The World and the Person

by Romano Guardini, Stella Lange (Translator)

Shall the personalist approach lead to a meaningless excess of freedom or shall the "scientific" approach to providential evolution so limit freedom that it becomes irresponsible pretense?

For those bothered by this dilemma, Msgr. Guardini presents a courageous attempt to formulate a doctrine of freedom that is meaningful in terms of 20th century reality. His position is clear: "Man does not exist as an enclosed block of reality or as a self-sufficient figure evolving from within; rather, man exists for that which he encounters from without."

Msgr. Guardini staunchly refuses to oversimplify the problem. He neither ignores the fact of free man confronting tasks and problems nor the Christian concept of an all-powerful Providence governing a unified reality which includes that free man.

Admittedly experimental, these fascinating essays enable us to see this brilliant philosopher's mind at work—probing, sorting, speculating—always with the courage and humility of the true scholar.

Genres: Catholic

226 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1939

About the author

Romano Guardini was a Catholic priest, author, and academic. He was one of the most important figures in Catholic intellectual life in the 20th century.

Guardini was born in Verona, Italy in 1885. His family moved to Mainz when he was one year old and he lived in Germany for the rest of his life. After studying chemistry in Tübingen for two semesters, and economics in Munich and Berlin for three, he decided to become a priest. After studying Theology in Freiburg im Breisgau and Tübingen, he was ordained in Mainz in 1910. He briefly worked in a pastoral position before returning to Freiburg to work on his doctorate in Theology under Engelbert Krebs. He received his doctorate in 1915 for a dissertation on Bonaventure. He completed his “Habilitation” in Dogmatic Theology at the University of Bonn in 1922, again with a dissertation on Bonaventure. Throughout this period he also worked as a chaplain to the Catholic youth movement.

In 1923 he was appointed to a chair in Philosophy of Religion at the University of Berlin. In the 1935 essay “Der Heiland” (The Saviour) he criticized Nazi mythologizing of the person of Jesus and emphasized the Jewishness of Jesus. The Nazis forced him to resign from his Berlin position in 1939. From 1943 to 1945 he retired to Mooshausen, where his friend Josef Weiger had been parish priest since 1917.

In 1945 Guardini was appointed professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Tübingen and resumed lecturing on the Philosophy of Religion. In 1948, he became professor at the University of Munich, where he remained until retiring for health reasons in 1962.

Guardini died in Munich on 1 October 1968. He was buried in the priests’ cemetery of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Munich. His estate was left to the Catholic Academy in Bavaria that he had co-founded.

Reviews

[Julie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Romano Guardini is one of my favorite Catholic authors. He's inspiring and insightful, often reflecting on an angle you never would have noticed. This is a collection of some of his hard to find pieces, except for The Virtues which is easy to find.

I'm beginning with The Wisdom of the Psalms. It's blowing me away, of course. This should be available as a slim book of its own so more people would discover it. I'm still pondering it, several weeks after finishing it.

[Felipe Sabino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simplesmente fantástico!

[Fabrício Tavares De Moraes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ensaios de grande erudição e escritos naquela chave filosófica entre a fenomenologia e existencialismo, de um modo que só os filósofos europeus do pós-guerra eram capazes. Livraço!