more The thesis of this essay is that Karol Wojtyła / Pope John Paul II develops a rich understanding of the concept of person and of human personhood not by redefining “person” but by availing himself of the traditional definition offered by Boëthius who viewed the person as an individual substance of a rational nature. Objections to this definition are overcome by Wojtyla’s deep understanding of the spiritual characteristics of reason and will. The person acquires from these faculties one’s distinctive characteristics of freedom and creativity, which are manifest and fulfilled in one’s capacity for love. Thus it is that although the person exists as a material substance in the world of physical things, one’s personal existence is constituted by relationships with other persons.
This book is the result of an international effort towards interdisciplinar research. It contains... more This book is the result of an international effort towards interdisciplinar research. It contains the academic communications of the II International Congress of Philosophical Anthropology “Transcendence and Love for a New Global Society” in Warsaw, Poland, the 1st and 2nd of August 2016. Twenty-seven presentations were given by participants from ten different nationalities. On this occasion we proposed two great contemporary thinkers as references to address these relevant themes: Leonardo Polo and John Paul II. Transcendence and love are central themes in their philosophical investigation.
An important milestone of 20th Century philosophy was the rise of personalism. After the crimes a... more An important milestone of 20th Century philosophy was the rise of personalism. After the crimes and atrocities against millions of human beings in two World Wars, especially the Second, some philosophers and other thinkers began to seek arguments showing the value of each human being, to expose and denounce the folly of political structures that violate the inalienable rights of the individual person.
Karol Wojtyla appeals to the ancient concept of 'person' to emphasize the particular value of each human being. The person is unique because of their subjectivity by which they possesses an unrepeatable interior world in the history of humanity. Their rational nature grants them a special character among living beings, among which is the transcendence to the infinite. Wojtyla magisterially shows how each human being's personhood is rooted in a conscious and free subjectivity, which is marked also by personal and social responsibility. Wojtyla's original philosophical analysis takes for its starting point the human act, in which consciousness and experience consolidate voluntary choices, which are objectively efficacious. By their acts, the person determines their own personhood. This self-dominion manifests the person and enables them to live together in a community in which one's neighbor can be a companion on the voyage of life.
This work provides a clear guide to Karol Wojtyla's principal philosophical work, Person and Act, rigorously analyzing the meaning that the author intended in his exposition. An important feature of the work is that the authors rely on the original Polish text, Osoba i czyn, as well as the best translations into Italian and Spanish, rather than on a flawed and sometimes misleading English edition of the work.
Besides the analysis of Wojtyla's masterwork, this volume offers three chapters examining the impact of Wojtyla's anthropology on the relationship between faith and reason.