Human and Divine Being

by Donald Wallenfang, John C Cavadini (Foreword by)

Overview

Nothing is more dangerous to be misunderstood than the question, "What is the human being?" In an era when this question is not only being misunderstood but even forgotten, wisdom delivered by the great thinkers and mystics of the past must be recovered. Edith Stein (1891-1942), a Jewish Carmelite mystical philosopher, offers great promise to resume asking the question of the human being. In Human and Divine Being, Donald Wallenfang offers a comprehensive summary of the theological anthropology of this heroic martyr to truth. Beginning with the theme of human vocation, Wallenfang leads the reader through a labyrinth of philosophical and theological vignettes: spiritual being, the human soul, material being, empathy, the logic of the cross, and the meaning of suffering. The question of the human being is asked in light of divine being by harnessing the fertile tension between the methods of phenomenology and metaphysics. Stein spurs us on to a rendezvous with the stream of "perennial philosophy" that has watered the landscape of thought since conscious time began. In the end, the meaning of human being is thrown into sharp relief against the darkness of all that is not authentically human.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498293365
Publisher:	Cascade Books
Publication date:	04/10/2017
Series:	Veritas , #23
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Donald Wallenfang, Emmanuel Mary of the Cross, is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and Assistant Professor of Theology at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio. He is the author of Dialectical Anatomy of the Eucharist: An Etude in Phenomenology (Cascade, 2017).

Table of Contents

Foreword John C. Cavadini xi

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction xxi

Chapter 1 On Human Vocation 1

I The Revelatory Dialectic of Potency-Act 3

II Creaturely Existence as Intersubjective Becoming 9

III Universal Human Vocation: Awakening to Eternal Being 14

Chapter 2 Spiritual Being 21

I Contemporary Polemics in Pneumatology 22

II Kreuzeswissenschaft: The Science of the Cross 26

III The Pneumatological Matrix of Edith Stein 34

IV Conclusion 50

Chapter 3 The Soul as the Form of the Body 54

I The Possibility of the Human Soul 54

II Aristotle's Four Kinds of Causality 57

a Material Causality 58

b Efficient Causality 59

c Formal Causality 63

d Final Causality 71

e Summary of the Four Kinds of Causality 74

III Actuality, Potentiality, and Logos 77

IV Toward an Ontology of Spirit 82

V The Rational Soul and Its Redemption 86

VI Conclusion 92

Chapter 4 The Soul as Inner Life and as Substantial Image of God the Father 94

I Conscious Spiritual Being 95

II Getting at the Heart of the Matter 99

III The Substance of Spiritual Being 102

IV The Analogy of Material Being 107

V The Analogy of Divine Being 110

VI Conclusion 115

Chapter 5 The Soul as Spiritual Vessel 117

I Entrée into Divine Love 118

II The Meaning of Self-Surrender 123

III Afterlife of the Soul and Union with God 131

a Death 132

b The Hypostatic Union of Christ 136

c The Hypostatic Union of the Soul with God 142

IV Conclusion 146

Chapter 6 The Antinomy of Material Being 149

I Clarification of Terms 152

II Ontology of Matter 158

III The Human Body and the Possibility of Its Regeneration 163

Chapter 7 Empathy and the Other 174

I The Paradox of Alterity: An Ode to Otherness 175

II The Essence of Empathy 180

1 "Acts in which foreign experience is comprehended" 183

2 "An act which is primordial as present experience though non-primordial in content" 183

3 "An experience of our own announcing another one" 184

4 "The basis of intersubjective experience [that] becomes the condition of possible knowledge of the existing outer world" 187

III The Individual Soul and the Other 189

a The Soul in Relation to the Other (l'Autre) in General 190

b The Soul in Relation to the Personal Other (l'Autrui) 191

c The Soul in Relation to the Voice of the Other within the Self: Conscience 193

IV Conclusion 194

Chapter 8 The Logic of the Cross 196

I Edith and the Cross 198

II The Dark Night of Solitude 202

III The Cruciform Pattern of the Cross 207

a Alterity 210

b Humility 212

c Love 215

IV Conclusion 218

Epilogue: An Addendum to Suffering 220

Bibliography 225

Index 237

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Donald Wallenfang has followed up his wonderful book on sacramental theology with an equally wonderful book on the theological anthropology of Edith Stein. . . . Without any disservice to the complexity and profundity of Stein's thought, Wallenfang has repurposed her to speak critically and hopefully to our postmodern situation. Wallenfang continues to show himself to be a deep Catholic thinker worthy of our attention."
—Cyril O'Regan, Huisking Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame

"Wallenfang's book deals with a central topic in Edith Stein's investigations. Examining the meaning of human being and divine Being, the author pinpoints the main aspect of Stein's research starting from her phenomenological analyses as far as her book on theological anthropology and underscoring the influence of St. Thomas Aquinas on her interpretation of the relationship between man and God. In my opinion, Wallenfang's book will be a contribution to the knowledge of Edith Stein's philosophical and theological thought."
—Angela Ales Bello, Professor Emeritus of History of Contemporary Philosophy and Phenomenology of Religion, Lateran University

Editorial Reviews

Donald Wallenfang has followed up his wonderful book on sacramental theology with an equally wonderful book on the theological anthropology of Edith Stein. . . . Without any disservice to the complexity and profundity of Stein's thought, Wallenfang has repurposed her to speak critically and hopefully to our postmodern situation. Wallenfang continues to show himself to be a deep Catholic thinker worthy of our attention.
--Cyril O'Regan, Huisking Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame

Wallenfang's book deals with a central topic in Edith Stein's investigations. Examining the meaning of human being and divine Being, the author pinpoints the main aspect of Stein's research starting from her phenomenological analyses as far as her book on theological anthropology and underscoring the influence of St. Thomas Aquinas on her interpretation of the relationship between man and God. In my opinion, Wallenfang's book will be a contribution to the knowledge of Edith Stein's philosophical and theological thought.
--Angela Ales Bello, Professor Emeritus of History of Contemporary Philosophy and Phenomenology of Religion, Lateran University

From the Publisher