This course elucidates the constitutive elements of a metaphysics of love necessary to undergird John Paul II’s nuptial anthropology. John Paul II’s anthropology, to which his interpretation of Gaudium et spes 22 and 24 in terms of nuptial mystery witnesses, is rooted in the recognition that being (both God and man) is gift. Through readings of Plato, Aristotle, Dionysius, Aquinas, Heidegger, Jean-Luc Marion, Ferdinand Ulrich, Balthasar, and John Paul II, the course revisits main philosophical themes—wonder, form, nature, substance, relation, the transcendentals, and causality—in light of an ontology of gift. In so doing, the course seeks to illustrate the intrinsic relation between theology and philosophy as presented in John Paul II’s Fides et ratio.
Selected Texts
Kenneth Schmitz, The Gift: Creation.
Martin Heidegger, Basic Writings.
Dionysius the Areopagite, The Divine Names.
Faculty
D.C. Schindler
Professor of Metaphysics and Anthropology
Ph.D. Program Advisor
Dr. Schindler’s work is concerned above all with shedding light on contemporary cultural challenges and philosophical questions by drawing on the resources of the classical Christian tradition. His principal thematic focus is metaphysics and philosophical anthropology.
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